Do you expect a roleplaying server to be policed?

[Morreion]

The Daily Grind: Do you expect a roleplaying server to be policed? (Massively)

I roleplay a lot. This probably does not come as much of a surprise. As a result, I've spent time on a lot of different roleplaying servers and have long since given up any hope that I'll ever see any enforcement of rules by the community service staff. It would be really nice if GMs politely kicked people who didn't come to roleplay, but the fact of the matter is that it's just not going to happen.

Yeah, that ship left the shore a long time ago. A shame. I do expect serious harassment and particularly horrid names to be dealt with though.

Irem had some good comments on this thread:

The sad truth is that a lot of non-RPers still see roleplay as a fringe activity, think it's bizarre, or react badly out of contact embarrassment because they're just too cool to ever think doing something like that would be acceptable. It's not even griefers who want to get a rise out of RPers that are the problem; most of us have gotten used to trolls by now, and understand that if you ignore someone who is looking for a cheap thrill long enough, they'll go away. The people who don't go away are the ones who think RP is annoying or embarrassing and want RPers to stop. They will report you for spamming. They'll shout at you. They'll argue with you. They'll straight-up demand that you stop. And the unfortunate thing is that it doesn't take much to kill a fledgling RP community: just convince the majority of RPers that there's no audience for it and they're in the vast minority, and they'll go underground.

The best thing an RP server can offer is a clearly marked place where those hostile to RP who simply don't want to come in contact with it can avoid it, and those who RP can point to the server tag and say, "If you don't like it, you can leave." The official designation means that the devs see RP as a valid playstyle, and that's extremely important. Good fences, in this case, really do make good neighbors.

[dortmunder]

I really don't RP at all

If I am interacting with a person that does I generally try to do my part not to ruin their immersion.

A RP server 'should' be enforced, though loosely. I tend to choose to play on an RP server not to RP, but to deal with a generally better caliber of people/community.

Someone running around just bein an ass and intentionally trying to ruin other players experiences on these types of servers should be dealt with though.

[Morreion]

I hear you- I consider myself more of an IC (in character) player than an RPer these days, not ruining the immersion is a good way to describe it. And that's the best legacy of RP servers, players who roll up a character there because there are somewhat less immature players running around. That's why there ought to be at least 'RP preferred' servers in MMOs even if those servers aren't policed at all, the community should be slightly better.

[Kelryck]

I'm one of those who think RP servers should be policed, and not just for the naming convention.

It doesn't have to be all thee's and thou's, but there should be an effort to be part of the community, and not destroy or hurt other peoples immersion in the server world/game.

[sinaedh]

I have mixed feelings, I guess.

I used to be one of the roleplay police. I was an RDI (community volunteer chat monitor) in the Red Dragon Inn on AOL. And though our training was 'smile from the wrists down' and we were to educate, we did have gag powers and used them. I'd like to think I used my time there wisely and aided some roleplay along.

But on an MMOG, it's much more difficult, I would think. Even monitoring region chat in DAOC is a huge job. And perhaps it's my jaded view (avec rose colored glasses?), but the gamers of today are much different than those who grew up with pencil and paper and expect to roleplay in an online game just like they did with the Cheetos in the basement.

The other thing is... almost everyone's definition of roleplay is different. Who is to say that my definition is the correct one, or that yours isn't? That's always a difficulty. I doubt gaming companies intend to spend the time to train CSRs for that sort of 'policework'. It's a pity, really, but those folks who brought suite in UO claiming they deserved a paycheck (ok, so that dates me) ruined the option of having volunteers who might serve (again) to aid and protect roleplay.

So I don't expect policing. I do police myself, however.

[Morreion]

I better watch what I say now!

In UO (when I played) there was no global chat. The same in classic DAoC- the closest one came was the town chat channel, only visible in the capital cities (I think). I liked how in DAoC you could make an Alliance chat channel comprised of allied guilds. When someone acted up in alliance chat, you spoke to their guild leader and that took care of it. I think this is the secret to better control chat shenanigans- give players tools to create their own channels with the power to silence trolls.

Global chat channels remind me of public restrooms, nobody 'owns' them so they're treated accordingly (i.e. atrociously- when I worked at public libraries there were times I had to clean up some nasty things done there). It's to the point where I typically turn off global chat and player names for immersion reasons.

[Kelryck]

I expect some policing, at least of names, on an RP server. I at least want to see people that made an attempt to come up with a name that fits with the realm/theme of the server.

Immersion is tough when you keep seeing chat spam from "Creamcheese" or "Toejamlicker", both of whom I saw on a regular server on DAOC. And those were a couple of the tame names.

[Morreion]

I despise players who name themselves those types of names on RP servers. I ignore them if they talk to me. I can't even pretend they are 10 years old and don't know any better, because they are usually adults.

[sinaedh]

It still surprises me in DAOC to see things like "superskald" or "miniruni" as names. Remember the days when we tried to hide what class we were from the enemy?