Coul...Could we have a Role-play forum?

[Konachibi]

Actually there is already an 'mmo' out there that's designed more for roleplay purposes and doesn't focus as much on the normal battling/crafting/end-game that other mmo's do (though it does still have them in there)

It's called Mabinogi

[Fensfield]

Actually there is already an 'mmo' out there that's designed more for roleplay purposes and doesn't focus as much on the normal battling/crafting/end-game that other mmo's do (though it does still have them in there)

It's called Mabinogi

Good point. And a lot of the things Mabinogi did right, I saw in Final Fantasy XIV. .. 'Course they're also the things the new Dev' team are chewing on with abandon (seriously, I've seen high praise given to the same decisions by critics and players alike that simultaneously got called stupid over here, like flexible role definitions and gear having a limited (but still important) influence on stats beside skills. I can only think FF XIV didn't go far enough either way and got stuck in the mediocre middle ground).

Still, Mabi is definitely a wonderful game, with some of the best instance vs open-world balancing I've ever seen. The people who made it obviously cared desperately about the world and characters they were presenting (an entire element of its custom-built Pleione engine is dedicated to making one particularly important character memorable) and enabling people to have characters, rather than 'toons', not to mention they obviously knew a lot about The Mabinogion itself.

Mabinogi however, has two unfortunate drawbacks, neither all that reconcilable:

1. From a roleplay perspective, it suffers a bit from Special Snowflake Syndrome. It justifies game mechanics by having all player characters be Milletians - immortal travelers of the Soul Stream. It makes playing a character a tad awkward having to fit into that frame, and led to Mabi's roleplay community becoming fractured over who is a Milletian or what groups allow characters to be Milletian, or whether it's okay to roleplay a 'normal'... Not to mention the 'what's the point of it all?' issues arise from being outright told your character's never in any real danger.
   
   Not to mention the reincarnation system, while brilliant fun, is a right sod to roleplay around.
   
   
2. Mabinogi's battle system is pretty close to true realtime, relying heavily on timing and not having latency issues - it was built to operate over a landmass the size of Japan and can just about cover a continent at a stretch. While great fun, it's really sensitive to lag. Thus there's an NA version, a European version, Korean, Japanese.. and massive latency problems aside there are regional IP blocks operating and Nexon work unusually hard to block proxies and VPN tunnels. We can't play with our international friends. For us Europeans, it's even worse: it took several years to take it into the EU market, so now it's a 'new old game' with all the playerbase issues that entails.

[Lauro]

Don't most other official websites to other mmos have a forum and one of them is usually a Role-play thread?

You know i kinda like this idea also.. and Yes most game DO have a RP forum.

[Konachibi]

Most games roleplay forums also game flamed by people who don't like roleplay.

[User201109011315]

Well at least Mabinogi 2 will be coming out "soon" and probably has better graphics/animations than FFXIV anyway.

[Dreadnought]

it amazes me that there are people who play video games with no emphasis on action. this mobi game sounds absolutely terrible to me. deep lore and amazing action should go hand in hand to me.
then again im also surprised there isnt a scientific study about people who actually enjoy crafting.

[Fensfield]

it amazes me that there are people who play video games with no emphasis on action. this mobi game sounds absolutely terrible to me. deep lore and amazing action should go hand in hand to me.
then again im also surprised there isnt a scientific study about people who actually enjoy crafting.

Please have a second look at the Mabinogi-related posts, Dreadnaught, you've obviously failed to comprehend them. Mabinogi uses a timing-and-response-based battle system, it's more action-based than Final Fantasy XIV. It was just one of the first MMO's to realise that people might have far more fun if MMO-games focused on the journey, not the end, and gave them a means to get more fun out of the battles themselves, and enjoy the parts of the game didn't involve beating things up, like composing and performing music.

Here, combat video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1KMp-bXqAs

Still, anyone that insults people for enjoying a particular concept of any game, be it crafting or composition or roleplay or combat, is just.. that's something amazes me. It's honestly beyond my comprehension and a bit disturbing how anyone can believe that someone who enjoys different things to those that they enjoy is somehow intrinsically wrong.

[Konachibi]

it amazes me that there are people who play video games with no emphasis on action. this mobi game sounds absolutely terrible to me. deep lore and amazing action should go hand in hand to me.
then again im also surprised there isnt a scientific study about people who actually enjoy crafting.

Some of the most popular game genres in Japan at the moment are anime dating simulators. No action, no lewd pictures, just a game with an enormous plotline that you sort of sit through and make choices.

Sounds dumb, but incredibly relaxing, sort of like an audio-visual book with interactive content.

Then there was The Sims, Lemmings, Bejewelled, along with a huge variety of point & click puzzle games.

Games don't need to feature action as a strong-point in order to be good, they just need to be fun.

Sometimes the intensity of a synthesis being reduced to only 5 durability, there's 1% left and an unstable fire elemental. your next attempt at synthesis will determine if you go up a rank or not. You use standard synthesis, your attempt was successfull, completing the item and only losing 4 durability.
Happens more often than you'd think, even crafting can be exciting sometimes to some degree.

[User201109011315]

it amazes me that there are people who play video games with no emphasis on action. this mobi game sounds absolutely terrible to me. deep lore and amazing action should go hand in hand to me.
then again im also surprised there isnt a scientific study about people who actually enjoy crafting.

Mabinogi has better combat than FFXIV, in my opinion. Well, for the starter levels at least.

This is a demonstration of the upcoming Mabinogi 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU2zS6bvCYo

[Mikita]

Actually there is already an 'mmo' out there that's designed more for roleplay purposes and doesn't focus as much on the normal battling/crafting/end-game that other mmo's do (though it does still have them in there)

It's called Mabinogi

I guess I roleplay in FFXIV.
I didn't really start out to do so. I just play as "me"... but have come to identify quite closely with my Eorzean self.

What probably pushed me in this direction are the amazing character models, textures, animation, functional design, realistic lighting and other visual effects... and the overall believability of the design of Eorzea. I guess that would be visual "immersion".

Question for more experienced gamers and roleplayers:
Do graphics play a big part in your ability to enjoy the roleplaying side of a game?

Mabinogi is very cartoonish and immediately strikes me as "a game" ... compared with FFXIV which immediately impressed me as a living, breathing "fantasy world".

Just curious. ^^