[SPAM] Re: [MUD-Dev] DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design

[Byron Ellacott]

Tess Snider wrote:
> On Thu, 28 Oct 2004 20:11:19 +0200, Ola Fosheim Gr=F8stad
> <olag at ifi.uio.no>

>> I hate to be pedantic, but isn't all hardcore roleplay deception?
>> Isn't that the point?

> I don't see deception as the point of roleplay at all.  In fact, I
> don't see how it necessarily has anything to do with
> roleplay. Roleplay is not inherently deceptive.  You are not
> deceiving anyone into thinking you're a 934-year-old elf any more
> than Bruce Campbell deceives us into thinking he's an
> undead-plagued S-Mart employee with a pencheant for big guns and
> chainsaws -- no matter how convincing the portrayal of either
> character might be.  Like an actor, you are merely playing a role.
> Hence, the name, "roleplay."

Ahha, that's it.  I knew when I saw that line about roleplay being
deception that there was something wrong with it.

To put it in my own words, roleplay (and acting) requires a willing
suspension of disbelief.  Deception is an act intended (or
accidentally succeeding in) tricking the deceived into believing
something that is not true.

So, like a good movie, a good roleplay is one where credulity is not
stretched beyond breaking point - for one metric of good, at any
rate. A l33t d00d can stretch credulity beyond breaking point very
quickly, as can OOC chat, but voices can be willingly ignored.

I find that plenty of supposedly in-character chat breaks my
credulity point, too, when people are obviously referring to game
mechanics but coating it with roleplay speech.

--
bje
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