Roleplaying is a wave of the future
by David Bowers 
Jun 2nd 2008 at 2:02PM
When you look at games like World of Warcraft versus games like Dungeons and Dragons, you can see that in some ways they are just the same, while in others they are vastly different. Thematically, they're both about romping through a fantasy world having adventures, and depending on the kind of activity you enjoy most in your games, the actual content of either one can be very similar. The difference lies in the user interface: WoW takes over your computers screen and presents you with intensive graphics, while D&D relies on paper, dice, and your imagination.
While WoW is obviously a child of the early 21st century, all the practical tools used in D&D have existed for thousands of years. One might well wonder: "why didn't Plato (or any other suitably wise old figure out of history) ever think of putting together a dungeon adventure?" A recent Escapist magazine article asks that very question, and then provides us with a bunch of theories about what roleplaying is and why people do it. All these are interesting in themselves, but they leave me wondering "but wait... why didn't Plato ever think of it?" The answer I think the article is trying to give is that roleplaying is actually a form of social innovation that couldn't have existed before, because the culture and ideas to give it form hadn't developed until the '60s.
So tonight when you get home and log into WoW, especially if you are logging in to roleplay your character, remember that you are participating in an activity that is on the growing edge of human civilization. Just as, all those hundreds of years ago, it was a great innovation for the Greek playwright Aeschylus to bring two actors onto the stage at once as opposed to letting one actor and a chorus carry the show -- in our own era, the way players get together today to collaboratively create worlds, characters and stories with one another is a new and exciting innovation that never existed before. Roleplaying itself is one of many brilliant and beautiful examples of how society and culture continue to evolve and progress well into the the future... and beyond.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, RP
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
niko Jun 2nd 2008 2:24PM
RP'ing is not innovative, it's acting. This is not new, there is nothing new under the sun, my dear Mr. Bowers.
This is none the more new than a computerized version of the "Who's Line is it Anyway" show. Sure, some people are serious about it, but it's nothing more than on the spot imagination combined with a medium that facilitates this communication.
This is a glorified RP message board. We have emotes and some pretty visuals, but even then, we've had constructs on boards for years that handle emotes... ;) for example.
Hate to burst the bubble of how "edgy" RPing is for ya, but it's got to be said. Nothing is new in WoW's RPing, nor any other MMO product out there when it comes to social innovation.
my .02
dirtysteve Jun 2nd 2008 3:07PM
Did you even read the article?
He didn't say Roleplaying is something that was invented 5 years ago, or that WoW in some way revolutionized RP.
No, he said that Roleplaying as we know it really didn't exist before the '60s. The claim is that culture is becoming more collaborative.
While I do agree that collaborative and interactive storytelling is becoming more common and complex, I think it's been around in some form as long as we've been able to communicate.
However your arguments and references to technology and television less then 20 or so years old really aren't valid. The article is talking in terms of the span of human civilization while your busy declaring "Thats sooo 1995."
David Bowers Jun 2nd 2008 4:04PM
Exactly. This isn't about the "latest greatest thing" in human communication -- it's about new trends of interaction and performance over the long span of human history, and great changes over the long term. I'm not even claiming that roleplaying is better than countless other innovations; it's just one beautiful thing among many others.
There has been many other forms of storytelling, which were indirectly collaborative, such as oral traditions which got improved with each telling. Roleplaying as we see it today is just another step in that direction.
Ruva Jun 2nd 2008 4:38PM
RTFA much?
Magikot Jun 2nd 2008 2:27PM
Plato couldn't think of it because he was too busy coming up with his crazy Primacy of Consciousness philosophy. Read it, it makes no damn sense at all...
here is a thought Jun 2nd 2008 2:57PM
um.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minotaur
and um... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_War why exactly would you bother with dice when you and a bunch of your buddies can pick up REAL swords and run off to do a REAL raid?!?
C'mon... you wanna tell me the Greeks did not LARP the heck outta that one?!?
KramerTheWeird Jun 2nd 2008 3:53PM
Greece actually invented it. Theatre was the first form of acting that was structured and recorded. Many of the fantasy creatures we know of today come from greek and roman myths.
