Questions about the shifting focus

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Kordin
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Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2015 5:17 pm

Questions about the shifting focus

Post by Kordin » Thu May 06, 2021 4:32 am

There are a few things in the works still that also pertain to this and obviously if you have an awesome idea that would help roleplay along and make this an actual Wheel of Time environment, Staff is all ears, so feel free to ping us with ideas or suggestions.
What kind of ideas and suggestions exactly are we talking about here?

Things that players can do for themselves and/or other players such as - RP interactions and events like festivals, or short interactions in squares, taverns, wherever....?

Or does this also include ideas for clan changes, zone changes, mobol, coding, quest systems....?

Elysia
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Re: Questions about the shifting focus

Post by Elysia » Mon May 10, 2021 8:57 pm

Kordin wrote:
Thu May 06, 2021 4:32 am
There are a few things in the works still that also pertain to this and obviously if you have an awesome idea that would help roleplay along and make this an actual Wheel of Time environment, Staff is all ears, so feel free to ping us with ideas or suggestions.
What kind of ideas and suggestions exactly are we talking about here?

Things that players can do for themselves and/or other players such as - RP interactions and events like festivals, or short interactions in squares, taverns, wherever....?

Or does this also include ideas for clan changes, zone changes, mobol, coding, quest systems....?
Smobbing has had attention in the sense of trinkets for groups, chance of a qp and so on. Dynamic smobs, even though they failed are another thing. There's heralds, there's oodletons of things.

Pk has had attenion in terms of transporation and faster travel, abilities to find eachother like the human blood flasks and so on.

RP has had zero attention. Even if I hop around the place to see if there's anything going on, chances are, there isn't. If I try to initiate something, often someone goes "ah, the imm wants to RP". No, we want players to opt for RP and enricht the environment. Obviously people need help, encouragement, features, something to assist with that, just like other key areas of the mud have.

RP is just tricky, because I suspect that many roleplayers are not the type to splash all their interactions on roleplay forums, or even clan forums. So many interactions just fly under the radar of essentially everyone, making some people feel that it's not happening at all. I also suspect that any prospective roleplayers who lay eyes on the RP forum will decide the game is not for them.

So if anyone can think of ideas on how players or imms can do things that will make RP more valid as a part of character development, in the sense of roleplay being awarded qps, maybe perks that are exclusive to RPers, things that will encourage RP or being IC, ways that will ensure all this has an even spread so it's not just the popular people getting rewarded etc.

In a day and age where we still get emails like a copy/ paste of someone's qps and a "so what's next?" mail for mastering... looong way to go.

Hell, even things like writing "how to RP an Andoran" might help for all I know. Either way, this cannot solely be an immortal endeavor. We don't have eyes everywhere. For RP, there's usually multiple players around, meaning that players are an essential part of this. Hence the question of how we can make this work.

Rig
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Re: Questions about the shifting focus

Post by Rig » Mon May 10, 2021 11:40 pm

Majority of people create their own roleplay. Usually based around the clan they’re in/aspiring to be part of. I’d suggest some clan members/aspiring applicants from various clans post a couple paragraphs of their rp as an example.

Then, reward those people. Second, increase qp rewards for roleplay, greatly.

Kordin
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Re: Questions about the shifting focus

Post by Kordin » Tue May 11, 2021 3:23 am

Rig wrote:
Mon May 10, 2021 11:40 pm
Majority of people create their own roleplay. Usually based around the clan they’re in/aspiring to be part of. I’d suggest some clan members/aspiring applicants from various clans post a couple paragraphs of their rp as an example.

Then, reward those people. Second, increase qp rewards for roleplay, greatly.
Yeah some kind of incentive to encourage people to work on background stories, the more detailed the better. Perhaps what some are already doing in various ways - family trees. As ridiculous as it may sound to some, but "back in the days" there were weddings and similar events, which almost always drew a fairly sizeable crowd - basically a mini festival on it's own.

Not quite sure how to do that. Perhaps if players sent staff their backgrounds or posted on RP forums, a similar reward system like for festival organizing? There has to be a difference between that and people just posting RP logs, which have been awarded since forever (depending on clan Council...maybe even clan?)

The increased QP rewards for RP might backfire, if constant. Take heralds for example or early days of KMG. Sooner or later you might end up with a ton of chars with faster progress than other ways, more complaints, probably some adjustments/nerfs to the whole thing (more work for Staff).

