Did you..? Do you..?

1st Official Post

    I'll be honest, I kinda just fancied being the first to post somewhere :blush:

    But... wait.. I do have a little something on this subject ;)

    Before GW came along I used to play a text 'MuD' game (no pictures! :o ). I loved it. You pretty much had to roleplay. This was done mainly by 'shouts' - not like "I Will Avenge You!" lol, but more like the map-shout-type thing in.. <whispers> GW2.. and of course emotes: either your own, using 'em .. ' yem ..' (I missed that in GW, and was quite impressed anet put customised emotes into GW2) or one of the many many 'canned' ones. There were different communication channels, like most games, and you were only allowed to use the 'chat' channel for ooc (out of character) chatting - or 'tells' (whispers) of course.

    Naturally, coming from this environment, I missed this aspect of playing. I believe there was a RP community in GW (Piken Square?) but I never got into it. However, I did visit the Piken Square server/world in GW2 but found it very odd... It kinda reminded me of Life of Brian.. Maybe I'd just lost touch... :-/

    So, do you roleplay? Have you? Would you? Or is it just some strange thing that some strange folk do that holds no interest for you? A quick google shows up plenty of GW2-related RP stuff, but I suppose all those people will have found their little niches there, and are not so likely to be here..?

    "Never refuse a gift from someone who can swallow you whole." ~Kuunavang

    • Official Post

    The only interest I have in RPing is in single player games where there's reactivity, a plot and characters worth caring about, etc. Think Bioware. GW for me is about builds and having something to do with friends/family, not so much immersing myself in character. If there was some kind of offline version or pen and paper game where my/our character(s) influenced what was happening it would be something I'd consider.

    • Official Post

    hm, roleplay? not really, but I have created histories for some of my characters.....my mesmers, while born in different countries, are all related--Mimi, the oldest was born in Tyria and like her farther (also born in Tyria) was good with a bow but very good with mesmer conjuring.....he and his wife (a canthan by birth) split before the searing and she went to live in Cantha (only finding out that she was pregnant with their 2nd child Haru after the searing happened--and no way to contact her estranged husband or child). Haru grew up with some mesmer skills, but was really took after her mom, a ritualist and trained under Master Togo. Miaka, whose father was the brother of Haru and Mimi was born and raised in Elona and keeping with the family profession took to mesmer skills with ease, but secretly she had always wanted to be a dervish--so she trained with the scythe as well as a cane....

    did this for a bunch of my characters...this is why Mimi while a mesmer favors the bow, why Haru uses her rit skills, etc...I found that more fun.

    I only actually did it once in Guild Wars--with my monk at a Forever Knights event years ago. I've always wanted to do it since, but I was too young and too shy to join any RPers at the time.

    I think that although the game story doesn't lend itself to RPing at all, the universe is so rich that I find it very easy to create backstories. I know what happens to some of my toons from birth to death and I'm invested. I'd love to pull them out and make a story with some folks, but (a) there's virtually no interest and (b) the last time I RP'd a whole story was in middle school and it was self-indulgent anime shit. Nothing wrong with being self-indulgent, but I have no idea how to actually build and carry a plot.

    Oh I remember MuDs, a bit before internet changed the world as we know it! While I wasn't that much into them at the time, it does bring back memories.

    I've been tempted in a bit roleplaying in Guild Wars, but always found it hard to realize. I doubt it would work in a more serious roleplaying session, and dmost definitely not with everyone using thy and thee's lol. Sadly I never really got to try any roleplaying in Guild Wars. I think it could work if it's a bit more free and casual, no medieval words (hey, if the merchant doesn't speak thee and thy, why should I?). My take would be:
    * Keep it casual, no overzealously strict rules.
    * Avoid talking about things outside the game if possible, such that you got yourself a new Smartphone.
    * Do missions but with your own twist. Build a simple backstory on why your team doing this mission.
    Are you in search for something? Can all your team members really be trusted, or are they plotting something.
    * Give all team members a personality trait (honorful, deceptive, paranoid, anxious, optimistic, ...) and let them develop their character around it.
    * No long games, give new players a chance to join in on the "story" next time around so they won't feel intimidated to join something that lasted for ages.