To think of a game almost completely similar though is a waste of breath. Do you think they had Bingo during Greek times? Scrabble? Chess? If you consider Chess you have a game that inspired millions of ideas throughout its history. It's no doubt D&D and MMORPG's evolved from the Greek play.
David Bowers Jun 2nd 2008 4:17PM
Huh? You're all over the place... Can you make that point more clearly, please? Are you talking about chess, or fantasy creatures or theater here?
Zali Jun 3rd 2008 9:47AM
And it all started when Fred Flintstone walked in the door and Wilma said, "How did it go at the quary today dear?" and Fred said, "Kinda hard to say honey, let me draw some pictures on the wall with some finger paints."
The next thing you know you got cavemen tagging up caves all over ancient France telling about the sabar tooth tiger that got away, and how it was "THIS BIG," which leads to some guy trying to explain how the battle went, drawing a diagram of the field in the dirt and saying, "OK, imagine that the field was sectioned off in a grid of 64 sections, and our King was here, and their King was over there, and the knights were here and we had some clergymen over here and the foot soldiers were up front and, wow it was a heck of a fight." And then his friend says, "Yea, but if we add a bunch more squares and get some little ivory pieces and put some letters on it, then we can play a game where we pretend we have an awsome vocabulary. Lets call it Scrabble." Then the other guy says, "We weren't talking about Scrabble, we were talking about WAR." And the Scrabble guy says, "But peace is much better than war. I'm burning my draft card." And the chess guy says, "Damned hippie." And the hippie says, "Lets role play. I'll be you, and you be me." And the War guy says, "I refuse to get in touch with my feminine side, you damn hippie therapist." And the therapist says, "But it is important to express your feelings in a safe environment." And the war guy says, "Shut up you damn hippie, I'm going home to gank the crap out of some cloth wearing pansy... as soon as I get my dailys done."
Yadda yadda yadda.
I swear, more people come up with more ways to completely avoid the content of the articles on this site in order to post wildly inane comments... It's no wonder we live in a country... for those of us living in the USA, where an illegal alian who has broken our laws in order come into our country illegally, demand constitutional rights which are for legal citizens and legal residents, and then claim that loitering in the parking lot of a legitimate business as a "day laborer" is Free Speech, and therefore protected under the constitution.
Oh wait... another inane comment. *sigh* There is no escape!
Anaughtybear Jun 2nd 2008 3:53PM
WoW roleplayers need an ass kicking. That's the general consensus from all the people on PvP servers anyway. If you want to RP, bust out the D&D (or one of the many games that are superior to D&D. Sadly, WoW is only about farming rep and collecting gear these days.
Anaughtybear Jun 2nd 2008 3:55PM
I need to close my parentheses in there after D&D. My bad.
ILikePvPbuthatePvPers Jun 2nd 2008 4:05PM
You = Why I have this name.
Also, you big douche bag, you're playing an mmoRPg.
A why do you care if people RP? Why don't you go back and gank the level 20 with your level 70 to show your "leetness" and mind your own fucking business?
David Bowers Jun 2nd 2008 4:14PM
Who are you to say that WoW roleplayers need an ass kicking? That's a generalized statement with no foundation in truth whatsoever. I could just as easily proclaim that PvPers need an ass spanking, that PvEers need a chocolate sundae, and that all people with hair on their toes need a pet squid.
If PvP server people like to kill and gank each other, then they are welcome to go do that -- I'm sure they get quite good at it. Likewise, RPers have things we like to do, too, and we learn to get good at roleplaying over time. It's just a hobby, man -- chill out a bit on the meaningless negative generalization.
Sean Riley Jun 2nd 2008 6:07PM
... and finally I get you, ANaughtybear.
Finally.
There's no worse cynic than a failed romantic, is there?
Retron Jun 2nd 2008 4:56PM
I didn't read the whole Escapist article, but it seems like lots of comparisons are being made in these posts to theater. The key differences in roleplaying and the dramatic arts, ancient Greek or otherwise, is that roleplaying is like acting with yourself and other participants as the audience, and with a bunch of rules/guidelines instead of a wrote script. In that sense, it relies more on the imagination and creativity of the players.
