How important is roleplaying to you?

[[PhiberOpticks]]

Since this is a role playing game, I figure it is a topic of relevance. How important is it to you? How much should the gameplay reflect it?

Personally, I think role playing plays or at least should have an important role in RPGs. One thing that I think developers have fallen short of is designing characters that you can truly role play with. Many have simply stopped at just having you "play" the "role" of a predesigned character. But in MMOs, it's a whole other ball game. Characters designed from scratch that don't necessarily fill any particular niche. How can characters be made to fill a niche? How will they pursue that role and how should it affect the game?

[lyankyj]

I really really care about hte RP content the game might have.

Theyve said there will be plenty of items just for role-players which is a really nice thing, on the other hand, im quite scared since they not even have a Last Name option (this could change however, as CC-s said).

I have trust in them, so im kinda optimistic.

[[PhiberOpticks]]

But what do items translate to in terms of RPing? As far as I can tell, that just keeps you entertained for a while. And a lot of people just stop at emotes. And while emotes can be fun (and you should see the Emote Content SC winner thread about this too), they aren't really applied to the extent that they should. I would say that it relies on players to develop their role playing experience, but it doesn't even do that. Cuz it doesn't support it truly.

[Cojiro]

I enjoy role play (Especially in text - It's a lot easier and less embarassing) but my only experience with MMO RP is the RP serve on WoW. It was pretty pathetic. I joined the RP server with my friends and in 8 months I never RPed once. It was stupid.
I'd like to RP a in Aion. I like creating this entire personality to play with. On the other hand, I'd like to make some friends in the game who're friends with the actual me. I'm on the fence, I guess.

[Silent]

I think rping from most mmos is gone. In all due respect to ppl that want to Rp i think aion wont have place for rping much, most ppl will play to level get items beat ohers in pvp etc.

my 2 cents.

[Lunais]

To me, roleplaying isn't important at all. I don't really participate in it, except for maybe the Asmodians vs Elyos stuff.

However, I think the races, NPCs and environments of a game should have a backstory, to give them a bit more soul so-to-speak. Also, a wide range of emotes and some fun items like fireworks etc. are always nice.

[Icarus01]

Rp is usually a minority of MMO's but big enough that they should have a few nice features and a realm to themselfs

[Fiend]

For the most part my role-playing stops at playing the role of a combatant out to do whatever the goal of the game is... In this case I will be playing the role of an Asmodian assassin who is focused on taking control of the rift / finding out what happened to Aion.

I rarely role play in the creative, make up a personality and stick to it, hang out in town and do something other than the game's main story, sort of way. Living in a world with magic seems to be enough role playing for me.

Most of the time the 'RP' elements (emotes etc) mostly just assist in immersion for me. They aren't a feature to let me pretend to be something.

[Glacius]

0 importance for me personally.

[Ashes]

There are not enough mechanics or customization to support roleplaying in MMOs beyond simply playing the toon.

[Delthis]

I like to keep up with the storyline and RP in that respect, but I don't go out of my way to RP with other people.

I'm a big person on PvP, so that is what I will most likely stick to.

[Verth]

I think the idea of what constitues to RP differs from person to person, so the real question I think would be what would constitue to RP? Personally I could never fully immerse myself into an MMO to create my characters personality and take it seriously. RP to me is left at my hatred for the other faction I'm opposing on my main toon and going to PvP battle.

Items can very much have an effect on a persons RP playability, they way the character looks and feels is an important factor to I think anyone that plays but even more so to those that RP, again just my 2 cents.

[Gravity]

I'm not too big on RP, mainly PvE, and some PvP.

I'm more of a fan of raiding, not so much on story telling.

[Disrupter]

RP generally detracts from my enjoyment of a title, unless of course I come across a couple cybering or something in some back alley somewhere. Thats generally entertaining for a couple minutes.

Game story isn't RP though. RP requires the player's participation and essentially acting. Story/Lore is seperate, and generally something I enjoy experiencing through end-game content. FFXI was great for that, WoW was not so much. (Lol magic junkies shot down our cosmos traversing race of spacegoats' spaceship!)

[Aitze]

It's... not really important to me as much as... that I think it's important that it's possible. I personally don't RP very much - I find it a bit embarrassing, and plus my friends don't do it - but I do enjoy it once in a while, and as there are players that play mainly for this or at least see it as something very important, I wouldn't like it if it wasn't supported.