Darius Black: Role-Playing Today

Darius Black has written a new column about Role-playing today in MMORPGs. Darius talks about the D&D days of role-playing and how they are different today in MMORPGs.

He also asks how many Darkfall fans role-play and how do you feel about today's role-playing? You can post in our forums about your opinion.

It's been a while since I've dipped my feet into the tepid pool that is MMO gaming these days - since WoW opened up that Dire Maul instance, actually (fates take me if I hadn't had enough of killing ogres already). I imagine much hasn't changed in terms of player behavior and interaction.

/shrug

I was contemplating the evolution of RPGs recently, how they started as pen-and-paper nerd-fests, where pretending you were anything but yourself made life worth living again, if only for the moment. And don't laugh, that's ultimately how a lot of unpopular kids spent a great deal of their social lives. Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt! Oh, how I miss Camp Gondor...

With the advent of video games, the meaning of a Role Playing Game changed a little, staying true to the original in some cases, yet going in a different direction in others. The Japanese take on RPGs would define them as mostly linear, story-driven games with a different, and sometimes altogether absent leveling and experience system. Sure, in both types of games - the old D&D dice-throwing breed and its contemporary offspring, and the huge-sword-wielding, spiky hair breed, and everything between - you "play a role," but by that logic, just about any game out there could be classified the same way. It's fallen onto the other characteristic to define what we call an RPG today: the leveling system.

So where does that leave the actual role-playing aspect? Well, look around at some of the online games for a good example of how it's almost utterly disappeared. I realize I digressed from my first point, but this is where it comes in again: how many people actually enjoy role-playing with each other? And no, that's not an invitation to share the details of your messed-up private life.

When I play an RPG online, I don't notice many people conversing the way a group of medieval (or science-fictionesque) warriors would. It's always aggro this, and pulling that, and when they actually have a conversation, it's about real-life matters. I talk the same way. Why? Because I'm on there playing with friends; because it's easier to interact in abbreviations and slang; because I'd feel kind of silly yelling out something like "Hark, knights of mine kin! Tonight we feast on heathen flesh aplenty and drink the tears of our enemies' wives!" over Ventrilo...

It's a different story with single-player RPGs, where all of the characters around you have a personality relating to the fantasy world you're playing in. The main difference, I guess, is a game's sense of immersion, or the lack-there-of. Because of this, it's hard not to look at MMORPGs as just another IM tool for you and your buddies. I mean, you basically have an elaborate chat-room setup in every massive online game.

But it's not like the gaming companies aren't trying; every good MMO out there has a deep, involving story behind it with lore galore (oh... that was bad). Still, most of us aren't playing for the story. We play out of competition, to gain levels, to collect skulls and shiny new equipment. Online games are, in essence, sports.

PvP oriented games are the most notorious in this respect. Players are there to fight, to compete, and to ultimately kill each other over and over again. Darkfall has what I'm sure will be a highly competitive, hostile gaming environment - this is, if I'm not mistaken, exactly what they're shooting for. In fact, the name 'Agon' is actually of an ancient Greek word meaning contest or challenge.

What Darkfall also has, however, is a huge amount of history and detail woven into the fabric of its world. From the freshly illuminated sands of Rubaiyat, to the mystical forests of Mirendil, we have been offered an in-depth examination of the wonders of Agon time and time again. I'm only wondering if all of this effort on their parts - to make it interesting, immersive, and meaningful as a fantasy universe - will be lost on us.

Now I'm not saying that immersion and role-playing are a horse-and-carriage kind of deal, but one must admit that they often do go hand-in-hand. In our case, we have loads of great material to work with. But, because of the nature of the game, I'm just not sure if we'll actually see players acting the haughty Mirdain, the barbaric Ork, or the nefarious Alfar (though I'm confident anyone joining that faction will have the prerequisite wickedness we'd expect). Should we just expect a jargoned gankfest not unlike what became of Diablo?

Could be cold in here, but I think I just shivered a little.

It's understandable that role-playing isn't exactly everyone's idea of fun. Some people don't feel comfortable putting on a different skin just for amusement. That's cool. In all honesty, ever since I played a female character in Anarchy Online and got some dude sending me free stuff and naughty whispers, I've been a little turned off of the idea too. But I can still have a good time playing with racial tension and good-guy-versus-bad-guy scenarios. It's what makes the experience that much more meaningful, what justifies the whole character creation process. For me, it's what makes it an RPG.

