Guild Wars 2

I’m a bit confused: I know many players who state they are :“roleplayers”, but
MMORPG;s ARE role playing, so huh? If you’re not roleplaying when you play
the game, what are you doing? To me, if you’re in the game, role playing is exactly what you’re doing. Can someone clear this up for me?

People have different interpretations of the term.

In the Black Citadel for example, you can see players emoting, and talking in a way that takes them out of their role as a player, and they turn themselves into their character.

That is where the divide happens, you are playing a roleplaying game, but not everyone actively put themselves into a “character” while playing. Having a persona in-game that reflects the game’s world, instead of your own.

I am not a role player for example, I talk to players, not their characters, I act like a person playing a game, not a member of the College of Statics. etc.

I’m always me. I’m never the pixels I’m piloting around. The only reason my chars even have a name is because the game demands it. Otherwise, I would no more name them than I would name the spark plugs in my car.

As to what I do, I enjoy seeing the scenery. Talking to people. Attempting to do the things in the game that are impossible in real life.

I’m a role player because I make up stories to go with my characters. But I’m not in the crowd of role players that emote. It’s way cute and I love them for it but I’m just not into communal rp’ing. My OC’s are miinnne alooone.

The non-role players are all those jerks screaming at the rest of us, “Just play the stupid game already!” They couldn’t remember what color their character’s hair is but they could list stats so fast NASA couldn’t keep pace.

Drow.2081:

I’m a role player because I make up stories to go with my characters. But I’m not in the crowd of role players that emote. It’s way cute and I love them for it but I’m just not into communal rp’ing. My OC’s are miinnne alooone.

The non-role players are all those jerks screaming at the rest of us, “Just play the stupid game already!” They couldn’t remember what color their character’s hair is but they could list stats so fast NASA couldn’t keep pace.

Lol. I’m not a role player. Don’t have a role playing bone in my body. It’s interesting to find out I’m one of the jerks screaming at the other people in the game.

I learn something new about myself every day. ^^

Perhaps sweeping comments about a whole player base are a trifle inaccurate and judgmental?

Drow.2081:

The non-role players are all those jerks screaming at the rest of us, “Just play the stupid game already!” They couldn’t remember what color their character’s hair is but they could list stats so fast NASA couldn’t keep pace.

But you’re not bitter. There’s no need to act like every member of a group of players behaves a particular way.

OP: As others have already said, “role players” tend to get more into the story of their characters than non-role playing players. The role players will do anything from creating a detailed backstory to having full out areas where they interact with other roleplayers to act out parts of story via emotes.

Drow.2081:

I’m a role player because I make up stories to go with my characters. But I’m not in the crowd of role players that emote. It’s way cute and I love them for it but I’m just not into communal rp’ing. My OC’s are miinnne alooone.

The non-role players are all those jerks screaming at the rest of us, “Just play the stupid game already!” They couldn’t remember what color their character’s hair is but they could list stats so fast NASA couldn’t keep pace.

I’m not a “roleplayer”. I talk as myself, I speak to other people (ya know, the operators of the pixels). I don’t remember ever talking bad to a roleplayer. Matter of fact, I use to run dungeons with a couple “roleplayers”. Pretty cool guys, laid back. No, I honestly don’t know the hair color on any of my characters (I change that at least 3 times a week) nor can I list the stats on any of them. I have better things to keep in my head than a bunch of meaningless numbers.

I’m understanding a bit more now. Depending on the day, I would say I’m a bit of
both then. I just try to have fun, and like talking to other players as real people, but
also enjoy getting into my character as well. Thanks all for the great comments !

I roleplay as an obsessive gold farmer constantly grinding for phat lewtz.

It’s a very popular play style.

There are, and have always been, two types of people playing these games, or two poles which people find themselves between. This has been true since the early days of pen and paper games, before computer games were even a thing.

The people I used to call simulation players and now call mechanics players are interested in the mechanics of the game. To them, everything is a system. This is how I get the most damage. This is how I maximize my efficiency. This is how I get through this dungeon fastest.

