Guild Wars 2

Im here to bring up an issue plagueing me for some time now. It is Roleplay. Or more precicely, GW2’s appearent ingrained resistence to it.

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.

That is what it is supposed to mean. Role playing. Yet it seems that this aspect is suffering greatly at the moment, at least as far as i can see. Little to no aspect directly encourages players to actually create and play out their own character ideas.

If you would point me at the Personal Story of the game, i could not really take you seriously. Any serious roleplayers would scoff at the idea of actually roleplaying your character as the same one that is in the personal story. The one sylvari beside Caithe who dreamt of facing a dragon. The one Snaff Savant, the one Hero of Shaemor. The one commander of the Pact who takes down Zhaitan with the help of Destiny’s Edge and… four other..commanders? Where did they come from?
Anyway, you get my meaning. The Personal Story does not help actual roleplaying. Far from it.

What does though?

The setting of course. The world of Tyria, the universe of Guild Wars 2 is full of history and plots and opportunity for so many stories, stories that cant hope to get into the game from the actual developers because there is just too many, and of course, not all of them as epic and grand that would warrant the attention of a single dev to implement, let alone to program, voice-act, animate and all the rest. But still, the stories and plots and their possibilities are there. And roleplayers are the ones who play them out. By themselves, enriching the already rich enviroment. Giving further depth to the game that could not be archieved through the grand developing scheme of the Living Story content.

Alright then, so the game setting and world is ripe for roleplaying, whats the issue here?

Well…the fact that nothing else does support RP. I was trying to look for things in the game that actively support this aspect, but beside simple walking that can be toggled and bound to a key… i didnt find anything else that was without its problems.

Emotes. You can just start typing in chat with */e and you are set to describe anything that is happening to your character. So thats good, right?

Right. I can do that. I can also do that in a Skype RP. Presently emote messages are seen by all from half a district away in Divinity’s Reach. I can see from the Grenth Highway when someone in the Ossan Tavern blurps and puts it in an emote. This change came the same time when Culling was removed from PvE.

That was a great thing too. No, im not sarcastic now. Culling made large RP events hard. It was horrible that we couldnt enjoy the show of the Carnival of Wonders guild on Piken Square without mobbing to the stage, all too uncomfortably close to each other, just to see whats going on (presented by great imaginative emotes written by characters just standing still). The removal of culling got rid of that problem, thankfully. Alas it came with a bug that everyone appeared with weapons drawn for weeks. I wasnt sure if everyone in the tavern was having a drink or were ready to gut each other. That bug was fixed thankfully, but the range of emotes stayed veeeeery big.

Those unfamiliar with this might think its a good thing, so let me explain. Consider a roleplaying hotspot like Rurikton District in DR. It has a bar, a central square, a noble mansion, and some shady alleys as well. Have a guild or two in those. A Noble house in the mansion. The bar and its employees, as well as its guests. Another guild presently mugging some random passer-by person in a dark alley. People just hanging out on the central square. You are just one of the guys taking a drink in the tavern, and talking to one other person. Unless the world implodes just outside the tavern, that one person or the rest of the tavern is all you want to see emotes from. Instead you are flooded by emotes from the noble house, the mugging, the charr warband just happening to travel through…. you see the problem now i hope.

But thats still just an inconvenience really. It is nothing compared to some of the other decision ANet made during development.

Started off with the fact that there are no dedicated RP servers. Not a crippling issue, Piken Square and Tarnished Coast were dedicated by the players in the beta weeks. Trolls with hundreds of molachev kittentails dropped into a single room happen though, and we cant do a thing against them. But its rare enough.

No interactions with objects in the world. No doors or heavens forbid windows to open or close, no mugs of ale or food to pick up and consume, and no chairs to sit on. If you want to sleep in a bed, you better stand on it and turn yourself the right way, then stand up, adjust, /sleep again, then restart because the bed suddenly devoured you like that kid in Nightmare on Elms street!

Debatable and sometimes confusing lore statements from developers. What the developers say is law. There is no way around that… But waypoints? There are numerous points why waypoints make no sense in a roleplaying setting, and while their existence is good for the gameplay, there is no point denying that everyone raised a brow when we read that WPs are teleporting coins from our pockets into a big vault in Rata Sum, sweeped by golemites…

No housing. Not for guilds, not for players. Only instances with a maximum number of 5 players (including the host) to enter. It needs invitation that makes more natural, random encounters in these places impossible. Guild interactions impossible outright, unless its two guilds with only two characters each.

