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Roleplay, Boons
Why not use boons (see: HELP BOONS) to reward people for catalyzing roleplay (creating/running events, leading sermons/discussions, or consistently playing in-character in a way that positively impacts others' experience). There are countless ways to reward people that don't involve combat that could be easily handed out somewhat regularly. Some easy examples range from experience bonuses, gold drop bonuses, an extra minor trait (for the duration of the boon), a flat experience reward, a small NPC damage shield (3% or something). All of the boons could also, obviously, be proportional to the event.
Now I know that good old-fashioned in-character fun is its own reward, but positive incentives never hurt anyone, especially incentives that don't actually cost anyone anything. Even if the boons are relatively tiny, I think the psychology of knowing that good-behavior is rewarded would dramatically increase peoples' likelihood to play in-character.
Just a thought! Feel free to tear it apart.
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Comments
Fair points, actually. The admin don't have to reward "all" or even "most" of them, though. Could just be occasional, and it would still be effective, psychologically. Not trying to change the world here, just would like to see people incentivized to RP, and also find a use for the archaeic Boon system. Two birds with one stone, basically.
If one single person was given a Boon for running an event, the result would be near-instantaneous. Everyone would be saying "Hey, did you hear so-and-so got a Boon for running that event? How crazy!". You can call it forced if you like, but I would bet a paycheck you'd see roleplay pouring over the edges in no time. Even if it was just one or two boons a week.
How do you think that would affect the quality of RP?
Cities, Houses and Orgs already reward people whether they RP or PVP. You get Favours for advancing or participating in events. I believe that's the design that was intended.
E: And also occasionally SoAs and awesome freebies like that
I don't know why there would have to be a second layer of rewards for RP specifically.
I've never seen someone rewarded for roleplaying in the decade I've been playing. Not saying it hasn't happened, but I certainly haven't seen it. I have seen people get favored, in-character, by gods for promoting their cause, or something like that, but not purely for the act of roleplaying, itself.
I mean, you're right. You shouldn't have to reward people for roleplaying in a roleplaying game. However, I think it's a bit time for a reality check if you think that most people actually treat Achaea like a roleplaying game, these days. I'd like to see it go back that way.
Other MUDs I've played have a 'recommendation' system, where an excerpt of roleplaying scenes are submitted and rewards based on the quality of the snippet, but that's a thankless-ass job for the ones who get stuck reading a gajillion of those each week.
Edit: otherwise, every time I blow someone up, I would submit it for rp boon.
Either way, it was just a thought. Getting a boon is on my bucket list, as is seeing Achaea return to being an RP game instead of a "pin the tail on the earring-wearing-raider" contest. Was taking a shot at a two-for-one.
[on a different note:]
I'm a little stoked to see that the Mhaldorian auto-dislike crew has dwindled to 2-3 people, instead of the 5-8 I was used to six months ago. Big improvement.
Boons being a more frequent occurrence would be very cool, and I think this is a good way to call divine attention to it, but I would hate this being implemented in any way that was hard coded. Favoritism is rampant in any player base, and a lot of people get their rp focused on even though it is not always the best. I can count the number of times I have interacted with a divine, in the past year, on one hand. Yet we have players that spend time with divine daily that can't rp their way out of a wet paper bag. Just because it isn't thrown in someone's face, doesn't mean it is not rp.
Edit: wanted to clarify, not saying I am good/bad at rp. Just an observation.
Why are you tagging me in a thread associated with people whom want to be rewarded for role-play but most of them never attempt in-character resolution before issuing?
Looks like the thing to do now is publicly humiliate anyone who feels the need to ask the admin for help regarding OOC harassment and/or illegal PVP, because somehow that makes sense.
[edit]
Anyhow, since certain individuals who have no interest in actually discussing the subject of this thread have, predictably, turned it into yet another chance to insult me, I'm just going to abandon ship and go do something else.
Artemis says, "You are so high maintenance, Tharvis, gosh."
Tecton says, "It's still your fault, Tharvis."
Stay classy, friends.
Don't forget to edit your posts even if you don't change any of the wording. It makes you appear more reserved.
If your rewards are so good that people want them, you risk people roleplaying to gain the reward - rather than for its own sake - which is probably a bad thing. If your rewards don't motivate people into changing their behaviour and roleplaying more, then the rewards are effectively useless and don't need to exist.
I think rewards specifically in line with your contribution can be fantastic. If you are an awesome Demiurge(/HM/CL/OH/HoN etc) for 50 years, and your patron creates a little Silver Seal of the Secret Society of Schemers (etc) to reward you - or adds something to your House estate, or a reaction to an NPC, or some other such touch - that type of thing is amazingly special and encouraging. But that type of reward is also impossible to standardise, and doing so would destroy the specialness. You were city leader for 50 years? Here's the gold watch that tradition has mandated you receive, same as every other one.
I am fairly sure that Aetolia and Imperian both had rolepoints/esteem systems at some point, but did away with them. I'm not sure of the details.
It's presumably difficult, if not impossible within reasonable limits of privacy and manpower, to omnisciently monitor all RP that ever occurs (assuming Achaea doesn't have its own PRISM chugging away, running pattern recognition on flowery prose). If you overlook people, they won't be happy. If you get people to self-report, you risk "RP whores" who game the system.
It's difficult to objectively judge the merit of roleplay and assign rewards. Is one improvised speech worth as much as a ritual that involved designing several props? Is a prayer for 5 people in your House worth as much as a rally for 50 people in your city? Does a bad writer deserve the same reward as a super talented one? If someone feels their reward does not reflect their contribution, they won't be happy.
I think you have the right motivation in saying that good behaviour should be rewarded, to cultivate more good behaviour: in this case, roleplay. But I don't like this idea.
Plus let's be honest here - people already receive rewards for solid roleplay interactions (including PK ones) through divine favours, city and House events and related boons, etc.
On top of all the issues already mentioned here, divine volunteers would be most interested and likely to observe/reward those players they have IC interactions with, leaving those cities/Houses and rogues without divine affiliation or an active divine at an extreme disadvantage.
If it were even possible to monitor the entire realm 24/7 for great instances of roleplay, would the volunteers really want to do that? And if they did, what would it be taking them away from (initiating cool things for existing orgs, responding to issues, creating customisations, doing stuff with their order, monitoring these forums, etc.). I think they have enough on their plates.
Album of Bluef during her time in Achaea
I agree that role-play is it's own reward. However, for the purposes of record keeping (a mechanical system that qualifies your aptitude for role-play), a system like this would be great for those whom only wish to have a recorded "looks good on paper" role-play history - likely so their frivolous issues appear to have more merit.
Achaea Issue Management Base Of Tecton(AIMBOT):
Mek-ton: Okay guys, we have another issue filed against...oh, Synbios. Says he 'totally ganked me' and 'made unwelcome passes at my great-great-great-twice-removed-and-then-replaced-grandbrotherfromanotherstepmother'. And yeah, I see the logs and...oh wow, that is nasty.
Sara-fish: Right, time to hit the shrub but...
Star-tan: WAIT! Look at the RP History records first.
Sara-fish: -clicks on log list containing exactly one entry- Oh, wait, look. Says here clearly that he nodded once during a ceremony.
Mek-ton: Oh, ok. That's cool then. -clicks 'dismiss issue' button- Next! Okay, we have an ISSUE ME from @Nim asking about the feasibility of eldritch abomination fanfics. What do the RP History records say?
Star-tan: Let's see...nope, nothing as of last week.
Mek-ton: Thanks dude. -clicks shrub button-