Maybe as there are plans for increased QP awards for certain zones, a same or similar thing can be done for RP? If something like that fits on Argle or a copy of Argle can be made which rewards instan 3 kudos instead of one RP kudos when someone awards?

Probably is room to spice up War and Treaty systems with RP - don't have much experience with those, so no ideas at the moment.

Nunzio
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Location: USA, Virginia

Re: Questions about the shifting focus

Post by Nunzio » Tue May 11, 2021 7:24 am

How about some kind of small, one-time reward for a good description? Could be an xp boost, or a small amount of qps. Maybe an item that can be sold for a small sum of money?

Elysia
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Re: Questions about the shifting focus

Post by Elysia » Tue May 11, 2021 9:01 am

Kordin wrote:
Tue May 11, 2021 3:23 am
The increased QP rewards for RP might backfire, if constant. Take heralds for example or early days of KMG. Sooner or later you might end up with a ton of chars with faster progress than other ways, more complaints, probably some adjustments/nerfs to the whole thing (more work for Staff).
I'm not that worried about RP becoming a fasttracking thing. There is too much time and effort going in editing and posting logs. Although one concern I have is that it will just be the same two people rping together on various characters, which would still achieve nothing.
Nunzio wrote:
Tue May 11, 2021 7:24 am
How about some kind of small, one-time reward for a good description? Could be an xp boost, or a small amount of qps. Maybe an item that can be sold for a small sum of money?
I don't think that's feasible on the imm side of things. For one, every time one claims to have made a good description, it would take checking to see if it's indeed the first time they made a good description. This sounds more like something councillors could/should be doing.

Kordin
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Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2015 5:17 pm

Re: Questions about the shifting focus

Post by Kordin » Tue May 11, 2021 10:38 am

Elysia wrote:
Mon May 10, 2021 8:57 pm
Hell, even things like writing "how to RP an Andoran" might help for all I know.
Not exactly a suggestions, but I remembered I have a digital copy of WoT RPG book from Wizards of the Coast.

Anyone needing a bit of inspiration or boost for WoT RP background, can try getting a copy and going through it. It's published by WotC and RJ wrote the Foreword so it's a legit source of RP info.

Taziar
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Re: Questions about the shifting focus

Post by Taziar » Wed May 12, 2021 5:31 am

Words are important.

I think there are two important things that can help the RP environment.

1. Bookish.
All of our city names, and nations come from RJ's world so continuing to apply bookish themes to the muds physical world is the key to immersion. The reason trollocs can't ride horses isn't a game balance mechanic, it is because they didn't ride them in the books. Continue to make the zones, rooms, clans, and equipment reflect the stories as much as possible. More landmarks in the game that match the storyline will build the foundation for RP.

2. Net-positive.
When people log on their Gaiden and call the Aes Sedai online vulgar names it takes everyone online out of the RP of the books. When these "net-positives" are allowed to act in a toxic way and not taken to task for it makes the rest of the player base not care about maintaining any level of RP. If you want to give carrot to try and help the atmosphere... you are going to need more stick too.

Elysia
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Re: Questions about the shifting focus

Post by Elysia » Wed May 12, 2021 4:47 pm

Taziar wrote:
Wed May 12, 2021 5:31 am
2. Net-positive.
When people log on their Gaiden and call the Aes Sedai online vulgar names it takes everyone online out of the RP of the books. When these "net-positives" are allowed to act in a toxic way and not taken to task for it makes the rest of the player base not care about maintaining any level of RP. If you want to give carrot to try and help the atmosphere... you are going to need more stick too.
Unless there was a 2nd incident I'm oblivious to, the one you're referring to was dealt with by the clan, which is the ideal solution for everyone involved.

One point though: in such cases where RP violations are blatant, please also alert imms. We try to give players the chance to sort things out themselves first in RP related cases, and only step in if there's Houseguest violations or if players fail to police themselves. However, imms can only work as a failsafe if notified, as we aren't on 24/7. While someone in the Tower was obviously online and picked up on it, if they hadn't, it would've just fallen flat.

Rewarding people for punishing others seems like a bad idea, because that sort of Stasi environment wouldn't exactly be fun either.

Nunzio
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Location: USA, Virginia

Re: Questions about the shifting focus

Post by Nunzio » Wed May 12, 2021 6:22 pm

Elysia wrote:
Wed May 12, 2021 4:47 pm
Rewarding people for punishing others seems like a bad idea, because that sort of Stasi environment wouldn't exactly be fun either.
*LIKE*

Can we get one of those buttons?

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