IDEAS FOR RYZOM

The problem in the original post is, rephrased, "people won't RP according to their religion, let's force them do so". Here's an idea: give people a reason to roleplay religion. Nations sorta-kinda-almost work, in that assemblies can scrap an attendance. You get reports to read, and things to discuss after those said assemblies. Sometimes, you even get to talk about interesting stuff like igaras, or get sent to do things (by rangers). Most importantly, you have DRAMA, and we all know drama is what fuels the internet, Ryzom being no exception.

So, how about give us a bone to chew on? Simple idea: make a Goo named creature, difficult to kill in that it would require a serious team, have it spawn in a PvP zone (Nexus?) and have both religions send their followers to kill the beast (kami would just want proof of its death, karavan would want blood). Sit back and watch supposed "friends" of opposed factions bash each others' brains out. The code of conduct allows for anything in PvP areas, as far as I'm aware. (For non-pvp players, both religions could require the digging of the very same resource).

Instead of being busy opening topics and commenting on them, you guys could be making up events ideas and bringing them alive with the help of the Event team. After all, if my Ryzom life is filled with my religion's and nation's events, I'll have less time to hang with the opposite factions. Just some food for thought.

tl;dr : Making up rules won't stop economics. It's anti-rational to beat someone for a resource if you can just ask for it in a trade. If people want to behave irrationally because of RP reasons then they must live with the consequence of said irrationality, just like IRL if you hold a grudge against the rich aunt you won't get in her will ;)

Salyn -- in your example, you can kill it faster and easier by making a cross-religion team and sharing the goodies. Or the neutrals can form a big team, take it down and sell the loot to the highest bidder. (Or the neutrals could form a team and kill it so that neither Faction could get the credit, thus frustrating both sides. :) )

Any scenario that can be set up can be gamed to produce a contrary result unless the setting up is done *very* carefully, a process that takes a lot of time.

Not to say that the Faction role-play couldn't be made more interesting, but a simple example like that is unlikely to work. Remember, the Temple Wars are coming (it said so in an announcement). The outposts were only a start.

And to reiterate your tl;dr comment: *nothing* is going to keep friends who are playing toons of opposite alignment from collaborating unless a game mechanism is set up to prevent it.

Our take on our responsibility is not to actively kill the kami, but rather to instead coerce them with kindness to see the light and join Jena's side.

One doesn't accomplish this solely by war, one must be allowed to offer acts of kindness - blocking trading is not faithful to the lore's vision of the struggle of kami vs. karavan, the factions are encouraged to trade if it may enlighten the unwashed masses of the kamist... err other faction (/ooc: a little poke meant by that last bit =) /occ).

Being a bigot to the other faction is not the only way to roleplay factions at opposite purposes, one can also be known to team/assist/trek/forage/level with the other faction, and even trade them things from time to time, to encourage them to join your faction.. as an aside this is the single biggest difference in the communities' visions of ryzom.. one community all decided to go for the hard headed approach, the other a blend of war and peaceful interaction between the factions..

And it would impinge on the spirit of ryzom to do too much of this, there's already restricitons on who may guild as a game mechanic, this would limit players freedom, which is not something ryzom is known for.