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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Dedicated Role Play Server Enquiry
Malc
Member, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
Will AoC have a dedicated role play server?
Whilst I am sure this post is not necessarily of that much interest to the majority of players, there is a large and functioning role play community that has for quite some time now struggled with a handful of issues.
Active and fresh role play outside of your inner friendship circle can be difficult to find and has been a crippling issue that a lot of newer MMO’s have faced over the years. To my understanding, as things are currently, there will not be a dedicated role play server which will ultimately fragment the community as a whole, creating small pockets here and there that otherwise might never know of the existence of similar communities.
A lack of a dedicated role play server would ultimately force a lot of players into their freeholds which destroys open world role play. One of the most diverse, but successfully long-term role play games has been World of Warcraft, which has player chosen, dedicated hubs in which new players of the roleplay community can easily access the content, as opposed to having to scroll through pages and pages of forums looking for the slight chance of finding something. (Which from experience can be extremely difficult)
An example of where the above has been an issue in Elder Scrolls Online, which boasts its own super server. Whilst great for playing the game for it’s PvP and PvE aspects, this has proven impossible for role players over the years. A game that had the potential to be one of the greatest platforms for our community crumbled by the overall inaccessibility that came with it. The community for this game is now tiny, given how many tools it offers for role play for the singular issue of accessibility. Whilst player owned housing can be amazing for our community, it can also be detrimental as it creates small bubbles and the social aspect becomes obsolete.
The project of AoC is extremely ambitious, and the exotic capabilities the dynamic world can offer would make for one of the most immersive storytelling environments unlike any other, creating memories that would remain with people forever and ultimately it would be a great shame if this opportunity would be lost.
TLDR Question: Can we have a consideration made for a dedicated role play server?
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That said, there is already a flourishing RP community forming, and they will likely choose an unofficial RP server. I suggest trying to get in contact with them (through any of the guild leaders of sizable RP guilds in the recruitment forums) to keep up to date on what it will be when it happens.
If the odd troll wants to name themself "Bigsplooge69" on an RP server, I do not mind and if he decides to troll others or try to disrupt roleplay, I am sure no one would mind setting them on ignore. There literally does not have to be any special set of rules for these "RP" servers, all it needs to have is an [RP] after the name of the server so roleplayers can see what servers other roleplayers are most likely to join from a single glance.
That having been said, however, given the above statements (per Steven) it seems that to be an unlikely event.
So, I'm for adding a tag to a server.
I am also for the RP-only naming-rule sets provided they are purely cosmetic. A character name surely must be categorized as such, mustn't it?
Steven has no issues with selling cosmo for real money, I should think having a naming convention enforced by GMs and a simple logical filter in the creation screen would be no difficult feat on a single dedicated RP server.
Unofficial severs are the most anyone can hope for. It'll take a little doing for a prospective RPer when just starting, but its the simplest solution.
I've got a lot of friends and family who did roleplay in different virtual worlds and beyond of that and I've to say that giving an server an tag like "RP" doesn't mean much today because most people don't really know for what it is meant for when they are new to a game. Maybe they will search the internet for it... "what is roleplay" and others who knows what an "RP" tag mean might even abuse that server for their own liking... for example: "Hey friends... there is an role play server ... mostly everyone of them wouldn't participate much in pvp so lets get in there so we have a easier chance for our guild to conquer the whole land" or such kind.
As much I would like to see a server which would encourage roleplaying I know that it wouldn't be that easy to get the rp community there and no everyone else. Sure... sometimes there is a good chance for it to happen like in the good old Ultima Online times especially with private servers hosted by roleplayers for roleplayers out there... I've never played World of Warcraft and can't say how good or bad it worked out there... but I've played The Elder Scrolls Online and we had an good community for roleplaying there... just created an big guild where every roleplayer could join and hosted events.
I also remember Star Wars Galaxies where I also had great times at the beginning with whole cities made by role player communities and I think that with AoC we could simple make the same thing? When enough role players are getting together we wouldn't need any special rule sets out there even if a good naming policy would be a bless sometimes because of all this Drizzzzzt Drizzard Dr1zzt Do' Urden... people out there... you know what I mean
Also we have to accomplish that mostly everyone who plays this game has enough fun to keep playing it, invest in it so that our well trusted developers earns enough money over the time to keep the good work ongoing so we have finally a good game which outlasts more than 10+ years. And in my opinion this is very hard to achieve because everyone of us has got different hopes for it... There are people who rather enjoy pvp than pve content ... some who want to socialize... build, craft and roleplay.... and a mix of all of that... The most important goal should be that everyone of us will have enough fun playing this game and I guess that it is an difficult tightrope walk to do so as an developer.
