I, personally, am very against taking the game's storyline IC in relation to your own character. Â While that might sound rather strict, it's not. Â Basically put, I don't like seeing 'heroes of light' or the 'one dude who killed the Ultima weapon' in roleplay. Â I don't. Â OOCly I'm not going to make a big fuss about it, but it's not something that makes me particularly comfortable.Â
My character is a rather skeptical jerk underneath everything else, who probably wouldn't believe such tales regardless. Â You'll probably get the 'yeah right' response from him, and not because I'm being an OOC butthead about it, but because that's who he is. Â I read a comment earlier which insinuated that a character who didn't believe the story was just ignorant or uninformed, but I beg to differ.Â
The game's story is OUR world. Â We live in it, and so the events effect us personally. Â We all went through the Calamity, we all went through the Garlean invasions, we all went through the events of the storyline that ARR offers even if we weren't in the super special attack squadrons and plotlines. Â Some characters might just be Scions or officers of the Maelstrom, but that shouldn't be all characters.Â
This is where we run into problems. Â It seems like greatness is the 'norm' these days, which really means nobody is great at all. Â My favourite lesson from the Pixar movie 'The Incredibles' has to be the part where they basically state 'If everyone is super, than nobody is.' It should never BE about power in RP. Â We shouldn't be having contests every time we roleplay to see who did the greatest things and thus is the biggest and best RPer. Â Your character can -still- be interesting even if they weren't the ONE hero who did X, Y or Z. Â
On top of this, I respect people who have the creativity to think of a story and a life for their characters that doesn't follow the main storyline of the game. Â Not everyone IS a hero, or a fighter, or whatever. Â Some people are merchants, artisans, musicians, entertainers, barkeeps, teachers, what have you. Â And these things take time to roleplay out. Â We didn't just reach level 50, gear up, and then run coils in order to have RP that can be taken seriously. Â I truly respect RP that I have seen grown or crafted organically through writing and plot rather than in-game shenanigans. Â The issue here is that these characters then seem underpowered in comparison to the others, even though RP dictates that this shouldn't be the case at all.Â
I had this issue in ToR, where people RPed the storyline to a tee and then felt their character had every right to be on the Dark Council or whatever else stupid position you were placed into at level 50. Â Then they felt it necessary to smash that in everyone else's face and lord that 'power' over others, even though all they did was play the storyline and RP none of it out. It was completely unrealistic according to the lore of the universe and those people ended up just being universally ignored.Â
I'd hate to see that separation of the community here.Â
So yeah, none of this was intended to be an attack on anyone's RP or RP style. Â I will RP with anyone unless they've shown themselves to be completely trollish; however, there are many issues that spring up from this topic in any roleplay community on an MMO, and most of them -are- negative in my experience.
My character is a rather skeptical jerk underneath everything else, who probably wouldn't believe such tales regardless. Â You'll probably get the 'yeah right' response from him, and not because I'm being an OOC butthead about it, but because that's who he is. Â I read a comment earlier which insinuated that a character who didn't believe the story was just ignorant or uninformed, but I beg to differ.Â
The game's story is OUR world. Â We live in it, and so the events effect us personally. Â We all went through the Calamity, we all went through the Garlean invasions, we all went through the events of the storyline that ARR offers even if we weren't in the super special attack squadrons and plotlines. Â Some characters might just be Scions or officers of the Maelstrom, but that shouldn't be all characters.Â
This is where we run into problems. Â It seems like greatness is the 'norm' these days, which really means nobody is great at all. Â My favourite lesson from the Pixar movie 'The Incredibles' has to be the part where they basically state 'If everyone is super, than nobody is.' It should never BE about power in RP. Â We shouldn't be having contests every time we roleplay to see who did the greatest things and thus is the biggest and best RPer. Â Your character can -still- be interesting even if they weren't the ONE hero who did X, Y or Z. Â
On top of this, I respect people who have the creativity to think of a story and a life for their characters that doesn't follow the main storyline of the game. Â Not everyone IS a hero, or a fighter, or whatever. Â Some people are merchants, artisans, musicians, entertainers, barkeeps, teachers, what have you. Â And these things take time to roleplay out. Â We didn't just reach level 50, gear up, and then run coils in order to have RP that can be taken seriously. Â I truly respect RP that I have seen grown or crafted organically through writing and plot rather than in-game shenanigans. Â The issue here is that these characters then seem underpowered in comparison to the others, even though RP dictates that this shouldn't be the case at all.Â
I had this issue in ToR, where people RPed the storyline to a tee and then felt their character had every right to be on the Dark Council or whatever else stupid position you were placed into at level 50. Â Then they felt it necessary to smash that in everyone else's face and lord that 'power' over others, even though all they did was play the storyline and RP none of it out. It was completely unrealistic according to the lore of the universe and those people ended up just being universally ignored.Â
I'd hate to see that separation of the community here.Â
So yeah, none of this was intended to be an attack on anyone's RP or RP style. Â I will RP with anyone unless they've shown themselves to be completely trollish; however, there are many issues that spring up from this topic in any roleplay community on an MMO, and most of them -are- negative in my experience.
