I was again invited to join Adam, along with Craig from Voyages in Eternity, Brenden from Another Here, and Beau from Voyages of Vanguard for another lively podcast round table.
The topic was RP vs. XP: Role playing in MMOs, another huge savanna of a topic, which seems to be Adam’s specialty.
We quickly and cleanly dispatched the cliche pre-conception that role play means a bad British accent and a Shakespearean vocabulary. (After all, how would the British role play then… or would they be role playing all the time?)
Then Beau immediately torpedoed my own pre-conception, which was that role play requires interaction, and suggested that role play can be a solo endeavor, and that role play can be immersion in the game and its environment. (Read more on his own immersion project ideas here.)
We then went in to what MMOs could do to encourage role playing and found ourselves walking the line between making the game more life like and making the game accessible and convenient to those with limited time budgets.
The topic, of course, was far too much to take on in a single show of reasonable length, but quite a few ideas and experiences were brought up as part of the discussion.
Most of the show stayed in the domain of fantasy, though EVE Online did get mentioned a couple of times. (You can find EVE role players all over.)
What surprised me was that we managed to steer pretty clear of Star Wars Galaxies (mentioned once, and only in passing, if I recall right) despite it being an MMO with classes geared towards role play. (Anyone here an entertainer?)
It was a fun show, and Adam swore he would digest what we said and then come back at the topic on another show.
Witty Ranter is part of the omnipresent VirginWorlds Podcast Collective.
You can find episode #8 here or on iTunes.
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The Ancient Gaming Noob 