Roleplay's Future in Garry's Mod

[Ping-Pong]

  Hello everyone, I'm Ping-Pong. Don't pay mind to the forum name I have, it changes on a regular basis for our glorious leader's pleasure. Today I'm going to talk about roleplay and I'm asking you as a community to take this seriously and try to be as honest as possible. I'm sure everyone who's reading this has probably read something similar or is muttering "duh" under their breath after they've read what I've had to say. Roleplay is a dying part of GMod and has been for a long time. However, I believe wholeheartedly that this can be changed simply with a more positive look at roleplay and the people associated with it. So for now, let's begin this explanation with a story.

  About four or five years ago, I started roleplaying on Garry's Mod. At first I merely bought the game because I wanted to build things because who doesn't like to have complete and total control of their imagination. But somewhere along the lines I realized I was terrible at that, so I tried Dark Roleplay and met some shady folks who liked to storm serious RP servers for the lulz and jumped in their bandwagon because why not. Well, I was baffled when I came to a Serious Roleplay server and saw so much fun through deep, passionate, living communication from players to their respective characters. So baffled that I gave it a shot. At first I thought I wasn't going to be able to do it and then as time went on I got better at typing and being able to translate my character into the roleplay of a server. As time went on I arrived at a Roleplay Server named "Desertia", it's roleplay was during the Golden Age of Roleplay, amazing things were always happening people were always having fun, hardly any bickering. Then Desertia died due to it's [internal drama and lack of a cohesive RP group which caused RP developments to stagnate, thus Desertia often felt it was doing a lot of nothing for a long stretch of time. And as time went on, peoples' interests, passions, and involvement decreased with age, and thus Des started "dying".] My friend told me that, as a matter of fact, Desertia was apart of HGN for sometime but we decided that we couldn't do it anymore and ended up shutting down. Col. StaR, a wonderful friend of mine told me this:

"We could have moved on, change things, done things different, but it wouldn't have been Desertia. I remember arguing that point time and time again. Nowadays I welcome that, and think that some change could have revitalized the RP somewhat, but it would have been temporary. The issue wasn't the "lack of RP", but the fact that we were all so aged by that time that RP itself was lacking its previous luster."

  We've all had core characters, we still do. Aren't our core characters core characters because they're the closest to our hearts? Do you ever wonder why? [It makes me ask the question though: do we RP them because they're who we want to be, or because they're an alternate personification of who we really are?] I believe it's the latter, that's what made us, our characters feel so alive, it's what made roleplaying so much fun. [I think that's what separates the meh Roleplayers from the good Roleplayers, and ultimately what creates better characters: honesty and potential for exploration and growth. That's what makes characters feel so alive.] Another friend of mine who is also dear to me in the sense that he's one of the last great roleplayers left said that people are too focused on scripts these days, most folks have the video game mentality when it comes to roleplay. No one* has fear, is this because of NLR? Or is it because of the high tier of weapons and armour they're toting around?

  Most folks think the economy is broken*, some think it's shitty admins*, others like me think that roleplay has lost it's shine because we've lost touch the actual roleplay concept. What do you think HGN? Be honest, I don't want to hear empty words. Thank you all for reading.

 

[jaik]

I'll reply thoroughly once I get some sleep.

[jaik]

A post I made in March addresses most questions you have. I quoted and edited it here, so you don't need to read the original.



1) Why there's no such thing as "Golden Age of RP" and why RP has always been shit regardless of how you experienced it at the time. Furthermore, there's no specific time period or evidence. Therefore, the entire notion of RP "being better" at some point at some other place doesn't even stand against basic scrutiny.

Ohai, I've noticed that the Garrysmod seriousRP community has went spiraling downhill

We all reach the same conclusion. This isn't because the quality of roleplay has gone worse in GMod, but because it always been objectively bad. Notice how almost everyone says that "in 200x/20xx, roleplay was much better. Trust me, I was there" -- in reality, these people just got bored of GMod RP, but still think that because they had fun before, it must mean that it had been better for absolutely everyone. I've been in the RP scene since 2007, the year when TaconBanana kicked off with TS1 created by Rick Dark and when RP has been in continual growth in popularity. The only changes that occurred since then were only about making the RPG part more complicated. The truth is, Garry's Mod is a terrible platform for RP because of the (man)children that make up the majority of its playerbase and for most server owners/administrators, this means catering to this majority. The servers that don't follow the classic structure remain unknown and forgotten. There are, however, many that would claim that they're doing things differently, but that's just a cheap way of getting more players.

There are very little, if any, servers that actually encourage development of the character from a story-telling perspective as opposed to getting wealthier and powerful through means that are provided by the script. The reason why all servers eventually fall into the traditional template of 'Get Gear, Fuck Bitches' is because server owners feel the need to place distracting elements to make sure people will stay connected. The most important of these elements is a hierarchy of items and a currency, which means that any player can participate in the economy (which is a joke) and become better than other players. In case of GMod, it is inevitable, since the majority of the people find the RPG aspect of a certain universe more appealing than actually roleplaying in it. You can't effectively teach the essentials of roleplaying to people (especially when they're too young or retarded to comprehend them), so any growth is out of question.

