What role-play carries activity?

[Chimeraof1999 1187]

This topic will be going over what people believe, in their observation and word of mouth, is the best sort of roleplay? How does it carry the servers activity and does it really matter? Have a discussion below about it if you wish, this opens ideas for new plans and could inspire people to do more stuff.

[Lirinya 4021]

honestly anything.

what it needs is proactive players to host the rp to begin with.

 

plenty of players are 'actors' they take roles in these things, which is fine- every story needs actors.

but it equally needs people to hold these, be it players running a storyline, to people just hosting a tea party.

players could, honestly imo, benefit from more tools to help host events but thats another discussion entirely.

 

slice of life rp is surprisingly very popular. balls, parties, picnics, that sort of stuff.

equally, theres plenty of people who love conflict, magic, monsters.

 

there isnt a 'best' type. 

[Nectorist 12869]

it kinda depends how you quantify it, but i’d say there’s two types of RP that bring activity

 

1. slice of life RP - this is tavern stuff, interpersonal character RP, goofing around, anything that doesn’t really delve too deeply into the server setting and is done day-to-day

 

2. conflict RP - this encompasses wars, political elections, debates, plotting, everything that pits two (or more) forces against each other. it’s less frequent, but is generally the undercurrent of all other RP that goes on. it also brings political change, which is necessary for new factions and characters to rise, new types of RP to take place, and keeping things from getting stale

[Crevel 7557]

It's sort of a nuanced topic because different roleplay caters to different people with different interests. I think what tends to be a problem with some communities is that they either overestimate or underestimate the interest that a certain type of roleplay has within the community they're trying to attract or cater towards, and/or they don't know how to utilise it properly. The biggest mistake community leaders can make is trying to facilitate a type of roleplay without giving incentives for other players to participate in that roleplay and especially in that community.

 

We play on a server with hundreds of people on it with various playerbases and subgroups. If you want to have a successful community, you need to be able to ask yourself a few questions that require self-awareness but the most important of which is: why should I spend my time dedicating myself to roleplaying in your community? People want roleplay that ultimately makes them feel that their time was well-spent and that it was meaningfully used, and for each person that standard is different but a good indicator on their thoughts is to consider if that player is achieving something that is worthwhile to them. This is why it's important to know the community you're catering towards. Players interested in farming roleplay are not going to want to stick around a roleplay community that only meaningfully offers opportunities for military roleplay. Likewise, players interested in military roleplay are not going to want to stick around a roleplay community focused on farming roleplay. It isn't within their interest, and they will look for opportunities to scratch that itch elsewhere.

 

This is why it's important for some communities to branch out a bit and explore different roleplay avenues to see what works best for their community and to help them grow. Of course, if you are merely interested in running a specific niche of roleplay, then branching out doesn't really matter as much, but it needs to come with the understanding that your community will only be as successful as the demand is for the roleplay you're doing. If your roleplay group is focused around holding events where you make cheese, the group is going to be very minimal because of how particular and thus unsustainable the niche is.

[Navigator 4260]

Neither side of the 'Does War bring activity?' argument are right, which is where 99% of posts like these stem from. I'm going to provide my point of view based purely on the current situation of the server since people seem overly fixated on it, and to facilitate to people who need subway surfers on their screen to pay attention to something, I'll do it via bullet points.

 

THE GOOD OF WAR:

• Conflict undeniably brews and creates interesting storylines regarding loyalties, principles, ethics and morals.
• War is, overall, a time where individuals log on and roleplay to try and 'show themselves off' the most. It is where heroes are made, villains are created, leaders are born, etc etc.
• LotC has a notorious history of using war as a plot device to further not only maplore but overall worldlore, big player-created conflicts that sort of usher larger, ST-ran events.
• Overall, War does push roleplay and kind of light a fire under people to get things done.

However..

 

THE BAD OF WAR:

• Absolutely horrid new player experience overall, specially if the new player is not really apart of the winning side.
• No matter what anyone says about perserverance and rebuilding, communities are destroyed and some even leave the server entirely.
• This war has largely been an exception, but LotC has a history of massive toxicity during wars.
• Conflict/war/battle roleplay gets very boring very quick. People can only handle so many weeks of 'GRAHHHHHH' before they want to go back to what they usually do.
• Generally limiting depending on the kind of war/conflict being fought.

My actual opinion is that, no matter what anyone says, the romance roleplaying slice of lifers carry the server. Without the 50-100 people that log on daily to this server to live their fantasy romcom experience, we'd have a grim-dark game of thrones-esque/40k-esque manchild fantasy. Protect the whimsy slice of lifers, give them space and let them thrive.

[Eri 113]

Yeah romance and slice of life carries activity.

I personally prefer the cabal, conflict (espionage included) and magic side of things but that's because I'm a Lovecraftian nerd with a penchant for assassinations and rivalries!

[JediMaestro 240]

47 minutes ago, Navigator said:

My actual opinion is that, no matter what anyone says, the romance roleplaying slice of lifers carry the server. Without the 50-100 people that log on daily to this server to live their fantasy romcom experience, we'd have a grim-dark game of thrones-esque/40k-esque manchild fantasy. Protect the whimsy slice of lifers, give them space and let them thrive.

 

I agree, not just from an activity perspective, but from an immersion perspective. You need the normal people going about their daily lives in order to act as spectators for shocking events happening in public, people to walk past as you patrol through the city, etc. It makes the world feel a lot more lived-in to have the steady base of people who are RPing more grounded and everyday activities.

[cometking123 236]

Bard RP makes the server go round. 

[Wizzar 613]

I don’t think any of these are the “right” answer. Activity stems from those OOC communities that we build. Many players will get involved in any of these types of RP so long as they have a community they enjoy participating in.

 

 

[Chimeraof1999 1187]

6 minutes ago, Wizzar said:

I don’t think any of these are the “right” answer. Activity stems from those OOC communities that we build. Many players will get involved in any of these types of RP so long as they have a community they enjoy participating in.

 

 

The activity is the friends we made along the way 😔

[sam33497 7356]

Roleplay that carries the passion of roleplayers and that represents a larger overarching narrative which permits OOC investment over a longer period of time

[KamikazeReaper 457]

alot of conflict RP like war often kills more RP then it creates  but honestly its whatever RP you like

[Celestial_Bleh 224]

The uniqueness of lotc is that all the different role-play niches are (typically) able to collide together and it results in intriguing storylines. 

"Hey, I think there's something off about the tavern keeper? None of the other workers are allowed access into the basement and one time someone heard something kind of like a shout?" 
"You're just jealous he agreed to go to the ball with me! And he says he'll show me the wine collection in the basement so obviously it's not THAT much of a secret." 
 

Spoiler

PvP not included in the Bleh idle comment

 

[Onnensr 1908]

asking people for stuff rp leads to asking for other stuff rp leads to asking for other, other stuff rp. and then one day you don't need stuff anymore, and instead you start to be the one getting asked. that's when hiatus starts

[MysticalWeasel 910]

WAAR!!!!!
"I made it the **** up"