Hudson
Electron
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- Apr 27, 2016
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I have no idea how people would react to these thoughts I've had about roleplay, so I thought I'd post it as a quick thread and see what happened. If you read it let me know what you think?
Overview:
I've noticed that Half-Life 2 Roleplay servers tend to have unique cultures, with some sharing similarities to eachother. I'll use a scenario to describe these differences for 3 types of roleplay. The scenario is that Civil Protection have been given a tip-off about a potential anti-citizen, so they are investigating the case.
Deathmatch roleplay:
Characters have guns, and guns are used for shooting other players. When Civil Protection see the alleged anti-citizen they pull their guns out and shoot the the citizen to death. If the citizen has a gun then they might have enough time to pull it out and fire back.
This can be fun for Civil Protection players that feel like they were justified in what they've done, and there are no restrictions preventing them from having their fun.
Theatrical roleplay:
The Civil Protection officers locate the potential anti-citizen and stop them, questioning the citizen about the accusation. The citizen is not actually under threat, because it would be unfair for the Civil Protection characters to arrest and search(which could potentially lead to execution) of the players citizen character he was developing over hearsay.
The Civil Protection characters are only allowed to use this situation to help immerse the other players and offer a potential roleplay scenario that the accused anti-citizen player can decide to engage with or not.
The immersion is sustained because the Civil Protection characters are showing their oppressive nature just by stopping a random citizen in a rude and threatening manner and not letting them go until the citizen answers themselves.
If the anti-citizen player wants to continue the story of their character elsewhere then they can claim innocence, and the Civil Protection characters leave the alleged anti-citizen alone.
The Civil Protection characters have made it clear that they won't tolerate anti-citizens, and that if there was any proof to go on they wouldn't hesistate to make an arrest.
In this case the anti-citizen player wants to play the role of an anti-citizen that had been caught, and he tries to run away from the Civil Protection characters.
Civil Protection gives chase and this leads to a firefight. Shoot-to-miss rules draw out the engagement, until the anti-citizen; wounded and outgunned surrenders himself.
The anti-citizen is then taken to the Nexus for interrogation where he announces his loyalty to the resistance and warns the officers that by supporting the Combine they are putting themselves in danger.
The officers question the rebel over every piece of contraband that he was carrying, trying to find out where they came from and what they were being used for. The rebel shows some fear at this point and gives away some information, but he was only pretending to show fear, and any details he gives are simply misinformation.
An execution is announced to take place in the plaza, and the rebel is taken outside to a watching crowd. The officer players give the rebel player one last opportunity for him to express his character by choice of last words to the crowd, and perhaps in that moment some rebels have appeared to attempt to rescue him.
It might stray from what is accepted as canon, but it's still heavily based in the Half-Life 2 theme and can be a lot of fun, and the point of roleplay games is often to have fun.
Self-interest character roleplay:
Civil Protection officers locate and stop the alleged anti-citizen and properly roleplay the arrest and search of the citizen. Regardless of whether the citizen is holding contraband or not, they are executed.
This drastically cuts short any potential roleplay the citizen player was looking to get, but it is perhaps an experience that would be closer to the canon than the theatrical method.
There are players that enjoy the dog-eat-dog nature of this gameplay, as the dead citizen is free to make a new character in this brutal environment they enjoy exploring, and the Civil Protection officers aren't restricted by rules over who they can and can't execute or fire at.
Conclusion:
The deathmatch-roleplay style is more associated with Downtown or lite-roleplay, although even Downtown and lite-roleplay tended to have restrictions on that kind of gameplay. But even with those restrictions, it was the nature of that kind of experience to involve casual firefights.
The theatrical style generates the most roleplay through the fair and interactive exchanges between players, which could be ruined if someone from a more bloodthirsty style just tries to kill someone. I've found that theatrical servers tended to have lower playercounts and a family-like culture of like-minded players, while self-interest and deathmatch styles of roleplay had higher playercounts overall.
Rebel groups on theatrical servers often did well because the rebels worked together and the existence of them was respected by Civil Protection players. Civil Protection players wanted someone to fight against, so they only wanted to hurt the rebels, not completely wipe them out.