If someone wants to truly make a new, creative, original and revolutionary server, then allow people to make a character of whatever background. Meaning the players are able to choose any kind of faction, any kind of gear and any sort of backstory without complicating the process with authorizations and applications. Additionally, economy as a gameplay feature won't be present. To most this will seem naive, but when we're speaking from a purely story-telling perspective, then it's the only way of encouraging roleplay to a full extent. I won't elaborate on it too much, but I can say that I played in an environment like this and it worked very well. It was not a private server (about 80-90 people during events), and the roleplay there was indeed of great quality. The only exception is that it did not occur in GMod.



As an auxiliary point I'd like to make myself more clear by doing this really simple.

Roleplay as a collective effort of story-telling with actual development of the story and the characters involved has always been on the same level quality-wise, if not better than before. Although obviously the number of people who actually engage in this process and understand it is, and has always been, very low.

The degenerated idea of roleplay in GMod where story-telling is limited to mutant attack events and characters are limited to the cookie-cutter 'my parents died' guy and the typical 'my parents died' slut. Furthermore, the only character development consists of increasing stats and hoarding more gear.

That is not what I consider roleplay, since it does not fit the definition of it, as the creative writing part is completely lacking here. Most RP servers fit the scope of an RPG, and not an environment where creative writing persists. In the perspective of GMod, this cannot be changed, improved or otherwise fixed. It is completely based on the playerbase. Simply put: no script will ever turn a roleplayer into a bad one, and a script will never turn a good roleplayer into a bad one.



2) There are numerous studies and websites that deal precisely with character as an agent in work of arts. All questions you're asking are actually so narrow and specific that you're better off seeking the answers from a person who's actually versed in writing and more-so the psychological aspect behind the characters. The answers, if any, you will get are probably going to be simply wrong.

Though, I can address your statement of the difference between "meh roleplayers" and "good roleplayers". Firstly, assuming that both individuals have a nearly equal grasp of the language and the canon of the universe they're roleplaying in, then I can tell you there's no such thing. If we also apply the same conditions (replacing language with the native skill respective to the field) to writers, film directors, video game developers, etc, then my statement would hold true as well. Since you haven't ascribed anything specific (except your own understanding of what makes a good roleplayer) then it's clear that the matter, along with roleplaying preferences themselves, is subjective. What makes one person sympathize with something can make another despise it, etc -- you get the point I'm trying to convey here. Your described process of evaluation of a person's ability to perform creative writing is rather clouded and vague, since you only dedicate a single sentence to it, but from what I can tell right now it's flawed.

Additionally, your entire poll takes time as a major factor in whether something was good, instead of actually weighing the factors of that time that makes it seem good now.

The final answer is that RP doesn't have a future or a history in GMod, it has always existed purely on surface on the names of roleplaying servers. Never there was this magical time of prosperity and blooming. This very much reminds me of blind nostalgia for whatever time periods people have without any logical reasoning behind it. As well as the people who claim "muh generations so bad, 500 years ago so good".

[lolKieck]

^ neiled it

[Ping-Pong]

^ neiled it

I agree with you Jake, when I wrote this I wasn't entirely in my right mind but I do know what I was asking of everyone. Your pessimism knows no bounds still, as much as I appreciate the honesty here it's also quite rude to shoot something down like you did. I'm not asking people to fix it, bring it back to a certain time, or try to glorify my past experience. I've had roleplay just as good in HGN as I did so many years ago. Desertia did well because we didn't have anyone running it, it always relied on the playerbase instead. My experience in HGN for a time was good as well because of the playerbase. I'm not trying to speak out of nostalgia's sake, I'm just trying to see how many people give two shits about the actual roleplay concept anymore. Sure, the entire thing here was portrayed poorly, but if the people playing are as dumb as you're saying, they'll understand it just as much as I do.

[jaik]

I agree with you Jake, when I wrote this I wasn't entirely in my right mind but I do know what I was asking of everyone. Your pessimism knows no bounds still, as much as I appreciate the honesty here it's also quite rude to shoot something down like you did. I'm not asking people to fix it, bring it back to a certain time, or try to glorify my past experience. I've had roleplay just as good in HGN as I did so many years ago. Desertia did well because we didn't have anyone running it, it always relied on the playerbase instead. My experience in HGN for a time was good as well because of the playerbase. I'm not trying to speak out of nostalgia's sake,

Glad you agree, and I'm also glad you know what you were asking, which I will re-iterate:

"Is Roleplay going to last? Are we even what we used to be? Do any of you hope like I do?"

The questions which I answered with a great extent. As well as a response to the statements that you provided in your original post.

It is also not nice to stigmatize someone, especially if it's your own thread and you were given what you asked for. I believe you're the one being impudently rude and disengaging by shooting down the only well-articulated answer you will get in this forum. What makes your reaction even more audacious is withdrawal from the discussion itself, when provided with an informative reply as you wished yourself.

Your response comes off so defensive and self-victimizing that makes me wonder where do you get the idea that I was speaking about things that you claim not to have been doing. I also do not get the idea where have I said that some specific action, time period, concept or an idea was strictly negative or positive, because you seem to be replying as if I have. I'm genuinely curious of what you were responding to.

I'm just trying to see how many people give two shits about the actual roleplay concept anymore. Sure, the entire thing here was portrayed poorly, but if the people playing are as dumb as you're saying, they'll understand it just as much as I do.

What is the actual roleplay concept? Who are these people that are playing dumb and when did I say anything about this? And what will they understand as much as you do?

[Ping-Pong]

Actually, I am completely wrong. Sorry Jake. There really is nothing here for me, sorry to have bothered.