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Roleplay concerns and questions. The Unseen Addon Problem, and the Realm Dilemma.
ArchivedUser
Guest
(Forgive me if this has been answered already but the search function doesn't appear to be working.)
TL;DR:
There are a lot of unanswered questions and looming concerns as to what the game will be like for RPers and if the game gets a reputation for being unfriendly to RP then it will never lose that stigma and the game will lose a highly dedicated base of players that get very invested monetarily and emotionally in the franchise.
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Roleplayers typically end up taking care of themselves on online games and they do this via addons. Every functionality that the game fails to provide as standard that RPers come to want is provided for by addons.
This means developers can largely ignore a small but very dedicated part of their demographic, essentially allowing them to get along on their own steam. However, AoC is saying no to addons and whilst I fully understand the unintended ways that addons can ruin a game (WoW had gearscore, damage meters, quest trackers, map markers, etc, that altered the intended mechanics) it is also fair to acknowledge that addons actually facilitate functionality in the RP community (again WoW, backgrounds, character sheets, bespoke roll systems, wardrobe browsing and outfit saving, language filters, custom items, etc).
I as an RPer am very concerned at what AoC is going to be like for RPers. Mechanically it makes sense that the devs keep control of the game's systems but RP addons are narrative systems. I am genuinely worried about things like:
> Being unable to have an non-unique surname (for family RP)
> Being unable to fill in the details of what my character looks like (character sheet)
> Being unable to transfer over the roll systems I and my guild have been developing.
> Being unable to change the colour of the names in my chat feed in order to pick my friends and even my own words out of the spam.
> Being unable to organise my character's relationships effectively, instead having everyone forced into a bloated and poorly organised friends list absent of nuance.
> Being unable to easily organise with and keep track of people outside of my guild, something that is integral to fostering a healthy RP community that does not stagnate into isolated bubbles that are eventually whittled down to nothingness.
> Not having enough control over the internal structure of a guild to establish a complex organisation with clear sub-groups with their own themes internal hierarchies.
Another issue that greatly concerns me is how the Ashes team intends to actually police RP, if they intend to do so at all. I've heard there will be dedicated RP realms but what will the rules and punishments be on those realms to make them distinct from other realms? In some games you find separate PvE and PvP realms, where the difference in flagging mechanics foster different sorts of communities, however RPers and RP realms are often just the exact same game with the words 'RP' put in front. People interrupting and trying to annoy/bully RPers is a massive problem, especially in games where they are able to kill us outright whenever they please, especially as we are unlikely to be wearing optimal end-game gear making us easy pickings. This area becomes even greyer when one considers players actually doing the content in-character instead of just RPing their daily lives, in which case the mechanics incentivise them to be attacked.
Naturally these problems are not easily solved, but they remain problems all the same.
The RP community will likely be be a valuable long-term investment to Ashes of Creation, especially with how much control there is over the world, however if it lacks the very basic tools it requires to function, and if it can not supply those tools itself, and if the mechanics actively incentivise bullying RPers without recourse then the RP scene will die a quick death on arrival and that will colour people's opinions of the game forever. It will be an uphill struggle to overcome the stigma of how unfriendly the game once was, as people will have moved on and taken their emotional investment and their money elsewhere.
I want the best for Ashes, but as an RPer if my needs are overlooked I'm probably going to be forced to look elsewhere for a game that actually caters to what I want out of it.
TL;DR:
There are a lot of unanswered questions and looming concerns as to what the game will be like for RPers and if the game gets a reputation for being unfriendly to RP then it will never lose that stigma and the game will lose a highly dedicated base of players that get very invested monetarily and emotionally in the franchise.
< - - - - - - - - - x - - - - - - - - - - x - - - - - - - - - - x - - - - - - - - - - x - - - - - - - - - - x - - - - - - - - - - >
Roleplayers typically end up taking care of themselves on online games and they do this via addons. Every functionality that the game fails to provide as standard that RPers come to want is provided for by addons.
This means developers can largely ignore a small but very dedicated part of their demographic, essentially allowing them to get along on their own steam. However, AoC is saying no to addons and whilst I fully understand the unintended ways that addons can ruin a game (WoW had gearscore, damage meters, quest trackers, map markers, etc, that altered the intended mechanics) it is also fair to acknowledge that addons actually facilitate functionality in the RP community (again WoW, backgrounds, character sheets, bespoke roll systems, wardrobe browsing and outfit saving, language filters, custom items, etc).
I as an RPer am very concerned at what AoC is going to be like for RPers. Mechanically it makes sense that the devs keep control of the game's systems but RP addons are narrative systems. I am genuinely worried about things like:
> Being unable to have an non-unique surname (for family RP)
> Being unable to fill in the details of what my character looks like (character sheet)
> Being unable to transfer over the roll systems I and my guild have been developing.
> Being unable to change the colour of the names in my chat feed in order to pick my friends and even my own words out of the spam.
> Being unable to organise my character's relationships effectively, instead having everyone forced into a bloated and poorly organised friends list absent of nuance.
> Being unable to easily organise with and keep track of people outside of my guild, something that is integral to fostering a healthy RP community that does not stagnate into isolated bubbles that are eventually whittled down to nothingness.
> Not having enough control over the internal structure of a guild to establish a complex organisation with clear sub-groups with their own themes internal hierarchies.
Another issue that greatly concerns me is how the Ashes team intends to actually police RP, if they intend to do so at all. I've heard there will be dedicated RP realms but what will the rules and punishments be on those realms to make them distinct from other realms? In some games you find separate PvE and PvP realms, where the difference in flagging mechanics foster different sorts of communities, however RPers and RP realms are often just the exact same game with the words 'RP' put in front. People interrupting and trying to annoy/bully RPers is a massive problem, especially in games where they are able to kill us outright whenever they please, especially as we are unlikely to be wearing optimal end-game gear making us easy pickings. This area becomes even greyer when one considers players actually doing the content in-character instead of just RPing their daily lives, in which case the mechanics incentivise them to be attacked.
Naturally these problems are not easily solved, but they remain problems all the same.
The RP community will likely be be a valuable long-term investment to Ashes of Creation, especially with how much control there is over the world, however if it lacks the very basic tools it requires to function, and if it can not supply those tools itself, and if the mechanics actively incentivise bullying RPers without recourse then the RP scene will die a quick death on arrival and that will colour people's opinions of the game forever. It will be an uphill struggle to overcome the stigma of how unfriendly the game once was, as people will have moved on and taken their emotional investment and their money elsewhere.
I want the best for Ashes, but as an RPer if my needs are overlooked I'm probably going to be forced to look elsewhere for a game that actually caters to what I want out of it.
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