Question to my soon to be home server RPer's

[Koeten]

You just blew my mind (in a good way)....... nuff said

[Amorey]

As I said elsewhere, if people are gonna just make stuff up, they might as well play Second Life for all the connection their shared story-telling has to Middle Earth.

But...but...we like it here , sorry we shall not move

Lore gives us a fabulous framework to play within. To simplify it, hopscotch is fun, but 90% of people draw the same lines with the chalk, and we all play together. Sometimes, someone draws a new pattern. It's left to the rest if they want to play the new game, or not.

Yes ! Yes ! Yes ! Drawing new patterns is fun and lovely

In the end if you disagree with someone's playstyle you have the easiest way in the world to deal with it: Don't roleplay with them.

Wise words

I am almost tempted to say : ' nuff said '

[Koeten]

On a side note here about 1am GMT if anyone is around and wants to RP I got my guy up to lvl 12 before I left for work today. I'll be on for about 3-4hours after 0115am GMT or 0615am CST which ever you use. My char's name is Koeten and he is a human hunter you can Tell me ingame or just lemme know here when where and how you wanna meet

[Tanes]

What I'm trying to convey here boils down to the fundamental difference between giving pointers and advice that make it easier to fit into the 'big scheme', and flatly criticising and shooting down other playstyles than your own as unlegitimate. Freeform RP in most MMO/MUD environments is a social contract, not an established core mechanism dictated by a predefined ruleset - the only rules come in the form of participants in mutual agreement over how they choose to handle the megatext and the environment and how much they omit or fill in. This is why there are so many different schools of approach to lore, depth of RP and the tone of the play. Every single one of the methods are valid as long as the involved participants have an agreement or consensus over it. This also comes with the liberty to choose not to be involved with a particular approach, it's a give-and-take where you can't have your cake and eat it too.

Speaking from my long experience with freeform roleplay, there still are schools of RP that have a dominant presence in most game environments and adhering to them as a new player will absolutely make it easier to break into the community, as opposed to taking a contrarian stand and headstrongly going Your Own Way. In Lotro the overwhelming majority of roleplay is primarily derivative of the books instead of game lore and endorses creating your own stories based on the universe presented in the books. That does not mean making up powerful secret societies or pretending being a warlord of Angmar. For most players that means being a normal, lowly resident of the world without significant power or standing.
The thing is, Tolkien liked to write about the great heroes and the deeds of brave mighty men, and very little attention was given to the lives of the unseen ordinary people, the peasants, townsfolk and particularly women. In a situation like this you have no other way but to fill in the blanks to your best ability while keeping it on level and consistent with the material we were given to work with.

Because every single one of us is tiptoeing the line of what is 'appropriate' or reasonable, no matter what we do, there's no room for self-righteous shooting down of how someone else decides to enjoy their RP if it's not infringing on your play or hurting your own experience. There's always room for viewpoints, advice and sharing, and even for fair and constructive criticism if someone is plain misled or unintentionally giving themselves a hard time through their own actions, but it's absolutely vital for everyone to remember we're all still here to have fun and enjoy ourselves.
In the end if you disagree with someone's playstyle you have the easiest way in the world to deal with it: Don't roleplay with them.

*Offers Ofelie a cookie* This! I agree wholeheartedly. Whether my roleplay is "just storytelling" or not, I enjoy it. I don't let the likes of this guy get to me. New players: Don't be put off by what maxjenius is saying. He is just one of the many voices. Come along and try out Laurelin. We're not all bent on restricting your creativity.

[Bregir.Stoutheart]

I believe all are entitled to express their views, but I also believe that one of the greatest human abilities are that of accepting and trying to understand the viewpoints of others. In this quite theoretical discussion of what is good or bad rp, I think there is one thing all agree.

Good RP is the ability to take on a role in a given environment. But the beef here is, what is the role you take on?

For Maxjenus, the choice of role seems to be what is given us by the storyline and quests of the game, and thus creativity consists of internalising this story and making it credible (Something I think Turbine has given us much help in).
For others, the choice of role is that of an inhabitant of Tolkien's Middle earth. Thus creativity turns into the ability to tell a story in Turbine's Middle Earth that fits within the idea's of the professor. The ability to tell an interesting, realistic (if such a word can be used in fantasy) story becomes a key element.
For a third group, Turbine's Middle Earth is the centre, and the boundaries within the story can be told are opened up with the possibilities for gameplay. Again, creativity changes and becomes an effort to role play a life within the boundaries of the game.
Others again use the game only as a setting in which they role play their chosen roles, be it vampire elves or demonic dwarves. These people have few boundaries to their creativity and happily relinquish most of the ideas of Tolkien.

For my self, I balance in between the second and third group, trying to stay within the concepts of the professor, but still allowing myself some leeway. I think most people find their home around the same ideas, at least that is the experience from my RP on the server. Logically, however, I will mainly see people with my own view, so it may very well be distorted. I do rarely RP while questing - and many of the times where I do, I keep it separated from my characters real story, and use it only to add flavour to the immediate experience.

However, I respect all kinds of RP with one caveat. That they also respect me, which I find most people do, at least in-game.

I should like to know from all sides if you feel I have understood your positions, or if something must be added, corrected or removed. (And I would prefer if people only try to explain their own viewpoints, not their naturally distorted view of others'... )

Best regard
Bregir Stoutheart.

[maxjenius]

Hey guy, I've seen you do this thing in a whole bunch of threads and if you're going to use this as a one-sided soapbox instead of having an actual discussion and exchanging views and instead shouting them down at people and telling everyone they're doing it wrong, it's a really rude and obnoxious way to go about it and you're not going to have a very smooth ride on Laurelin if you bring this attitude with you.

Hey, dude, you have no idea what I am like in-game. You could have seen me already for all you know (unless you troll my character page on mylotro). You won't find me jumping up and down doing the Griefer Two-step in the middle of a bunch of RPers, no matter how ridiculous they are (I observed some ridiculousness just a while ago, in fact). But they play the game so they can have fun, and I play it so I can have fun. And never the twain shall meet, because I am not into shared storytelling, I am into role playing the game as it stands, and coming up with clever, creative reasons for why my Rohirrim is in Bree, rather than doing something like pretending that Bree is Edoras.

I play the game the way I want to play, and I am very particular about RPing. Consequently, and possibly ironically, I rarely RP. You can say it's my loss, if you want.

What you are doing is thread policing. And we both see it all the time in all kinds of forums devoted to all kinds of topics. You don't get to declare who may or may not post what in a topic. The forum has mechanisms for handling your displeasure, and grandiosely appointing yourself the thread cop is not one of them.

And like most self-appointed thread cops, you fail to recognize the irony of complaining that someone else is derailing a thread, because complaining about a derail is itself derailing.

[Koeten]

Ladies and Gents could I kindly ask that you take your personal shots and arguments elsewhere? If there is a mod on then I would like to request a lock and delete/archiving of this as the initial purpose of the thread has been answered and done and it no longer serves any productive purpose for the community.

[oaxaca_dan]

Independent of the Rp discussion, I just wanted to speak to a post on a previous page and playtimes for the Op and his friend.

Insert plug for the Iron Axes here

We're a mixed race, casual to medium Rp kin based in the US playing peak north american hours (EST evenings). We're pretty active, having roughly 7-10 people on every night, and various private and public RP events. Always looking for more friends to join us.

If you guys are so inclined, check out the kin page in my sig, or drop a line in game.

Peace!

[Celestrata]

Closing and locking at user's request.