What happened to the RP in the MMORPG in AO?

[Windguaerd]

Years ago, we had a thriving RP Community, you could see interaction everywhere. Not just within an org, but between orgs, between factions, you name it, it happened.

95% of those interactions were player-run, while 5% was ARK-run.

The quality of the ARK Events were not great, but they existed, they were seen, the old term "greenies" was known by the entire RP Community and even in the very weird Jerry Springer spoof event in ICC... we wanted to participate even as a stunned audience.

Now what do we have?

ARK-run events are rare, and when they do happen in a visible scale... it's to promote an expansion for FC.

There is so little left of the RP Community, that most RP orgs have died out or just had to merge or adapt so that instead of being a 100% RP org, they are now maybe a 10% RP org and 50% Raid, 20% PvP, etc etc.

The Cup used to be full of people in the afternoons, now if you are lucky you can find one person... and he ain't there to Roleplay, he... got lost because he is a new player.

These days those very very few orgs who support and/or encourage their members to enjoy the RP aspect of AO create their own events in-house, between orgmates.

I remember when the CoT would make a public announcement and the entire Tower of Truth building would be surrounded by clan roleplayers, and I mean so many that non-roleplayers would notice and THEY would show up to see why so many were there for.

I think there has been several attempts by Roleplayers to help the situation, through RP OOC and IC bots to provide channels, IC online publications and even a background story pager (both at AO Universe), all tools to encourage Roleplaying... but the numbers of roleplayers and RP Events continue to decline.

Where once we had a large united RP Community, now we're a few small groups, separate like tribes doing our own thing because there is really nothing left of what was.

FC is not going to run RP Events in a large scale for a very small minority of their playerbase. ARK (from what I've been told) is already in trouble with their numbers declining every year, it's tougher and tougher to get more volunteers, even more so in the Events Department because if we match the low percentage of roleplayers in AO... how many of them will join ARK to help run events?

And to be honest, this forum being buried and practically invisible to new players who MAY be interested in Roleplaying... does not help.

I'd like to hear your opinion guys, what can we do that we haven't tried yet? I'm even willing to listen to Trousers on this, we don't like each other, but we do care about the RP Community just as much I think.

[Siahanor]

I think it's pretty much impossible to maintain healthy RP population in games where 1) there is minimal to no dev support of RP and 2) where there's barely any population of any kind period to begin with. AoC's RP pop is just about as dead as AO's now as well, for example.

But then you have games such as LotRO which have a very healthy RP pop and have the support of the devs, with plenty of events throughout the year to keep even the hardest of the hardcore RP'ers happy and content.

I guess the only thing you can really do is the same as AoC, just have designated RP guilds/consolidate existing ones and make your own fun where you can. Pretty much what you've already covered.

[Towerblock]

Trousers said something once that struck true with me. Despite you two having issues, what it comes down to is that the cooperation between roleplayers and ARK events are in flux and wholly imbalanced.

Unless something gives, then you can expect more of the same. Until recently, I have always had an open door policy with my own interaction. But, then the actions of a particular ARK have made me rethink that policy. I've since been doing much more on my own because at least I can cover it in the way I know.

As for ARK event run stuff, I've all but given up entirely. I assume its not just because the RP playerbase is dead, but that there has been a vacuum of events because eventers themselves must just be unavailable to be cooperated with, save one or two. That one or two is still not what i'd consider to be optimum.

I have however, gotten in touch with Maleachi, whom I've not heard a peep from since over a year ago. I'm hoping he and I can come together on something.

[Noxira]

It pretty much boils down to this: dwindling population, disproportionately high monthly fee, old game, players growing up and going to work or school and getting their priorities re-evaluated.
I personally have very little expendable time left to spend on games, and with the little time I have a 10 year old, badly dated game with an extortionate monthly sub (seriously, 17+ eur is just way too damn much) sinks pretty low in the priority list. Combined with the very random nature of people's playtimes I just end up hanging around alone for a while until logging off when I do pop in, and usually any RP action seems to start right around my bedtime.
As the playerbase shrinks, ARK time expenditure decreases and it spirals into a dead community fast. There's also an unfortunate state of disillusionment with LTCs with many storylines never progressing and story characters seemingly doing nothing for weeks and months and years on end.

It's a really sorry state but I'm not seeing many solutions to it until the engine launches and the game gets a population boost.

[Collodion]

I think the problem is deeper than simply a decline in ARK and RP player base, it goes all the way to Funcom themselves. It's the lack of storyline development from FC that has the greatest effect on the interest of the players to RP. When there is story progression, you will see more people paying attention and interested in what is going on.

Four years have now passed in which the story of Rubi-ka has pretty much stopped. Four years of being told that things were coming and being worked on. Four years of waiting. Four years in which players have lost interest and moved on.

And sure, players can RP without major events happening in the world, but eventually there is only so much they can do. Eventually you begin to see players develop the same RP over and over. Then the players begin to see that their actions can not effect the world they play in. Once again, they lose interest.