And because of that I would only vote for an roleplay server when the developers would see an chance that a server like that would be populated (and paid too) by enough people so it could be developed as an roleplay server so it could get some extra community tools like in other old games (f.e. SWG) And if it wouldn't be possible than I'd rather see just normal servers with the possibilty to get all roleplayers in an big guild so it will be easy to recognize who is roleplaying or not... or at least getting an roleplay tag like in other games to show others that one is roleplaying.
It's an complicate topic and one could talk a whole day about such kind... but maybe my words give a point of view and might be of help to anyone
I will be looking for the unofficial RP server since in MMO's past, they tend to have classier players. @Malc I suggest starting an AOC RP server on Discord and make an attempt now to invite guilds that advertise as RP guilds. Give them all a place to congregate and that Discord will become that server's unofficial Discord server. Hell, drop me a PM and we can fire one up.
Man I don't know what you are talking about. There is a massive rp community in ESO. Usually rpers in ESO come in the form of avid questers that flock out each dlc. I am also a member of a fairly large rp community. We have three guilds in that game that have a combined population of above a thousand individual players and this just our guilds. This doesn't count guilds that aren't in our community. The largest one has to purge inactives every week to keep the guild from hitting cap.
Sure rping can be tough when you no dedicated server and all the pkers in the PvP land can attack but there is a lot of you. Worst case scenario if they attack you, they get corrupted, you kill them, they are set back in XP. Let me give you one final bit of advice that this community lives and breathes by ignore trolls and don't engage them. We get trolled probably once or twice a week but we just treat it as if the trolls aren't there and sure enough they usually get bored and leave. If that doesn't work we put the people on ignore.
That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons even death may die.
You say not having an RP server will fragment the community, while you basically want a special server just for RP.. Don't you see the irony in that?
I think just a simple: Server name (RP-ENG) - Like Lauralin (RP-ENG) in LotRO
It gives the opportunity for the RP community come together and for us that enjoy to tag along
The players will do this without any help from Intrepid, as they do in pretty much every other game. Once the bigger RP guilds get established they will no doubt declare which server they intend to inhabit, and other avid RPers will join them.
However, I could easily see there being an unofficial RP server that people go to.
If you are going to lead an rp guild please reach out and I will toss you an invite!
We will be choosing an unofficial roleplay server closer to launch.
A lot of RP communities I have seen are very quick to set on ignore, and that is fine, that has always been a great way to deal with people you think are trolls, or disruptive.
Seems like a very weird arguement to make, can anyone enlighten me as to what MMO's have RP servers with alternative rulesets? Thanks.
And even if there is a case of this, I don't see why it would be impossible for Intrepid to put [RP] after the name of a server just as a beacon to roleplayers who haven't done their research, and don't want to look up which RP communities are going where.
I have no doubt that there will be several bubbles of role play on AoC if there isn't a dedicated server. But I can also assure you that it will be broken down. Everyone has their own opinions naturally, as to what they consider a healthy role play environment. For me personally it's knowing you can go into the world itself and there are places you'll find role play. Tell me any place you can do that on Elder Scrolls (This is just an example of one game.)
I just think that it is important to have an RP tag on the server name such as "Stormwind-RP" rather than "Stormwind" (As an example) as this would instantly draw RPers to the server instead of muddying the waters with an unofficial server that people may not discover if they were not invested enough to go trawling through the forums to find it and that would ultimately mean less new people discovering RP in the first place.
Dear everyone who insists that official RP designated servers don't need different rule enforcement.
For every one of you, there is one of these folks right here.
You can say you don't care about rule restrictions, but you don't speak for everyone, and as an RPer myself, I am the first to admit that many in the RP crowd tend to be very... particular about how they want their experience to be. I guarantee there would be people coming into the game complaining about "Why is there an RP server if they aren't going to enforce RP rules?" if it were made.
It's easier to just avoid the issue entirely. Anyone who seeks RP is likely to either look online or ask in game or on forums about where to find it. And they can be pointed to the unofficial RP server that is chosen.