The main issue of a MMO game is that there is other players. Some like the social aspect and others don't but I think that you'll always get rude and annoying people on such games. Guess we will just have to wait and see how they handle the 'social' aspect of the game.

I wont. F this game. I fell in love with TES for the lore. I already pay for WoW and thats pushing it.


It's DC U all over again.

Never mind.

I fell in love with TES for the lore too. Why then am I not as upset as you are? Since when do MMORPGs mean no lore?

Like you always have. I have never "roleplayed myself" in any Elder Scrolls game, Skyrim included. I roleplay characters, not myself. I wouldn't even know how to roleplay myself and if I did I don't think it would be interesting. So please do not presume to speak for all of us.

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Wow, reading the responses in this thread I can see that I had probably better not come to this forum often. I have a low tolerance for ignorance.

Seeing the title of this thread, I was tempted to bust in here saying, "Have we really reached this point now? The new section was just released today." But I can see the concern. A lot of people don't RP much in MMO's rather (possible strawman) they look at the game from a meta sense than through the character's eyes. But seeing as plenty of fans of TES, especially long time fans, love to RP, I'm not incredibly worried about not finding people who will RP. But there will be those guys who won't though. You just need to find a group of individuals who want to RP. Maybe with people you know?

never mind.

For me, roleplaying in MMOs is one of those things that sounds much better in theory than it actually is in practice.

I've tried WoW, LOTRO and Mortal Online, and can't say as I had a great roleplaying experience in any of them. It just felt like I was running around an empty shell of a gameworld, grinding my way to compete with other random players. Addictive, yes, but not exactly a satisfying roleplaying experience.

Still, i'm curious to see how TES online will turn out, and if I like the look of it i'll perhaps try harder than I have with previous MMOs to get into it.

I agree with Velorien. I have been a loyal player of the Elder Scroll since Daggerfall was first brought into my home during my mid teens. I have been ravenous for the series ever since.

If it's an Elder Scrolls game, I'm going to play it. Am I concerned about the roleplaying aspect of it? Very much. If there are roleplay servers, I'll be playing on one.

Maybe we will get lucky, When DAOC first came out, there were dedicated servers where it was against the rules to speak publicly OOC. You could talk in chat or tells OOC, but if you saw someone talking about a football game, you just reported them, and that was that. It wasn't that bad, but I have not seen any games since provide a RP server and actually enforce some kind of RP rules on it.

ROLEPLAY SERVERS. THEY EXIST. USE THEM.

I normally think of you as one of the most reasonable people on the forums, but that title is just hyperbole and I know from experience that roleplaying is entirely possible in an MMO.

Oh. You're MMO experience was with WoW. I apologize for that. You're pessimism is understandable, then.

How do you get immersed in a game? It's not like it is a pool you can't sink into it.
Your definition of role playing is very narrow minded. I haven't played an MMO in like half a decade or more maybe, but in every MMO I've played I have encountered role players. The least successful and most isolated role players had a very rigid definition of what role playing is and instead of playing their role they'd complain give up and run away from other people and have a very small group.

The best RP'ers would stick to their role maybe set up an event of some sort and keep to their guns when people tried to grief or otherwise ruin their event, and a lot of people would start to play along and sometimes show up to the next rp thing they had going even if they didn't actively do much they would observe and try to participate a little.

Really that guy screaming over and over he's selling a sword for 10k is realistic, from a role play perspective he's a street vendor they aint gonna sit there and wait for you to walk up and start a conversation with them to try and sell something. I've seen it a lot some role players will sit there and get angry that people are acting, if your playing your role you gotta look at how other people are playing/acting and come to a conclusion of what their role is and how you will interact with them. Haven't you run into buskers or hustlers on a street in real life? People act like it just in a game. Maybe you run into the HXCPVPMASTORZ IML33T the guy is pretty much a serial killer in game why not act like it how would your character act toward them?
I played a wizard in one MMO I was really bored one of the big no-nos game wise was for wizards to get drunk it blocked your magical energy but I would get drunk anyway then act obnoxious and arrogant (which I imagined my wizard as being, being drunk just made it worse) then I would convince people in a player hub to follow me to a tavern and gamble. Most of them were not role players but they would still voluntarily pay up when I won at a gambling game even though they could of just walked away and stiffed me. After like a week of that I had enough gold to buy a house lol.

