Discussion: Why the lack of "open-world roleplay" in ESO?

Lyserus · March 2019

Avoka wrote: »

For me, it's cringe af.
It leaves an impression of serious problems in those people's real life, trying to hide into a game. And even further, being absolute uncomfortable with their self in every aspect, so they can be "open" in a game, where noone will point a finger at them, when in a group of other "rp'ers".

That's the first thing hitting my mind when I see someone acting like that.

wow, just wow

But fair enough, You leaves an impression of serious problems in real life, too. trying to go meta in a game because you are a failure in real life. And even further, being absolute uncomfortable with your real life in every aspect, so they can be "gitgud" in a video game and think they are great because they farm meta every patch

Seriously I made this post simply because I wish to discuss this topic, I don't even rp myself. but really, ppl like you need help, this is beyond “failed to understand other ppl have fun in different way”

max_only · March 2019

Avoka wrote: »

For me, it's cringe af.
It leaves an impression of serious problems in those people's real life, trying to hide into a game. And even further, being absolute uncomfortable with their self in every aspect, so they can be "open" in a game, where noone will point a finger at them, when in a group of other "rp'ers".

That's the first thing hitting my mind when I see someone acting like that.

Sounds like projection.

Castagere · March 2019

Knightpanther wrote: »

Open World role play would never work in ESO, my immersion is always ruined by the constant Russian spam, no disrespect intended.

Be safe

I never get immersion from mmo's just single player rpg's.

max_only · March 2019

There is a website for setting up rp

Eso-rp.com

When I played Tera there was a giant guild that held open rp nights at a bar. They even had bouncers to get rid of trolls. They were like the most famous guild on the server and they’d advertise in zone in several maps for open rp night. In Tera you can create chat channels and invite people to it, sort of like group chat but not really. I went once and it was fun, but I had a whole lot of anxiety lol. Also, Tera is full of flirts and I’m not... flirty.

Bladerunner1 · March 2019

Spontaneous RP can be fun, there have been plenty of memorable moments in the open world and I've found trolls to be very rare in ESO. Even so the RPers I've joined tend to prefer an instanced shard to help keep distraction or chaos to a minimum. Before housing there were a few places on the map like unimportant towns where new players would be placed in an instance of their own, and sometimes RP hub guilds would clear out a trial out-of-character before setting up RP inside. Hel Ra was a pretty awesome spot for roleplay inside desert ruins.

I think another big reason open world RP seems rare is that it tends to be a smoother experience when everyone in a group is willing to share a character sheet and agree to some kind of standards.

LadySinflower · March 2019

ZonasArch wrote: »

AbysmalGhul wrote: »

AngelFires333 wrote: »

Does throwing mudballs with my Bosmer count?

One of those types, eh? Do you enjoy cutting people off in traffic? I bet you throw recyclables away in a regular trashcan too!

I do all that and I still don't mudaball RPers. I do mudaball friends tho.

I mudball friends and guildies, people who are dueling in the only walkway and driving everybody nuts, and anybody who is just acting foolish for no reason. I had a guy running around swinging his fists at every single player in the vicinity and spamming out "fist fight? Fist fight?" over and over. I mud balled him and several other people caught on. Pretty soon half a dozen players were mudballing him constantly. As soon as he quit acting foolish, we left him alone. If you annoy me, I'll annoy you back.

In all seriousness, I don't really understand how to RP even though my BF loves to play Pathfinder with his friends and I've sat and watched many a game. I don't understand why anyone would harass RPers. We all have the right to play the game our own way. If RP is your thing, do it!

Minyassa · March 2019

Avoka wrote: »

For me, it's cringe af.
It leaves an impression of serious problems in those people's real life, trying to hide into a game. And even further, being absolute uncomfortable with their self in every aspect, so they can be "open" in a game, where noone will point a finger at them, when in a group of other "rp'ers".

That's the first thing hitting my mind when I see someone acting like that.

LOL...that's taking someone's play waaaaaaaay out of context. It's nothing so sinister, you can relax. It's just people who like to write their own stories, not sure who planted all sorts of weird idea eggs in your brain about it. xD

Vicarra · March 2019

RP means different things to different people, and there are different ways to get into it. It's a sliding scale that goes from:

Playing the game "in character" the way many people do in the single-player titles, choosing your character's name and having a backstory consistent with the world they're living in, through to...
...Doing the same thing in the game's content, in dungeons or so on, speaking as your character would in front of others...
...To doing light roleplay in town with others...
...To no longer thinking of your character as being the protagonist of a major story, and instead being a persistent part of the world with their own story (not created by ZOS).

As has already been mentioned in the thread, once you get to stages 3-4 it really does become like ad-lib acting. You have a concept in your head of what sort of life your character has had and how they might react in given scenarios, and you play it out with other people who are doing the same. Some RP is more "scripted", in the sense that if you're RPing an event you might have a DM (rather like in D&D) who has planned an encounter or dungeon, or it might just be a night in the tavern, with your characters having conversations that evolve naturally. It's all about developing a character - for some people that's through action, and for other's it's through more organic experiences. There are "rules" to RP, and they vary from community to community, but they are generally quite common sense and exist so that everyone can enjoy it.

Although some RPers might disagree with me, I think that all four are valid forms of RP if they make you happy. That's the whole point of it after all - it's to add depth and imagination to the gaming world we all enjoy. People have different knowledge of the lore, and that's ok - it's not a barrier to joining in if your knowledge is only sketchy. In fact, when I first started RPing it was a total accident. I started at point 1, remaking the character I played through Skyrim on, and then fell across some RPers in the Cloudy Dregs one day when crafting food, and was curious about what they were up to. After exchanging some whispers they encouraged me to join in, and I did. Even though I made some "mistakes", they were very helpful in getting me started and developing a backstory for my character.

Since then, I've tried to "pay it forward" whenever I encounter someone who wants to join in with RP but doesn't really know where to start. While some people can be a bit tryhard even in the RP community, and unfortunately if you encounter them it might put you off, in my experience the vast majority of people are welcoming to newcomers and want to do all they can to help show you the ropes. The best thing to do is to find the RP hub guild for your server and faction, and people will help orient you. Or if you're on EU DC, you can message me and I'll be happy to help offer some guidance

starkerealm · March 2019

Sheezabeast wrote: »

Smitch_59 wrote: »

I don't know much about RP, and although I find the concept mildly intriguing, it's probably not something I'd be into.

Anyway, one day my wife was randomly traveling to other fellow guild members while they were in their houses; she's really into player housing and she likes to see other folk's houses. In our experience, most players seem to enjoy unexpected visitors, as they are proud of their homes and they like to show them off. So she travels to a random player's house, and there's a group of players there. They immediately told her to get the f*** out, as they were doing ERP. We didn't know what that was until we Googled it.

To be fair they didn’t know if she was over 18 or not...

Ah, "ERP." Both an innocuous acronym, and an accurate representation of the sound you make when you discover what it stands for.

Monte_Cristo · March 2019

mocap wrote: »

some dude invited me to trade and gave me suicide potion, it drains your own 8k health and then 500 every second for 45 seconds. ESO role-play

Skooma?

Feanor · March 2019

I can only say that to me /zone RP is the most annoying thing in ESO - right after gold seller advertisements. Role playing is fine of course - just don’t force it on others who don’t want to read that stuff.

Monte_Cristo · March 2019

Feanor wrote: »

I can only say that to me /zone RP is the most annoying thing in ESO - right after gold seller advertisements. Role playing is fine of course - just don’t force it on others who don’t want to read that stuff.

I'd rather see people RPing than yet more yankee political arguments.