-db

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Roleplaying is lost in a lot of MMO's because of a simple fact: There are too many immersion annihilating contrivances. It all has to do with the "suspension of disbelief", the soothing to sleep of the part of our brains that reminds us that we're not really intergalactic bounty hunters or mighty sword-wielding warriors. When I roll up on someone in a game, and can't attack them or interact with them because of game mechanics, you remind me of what I'm really doing: playing a game. MMO's put so many restrictions in place (presumably because some of us are bad people out to ruin everyone elses game experience) that we find ourselves constantly running into barriers. It's these artificial mechanics, the safe zones, the level treadmill, the endless pursuit of loot. These are what destroy roleplaying, because it's impossible to associate them to a character in a legitimate way. I might be wrong, but no where in Lord of the Rings do I recall reading about a month of Gandalf hunting wolves, bears, and boars, cutting off various parts of them and bringing them back to someone in town, who can then tell him that he's ready to learn another spell.

Another aspect is that the piles of lore and backstory don't often get used in the game. Roleplaying used to be about designing your character, coming up with a backstory, and having a meaningful, unique existence: your character was a personification of you. In MMO's, I don't ever feel that I'm walking my own unique path, I feel like I'm on a Tour of the World, walking down some developers footsteps instead of where I want to be. Without the freedom to shape our characters, roles are lost. When I play a Warlock in World of Warcraft, I don't feel like a real Warlock. I can't ever "truly" be evil, because game mechanics prevent me from doing so. I can't strike out on my own path in the world, if I'm level 10, I have X, Y, and Z zones to level in. After that, I have A, B, and C zones, and so on. When my characters path is so tightly defined, and my ability to design a unique character and template so restricted, how can I feel any sense of playing a 'role' in the world? At best, I'm another faceless clone in the Clone Wars: There are a billion more where I came from.

To me, Roleplaying in games sucks because of artificial mechanics and a lack of player freedom. Take Ultima Online: It had no leveling system, no restrictions on player interaction with eachother, and no quests/zones that dictated where you could go. Ultima went on to have one of the best and most rich roleplaying ever, simply because people could finally associate with their characters, and feel that they were an extension of their character. They had a background, a story. Everyone remembered events and other things, and it made the world more vibrant as a result. You had the PK's, your Anti-PK's, your sheep, your wolves, everyone in 1 world. It made it a world. Not a game.

All of this, has been taken away.

UO's skill system has been replaced with a class system; no longer do you choose your role, you are "assigned" a role.
UO's free-form play experience has been replaced with a zone system; no longer do you choose where you wander and play, you are "told" and "forced" to play in a certain place, for a certain time, and then move to another place.
UO's player-freedom, the ability to kill others or choose not to, and do it anywhere at anytime if you're willing to accept the consequences, has been replaced with safezones, consensual PvP action, and a lack of death penalties: no longer do you have a choice in how your character behaves, you are "told" how your character sees the world, and prevented from doing anything wrong in the world.

The less "acting" one must do to roleplay, the more the game supports it. Playing pretend is something I can do with a bunch of plastic army men and a magnifying glass. Darkfall's pretty unique in this regard because people will be playing a role in a real, seamless world regardless of their intention.

I'd agree with Surly. The situation of DFO will make it so that people will "play their role" merely by playing the game. Now i do realize there is a fine line here, but my point would be that because the game doesn't make you tread mill a certai nway to be the top dog, it allows you to be the top dog, your way. So while there wil lbe heavy PVPaholics, they will still be "Ragnor the Black" and "Algus the Beheader" ... just because of their style and personality.

In most MMo's we are told what we are, and progress in a way that is also predetermined to become, what is inevitable. That is not RPing, that's interactive reading. Sure you may be at the controls, but if the controls say you have 5 abilities and can only use these weapons, this armor and do these quests..well..that's about as much control as you have over a bumper car.

I will say that Simu's up coming game, Heroe's Journey, is being built o nthe principals of RP as well, i nfact i believe their statement was they are trying to "bring the RP back to MMORPG". I'm not gonna go on about that, just saying that DFO and Heroes Journey look to be the 2 MMo's i can honestly say atleast seem possibly able to have any form of decent RP. RP is not about the thee's and thou's, but about the fact that you are playing as you wish to play, and not trying to bring the game outside of itself. I.E. immersion creates RP..without immersiion, there is no point for RP nor usually any good RP. With immersion, RP breeds naturally, not because of trying to act like lore dictates, but because you find your characters "self" and persue that. Being a mass murder is far from supported in most games, but it is no less RP than being a valiant knight of the kingdom. Choices is what made Pen and paper engaging, not restrictions.

All good points. Most of all, I hope you're right in your prediction that DFO's open-ended character creation and gameplay will loosen the restrictions that an overly-balanced, online world can put on gamers. As long as no one holds our hands through every quest line we're supposed to follow, we can truly focus on shaping the characters we want to play.

Maybe even then I'll be comfortable with the one character per server rule.