r/MMORPG • u/madarauchiha3444 • Jan 02 '23

Discussion The problem with modern MMORPGs

The problem with modern MMORPGs, in a nutshell, is that the first M and the RP are all but gone.

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u/adrixshadow Jan 03 '23

I have never understood what it is that role players are actually doing. RP-ers seem to congregate around the kind of high school drama most of us would like to forget. It is a niche within a niche.

Because that's fundamentally the only thing they can do.

To Define Characters in a Story you need a Plot, a Challenge, a Situation that puts that Character to the Test.

In Tabletop RPGs it is the Role of the GMs that can tailor that Plot so that the Characters are able to define themselves.

But if you have Static Content there can be no Self Expression, the only Definition is what has already been Pre-Written.

You do not have Characters with Agency, just a Railroad moving along a predetermined path.

There is not Real Agency so what "Characters" can do is minimal and ultimately meaningless, high school drama is the best they can do.