The Eclipse of Roleplay & How We May Start Over

[Battousen]

Dramatic titles aside, there's an obvious elephant in this room and it's not close to shrinking any time soon. Rhyming aside, there's something we need to discuss. Something that the community needs so that they can finally get an outlet other than complaining about builds, macros, and damage values.

Nin Online is an RPG (role-playing game). We need role-play. I know how we can start; by showing each other that we do care about it. I urge you to take this topic seriously, as it's been on the forefront of my mind for the longest time since starting out in Nin Online. For context and as a bit of a history lesson to those that don't know me, and that's most if not all of you, I have been a part of various role-playing communities in the past and remain so in the present. From the high fantasy of the World of Warcraft universe, to the cyber-core aesthetic of EVE Online, to the space odysseys of Star Wars: The Old Republic, and many, many more, role-playing has been my favourite creative outlet from the beginning. There are people in this community that feel the same way, that have had similar experiences but never got to foster them properly in Nin Online. There are likely people with more experience in the topic than me, because a decade of role-play is just enough to claim I understand the genre's intricacies, but not enough to claim any sort of higher ground.

I think we ought to start from these sorts of introductions. I was told recently in the forums that not many people role-play here, and that the only form of it exists in a strange space within RP Missions and RP events that don't exactly offer the best dose of immersion. Still, they are a start. They're also the reason that role-play is so confined in this game. I want those that want to role-play in Nin Online to put forward a reply to this post with their characters, with their history in the role-playing genre (even if they have none, and operate on interest alone; we have to remember that there are still people who want to engage and enter the space that don't know how to begin). I want people who are interested in fostering a greater audience for the role-playing aspect of this game to tell everyone a bit about why they want that, about why it's important. Put forth your ideas, your characters, even past role-play events that you've been in. Put forth suggestions for role-play. And always remember; there's another person behind each screen. Don't sling insults or derail the conversation.

This post might not get a single reply, but it's worth a try. I should probably stop rhyming while I'm at it.

[Elevenswords]

Not wanting to bash this post but nin has long been just a very hardcore pvp mmo, all rp aspects are dead including official org rps and even kage rps. 

Even if u want to revive it theres not enough players to bring any relevance back to it cause majority of the player base doesnt care about it and just wants the game to progress like a normal mmo. 

I think your beating a dead corpse wont lie to you. 

I been playing for almost 2 years and rp is non existent asside from very specific moments and even in thise moments its not taken serious at all. 

Besides the big issue of the majority of player base not caring enough you also have another issue: how will you even rp if most people dont. 

Unless you enforce rp rules which is very hard to do consistently no one is even gonna try to rp and everytime u try u either will be killed while you type or they just gonna a laugh at you. 

It just doesnt seem very realistic. I would love for it to comeback but it doesnt  seem doable

[Cosbo]

17 hours ago, Elevenswords said:

Not wanting to bash this post but nin has long been just a very hardcore pvp mmo, all rp aspects are dead including official org rps and even kage rps. 

Even if u want to revive it theres not enough players to bring any relevance back to it cause majority of the player base doesnt care about it and just wants the game to progress like a normal mmo. 

I think your beating a dead corpse wont lie to you. 

I been playing for almost 2 years and rp is non existent asside from very specific moments and even in thise moments its not taken serious at all. 

Besides the big issue of the majority of player base not caring enough you also have another issue: how will you even rp if most people dont. 

Unless you enforce rp rules which is very hard to do consistently no one is even gonna try to rp and everytime u try u either will be killed while you type or they just gonna a laugh at you. 