No empty indoor areas. Everything is full of NPCs blabering their 2 lines of dialogue every minute.

To these last two points, i have to bring up uninstanced Salma District. RP veterans know all about it. For newcommers, here is the short version: Salma district used to be accessible without instance version through some conventional roof-jumping from the Grenth Highway. This uninstanced version was as part of the real DR as the streets just beyond the always closed gates. Everyone could get in in any number without trouble. Guilds were concentrated there. For the Vanguard hospital, the Queensheart Orphanage, for the tavern (That was actually used as a manor in Piken Square by a noble guild.) It had the most indoor areas available in the game, all empty and void of robot NPCs.

Then almost a year ago a random patch closed it down as a stealth-nerf/assault against roleplaying. Put an invisible wall in the narrow path where we gained access to the area.

For some, that was the final nail in the coffin. For more, it was just a nail in the side as we hoped that we will get our best RPing area back, with all the valid arguements and pleads to ANet, as well as some actual responds from them. Almost a year ago. Nothing happened.

The noble guild that played in the salma tavern was kicked out. We endured for months after, developing plots and reasons in character, a few centered on why we could not go back yet. All in the hope that one day we may.

We disbanded officially in December. The leader of our guild, the most enthusiastic roleplayer i have met just couldnt get herself to log in anymore to such an uncaring enviroment.

I imagine similar things went down in Tarnished Coast.

… This got a bit more personal than i intended it. Consider this just a rant or venting. Add your thoughts if you like. Maybe it will be adressed by someone official.

tl:dr
RolePlay concept is lost, the game is just a Massively Multiplayer Online Game. GW2 is unwelcoming for roleplayers. I have better experience roleplaying on Skype with the guild wars universe than in GW2. Discuss.

Yeah, you do know ‘role playing’ is a extremely broad and inclusive term particularly in games. Some might argue having a leveling system is RPG, other might require a heavy focus on story, while others would require detailed character customisation. Some might only see a game as being role playing if it has the tools for user created narrative and story. So this is a rather pedantic minefield, and I’m not feeling too pedantic today.

There is a role in this game you are playing the role of DPS.

You know you can still get in Salma District uninstanced rather easily right? I feel bad your guild died, but there’s at least 3 other ways to get in that still exist.

I agree with most else though, we could use some interactable objects, a few more fun emotes, and some nice town clothes (that Anet for some reason decided to remove completely from the store.)

Sure, the unavailability of Salma district sucks, overtly large emote range sucks and we could definitely use more emotes as well as healthy range of town clothes. I agree!

But apart from that? Look around, the world is gorgeous! Divinity’s Reach is the most characterful city I’ve ever seen in a MMORPG. Don’t all those little details in the world inspire you to roleplay? For some reason, (and in more than just GW2!) many roleplayers seem to think that the world or game designers are “against them” or at least that’s what it often sounds like to me. This game features lots of stuff that can’t be used for anything else other than enhancing atmosphere and roleplay immersion.

I think your idea of RPG is not their idea of RPG, the rpg that is meant when they talk about “RPG” isnt really what you mean. There hasnt been too many mmorpgs that are based around, or built for your idea of RP.

the RPG here, is like the RPG in final fantasy, secret of mana, dragon warrior, baldur’s gate, neverwinter nights, etc.

Now im not saying mmorpgs are opposed to the existence of RP, but generally very little in them is built with such things in mind. Probably what RPers need to do, is create a new term for RPG, and then massively push for more games built with this type of play in mind.
keep in mind, some of the things RPers would want go against what most RPGs are based on. RPers really want a world full of props, with very little actually set in stone, that way they can fit the world to their needs, and play whatever roles are needed.

“stealth assault on roleplaying”

Stuff like this is why you will not get an official response. Playing the victim gets you no where. This is a beautiful vibrant world, and if a small fraction of one corner of city determines your enjoyment of the game, I don’t think you liked RPG’s to begin with.

Just my 2coppers, I do feel for your loss of guild though, it’s never easy to say goodbye to a good guild and group of friends.

tom.7468:

There is a role in this game you are playing the role of DPS.

I think that nailed it.
Imho, nobody really knows how reliable RP fans are as a targetgroup for the MMO business but you can definetly count on those who want to find ‘the best build’ or ‘the best gear’.

Your wall of text isn’t wasted though. It inspired me for the future and I’m pretty confident the issue behind this is not a demand issue, or that RP isn’t a viable motivation to build on. It just doesn’t mix well with our currently promoted ‘max build’ mentality… unless having a ‘themed’ character build increases your damage nowadays.

