Role playing in Guild Wars

This topic has been brought up from time and time again. This time this will be a serious discussion with fingers crossed that no flame bait will be posted.

Firstly, If you are not sure what role playing is, please use the almighty power of Google to find the definition.

Role playing is a major interest and hobby for a great deal of people world wide. Many online sites, games, and communities are built around role playing, many made in the form of text based games called MUDs (multi-user dungeons), found on forums, or even in major MMORPGs (an example being WoW with it's RP servers).

For long time players and role players, there has always been a struggle to petition Anet for Role playing Districts to appease the minority of players who want to get something more out of the game.

Now there is a great deal of people who attack, flame, and otherwise look down upon the role playing community. For some reason people want to forbid people from being creative and punish them for having a different mindset about the Tyrian universe. It is these people that Anet fear will attack them. This is the major factor stopping Anet from implementing this petition.

This being said, why is it that the people of Guild Wars want to shun the role players? What exactly is wrong with pretending to be a character in a game? And finally, why is it that people flame role players? Will they ever stop?

Discuss.

I guess because most people find it weird and 'nerdy' when a roleplayer acts like his character is 'real', with its own personality and background.

Role playing is just weird..in a game anyway

It is this general motion that is, in my opinion, keeping Anet from implementing this. There has to be a better reason that role players are wierd and that they're nerdy

If we strategise for a Strategy game,
and we shoot people in a First-Person Shooter game.
can we Role Play in a Role Playing game?

there are many reasons namely among which is the dungeons and dragons look it gives to the players and basically...easy flame-bait. i personally think you should be allowed to do whatever you want until you start disrupting my gameplay and my overall gaming experience. as for a-net adding RP only districts the likely-hood is slim to none. reasons being if they were that easilly swayed by now we'de have 2 completely different sections of the game as is with their own skill balances. as you said its going for a minority of the gaming community and it would take a majority for something like that to be implemented. the best thing you can probably do is form and a guild and alternately an alliance of rp'ers which you have the rp conversations and what have you in guild/alliance/party chat. in all chat 9 times outta 10 youll find people just saying....wtf....a few may join in but rarely. i doubt it will ever stop because of the sheer fact that everyone has an opinion and a vast majority of said people like to make it heard.

Role Playing in doesn't work Guild Wars because the lore and backstory are shallow and too contradictory. Also, there's no individual character development, as you are always grouped.

Nothing stopping you from RPing, but I don't think it's possible in Guild Wars, specifically, without looking like an idiot.

(And yes, I do RP in other games, including WoW.)

Perhaps if they had some sort of roleplaying event it would make the roleplayers out there less aggrieved.

Thank you for posting the simplified version of my post and reinforcing it.

Very true but only to those who are strict role players. The ones that like to base their characters and settings loosely on the Tyrian world are the ones that prevail in the community.

...which leads me to another point.

Role Playing in MMORPGs is so easy to grief. It's worse in Guild Wars, due to the lack of monthly fee and therefore, more immature kids.

Example:

"Tengu War Rememberence in Shing Jea Monastery July 4th! Led by the Scribe! (RP ONLY)"

On July 4th...

The Scribe: Greetings, citizens of Cantha.

RPgriefer1: LOL RP
RPgriefer2: HAY GAILE GIMME GOLD
RPgriefer3: WTS ECTO 6.1k
RPgriefer4: SNAPE KILLS DUMBLEDORE
RPgriefer5: MY BOOBS ARE SWEATY
RPgriefer6: Screenshots or it didn't happen, RPgriefer5.
RPgriefer5: *flash*
RPgriefer6: OMG SEXY DANCE DANCE!!!

There aren't enough GMs to moderate such an event...

(On that note, I laugh at how poorly written lore-wise the Scribe is written...)

When I think of role players an image of "Comic Book Guy" with
Spock ears. But anyway....

I think it's just the opposite.... role players trying to force themselves
on the rest of us. Since, obviously, you can role play any time and
any where with other role players, and need no offical sanction to
do so.

