[Rant] The Death of RP

[Dr.Centura]

What happened to the good old times when you could talk to anyone for a good few minutes about anything inRP no matter what faction you belonged to?

Nowadays it seems like you're only "allowed" to participate in RP if you're part of a legal organization. Even if you're doing nothing wrong and just trying to have a chat with some lawful players as an unlawful, most people will just straight up kill you even if you don't want to fight.

It's like you're not allowed to RP a personal character anymore but rather you're just your ID and people can't see past that. Someone literally told me that if I wanted to talk to people, I should be a Zoner. Really? Is that what this community has come to?

And just because you rephrase "engaging" to "surrender or be destroyed/charging weapons/..." doesn't mean it makes sense inRP or that it's all of a sudden acceptable to gun down anyone who shows up red on your radar. If you really want to do that, then go to Connecticut. That's the sole purpose of that system. But don't ruin other people's fun.

People seem to have lost the essence of RP. They don't make conversation for the sake of talking/having fun but rather to "justify" why they're going to kill you. And sometimes they can't even be bothered to do that. Everyone seems so deadset on doing exactly what they want that there's no more room for silly things like negotiations or talking your way out of a situation or even just explaining yourself.

Of course there are exceptions to this and there is still some good RP going on in this game but it's rare and far apart that you meet someone who's actually willing to engage in a conversation with you. I still love this game, I just wish we could go back to the days where good RP was more important than powertrading or PVP battles.

[Shiki]

Well that's a personal feelings I'd say, but I can understand you. It's the matter of you who can't find a good interaction (I am not saying that it's easy, but as you did you can have long and awesome RP story). Also I wasn't here in your 'good old times' so...

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[Foxglove]

This is why I like the Freelancer ID. Since you're not affiliated with a faction, nobody can reduce you to it. I guess there are certian "hub areas" where more RP is happening than elsewhere - Omicron Delta comes to mind, but I'd concur wholeheartedly if you say that IDs really do determine how people react to you.

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[sindroms]

The issue with Discovery has always been that the community has not been attractive to what I would call a ''hardcore'' roleplayer.
For such a person, they would need to have every single other person involved in the game enviroment - regardless of their experience - to uphold to a standard of roleplay the game is not suited to. I have always said that for the best results, treat Discovery as a SCIFI RP Chatroom, which just happens to have a game attached to it. But as time goes on and more of the high-profile RPers leave, we are left with people who are either:
1. ''Comfortable enough'' with the level of roleplay we can offer our members
or
2. Are here for the gameplay aspect of Discovery.

Both types of players are welcome in Disco and I hope that will never change - but those are not the people who can keep up an environment where high-grade roleplay thrives. It is just a case of not being able to support a friendly enough environment for such interaction due to the roleplay preferences and skills across the board.

Something else to consider is that Roleplay demands huge amounts of time. Most of us back in 2008 were in our mid-teens or early twenties, where our biggest concerns were homework and university. Now most of us are hitting their late twenties and we have jobs and many of us are even family men by now.

Roleplay is a timesink and these days I find myself more able to get online during the evening to participate in a fun little event or shooting and just relax and let my mind idle as I slip into something that does not require much thinking. Because real life has taken over and we just do not have the ability to focus on Roleplay to a degree we could back in those days. It is normal.

There is also the problem with what new players need to deal with in terms of roleplay. In order for them to arrive and settle on Disco, they need to read up on 10 years of information for the best results. Because how many times we've seen people post an idea and some guy from 2009 goes "Yea, hwell X did that in 200Y, it was dumb". We ourselves set the plank too high, but at the same time it is sort of required if we want such a level around here. Generally, Discovery as it is right now is balanced half and half for RP and PVP. There are members who prefer to do one, there are those who prefer the other.








TL'DR - It is a normal sideffect due to community growth and the evolution of the individual community member.

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PSA: If you have been having stutter/FPS lag on Disco where it does not run as smoothly as other games, please look at the fix here: https://discoverygc.com/forums/showthrea...pid2306502
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[Dr.Linston]

I know exactly what you mean!
Back in the days you could have a conversation with a pirate on how dangerous cardamine is for his body or why liberty ale is better than rheinbier...
But nowadays everyone is so eager to get into a fight. Seems like the only People that have remained active are the ones that play Freelancer for the combat.
People are investing so much time in writing biographys and what-not for characters or factions. Why can't some of this RP still happen inside the Game? Although I really enjoy reading here on the GC I miss the times on the server where people brought their Characters to life and not only played an NPC who attacks red players and ignores the other ones.

~250 registered users online on the Forums, reading and writing and debating about the future of Discovery
yet only 70..... or lets say only 5 of those, try to make good RP ingame and shape it there.

[Inferno]

The issue with Discovery has always been that the community has not been attractive to what I would call a ''hardcore'' roleplayer. For such a person, they would need to have every single other person involved in the game enviroment - regardless of their experience - to uphold to a standard of roleplay the game is not suited to.

Change a few words and you have the flaw in communism...there can never really be true communism in government.

[sindroms]

I know exactly what you mean!
Back in the days you could have a conversation with a pirate on how dangerous cardamine is for his body or why liberty ale is better than rheinbier...
But nowadays everyone is so eager to get into a fight. Seems like the only People that have remained active are the ones that play Freelancer for the combat.
People are investing so much time in writing biographys and what-not for characters or factions. Why can't some of this RP still happen inside the Game? Although I really enjoy reading here on the GC I miss the times on the server where people brought their Characters to life and not only played an NPC who attacks red players and ignores the other ones.

~250 registered users online on the Forums, reading and writing and debating about the future of Discovery
yet only 70..... or lets say only 5 of those, try to make good RP ingame and shape it there.

Quality RP is planned and needs a controlled environment and knowing your partner who you RP with. Discovery's ingame, as opposed to the forum, does not provide that.

[Sombs]

Quality RP is planned and needs a controlled environment and knowing your partner who you RP with. Discovery's ingame, as opposed to the forum, does not provide that.

Disagree on that. Planning can ensure quality RP, but it's not neccessary. Had some very cool encounters with some guys here, and in the end, that's what brought me closer to them.

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[Dr.Linston]

I know exactly what you mean!
Back in the days you could have a conversation with a pirate on how dangerous cardamine is for his body or why liberty ale is better than rheinbier...
But nowadays everyone is so eager to get into a fight. Seems like the only People that have remained active are the ones that play Freelancer for the combat.
People are investing so much time in writing biographys and what-not for characters or factions. Why can't some of this RP still happen inside the Game? Although I really enjoy reading here on the GC I miss the times on the server where people brought their Characters to life and not only played an NPC who attacks red players and ignores the other ones.

~250 registered users online on the Forums, reading and writing and debating about the future of Discovery
yet only 70..... or lets say only 5 of those, try to make good RP ingame and shape it there.

Quality RP is planned and needs a controlled environment and knowing your partner who you RP with. Discovery's ingame, as opposed to the forum, does not provide that.

You are right. But is a little chat between players about general RP stuff like commodities (e.g. cigars, sunbucks coffee, etc) or their characters dislike or like of something too much to ask for?
You dont really need a dedicated RPer who could lead a faction to so something like this.
For me back in the days, this was just good behavior and was expected.

[Omicron]

Saying that RP is dead/dying is a fatalist approach that should have no place on disco, only making it worse with such speech. Sure, it has its downfalls but you can get a decent and lenghty roleplay if you look hard enough. Just be realistic, opposing side's soldier may not be exactly be interested in hearing your life story, wherever a neutral or allied person will share a beer with you.

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