What happened to the RP in the MMORPG in AO?

[Lazy]

Oh, and i am sure of it, just because you'd get buffs for RP'ing, we'd have random people come at ya "LOL how do u get those kewl = = Marks on ur name!?!?!?!?" and "Dude, press bckspace to run noob" Or something like that. I reeeaaaallly wouldnt like that to happen. UNLESS! There was someone watching the RP all over RK, deciding, who is really being IC, and serious, and who are the idiots just after buffs. Anyone volunteer

wishful thinking on my part

but seriously if there was a reason to rp more people would be interested in rping. and then arks would be pressured into devoting more time into /rp events (and those events, in turn, would reward participants with an upgrade to upgrade their gun (Envy of the RP anyone?) or a buff similar to 12man. )

im not saying every interaction between two people with = ='s around their name would result in uber **** happening, because i can see that getting abused. (i personally run around with = ='s around my name because i like how it looks.)

[Towerblock]

I think that buffs similar to 12man (Designed for PVP) wont reward the people who don't PVP. I do think however, that by chance you got to working with say... Omni-med: youd get something like a +50 treatment buff +20 heal/nanodelta for 48 hours.. now that would be worthwhile.

id let the devs break down what each particular faction <insert whatever here> has a specialty, and that specialty can have its own buffing mechanism associated with it to target players who work within and FOR that legacy <insert whatever here>

But give it as a reward for involvement, not something you can just hand out like boobies at mardi gras.

[Kotts]

but seriously if there was a reason to rp more people would be interested in rping.

Too true. More often then not getting mentioned in an official news article was a great motivation. However, it became a huge epeen platform, in which people and orgs started arguing and competing over who was the better rper. About three years ago, it got so bad people were spreading rumors, making alt spies and engaging in serious metagameing and god modeing just to come out the 'winner' of an event.

It's a double edged sword.

The end result is what we see now. RPers are Xenophobic of each other because they are worried they'll just get burned again.

ARK and FC side we need to see more involvement.

Player side we need to put aside our pride and just have fun RPing again.

[Namiru]

That'd be nice, but how do you implement that? for buffs, someone has to cast them on you. That requires people with that power to actually RP with us, instead of coding the game. It slows down progress.

For me, specifically: Rant on. If you have no interest in hearing me make an example, please move on. Id rather you still respect me.

Simon Silverstone. Anyone remember this guy? At one point in time he was the epic epicness of all that is badass and clan. He smites dragons in his sleep and kills omnis by the hundreds of thousands. He has an army that is smaller than AF but somehow manages to keep AF in check. Considering AF has never done anything I consider tactically intelligent, thats prolly not hard to pull off. But lets think about what sort of man it takes to do that very thing.

He has to be on his game. He has to be powerful, and his words need to hold weight. The Simon Silverstone that is the past 4 years is an overblown talking insult machine (poorly thought out insults at that) that plays the idiot card when people call him out on his BS. My last interaction with him seriously put a dampener on anything i'll ever have to do with the CoT IC as well as OOC. If the policy of ARK is to create RP environment, then allowing him to be a pedastal of stupidity was a poor thought out evolution. He has in almost every case imaginable, detested and verbally spoke in a way that OOC is antithetical to creating fun and enjoyable RP environment. I realize that the core persona of SS is to be hotheaded and arrogant, but the man is playing the same song and dance and getting nowhere important with it. Its become stale. He insults people to the point where RP cannot be enjoyed, and that works against the whole. Simon needs to advance. They all need to advance. News needs to happen. Give us something to interact with. WE CRAVE IT. We cant sit here and watch blue names talk to each other. Blue names cant just sit here and watch us talk at each other either. Sometimes, you gotta grab people by the genitals and say HEY! DO SOMETHING, because tbh, we can chat at each other any day of the week. Real adventure will bring everyone running.

I've always thought of Silverstone as a bit of a douchebag, really.

Silverstone and Zora are the polar opposites of Raddison and Ross, respectively. They are extremists with a "with us or against us" mentality that seem determined to annihilate the other side, and doesn't care who or what gets in their way.

