But anyway, as you know, the first expansion to EQII, Desert of Flames, just came out, and as the only person on staff who plays the game, it's on me to review it. Now, somehow, when the game first launched, my friends successfully convinced me to roll on one of the role-playing servers. I also play World of Warcraft 1.7 patch, and me and some friends made character on one of the RP-PVP servers that launched with it. Basically, since I've been playing both of these games like crazy lately, I've been bombarded with role-playing. Relatively speaking, anyway. I don't role-play myself, and have no interest in doing so. Because of this, part of me feels like I'm somehow degrading the experience for those around me. The names I've chosen for my characters aren't "RP," the guilds I belong to don't exactly aim to further the rest of the population's immersion. If I told you my real motivation for joining these servers, many of you would probably think less of me. Let's just say that the idea of running into something like this while stealthed in a contested area is just way too tempting to pass up.
"i cant give u my facepaint its soulbound lol"
Not to say that I go out of my way to ruin the experience for those who like to RP. Quite the opposite -- if I happen to be grouped with someone who's role-playing at me, I'll do my best not to talk about, say, the great new stool softener I've been taking. I'll keep my responses terse and not-too-glaringly out of character, and try my best not to shoot my milk out my nose when some lamer who's RPing a troll or something starts talking to me in corny faux-Jamaican slang. Incidentally, what's up with Blizzard providing the Horde-playing RP community with ready-made stereotypical idioms? I'm sure I'm not the only person of Caribbean descent who thinks it's a little bit corny to have a 14 year old kid from Wisconsin calling me "mon."
But let's not dwell too heavily on this. My big question is, are these games truly designed with the role-player's experience in mind? I can see role-playing when you're playing table-top D&D; you have a group of live people with you, whom you hopefully know, and whose live actions and reactions can help all involved craft a truly collective narrative. There's something about hearing someone's voice that makes this kind of "acting" more meaningful, I think. In an MMO, though, you're constantly bombarded by abstraction; numbers are flying around, you kill dogs and they drop breastplates, and a there's a gnome ten feet away from you that's been jumping up and down for ten minutes straight. And his name is "Learntoplaylol." I've read many role-playing messageboards, too, and their suggestions to just "turn off general chat" or "only group with people you know" just don't seem practical. Regardless of how much of a hardcore RPer you are, chances are you're at some point going to need to bang out a few quests, and will have to enlist the aid of the masses. And how do you get in touch with the masses? Through general chat. And look! Guess who's doing the same quest as you? Yup. It's "Omgrickjames." He's a healer, too, so you're in luck.