Then there are role players who use weapons that they think are cool, even if they’re not the most efficient. My character doesn’t like swords, even though swords are the most efficient weapon I can use. Some people don’t even know what works best.

Some people play healers not because healing helps the team, but it’s because they want to play. And as long as they play with other people playing that way, there’s usually no hassle. It’s when people who play their characters as characters come into contact with people who see the game as a bunch of systems that problems erupt.

And of course, you can be in the middle. I’m more for a person who plays characters, but I am mindful that some things just aren’t effective. I assume my characters are smart enough to want to be effective. But that’s not the same thing as saying MOST effective or most efficient.

At the end of that day most people are somewhere between the two poles, but they lean to one pole or the other.

Hello,
I am a “gamer” and there are two forms of role play. RPGs (d & d, Anima, Conan Cthullu, Scion) and Role-play Mmo.

We can mix the two but it conciste in:

- Played a role. We play our character as if it were a play continuously.
- Play adventure offering in play but walked by living as if we were the character.
- User Dice for our successes or failures.
- Reinventing the game for more dungeons.

Of course, many roleplayers have forgotten that the role play does not necessarily conciste to stay in town … But anyway, this is a very imaginative style of play, which allows us to also write fan history.
it’s worth a shot to make some friends.

There is some writing codes to respect, however, when you want to join the community in place. And sometimes in the beginning, it may seem boring to you.

But overall, it allows us to take the time to play the game, it is good customer cosmetics shop. (armor, hairstyles, change names, street clothes.) And we love Lore…

Vayne.8563:

There are, and have always been, two types of people playing these games, or two poles which people find themselves between. This has been true since the early days of pen and paper games, before computer games were even a thing.

The people I used to call simulation players and now call mechanics players are interested in the mechanics of the game. To them, everything is a system. This is how I get the most damage. This is how I maximize my efficiency. This is how I get through this dungeon fastest.

Then there are role players who use weapons that they think are cool, even if they’re not the most efficient. My character doesn’t like swords, even though swords are the most efficient weapon I can use. Some people don’t even know what works best.

Some people play healers not because healing helps the team, but it’s because they want to play. And as long as they play with other people playing that way, there’s usually no hassle. It’s when people who play their characters as characters come into contact with people who see the game as a bunch of systems that problems erupt.

And of course, you can be in the middle. I’m more for a person who plays characters, but I am mindful that some things just aren’t effective. I assume my characters are smart enough to want to be effective. But that’s not the same thing as saying MOST effective or most efficient.

At the end of that day most people are somewhere between the two poles, but they lean to one pole or the other.

This, and there are continua within each category, as well as players who are some of both. Some people in the role-playing group actually talk as their character. Groups of such players enact stories within the game that may or may not have anything to do with the stories provided by the developer. They have mechanics for denoting when they are talking out of character, and will try to minimize this. They also describe their character’s actions and what someone might observe of their emotional state as well. It’s that sub-group which is more likely to characterize themselves as role-players.

I’m somewhere in the group that are both role-players and systems players. I try to maximize my effectiveness, but usually within the limits of what works for me, and my characters tend to have at least the semblance of a backstory. However, I have not truly fully role-played in an MMO since I left AoC. I prefer to RP in tabletop settings.

I personally don’t consider myself a roleplayer. But since I’m on Piken Square (a dedicated RP server, it meant more when Megaservers weren’t in place) and I appreciate that some people don’t want their immersion broken, I try to make each and every one of my characters seem like an interesting adventurer who definitely exists in universe. I could never hope to pull off the “that one guy with Twilight who came in, killed the three enemies on you and ran off into the sunset faster than you thought possible” look anyway. Most of my friends enjoy roleplaying and casual play. So, we’re usually not building optimally for speed clears. Of course, Berserker’s is optimal and playing Cleric’s Beastmaster Ranger got really boring after I got a taste of ‘Zerker Ele’s superior damage while still having Geyser, Rain and water aura to support people.

