Dark Age Of Camelot: Pointing Fingers

It has become nearly impossible to find roleplay on roleplaying servers. Out of character chatter runs rampant. Who shall we hold responsible for this?

The obvious place to start, of course, is with Mythic. Their game, their rules. While not entirely to blame for the entire state of affairs, they certainly hold some responsibility for it.

Enforcement, or lack thereof, obviously represents a huge issue. Making a judgement call on what constitutes roleplay and what does not puts them in dangerous ground, and with such a nebulous topic, presents a hard road to walk, and a costly one in terms of manpower. We cannot blame them for treading lightly. But we also cannot let them out of the promises explicitly made in their own policies.

Walking into many of the major cities on roleplaying servers feels more like logging into a chatroom. On at least one server, the game of politics has eclipsed the roleplay nature of the place. Where is the enforcement?

Not all Customer Service Representatives can be history buffs, but all should have a basic understanding of what goes with what realm. Finding Lancelot in Midgard seems like a fairly obvious breech in naming policies, but what about Bjorn in Hibernia? If Mythic does not provide its representatives with a basic overview of such things, they should. Just as the representatives themselves should take it upon themselves to learn some basic Norse, Celtic and British lore.

Lest we feel too smug that Mythic is at fault, let us also remember that they are not the only expressions in this equation. We, as players, are in it too, and we are just as much at fault, if not more, than Mythic is. After all, the players are the ones actually taking the actions that Mythic should be stopping.

How many people come to the roleplaying servers for reasons other than a desire to roleplay? A myth exists that roleplayers must be worse at activities such as Realm vs. Realm combat. People come to play on the roleplaying servers looking for easy targets, and an easy way to stay on top. Others come not to roleplay, but to get away from the hoards of l33t-speaking powergamers that infest some of the other servers. You'll find fewer of those on Guinevere, Percival and Nimue.

If you don't want to roleplay, and you don't want to follow the rules you agree to by making a character on one of those servers, why in the world are you there?

In any community, virtual or no, respect is the grease on the wheels. Should I ever opt to make a character on a non-roleplay server, I would respect that people did not want roleplay there, and would act accordingly. As such, those who come to roleplay servers should abide by the rules there, or choose another place to play.

Perhaps we simply grow lazy. After all, it takes great effort to speak in an era-appropriate fashion, to find new ways to talk about tactics and levels without breaking character. It takes more effort still to police a guild and keep the guild chatter in character. Time and peer pressure wear us down until even the staunchest supporters of roleplay have given in. Is roleplay worth the fight?

Roleplay starts with the individual. Often, one outstanding roleplayer can turn an entire group into Vikings on an adventure. (It admittedly helps if that outstanding roleplayer has control of the group, and refuses to admit ninnies.) One good guild can bring an entire alliance into line. These facts do not make the answer to the questions readily apparent. Or do they? Can a roleplayer make peer pressure work for him, instead of against him?

Whose fault is the current state of roleplay in the realms? That's easy. It's everyone's fault. But why should we point fingers? That never did anyone any good. Instead, let's look for solutions. It is more polite and, frankly, it's more productive, too.

Do you have an idea for what could be done to improve the quality of roleplay on the roleplaying servers? Send them to me at blackbird@warcry.com and I'll include the ones I consider best in my next article.