Article/study on Roleplaying

[Kirisa]

Found this linked on a Hero's Journey board. IT's formt he Daedalus Project website, a website that conducts surveys and studoes on MMORPG player activies and subcultures.

This was rather interesting, a survey on how people roleplay, including demographics, roleplaying ettiqute and styles, character archtypes and such. Was a pretty cool read.

linky is here



I liked this quote:

Most people who want to be evil do it in an infuriatingly wannabe way. Right. I'm evil. I will now skulk in the shadows, giggling, sharpening my blades and poking people in the back. This is stupid. True evilness is giving an outward appearance of goodness, and then manipulating things from the backdrop.

<looks in Olorae's direction>

[Christana]

interesting link and I agree one hundred percent with that quote. true evil is manipulative not confrontational

[Just Another Sinner]

<bows>

I hate the blatantly evil. They make it so much harder for those of us who do truly enjoy being evil to pull it off.

[Ophante]

Yeah. Manipulative. *Looks right at Christy*

[Christana]

Christy wasn't manipulative she was an angel through and through...

[Tregarde]

*pats Christy on her back*

Yes, dear. Whatever you say.

[Kaelir]

I really hate archetypical villains that are in - oh - most fantasy novels.

"He cackles with evil glee as he raises a corpse from the dead. 'another minion' he said with a laugh."

People inherently want to do good. Either for others, or themselves. They have to have some motivation to do something like this - I.E, raising the dead. I would like to see a necromancer who thinks that raising the dead is actually a good thing for society.

And what's up with the 'evil cackle'? Do you know of anyone who laughs like a saturday morning cartoon villain? I sure don't. Villains are better if they arouse sympathy, when they tear you between wanting the hero to win, and wanting them to win.

I now refer you to my favorite movie - "Princess Mononoke." Can you find the villain in this movie? The truth is, there are none. Everyone is essentially...human.

There are no villains in real life. There are just people who have conflicting goals and different ways to go about them.

Edit: Okay, I read all of the articles and it was very interesting. I had noted the "tragic past" thing before, but I realized - how else are you going to get the parents/family that don't really exist in the game world out of the way? Either that, or they will have to be off stage.

I think sometimes the tragic past is a cheap way to try to get some characterization - - I'm guilty of this. Every single one of my characters has had a tragic past (excluding my dwarf, Woofie.) Part of their changing is getting over this past.

But, you can't open a book with your main character getting tortured/raped/inflicted with terrible suffering. You have to build up some symapthy first. We think, okay - so what? Show us that this character is something to care about first, then you can torture/rape/inflict with terrible suffering and I will care. But it isn't going to work if there's just a shell without any personality there.

I've been guilty of this. And the drama queen thing. My Kaelir talks a lot and she ends up being the center of attention a lot. I'm making her a little quieter after Jess and Raevilins death, and Ophante's leave, just so someone else can lead the action for once.

Oh - and I have an article about rolepalying somewhere. I'll post it up here.

[Kaelir]

Well, there is also the mentally insane, but I'm not getting into that.

[Christana]

christy = perfect example of mentally insane
and kaelir

[Just Another Sinner]

kaelir said:

how else are you going to get the parents/family that don't really exist in the game world out of the way? Either that, or they will have to be off stage.

Take a look at what I did with Olorae, for instance. Her father is alive, and well. He is the head of a rather successful business (of which Olorae only recieves a little: generally enough to cover RP costs like owning a house, etc).

He's rarely seen in any of the plotlines, but if someone wanted to go after him, they could.

Not that it would do much to Olorae, mind you.

[Tregarde]

One of the things I love most about George R R Martin’s ‘Song of Fire and Ice’ series is that the characters are SO well developed. There are very few you could honestly call truly ‘good’ or ‘evil’. They all have virtues and flaws. It’s an incredibly well developed and realistic world. I really can not explain how good the books are in the short lunch hour I have, so I’ll end it here.

If you haven’t read it, pick up the first book, A Game of Thrones, NOW

[Sharae]

I read A Game of Thrones and really enjoyed it, and then was assured that the other books after were really long and boring by a source I suspect I shouldn't have listened to...

I'll have to read the others at some point... I already have far too many books to read. *Looks at huge pile of books with a happy grin*

[Makora]

I don't wanna hijack this topic anymore but I just have to add that the books by Raymond E. Feist are extremely detailed also.