What is a roleplaying game? - English

The MMORPG industry has so devastated and ruined the roleplaying enterprise that it becomes necessary for longtime roleplayers to explain and define the term for the misinformed public. Below follows an attempt by me. Wish me luck! ;-)

(Note: Ryzom is in the RPG family of games (the MMORPG family to be exact). I have long experience with RPGs, a fairly substantial experience with MMORPGs, and only about a month of playing Ryzom. I don't pretend to be a Ryzom expert. Please don't think I do. This post is about Role Playing and Role Playing Games, using Ryzom as an example of special interest in this forum.)

--- So, what is a roleplaying game? ---

Compare Chess with Ryzom. Chess is completely abstract. It's only about strategy, tactics, and game mechanics (the rules), plus perhaps the psychology of the players. Most importantly, it is about winning; and the chess pieces are just lifeless instruments.

Consider Ryzom: Ryzom is NOT abstract. It has beautiful landscapes, seasons, wildlife, an evolving history ("lore"), and attractive as well as - for the most part - perfectly healthy and eternally young people (much more so than does our Real Life (AKA: "RL")).

Unlike an abstract game like Chess or Parcheesi, Ryzom has scope for adventure as well as scope for simply taking it easy among friends after a long, arduous day spent in a stressful job in one of Earth's cruel cutthroat societies. You may win battles, successfully complete missions, or enjoy a rush of leveling your computer-simulated skills and gear, but the game as a whole is definitely NOT about winning. There is, in fact, no way of "winning" Ryzom or any other RPG. Instead, Ryzom is a portal for escaping from the humdrum of your RL on Earth into a fantasy world called Atys where you can work magic, fight back at the monsters in your life, possibly actually be someone, and leave behind the sorrows of your earthly life. You can experiment with being someone else for a while (thus learning about how other people live or how you might change your RL for the better); and you can possibly live some of your cherished dreams - which the real world will probably never allow you to do - just as people do when they read a fantasy novel or watch a fantasy movie. Only here you can actively participate and truly feel alive in this alternate life. Enjoying a job well done when you complete missions, or the rush of leveling, can add extra spice, but more often these things distract from immersion in the fantasy, especially when you let the game be all about those mere mechanics and all your interactions and conversations with others in the game are about those game mechanics and your life on Earth. Soon you don't feel anymore that you are casting a magic spell. You have reduced the experience to merely pressing a button and getting an audiovisual computer response. What a pity! To really do more than play an electronic version of Chess or Parcheesi, to really immerse yourself in this fantasy world and live a dream, you need to get into your "role" and let others do the same. You need to play "in character" (IC), as they say.

So, if you wish to try this, when you see an avatar who is a tryker, talk to that tryker as a tryker (different from a matis, fyros, or zorai), not as the player behind the scenes whom you often don't know and have no idea what he or she is really like. Try to get into the habit of marking your OOC (out of character) conversations about game mechanics or your life on Earth as such: announce when you start or stop an OOC conversation, or mark each OOC line with an "OOC: " before it or with brackets around it. This greatly helps to avoid breaking the mood for others and yourself. Breaking this mood starts a domino effect, one which sadly is in full blow in the Ryzom of today. Marking OOC conversations as such may be more work, but the rewards of a more immersive fantasy world experience are well worth it. Considering the current state of Ryzom, I may do the reverse and start prepending my IC lines in chat channels with "IC: ", even though prepending OOC lines with "OOC: " would be more appropriate. But, then, chat channels are a bad place for IC conversation anyway, and they tend to contribute to lack of RP as do game mechanics which divorce character development from character interaction. But now I have digressed into game design issues. Sorry. Back to IC interactions:

