(by the way, I think we're rehashing arguments made in Daomei's thread...)
Some people like playing personas, some people like playing themselves. One choice requires you to willingfully look away from mechanics and posibilities in order to build your persona; the other choice forbids you nothing in terms of gameplay (and in fact, powerplay means actively searching every nook & cranny for a way to get ahead).
There is no question that powerplay kills roleplaying. It always will in mass games, because it's a lower common denominator, people first play a game because they're interested in the actual game (objects, mechanics, artwork etc).
It's not about how people see things, it's about how people prefer things. These two player categories don't really mesh, and as such they'll always come to a clash. There's little way to bring together Fluffy Bunnies (whose motto is almost literally "We do not provide an alternative world to live in") and Seve Noir (or whoever said "We treat all communication channels as roleplay").
Bring a game master into this and force everyone to RP under threat of expulsion (actively filtering, hey, it works). Or make a very compelling case that events can bring together role and mechanics, by actually organizing events that tie things together, and hope this catches on. The event where Matis-aligned players were allowed to help the Fyros nation was however a very weird experience for some of the people involved.
As it stands, your proposition is just a dreamy wish that a coherent player base will materialize out of thin air with no external intervention. Zero chance to happen.
Exodus (atys)
What you describe is roleplay versus powerplay (or even normal playing, for crying out loud).if you do no faction role play, you will make all the others go away.. in the end.. because you will win that shiny armor (just an example) by all means necessarily and they dont, because they relay on you to be a part of the faction and you are not, because you dont see it that way.
Some people like playing personas, some people like playing themselves. One choice requires you to willingfully look away from mechanics and posibilities in order to build your persona; the other choice forbids you nothing in terms of gameplay (and in fact, powerplay means actively searching every nook & cranny for a way to get ahead).
There is no question that powerplay kills roleplaying. It always will in mass games, because it's a lower common denominator, people first play a game because they're interested in the actual game (objects, mechanics, artwork etc).
It's not about how people see things, it's about how people prefer things. These two player categories don't really mesh, and as such they'll always come to a clash. There's little way to bring together Fluffy Bunnies (whose motto is almost literally "We do not provide an alternative world to live in") and Seve Noir (or whoever said "We treat all communication channels as roleplay").
Bring a game master into this and force everyone to RP under threat of expulsion (actively filtering, hey, it works). Or make a very compelling case that events can bring together role and mechanics, by actually organizing events that tie things together, and hope this catches on. The event where Matis-aligned players were allowed to help the Fyros nation was however a very weird experience for some of the people involved.
As it stands, your proposition is just a dreamy wish that a coherent player base will materialize out of thin air with no external intervention. Zero chance to happen.
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