People have been spinning that mess for years, pk is rp. Just because I don't rp doesn't mean I don't rp. Right. Forgive me for playing both halves of the game reasonably and in character, to the full extent of the term.
An Observation
People have been spinning that mess for years' date=' pk is rp. Just because I don't rp doesn't mean I don't rp. Right. Forgive me for playing both halves of the game [i']reasonably and in character, to the full extent of the term.
Wrong. It's not "Just because I don't rp doesn't mean I don't rp". It's "just because I don't sit in Central Square and have tea parties doesn't mean I don't rp. My character's entire existence from log off to log on is RP. When I train against scarecrows, I'm rping. When I challenge a foe to mortal combat and defeat them, I'm RPing. When I come out of nowhere and slaughter someone for personal pleasure, I'm RPing. It's ALL RP."
I'm not going to argue any further. That does not mean that I concede your point, agree with you, admit I was wrong, or see things from your side in any way, shape, or form.
One of you is advocating passive RP while the other is talking about active RP
passive rp is an OOC mindset that you are in character (logging on, training, pking)
active rp is actually doing something with that mindset (emotes, talking, notes) and so on...
I am personally on Celerity/TWK's side in this one.
I'm sorry, my vision went hazy as hell exploded underneath my feet. What did you post, Raargant?
passive rp is an OOC mindset that you are in character (logging on, training, pking)
active rp is actually doing something with that mindset (emotes, talking, notes) and so on...
No disrespect intended, Celerity, but I personally don't distinguish between the two. If I'm logged on, I'm RPing, no matter what I'm doing. I know exactly what my character is thinking and why he's doing anything that he does, be it grabbing eq or training or talking or pking. You don't need to "assume" I'm RPing, you can be assured I'm RPing, and you can interrupt me with whatever I'm doing and I can explain to you why my character's doing it. If my character's doing something, he's got a reason for it, and THAT is RPing.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with sitting around talking. I still do it plenty on most of my chars. But I've also played a number of characters that are complete loners (I had a paladin once who refused to ever group with anyone because he was unwilling to risk the lives of others), and I've played silent killers, and my RP is no less fleshed out and active with them than it is when I'm playing a tea-party friendly healer. Is it less obvious? Yes. But if you ask me, knowing the motivations of your character in doing things alone is a far deeper level of role playing than just thinking RP involves sitting around chatting.
IMO, if you 'know' that your character has RP, but don't 'demonstrate' it, the actual effect and impact on other players is the same as though you were a trash character with no RP whatsoever. It's the equivalent of saying, to a person PK'd by someone they've never had contact with and ignores them utterly afterwards, "Actually, he DOES have RP. It just happens to all be in his head and not viewable in the game, but trust [me], it's there." That's not very comforting, and it's not very beneficial for the atmosphere and environment of the MUD. Just as how PK can't be 'in your head', neither should your RP; both should be demonstrable within the FL mud.
It's much like how 'knowing' you love someone, but not 'demonstrating' it so that the other knows it as well, is still going to end in you eventually getting your arse dumped.
The natural, logical outgrowth of 'passive RP' would be to conclude that a game like CounterStrike is, indeed, an RP game. One side is 'roleplaying' a terrorist, the other side is 'roleplaying' a counter-terrorist, and then they shoot each other, because that's what terrorists and counter-terorrists do.
No thanks. Not what my opinion of what RP and FL is/should be about.
Why is the stereotypical RP always come back to sitting around chatting? I have seen some great rp in the central commons as well as some very poor rp there as well. Similarly there is poor to great rp through tells, clan chat, cabal chat, emote, pmotes, smotes etc...People will find ways to rp through every given avenue.
Just because the mud is rp enforced it does not mean that everytime you enter your login name and think to yourself "I am gonna go train now" you are suddenly some rp marvel. Similarly with pk, it is a pk enforced mud and yet lots of people suck at it.
There ARE degrees of skill in both PK and RP
The important thing is to keep a somewhat modest attitude and accept the fact that you can always improve. I strive to be better at pk every time I fight and lately I have been working on rping better too, I dont want to exlude one in favor of the other...something I used to do a lot.
edit: Damn Raargant, we posted simultaneously, but I think you phrased a similar message better than me. I guess I can improve in PK, RP, and forum posting skills 
This modest attitude concept of yours eludes me.