SW:TOR's fan-base confuses me...

I've been looking at the Guild Recruitment threads over at SW:TOR.com recently and have been noticing an alarming trend of people NOT wanting to do RP.

In the threads I see lots of this kind of thing:

"* AFFILIATION & ALIGNMENT:
Republic

* ROLEPLAY:
Absolutely none."

And I have to wonder to myself: what are these people expecting?

I mean, I know to get involved in RP actively is a personal choice, but don't these people realise they are role-playing just by playing the game? By creating an Avatar (or character), they are taking on a role and interacting with a universe of other characters who have their own parts to play. Whether its an MMO or a straight single-player RPG (like Fable for example, or Mass Effect), you're role-playing.

The fact that some people are so against it and even actively dislike role-playing in these games just makes me scratch my head with confusion

After all, last time I checked they call them Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games....

Don't even get me started. ers.
–[CLICK]–

And I stand by that sentiment.

hehe interesting thread!

Interesting not only because of the valid points, but also because the first person to leap to your side was Aliendra...I mean, ALI FOR GAWD'S SAKE!

In hindsight you should have framed that....

I wrote a really big reply here then hit the wrong button and it went poof!

In short, I think people out there don't fully understand and are put off about what RP is, what a RP server is like and how it would play. There are a lot more people out there that now play MMO's than there was a few years ago, because of the WOW phenomenon and then other games. I don't think RP is dieing, it just looks like it is because the numbers are so much more bigger. I think that may be one of the reasons why it looks like there in no interest on the SWTOR forum. SWTOR does seem to be attracting a lot of the WOW gamers at the moment.

Personally I wouldn't bang the RP-drum on a forum like that either, it's just not the place for it.
I think you need a good environment to RP decently; like-minded people, a decent system and rule-set.
That's one of the main reasons for me to join a good RP guild anyway, open forums like that are a cesspit.

Seems to me though there are quite a lot of like-minded people, I've seen quite a few very decent RP-guilds already; for a game without even a hint of a release-date that's promising.
People that really enjoy some quality RP (ay, I'm calling this here quality! ) are just keeping it on their own forums and alliances for the time being I think.

All I hope is they make a well moderated RP-server though (I don't want to run into Darth PwnU in-game tyvm).

Nosyd wrote:

I wrote a really big reply here then hit the wrong button and it went poof!

The amount of times I've done that....


But yeah, I see your point. I was probably just coming across too many idiots because I was literally just holding my face in my hands going through the recruitment threads.

Hopefully you're both right and the good RP'ers are just doing their thang and getting ready for launch and its just the dense soab's I keep finding on the open forums!

Lunarwolf wrote:

I was probably just coming across too many idiots because I was literally just holding my face in my hands going through the recruitment threads.

It's really annoying, isn't it? It's so unrewarding: "Central... Central... Pacific... EST... EST... Central... Central... Mountain... Central... Milwaukee(?)... Aha!! GMT! 18+! RP: No?! *sigh*... Pacific... Central... Central..."
I recon perhaps one in 20 are European with only half being over 18, and a generous half of those might try a spot of RP. I don't think I've sent out a single invite these past three weeks.

Maybe they just don't understand what RPG means...

Not one to tell the moderators at SWTOR how to do their "job", but to me it would make sense to break the Recruitment threads down into timezone because most guilds aren't multi-time-zone. American Guilds are unlikely to be looking for European gamers and likewise.


......unless they intend to put it all on one server. God no.

Lunarwolf wrote:

......unless they intend to put it all on one server. God no.

I'll have to be careful what I say here or I'll be branded a racist. Haha! But I don't relish the idea of playing along side Americans. I'm not saying they're all bad people – just when gaming I find their play style incompatible with mine most of the time.

TheSweatyFox wrote:

(I don't want to run into Darth PwnU in-game tyvm).

Damn I need to think of a new name