I suppose at the end of the day, you should play the game how you want, but don’t spend your time hurting other peoples’ fun. Roleplayers, don’t stand around outside a helmet collecting event and power up the local Skritt beyond comprehension. Non-RPers, don’t go out of your way to blitz through a tavern in the guise of a Bobblehead Birthday Blaster Boar.

Roleplayers = people that play the game specifically to impersonate and act as if they were their character in a specific scenario they create.

No, not all role playing gamers are role players. the RP community in almost every game is a huge minority

I consider people who play a character but dont emote/type it in chat to be a ‘head’ RPer – as in, the RP exists only in your head. I plan and think of interactions between my characters and play some of them in TTRPG, this I would consider head RP.

So yeah, I am one even if I don’t hang out in taverns repeating my life story over and over for each new audience, as most in-game RP seems to be.

In the loosest sense of the term, yeah we’re all roleplayers. Even in real life, we play the role of consumer, player, poster, co-worker, friend, spouse, parent, etc because as the saying goes, the world’s a stage. However, we probably don’t throw around that term for those titles.

Back to the topic example, no, we’re not all roleplayers. A roleplayer tends to be someone who ‘plays’ with their role. There is a distinction of playing with your role and playing as your role. You play as a team buffer, as a DPS, as a tank. A roleplayer will play with that role and go beyond what the role is and morph it into a character, a personality, a motivation. While a normal player will play their DPS character with the motivation of “it’s fun and the most efficient”, a roleplayer plays with that role and gives the character a personality and motivation of why it’s fun and most efficient, perhaps by molding a history for that character, a backstory that describes how they arrived at that motivation. But most importantly, that motivation changes through the personality of that character created for them.

[EDITED: for redundant redundancy]

Drow.2081:

I’m a role player because I make up stories to go with my characters. But I’m not in the crowd of role players that emote. It’s way cute and I love them for it but I’m just not into communal rp’ing. My OC’s are miinnne alooone.

The non-role players are all those jerks screaming at the rest of us, “Just play the stupid game already!” They couldn’t remember what color their character’s hair is but they could list stats so fast NASA couldn’t keep pace.

If I remember correctly drow, you were responsible for being just as rude to non-rpers as we supposedly are to you. Also, everyone plays the game the way they enjoy. Some people enjoy min maxing others love immersing themselves into a different identity. Remember that understanding is the best way to reach good terms with multiple parties

Most of my characters are tools, windows that allow me to access the gameplay. I don’t care about the lore in the slightest when I’m logged into do some sPvP.

A few of my characters are carefully constructed to fit into the game lore and have interactions with the world beyond game mechanics even if those interactions are mostly in my head. My evil Norn “Jora Corrupted” is always cautious and furtive when dropping in at a Norn outpost, ready should the big brutes around her recognize her for the Jormag’s Minion that she is and has been for centuries. And I always have a great personal giggle when she has to beat down “my stupid nephews, the sons of my Brother Svanir”. And she always carries the Bear Form Elite even if it isn’t the best in slot tool for the job at hand. Because Jora turning into a bear and beating things senseless is its own reward, greater than XP or loot.

But mostly I just exert my RPG muscles to the extent that the others around me do. If someone is chating with a clearly in-game voice, I’ll play along in-character. If its a business-like dungeon stomp, I’m business-like.

Doesn’t matter which interpretation of ‘Roleplayers’ we are if we consider ourself as that at all – what matters the most, and is also fundamental to the game itself – is how we as players treat each other.

There are going to be Roleplayers as characters and Roleplayers as Players running into each other – what makes Guild Wars 2 great is that 99% of the time it doesn’t end in conflict and that is what is important

(Piken Square Roleplayer here)

As a RPer. i will say this. There are different levels of RPers. Normally though there are three general categories players fall into. You have the Gamer, who just plays the game, to chill and relax do content, also gives characters names like “I forgot my shoe” . Then there’s troll who is out just to ruin other players experience, any group of players. Then you have the Immersive roleplayer who makes stories/situations with other roleplayers and acts them out, as the character they currently play as who fit into the world(Mostly back stories and all, but can also can be fleshed out during the process of RP abiding by the lore), with proper naming fitting to the lore or at least a proper name to go by). Basically I’d label this Immersive Roleplay.