In truth, it seems more analogous to a phenomenon far older and more omnipresent throughout even other species: the playing of children. Much has been written about the adolescent need to play, from a psychological/sociological standpoint. In human children, as well as say lion cubs, the 'role' being 'played' is usually some more powerful, idealized version of the self, i.e. an adult, or heroic version of the parents.
Perhaps what has changed in the latter 20th century is a greater need for more codified system for these roles in our imaginations. We don't have as many idealized epic myths in our standard media, and at the same time we don't have the same kind of rites of passage into a real life role of even demanding physical labor, to say nothing of heroic warrior.
Camaris Jun 2nd 2008 5:31PM
That's an interesting way to look at it.
It may be somehow related to the fact that in modern society, people have signficantly more 'free time' to fill in, and that generally, we stay 'younger'. Many people are still studying into their late 20s, whereas back then I guess you'd be considered an adult around 16.
This general sense of freedom may be a factor in keeping modern people younger, and more prone to 'play'.
Retron Jun 2nd 2008 5:57PM
It seems true that modern societies consist more of 'grownup children' than in past eras, however in other ways even young adults must deal with a far more complex world. What we really miss are the rights of passage. A really good source on these subjects is Joseph Campbell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell
He built on the work of C.J. Jung, and was considered a world authority on mythology. Don't remember him referring to the RPG phenomenon specifically, but it certainly is a relevant subject to his work.
Retron Jun 2nd 2008 5:59PM
Doh, *rites* of passage, not rights. That's a whole different subject...
Ircasha Jun 2nd 2008 5:43PM
As long as WoW (and all other MMORPGs like it) have static story lines, their use as a vehicle for roleplaying will be limited. Without some form of persistence, at least from your character's point of view, it's hard to become immersed in the game from a roleplaying perspective.
The main thrill I always had in playing pen and paper games was that what my character did have an impact on the game world. In WoW, no matter how many times you kill Illidan, he's always right back up there the next time you run the instance (kind of like an inflatable punching clown . . . with horns). It kind of lets the air out of the tires as far as my roleplaying experience goes.
At least for now, I'm sticking to pen and paper games to get my RPing fix.
David Bowers Jun 2nd 2008 10:05PM
There are three ways of looking at this problem. First, the other people you roleplay with are consistent -- they change over time and grow and adapt just as you do. If you keep your story lines relevant to them and the things you all as a group are going through, then you don't run into the same continuity errors like you described. This means, yes, no saving the world, and instances tend to be mostly out of character, but there's lots of other relationship-based storytelling and roleplaying to be done that you haven't accounted for.
Second, you can think of the game world as having a subjective continuity based on the level of your progression through it. If you're over level 25 or so, then you don't really have a need to go to the Deadmines anymore, for instance. Therefore, you and your friends at the same level can say that Van Cleef is dead. Of course you know that if you go back into the instance you can still find him there, but you don't need to go back into the instance do you? Therefore, relative to you in a story sense, he poses no threat and no longer exists. If a friend wants you to run his alt through the Deadmines, however, you could either do this out of character, or....
You could just temporarily act as if your character has never been there before. The game world isn't objectively consistent, so why should you be? There can be lots of fun to be had in roleplaying through an instance you've already seen as if it's the first time. Especially if you are there with someone new, you may have a totally different experience there.
You can even kind of pull this off in a different way with raiding instances too. In my guild, we go to Karazhan every week, but we keep it all in character. We say that, just as we can be raised from the dead, so can Attumen and Moroes and so on. They need to have a weekly put-down if we want to be free of their evil influence on the world. Presumably, later on, as we get more powerful, our need to go there will be less because they too will be weaker, with less evil influence on things.
So there you go. The problem is not so much in the game itself, but in the way you look at it. A change of perspective can change the game too.
Check out this article on the same topic: http://www.wowinsider.com/2007/11/18/all-the-worlds-a-stage-raiding-and-rp-dont-mix-or-do-they/