When a "player character" ("PC", for example that tryker) talks to your character, please be at least willing to assume that it is an IC conversation, which is to say an actual tryker who knows nothing about planet Earth talking to your character who also is a homin living on Atys, equally ignorant of Earth. For example, if - as a guy in RL - you made the problematic choice of creating a female avatar, and a male avatar starts flirting with it, you have no grounds for labeling this character or even the player behind that character as gay, "creepy", "pervert", or any such thing. How is that player supposed to know you are a "GIRL" (guy in real life) unless you tell him or her? You created the awkward situation by making a transgender character which announces herself to her world as female, and the other player is only doing what's natural and normal. Yes, Ryzom community, despite a habitual outrage I have noticed in-game over the smallest mention of this: men and women being attracted to each other and even flirting now and then is absolutely natural (as is the occasional LGBTQ person) and - unlike LGBTQ - it is the norm! Imagine a human (or homin!) world without it. How drab it would be! Somehow, in Ryzom, normal human relationships and interactions seem to have become almost outlawed (at least for new players who don't have their own clique to restrict them to) while questionable ones have been edified, not through intentional game design of an upside down world, but by an overemphasis of players on game mechanics and perhaps also through prior experiences with some truly creepy players.
I recall an instance where my character (who is a guy(!) and essentially a gentleman, I should say!) mentioned he enjoys female company and was instantly branded as "creepy" and placed by others into imaginary scenes where he was "pawing" hapless victims of his perverted ardor. Shortly thereafter, these same people promoted a kind of PvP where people murder one another for no reason whatsoever. And they called me or my character the creepy one? Really? To me, this is a case where RP is being destroyeded by an overly narrow focus on game mechanics (PvP mechanics are thus seen as good, human interactions as bad); a case where the mere mechanics become the whole game, and where the entire fantastic world which Ryzom's devs designed so lovingly for people to live in is flushed down the drain. Such a pity for a beautiful world which has so much to offer its denizens and is free from the common curses of real life: having to earn a living any which way possible no matter how denigrating, stressful, and exhausting; putting up with horrible bosses, marriages, or divorces; rarely earning suitable rewards for your efforts; never "getting ahead" in a rigged system; growing old, ugly, and sick. Need I continue the list? Can you blame some of us for wanting to escape into a better world now and then?

By the way, the awkwardness which arises out of transgender play (as well as my doubting that I could truly slip into a role which contradicts my gender identity and preference), is why I have never once made a transgender character in decades of experimenting with all sorts of not-me characters (even a thief, for example, which is so not me in RL). This is also why I advise others against transgender play, even as I understand the temptation to look at a gorgeous creature on your screen every time you play or the less common temptation to experience life in another gender. I have only known one very skilled male online roleplayer who successfully pulled off experiencing life as a female and playing her convincingly for years (although as kind of a tomboy). This character and mine were good friends for years, but when one time she decided to come on to my character - strongly and persistently for a number of days - it added a layer of weirdness which I hadn't bargained for (once I found out the player behind the charater was male, that is). I am glad my character gently but firmly rebuffed all these advances at the time since he was in a committed relationship and she wasn't his type, anyway. This reduced the awkwardness which could otherwise have resulted. So, ask yourself, how willing are you to follow through with your transgender choice of character, and is it fair to other players if you don't even inform them properly? And aren't you limiting RP (roleplay) for yourself and others automatically by this choice? I think you are.

Since we have now skirted close to this sensitive topic, and since I would like to confront any further false suspicions or hopes from anybody: Am I into "cybersex"? Not really. I had it once, under special circumstances after years of a close relationship both IC and OOC, but I found typing the required lines a bit awkward nevertheless. I think a keyboard is a poor instrument for this sort of interaction. Am I open to flirting, romance, a girlfriend or wife in a fantasy world? Absolutely. I have had very good experiences with that. These things are part of life, and often the best part, much better than endless killing of monsters or laboring for game rewards. Why exclude them from one's fantasy life? Just keep in mind that this is a fantasy! At the end of the day, we are never our avatars (our characters in the fantasy world). So be careful to tell IC and OOC apart. Of course, different people have different reasons for playing a game like this, and even different ideas about RP; so entering an OOC dialogue to inform one another about preferred play styles and objectives is often necessary and a good thing. So, communicate. And above all, try to live and let live, meaning here to play and let play as desired. And yes, try to stay in character and go with the flow as long as it works. And, just as in real life, associate with those who make for good company to you and keep a distance from those who don't.

I have been wrestling with my bafflement over repeatedly meeting with what I can only describe as hostility and paranoid suspicions when I play in character (especially since the character is a nice guy) here on Atys, and so I plan to post about it under the title: Why do Roleplayers meet with hostility on Ryzom?

I hope, an occasional post like this from a roleplayer will debunk common misconceptions and help people realize that RP is normal, even for them. In our real lives, we also play many roles. It is part of the human condition. Choosing productive and/or enjoyable ones is the trick. ;-)

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Note: I will soon be traveling for over six weeks and don't know if - or how often - I may get on the Internet or have a chance to log into Ryzom. Please don't think I am snubbing anyone or hiding from them if I may be scarce or unable to participate in any discussion which might build around this post. In addition, I must admit, posting about a game rather than playing it is not common for me. So, after this weekend's posts there may not be any for a long time.