What To Look For And/Or Avoid In PW's?

[Legacy_Elhanan]

               I once raised these topics in the old Forums, and it seemed to help a few folks, so I wished to repeat and update the ideas here:

What are the specifics in a PW that you desire?

What are the things you avoid in trying PW's?

Personally, I am a Powergamer with a RP minor type of Player. I enjoy building a character to be versatile, effective, and durable. I also enjoy playing these characters in various roles, most commonly as hungry, grumpy, and profit focused Dwarves. This is due to several years of practice in a single Campaign, and it helps to act what you know.heh!

However, I do not have to have the optimum build, and will take some selections for personal taste. But I cringe at taking selections that are of little to no aid to the character. And while I enjoy RP, I dislike being pressed into a barber shop/ beauty salon gossip sessions as opposed to monster and treasure hunts.

I am also Techless, so having to deal with such is best kept to a minimum. Or if I can, I will ask and beg others on the servers for help, if they are inclined to listen and lend an ear and hand.

Generally, I want to play Epic characters, or at least have that option available. Spending hours hunting vermin is not my top selection for a fun time.

As a rule, I dislike keeping up with the tedium of the game, be it in PnP or NWN. As a DM or a solo Player, I do not care about food, nutrition, resting, and like systems. However, if they are implemented, it should have meaning; both for RP and as a system to aid in immersion. While a generic icon or token can be utilized, if one has food included in the world, having actual food icons does seem to help immersion. Thus I am imagining a meal; not downing brown packets of iron rations or energy pills like Underdog. Either have a system with possible depth with little to no micro-management, or have nothing at all and let the players RP meals at their leisure, IMO.

Maybe more later from me, but how about others?
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Elhanan, 20 février 2011 - 02:23 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_TSMDude]

               

Elhanan wrote...

I once raised these topics in the old Forums, and it seemed to help a few folks, so I wished to repeat and update the ideas here:

What are the specifics in a PW that you desire?

What are the things you avoid in trying PW's?

Personally, I am a Powergamer with a RP minor type of Player. I enjoy building a character to be versatile, effective, and durable. I also enjoy playing these characters in various roles, most commonly as hungry, grumpy, and profit focused Dwarves. This is due to several years of practice in a single Campaign, and it helps to act what you know.heh!

However, I do not have to have the optimum build, and will take some selections for personal taste. But I cringe at taking selections that are of little to no aid to the character. And while I enjoy RP, I dislike being pressed into a barber shop/ beauty salon gossip sessions as opposed to monster and treasure hunts.

I am also Techless, so having to deal with such is best kept to a minimum. Or if I can, I will ask and beg others on the servers for help, if they are inclined to listen and lend an ear and hand.

Generally, I want to play Epic characters, or at least have that option available. Spending hours hunting vermin is not my top selection for a fun time.

As a rule, I dislike keeping up with the tedium of the game, be it in PnP or NWN. As a DM or a solo Player, I do not care about food, nutrition, resting, and like systems. However, if they are implemented, it should have meaning; both for RP and as a system to aid in immersion. While a generic icon or token can be utilized, if one has food included in the world, having actual food icons does seem to help immersion. Thus I am imagining a meal; not downing brown packets of iron rations or energy pills like Underdog. Either have a system with possible depth with little to no micro-management, or have nothing at all and let the players RP meals at their leisure, IMO.

Maybe more later from me, but how about others?

While I am completly the opposite and heading into work so willl respond/edit when i get home it is refreshing to see a person state what type of gamer they are straight forward like you did.

Kudos to you for real.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_SuperFly_2000]

               

Elhanan wrote...
while I enjoy RP, I dislike being pressed into a barber shop/ beauty salon gossip sessions as opposed to monster and treasure hunts.

Hehe...yeah...something like that. I feel we think the same here. Unfortunately most of the RP servers tend to go this way nowdays and creating massive drama-meeting instead of dividing into neat groups and going adventuring.


I look for good design in a PW as I like PvE. Also a design that is "simple". Many servers throw in complicated script driven systems just because they can instead of that they have to.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par SuperFly_2000, 21 février 2011 - 09:18 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Karvon]

               A few factors I consider, in no particular order of priority....



I dislike PWs that go to extremes in their economic model.  Some are ridiculously difficult to get started in, forcing 1st lvls to scratch and claw to afford what I consider to be basic mundane gear. On the other end of the spectrum, you have places where gold seems to grow on trees, making it no challenge to get going.