Mostly why I don't play mmo's anymore is because they are balanced terribly. Either you outfit for PVE or you outfit to be a glass cannon pvp type, the challenge of pvp is basically just catching someone after that it is a joke to easily kill them. You can't just adventure around as a role player and expect to be able to quest and kill off some monster and maybe fight off some random person you ran into you gotta gear up specifically for something rather than walk around having random experiences and encounters. Playing an MMO is like a having a really boring specific job and role players are the only thing that really interested me in most MMO's for the ten years or so I played them.

I'd love to join a roleplay group but I feel that would be like acting in a play on the subway. Unless there are RP servers

On the lack of RPing on WoW's dedicated servers: That depends largely upon what server you were on. Wyrmrest Accord, for example, is largely regarded as the "capital" of WoW's RPing community, with the Ravenholdt server being the same for the RPPvP folks.

Point is: RPing servers would work for TESO. Some may be more active than others, but one or two would be very active RP wise.

DAOC had RP servers and they were great. I have a feeling Mr. Firor will include RP servers for this game, and you'll probably have more fun roleplaying than you ever did by yourself in a single player game.

Roleplaying is something that the community makes or breaks. In SWTOR all of the people who wanted to RP bemoaned the fact that RP servers were RP in name only. However they banned together and built something and it has worked for the better good when you look at the Lord Adraas server. RP can work great here among players. It's going to take the rp community coming together and us either getting RP servers or making an unofficial official rp server much like those in LOTRO did. (another great example of players making rp work).

Sisters of Elune also used to be pretty good, for quite a few years going in fact (until when I left and it was starting to fade away), and from what I understand it's tended to shift around a bit - one server's good, then another, maybe two at the same time, but it's always going somewhere... really, it more depends on how much people are actually trying to put the effort in to get things going compared to how much time they spend just complaining about there not being any RP. I know complaining is the official pastime of this forum today, but hey.

I for one am exited just because of the roleplaying opportunities. I've always favored Mmorpg role-play, and in fact, played on wow's Wyrmrest server for at least a year before I realized my social life had drowned in a pool of it's own spit. But yes, there are many non role-players in role-play servers, but there's usually a certain city that role-players always hang out in. Aside from the random naked Argonian Bob Lizardface trolling for thirty minutes every now and then, perhaps we'll have a large community of dedicated role-players and a Smallpercentage of trolls and hardcoe level-capped people shouting "Lol wut r u guyz dooin?"

I haven't posted on the gamesas forums for a while (and with good reason, I suppose) but I just wanted to add my voice to the matter.

A lot of people seem to argue that roleplaying is "playing a role", which in and of itself is highly subjective. Maybe it's because I'm old-fashioned and enjoy pen and paper games, but to me roleplaying is about creating a role and adhering to it. I spend hours planning my TES characters in advance, what skills they'll focus on, which factions they'd prefer to align themselves with, their backstory, etc. Preferences, personal beliefs, all of that. The greatest RPGs are the ones that are broad enough in scope that the world is sufficiently responsive enough to your choices that you find your choices and actions being reciprocated and noted by the world.

It's even better (and this is why I prefer more skills, stats and specialization over less) when your character is met with a challenge they can't overcome, but manages to narrowly escape through improvisation. Generalizing is boring. Rigidly adhering to the identity you have created for yourself, knowing your strengths and limitations, and then finally chancing upon that one task or challenge in the game world which aligns perfectly with your abilities is immensely satisfying for me. Moreso than half-heartedly accomplishing everything, or having to break from my character's identity in order to proceed (i.e. lockpicking in Skyrim due to the lack of open spells/lock bashing).

