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Game improvements for non-FPS players?

This is a game for roleplayers. We want your ideas how how to build the better game. Post your suggestions here.
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jimhabegger
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Game improvements for non-FPS players?

Post by jimhabegger »

Is this game intended to appeal only to people who like FPS? If so, then it might be excluding some people who could add a lot to the rp for everyone. Even if it is not intended to exclude people who don’t like FPS, it might be doing so unintentionally, or needlessly limiting their possibilities. I know that from personal experience, because I’m one of them. I hate FPS games, and I have no interest in learning to like them. Am I welcome in this game *as I am*, without ever learning to play FPS, or not?

I had a lot of fun with some of the rp in SoT, in spite of the FPS, because when I started playing I fell right into the middle of some rich and deep personal stories that had a place in them for me, *as I am*, for example with Ponyea, Heaven Alexis, Laviticas, Ash, Perunda, Dar’canon and a few others. Later, that all died out and the game started looking to me more like a kind of Habbo Hotel. No one had any time for acting out any stories like that because they were always on their way to some chat room or leveling event. What ruined the game for me was not the FPS in itself, but the priority of the FPS and the leveling over the storytelling. It looks to me like the mechanics and incentives in the game make that inevitable, and I’m not suggesting for that to change. I don’t really know what to suggest, other than to try to find ways to help non-FPS players feel more welcome, *if* we really are welcome, *as we are*, without any pressure to learn to like FPS, or being stigmatized for not liking it. Am I welcome here under those conditions?
"What the world needs now is love, sweet love.
It's the only thing that there's just too little of.
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No not just for some but for everyone."

- Hal David, Jackie DeShannon, Burt Bacharach
jimhabegger
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Re: Game improvements for non-FPS players?

Post by jimhabegger »

Hopefully to clarify, I’m not complaining about how I personally have been treated in the game. I’m very happy with the way I’ve been treated in the game, and this is not about any player-vs-player dramas. Even so, I feel isolated, alone, marginalized and stigmatized as a person who doesn’t like FPS. I don’t see anyone else playing this game who doesn’t like FPS, and I think it might be needlessly repelling people who don’t like FPS, and/or limiting their possibilities in the game. Some of the people who see things to like in this game that they haven’t seen anywhere else, and who could do the most to help make it fun for everyone, could possibly be people who don’t like FPS, and never will.
"What the world needs now is love, sweet love.
It's the only thing that there's just too little of.
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No not just for some but for everyone."

- Hal David, Jackie DeShannon, Burt Bacharach
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Yuritau
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Re: Game improvements for non-FPS players?

Post by Yuritau »

There have been people, for 20 years or more, who have played and found ways to enjoy UL and even thrive, without engaging in combat. I wont say it's as easy to advance that way as it is through combat, but people have been doing it for decades without trying to blame the game and change it into something it's not.
jimhabegger
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Re: Game improvements for non-FPS players?

Post by jimhabegger »

Yuritau, thanks for sharing, and :P to you, too.
"What the world needs now is love, sweet love.
It's the only thing that there's just too little of.
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No not just for some but for everyone."

- Hal David, Jackie DeShannon, Burt Bacharach
jimhabegger
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Re: Game improvements for non-FPS players?

Post by jimhabegger »

In previous posts I asked if I’m welcome here *as a person who doesn’t like FPS, and possibly never wiil*. I want to say that I do feel welcome in the game, and many players have helped me feel that way.

That doesn’t resolve the issue for me of people who don’t like FPS possibly being excluded from the game, needlessly, possibly including some people who could do the most to help make the game more fun for everyone.

Does anyone know of anyone besides me who is playing the game, who doesn’t like FPS? To clarify, this is a completely different and separate issue for me from PvP. My aversion to FPS has nothing to do with wanting to avoid combat or even PvP. It’s because of the mechanics of it and the keyboard acrobatics it requires. I love playing World of Warcraft, but I hate the FPS mini games in some of the quests. I love Zelda games, but I had to give up Spirit Tracks because I couldn’t get past one of its FPS mini games.

I do feel welcome in this game, and even generously and warmly coddled, but I don’t feel welcome not to play FPS. :roll:

What I’m planning to do about people who don’t like FPS possibly being excluded from the game, is to learn and show examples of how people who don’t like FPS can still have fun in this game.
"What the world needs now is love, sweet love.
It's the only thing that there's just too little of.
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No not just for some but for everyone."

- Hal David, Jackie DeShannon, Burt Bacharach
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Arnaya
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Re: Game improvements for non-FPS players?

Post by Arnaya »

That would be a good idea. There are a lot of options available, including story telling and Bardic events, among a bunch of other area's.