Guest to TC. I made a lot of RP friends there. My human Thief is married to an asuran Engineer.

Anet got the ‘massively’ part right atleast in MMORPG, since Deborah is the most common name in Kryta, and roughly 33% of all humans had their parents murdered by the White Mantle…. (/sarcasm)

Yeah, actually RP != RPG. It’s a, rather, broader term that’s not what you are trying to make it out to be. But, yeah, TC is where you want to be in GW2.

Chrispy.5641:

Anet got the ‘massively’ part right atleast in MMORPG, since Deborah is the most common name in Kryta, and roughly 33% of all humans had their parents murdered by the White Mantle…. (/sarcasm)

White Mantle was 200 years ago. My parents were killed by Centaurs.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Chrispy.5641:

Anet got the ‘massively’ part right atleast in MMORPG, since Deborah is the most common name in Kryta, and roughly 33% of all humans had their parents murdered by the White Mantle…. (/sarcasm)

White Mantle was 200 years ago. My parents were killed by Centaurs.

The White Mantle were 200 years ago, but they are also still right now, and are still very much around, but since Guild Wars 2 is not human focused, we may never actually see them outside the personal story.

and my 33% comment came from this if you really failed that badly to get the sarcasm in my comment::
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ashes_of_the_Past

phys.7689:

I think your idea of RPG is not their idea of RPG, the rpg that is meant when they talk about “RPG” isnt really what you mean. There hasnt been too many mmorpgs that are based around, or built for your idea of RP.

the RPG here, is like the RPG in final fantasy, secret of mana, dragon warrior, baldur’s gate, neverwinter nights, etc.

Now im not saying mmorpgs are opposed to the existence of RP, but generally very little in them is built with such things in mind. Probably what RPers need to do, is create a new term for RPG, and then massively push for more games built with this type of play in mind.
keep in mind, some of the things RPers would want go against what most RPGs are based on. RPers really want a world full of props, with very little actually set in stone, that way they can fit the world to their needs, and play whatever roles are needed.

Haven’t played many MMORPG’s have you? Game mechanics aside, I think the majority of MMORPG’s, at least majority of most well know and successful triple A versions have at least acknowledged that there is a RP crowd playing their games.

RP servers with naming rules and an interactive environment is the baseline of what you find. Guild Wars 2 has neither. Marriage systems have been in the majority of fantasy versions. Not in Guild Wars 2. Open World combat and dueling that many RPers would use in many versions, not in Guild Wars 2. The ability to inspect character sheets to see actual RP gear and items in many versions.

Even City of Heroes had a self written bio that players could read while inspecting one another. I’ve remember reading some pretty great backgrounds there.

I will also say that it’s been my experience that sandboxes lend themselves more to RP than the themeparks out there. GW2 is a themepark so that’s actually a built in strike.

Let’s face it, GW1 or GW2/Arenanet has never been about RP. If the players want it, you kind of have to do what you have done thus far and do it yourself.

Chrispy.5641:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Chrispy.5641:

Anet got the ‘massively’ part right atleast in MMORPG, since Deborah is the most common name in Kryta, and roughly 33% of all humans had their parents murdered by the White Mantle…. (/sarcasm)

White Mantle was 200 years ago. My parents were killed by Centaurs.

The White Mantle were 200 years ago, but they are also still right now, and are still very much around, but since Guild Wars 2 is not human focused, we may never actually see them outside the personal story.

and my 33% comment came from this if you really failed that badly to get the sarcasm in my comment::
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ashes_of_the_Past

I don’t think you understood the part where I said my parents were killed by Centaurs. If you meet me in TC, I’d be more than willing to tell you my RP story at the Dead End bar. My asuran wife could even introduce you to some of her friends back home in Rata Sum.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Chrispy.5641:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Chrispy.5641:

Anet got the ‘massively’ part right atleast in MMORPG, since Deborah is the most common name in Kryta, and roughly 33% of all humans had their parents murdered by the White Mantle…. (/sarcasm)

White Mantle was 200 years ago. My parents were killed by Centaurs.

The White Mantle were 200 years ago, but they are also still right now, and are still very much around, but since Guild Wars 2 is not human focused, we may never actually see them outside the personal story.

and my 33% comment came from this if you really failed that badly to get the sarcasm in my comment::
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ashes_of_the_Past

I don’t think you understood the part where I said my parents were killed by Centaurs. If you meet me in TC, I’d be more than willing to tell you my RP story at the Dead End bar. My asuran wife could even introduce you to some of her friends back home in Rata Sum.

