What to do while I wait...

There's always that period of times for me, where I've grown tired of the MMORPG I was playing before, and there's still a few months until the next thing is coming out. Usually, when that happens, I get desperate to play SOMETHING, but I don't want any of the things I got.

I try some of my older MMO's, but really, I just want that new MMO, now!

Right now I'm waiting for FFXIV, and it's still 2½ months away. I haven't been accepted to beta this time, and actually, I think it's a good thing, I think one of the things that have ruined the games a bit for me the past couple of years has been too much time spend in beta, so when the game actually launched, I had to do everything over again, and it didn't feel new anymore.

So I've started a project, trying to find something to do! (Because god forbid that I actually, you know, finish my bachelor paper, do some of the drawings I've promised various people to draw, write up my guildstory for FF XIV, do my laundry or one of the thousand other things I SHOULD be doing).

I'm currently downloading 4 different, FtP MMO's, and I'm gonna give them a spin. Not a very long one, maybe an hour each, just to test and see what fits me best, and what I feel like playing around with.

Now, I'm well aware that an hour is not enough to really get a feel of the game, but remember, this is just something I do to waste some time until FFXIV comes out, it's not supposed to be serious.

The games are:

Allods

Runes of Magic

Heroes of Might and Magic Online

Atlantica

I've played Allods and Runes of Magic before, and was relatively happy about them. I love the style of Allods, but the Cash Shop system seemed to screw it over a bit, and all in all, I'm not feeling super excited about it.

It's been a while since I played RoM, and while it was fun as far as I remember, the aestethics were not quite as pleasing as Allods.

The other two are things Claude dug up for me, and both seem promising.

We shall see!

/signoff

Time...

It's actually been a while since I've last roleplayed. Or well, a few months at least. I've been playing World of Warcraft (for lack of better), and my finacé (oh yeah, I'm getting married) used Recruit-a-Friend to get me an american account, so we've been pretty mucn breezing through the levels. And it was fun, for a while.
Now, we're endgame, we're running some battlegrounds, some dungeons, and... Something is missing. I'm just not having fun. It makes me think back to before I started roleplaying. Whenever I'd hit maxlevel, I'd usually get bored and start a new character. Being max level, having the best gear and having to do dailies for a few hours each day to get my money has never really been my reason to play. All respect to those who enjoy it, but personally, it doesn't work for me.

Since I started roleplaying, I haven't had many max level characters. A bit depending on which game I'm playing and the roleplay community I'm in at the time, I've from time to time been so busy with roleplaying that I completely forget actually playing the game. And while that is fun too, I actually enjoy playing. So I'm working on finding a balance.

It's probably not going to work for World of Warcraft. I might still roleplay a bit, but in general, I've lost my of my interest in that game. I'm still going to try out Cataclysm, I'm curious, and I'm looking forward to try Worgen. But right now, what I'm waiting for is Final Fantasy XIV.

I never played Final Fantasy XI much, I didn't have any friends playing and being a social gamer, it wasn't really enough to keep me at the game. But Final Fantasy XIV looks nice! Even though I've lately learned to appreciate PvP, I'm actually looking forward to a game that doesn't put any focus on it. It should leave room for more well developed PvE and possibly easier balancing.
And the skill system seem to be really nice.

And then of course, the roleplay. And old friend from Aion pointed me in the direction of FFXIV Roleplayers, and I'm hooked. I started making a background story along with said friend, and while I cannot actually play the game yet, I'm having a lot of fun just preparing for it, working on my character and hopefully writing some shortstories soon. If I have time anyway. So I'm hoping this will be the game where I manage to find my balance.

/signoff

Hmm, so, I guess you can say this pretty much died.
The thing is, my original plan was to use this to create sort of a guide, but I realised I'd rather write an actual guide.

I'd still like to use the blog though, so maybe I'll just start talking about gaming, mmo's, roleplay and life in general, since I have a lot going on at the moment.

Roleplay will still probably be the main point, but in a much more relaxed way, possibly spiced up with a few shortstories I write about my own roleplay...

So yeah, hope to see you in the future!