Now you roleplay your character when you do the personal story, however the personal story is a set role made by the game devs. Basically filling that role makes you a dragon slaying demigod, pact commander. Everyone shares that Personal story so the immersion isn’t really there, you’re stuffed into that role with no other options but the one presented to you to choose from. That’s basic story game roleplay. Anyone can become a Rper, it just falls down to the type of roleplayer you are. Some don’t want to abide by lore, that’s fine. If they have someone who’ll tag along with the idea more power to them.

Gamers and Roleplayers normally don’t conflit or mind eachother at all in game, and just let each other do their thing. The only one that really brings in conflits are the trolls.

Lucentfir.7430:

As a RPer. i will say this. There are different levels of RPers.

If those are the 3 levels of rp’ers then I guess I’m not an rp’er since I prefer to observe the active rp’ers and do most of my RPing outside the game via writing and art.

Nah, the first 2 types you listed simply aren’t rp’ers, all the same you wouldn’t call everyone who can write words a writer or everyone who can apply a bandaid a physician.

I am much simple, let me create a character, let me customize the appearance and decide my name, that’s role play already, no matter it is fixed story path, nothing to interact….

Because i am playing a character that represent myself or an alt…

I have found some roleplayers (those who act like they “are” their character) amusing, and if I wouldn’t feel like a total fool for butting in I’d probably join them. Alas, I must also be one of those jerks who tell RPers to go play the game.

Vayne.8563:

There are, and have always been, two types of people playing these games, or two poles which people find themselves between. This has been true since the early days of pen and paper games, before computer games were even a thing.

The people I used to call simulation players and now call mechanics players are interested in the mechanics of the game. To them, everything is a system. This is how I get the most damage. This is how I maximize my efficiency. This is how I get through this dungeon fastest.

Then there are role players who use weapons that they think are cool, even if they’re not the most efficient. My character doesn’t like swords, even though swords are the most efficient weapon I can use. Some people don’t even know what works best.

Some people play healers not because healing helps the team, but it’s because they want to play. And as long as they play with other people playing that way, there’s usually no hassle. It’s when people who play their characters as characters come into contact with people who see the game as a bunch of systems that problems erupt.

And of course, you can be in the middle. I’m more for a person who plays characters, but I am mindful that some things just aren’t effective. I assume my characters are smart enough to want to be effective. But that’s not the same thing as saying MOST effective or most efficient.

At the end of that day most people are somewhere between the two poles, but they lean to one pole or the other.

Nicely said.

I consider myself kind of at an awkward in-between both as well.

I create characters as both tools to get a job done, but also as concepts exploring different things. My characters, including ones in DnD/Pathfinder campaigns, have had relevance to each other, intertwining back stories, etc., or are simply re-creations or inspirations from things I like and have seen (I’d like to mention that playing a paper RPG game as a clueless PC AND an NPC who is supposed to be knowledgeable on the world in the future of a world existing in a different, concurrent game being played as a PC is extremely difficult). That said, I usually give my cast their fair share of definitions and combat effectiveness requirements, or simply, if I believe the build as non-viable, I may not even make the character at all and just keep them as side-thoughts. I’ve had to marginalize some of my personal favorite paper-game characters like Dakrion Hellstorm due to the non-existence of defining traits, such as in his case, wielding a massive, oversized crossbow, due to the restrictions defined by GW2.

But I always project my characters as myself expressing my own personal ideals in-game. I look at them more or less as solid, visual representations/figures more than anything. RP’ing is something that I believe is just flat-out better in person, and simply is just not as easy to relate to/get into while online. Tonal changes and accents really nail things down I think, and sometimes going as far as dressing up for a public tabletop display is totally worth it to add the extra intrigue/hilarity; I’ll be playing in a public setting with a bunch of friends for a Valentine’s Day gaming expo, and we’ll be doing a holiday-themed session with Cupid as the head of the party, all of us dressed up as our characters. Watching a leprechaun sitting next to Uncle Sam and his pet eagle, sitting across from the Grim Reaper, Santa, and the Easter Bunny while screaming over the effects of a slightly-obese Cupid hitting on the queen via corny and vulgar pickup lines is something simply that cannot be replicated in-game :P

