RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes

Deirdre · **02-23-2013, 12:45 AM**

(02-23-2013, 12:07 AM)Siobhain Wrote:
(02-22-2013, 11:16 PM)Deirdre Wrote: Those of us who spent a lot of time in 1.0 already have our characters to lvl 50 on multiple classes, relics, and high ranking gear. A new character, which there seem to be a lot incoming in the RP community, isn't going to have that. It takes a lot of time and effort to obtain these things, those of us who remained with the game have 2 years of total accumulation. It's going to take newer people a significant amount of time to catch up, and that's just reality.

While I mean to each his own style, no one method is going to be generally accepted in the community.

On the note of people becoming involved in things as fights and sparring, this is definitely not always the case. While of course there may be certain causes for intervention, in my own experiences (and since Deir is a spaz and violent, there is a lot of them) people prefer to stay on the sidelines than interfere. (ex: Deir had gone on a rampage with at least 7 people standing there, no one jumped in to stop it)

RP sparring, where it is coordinated that two people fight for training purposes, occurred a lot as well. In places like The Eorzean Guard it was built in to the shell to train, and the sparring became less technical and more of an intimate relationship between whoever was fighting who. You feed off of one another, it's actually a very wonderful experience.

PvP mechanics, by their very nature, are going to be flawed. There is going to be an imbalance, whether from one class to another or one gear-set to another. It's not something you can control, while you can train at it, you cannot control it like you can text based, and be truer to your character. There isn't going to be on the fly gear switching either, which rules out multiple classes being available to you. If you're a white mage, you're limited to your white mage abilities, and we all know each of our characters are capable of more than that... it's written in the game.

I mean, do what pleases you~ but there are a lot more cool things to focus on in the game than beating someone in straight PvP (which is going to take a lot of grinding, and a lot of practice, and yeah, luck), rather than your character out witting them.

You make a good point, but I think I misspoke on at least one thing and wasn't inclusive enough.

I did say 'inevitably' as it's been my experience that whenever a fight is going on, whether or not I'm involved in it, some well-meaning passerby will always try to get involved and stop the fight or intimidate a violent stranger into stopping. My experience, admittedly, is only my experience and therefore limited, and one particular occasion came to mind where I was ignored in such a situation. I suppose to some people, it's legitimate to ignore someone who tries to stop a fight when no one even noticed them standing there and roleplaying for the past four hours, but on the other hand, it seems like a lightsaber in your immediate vicinity would at least slow you down. This is why I gave up trying to roleplay a valiant and upstanding person who sticks their nose in other people's business in that particular atmosphere-- but those kinds of mishaps (and sadly there were quite a few) are probably not likely to occur amongst the people in the RPC.

Also, are we 100% sure that people from the old games are bringing all their old characters and garnishes from their old servers to the new ones or that the new people are going to be able to roll on servers with them? I was under the impression that there was going to be some sort of separation on that point-- but regardless, any time a game starts, there are people playing from the get-go, collecting all the great things, and reaching the cap (or various caps) in the game. If that whole obstacle was such a problem, PVP in RP wouldn't exist at all, or if it did, it would only exist for people who were there from the start or at least very early on, which is simply not the case. Â New gear, new caps, new abilities, new things are happening and there won't be a constant disadvantage for the new people.

PVP mechanics may be flawed, and sometimes they're permanently imbalanced-- World of Warcraft is a perpetual testament to that. But one pro to PVP duels, as Varael point out, is the sort of filtering they can manage to do to prevent god-moding. The RPC roleplayers are all mature people, and I know many individuals go to great lengths to avoid anything that might remotely resemble GMing but it exists, and sometimes unintentionally. People's perceptions on what is and is not GMing in certain situations is different, like in everything else. Another is that, even if there -is- imbalance, you -can- overcome that imbalance. It's not impossible.

I want to see RP and PVP and just regular game mechanics being taken in to the roleplaying realm and used to further enhance the flavor of the overall RP experience. I agree training together, even leveling together, can be a wonderful experience and I don't think taking five seconds to conduct a PVP-style training session has to detract from that. I want to support other roleplayers, and I don't mind being a bystander while the world is moving at two speeds for everyone involved-- the speeds at which they have to write out their hits and the amount of time it takes for someone to say something to someone else; the alternative being not saying anything and waiting for them to finish up what they're doing. It's the sameÂ time issue, however, thatÂ can be created by conducting a canon forum rp started on a designated date and timeÂ and continuing while people are also roleplaying in game where there are continuity problems and timeline issues.