[Towerblock]

I've always thought of Silverstone as a bit of a douchebag, really.

Silverstone and Zora are the polar opposites of Raddison and Ross, respectively. They are extremists with a "with us or against us" mentality that seem determined to annihilate the other side, and doesn't care who or what gets in their way.

Thats what makes me wonder why they have hero like status. It just doesn't make sense.

[trousers]

Thats what makes me wonder why they have hero like status. It just doesn't make sense.

In Zora's case, he's a Hero because ARK and FC say he's a Hero.

If my memory serves me correctly, this is how Opinion of Zora went with the Omni Roleplayers.

Arrival of a new CEO. +++
Vanished from RP for a Month -
Announced CEO was going to give a speech in-game ++
ARKs started to kill people at the speech -
CEO's speech announced Omni-Tek Policy was to kill neutrals ---
Vanished from RP for a Month -
Vanished from RP for 3 months --
Vanished from RP for a year ---
Vanished from RP for 2 years ---------------

Any Omni who hails Zora as a good leader is only doing so because they're parroting something they read on the forums. Anyone who's actually RP'ed in Zora's time would not and should not hold him to Hero status.

If anything, Zora should be Kappel'ed because of what an Epic Failure his Implementation was.

[Ahndracorvid]

You forgot the incident where he gave a speech on RK2 after years on hiatus and it was apparently cut short compared with the RK1 speech due to griefers. What happened to the days when such people got warped out of the CoT meetings? Couldn't they just have done the same here instead of caving to the trolls?

[Towerblock]

Well, to me heroes are meant to be larger then life. When a legacy or some other character just cannot log in, thats not heroism. Thats neglect.

[Windguaerd]

For years I've been considering approaching certain RP vets and just start our own "Unofficial AO Storyline" and just create sort of an "Alternative Timeline". However that probably would piss off the ARK Events Team and FC, and the relationship between the remaining roleplayers and them... may deteriorate even further.

[trousers]

For years I've been considering approaching certain RP vets and just start our own "Unofficial AO Storyline" and just create sort of an "Alternative Timeline". However that probably would piss off the ARK Events Team and FC, and the relationship between the remaining roleplayers and them... may deteriorate even further.

Any scenario where ARK is not in total and full control will piss them off. Perfect example is when Rimor's Omni-Tek community went on Strike. Pheat's reaction was to threaten that if we didn't stop, ARK would stop doing the OAM meetings on RK2.

So, I can only imagine the reaction they would have to a full blown shunning.

[Siahanor]

For years I've been considering approaching certain RP vets and just start our own "Unofficial AO Storyline" and just create sort of an "Alternative Timeline". However that probably would piss off the ARK Events Team and FC, and the relationship between the remaining roleplayers and them... may deteriorate even further.

Well, if you consider it's either wait for ARKs ( and wait and wait ), or do it yourself and actually have some fun in the game you pay for and enjoy, is a few ARKs getting their panties in a twist really such a deterrent?

I mean, I've done a few volunteer jobs in my time, and even though they were just volunteer jobs, I didn't get to sit on my butt and ignore the job until I felt like doing it.

[Windguaerd]

Well due to a recent project (Click Here) my relationship with FC may already be a bit strained.

[Tucxedo]

I agree with collo, the planet rk stopped moving for 4 years now. its not dynamic at all, makeing rp boring at a certain point. atleast WoW has made changes to their world with catalysme (still don't like elfs and trolls tho), City of heroes has releases once or twice a year that adds a certain dynamic but on RK its the same ole same ole, there's supposed to be a war but apart from some towers and a BS its barely visable. Heck if this is supposed to be the future modern warfare you could almost call it world peace.
I vote for a more dynamical story/planet, I even vote that when playerbased stories are worked out well it should change the story a little (not really big changes ofcourse but little)
eitherway it is the story on which you base your rp on, if it halts, like borealis for example, it gets too boring to scream Fre Borealis for more than 2 years...let alone 4 years

(p.s. I also vote for borealis to be completly levelled and have neuts moved in Newland that way the council there may make some sense too )

[Agrestus]

The idea of an unofficial storyline is something I've been toying with for years now. It wasn't quite globally affecting, but I enjoyed attempting to implement it.

