Taking the RP community's temperature.. How are the servers doing?

[Maeloda]

If any of you guys play on Faeblight, roll a Guardian and hit up anyone form <Petals of Mariel-Taun>. Best guild I've been in in Rift since my guild broke up in EQ2.

Everyone I've seen from there has been nice

[Akamhara]

My response on that was not how I'd like it to be - I do have spontaneous roleplay myself, and have run events which others have attended. But the temperature of the server... As the OP asked, is not based on wishful thinking or predicted recoveries - of course it will pick up, and of course some people are still active and accessible.

I have run events which others have come to - it does take work to find these people, arrange a time, make sure all are happy with it, etc etc etc - so no, the shard is not "alive" enough yet to have hotspots or lots of spontaneous rp - this is simply being honest, not negative about the future.

[Ainilome]

I'm a recent return to Rift too, as well as a hardcore RPer. I've seen a lot worse in MMO travels, but I've seen a lot better. Faeblight seems very top heavy, also seems to have become a destination for transfering raid guilds. Not to say that raiding is anti-RP, I'm hardly one to get into that argument but the community does seem very bare and disinterested in roleplay. I've been back for about a week, and haven't seen any random RP where I use to see it all the time.

Rift is such a fun game, and the setting is so interesting, I wish more of the dedicated RPers had hung around.

[Laeris]

Me and many in my guild quit using RiftRP channel when it became a refuse dump for a certain person who used to treat the channel as his own soap box in order to inform the server which guilds weren't allowed to be RP'd with because they didn't fit his version of the lore. I think those few weeks where he was more or less making everyone mad resulted in the implosion of his guild as well as that channel on a whole.

[Laeris]

I'm a recent return to Rift too, as well as a hardcore RPer. I've seen a lot worse in MMO travels, but I've seen a lot better. Faeblight seems very top heavy, also seems to have become a destination for transfering raid guilds. Not to say that raiding is anti-RP, I'm hardly one to get into that argument but the community does seem very bare and disinterested in roleplay. I've been back for about a week, and haven't seen any random RP where I use to see it all the time.

Rift is such a fun game, and the setting is so interesting, I wish more of the dedicated RPers had hung around.

I'm not to keen on the Defiant environment but the Guardian side still has a large RP presence... I'm a little biased though given I'm in the game's largest dedicated RP guild and what-not

[Myuriel]

Like Laeris, I know more about the Guardian side of the roleplay community over the Defiant side. But, Guardian side, roleplay is definitely alive and happening. There's random roleplay, there's storyline driven roleplay, and there's event roleplay. My own group put together a masquerade ball just a few weeks ago that was an incredible success!

A lot of roleplay has spread out from some of the core areas. I know we've experienced more than a handful of non-rp trolling taking place in some RP hot spots, and so we've moved around to lesser used taverns and out-of-the-way sites.

New people are still coming to both the game and the community. We've added a few brand-new to Rift people, and some transfers from other guilds/servers into our group within the last week.

RP is here and it's happening. It may just be a bit more spread out than it used to be.

[Infectus]

I still need to find a good RP guild over on Faeblight Guardian side.. Just came back after a year or so of inactivity.

[Stormbow]

WolfsBane is the highest population server (Deepwood:2nd, Seastone & Greybriar:3rd currently beating out Faeblight:4th), yet non-RPers still go to the RP server (Faeblight) so they can play the game around many people. (Go figure.) Trolls and jerks abound on the Wolfsbane server, and I can't say I've met any genuinely nice people on the Faeblight server since before everyone's free month for buying the game expired after the launch.

Yes, there are "nice" people left in the game, but they are only nice for the brief periods of time that they are actually in your company getting something they need. As soon as you are gone, no matter that you just helped them do an entire quest chain to get their Crocnard mount for example, you are out of their memory and their promises of helping you out with something in the future fall flat. It doesn't even matter that you only need help with one boss kill to finish off a dungeon. They will be busy, be "AFK a moment", "be right back", or "changing characters" and you won't see them again for another handful of days.

And before the trolls get in here and say it's my attitude- my forum attitude is nothing like my in-game attitude. Nice try though. Here, I will say what you don't want to hear, because it's the truth. It's not my fault that it ruffles someone's jimmies.

I spend the vast majority of my time (and my buddy's time, as they allows me to drag them into things) helping people get their own agendas attended to. I've seen hundreds of players do these things. I've seen hundreds of players prove how self-centered they are and how completely disinterested in helping anyone else in the game they can be. Don't believe me? Go watch the chat in-game. It doesn't take long at all (on Faeblight sometimes, and regularly on Wolfsbane) for some elitist jerk to say they need a group and __________ is the requirement to join.

They need to fix the walk. It looks ridiculous.

You mean the ridiculously slow walk we have now? That will never be "fixed".

[HannonHellbringer]

Working on VERY big things on the Defiant side. Still in the works, but Defiant side still has a good amount of RP. If you find yourself on the Defiant side message Mordare, I can show you around.

Faeblight has been great, granted there are sometimes when guardians and defiants fight, but thats kinda expected. Hopefully we will work past that very soon and get some REALLY cool cross faction rp going.

[Talila]

You mean the ridiculously slow walk we have now? That will never be "fixed".