But I prefer to take a bit more of a utilitarian approach towards character builds, though. I’m deeply invested in mechanics, and often compose some characters entirely based around these mechanics. I will try absolutely everything to make what I want work, and will go as far as naming my characters after their mechanical concepts. I’m a definite min-maxer when it comes to making ineffective things play remotely well, if not extremely well in both online and paper games (such as an akimbo dual-crossbow-wielding hunter who kills off his pet/class feature for extra stat bonuses), just because I do enjoy the mechanics deeply as well.

penelopehannibal.8947:

Doesn’t matter which interpretation of ‘Roleplayers’ we are if we consider ourself as that at all – what matters the most, and is also fundamental to the game itself – is how we as players treat each other.

There are going to be Roleplayers as characters and Roleplayers as Players running into each other – what makes Guild Wars 2 great is that 99% of the time it doesn’t end in conflict and that is what is important

(Piken Square Roleplayer here)

Well said! I roleplay a lot in this game myself as my character, and when other people who don’t consider themselves roleplayers bump into me, it’s never about how stupid I am or anything, it’s usually a “Sorry to interrupt” or “Just passing through!”

Heck, sometimes they may even join in with the roleplay, and when that happens it’s always a blast. If you rolepaly, RP away! If not, we both share a game world, and I’m happy to share it all.

I think everyone’s a role player to some extent, since that’s what video games in their purest form is about. Of course, there’s those who simply play the game, and those who /me in cities, and those are on two ends of the spectrum. I think that most players sit somewhere in the middle – me and my friends, for example, have personalities for our characters and backstories, but I myself would find it difficult to talk as my character in the middle of a city.

As other players have said though, I feel that respect is the most important thing. In-character chatting makes me feel awkward, but I respect that some people really enjoy that. In return, they’ve never pressured me to join in or forced me to do anything I don’t want to. Regardless of whether you’re a /me roleplayer or simply in it for the gear grind, we share the same map, and should be respectful of one another’s interests ^^

The problem I have with self-identifying as a role-player is that the definition of what role-playing is within the context of MMOs anyway, has changed quite drastically. There’s a page for roleplayers in Guild Wars 2, an entire domain and nothing that goes on there has anything to do with my style of play. Using the words role player to describe anyone not engaged in that activity is unnecessarily confusing.

I’ve always considered myself an immersion player and immersing myself in the world and lore…and even having my characters alive in my head is quite normal for me. But I resist using the word role player because of the existing definition. I don’t want to give people the wrong idea.

Role-player is too old a word, with too many ideas attached to it to really be useful for this kind of conversation.

I think a new word is needed to differentiate us.

Yea… and why do people say GG in pvp. We all know it’s a good game, that’s why we play it. Like wtf!

Leo G.4501:

Lucentfir.7430:

As a RPer. i will say this. There are different levels of RPers.

If those are the 3 levels of rp’ers then I guess I’m not an rp’er since I prefer to observe the active rp’ers and do most of my RPing outside the game via writing and art.

Nah, the first 2 types you listed simply aren’t rp’ers, all the same you wouldn’t call everyone who can write words a writer or everyone who can apply a bandaid a physician.

It was to explain the three types of players in this game(not three types of RPers), though i should of organized/worded it better. Gamer is a gamer,, and troll is a troll. A roleplayer is a roleplayer but there are different types of Roleplayers. Immersive RPers will RP their own tales and such, while following along the lore and making sure things fit appropriately. Then there are the RPers that don’t give a crap about the lore or do not take the time to read into it and create some really lore bendy things. Following along the PS is also considered , as you are taking the role of a X character that becomes the pact commander and such, but at the same time its considered playing the game, as a gamer, and it really restricts your options..

Aren’t we all Roleplayers?