The idea was to use the many abandoned outposts on Rubi-Ka as their own little towns and weave plots and diplomacy between these many groups. Takeovers and diplomatic disasters would be entirely possible, and given the sheer amount of these villages and outposts lying unused on Rubi-Ka it'd certainly give a lot of freedom in terms of what we could do with them. I figured it wouldn't be too offensive to ARK Events as they still have the main influence with Funcom on the major cities and towns that we're all used to roleplaying in, and given their stance that we're free to RP whatever we like as long as we don't try to force it as canon to the rest of the community.

I never quite got round to getting the manpower or the support to implement this though, so I kinda buried it with the rest of the stuff I've done in the past. From what I can see these days, it's a combined blame on both Funcom, ARK and the players themselves.

I blame Funcom for the immense neglect to the storyline and lack of consultation, feedback and customer service. While it's unrelated to roleplay, I had to campaign for 4 months just to get this forum account back. Needless to say, I wont be subscribing again once my sub runs out. This same neglect to players has a significant effect on roleplay. Third Faction had been campaigning for years to get Borealis back. Now the org is running quieter and quieter, the RP in Third Faction has completely stopped, and there's a feeling which I'm sure everyone can relate to both with Borealis and 4 Holes that everything we've done over the years since the takeovers have been fruitless and totally pointless.

I understand that ARK do whatever they can given their struggling manpower and the ever so blind Funcom having them in chains. They write plots, the ARKs that wrote those plots leave the game and the remaining ARKs are left trying to cope with high expectations and broken promises. Unfortunately, this habit of starting something and leaving it unfinished and static until the players lose interest and feel like their actions have little effect double the feeling when combined with Funcom's actions.

Additionally, the players aren't entirely blameless, either. We've backed up into a corner and we're nowhere near as visible as we once were. Yes, this is partly due to our lack of numbers and our elitist pride, but it's also because a large chunk of the roleplayers we have left simply have no initiative whatsoever. They moan about the lack of roleplay yet they can't be bothered to get people together and at least try to create something interesting. This dependence on ARK Events only makes this worse, leaving those few players who did create plots burnt out and as bitter as the rest.

It was fun while it lasted, though.

[Anarrina]

While it's unrelated to roleplay, I had to campaign for 4 months just to get this forum account back. Needless to say, I wont be subscribing again once my sub runs out.

Not exactly a campaign. There's an error in the forums themselves, had I known earlier you were having a problem, I could have intervened earlier. Unfortunately, not everyone knows how to get in touch with me to get it fixed. :s

[Agrestus]

Not exactly a campaign. There's an error in the forums themselves, had I known earlier you were having a problem, I could have intervened earlier. Unfortunately, not everyone knows how to get in touch with me to get it fixed. :s

Yeah, I understand that, but everyone was directing me to customer support and not to you guys, even the ARKs that handled the petitions I sent. :/ It didn't help when all the emails I sent was bounced back with an automated email and then never followed up. When it was finally resolved, I wasn't even told it had been and no apology or further guidance was sent.

Anyway, that's a different issue than this, I don't want to derail the topic.

[Siahanor]

Start at 1:22 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2T_B...el_video_title

[trousers]

Start at 1:22 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2T_B...el_video_title

The answer is a joke. We tried to do Player Politics and the ARKs fought us at every turn. They refused to acknowledge me as the Omni-Tek Ambassador, despite the players doing so and ARK appointing me to that position. They fought the Newland Foreign Affairs minister in wanting to establish Embassies (Not new playfields, just saying they exist) so we could dive deeper into politics.

They can't blame players, and saying that Joining ARK is the solution when ARK was the problem.

[Kintaii]

As it seems to me, most of you guys would rather hang around the forums and argue rather than roleplay. Tossing out storyline bones and tidbits of information hasn't done me any good at all thusfar because I haven't seen anyone actually run with them - Instead, the majority of you just hang out here and grouse about 'the good old days', or complain about how we had issues with someone suddenly declaring themselves Grand Chief Woohoo of the Dust Brigade without actively consulting us first.