The self-interest roleplay servers are highly successful, but concepts like the resistance faction can be problematic when its members act as individuals, while Civil Protection is guided by Dispatch and operates effectively.
Overview:
I've noticed that Half-Life 2 Roleplay servers tend to have unique cultures, with some sharing similarities to eachother. I'll use a scenario to describe these differences for 3 types of roleplay. The scenario is that Civil Protection have been given a tip-off about a potential anti-citizen, so they are investigating the case.
Deathmatch roleplay:
Characters have guns, and guns are used for shooting other players. When Civil Protection see the alleged anti-citizen they pull their guns out and shoot the the citizen to death. If the citizen has a gun then they might have enough time to pull it out and fire back.
This can be fun for Civil Protection players that feel like they were justified in what they've done, and there are no restrictions preventing them from having their fun.
Theatrical roleplay:
The Civil Protection officers locate the potential anti-citizen and stop them, questioning the citizen about the accusation. The citizen is not actually under threat, because it would be unfair for the Civil Protection characters to arrest and search(which could potentially lead to execution) of the players citizen character he was developing over hearsay.
The Civil Protection characters are only allowed to use this situation to help immerse the other players and offer a potential roleplay scenario that the accused anti-citizen player can decide to engage with or not.
The immersion is sustained because the Civil Protection characters are showing their oppressive nature just by stopping a random citizen in a rude and threatening manner and not letting them go until the citizen answers themselves.
If the anti-citizen player wants to continue the story of their character elsewhere then they can claim innocence, and the Civil Protection characters leave the alleged anti-citizen alone.
The Civil Protection characters have made it clear that they won't tolerate anti-citizens, and that if there was any proof to go on they wouldn't hesistate to make an arrest.
In this case the anti-citizen player wants to play the role of an anti-citizen that had been caught, and he tries to run away from the Civil Protection characters.
Civil Protection gives chase and this leads to a firefight. Shoot-to-miss rules draw out the engagement, until the anti-citizen; wounded and outgunned surrenders himself.
The anti-citizen is then taken to the Nexus for interrogation where he announces his loyalty to the resistance and warns the officers that by supporting the Combine they are putting themselves in danger.
The officers question the rebel over every piece of contraband that he was carrying, trying to find out where they came from and what they were being used for. The rebel shows some fear at this point and gives away some information, but he was only pretending to show fear, and any details he gives are simply misinformation.
An execution is announced to take place in the plaza, and the rebel is taken outside to a watching crowd. The officer players give the rebel player one last opportunity for him to express his character by choice of last words to the crowd, and perhaps in that moment some rebels have appeared to attempt to rescue him.
It might stray from what is accepted as canon, but it's still heavily based in the Half-Life 2 theme and can be a lot of fun, and the point of roleplay games is often to have fun.
Self-interest character roleplay:
Civil Protection officers locate and stop the alleged anti-citizen and properly roleplay the arrest and search of the citizen. Regardless of whether the citizen is holding contraband or not, they are executed.
This drastically cuts short any potential roleplay the citizen player was looking to get, but it is perhaps an experience that would be closer to the canon than the theatrical method.
There are players that enjoy the dog-eat-dog nature of this gameplay, as the dead citizen is free to make a new character in this brutal environment they enjoy exploring, and the Civil Protection officers aren't restricted by rules over who they can and can't execute or fire at.
Conclusion:
The deathmatch-roleplay style is more associated with Downtown or lite-roleplay, although even Downtown and lite-roleplay tended to have restrictions on that kind of gameplay. But even with those restrictions, it was the nature of that kind of experience to involve casual firefights.
The theatrical style generates the most roleplay through the fair and interactive exchanges between players, which could be ruined if someone from a more bloodthirsty style just tries to kill someone. I've found that theatrical servers tended to have lower playercounts and a family-like culture of like-minded players, while self-interest and deathmatch styles of roleplay had higher playercounts overall.
Rebel groups on theatrical servers often did well because the rebels worked together and the existence of them was respected by Civil Protection players. Civil Protection players wanted someone to fight against, so they only wanted to hurt the rebels, not completely wipe them out.
The self-interest roleplay servers are highly successful, but concepts like the resistance faction can be problematic when its members act as individuals, while Civil Protection is guided by Dispatch and operates effectively.
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