At one time online RPG games were predominantly populated with role-players, not anymore it seems ! in modern MMORPG’s they are a small minority who nominate just one server from many to be the “unofficial” RP server. The games are designed around players concentrating their efforts on their characters prowess. Role-play has been replaced with beating the game, becoming the best, gaining the most. The game design turns players into total ACHEIVERS, The KILLERS are confined to their designated areas for consenting players only, The SOCIALIZERS are bored doing trade skills the uber achieving guilds maxed in the first week The EXPLORERS quickly become bored as portals and other instant travel mechanisms reduce exploring to achieving the correct level or skill or funds to use the portal. For me as a mild role-player the MMORPG genre is at a low point and the developers have lost their way. I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel.

How do you know if they are dying out - or just pretending to die out?

The fault here in nomenclature. Just because these games have picked up the label MMORPG doesn''t make them an RPG. Even if the intention of the game was to role play in the p&p sense of the word, if noone does it, it changes the nature of the game.

Your best bet is to flock together with birds of your feather. Find the game that has the largest RP community and work from there. There are a couple games coming out that are trying to de-emphasize combat - maybe this will be more condusive to RP?

quote: At one time online RPG games were predominantly populated with role-players

Must have been before my time.

Question:
Where did all these role-players go?

They''re still there, but a lot of other people have started playing those games too...

Anyway, in AO, there''s only 2 servers, which means the roleplayers can''t really go and hide on their own server. That''s one of the few things AO did right. The result is that there actually is a lot of roleplaying going on which involves all the "lesser" roleplayers too. You don''t need a server full of roleplayers, but maybe you have to lower your standards a bit (It''s unrealistic to demand that people *never* talk OOC, or go around saying ''thou'' to people all the time)
If you can live with that sort of thing, it''s entirely possible to roleplay among "ordinary people" on ordinary servers.

That said, what MMOG''s really need is to actually support roleplaying. At the moment they''re really just hack ''n slash games, where it''s impossible to actually achieve anything, impossible to play a role (which is kinda essential in roleplaying), and the best you can do is going around pretending...

Short answer: Nope.

Long answer: Never, nope.

.lick

Good point scaught,
Tell me where do you roost ? are the couple of games you mention?

WHAT are the games u mention sorry

I''m not really big into the whole MMOG thing, so I don''t pay too much attention to things like titles and release dates - but one of them is called "A Tale In The Desert" I think...yep. Here''s their webpage - looks like they''re going live in a month, too.

There was at least one more - maybe if you search the MMORPG news sites (or just for "A Tale In The Desert") there might be some linkage...

if the PC MMORPG are anything like PSO than that whole genre needs to be revamped

If you really want to roleplay, get into pen and paper, or even better live action games.