[Towerblock]

I actually considered applying for content writer ( I come up with story ideas like rabbits have babies) , but the move to montreal would ruin my current situation. :/

Edit: Collodion, Ragnar is off doing TSW which I think was a great move for him. There are too few ragnars to go around, however.

For storyline material, AO has it, you just can't really find it unless you accidentally discover it. No one really advertises either.

[Ixal]

In terms of story, AO could really use a 'main quest' that guides the player along Rubi-Ka and introduces them thoroughly to the world and its history. It's way too easy to level to 220 without spending any time on RK. The quest system in its current state is really splintered and the game relies far too much on grinding mobs over and over again. They could also do with adding questgiver icons to the relevant NPCs and marking them visibly on the minimap.

Basically what AO needs is a total modernisation.

And I feel you Bubbacrush, I also secretly dreamed about applying for an artist position with FC and one day overhauling the character system, but it's now as inaccessible as any other studio across the pond.

[Lazy]

participating in roleplay should give pvp buffs.

[Towerblock]

A short list of things I would do to improve the game, if given half the opportunity to do so without RL getting in the way:

Quests based upon RK factions ( once you swear fealty to one, it removes you from any other RK faction) that are employment based. What this would do is help you through the storyline of the game from a first and third person point of view. You'd get taught some history and some perspective based upon your chosen path of employment.

Quests based upon allying yourself with the various factions of the SL (which are not mutually exclusive)

Bring more of the canon of AO to the forefront.

Allow missions to seem more personalized (scripts would detect your profession, species, and gender NOTE: certain shadowlands missions call you 'he' no matter what your gender choice is/was)

Update old RK gear, and their descriptions to match the fictional current level of tech lingo. Get rid of weapons with cross skill AR (IE no weapons with 66% rifle/33% shotgun based AR for example) Make simple armors useful again from the shop, but allow found/crafted/looted/sold armours to be somewhat better. a ten year old battered flak jacket in a terminal just seems whoa sketchy and I would never trust it in combat)

Allow the storyline to include both RP and PVP elements that are world based but not tower based(but keep them slightly separate to avoid heavy griefing)

Return borealis to neutrals and have a wonderful explanation why its not a great idea to f**k with neutrals for fun and lulz.

Bring to the forefront several cities, and outposts that are important to the game other then just mission locations (give some structure in places like Last Ditch and 20k that involve getting with factions attached to these areas)

Include urban based PVP (in a way that doesn't bend over pet users) in some of those areas.

Integrate storyline into the world in a much more streamlined and easily recognizable way. (for example... who has any idea who Galway is? Who stops to actually read information related to him?)

PROGRESS THE CURRENT STORYLINE

[Siahanor]

A short list of things I would do to improve the game, if given half the opportunity to do so without RL getting in the way:

Quests based upon RK factions ( once you swear fealty to one, it removes you from any other RK faction) that are employment based. What this would do is help you through the storyline of the game from a first and third person point of view. You'd get taught some history and some perspective based upon your chosen path of employment.

Quests based upon allying yourself with the various factions of the SL (which are not mutually exclusive)

Bring more of the canon of AO to the forefront.

Allow missions to seem more personalized (scripts would detect your profession, species, and gender NOTE: certain shadowlands missions call you 'he' no matter what your gender choice is/was)

Update old RK gear, and their descriptions to match the fictional current level of tech lingo. Get rid of weapons with cross skill AR (IE no weapons with 66% rifle/33% shotgun based AR for example) Make simple armors useful again from the shop, but allow found/crafted/looted/sold armours to be somewhat better. a ten year old battered flak jacket in a terminal just seems whoa sketchy and I would never trust it in combat)

Allow the storyline to include both RP and PVP elements that are world based but not tower based(but keep them slightly separate to avoid heavy griefing)

Return borealis to neutrals and have a wonderful explanation why its not a great idea to f**k with neutrals for fun and lulz.

Bring to the forefront several cities, and outposts that are important to the game other then just mission locations (give some structure in places like Last Ditch and 20k that involve getting with factions attached to these areas)

Include urban based PVP (in a way that doesn't bend over pet users) in some of those areas.

Integrate storyline into the world in a much more streamlined and easily recognizable way. (for example... who has any idea who Galway is? Who stops to actually read information related to him?)

PROGRESS THE CURRENT STORYLINE

Hell, that'd all be nice for the playerbase as a whole, not just the RPers.

Funcom, give Bubba a job, dammit. Let him telecommute.

[Leileena]

I'll have to agree on pretty much everything posted above, and I think everyone posting below will do the same. There is unfortunately nothing left to discuss about this, its all true and we all know it.

4 years without a storyline is bad, very bad. Funcom should have started writing some new content when the old line finished. Instead, we're still all waiting for Kintaii to come up with something that loosely relates to the original storyline in his spare time (which he doesn't have). Meanwhile, every RPer on these forums is sitting there with years of written storyline content that will never be used. Hell most of us have complete game revamps ready for the good of playability and game feel.

Without that storyline, the RP community doesn't have anything in common, its not brought together by something that's happening to all of us. Without storyline the ARK characters have nothing to do, there is no progression, meetings are boring and repetitive. Nothing ever happens on Rubi-Ka any more, and everyone just sits in a corner waiting. And waiting. And waiting. And quitting.

