Why has everyone begun private Roleplaying suddenly?

[Kay Trenton.7368]

I recently returned to the game, and was eager to try and find some EU Roleplayers at the places I was used to them congregating, AKA : Bars, taverns, the like. Unfortunately, I would go in either in the evening, or late evenings, and every time I'd see no one. I would see people in guilds that do Roleplay, but when asked about it, they state they stick to Guild Hall or Instanced Roleplay only. I can't understand why the sudden shift from open RP where anyone and everyone could join, to this strange isolationist stance, as it makes it virtually impossible for new RP'ers that are eager to join in, like I was, to do so. Even my old RP group has gone to focus on doing Instanced RP only, and anytime suggestions of new people are made, they refuse to let them come, or get angry if a new person is inadvertently brought in. 

 To make matters more difficult, many do discord RP in private servers too, making it nigh impossible to keep up with what they think are 'current events'. I am someone that enjoys Roleplaying actively, rather than assuming XX knows what is happening to another char even though Out of character I'd have no clue, or that XX finished a task ages ago but it was never conveyed or talked about being finished, and just left hanging. Maybe I'm weird, but I like details, and being informed, rather than relying on assumptions.

 What made people resort to this? Should I just give up on RP entirely or even just switch to NA, even if that makes it that I have to rely on weekends to be able to be available for RP?

[Nethertale.9301]

This reminds me that I encountered somebody in a different game, hanging out in a tavern behind the bar and moving in tiny bits. Hours later I came back to that tavern and only now my consciousness noticed him. I knew he was RPing and just waiting for people, any opportunity. There were a lot of people, but nobody was RPing/noticing him.

Of course I did it right away, yet my character idea was something entirely else and there was actually no reason for me to be there. It was short and I was left with a guilty feeling.

I don't really know why I mention this or still carry with me.

 

Yet what I can say is that although not bound to organized RP, there are self-generated opportunities, mostly spontaneous, be it brief: You can walk up to any player and RP comment on their task, often with humor involved making the situation quite creative even allowing OOC elements. Same goes with spreading some ambience in map chat or during PvE-events.

The problem is just it has to be honest, sometimes quick enough. Guild Wars 2 is very fast-paced.

Organized RP takes time and space, enough clarity and calm. Open RP, the most beautiful form, is hardly a given anywhere nowadays since Discord has been floating around, especially the ego that automatically comes with hierarchy.

I feel like the magic of RP shifted from a spontaneous, unattached, funny task to a way of narcissism, the feeling of being seen, the moment of opening up to each other, connection, resemblances of intimacy, the craft of writing.
The most creative stuff I've ever seen, and experienced within myself, only happened during open world RP & when you suddenly did something entirely else than what an organized event requested.

Edited May 22, 2023 by Nethertale.9301

[Ashantara.8731]

On 4/27/2023 at 9:06 AM, Kay Trenton.7368 said:

I can't understand why the sudden shift from open RP where anyone and everyone could join, to this strange isolationist stance, as it makes it virtually impossible for new RP'ers that are eager to join in, like I was, to do so.

I assume role-players might have been harassed and insulted and had enough of it, so that's why? The toxicity within the GW2 playerbase has increased even more lately, that is my impression at least.
 

Edited June 3, 2023 by Ashantara.8731

[Mustadio.6750]

Before the Mega server. I used to see a lot of rpers rping in the wilderness. (outside of cities). I thought the constant split of RPers in shards was what made everyone quit before they started to hide in Guildhalls to stick together. As an RPer, I can say with experience it feels like complete isolation now. It's weird for Anet, because rpers are the whales of the game, they're the ones who buy a lot of cosmetics for their characters and emotes. Miss of opportunity and priority imo. At least Warp can still help a few rpers, but new rpers wouldn't know about it.

[flatters.1496]

I've made the same experience. I just recently came back to the game - i used to play when the Enjin Board still was a thing. I like the idea of WARP, downloaded it, installed it, set it all up...to find it almost empty? Yet, I've seen RPers around, and talked to them, and basically they all told me the same: "We stay in private areas mostly, we don't do public RP."

I find this sad, and kind of worrying? Roleplaying used to be so open, so much fun, and everybody was eager to meet new people...now it seems you want to stick in your social bubble, and everyone outside of it is looked at with disgust.