I’m actually rather curious as to how ,RP-wise, you managed to marry an Asura, being honest.

if you want to see GW2 to make more RP, things need to be changed and i know 100% sure that many players would get frustrated by the changes.
the zergs need to completely disappear, the maps need to be made more immerse, you need quests (and no, not your WoW generic ones, dynamic ones in next gen game version), we need GH’s, DE’s need to be more interactive, etc…

as you see, there is plenty to do in order to make the RP element allot stronger but it will go against the gear grind and achievement addicts wishes.

RedSpectrum.1975:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Chrispy.5641:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Chrispy.5641:

Anet got the ‘massively’ part right atleast in MMORPG, since Deborah is the most common name in Kryta, and roughly 33% of all humans had their parents murdered by the White Mantle…. (/sarcasm)

White Mantle was 200 years ago. My parents were killed by Centaurs.

The White Mantle were 200 years ago, but they are also still right now, and are still very much around, but since Guild Wars 2 is not human focused, we may never actually see them outside the personal story.

and my 33% comment came from this if you really failed that badly to get the sarcasm in my comment::
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ashes_of_the_Past

I don’t think you understood the part where I said my parents were killed by Centaurs. If you meet me in TC, I’d be more than willing to tell you my RP story at the Dead End bar. My asuran wife could even introduce you to some of her friends back home in Rata Sum.

I’m actually rather curious as to how ,RP-wise, you managed to marry an Asura, being honest.

My character’s love is not based on size or race, but of what’s on the inside. The heart. Besides, we can’t decide if our comparability is because my human is just super smart, or her asura is just super dumb. Maybe my human likes being hit with snarky attitudes 24/7. We didn’t write that RP story yet. And on a side note, we’re leaving out any honeymoon elements, since each story we wrote so far is too hilarious to share.

Next step, having my asura marry a charr.

We know and knew about the possible ways to get back into Salma. Most agreed it was quite risky though. When it was locked off from the most convenient access, it was clear that Anet doesnt want players hanging out there. They still dont, otherwise something would have happened by now. If we keep using it, chances are its just a matter of time until it gets locked from every angle. Even more so it was locked off from the middle-common roleplayers, the layer who wanted to have RP in a clean enviroment, even if they had not clear idea where to go. Now only people go in who has a clear reason to, since entering needs specific class, help from those classes or specific tools that still lead through roof-tops that are subject to getting walled too.

Im fully aware that RPG doesnt equal the same RPG im talking about here. The comments about this may be about the title i gave to the topic. If so, i apologise for the confusion. As you all figured, im not talking about the gear- and progression-based fun rpg of the Diablo kind nor the complexity of a good DnD game like Neverwinter Nights. Im talking about what the actual words stand for. Role Play. Pretending to be someone or something you are not in an artificial setting. Thats what this topic is about. I dont know about all that other RPG definitions, but if the game is lacking on those parts too, feel free to open new threads about them, or expand this one if you will. I in no way claim that my idea of the abbrevation is the only valid concept of what they should stand for.

And of course the setting is great. As i said, thats the main part why Guild Wars 2 looks so good on paper for RP. I truly belive GW2 has one of the best setting for tons of potential on the roleplay front. And many exploit these opportunities, as do i if i can. Against all odds.

Aeonblade.8709:

“stealth assault on roleplaying”

Stuff like this is why you will not get an official response. Playing the victim gets you no where. This is a beautiful vibrant world, and if a small fraction of one corner of city determines your enjoyment of the game, I don’t think you liked RPG’s to begin with.

Just my 2coppers, I do feel for your loss of guild though, it’s never easy to say goodbye to a good guild and group of friends.

My wording may have been dramatic. I was aiming for something on the same level as the term “stealth-nerf”. The problem was that there was nothing to nerf, so…

I was actually happy about us being forced a bit more outside. We moved to RP in Seraph’s Landing, and had great storylines there, things we could never do stuck in DR. (Even though my character hated it.) But that only gets you so far. Its not easy keep doing it in nihil, secluded from the bulk of RP action that is still stuck in DR mostly…

I dont enjoy the game itself any less for these flaws. Me playing the game as the character of the Personal Story changed nothing, and i still play most days. It is the roleplay aspect that i no longer feel welcoming, the development of truly unique characters in a more dynamic world than the Living Story itself could never create.

