First off, I like this post!
Alright, on to my thoughts.
I've always enjoyed seeing who my characters become given whatever situation came at them. Eventually I started avoiding RP fighting outright, from all the bad feelings both sides tended to share, as no one really wants to lose.
I can remember one point in particular though that shaped the way I approach RP, which I think fits in well with the idea of it being free-form. I got godmodded. Like... outright facerolled by a paladin who had powers straight out of Naruto. My dwarf had his face shoved into a fireplace during this encounter. Naturally, I was unhappy with how one-sided the whole thing was.
I didn't ignore it though. I didn't pretend that what happened hadn't happened, or retcon it out of my characters history. That character did regrow his beard (because what is a dwarf without a beard?), but I kept the scars. Or, rather, he did. In the end, I was kind of glad for it all, because my character had grown in some small way from that encounter. That little bit of history would follow him until my eventual retirement of his character.
I think that's the key to having an evolving character. They might have been shy, or not. They might have been a nobody, or a somebody. It's how we interact with the world (of roleplayers) around us, and move on from there that really gives them that definition in the end. Free form roleplaying is, I think, the only form of roleplaying that really works in an MMO environment.
Alright, on to my thoughts.
I've always enjoyed seeing who my characters become given whatever situation came at them. Eventually I started avoiding RP fighting outright, from all the bad feelings both sides tended to share, as no one really wants to lose.
I can remember one point in particular though that shaped the way I approach RP, which I think fits in well with the idea of it being free-form. I got godmodded. Like... outright facerolled by a paladin who had powers straight out of Naruto. My dwarf had his face shoved into a fireplace during this encounter. Naturally, I was unhappy with how one-sided the whole thing was.
I didn't ignore it though. I didn't pretend that what happened hadn't happened, or retcon it out of my characters history. That character did regrow his beard (because what is a dwarf without a beard?), but I kept the scars. Or, rather, he did. In the end, I was kind of glad for it all, because my character had grown in some small way from that encounter. That little bit of history would follow him until my eventual retirement of his character.
I think that's the key to having an evolving character. They might have been shy, or not. They might have been a nobody, or a somebody. It's how we interact with the world (of roleplayers) around us, and move on from there that really gives them that definition in the end. Free form roleplaying is, I think, the only form of roleplaying that really works in an MMO environment.