You can also role play without even making your presence know
to the rest of the players just fine if you chose to. ( yeah, my wife
RPs sometimes, so I know. ) But much like the "lovers" that chose
to sit in the middle of a public area hugging each other, and then
whine that people are disrespecting their "private" space, when
they could have taken it to an instanced area, you insist on making
a public spectical of yourselves.

RPgriefer1:
RPgriefer2:
RPgriefer3:
RPgriefer4:
RPgriefer5:
RPgriefer6:
RPgriefer5:
RPgriefer6:

I have to agree with you. RP events wouldn't work out at all. However, this sparks the idea of Guild Run (aka player run) RP events.

I have no doubt that the griefing would still happen. It is just a matter of reading the right lines of text and not responding to the attention crazed infidels.

If you constantly have to ignore people, it's kinda hard to RP, unless you are psychotic.

Those do happen. I think it's psychotic, trying to act out lore when there is clearly none available, but it's there.

OOooo! Look, a freshly opened can of worms!
I hear what you're saying, and you have my sympathies. There are so many social and psychological implications to the Roleplaying issue...it's like trying to separate a dried ball of spaghetti.
The biggest hurdle is certainly definition. Even when I was playing old school RPG's, I encountered people who thought the "role" in "roleplaying" referred to dice. There were many times when I'ld be playing with friends that I'ld get asked to tone it down. What can I say, I've got a theater background and like pretending, and believe me...paper and dice RPG's are REALLY dull without any thespian elements. (the in game graphics and game engine are a bit slow...).
'Course now you've got people who don't want to play an RPG. They want to play a video game. Pretty flashing lights, big explosions, sexy characters in skimpy outfits...all that. Hey, it's fun stuff, I must admit. To be honest, I would imagine that most of the people playing GW could care less about role playing.
Why?
That's where the social and psychological conundrum come in. For some people, their character is an extension of their own personality. They have abilities they would'nt have in real life and are more uninhibited. Other's use the game to explore character traits they wish they had or can't publicly express, and of course there are those who simply play the game for it's own sake. For them it really is just an evolved version of Space Invaders and they have little connection to their character.
The reasons that people have for playing RPG's are vast. Tomes have been written on the subject.
Again the particular problem plaguing you has been around since Gary Gygax penned the original D&D. Some people want to RP a lot. Some a little, and now those who never wanted to RP at all can get in on the game just to rend apart pixelated foes. (magnificently rendered, pixelated foes, at that)
I have my doubts that ANet will do anything to help the roleplaying community. It would seem they have little impetus to, at least until White Wolf get it's World of Darkness MMORPG together to provide some compition in that regard. Till then, it would seem that the answer is to do what serious RPers have always done...Find like like-minded individuals and form groups to play. I know there are RP only guilds, perhaps even alliances. When you hit a town, use the emptiest district to cut down on hecklers. Set up events for your guild. LAN parties and such, where you actually do garb and set up an atmosphere. Make the visual aspects of the game an extension of the RP aspects. Hell, dig out that old D100 as a lucky touchstone. Have party contests for most unintelligible character accent....As always, have fun
In this life or the next! ...Excelsior!

"I put on my robe and wizard hat…"

I'm an RP-er, and so are my guildies. We keep it to our Guild Hall, or our instances.
RP-only districts would make me very happy, but I don't see them happening - besides, style differs so much between individuals, it would likely end up with strict rp-ers arguing with those who just want a bit of fun, and lore argument blowing up, or some such.
So I keep it to the places where I'm not going to get mocked or insulted, and leave it at that.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, as an avid RP-er, I find places to RP and people to RP with. Lore and community considered (or lack thereof) Guild Wars isn't at all ideal for it. I wish it were, but it's not, and that's just the state of things.

Enough said.

I sooo wish GW had gazebo. There just NEEDS to be a gazebo that eats people in the game..

That is if you have any lore in your charactors background as well as to being a part of the RP Assn.It is all about using your imagination and creativety in this game.You would see more of it if Anet puts the RPA as a specialty site.