"Advanced" use of virtual worlds? (Re: [MUD-Dev] MMORPGs & MUDs)

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad <olag@ifi.uio.no>]

Jeff Freeman wrote:

> Actually, from my own perspective, I started out roleplaying in
> the MMO environment and "advanced" beyond it.  In fact, I've never
> met anyone that started out Not roleplaying and then eventually
> "advanced into it".  It's always been the other way around.

You mean they gave up on it?

I only spend time in MUDs in bursts of a few weeks with months
inbetween so I have no idea about the exact dynamics. Although what
you say is quite obvious in MMOs for the simple fact that there is
no significant density of RPers. Still, people with no RP experience
seem to be willing to try to RP if they find the context intuitive
and evocative (party, male/female relation, ugliest dressing
contests etc).

> From my perspective, RPers in an MMO are newbies.  They'll grow
> out of it (or they'll quit, and go play a tabletop game).

Actually, it is much more enticing doing semi-romantic RP when you
dont know the facts about the other person. Anonymity and the
ambiguity of the situation gives a certain room for play. Dont know
about newbies, most players seem to be newbies. Roleplay in a MMO
requires a certain willingness to adapt to the situation at
hand. Choose emotionally evocative characters that blurs IC/OOC and
that fit with the game mechanics and you are set for RP in MMO.

> Roleplaying in an MMO means denying yourself a great wealth of
> interaction with other people.

Why and what kind of interaction?

In my book roleplaying consists of optimizing for drama while
investing emotions into your interaction. Like in improvised theatre
you need to optimize for the situation that is at hand. Some
characters are easier to RP in the MMO setting than others. Some
characters are easier to play up to other people's personalities
with. You are not only an actor, but also a very adaptive author,
director and producer. You clearly cannot roleplay in the most rigid
fashion, but you can be flexible and tap into the situation at
hand. You can even roleplay at the microlevel. For instance I have
this character that cough every now and then. People play up to
this, even if they dont RP, they sometimes interpret the cough as a
comment on something they just have said, or laugh about it.  Of
course you need to switch between RP and OOC a lot, no need to waste
pearls on people that cannot appreciate it, or players that are
plain hostile about it. But you can nevertheless integrate what
happend in an OOC team into your character's history.

Ola.
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