Take the roleplay challenge!

Amunet

I never knew this mechanic existed. Perhaps it was something that went in while I was on hiatus. I'm on the fence about using it, as I think it goes without saying that anyone can walk up to Amunet and start an interaction, regardless of faction or game experience. Still, I suppose there is no real harm in it. There have been a number of times where I have tried to spontaneously RP, only to be disappointed when it quickly became apparent that the individual with whom I was trying to interact had no interest in anything beyond hunting mechanics or MUDsex. I'll try it for a bit and see what happens.

Mishgul

RPWHO benefits are definitely small, because I believe that one should always be "in role" from the point of log in to log out, whatever that role may be. 

However it is a nice tool for people that may otherwise not have the confidence to initiate conversation or interact with people. The biggest problem is when 10 shy people are all on RPWHO, and no one actually talks to anyone, because they are all waiting for someone else to talk to them. 

It is better for the game I think, if we view RPWHO not as a list of people who want to role play, but a search for people who need help getting people to do things with them. Which is fine. People should use it to try and make other peoples play time more fun/interesting.

Tezcatlipoca

Yeah i just randomly start interacting with people and so far I have been lucky, maybe 1 in 2 or at most 1 in 3 will respond back and we'll have a nice say 30 min to hour interaction.  It really just takes a little openness

Tael

Mishgul said:

RPWHO benefits are definitely small, because I believe that one should always be "in role" from the point of log in to log out, whatever that role may be. 

However it is a nice tool for people that may otherwise not have the confidence to initiate conversation or interact with people. The biggest problem is when 10 shy people are all on RPWHO, and no one actually talks to anyone, because they are all waiting for someone else to talk to them. 

It is better for the game I think, if we view RPWHO not as a list of people who want to role play, but a search for people who need help getting people to do things with them. Which is fine. People should use it to try and make other peoples play time more fun/interesting.

I think it works in reverse too.

I keep my name on there not because I'm too shy to talk to the others on it or because I need help initiating RP, but because I want to signal to people who are shy or need help initiating RP that I'm there.

Like you said, it has very infrequent benefits (though I'm hoping that greater awareness of the command might help?), but they're still there.

I guess all I mean to say is that your use of the list makes it sound like there isn't any reason for people who aren't shy about initiating RP to put their names on there too, but I think it's probably still worthwhile. Maybe someone wants to get involved in more substantial Mhaldorian RP, but doesn't know who to try it with - but then they see Carmain's name on RPWHO and that can help them get started.

In the end, I think the main thing going for RPWHO is that it costs nothing. If you consider yourself open to RP from the time you log in to the time you log out, then throw it in your logon script and never worry about it again. The handwringing about putting yourself on the list and somehow perpetuating this hypothetical belief that people who aren't on the list don't want to roleplay seems pretty silly to me. Even if RPWHO became quite popular, I don't think anyone is ever going to be confused about the fact that Achaea is supposed to be a game that expects everyone to make some effort toward roleplaying.

Leliel

Personally I always tend to leave rpwho on, because occasionally I'll get a nice surprise in an awesome random conversation, but it's so rare as a rogue without major city ties that it's almost not worth it. Without any major factions to be tied to outside of the CIJ I simply don't play a very well-known character.