I'm not sure if some of you read any of the forums posts on TMS, but I jumped into a discussion on the definition of what is "roleplaying encouraged" (RPE for short). While the TMS forums can be excruciating and pointless (because many posters there are more interested in scoring debate points rather than engaging in a discussion), it has gotten me thinking on how we can better encourage roleplaying. My point (which seems to have been either deliberately misunderstood or I just couldn't express it properly or my views could just be a product of cactus weed hallucinations) was that Lusternia's system and design itself encourages roleplaying, i.e., the village system, influence systems, political systems, etc.

Anyway, I thought I'd just open up a discussion to hear your thoughts. Do you feel roleplaying is encouraged in Lusternia? Do you enjoy the roleplaying atmosphere overall (granted there's ALWAYS room for improvement)? What more can we do to help encourage roleplaying)?

Everything about Lusternia encourages roleplaying except the conflict levels that prevent you from having time to do the stuff that everything else encourages.

Well, I think you've hit on a big issue here, due to the fact that the entire game is RP. It's almost as if you were saying, "How do we encourage our baseball team to throw the ball?" If they were not throwing the ball in the first place, we're in trouble, and need some butts kicked. If we're poorly throwing the ball, we need some gentle encouragement.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe the system of rolepoints allows for someone to be above average, as well as below. I think both of these need to be used far more often, but that is a difficult task, as really, RP can be as simple as living your day to day text life.

For subtracting rolepoints:
If someone pulls a Guido, or starts talking about Counterstrike on CT, they need to 1. Know what they're doing wrong, and 2. Get smacked decently hard for it, unless they are a -complete- novice. This is not an RP encouraged game, this is (from my understanding) and RP is mandatory game. Players need to feel the consequences of breaking basic game rules.

For adding rolepoints:
This, as I said, was much harder to decide on. Why should some people get recognized, when the quiet RPers do not? I'm sure these would get given out less often than the removal of rolepoints, but they are important nontheless. People enjoy knowing they've done a good job. Players gain abilities to do things such as self title, I believe, and the people who do RP would love to have some added perks.

Some things to encourage roleplay:

Have more events. Yes, this is hard, but small events are not. All we really need is a god or two having some fun with something neat and IC, and people are happy. Long events are hard to code, and people climb over each other for honors lines. Keep it small, and it will keep them happy.

Have more unique items! I honestly have little idea how we would go about this, but does anyone know what a joy it would be to have the violin that Richter supposedly plays? That right there is RP central! Character development, delving deeper into a character's life; that's what this is about. Perhaps once someone reaches mentoring hours, -and- has a background, they are allowed One Simple Submission that resets to them. They can message Whomever would deal with that (Charites maybe?) and submit an item, following the regular submission rules in HELP TRADEMASTERS. Making it so that only mentors could do it makes sure that the person is not a random newbie taking up the gods' time.

I'm sure there are many ways to do it, but encouragement, and character development are by far two of the best ways to do so.

I kind of agree with Gwylifar. RP doesn't have to be conflict-centered. It'd be nice to have more time for other kinds.

What does Gaudiguch being released have to do with what's being discussed?

I think that the events that we've had so far have been great at encouraging roleplay. The smaller events that you don't really hear about are also good at helping things along, something as small as a Divine possessing a mob for a few minutes to speak to someone or a group of people can have a really positive effect on things.

I'm amazed by the depth of thought that was mustered to create the previous responses.



Perhaps if we gave Estarra longer, more detailed (and realistic) ideas, we could better Lusternia as a whole?

Edit: Excepting Kaervas, who posted right before me.

I think one great way would be to have the moderators police the forum topics more for issues that should be taken in-game. The Idiots forum is a great place to vent, but there are some topics which should be argued out in the game or in the public news instead of there. The OOC part of the forums should be emphasized more.

Just have the moderating team simply lock the topic with a post saying "Take it in-game", so there's an explanation for them. I think that would do a lot to bring more of the world atmosphere in-line. It seems like a lot of issues that should take place in game are defused in the forums, and thus things just "fizzle out" a lot of times instead of becoming neat roleplay events.

BINGO!

I really don't think that that much needs to be said, Richter. 99% of everything that would encourage RP is already there. We just don't have time to do stuff with it. That's a good thing -- we're just one knob-twisting away from roleplay nirvana. It's also a bad thing -- that knob is going to be hard to twist even if we get everyone believing it needs twisting. I didn't elaborate on how it could be twisted because we have several other threads about that already, and no point in repeating it.

1. I'd rather not.
2. Saying "take it in game" allows us to go from an ooc medium right into an ic one, knowing they were redirected there oocly.

I think we'd get too many problems with us having to police what we do already, -and- RP.

I'm not talking about OOC topics. I'm talking about in-game topics that are brought to the forums instead of being settled in-game. Those should be sent back to the game.

And I wouldn't like the job either, but you're a moderator. You moderate

I meant I don't want to take game stuff that's ooc (because its being said ooc) back into the game. It gets... diluted. RP encouragement should be in-game (even though RP is ooc ).

And I do a fine job of moderating language and content, which is what we're here for.

Anyway, getting off work, I'll check back on this later. Viva la RP!

I'd have to agree with Gwylifar. The potential for roleplay is all there, and so many of us would love to take advantage of it, but the sheer level of conflict (which, in some cases, has been veiled as roleplay but comes across as more complex ways of fighting) disallows that. *shrug*

EDIT: As an afterthought, the less time people spend bashing brains out, the more time they have to spend on character/guild/commune-city development.

unless your RP involves combat and fighting, as mine does

I like to make the analogy of comparing RP to acting. If you want to make a good movie and you want to have good RP you need to have the same contributing factors. Those being a well developed plot, a well written script, and good actors. Lusternia has all of them.

What it also has is a sports league (PK) sharing the same field as its stage for acting. PK like any sports league is easy to quantify and encourage through the use of a points and ranking system. You have a contest of arms, you win or lose, points are awarded, and if you win enough times you become the champion. This kind of system doesn't work with Acting or RP. In acting you are rewarded by recieving a little statue of recognition from your peers (A Tony, Emmy, Oscar, etc.). As a MUD is not a movie it is not so easy to dish out this kind of recognition. Your peers can not tape your performance for later review. Even if they could they'd be hard pressed to view your performance objectively with a sports game (IE: PK) going on at the same time.

That being said and to finally get to the point. I believe the solution allready lies within the game. We have Roleplay points but they seem to only be a negative factor. Having the max points is the status quo. If you lose them then bad things happen. Yet if you have the max nothing special beyond the status quo happens. Perhaps the scale could be extended so that having the max RP points grants you some form of recognition or special status beyond what everyone considers to be the status quo.

EDIT: I won't comment.

I actually think Gaudiguch coming relates to roleplay.

Does anyone else see a possible Gaudiguch (Ashtan) and Hallifax (Cyrene) as being parallels to these infamously poorly roleplaying Achaean cities?

Half hijack, but valid.

Ahem: GOd yes, Estarra. The rich history, the villages, the quests, the racism and sterotypes.. (Tae'dae and Furrikin, for example). Some more events wouldn't go astray, though..

On a side not what the heck is up with TMS? Everyone's favourite hobby there is bashing I.R.E. WTF? Serious case of the green eyed monster.

Heh, that's why I rarely post there except to make announcements.

You guys think these forums are tough, try making a post on TMS that says something nice about any IRE game!