So, I guess it's time to continue after a few hectic weeks.
I promised to continue my thoughts on PnP vs. MMO-rp, so here goes some more.

As I described in my last post about the subject, there are a lot of differences between roleplay in PnP and in MMO's. This is an important fact to realise, none the least when you come from PnP, and this is where I think there is a problem.
I know many great people, awesome roleplayers in many ways, who, when they roleplay in MMO's doesn't take it in to account, and expect to roleplay more or less as they do in PnP.
It leads to a number of problems:

1: Changing the World
2: Following the Rules
3: Immersion
4: The Gamemaster

Most of these are not just a problem to PnP-players but to many, so I'll mainly adress the last two.


1: Changing the World.

As I already described in the last post, the MMO-world is most of the time static. It's rarely possible for the roleplayers to have a big impact on what happens with the lore, and that can seem frustrating or boring to some.
So roleplay need to be downscaled a bit. You might not be a superhero, but does that have to mean that your character can't have gran motives? Not at all!
This is something I'll talk much more about at a later time, so for now, I'll just stop with saying that a static world CAN work very well in RP, as long as you learn to work with the limits it brings.


2: Following the Rules.

Even though I'm not really a PnP-player, this is actually a big problem for me as well. We want people to follow the rules, right? I know I do.
The rules in this case being the lore of the specific game you are playing.
But a lot of people want to play Catgirls, vampires or the princess of Stormwind.
This creates a lot of friction, and not only with the PnP-players.
Many of those however use it as an argument for why PnP-rp is better. It's easier to get people to follow the rules when you're a small group and can actually kick people out if they don't.
But as before, there will be much MUCH more about that later.


3: Immersion.

Now, this is one I've heard many times, and never agreed with. PnP-roleplay is more immersive than MMO-rp.
What is immersion?
From the dictionary:

Immersion is the state of consciousness where an immersant's awareness of physical self is diminished or lost by being surrounded in an engrossing total environment; often artificial.

So immersion is about "getting lost" in the world you are roleplaying in.
Those of my friends who often claim that PnP-roleplay is more immersive than MMO-rp usually say that it is because you can change the world and because they have full control over their characters.

Personally, I never truly understood what the first point had to do with immersion. I can feel just as immersed hanging out in a tavern, chatting with people, as I can slaying dragons. Probably even more, since I've never actually met any dragons...
Immersion can happen with every story, even the smallest. It all depends on how it is told.
So you might not be able to change the world, but there can still be told great stories through roleplay. And who says your character can't want to do great thigns, even if you and I know he is never going to succeed?


The second point, freedom over the character, might be more valid. There IS more freedom with your character in PnP, you can chose exactly how he or she will look, talk and act. In MMO's you are bound to a specific set of faces, hairstyles, etc. Some of them, as in Aion, might allow you much freedom, others might be more limited.
But what you pay for in freedom, you gain in an actualy representation of your character, that might make it easier for you to feel connected to it, rather than just words or an image. It gives a feeling of the character actually being there, to see it in the world. Yes, a static world, but a world that you can see, move around in, interact with. This, to me, is much easier to get immersed in, than sitting around a table with a few dices.

Also, people often say they get distracted by non-roleplayers with stupid names, running around, often acting stupid. This of course can break my immersion as well, but at least those PnP-sessions I've been in wasn't exactly very strict. Perhaps there was some beer, people were joking around and talking. Nothing wrong with that, we had fun, no doubt about it, but it was -just- as distracting from the immersion as non-roleplayers in MMO's.

Now, I'm in no way saying that MMO's are better for RP than PnP is. They both have their qualities.
But immersion I think can be found both places.

Edit: As a friedn pointed out, immersion is a very personal thing. What is immersive to me is not necessarely the same thing that is immersive to you. My point with the above is, that both PnP and MMO's have things that can make and break immersion, and it's up to the player personally what they find best. But claiming that PnP is more immersive is wrong in my eyes. It might be more immersive to you, but others might prefer a more graphic world.


Regarding number 4, that's gonna be a long one, and Claude is waiting for me to get on Allods, so you'll have to wait for that :)

/signoff

Interlude

MY plan was to update tuesday and saturday... But when tuesday arrived, and it was time for the next post about roleplay in MMO's vs. roleplay in PnP, my boyfriend pointed me in the direction of Allods Online, and seeing as it was the last day of Closed Beta, I got busy with trying out the game...