Maybe it was never meant to be part of the whole gameplay experience. Thats the impression i get from the whole of it. As if roleplayers just latched on to a beutiful setting and promising history like some unwanted side-effect that ANet doesnt want to actively get rid of, but isnt going to make feel welcome either.

i’d rather play the game than sit around and pretend to be an npc all day

I 100% agree. It seems that the developers of this game almost have an intention to reduce or eliminate individuality and roleplay and instead focus us all on how they want us to play. I’m sure this isn’t the case, but it sometimes FEELS that way.

Question to any dev: I have to load Salma/Heros Canton every time I load the respective cities. It is possible that I have to load Dreamer’s Terrace/Hunter’s Hearth and Applied Development Lab each time too. What is the actual reason for the block to entering these places uninstanced? Will it crash the game/corrupt files if we were allowed unfettered access?

I think not. Roleplaying in this game seems, for the most part, recanting your character’s life story over and over in taverns ad nauseum.

I have said for years that computer game roleplaying is not, and never will be, as good as pen and paper roleplaying. Everything in GW2 from the blocks on home instances, to the personal story, to the incessantly repetitive NPC speak in anywhere roleplaying is likely to occur, seem to reinforce that opinion in spades.

Sometimes it seems like the game is structured in such a way as to promote a play style of “Collect this, do this, kill this, buy this, be a robot” based mentality where individualism is suppressed.

If i remember right they say something like LW s1 isnt about personal story, like… Well your personal story. But the world story. (cause, in RP, your character worry about dragon in first, scarlet is pretty secondary, you just help in some case.) But.. They say that way later …
And, they say (yes, they say lot of thing.) s2 is more about your personal story. And some point you say appears in CDI thread, we will see…

(I dont disagree at all, i just try to get some perspectiv before better RP-related content… Cause its all we can do.)

You people have witnessed the evolution of a definition first hand. Words are just words, and their meaning can shift over time. Somewhere along the line, the abbreviation “RPG” started to be used as a blanket description of a genre of video games. Most people who were previously unfamiliar with actual role playing (like DnD or LARP or whatever) simply took “RPG” for their own. Today when we say “RPG” we really mean a video game like Skyrim or Dark Souls or what have you. A game where you play a character that has stats you allocate. MMORPG simply means a video game where you play a character that has stats you allocate and is massively multiplayer. The original idea of role playing was lost from the term “RPG” when such video games became popular.

Xenon.4537:

You people have witnessed the evolution of a definition first hand. Words are just words, and their meaning can shift over time. Somewhere along the line, the abbreviation “RPG” started to be used as a blanket description of a genre of video games. Most people who were previously unfamiliar with actual role playing (like DnD or LARP or whatever) simply took “RPG” for their own. Today when we say “RPG” we really mean a video game like Skyrim or Dark Souls or what have you. A game where you play a character that has stats you allocate. MMORPG simply means a video game where you play a character that has stats you allocate and is massively multiplayer. The original idea of role playing was lost from the term “RPG” when such video games became popular.

To be fair there wasn’t even a lot of “character development” laid out in the original D&D. It was pretty much a book of rules about character creation, stat allocation, map /dungeon creation and combat interaction. Playing as a character that isn’t “you” is “role playing”. The depth to which the “RP” community takes character creation and collaborative storytelling is beyond that framework and always has been.

OP’s form of RP is largely based on adding to these sort of frameworks, and I don’t see how GW2 is any less conducive to it than D&D.

Do I think they should open un-instanced Salma? Sure. Do I think that will somehow make all the roleplayers happy? Nope. Happiness is where you make it, just like real life.

The best roleplaying happens with pen & paper games or even just group-storytelling without an official ruleset. MMORPGs have really pretty worlds, but the limits of the chatbox make it totally uncomfortable for me to RP in them and the limits of graphics make my imagination feel frustrated by constraints over time.

Tarnished coast, Piken Square. There are your RP heavy servers.

Redefine what Role play is.

I am head of the largest? Role play guild on Tarnished Coast. We have 2 major events a week open to all comers Rp or not. We role play out in the world. we play the game and be the character we have created. Some days I am 3 foot tall asura thief, Others a 9 foot tall Norn Necromancer. Just because I don t spend time in a bar TALKING about the things I have done. doesn’t make me any less of an RPer, I go out and DO them.

It would be cool, if you could control the mood of your character which affect the facial feature of your character. Right now it’s most time emotionless.