[Towerblock]

There is a serious distinct lack of role models on RK either. Marvin is my last hope.

[Lazy]

the problem with rp is simple.

at the moment even people who HATE pvp do pvp anyway because of bs daily as that gives xp and vp for armor.

people who have 0 interest in rp don't have any reason to rp and thus it's only the diehard rp pople who are still around.

so my proposal is this: make rping reward pariticpants with uber stuff (either gear that is essential for pvp or a temporary buff) that way you can pad the population with people who don't enjoy rp (just like the bs is padded with green cannonfodder that is just there for the daily)

imo this would vastly improve the the overall rp experience and increase that number of people rping on each server by a factor of at least 10.

[Siahanor]

the problem with rp is simple.

at the moment even people who HATE pvp do pvp anyway because of bs daily as that gives xp and vp for armor.

people who have 0 interest in rp don't have any reason to rp and thus it's only the diehard rp pople who are still around.

so my proposal is this: make rping reward pariticpants with uber stuff (either gear that is essential for pvp or a temporary buff) that way you can pad the population with people who don't enjoy rp (just like the bs is padded with green cannonfodder that is just there for the daily)

imo this would vastly improve the the overall rp experience and increase that number of people rping on each server by a factor of at least 10.

Somehow, I don't think that would quite work very well.

[Lazy]

Somehow, I don't think that would quite work very well.

hey it worked for bs. i don't see why it wouldn't work for rp as well...

maybe someone can even start up a /rp zerg bot too ^_^

[Towerblock]

That'd be nice, but how do you implement that? for buffs, someone has to cast them on you. That requires people with that power to actually RP with us, instead of coding the game. It slows down progress.

For me, specifically: Rant on. If you have no interest in hearing me make an example, please move on. Id rather you still respect me.

Simon Silverstone. Anyone remember this guy? At one point in time he was the epic epicness of all that is badass and clan. He smites dragons in his sleep and kills omnis by the hundreds of thousands. He has an army that is smaller than AF but somehow manages to keep AF in check. Considering AF has never done anything I consider tactically intelligent, thats prolly not hard to pull off. But lets think about what sort of man it takes to do that very thing.

He has to be on his game. He has to be powerful, and his words need to hold weight. The Simon Silverstone that is the past 4 years is an overblown talking insult machine (poorly thought out insults at that) that plays the idiot card when people call him out on his BS. My last interaction with him seriously put a dampener on anything i'll ever have to do with the CoT IC as well as OOC. If the policy of ARK is to create RP environment, then allowing him to be a pedastal of stupidity was a poor thought out evolution. He has in almost every case imaginable, detested and verbally spoke in a way that OOC is antithetical to creating fun and enjoyable RP environment. I realize that the core persona of SS is to be hotheaded and arrogant, but the man is playing the same song and dance and getting nowhere important with it. Its become stale. He insults people to the point where RP cannot be enjoyed, and that works against the whole. Simon needs to advance. They all need to advance. News needs to happen. Give us something to interact with. WE CRAVE IT. We cant sit here and watch blue names talk to each other. Blue names cant just sit here and watch us talk at each other either. Sometimes, you gotta grab people by the genitals and say HEY! DO SOMETHING, because tbh, we can chat at each other any day of the week. Real adventure will bring everyone running.

Rant off.

I like pie.

[Ciyanid]

hey it worked for bs. i don't see why it wouldn't work for rp as well...

The thing is, that you RP because you want to use your imagination, you WANT to make your character alive in the game and atleast TRY to change things and develope your character aswell.

People dont usually RP (or that's how i've understood ) because you get something good (as in buffs and items) for it. It's enough good if i can make someone else's character laugh, smile, or just hear that they are doing okay etc. Or like a close friend of mine said not too long ago; "That is why i RP" When they had a reply from someone: "Thank you, you really made my day!"

But, opinions are unique, and because people have different opinions, we are able to have this conversation here

EDIT: Oh, and i am sure of it, just because you'd get buffs for RP'ing, we'd have random people come at ya "LOL how do u get those kewl = = Marks on ur name!?!?!?!?" and "Dude, press bckspace to run noob" Or something like that. I reeeaaaallly wouldnt like that to happen. UNLESS! There was someone watching the RP all over RK, deciding, who is really being IC, and serious, and who are the idiots just after buffs. Anyone volunteer

[Towerblock]

We all can do a little more to get things going, in our own ways.

That being said, I have always had an open door policy with storyline and plot material. I will always listen to ideas and get people involved. Not many ask. I also find it easy to be bitter because im a newly turned 37 year old man who RP's with 15 year old kids right alongside the rest of us old bitter adults. I have been attempting to make concessions to the kids to help them want to be involved, but it gets a lil complicated at times.

[Towerblock]

Keep in mind, I have been away for almost 9 months. Anything thats happened since I left I can't really talk on.

[Siahanor]

I just think it's really hard to write about walking the bustling streets of Rome or Athens when they're both empty of life.

Hmm, perhaps a storyline regarding a plague which has suddenly wiped out 99% of the population?