But, one of the core issues there... is that Underlight IS an FPS game. That's the actual game engine, is a First Person Shooter. It isn't a MUD that had an engine attached to it... it's an actual FPS Game Engine, designed to accommodate a Roleplaying game using that medium. So, completely cutting out the FPS would mean basically that people don't want to play underlight... they want to play "Dreamcity Underlight, the MUD". Which I'm not bashing at all, it's just not This game is all.

So, simply by logging in... people that have issues with FPS games are going to be turned off... just because the entire engine is built around that component. While accomodating people who don't want to be involved with PvP and all that, but just want to roleplay their character development and personal stories, is more than doable... it's Really hard to remove the FPS components... of an FPS engine
The most important lesson I've learned over this past year, is not to let anyone make you cruel. No matter how badly you want to give the world a taste of it's own bitter medicine, it is never worth losing yourself.
jimhabegger
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Re: Game improvements for non-FPS players?

Post by jimhabegger »

Arnaya, thanks for helping me work this out. I understand that it’s an FPS game by design, and I’m not objecting to that, or wanting that to change.

I’ll try to explain more about the context of what I’m saying. When I started playing SoT, all of my experience with quest/combat leveling MMORPGs was with games that were *not* fps games, like WoW, Guild Wars, Everquest and Lord Of The Rings Online. If there was anything in the promotion of SoT about it being an FPS game with roleplaying as an added attraction, I never noticed that. In Clash of Dreams that might be obvious to anyone the first time they play, but it wasn’t so obvious in SoT. When I first started playing, I never had to play any FPS for any of my purposes, and I hardly ever saw any. There were no npc mares, and the GM-operated mare battles, which I avoided, were few and far between. Mostly what I saw, and what kept me coming back, were half a dozen characters or more acting out rich, deep, evolving, personal and interpersonal stories with a place in them for me. That’s what I thought “true roleplaying” meant in SoT. As you say, like in a MUD. I thought the roleplaying was an end in itself. I played for months before it dawned on me that the rp is just a layer of frosting on top of an FPS cake, and that the quantity and quality of the storytelling rp that I saw was actually a kind of anomaly that arose in the absence of npc mares.

That’s how I learned to love the game without having any idea at first that it was an fps game.
"What the world needs now is love, sweet love.
It's the only thing that there's just too little of.
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No not just for some but for everyone."

- Hal David, Jackie DeShannon, Burt Bacharach
jimhabegger
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Re: Game improvements for non-FPS players?

Post by jimhabegger »

As I've been saying, I hate fps, and I learned to love SoT without realizing at first that it's an fps game. I explained in my previous post how that happened. I played for many months without realizing that it's an fps game, and that the kind of storytelling rp that kept me coming back was not what "true" and "immersive" roleplay meant to most other players, or even to the providers and developers. Eventually it all died out, and I realize now that the quantity and quality of it might have been a kind of anomaly arising from the absence of npc and player-driven mares. If had known all that from the start, I would never have taken a second look at SoT, but because of that experience I've never given up hope that it could happen again. That, and my friendships with a few players, are the only reasons that I kept an eye on it, and the only reason I'm playing now. I'm not here for the PvP, the fps, or even the combat, questing and leveling, at all. I'm only here to explore the possibilities in this current version for the kind of storytelling rp that I saw when I first started playing SoT.

I know that I'm not the only one who felt the same way, and played for the same reasons, because I've heard that from a few former players. That's the reason that I started this thread, to discuss what could be done to help them feel more welcome and have more fun here.
"What the world needs now is love, sweet love.
It's the only thing that there's just too little of.
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No not just for some but for everyone."

- Hal David, Jackie DeShannon, Burt Bacharach
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Mzchievs
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Re: Game improvements for non-FPS players?

Post by Mzchievs »

I hope we are welcome to be non FPS players, because I am not nor will ever be a FPS player. So really just wanted you to know, you are not alone.

Mz
jimhabegger
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Re: Game improvements for non-FPS players?

Post by jimhabegger »

Mzchievs wrote: Thu Feb 07, 2019 11:54 am I hope we are welcome to be non FPS players, because I am not nor will ever be a FPS player. So really just wanted you to know, you are not alone.

Mz
Thank you! I needed that. :)
"What the world needs now is love, sweet love.
It's the only thing that there's just too little of.
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No not just for some but for everyone."

- Hal David, Jackie DeShannon, Burt Bacharach
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Elmer
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Re: Game improvements for non-FPS players?

Post by Elmer »

Yea, there's quite a few of us who aren't battle types, definitely not alone.
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jimhabegger
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Re: Game improvements for non-FPS players?

Post by jimhabegger »

Elmer wrote: Thu Feb 07, 2019 4:51 pm Yea, there's quite a few of us who aren't battle types, definitely not alone.
I’m glad to know that. Thanks for telling me!
"What the world needs now is love, sweet love.
It's the only thing that there's just too little of.
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No not just for some but for everyone."

- Hal David, Jackie DeShannon, Burt Bacharach
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