You’re in the wrong genre. MMORPGs do not really have “role-playing” elements in terms of “acting as your character.” They are combat simulators in a vast world linked with other players. MMORPGs never really developed to allow its players to “role play” they allowed their players to “roll play” — and in Guild Wars 2 people don’t even “roll play” as there are no attack rolls, it’s a very-action based combat system. “Rolling” only comes into play when getting loot, and the RNG screws them.

Nay, MMORPGs developed into action gear grind fests, that’s what they’re about, that’s what people like to play, and that’s what developers develop keeping that in mind.

If you want role-playing, get a singleplayer RPG from a developer that’s good at doing role-playing by offering great choices and letting your choices impact your world. Things like Fallout, Arcanum, oh yeah Black Isle was a master at these kinsd of games.

Or you go into a MUD, or you play something like Second Life, where RPing is the norm and not combat mechanics.

Problem with MMOs is that, due to the multiplayer aspect, it’s hard for developers to make a game where player choices really affect the world — as it could potentially ruin the world for other players. As such, we get very static worlds with rather linear stories.

Thrashbarg.9820:

To be fair there wasn’t even a lot of “character development” laid out in the original D&D. It was pretty much a book of rules about character creation, stat allocation, map /dungeon creation and combat interaction. Playing as a character that isn’t “you” is “role playing”. The depth to which the “RP” community takes character creation and collaborative storytelling is beyond that framework and always has been.

Well, the thing is, collaborative story-telling doens’t really work in MMOs because the environment doesn’t really react with whatever you are trying to do.

As you said, real “role-playing” as the TC describes is best done table top with other people.

I would wait for EQN for your roleplay fix. They seem to be building their game very very sandbox like.

tom.7468:

There is a role in this game you are playing the role of DPS.

i lol-ed at this

but that does makes sense, it weird to twist the meaning of RPG.
you are taking the role of the character. what does this role do? you, as a character, go around completing dungeons, maps, goals and etc. that is RPG

but TS wanted more, TS want a virtual life in a virtual world where actions or words can only be seen or heard just like in the reality.

i dont understand it. i dont understand how by doing these will let you feel being part of the world, is not real.

RedSpectrum.1975:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Chrispy.5641:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Chrispy.5641:

Anet got the ‘massively’ part right atleast in MMORPG, since Deborah is the most common name in Kryta, and roughly 33% of all humans had their parents murdered by the White Mantle…. (/sarcasm)

White Mantle was 200 years ago. My parents were killed by Centaurs.

The White Mantle were 200 years ago, but they are also still right now, and are still very much around, but since Guild Wars 2 is not human focused, we may never actually see them outside the personal story.

and my 33% comment came from this if you really failed that badly to get the sarcasm in my comment::
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ashes_of_the_Past

I don’t think you understood the part where I said my parents were killed by Centaurs. If you meet me in TC, I’d be more than willing to tell you my RP story at the Dead End bar. My asuran wife could even introduce you to some of her friends back home in Rata Sum.

I’m actually rather curious as to how ,RP-wise, you managed to marry an Asura, being honest.

I’m rather curious why anyone would want to mare an asura.

By the way? I do roleplay. There’s evidence of it all over the place in my posts ANet cannot stop me from doing it. There’s also the character background for “Tobias Trueflight” which I spent the intervening time between WiK and GW2 working on. There’s reasons vaguely racist remarks about asura and charr wind up in my posts other than me personally not liking Zojja’s personality.

Frankly, the lack of roleplay is not entirely the fault of ArenaNet.

It is, however, dependent on environment (that is, server player environment) encouraging it, and not actively discouraging it.

Roleplaying in an MMORPG is about roleplaying with other humans beings all over the world, even randomly, building connections by originally random encounters that can develop into something more. A single player RPG however deep and well developed, cannot do that. Table-top RPG is a private circle of friends, and needs invitation to even get into. You cannot develop a well working roleplaying community from nothing, just by playing how you want to play your character. It needs more off character introduction and preparation than many people, especialy new people to RPing, consider worth it.

The MMO part is just as important as the rest. It is a different kind of RPG than the rest maybe, but it exists and has a reason to exist. Even more so, it should be compatible with GW2 specificly, not just because of the setting, but because of the main source of income of the game: The gem store. Micro-transactions. Town clothes, armor skins of various kind, the transmutation crystals. I tend to believe that roleplayers who want their character to look a specific way would spend gems on such things.

I know i have. And im pretty sure that a significant percent of name-change contracts came from roleplayed marriages.