 

Anyway. I'm on EU, i'm on WARP, PLEASE hit me up, whenever you see someone in WARP being online and just idling around. I'm ALWAYS eager to meet new people, and to string together a nice story 🙂 Also, feel free to add me ingame, or just PM me.

I'm not doing edited Events, no DM-ed events...spontaneous stuff. Guild Wars 2 gives us a beautiful world, full of life! We couldn't ask for a better canvas. If anybody ever feels like going out in the world and actually have an adventure (do Map-Events, do hearts, maybe even play a whole story of PAth of Fire or smth together with an RP group) PLEASE hit me up. I did all those things before with a guild that is now long gone sadly, but in the RP spirit: I'm always open to meet new people 🙂

Edited October 15, 2023 by flatters.1496
Adding information.

[Epsilon Indi.2031]

On 4/27/2023 at 2:06 AM, Kay Trenton.7368 said:

 What made people resort to this? Should I just give up on RP entirely or even just switch to NA, even if that makes it that I have to rely on weekends to be able to be available for RP?

Four things I've observed in my time around the block.  Elitism.  You have the few who lay claim to public spaces that then push out people who don't fit into their paradigm of valid roleplay and character concepts.  Fail Roleplay.  Now, I'm not talking about some edge cases for characters (A charr without a warband or raised outside the legions, a sylvari from another tree, A norn that doesn't want a legend, etc.) but the sort who come in with such outlandish and gaudy characters (Gods, demigods, immortals, vampires, elves, firstborn sylvari, krytan ministers, public order of whispers/ash legion sort, people playing law enforcement, etc.) that aren't there to make other people have a good story but put their character out there as "Look how cool my character is." Next, Sexual Harassment.  The amount of times I've gotten DMs from people who want to do lewd acts to my character is astounding.  I've reported every case but those people aren't permanently removed from the game.  Finally, drama.  Oh the drama.  Personal anecdote; I've had someone who brought up drama from two years ago, someone I didn't think about at all, just so they could prevent me from actually, actively roleplaying in public.  Stuff like this is all-too-common in this community, too.

[VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.]

Today I saw some people play in Hoelbrak. They played in German - which is a good way to keep others away. And one char was a cryptis in human form - which is another good way to keep people away.

It always saddened me when people tried to troll RPers. But when you do stuff like that, you can't really complain. Imho of course. 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

FWIW I've seen people out and about in OW doing their RP. During the Amnytas Meta even using /say rather than some guild or party chat.

[Teknomancer.4895]

There were certain servers that were used as the unofficial RP spots back in the day, but I don't know if that's still the case. I don't RP much if at all, but I still like to see it in chat. It adds flavor to the game, and sometimes I'd even chime in a remark or two in-character. That's how I thought it was intended to be in this game, but that seems to have mostly died out -- probably because there's no loot, so it's a low-RoI activity that imposes an unacceptable opportunity cost to your min/maxing time. Or something like that.

And here all these years I thought games were supposed to be about having fun, but clearly I've been doing it wrong the whole time.

[Rolebreaker.4920]

.

 

Edited December 28, 2023 by Rolebreaker.4920
Forgot to add the quote from previous reply

[Rolebreaker.4920]

On 12/8/2023 at 7:03 PM, Epsilon Indi.2031 said:

Four things I've observed in my time around the block.  Elitism.  You have the few who lay claim to public spaces that then push out people who don't fit into their paradigm of valid roleplay and character concepts.  Fail Roleplay.  Now, I'm not talking about some edge cases for characters (A charr without a warband or raised outside the legions, a sylvari from another tree, A norn that doesn't want a legend, etc.) but the sort who come in with such outlandish and gaudy characters (Gods, demigods, immortals, vampires, elves, firstborn sylvari, krytan ministers, public order of whispers/ash legion sort, people playing law enforcement, etc.) that aren't there to make other people have a good story but put their character out there as "Look how cool my character is." Next, Sexual Harassment.  The amount of times I've gotten DMs from people who want to do lewd acts to my character is astounding.  I've reported every case but those people aren't permanently removed from the game.  Finally, drama.  Oh the drama.  Personal anecdote; I've had someone who brought up drama from two years ago, someone I didn't think about at all, just so they could prevent me from actually, actively roleplaying in public.  Stuff like this is all-too-common in this community, too.

I believe this kind of sums it up. This was my experience at times. I stick with open world RP. The "city chatter" and ERP is a bit much. I did just make a new character with the  intention to build a backstory and such then just role play as I level.