It just doesnt seem very realistic. I would love for it to comeback but it doesnt  seem doable

Tbh, a huge part of RP being completely dead , is the lack of rewards / motives for doing it imo

Chuunins/Jonins have little to no reason to host any Rp mission.
Adding either more missions or somethin like a " Mentor " system would boost rp overall imo. Nin was the ever first game i Roleplayed in ( cause of the missions ). I used to think it was cringy as flap ngl, but after doin some missions i found it really fun and a nice little "break" from the extreme pvp content the game provides

[Battousen]

18 hours ago, Elevenswords said:

Unless you enforce rp rules which is very hard to do consistently no one is even gonna try to rp and everytime u try u either will be killed while you type or they just gonna a laugh at you. 

You really don't have to enforce role-play on anyone who's not role-playing with you in a specific scenario. What you have to do, and that's an important attitude to foster, is to rely on people to not kill you at any time. A system I was figuring out is <RP Mode>- where you may type /rp in the chat and enter a mode tailored specifically for role-play. Ideas for it so far have been to be unable to be attacked by outside sources like NPCs and players, and equally unable to attack anything until you're out of the mode. You would still be visible, but practically invisible from the interactable world enough to role-play in peace. 

I really don't get the idea of you having to enforce role-play on anyone. No- the other players just have to respect that you don't wish to be bothered. Is that too much to ask of a community that wants to see their game grow? That's why I came up with the RP Mode idea; because ultimately, other players seeing that you have an icon or <RP> written over your name in-game means two things. First, it means that you are openly role-playing and that will encourage more people to do it. Second, it means that you really don't want to be bothered by a stray Mud River or kunai or something of that nature.

 

1 hour ago, Cosbo said:

Tbh, a huge part of RP being completely dead , is the lack of rewards / motives for doing it imo

I wholly agree. Nin Online is touted as an RPG and in some elements it definitely is, but you'd be lying to yourself if you said that the devs didn't intend role-playing to be a big part of it. Why have RP Missions, Chunin Exams, organization initiations, organization robes etc- if you don't want role-playing in your game? The most eye-opening experience in this topic, for me, has been the sheer amount of people who join events like the Exams and they talk as though their characters are IC (in-character)- which means that role-playing is interwoven in the game as a whole and it being with one foot in the grave means the game is suffering in that regard. Sentences like 'you can't fix or change anything' just serve to obfuscate the problems and pretend that everything is fine. That's hypocrisy. However, we  shouldn't really be operating on rewards solely. In most MMOs where you see role-play in rampancy, there are no rewards for it. The part where you get to escape the world, to write as though you were a completely other person, to exercise your creativity- that's reward enough for most role-players. A good journey taken in-character is a reward in itself. Still, rewards would be nice for incentive.

[Cosbo]

1 hour ago, Battousen said:

You really don't have to enforce role-play on anyone who's not role-playing with you in a specific scenario. What you have to do, and that's an important attitude to foster, is to rely on people to not kill you at any time. A system I was figuring out is <RP Mode>- where you may type /rp in the chat and enter a mode tailored specifically for role-play. Ideas for it so far have been to be unable to be attacked by outside sources like NPCs and players, and equally unable to attack anything until you're out of the mode. You would still be visible, but practically invisible from the interactable world enough to role-play in peace. 

I really don't get the idea of you having to enforce role-play on anyone. No- the other players just have to respect that you don't wish to be bothered. Is that too much to ask of a community that wants to see their game grow? That's why I came up with the RP Mode idea; because ultimately, other players seeing that you have an icon or <RP> written over your name in-game means two things. First, it means that you are openly role-playing and that will encourage more people to do it. Second, it means that you really don't want to be bothered by a stray Mud River or kunai or something of that nature.

 

I wholly agree. Nin Online is touted as an RPG and in some elements it definitely is, but you'd be lying to yourself if you said that the devs didn't intend role-playing to be a big part of it. Why have RP Missions, Chunin Exams, organization initiations, organization robes etc- if you don't want role-playing in your game? The most eye-opening experience in this topic, for me, has been the sheer amount of people who join events like the Exams and they talk as though their characters are IC (in-character)- which means that role-playing is interwoven in the game as a whole and it being with one foot in the grave means the game is suffering in that regard. Sentences like 'you can't fix or change anything' just serve to obfuscate the problems and pretend that everything is fine. That's hypocrisy. However, we  shouldn't really be operating on rewards solely. In most MMOs where you see role-play in rampancy, there are no rewards for it. The part where you get to escape the world, to write as though you were a completely other person, to exercise your creativity- that's reward enough for most role-players. A good journey taken in-character is a reward in itself. Still, rewards would be nice for incentive.