And you have confirmation of that it'll never be fixed from.. Where exactly?

I guess you missed the Developers reacting to the negative feedback regarding the now-broken (for some races) walking animation, by requesting more details as to what is off with them. But expecting it to be a "quick fix" is a bit over-the-top, they already stated that the animations team had not had time to look at the walking speeds+animations before now. However they also stated that it's an area they want to work with as it's one of the areas where Rift gets a fair amount of critique as it is and some of which has been persisting critique since Beta.
Sure, they might settle for not doing anything, but I wouldn't take that as a given before they say so.

[Questoften]

I like the idea of role playing, if everyone just pretends to be there toon and left it at that. I think its great to stay in character, and let your toon live there life in the game world.

Yet when you add in events where rp is forced or set a time for or played as a game with actulal technuqe and guilds and groups, this has always caused a problem for me.

In other games such guilds inevitably get into stuff that puts me off even more, like semi public within the group erp/1960's hippie mentality free love stuff and also things debasing and exsplotive to the characters.

Even if they are a great group with good rpers, they cant always control all of there members and there members cant always control themselves.

When I think role play thats not the sort of thing I wish to read, and in some games I hear its not kept private. I have even seen such on some major mmo forums.

RP dose not have to deginarate into that, and dose not as a whole but at some point it inevitably dose, and so I dont involve myself with rp communities. It usally blows my image of the nobility of the game races, lore and such by subconsious assosiation. Strange but true.

[EnochianCub]

I like the idea of role playing, if everyone just pretends to be their toon and leave it at that. I think it's great to stay in character, and let your toon live their life in the game world.

Yet, when you add in events where rp is forced or set a time for or played as a game with actual technique; guilds; and groups this has always caused a problem for me.

In other games such guilds inevitably get into stuff that puts me off even more, like semi public within the group erp/1960's hippie mentality free love stuff. Also things debasing and exploitative to the characters.

Even if they are a great group with good rpers, they cant always control all of their members and there members cant always control themselves.

When I think role play that's not the sort of thing I wish to read, and in some games I hear it is not kept private. I have even seen such on some major mmo forums.

RP does not have to degenerate into that, and does not as a whole. Though at some point it inevitably does, and so I don't involve myself with rp communities. It usually blows my image of the nobility of the game races, lore and such by subconscious association. Strange but true.

This has been your experience with the RP community here in Rift? Or was this an anecdote for how you've no clue what the RP community here is like as you no longer participate?

Sorry was having a hard time understanding what you were getting at.

[Questoften]

This has been your experience with the RP community here in Rift? Or was this an anecdote for how you've no clue what the RP community here is like as you no longer participate?

Sorry was having a hard time understanding what you were getting at.

The WoW rp comunity is like that sometimes I have no idea about rift, but its more of what I dislike in genaral, certain types of erp put me off as well as other things exsplotive and demeaning to the characters, and upset my mental image and perceptions of nobilty concerning the races of the game. These sort of things inevitably go on in most rp guilds/groups at some point from what I hear. Also if I rp I just want to go on as normal pretending to be the character and not go ooc. You know interact normaly as if I were that character with nothing more to it.

[Sekhmet The Fierce]

I'm personally rather disappointed with how the Defiant RP community in Argent has pretty much imploded. I actually came back to Rift (after I quietly left it), only to find out my old RP guild had self-destructed, various notable RP'ers gone AWOL or barely even logging on, and the only real active or eager RP'ers are all within a non-RP raiding guild... the one I'm in! I don't even feel the incentive to act in-character more (sorry for those who see me messing about in Meridian square with guildies).

It is a damn shame as well. It doesn't help that the RP Tree has been usurped by noisy NPCs >:(

[Ajhal]

Losing the walk in Rift gave me the opportunity to go back to WoW and was I shocked. I entered the Lion's Pride Inn and it was stacked full with players and the thing I observed was the classic way everyone looked. It was a breath of fresh air to see so many players interacting. Further going into Stormwind and seeing folk walking around PROPERLY was so refreshing. I found RPG in Rift an uphill struggle, what with the lack of specialisation and customisation and the inability to make a truly unique character. Also there was just not enough in the zones and city to make it feel populated. Sadly they crapped on my walk and drained the very last drop of interest for RPG out the game. Gone were the days when I could strut as my Rogue in my Horror Skin and feel special.

And sorry, by the time they finally concede and simply put the thing back the way it was there will be nobody playing RPG in this game... Simply snapshot an inn in Rift and one in Stormwind, and snapshot Stormwind anywhere at the moment with the population on High for the RPG server I am on all the time and you get the picture. The trick was to avoid losing players. Trion sadly only feed raiders and mount collectors.. or so it seems. Seems odd that we still have had no response to this walk issue. They broke the thing... Wish they would just admit it and put it back. Not hard is it.

Anyway, fortunately I know where to go to get what I want in WoW and I can look just the way I want and strut around to my hearts content and share that with loads of other players. If only the same was true here. Trion have way better models opportunities... Why don't they use them and give us something purposeful, interesting, rewarding and unique for a change... instead of crappy mounts. And looks like from the last update you can change your whole appearance at the drop of a hat. So much for the choices you make... Enough.