It’s not exactly a secret that one of my first loves in any MMORPG is roleplaying. The whole reason I have multiple alts in Final Fantasy XIV (a game where no one ever needs any alts) is for roleplaying, I’ve spent more time roleplaying over the years than I care to admit, and one of the things that basically caused me to write off Star Wars: The Old Republic for future play options is the server merge eliminating roleplaying servers. That’s one of the things I’m here for.
At the same time, I also don’t think that it’s something that everyone is obligated to take part in. I would prefer that you be into that if you’re on a roleplaying server, but even there you have your own reasons, and as long as you’re not disrupting people it doesn’t seem like something you should be at all obligated to do. Some people don’t want to spend hours carefully crafting character backstories; that’s fine. We all enjoy our hobbies differently.
For something that is right in the name of the genre, roleplaying tends to attract a lot of passionate opinions about how important it is to the genre’s identity. Heck, there are even people debating what, precisely, qualifies as roleplaying compared to not roleplaying. So what do you think, readers? How important is roleplaying to MMORPGs?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
