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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celtavian" data-source="post: 6793946" data-attributes="member: 5834">Interacting with NPCs as though they are real persons is role-playing. Scripted responses with button clicks are not role-playing.I can't count the number of times I negotiated or interacted with NPCs on any number of hands I could possibly estimate.What's the difference? Bosses interact often with the PCs adapting to their tactics. You don't get to show up and know exactly what they will do each time like WoW. They don't say exactly the same thing. They respond to the tactics of the PCs had many, many different options. It's obvious to anyone that has played WoW/Everquest what the difference is between a video game boss monster and a D&D monster is. They are extremely different. If you haven't noticed this, then you are playing a very different game than I have played. Instance bosses and NPCs are just as scripted as raid bosses and not role-playing.Talking in character is only a small aspect of role-playing. If you can't change the world based on role-playing decisions, you aren't role-playing no matter how high a horse you get on to claim that you are. Your role-playing decisions did nothing to affect the game world. That is the very essence of role-playing.Bunch of people got together in a guild meeting and talking in character and it still had no effect on the game world. Meaningless to someone like me. I tried RPG servers. Once I found it consisted of a bunch of people talking in character with no effect on the game world, I left. That isn't role-playing to me. If you had fun writing WoW stories that had no effect on the game world, so be it. It didn't interest me. If my characters actions can't affect the game world, I'm not role-playing. I would have been bored to tears doing what you were doing. That's why I left those games after I was done seeing the world and raiding. The only appeal those games had for me was to see the visual representations in the world and the challenge. I felt no satisfaction role-playing in those games. I couldn't control anything in the world with my role-play actions. Even my equipment was worn by the same people playing the same class because of how limited character customization in the game was. Interacting with the party members alone would not be considered role-playing if it has no effect on the game world. Killing the same named monster over and over again because your actions have no effect on the game world was a real wake up call that I was not role-playing and not in a role-playing game. When you've killed such and such boss in such and such instance twenty or more times after he's said the same thing to you each time, it kind of hits home that you're not role-playing. You're in a repetitive game in a fantasy world that you cannot effect.In D&D when you slay a named dragon or a named wizard, it is recorded in the history of that world. A DM gives you all accolades for doing so in that world. It's a very different experience and the role-playing you do with the other PCs is very important because it can affect every aspect of the encounter. You can even choose to negotiate with the creature or trap it or come up with some other way to defeat it. It's not a repetitive experience unless the DM makes it so. If I cannot have an effect on the game world when role-playing, then I don't consider it role-playing. If I cannot by role-playing with the other PCs and we as a group have an effect on the game world, then I do not consider it role-playing. I went into WoW and Everquest hoping for a role-playing experience. I found something very different. It was fun and at challenging, but not role-playing. I even went so far as to make sure at least to pick names appropriate for a fantasy character rather than some of the absolutely stupid names I saw in those games like Chris420 or Sucknit and the like. I gave it a shot. Once I found out I would be killing the giant hand in Karnor's castle 20 times or defeating Nagafen 30 times, the idea of WoW/Everquest being an RPG was out the window. I just accepted that video games and pen and paper RPGs are a different experience and I would enjoy each for what it was. When I want to role-play, I want the game engine to be a DM to being make decisions that allow mine and my buddies role-playing to have a permanent effect on the game world.If I ever play with a DM that respawns creatures in the same place for me to fight again or writes scripts he repeats each time I go to a shopkeeper with no ability to negotiate, I'll be out the door. A recent example of what I'm talking about was the paladin in the market buying armor. He took a philter of love and negotiated for its sale with a duergar merchant. He was fortunate that the duergar merchant had a lady friend in question to use it on. So he offered a more than fair price due to his need. The paladin made a good selling argument and a good Persuasion roll. I as the DM made sure this had an effect on the world by coming up with the story the guy was trying to make a beautiful slave woman he purchased love him. So he was willing to pay more money for the philter. This is the kind of material I'm looking for in a role-playing experience that I did not get in WoW/Everquest (though Everquest is much, much closer than WoW ever was).The closest a video game ever got to providing a very cool RPG experience in a game was Everquest[/]. They had encumbrance. The primary market was the weekend player run bazaar in the East Commonlands. It required grouping to succeed. And had way more interaction required than WoW. Even that game was repetitive where you sat in a room with a bunch of buddies killing stuff over and over again. It was still a very cool experience, much closer to a pen and paper RPG than WoW. If you were satifised by role-playing in WoW, you would have loved the original Everquest.</blockquote>

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