What happened to Roleplay?

[Gallant]

I was on this MUD before, but it was long ago. I don't even remember what name I chose. (this was 1-2 years ago) Back then, everyone was a die-hard roleplayer. It was the first MUD I ever played on and the advanced emoting confused the hell out of my newbiness.
  Now I got into roleplay and I'm coming back, but I'm seeing posts about "spam-crafters" and habitual NPC-ignoring thieves and killers. Is Armageddon is focused on quality roleplay, or has it gone steeply downhill?

[Delirium]

It is DEFINITELY focused on quality roleplay.

The absolute best I've seen in a MUD yet, and that's saying quite a bit.

[Gallant]

In that case, I can't wait for my App to process, as long as there are some of you out there that haven't turned to the dark side of code-exploitation.

[Angela Christine]

You will always get a few people looking to "win" the game, it is a natural tendency.  There are always new players joining, and even if they come from RP environments it can take a while to get used to different standards.  

Spam-crafting is crafting several items in a row without emoting.  Since the code provides echos for each attempt, in many games it would be perfectly acceptable to rely on those echos and not bother adding extra emotes if you didn't want to.  Many coded activites provide echos and temporarily change your ldesc, so it is easy if you are tired or bored to enter the command and then watch TV for 2 minutes until it is time to enter the command again.  It's not great RP by anyone's standards, but if it is realistic for your character to preform that activity over and over, then it may qualify as lazy roleplaying, but roleplaying none the less.  Somewhere the justifications get too thin, but the line is blurry and different for every person.  Someone who appears to be be spam crafting may think he is doing a good job roleplaying.

My point?  The purpose of discussion boards is to discuss.  People are more likely to discuss bad or contriversial things than they are to discuss good things.  You will rarely see someone post about a really good crafter they saw today, because that would be spilling IC information, and besides they aren't that invested in it.   Seeing what you expect to see raises less comment than seeing things you didn't expect and don't approve of.  Today I went outside and I didn't see any cops beating or harassing anyone: I usually wouldn't mention this because I don't expect to see cops beating people and I never have seen cops beating people (except on TV).  I also saw several pretty flowers, that might be remarkable some places, but Victoria doesn't really get winter so flowers in February are expected and unremarkable.  You see the occasional Kudos for good stuff posted on the GDB, but it is naturally far more common to see complaints about bad things.  Not because bad things are more common, but because they are more remarkable.

Wow, I really can talk for a long time about anything.  

Angela Christine

[crymerci]

I think what you're seeing in those posts complaining about lack of roleplay, is that Arm players in general are picky about roleplay. Personally, I think that's a good thing, although occasionally it does get too nitpicky for my tastes.

[Sanvean]

People are a lot pickier about roleplay than they used to be; and the players are also much better about self-policing than they were when I started playing. What you're seeing is not a decline in quality, but a rise in standards.

[Gallant]

So there is not more code-exploitation and RP-neglection, but more complaining about it. Great. Now, finally, something remotely relevant to the board: are there any ways of progressing your character through roleplay? (anything like XP nominations or staff-given awards?)

[Lazloth]

To some degree, karma.

[aeshyw]

Roleplay is pretty much the *only* way to advance your character.

Politics, clan promotions, ranks in service ...all roleplay based, not having to do with how much you hack and slash.  There is no XP and there are no levels.  It all depends on the kind of 'advancement' you want.  There really aren't any set milestones or awards, just a lot of sneaky backroom dealings and power struggles.

[John]

The poorest character can be roleplayed the best in the entire game. If you roleplay well, your given Karma (which is an OOC reward) but you don't recieve any IC reward, which makes sense when you think about it. Roleplay is required here, and there wouldn't be any IC way to explain any reward that could be given to your char.

There are certain races (such as Half-Giants) and certain guilds (such as magickers) that your not allowed to play when you first start the game. However as time progresses and you become better acclimed to the game and you show that your a good roleplayer, you'll be able to play certain races/guilds.

[Lazloth]

(anything like XP nominations or staff-given awards?)

Also, the traditional mush xp (which allow you to buy certain things like armies, etc., from what I recall) are overlooked thanks to an ultra-active staff.  If you're enacting a change in the environmental dynamics, it is very probable that your actions will have direct repercussions in the world [assuming you can back up your behavior with logs/snooped sessions/et.al.].

Similar to virtually any pc-run plot, for example, scorned by a random peddler in some market, your character spends several IC months harassing his business and person.  You shoo away any prospective buyers, hawk comparable gear at a drastically reduced rate, repeatedly threaten and batter the poor schmuck, bribe the policing populace, yada yada .. I'd bet dollar to donut that the merchant will eventually relocate or simply retire.

[Bardex]

Regarding mechanical "boosters" as a "reward" for roleplay, yes, there are, in addition to karma.

Let's say your character does -not- possess the throw skill, and you think he should, for RP purposes. If someone teaches you how to play darts, well that's "throwing" isn't it? Seems to make sense to me, anyway.

So you LOG the lesson. Submit the lesson to the mud account, with an explanation of why you think your character should have this skill. If they agree, they might add it to your list-o-skills.

I imagine some skills just ain't gonna show up for this or that character, no matter how well you RP it. Things such as psionics for a "burglar/tailor" character, or stealing for a "merchant/bard" character, for example. But I do know that you -can- get skills added to your list if the learning of the skill is RPed, logged, and submitted.