English

I'm very much for casual roleplay as such, and yes, it probably might get more new players into RP. Virg, though, touched a delicate subject. Casual roleplay is just casual, of course, but if you say that from that every other thing might evolve (hopefully), the question at the moment is how it can evolve. And it seems that the outlook, even if we don't touch the subject of "ability to influence the storyline" both Irfidel and Virg mentioned, is somewhat limited by the lack of a healthy grounding, so to say.

The discussion Irfidel mentioned also pointed out that - while we have players of all factions - in the various countries and languages you might find one or maybe two large guilds with many players and of all levels, and they will help young players not just with gear, but have the opportunity to be around almost non-stop. They can keep freshlings busy in all sort of ways, they can care when needed etc. Other guilds are pretty small, often just one or two or maybe three players, and they can't give that support. The large guilds will loose people on the long run, but win new ones, too. They bring in friends, they will make friends, partly because of their size. Not all of them will be roleplayers, sometimes the tiniest part of them is, but they keep the fundamental fun by offering the entertainment of being with your old and/or new buddies. The small guilds will be static, or wither, because they can't offer anything like that.

So far, so good. The example we had at the discussion were the Free Souls, a big, neutral Tryker guild stemming from Leanon, which made the merge without much losses and still is pretty strong. Part of their strength, in a way, is their neutrality - while they are involved in politics, they don't favour a faction. They also are strictly non-PvP. In that way they are smooth; there is not much source of friction. Yet we do need friction to keep some sort of story which is not just limited to "the Kitins are coming, the Kitins are coming". I like the Souls a lot, yet it's a bit like the terrible vision of the Eloy from H. G. Wells' "Time Machine". It's nice to be a flower child, but if everybody is a flower child it's not a world I want to be in. In fact, the idea of just countless cheerful get-togethers, jolly hunts and happily-ever-afters would easily be my idea of gameplay hell.

So what I think we need - and I have not the slightest idea how we could get there (again, for all servers had that at least at one point in their past) - is great guilds with a religious and ideally a national grounding they stand for, which can do all the things only great guilds can do, with charismatic leaders, with fighters and artisans, with members who care for each other and for freshlings and not only support them, but also inflict them with a code of morals and beliefs, for that is urgent need for every sort of roleplay from a certain point on. I don't mean that every player should be forced into politics and military action, and I definitely don't mean they have to be trained as religious fanatics and bloodthirsty nationalists. But the game is so much more than just "let us all be friends", which - on the long term - would be the end of it, with all players converted into neutrals, Rangers, and Trytonists, and many others driven away by boredom of just waiting for the next Kitin invasion.

Well, sorry for delivering such a wall of words. So yes, please do casual roleplay - do it a lot! - but over that try not to forget that on a longer term there is more than just this, and that without the different ideas and ideals Ryzom offers we all might be caught in a daily soap game.

Enjoy Atys, and a hearty welcome.