On EFU: An Essay on Role-Playing

[Caster13]

On EFU

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An Essay on Role-Playing

The first time I ever logged into EFU was back in August of 2007. Over the past five years I’ve played more characters than I can count. EFU has exposed me to a lot of fun and creative moments, stories, and players; but it can also be very painful and trying at times. How to find coexistence and acceptance of these two disparate experiences is a conundrum I’ve been mulling over for some time.

Like other games, whether they be singleplayer JRPGs or multiplayer FPSs, EFU is not a perfect game: it is not a flawlessly strung together series of satisfying emotions. However, there is a uniqueness to the truly painful moments of EFU that’s inherent in the nature of persistent multiplayer role-playing worlds. When one truly despairs about EFU, it isn’t about poor gameplay design, buggy code, or the frustration of having to reload from the last save point. It tends to be about something much more personal.

I could write an entire essay about this, I thought to myself. And so I did. I’ve been meaning to write down my thoughts on EFU for some time now: something to reflect my development as a player and my growing understanding of role-playing. These started off as simple epiphanies which, as I mulled them over, transformed into observations that I’ve spent a considerable amount of time pondering. Now that I’ve organized them into text, I can’t think of a reason not to share them.

Multiplayer
Your characters are not yours alone.

Role-playing games tend to be fascinating, dynamic games but persistent role-playing worlds are an entirely different beast that presents an interesting challenge compared to other forms of roleplaying games. Whereas even the most comprehensive BioWare game limits your choices to a handful of paths, the interaction with DMs in EFU provides nearly limitless opportunities. Pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons game may have a group of friends sitting around a table, but EFU has up to fifty players and DMs logged into the server at the same time.

Despite the common comparison of role-playing to the creation of fiction--novels, stories, narratives--the sheer number of participants in EFU demands the recognition of a simple truth: playing on EfU is not at all like writing a novel. You are not the singular author and the amount of control you exert will always be contested by the influence of others. You affect your character’s story, the stories of other characters, and the server’s settings, but this is true in reverse for all the other participants: you are not alone in deciding what happens to your character. Others have a say in the story of your character and sometimes what they say is drastically in contrast to what you have in mind. Sometimes what other players say results in the permanent death of your character and, keeping in mind the simple truth mentioned earlier, this is a perfectly legitimate path for the story to explore.

Villains need victims; heroes need to triumph over evil. People can make enemies just as easily as they make friends. Sometimes, just as unrequited love is one sided, the hostility between characters can lay squarely in the lap of one character who, intentionally or not, smacks somebody else in the back of the head with the hot potato. The protagonist being killed off and tossed aside like common villager number three is very much a possibility because everyone is playing protagonist, antagonist, and all the extras in between.

The death or victimization of your character can be a painful experience but one must keep in mind that first and foremost these experiences are those of your character more than your own as a player. It’s natural to be sympathetic for the protagonist who’s beaten down or to mourn the supporting cast member who is killed. But we are playing a role-playing game and the roles are bound within the game. More importantly, when that role comes to an end, so too must our living vicariously through them.

RPBB
But don’t forget the second B!

Playing on EFU should be about seeing your character conceptualized, not built. People are grown, not constructed. Role-Play Before Build is a concept that establishes that one follows the other. It does not, however, outright ignore or reject Build.

EFU, after all, is a game. A game requires rules and these rules support and justify the strengths of your character as they manifest in the mechanics of the game. At the same time, however, so too are the weaknesses and mediocrities of your character justified and enforced by the rules.

The rules, by their very nature, ensure that your character has one flaw or another. But when your character concept takes into consideration things that don’t need to be supported by mechanics, that is where and when role-playing truly shines. Characters are an amalgamation of all things a conscious entity perceives. This ranges from what they had for breakfast to the traumatic experiences in their life. People are affected by things subtle and overt: a favourite colour is as important as a childhood injury.

Most importantly, roleplaying games are about acting as a character, not fulfilling a fantasy. If you merely wish to be the ultimate hero or villain who is always successful, you’re better off playing the game in your own head where rules, dice, and other players will not be obstacles. We are actors who must earn the attention of the audience, not daydreamers whose dreams come true with a snap of a finger.

Limitations

They exist and some of them will not be overcome, but the limitations you place on yourself you always have the chance to break.

Rules means there are limitations. As silly as it is, a wizard cannot wield a bastard sword unless s/he does something to obtain the necessary feat. Sometimes limitations can be more complicated and abstract. The DMs are a limited, finite resource who can only do so much or show interest in things which genuinely grab their attention. Time is another limitation, whether it be another player you wish to interact with being in another time zone or that player’s character being killed before you could encounter him or her. These are simple realities that must be acknowledged.

Keep in mind, however, that what you want to do with a character is in and of itself a self-inflicted limitation. It’s always possible to be dynamic. You can always change the goals and dreams of your character. Or, more importantly, you can let something or someone else change your character.

Patience is required to both endure and overcome limitations.Whether your plans fall apart or you visit the fugue and lose one or two levels, instantaneous and sudden reactions are more likely to lead to regrets later on. So when your instinct calls for you to react immediately, wait and cool off instead. Remember that it is the characters who should be making bad decisions, not the players.

Feel Free to Ignore All of the Above
EFU is just a game after all.

Above all the things I’ve written above, remember that you should play to have fun. If you’re playing a concept that you’re not enjoying, then don’t force yourself to play it. Certainly, with a little patience you might be able to change your character to better fit the current dynamic of the server. But EFU is still just a game and games are meant to be fun for everyone.

[Jagged]

[Slow clap] Bravo. Should be stickied.

[Howlando]

Nice essay Caster!

[Axiom]

An excellent post, one addition I would like to add in regards to your characters not being entirely your own. This cuts both ways, especially in regards to PvP. If you are the victor in PvP consider your actions from two perspectives, in character actions and a portion of call it "OOC PvP Taste". Remember that there is another player that has most likely put a great deal of time into their character on the other end of the event. At times FD is certainly justified and in fact needed to keep the theme of the server we all love. Still, some of the most feared (and beloved) villains in EfU have had this "OOC PvP Taste" in spades. It is part of what made them such a great villain, they did not FD their foes at the first chance but rather built up IG depth behind the conflicts.

[Caster13]

Should be stickied.

I meant to add this to the EFU blog but that seems to have disappeared :(