Roleplaying games. Like, actual RP games.
Let's play pretend.
I know me and
spoke on this but I did realize that many people enjoy realism in gaming but how far would you have got for that realism? Can we pinpoint realism?And, above all, this is merely an excuse to mention
Roleplaying
It’s like your Second Life. Get it?
Now, to clarify, I’m not talking about these roleplaying games we’re all come to love, such as Baldur’s Gate 3, Divinity: The Original Sin 2, Fallout, Dungeons and Dragons, ARMA, Ready or Not, and Squad, just to name a few.
There are quite a good amount of examples where developers crafted a world to ensure immersion in their respective setting, in my opinion somewhat linear, some just feeling more “freeing” than others.
But I’m talking about roleplaying in games like Grand Theft Auto V, Red Dead Redemption 2, and the all time favorite Gmod. I’m inexperienced in Roblox RP, but a quick glance showed me that it’s a lot of High School themed levels so I will remain inexperienced in that area.
The biggest difference between these RP servers, and the RPG games I mentioned, is that in RP servers, everything is controlled by the player, and while in RPGs many things are scripted, majority of events and situations are player started and driven in RP. I have seen some servers that do have NPC’s to do certain things, maybe to give starting equipment or missions, but everything else is done by the players.
Roleplaying can have exciting roles, such as being a soldier or a burglar, to lame roles, such as being a guard of a gate that no one really goes through or, for some reason, sitting on a chair at the porch of a town because you’re the sheriff. Sorry, I mean, keeping the town safe. In the name of realism or immersion, you could just drive around for hours as a cop and nothing will happen.
However, my first experience of Roleplaying was in Face of Mankind (R.I.P. in peace), and I’ve yet to forget it. I was a young kid, so I did not get the intricacies of roleplaying in a video game where everything was controlled by the player.
I remember someone asked who wanted to be a soldier, and after I said yes, I followed a couple of people into a classroom where the teacher (A player) gave us a very long lecture. After he was done, he sent every person in a classroom a message, which was the test that you’d have to reply after you were done and… I don’t think I passed. I do remember that people got into a line to patrol the city, and after I didn’t get in line I was promptly shot.
I was confused. I couldn’t pick to be a soldier, and didn’t have to do some quest to become one, all I have to do is pass a test to enlist and done? Besides getting shot for what I now know to be called RDM (Random Death Match, unjustified killing), it was kind of real.
If the players in these RP servers or games really act out like their characters, then every interaction would be as real as it gets given the setting.
Where’s The Good RP?
Last time I spoke to a person in an RP setting was in VR Chat, and I promptly left the game after they were the one who initiated the conversation with a “hello.” I still wonder how it is to immerse yourself in a video game that’s run by the players. A game where the setting is (hopefully) developed enough and feels real enough to immerse yourself to do whatever mundane task there is to do.
Because what matters in video games is immersion, and there are different ways to do that. Whether it is with sound design or game design, whether the setting is close to our reality, or whether reality is logical within the in-game universe; whether the menu is the hub world or an office, or the interface is tied to the character’s body to some extent, there are many ways to tackle this.
For something to be immersive, it needs to be realistic enough to allow the player to immerse themselves in that world, but the word “realism” varies by the world the player is trying to immerse themselves in. Of course, this comes from a writer, not a narrative designer, but it seems pretty logical to me.
This is all an elaborate way to say that all these YouTube videos have gotten me curious on the RP scene, so I’ll be diving into Aneurism IV, a new game that has made me wash laundry for money, befriend ghoul-like people, and have arguments with people because they kept stealing my laundry, all in 30 something minutes.
Have you played any RP games online? Does any interest you? What do you think of them? Let me know!
I've enjoyed watching GTA 5 RP for a while. But it's very time-consuming to keep following!
Wow, I haven't thought about this for years. I logged nearly 700 hours in Gmod DarkRP as a kid (2008 or thereabouts), and I know guys who racked up more than twice that. Most servers I frequented skewed very young and were light on actual RP, playing more like progenitors of Rust or DayZ than anything else. They were a decent social outlet for dudes like me who didn't thrive elsewhere.
But I also remember a server that was so serious about interpersonal immersion that I had to pass an English grammar test before they'd whitelist my Steam account — hard to imagine something like that flying nowadays. I'll have to boot up Gmod one of these days to see if the scene is anything like it used to be.
Great article, and thanks for the refreshing hit of nostalgia!