That's all well and good you say, and you'll tell me to just pretend TESO doesn't exist and to continue playing Morrowind for another ten years. But, and I'm not sure if this is where the OP is coming from per se, but my biggest concern about TESO is how it's going to affect the public's perception of The Elder Scrolls, and what Bethesda thinks people do and don't want to see. Remember, Todd said nobody would miss acrobatics. There could come a time where the MMO is making sufficient revenue, and they think "those who want a deep and intricately crafted singleplayer world are a minority - I think the MMO does a good enough job." This doesn't mean less effort will go into the single player games, but I think it will only render Bethesda even more indifferent to just how passionate some of us are about the franchise and the identity it should have.

EDIT: The last MMO that had a truly hardcoe RP following was Ultima Online, or at least that's how it sounds to me. Yes, much can be done through the imagination alone, and I'm not saying we need a million features to accommodate roleplaying, but things like PvP battles to crown players emperor practically work against trying to put yourself into a certain frame of mind.

The title is melodramatic, no doubt about it. A good way to get the topic noticed, but I fear some people only read the topic and assumed they knew what the content of the thread was about. But I do fear for the sake of the roleplay-ability of an Elder Scrolls game when it's shifted to an MMO setting. I've never really roleplayed in an MMO and I haven't seen or talked to many people that were successful with an attempt, so I have my concerns. This thread is doing a great job of making me optimistic about it though.

And my MMO experience is not limited to just WoW. I've also played Guild Wars, RuneScape, TERA Online, Vindictus, and others that were far more short-lived.

That's a really good suggestion, and stuff like this is exactly what I was hoping to get from this thread. Thanks!

That's another great suggestion. I'll definitely look out for the more hardcoe roleplayers among the forums closer to release to get a strong community established. If one's not brewing already, I'll get things going myself.

I don't think MMOs break RP... it's just a different variety. I RP every character I play even though I'm also very big into min-maxing. It's all about playing out your character's narrative for yourself.

I find myself forming character traits for a toon as s/he levels up so that when I start, I'm not quite sure where it's going to go, but as I continue on, the form gets more and more defined. Granted, it's not "traditional" and it is, I guess, sort of "light role-play," but I end up with usually a good 10,000 word novella for every character that reaches max level (unless I'm grinding a "raiding toon"... then character exploration will come later).

I don't find RP played through a videogame to be very effective because everything you do has a scripted action to it. RP experiences to me have always been best in LARP/TTRPG experiences, IMO.

(And this is my first post here! created an account because of TESO. Very excited for this game!)

I know where your comming from, my first forray into MMO's I was roleplaying my Character. A smooth talking ranger who was a bit of a braggart. Some people just didn't get it. I was lucky a couple of times to team up with a few people who realised where I was comming from, and played along with it and it was great.

Roleplaying is about being your character, say things they way they would ect. When roleplaying my ranger, he would flirt with ladies, brag about how great a warrior I was to other people and try to show off, at times failing terribly due to over confidence. It was all part of my character's personality.

If I ever do play TES online, wich is looking less likely due to the direction and gameplay... but if I do, I will want to play with people who are going to roleplay.

People who will talk strategy like an inhabitant of Nirn, not an mmo player. People who will at times be difficult because their character doesn't like where we're going, or what actions another memeber of the party is taking part in. I want to see Dunmer players constant insulting beast races as part of their character, acting all arrogant ect. Reguards being wary of magic users ect.

Not much chance of that though unless there was some sort of RP guild to join. Then just ignore everyone else or something....

Just because one game isn't very good for Role-Playing in doesn't mean the "Death of Role-Playing" is here. It just means you won't be able to RP very well in this specific game.

EVE Online from the looks of it.

I've never played an MMO, but the announcement of TESO inspired me to do some research.
Of all the ones I read about, EVE seems the most immersive and mature... I think that I'm going to have a go with the free trial.

EVE is incredibly dense and very hard for even a grizzled MMO vet to get into. Go for it, but know that TESO will be nothing like it