I dislike playing at places that don't offer reasonable avenues for XP gain aside from just killing monsters, as that puts the non-melee classes at a significant disadvantage.



I'm old school, and generally don't like epic level play.  Any server flooded with epic PCs, particularly if everyone seems to be maxed out at lvl 40, is not likely going to ever see me again.



While I prefer to be able to join in with other players, I'm not always free to do that, given my timezone difference, so I want a place I can play solo and survive, as long as I'm playing with a reasonable level of common sense and caution.



I prefer to play at places that have regularly run DM campaigns - with a developed storyline, rather than just DM supervised hunting parties touring whatever scripted quests and monster spawns happen to be about.



I prefer places that have some sort of resting restrictions as I'm not overly keen and the whole fight and squat routine that seems to predominate places lacking such.



OTOH, I'm no fan of having to worry about keeping a steady supply of food and drink tokens, bathing, shaving, what have you.  If I wanted that kind of "reality" I'd buy and play The Sims.



While I'm no RP-****, I do dislike places where the majority of the chatter seems OOC.



I prefer places where encounters and loot are generated randomly from customized tables to reflect the eco system of a region.  It gets pretty boring pretty quickly to simply see the exact same mobs with the exact same loot.



I prefer places which penalize PCs for dying to discourage stupid, careless, or highly risky play.  My first choice is no respawns, you have to be raised by someone if you die, but that's not always so practical for PWs, especially if you're playing solo.



I like places that have a rational lay out of areas with natural progressions from civilized to wilderness and from safe to dangerous.



I dislike places with very high respawn rates.  I shouldn't have to kill all the monsters both on my way in and out of the dungeon.



OTOH, I do like places with wandering monsters, as long as they fit in with the area and don't always respawn immediately on top of me, so I have chance to plan an attack, or evade.



Karvon
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_NWN DM]

               Must have meaningful DM interaction.

Someone spawning a few extra monsters is not meaningful interaction to me.

Don't make me do 10 FedEx quests to scrape together money for basic equipment, or get me to 4th level so I can "start to mix with the regulars".

No real world drama and histrionics.  I play to get away from that garbage (handbags at dawn over something silly and all that).
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Drewskie]

               DM rotation or the same people not running the show for years...
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_ffbj]

               I spent a lot of time working on that DM feel.  Having the world feel like a DM is there when there really is not one.  So without going into to much detail.  The character creates the world which they exist, to a certain extent.  This is mainly achieved by using persistent faction relationships, and a notoriety system. Something I am sure Karvon, being from 'Gallows Bird' is familiar with since his world has that sort of individualisation, at least it felt that way to me.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Jenna WSI]

               Having to be level 10 to reach a place with green dypots drives me crazy. I'd like my character to look like they should without it taking tons of effort to do so. I also hate needing to stop in the middle of a conversation to eat a meal. Pretty much all fatigue/eating/extreme resting systems bug the heck out of me. I stay away from permadeath servers. Pretty much prefer players have power over a character more than the game, but that's because I login to roleplay (and rp while going dungeon crawling too).

I prefer quality over quantity. So I'd rather sit in an empty server and see who eventually logs in, if I know they're a good rper... than be in a big 50+ player server if everyone is a half drow dragon demon princess daughter of mystra. Players with good attitudes that can work well with others are a big thing.

This is such a subjective topic though, whatever someone likes is fine by me, but those are my own likes and gripes.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Calvinthesneak]

               The biggest annoyance are too many rules and restrictions.  Some are always needed for certain.  Especially in regards to race and acceptable lore.



However the two biggest reasons people are going to stay on a persistant world are social interaction (be it DM or other players) and freedom to do what they want.  



My $0.02
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_SuperFly_2000]

               I don't need DM's. DM's are overrated. I just need a good PvE experience....and some roleplaying along the way....
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Elhanan]

               I enjoy DM interventions and events; dislike Players that spoil such events by choosing to be greedy, whiny, selfish, entitled, etc.

I enjoy being heard by other Players and the Staff, even if they disagree with my POV; dislike being mocked and taunted for that POV.

I enjoy Party interaction; dislike being placed in the midst of an on-going conflict between other people; not characters.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_PeeTeeEm]

               Well...as per the topic's title, some things that make me raise my eyebrows in a persistent world are...