A mode like that would be extremely broken and abused by everyone tho. If its just an icon or something indicating that you're currently roleplaying, would be pretty nice. But it shouldn't change anything gameplay-wise (imo)

About the rewards. Keep in mind nin is a game heavily focused on PvP, the word itself is not huge either, so roleplaying without a goal ( Missions / rewards ), will eventually turn boring.

We also dont have enough stuff to RP atm ngl, back when ORGS were a thing, the ammount of Rp both ingame and in the forum was huge.

These orgs will eventually come back as a clan-like system ( with "clan" wars being a thing ) . So i definitely see RP doing a comeback in the near future. After all the base game was designed to be mostly RP.

Also keep in mind this is a game with no lore, its not as RP friendly as wow,ffxiv,dnd,etc. So this is the first game a lot of people would encounter RP. These missions and rewards would help them get more interested in Rp while giving them some motives to keep RP in the future ( + it'd make it a bit easier to lvl up lol )

[Battousen]

13 minutes ago, Cosbo said:

If its just an icon or something indicating that you're currently roleplaying, would be pretty nice.

That could also work, yeah! A bit more than a Mode, since changing the gameplay would be redundant. I personally really want to see the resurgence of Organizations, it'd be a great outlet for role-play.

 

15 minutes ago, Cosbo said:

Also keep in mind this is a game with no lore, its not as RP friendly as wow,ffxiv,dnd,etc.

I getchu! However we do have lore, in a sense. At least the bare basics of it- we have a history of Kages and what they've done for their Villages over time, we have had Chunin Exams with victors and there is lore there, there is continuity. In a sense, we've created our own lore in the game and even though it's very barebones, it's also a start. Maybe the admins could host some RP events with a focus on lore, though, in the future. RP can only go so far without characters interacting with a lived-in world.

[Imhotep]

RP is always difficult to pull off in Open World PvP games, failing strict GM/Admin intervention to monitor spam killing and such. It's possible, other games have systems in place for it, but Nin doesn't have a foundation for it outside of relying on the goodwill of the players.

Doesn't mean RP cannot exist on the village level. Kages can push for RP at all times during Org events/activity, for example. Village events can be held where RP is mandatory. It happened in the early stages of Ainz' Mizukage term fairly recently. The problem is it relies on players setting up their own incentives.

The Kage funds his own events through Village Banks that they set up rather than any system the game provides. Ranked ninjas are rewarded for their RP missions only if they make the lowbies pay for them, etc. It's high effort, and at the end of the day people are drawn back to the only thing the game makes easily accessible: PvP.

I don't think this is necessarily the Devs fault. It's a feed-back loop. PvP is easy to find and enjoyable, so most people drift to PvP and demand content surrounding PvP, further isolating anything that isn't PvP. If changes to RP missions were pushed before the current balance patches, for example, people would be losing it.

Any RP is going to have to live with that in mind. Assume the lore setting is a land in perpetual war, where no one is safe, and groups of Ninja have to band together to survive. Maintain RP within your group and when you're inevitably jumped, write it off as an IC attack by hostile ninja.

It limits the scale of your RP interactions but as it stands large scale RP events simply cannot run without a Kage/leadership willing to push for it. The future for RP in Nin is expanding on the village systems, clans, RP missions, integrate village politics and banks. This will make having localized RP easier and more prevalent. Outside of the village, less can be done. I'd especially oppose anything that got in the way of the Open World PvP.

Edited May 23, 2022 by Imhotep
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