And, yes, the game gives us the ability to be capable of any and everything and have the potential to have our characters -be- everything. It also gives us access to being a hero, one of the supreme special people in the setting, just like in every other MMO, and we agree that not everyone can be the equivalent of the Sultana or Louisoix. I understand that you're saying 'within reason', but where exactly does 'within reason' end when we're talking about your in game potential, which is virtually endless? A jack of all trades is a master of none, so I don't think it's far-fetched for someone to only roleplay fight as one thing or one and a half things at one time and with as much potential as they have, be limited to the range of skills given by the class(es) they feel they want to predominantly use in character.

There -are- a lot more cool things than -focusing on beating someone in straight PVP- but that'sÂ what I'm talking about.Â It's not a focus any more than just getting in fights in general should be a focus. It's an accessory, somethingÂ that can be fun and quick and just as viable for good RPers as text-basedÂ RP and doesn't take the majority or even halfÂ of your time to do.Â Your character outwitting someone else isn'tÂ very easy, since there's aÂ thinking,Â self-preserving, witty person on the other side of that.

Ahh so many points to reply too @.@ hehehe

I mean, everyone is going to have different experiences, just as mine and yours have differed when it comes to people getting involved. I mean I can't say it will or won't happen, it just depends on the kind of characters you end up having in a room. A lot of what I see on the RPC is people trying to be true to their characters nature (and I'll use Deir as an example a lot because who do you know better than your own character?). Deir won't get involved in two people just fighting it out, she doesn't care, but if it came to a good friend of hers getting physically hurt? Then yeah depending on the circumstances she might jump in. That's all situational, and PvP is something that will end up limiting that ability to have that situation arise.

100% sure, anything and everything I had on Deir (and her retainers) is coming with me to 2.0. Which means gear, levels, items... everything. The RPC designated RP server for a fact will be a server that will contain people from 1.0, and thus the things they bring with them. New characters will be able to roll on these servers, and since a huge base of the RP community is from 1.0, the likelihood of us rolling on a previous 1.0 server is like, definite. If you wanted a fresh server, you would have to roll on one that does not contain the bulk of the RP community.

I'm pretty sure we all know what accounts as GMing, most of us are not new to that fact. While I cannot say it does not occur, there are methods of addressing that.

It's not so much that the imbalance isn't impossible to overcome, it's that there is no real need for it to be overcome. I want RP to be fluid, natural, I don't want to have to fight mechanics and all the rest of it to also be able to play my character appropriately.

Addressing the time factor of RP is another thing. While yeah, sure it is going to take longer than a quick 5 second PvP match, there is also more involved, more depth. It's not the same as forum RP, where you could wait two or three days for a post, and it's definatly not as lengthy in text. It's quick, you have to think quick and act, there is no real sitting around and waiting. A sentance or two, and emote. If you're going to RP spar, your head has to be in your character, and ready to go. I don't know anyone who has pushed anything back to forum RP from the game, unless it was private between two characters. It's actually a struggle in this community to get people RPing on the forums.

I speak a lot about RP sparring because that's how I got my start to RP. Admittedly it was a LONG time ago, and the character was not my own creation, but everyone starts somewhere. It was time based, improper spelling and grammar counted against you. You had to be quick and accurate, and if you weren't, the penalty was often a successful hit. Not to say this is how it is in FFXIV RP sparring, it's not, but this is just where my head-space on the matter comes.

With classes and characters relation, you're right. Characters are going to have their strengths and weaknesses, and it's usually apparent. Just take a peek at the wikis, most people have OOCly stated their characters flaws, and everyone I know sticks to that pretty well.
While the story tells us 'we can be the hero', most of us do not play our characters as following the 'main plot'. Instead they exist in this realm we have been given, with the Lore provided, and we make our own lives out of it. In most cases this has nothing to do with grand schemes, but personal challenges and issues. While I'm not saying there aren't characters trying to be the 'hero', it's rarely the case.

It's not always about who is on the other end of your RP. It's about the characters themselves, and this is the depth that PvP just does not provide. While it can be a good tool, sure why not, it doesn't do it for me. I'm not trying to out wit the person who is RPing with me, I'm trying to be my character. I'm trying to be Deirdre, make her come across and act out what she would do, and respond in turn to the character she is with, not the RPer.
There are more outcomes than just winning and losing in RP sparring, unlike PvP in it's base element. There is emotion; shouting and screaming and crying or laughing. There is pain; wounds inflicted, old injuries effecting performance. Perhaps the fighting stops in the middle, cause the other person suddenly apologizes, or breaks down because they are only acting out pent up anxiety.
PvP is technical. You win, or you lose.

<3

PVP as an RP element...?

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes