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