Online Roleplaying
Ramblus 15
from 
JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
Like many old school gamers, I've been following rather closely the development of D&D Online. Turbine Entertainment (of Asheron's Call fame) has entered the alpha testing phase of their latest labor of love hoping to bring the magic of tabletop roleplaying to the online computer game arena.
And of course I signed up to beta test. Hopefully I'll have better luck than I did with World of Warcraft
One of the age old debates hit their forums almost immediately. Should the game have naming conventions for the players' characters (Some believe that warriors named "BootyCall" destroy the immersiveness of the environment) and should there be dedicated roleplaying servers. I weighed in, and as I wrote I decided my answer would make a suitable blog entry. Here it is.
It's clear to me due to my experiences in face to face PnP D&D games combined with my experiences with online MMORPG games that one simply doesn't translate into the other - yet.
Should D&D Online attempt this? I don't think it can. There is no substitute for a live DM who can "lay down the law" on what is so and what is not so. And until some AI breakthroughs of a profound nature come along, a pseudo-live DM of any quality will not be programmed for some time yet.
So comparison of PnP D&D and DDO can stop. One is D&D and the other is a video game which utilizes recognizable elements from D&D.
The problem before the devs is to attempt to bring the magic of a PnP game to a multiplayer video game environment. I have read all of their bios, as many of you have as well, I am sure, and I'm pretty sure that DDO is not just a job to them, but is a labor of love based on their own experiences with PnP D&D. As I have pointed out, they are starting their "at bat" with one strike already against them. No DM is a huge hurdle to overcome.
Now this post is about RP servers, names, etc, and I haven't forgotten.
Given the premise that the devs want to attempt as a close a translation as possible between PnP and video game, how would they answer the questions being asked here? Would roleplaying servers and naming conventions aid the reaching of their goals? Well you have to add the goal of creating a successful game (read: bought and played by many) to the goal list, and that severely changes the questions we're asking.
Unfortunately, my experience says no, RP servers and naming conventions would not aid the reaching of their goals. My experience with five different MMORPGs tells me one unfortunate fact. The far greater number of people that play these games have no interest in role playing, and of the ones that do, only a small percentage are very good at it. The rest use trite backstory, thees and thous, and archetypical approaches to their classes and call it role playing. And it is, technically, but it's like acting. There are good actors and bad ones.
So we have one strike against the PnP to Online conversion. No DM. No RPers is strike 2. In order for an RP server to work, you have to have RPers. Unfortunately, there is an element of being online that makes good RP way harder to come by than in PnP. Writing ability.
In PnP, you don't have to be able to spell your name. You don't have to set any kind written mood. You can be completely illiterate and be a good roleplayer. But online, that's a different story. There is nothing that will undercut the believability of a mage character whose primary attribute is intelligence than someone who writes poorly. I'm not judging the bad writers, so don't react if you feel you're one of them. I'm just saying it is an additional hurdle, often a huge one, that people must jump in order to be good online roleplayers that they do NOT have to jump in PnP.
So is there a 3rd strike? I guess it only really matters if we are going to concern ourselves with how close of a translation this is going to be. I myself am not very concerned. I will naturally gravitate to and seek out the good writers so that I can regain for myself some of the brand of RP I prefer. I will ignore the rest, and if they get enjoyment from how they play, I have nothing bad to say about that.
And of course I signed up to beta test. Hopefully I'll have better luck than I did with World of Warcraft
One of the age old debates hit their forums almost immediately. Should the game have naming conventions for the players' characters (Some believe that warriors named "BootyCall" destroy the immersiveness of the environment) and should there be dedicated roleplaying servers. I weighed in, and as I wrote I decided my answer would make a suitable blog entry. Here it is.
It's clear to me due to my experiences in face to face PnP D&D games combined with my experiences with online MMORPG games that one simply doesn't translate into the other - yet.
Should D&D Online attempt this? I don't think it can. There is no substitute for a live DM who can "lay down the law" on what is so and what is not so. And until some AI breakthroughs of a profound nature come along, a pseudo-live DM of any quality will not be programmed for some time yet.
So comparison of PnP D&D and DDO can stop. One is D&D and the other is a video game which utilizes recognizable elements from D&D.
The problem before the devs is to attempt to bring the magic of a PnP game to a multiplayer video game environment. I have read all of their bios, as many of you have as well, I am sure, and I'm pretty sure that DDO is not just a job to them, but is a labor of love based on their own experiences with PnP D&D. As I have pointed out, they are starting their "at bat" with one strike already against them. No DM is a huge hurdle to overcome.
Now this post is about RP servers, names, etc, and I haven't forgotten.
Given the premise that the devs want to attempt as a close a translation as possible between PnP and video game, how would they answer the questions being asked here? Would roleplaying servers and naming conventions aid the reaching of their goals? Well you have to add the goal of creating a successful game (read: bought and played by many) to the goal list, and that severely changes the questions we're asking.
Unfortunately, my experience says no, RP servers and naming conventions would not aid the reaching of their goals. My experience with five different MMORPGs tells me one unfortunate fact. The far greater number of people that play these games have no interest in role playing, and of the ones that do, only a small percentage are very good at it. The rest use trite backstory, thees and thous, and archetypical approaches to their classes and call it role playing. And it is, technically, but it's like acting. There are good actors and bad ones.
So we have one strike against the PnP to Online conversion. No DM. No RPers is strike 2. In order for an RP server to work, you have to have RPers. Unfortunately, there is an element of being online that makes good RP way harder to come by than in PnP. Writing ability.
In PnP, you don't have to be able to spell your name. You don't have to set any kind written mood. You can be completely illiterate and be a good roleplayer. But online, that's a different story. There is nothing that will undercut the believability of a mage character whose primary attribute is intelligence than someone who writes poorly. I'm not judging the bad writers, so don't react if you feel you're one of them. I'm just saying it is an additional hurdle, often a huge one, that people must jump in order to be good online roleplayers that they do NOT have to jump in PnP.
So is there a 3rd strike? I guess it only really matters if we are going to concern ourselves with how close of a translation this is going to be. I myself am not very concerned. I will naturally gravitate to and seek out the good writers so that I can regain for myself some of the brand of RP I prefer. I will ignore the rest, and if they get enjoyment from how they play, I have nothing bad to say about that.
