Intermission
I’m taking a break from the loretastic discussion to discuss some SRS BZNS. RP is just as serious a matter as raiding and PVP. Don’t believe me?
RP can be duo’d, never really solo’d. RP events, while not as regular as PvP or Raiding, require hours of prep, scripting, arranging times and dates, as well as addressing unexpected consequences.
RPing also requires a great deal of communication. This is not just discuss your character in the context of the event–be it scripted, impromptu or completely random–but working with your regular RP group. One has to work with their group to push their character’s stories along. It is just as annoying to carry someone through end-game content as it is to carry another character through group RP.
Running an RP event requires the same skills of a raid leader: Communication, delegation, flexibility and inspiration.
The payout of RP, in my opinion, is simply more rewarding. When the last servers power down, only the players with FigurePrints will have a reminder of their times. The RPers will have gigabytes of chat logs to memorialize the stories and times in the game.
RPers aren’t casual. We just have a different focus.
Filed in Info,Open Thread,RP,World of Warcraft 3 Comments so far
Illi on 14 May 2009 at 10:20 pm #
Eh, I’d disagree that RP can’t be solo. Truth be told, you want an audience, but assuming there is none for a second, one-player fic writing is solo RP. Whether it’s background, a history, a story you’ve felt like getting out that only touches on your character(s) – you’re still “playing their role”, just alone, in prose.
I’d be curious, however, as to how people consider the “audience” to be involved with RP, be in ingame, interactive writing, posted fiction, etc.
Bricu on 15 May 2009 at 12:50 am #
Fic writing/character development for oneself seems to be more of a thought exercise than actual RP. One isn’t necessarily playing the role as much as they are framing the role. Playing the role would be interacting with others regarding the background. In this sense, I feel that a session hashing out the background of a character is more RP than writing a story for the character.
I’ve never thought about Audience and RP. Players have their characters put a show on for each other, and in some regard, players try to bring the audience into the story itself. There is a lot going on with this question. Ingame, interactive writing, posted fiction, closed RP, forum RP, IRC sessions… RP is a many varied thing. Some RP is private. Some is conducted in the public space, despite its very private nature.
You should write up a guest blog post about this topic to spurn more discussion. You should also do a podcast and seduce readers with The Accent(TM)
Jezrael on 23 May 2009 at 8:34 pm #
Inspired by your blog and the invitation for readers to write our own Wrathgate story I decided I would finally try to write a story for Jez.
Now I raid end-game on my hunter, I know how to play her well, I spend time preparing consumables and what have you and researching strategies and all those things. I guess you could say that I am skilled at, and reasonably hard core in my attitude to, raiding.
I made some time to sit down and start writing. It took me about 1.5 hours to write an introductory paragraph that I still think sucks. I realised that my writing skills are rusty. Sure I can throw words together in an articulate and comprehensible pattern but there is a definite skill to writing fiction that maybe I once had but is now sorely lacking.
My point is that I couldn’t agree more with your post. Committed RP is in my mind way more effort than showing up and firing the pointy of end of things into bosses. Or at the very least each activity is neither more nor less ‘hard core’ than the other depending on the effort entered into.
As to whether RP can be a solo activity, well I would suggest it can be. Any small amount of RP I have done within the WoW universe are posts on my blog which were written because the mood took me but not really in expectation of an audience nor participants.
Ultimately RP is about interaction right? But that interaction could just as well be between you the author, and your character, as well as across the entire RP community of a server.