"No problem," I thought, "I'll just update wednesday!"
And then they prolonged OB with a week.. So I've been sort of busy ever since. It's not really the best start of my blog, I agree. But of course it is my duty to try out new things and widen my horizon with new games...

... Right?

MMO-RP

I'm currently studying at the university, and one thing we always have to think about when we write papers, is defining what the words we write about means. Since I'm gonna be writing a lot about RP, it might be nice to explain exactly what I mean, since there are many types of roleplay. In honor of the inexperienced/new roleplayer, I'll mention a few of the most known forms:

PnP/Tabletop (Pen and Paper)
LARP (Live Action RolePlay)
MMO-RP (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplay)
Forum-RP
Sexual RP
Etc.

I am not going to comment more on the last type at this point. The other four however often share some similarities, most notably they tend to be set in similar settings, usually a fantasy or science fiction universe. As most roleplayers will know, they are played completely differently. PnP will usually be a group of people, sitting together with rulebooks and dices, LARP will be acting out the story in full figure scale and MMO-RP will be playing through an online game, through an avatar.

This brings me to the actual point of this specific post: A lot of MMO-roleplayers have a background in PnP, and they are often considered more experienced roleplayers. It hasn't been unusual for me to hear that kind of my fellow roleplayers complain about how MMO's are bad for roleplay and often continue telling about how much better it is in PnP.

They are often considered more experienced roleplayers due to their background, and for a long time, I felt a bit ashamed about my own lackings in that field, feeling that I could not have as big an understanding of roleplay as them, so when they said that something was better in PnP, they were probably right.
And in some ways they might be. What have changed for me is two things:
1: I have played some PnP
2: I've gotten enough experience in MMO-RP to consider my own opinion valid.

It has made me see MMO-RP in a different light. Where it is often considered a "cheaper" and "easier" form of PnP, I think it is important to realise exactly how different those types of roleplay truly are. To me, it becomes impossible to say what is best or worst, as they both have their pros and cons. Lets take a look.

One of the most notable thigns might be that PnP has a GM (gamemaster), who more or less controls the frame of the game and can decide upon the rules. MMO-RP however is a big collaboration where everyone is equally important, and with no one having the final word. This leads to the difference in rules, because in MMO-RP, it can be argued that there is no rule. As long as things are accepted, everything is possible. This can create some problems, which I will comment further on in a later post.

In PnP, you have a said storyline, more or less determined by the GM. Even though the players can deside how their characters react or where they chose to go, the GM ultimately have control over in which direction the story is heading. Are the players going to meet an ogre? Do they have to overthrow a tyranic king to free his people?
In MMO's, the players are stuck in a usually never changing world, and there's no one to create the stories for them. They can follow quests, but that can ultimitely end in problems, and much roleplay happens completely seperate from the storylines the game tries to tell. Once again, it's a huge collaboration, where no one desides what is right, and there's no one on to listen to. "It's rp, I can do what I want" seem to be a popular motto, and almost everyone wants the story to be about them (once again, more about that later).
And speaking of the world: Where PnP can change the world depending on what the players do, the world in MMO's will always be the same, making it hard for the players to roleplay something that truly changes anything unless you have an extremely well working RP-society.

These are just a few differences, and it does seem like MMOs might be worse for rp than PnP, doesn't it? PnP allows for more freedom, you're a smaller group so it's easier to agree, and you only have to deal with people you might actually like. You can change the world and you play out actual stories. So perhaps PnP IS better rp?

Well, I said earlier that I don't think you can talk about better or worse, and exactly the differences between them is actually a huge part of the point I'm trying to make... Which you can read more about next time.

/signoff

I know I'd try to make this blog into something that could work as a guide. But I'll probably end up talking a lot about rp and perhaps gaming in general, so I hope people can bare with me. It is a blog after all.

Anyway, just a small... disclaimer? I've had a busy day, so first real post will hopefully land tomorrow. Oh so excited we are.

/signoff