Nah…I used to roleplay for 10+ years (tabletop/live ropeplaying etc…) but with games like GW2 all I care about is making my characters as powerful as possible, getting my ‘look/appearence’ and LOOT(not that GW2 has any LOOT). Then I am done…

Vayne.8563:

Role-player is too old a word, with too many ideas attached to it to really be useful for this kind of conversation.

I think a new word is needed to differentiate us.

Care to elaborate on this? I don’t feel you really defined your style of roleplaying in that post. Perhaps with an example to help illustrate it.

Me, I usually don’t role play on MMOs. Partly because there are just too many people running around who don’t give a flying fish about it or will actively try to disrupt it. I have seen roleplayers around various corners of the maps, but the times I ever tried to join in, I usually felt excluded, either through being ignored or one player actively tell me (in character) to get lost. Not quite the reaction I would expect, normally, but there you go.

I don’t know how I could define myself…

I don’t act as if I were my character, but I do as if they had their own personality. When talking to my friends (on Skype or TeamSpeak), I sometimes say “X is ready to kick their bottoms!” or “Y doesn’t like melee fighting”.

My characters exist and have a story in Tyria, but nothing to do with real life: my necromancer isn’t the dark side of me, my mesmer isn’t the deceiving part of me… My necro is a descendant from my GW1 necro and they have a family business to run (protection of the land and so forth).

Do I talk through my character as my character? No. Do I act as if my characters were a bit more than just a bunch of pixels? Yes. Otherwise, I wouldn’t spend time creating them with a look that suits them and their personalities.

Rognik.2579:

Vayne.8563:

Role-player is too old a word, with too many ideas attached to it to really be useful for this kind of conversation.

I think a new word is needed to differentiate us.

Care to elaborate on this? I don’t feel you really defined your style of roleplaying in that post. Perhaps with an example to help illustrate it.

Me, I usually don’t role play on MMOs. Partly because there are just too many people running around who don’t give a flying fish about it or will actively try to disrupt it. I have seen roleplayers around various corners of the maps, but the times I ever tried to join in, I usually felt excluded, either through being ignored or one player actively tell me (in character) to get lost. Not quite the reaction I would expect, normally, but there you go.

Generally speaking, RPing is an active pursuit. People RP wIth each other. I RP in my head, and I’m the only one aware it’s going on. I immerse myself in the world and story. My characters have likes and dislikes.

I have an engineer that uses a rifle, because HE prefers a rifle. I don’t prefer a rifle, but it’s not really my decision.

But if someone called me an RPer, then they’d imply that I was doing something actively with other people. That’s what people would assume. I don’t see myself as RPing. I’m not really playing a role.

I’m also a fiction writer and that’s what I do when I write. I give my characters their freedom to be real (within limits sometimes). It’s probably a by product of my writing. It might be closer to the character development I use when writing than it is to RPing in the traditional sense of the word.

“R” in MMORPG has lost it’s meaning long time ago.

PvE doesn’t become PvP because you’re immersed in what you’re doing (fighting NPCs). I think this is a good comparison for the difference between “role-playing” and “playing an RPG”. Rpers don’t just put themselves into their character’s place while playing a game (interacting with an environment); RP is about creating a specific character and interacting with other RPers’ characters, getting to know them, being influenced by what they do and seeing what happens.

I think you guys are making it a bit too simple..

I would call myself a roleplayer and I’ve been one since I was a child and played Baldur’s Gate and Arcanum for the first time. I even play the same “african” female mage character I did all those years ago in the first Baldur’s Gate in every RPG or MMORPG I’ve ever played.

However, my “roleplaying” happens in my head and by immersing myself in the world, dialogue (non-existant in Guild Wars 2) and story.

Thus I do not interact with other players in “character” because doing so would ruin and break “my” world because other players do not roleplay my world. They have their own world or a world very based on the lore of the game.

When I talk with other players I just talk to them as real persons; “- want to do a dungeon?” etcetera.

I don’t RP walk or any of that either.

My point is; just like everything else there is not only two types of persons, here; roleplayers or non-roleplayers. A roleplayer can be everything from someone always RP walking and talking in weird old english to a player just roleplaying in his head.