If you guys want to try and do player-run storyline and events? Go for it! Knock yourselves out, and I mean that seriously - if I see anything there that seems good, maybe I'll even try and work it in officially. But, to be honest and frank, looking over the vast majority of people who've posted in this thread? It'll never happen. There are too many large egos, too many people wanting "control", too many people thinking that *their* vision is ultimately the only one that should prevail, and that'll be the downturn.

There are also too many people who seem to think that roleplaying can ONLY happen with ARK involvement and with a grand, huge storyline to be a part of/influence. I spent years and years roleplaying in AO and I only *twice* stumbled across an ARK-run event, two years apart and on separate characters. Otherwise? My characters were happy sitting there and sipping coffee and debating politics, or tradeskilling monsterparts and discussing the flora/fauna of Rubi-Ka. I had a conversation with someone at the gathering here in Montreal about just that sort of mindset, and how people need to stop *relying* on ARK/FC and instead attempting to *include* us if *possible*. Instead of writing a player event that *requires* ten ARK-played storyline characters to show up and do a jig, how about you write a player event that says you'll be out protesting the lack of jigs from Simon Silverstone?

I suggest that, if you want to roleplay, you go forth and you roleplay. Sitting on the forums and complaining about how much better it was back in this mythical "day" everyone keeps talking about does nothing to get folks in-game and acting out their characters. I've given you tidbits, I've given you story hooks, I've given you in-character forums posts and in-game dialog and everything short of Tarkhan Zora personally walking up to every character in game and handing over a box of chocolates. Do I see threads talking about the quest dialog I wrote? Nope. Anything talking about those interesting item descriptions? Nada. Even the Editor News threads I've made over the years have received little-to-no-attention. And before any of you even go there it ain't my fault because I did this to a lot more acclaim for a long time prior to anyone knowing I was behind it, so you can forget about trying to blame the cult-of-personality aspect. ;P

I cannot and will not hold your hands. No one held mine while I was RPing in AO - I was almost never involved in the 'larger politics' of the game, only saw the two ARK-lead events as I mentioned, never hit up the BoD/CoT as my play character, and instead just simply enjoyed *being*. Not only did I do that but pretty much EVERY OTHER ROLEPLAYER IN-GAME THAT I KNEW OF DID THAT. They were happy simply playing their characters, maybe getting involved in some player-run intrigue, but otherwise they did it for the fun and enjoyment of it. You guys? Given the many, many years of complaints I've watched come from the vast majority of you, I'm fairly certain that *nothing* I do will please most of the people in this thread. The people who truly *enjoyed* RPing are either gone or are actually in-game and roleplaying - Something I'm not entirely certain I can say for most of you.

Again: If anyone wants to run some unofficial story stuff? Go for it - Nothing would please me more than seeing people *actually roleplaying*. Same time, if you decide to put out a story about Zora kicking the bucket, don't expect me to pay any attention to it - Be smart, follow the general rules, and otherwise go and have fun.

[Ninanna]

Thank you Kintaii. You have always had a very good way of putting things.

Some of the most enjoyable interactions I have had .. both as a player, and on ARK run characters, have been interacting in player run stories. Or in Player take offs on some of the storylines that have been sparked by the more official ones.

And most of the LTCs in the game, are not there to HAND you storys, but more to give you pointers, hooks, and opportunities to develop your own. They can help you by disccussion of history and politics or even something as simple as "how does a perma-kill weapon work and why is it so rare to actually see one on Rubi-Ka?" (noting that it is the Character's take on the question.. not necessarily arks or even official)

One rub though --- you have to TALK to them, or get to know them. Following them around and saying nothing to them doest count as RP. Sorry guys. It just doesnt. Really - they dont bite. Usually.

Only one comment I feel I need to make at this point:

I mean, I've done a few volunteer jobs in my time, and even though they were just volunteer jobs, I didn't get to sit on my butt and ignore the job until I felt like doing it.

HAHAHAHHAHAA...Sit on my butt? I wish. I can't attest for all ARKs, but I can guarantee that I personally am definitely not sitting on my butt.