Actually, a high number of players. Really high. My experience has usually been that such servers are well-built but poor in RP/staff quality. There are obvious exceptions, but as a point, we used to check what the most active NWN2 servers were, and the top ones were always for cybering or were known to be poor quality. Higher quality RP sort of inevitably leaves people out. So usually the quality comes with few players, a balance, or is so good that it manages to get all the good players anyway. I guess my point is that appealing to the  lowest common denominator is the most popular way to go but not always the best.

An excess of "special" characters ("I'm a half-nymph!") is evidence of Mary Sues and worse. Mature roleplayers avoid such things. It's a lesson I've had to personally learn as I've gotten older, I was pretty guilty of this. And I think everyone is to some extent, but some more than others. If everyone's a tiefling, it's no longer interesting.

Lesbians. Lesbians everywhere. Don't get me wrong, I'm firmly in support of real world lesbians. But if a fifth of a server's population are hot, horny lesbians being played by men...an extension of this is of course rampant cybering. Don't get me wrong here, either, the act itself is wide open with opportunities for character development and great roleplay. It's just that people tend to do it for their own enjoyment, not for the purpose of the story. Playing lesbians so you can enjoy yourself and ignoring that they should be characters with actual personalities...I hate that. A huge warning sign. (This also applies to guys playing bisexual women.)

Staff members that no one's willing to challenge or disagree with, to their face, or publicly. If the staff member in question is in charge, or pretty powerful, even worse.

I personally tend to avoid settings with lore that is ultra-specific and extremely extensive, as well as ones that are too vague. I feel that in custom settings that don't have wide-ranging use, asking players to learn a thousand details about your setting is just asking too much. Room needs to be given for characters to be vague, differ on details, fill in their own details, etc. There should be flexibility where it's possible.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_olivier leroux]

               I like to explore. The more customized a server is, the more effort the builders put in making it unique and individual, the more fun it is for me to have a look around. I don't care all that much for mechanics, I want creativity and surprises. In that regard customized items are much more treasured by me than powerful but bland default gear, even if the former are only curious and funny and don't contribute anything useful to my characters stats.

And I like beautiful scenery. I appreciate the awesome custom content made by all those talented community members, so I'm not averse to haks at all if they're put to good use. But even when a server doesn't use any, it can make up for that by creative area design and good use of lighting.  

I also like polished and immersive dialogues and flavor text but on PWs I prefer them to be short and well portioned. You can create a good atmosphere and hint at intrigueing stories without writing a book about it, just with a few well placed sentences.

Humor and/or atmosphere are top selling-points for me.

I like to be able to customize the look of my character as soon as possible, ideally right from the start. I hate having to run around in the same old ugly tan leather gear of the OC. If you don't allow me to craft and dye my own armor, please offer a choice of decent looking and afffordable custom armor in your stores at least.

I like questing. Mostly questing with a short story behind it, not just killing x creatures for collecting y samples of z. Questing provides me with short-term goals to aim for, a mission to accomplish, it keeps me busy and motivated even when there are no other players around, and even more so if I want to know the end of the story.

As for the type of player that I am ... hm, hard to classify. I don't know jack about perfect character builds so I guess I'm far from being a powergamer. I'm also not a huge fan of NWN's combat mechanics, so fighting hordes of creatures can become tedious and annoying for me after a while if there's nothing else to humor me. But I like going out and discovering the world and I've got nothing against a good dungeon crawl. I enjoy OOC chats with friendly players, builders and DMs using Tells but I also like my PCs to talk IC, they won't ever ruin the fun of other players with visible OOC chat. I enjoy a little roleplaying along the way and even more so when I'm in a party with nice players who make roleplaying fun and encourage it by good example and by actually interacting with me instead of using me as their audience. I don't like to think up long stories for my PCs though, I prefer to improvise and then go with the stories that evolve while playing.  

I'm most comfortable with sociable people who just want to have fun and don't take themselves, their characters or any rules and mechanics too seriously. That includes helping newbies, teaching them the ropes, overlooking rookie mistakes and trying to steer them in the right direction by being nice and by acting a 'role model' instead of chiding and intimidating them and smiting them with the rulebooks. Mind you, I'm not talking about actual offenses like repeatedly profane language, racism, sexism, harrasment etc. but about 'roleplaying' or 'gameplay' offenses. In any case, for me people come first, game comes second.

If you want the short version:
An interesting world to explore, highly customized with atmosphere and eye candy, quests, short stories or humorous content, all in all lots of creativity. And a relaxed, newbie friendly playerbase with both thirst for adventure and improvised, light roleplaying.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par olivier leroux, 27 février 2011 - 09:00 .