Roleplaying Roulette

Watching people inside MMOs on "role playing servers" is interesting, and sort of a social and psychological exercise. People join these servers to do something more than play the game. Let's discard the often-cited reasons of "the players are more friendly" and "I want to torment role-players." Players on these servers want to become involved with stories, factions inside the game world, and interests of other player groups. Some players want to join a military order, others a royal family, others a Gothic werewolf cult, and the list of interests goes on and on. It is fascinating to watch, and see what people come up with.

All this is player-driven, and usually the game does little to support it beyond letting you dress up your character, and occasionally let you pick a title. When it comes to supporting roleplaying, most MMO companies put that at the bottom of the priority list for game improvements; and at patch time, you often feel like Charlie Brown on Halloween, "I got a rock." So most of the activity happens in spite of the company running the game, which is interesting, and shows you the power of the idea of immersing yourself in the world and other player's creations. Imagine if companies supported more player-driven stories and involvement in the world beyond flipping towers and capturing flags in PvP.

The most intimate encounters on these servers are in taverns and bars, where players congregate for no other reason than to find others, listen to roleplaying conversations, and possibly become involved with the story. Mind you, there are no 'RP wanted' ads or message boards in these games, you have to wander upon a story in progress and try to involve yourself, for better or for worse. Many times, you don't even know where the story you are joining is going, it could be fun, a complete disaster, or something you excuse your character from because you don't like where it's going. Better luck next time, and you log on another night looking for another story to join.

A lot of roleplayers are shy and don't put themselves out there; many stick within a clique or established group of players, and some may even organize on an external forum. The lose roleplayers are really interesting to watch. They may gather in a tavern, introduce themselves, coyly start throwing lures in the situation to look for interaction, and hope for the best. If nobody likes what they see, it's game over, and time to try somewhere else, or go back to questing. A lot of interactions break up because nobody knows what anybody else wants of likes, so it's kind of like roleplaying roulette.

Can it get any better? Well for many people, the system works when they find a group (and have the time) to get involved. For many, it is hard to even find a story to jump into, and the time it takes to find something happening and get in with a cool group takes too much effort. In a way, non roleplaying social activities such as Facebook and Twitter have solved some of these problems with interest groups where people with like ideas can get together and socialize. Most MMOs have guilds, but they are primitive, limiting organizations - many are just a chat channel and character list. If interest groups could be added to a MMO, along with a pseudo-social in-character experience, that would be cool, and make the whole immersive thing more, immersive.