Role-Playing Games: The State of Knowledge

Rule-play for role-play in VGWs

Role-Playing Games: The State of Knowledge

Rule-play for role-play in VGWs

DIGRA 2009London, UK

Mirjam p. EladhariGotland University

DIGRA 2009London, UK

Mirjam p. EladhariGotland University

Role-playing against all odds in VGWs

• Role-play (RP) in commercial MMORPGs is seldom supported by the game mechanics.

• The game play is based on rule-sets following design paradigms set back in the seventies (D&D, MUD) which, as Copier (2007) shows, encourages instrumental game play.

• RP in MMORPGs mostly rely on meta-game rules since RP is hard to capture in a system.

• Copier describes a specific MMORPG play-style as characterised by negotiation of principles of these meta-game rules.

Is this a problem?

support Role-Play in VGWs?

• Cater for complex, interesting avatars

• support players in expressing consistent, interesting player characters in VGWs?

• body-language etc.

• Support by rule system in order to make the actions performed characterising for particular avatars.

Characterising Action Potential (CAP)

CAP is what characters can do at a given moment that characterise them, both in terms of observable behaviour and in expression of true character - a character's essential nature, expressed by the choices a character makes.

The observable characteristics include visual appearance, what body language characters use, what sounds they make, what they say, and most important, what they do and how they behave.

Pataphysic institute

Pataphysic institute

emotional combat system!Personality trait based characters!

Player-created bosses! Manifestations of own Traumas and epiphanies!

emotional combat system!Personality trait based characters!

Player-created bosses! Manifestations of own Traumas and epiphanies!

thank you for listening

thank you for listening