Roleplaying and the MMORPG

Upon purchasing my first MMORPG or Massively Mulitiplayer Online game, which was Star Wars Galaxies, it never crossed my mind that there would be people who didn't roleplay. It seemed a no-brainer to me...if you buy a roleplaying game you pretend you're the character you're playing. Boy, was I in for a rude awakening. From the time I logged in, I was bombarded with "leet speak" or internet/gamer slang and saw absolutely no one roleplaying. I was defintely put off by this considering it was not what I expected.

After playing a bit and getting out and about I did finally make a friend who took me a to a city and, amazingly enough, it was a roleplaying city! That is where I discovered the real joy of RPing in online games. There was drama, intrigue, fights, and the normal night of just chatting and dancing in the cantina. I've yet to experience roleplay anywhere that lived up to that little city's.

Though I've long since stopped playing that game, I miss it because of the people and stories that were made. To this day I still talk to many of the friends I made while playing.

My next venture was to World of Warcraft. In this MMORPG I had even more trouble finding good RP and RPers. I believe the fact there were no dedicated cities to it was part of the problem. Over time I eventually found the "hub" of roleplay and had many adventures...and misadventures there. And amazingly enough I met my boyfriend through one of these encounters. Eventually we even moved in together, though we were from opposite sides of the country.

I believe the hardest part of roleplay in the MMORPG is finding it. Patience is key, as with most endeavors. If you look, you will find it.

If there search and effort to roleplay in these games that have a lot of other activities going on becomes too frustrating, there's always games like Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2. These games have dedicated servers hosted by real people with many different focuses. Everyone on these servers are required to roleplay. If the rules set forth aren't followed then a player will be banned. The risks of dealing with the "griefers", people that harass roleplayers, is minimum. Another plus is that you just have to buy the game, no monthy fee is needed to enjoy. On the downside the actually gameplay can at many times be lacking. If a person is just searching for good roleplaying, then the gameplay shouldn't be too much of a factor.

For anyone that hasn't tried roleplaying online or ever, I'd definitely recommend giving it a shot. If you're the D&D pen and paper roleplayer, you may actually like this too. It can be an easy, entertaining, and relaxing hobby.