Housing , The death of RP?

Argent Dawn
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There are websites I’m aware of for advertising venues in FFXIV, at least. I’m thinking Argent Dawn could get something similar:

https://ffxivvenues.com/
https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=m4pv4lq9tp8nsjqn0tjdpvck1g%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/New_York
https://www.ffxiv-rp.org/

It’ll be interesting to see just what the limits are on what you’ll be able to make. I’m expecting the culture on Argent Dawn will change. It’ll either turn more insular, or liberalise.

Housing didn’t work out for every MMORPG community’s open world RP. SWTOR used to have a lot more. Of course, part of that was due to server mergers and sharding shenanigans.

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42

People who already enjoy RP out in the world will continue to do so, just with the added benefit of somewhere to crash between sessions and sometimes do some RP for resting etc… The way I see it, if you (somehow) see an increase in people RPing that sort of tavern vibe or whatever is more associated with FF14, I bet it’ll be either people who were already doing this before or just simply new people.

Until we know how neighborhoods work exactly it’s a bit up in the air.

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43

Didn’t wow kill wow itself three times ?

WoD , BFA , Shadowlands

The fact that classic in 2019 , saved WoW can’t be under estimated. It was said by Blizz themselves , even bobby kottick said it. The 2005 version of wow is what brought players back.

But let’s look at some raw facts , wow has an older playerbase. Stats from 2020 , said less than 3% of the playerbase were under 18. The majority were 25-35 as the years goes on. Less and less people stay and move on.

WoW just not appealing to Fresh blood in a landscape of Free to play , worse still free to play games are getting good. Like really good.

Blizz said during WoD that WoW would still be profitable at 1 million players and I think that is where it will end up. Before maintenance mode kicks in.

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I’m not sure WoW will ever have 12 million subscribers again. Incidentally, I think Cataclysm is the expansion that drove most of the decline. According to Jason Schreier in his book ‘Play Nice’, this was due to the emptiness of post-Cata WoW’s world combined with the sheer difficulty of dungeons in the beginning of that expansion. It was enough to sour WoW’s mass-market appeal, along with times simply moving on.

I distinctly recall back in WOTLK that there was a loud minority of players demanding the dungeons be made more difficult. Treating WOTLK as though it had ‘spoiled’ the game, in the sense that it marked a move away from the more hard edged RPG elements of TBC and Classic.

Roleplaying back then was a far messier beast. I do kinda miss it, the anarchic energy and creativity.

I think if anything’s caused more harm, it’s Sharding. This was hastily implemented during the chaotic opening of WoD as a band-aid solution to server clogging. It used to be that everyone was on one plane, in one continuous world. As you were roleplaying in Stormwind, you’d be certain people’d be out there, living their lives in the Plaguelands, in Ashenvale, in the Barrens. There was this tacit understanding everything was one big stage.

Since then, the kind’ve large scale public spectacles that used to exist - Frozen Heart, the Highlands Campaign that started the whole RP-PvP craze, simply can’t happen half as easily.

You’re way less likely to bump into people, you can’t just show up to things without an invitation. Not without already being ‘in the know’ and with access to a raid group or a centrally managed guild. I genuinely think it indirectly encouraged roleplayers to become a lot more conclaval and factional.

The advent of housing might change this, because it’s something everyone will have access to. Though I’m not sure the population is going to increase much.

This is a niche game partly because it demands so much time, a monthly subscription, and the lore is so complex and weighted now by past stories it’s difficult to get into as a newcomer. However, I do see light on the horizon. I reckon a world revamp and timeskip is due Post-The Last Titan.

=
In terms of other things I’d like WoW to adapt from FFXIV, this includes:

  • /ChangePose emotes, enabling a greater array of body language. There are already leaning and standing-at-attention animations in the game, so adding them shouldn’t be too hard.
  • The ability to play cross-region with no added costs. Anyone with a FFXIV subscription can play on any server anywhere in the world. While there’s no shifting of gear or in-game money, you nevertheless have access to the entire community.
45

Turned them off years ago. They get in the way.

And during my time on Balmung before I fled, I was in a military guild that did open world stuff. We were Twin Adders and would meet with other guilds from the other nations. Twas good.

Anyway! I think open world and city RP may take a hit but largely will go unchanged. People enjoy random RP and you won’t find that in your closed off hovel.

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46

Since we are talking about FF14 now, I can’t wait for the obligatory daily changing Bath house Events. /s

47

I tried.

I tried to make it as convenient as possible. Made a TRP-like plugin to encourage making character profiles so other players could see them in-game. Added the ability to crosspost events on Discord. And still, people on Chaos preferred to post events directly on Discord.

I don’t know what else to do. I fear inertia is simply to great.

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48

You did great work and salute the time and effort you put into it! I think inertia is a very good term here.

Edit: It doesn’t help that third party plugins aren’t officially allowed in FF14, and many established FF14 Discord communities hence have a hush-hush policy about them.

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49

The Chaos Archives is very pretty and nicely made but I think it’s a situation where if people are already content with y then they won’t invest in x regardless of how well designed it is.

It definitely gets used though and I’m sure there’s a lot of people who consider it a godsend — my NA XIV friends are envious of it for example. They use RPHub (which I don’t think is nearly as aesthetic).

Anyway, on topic: like others have said, Argent Dawn has survived multiple extinction level events foretold by players either in-game or on the forums, and its survival was completely intact each time.

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50

There’s Crystal Archives!

https://crystalarchives.org/

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51

I’ll let them know! They’re all distracted with Undermine at the moment, their first taste of WoW in years.

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52

Love the idea that Housing is going to be some active force putting the bag over the heads of our poor helpless RPers.

Sure, like any good thing, it can be detrimental to the health of our server, as any tool can be. - Though I doubt it’ll have as severe an impact as some foresee. - Learn to cultivate your own RP, and there’ll be no force to ‘take it away’ from you.

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53

If anything, it’s going to be a shot in the arm for roleplay. The ability to design your own venues is going to be great. :relieved:

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54

Can’t wait for housing. More importantly, when we (surely) get Elven houses in Midnight.

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55

This. I am trying to contain my hopes a little, but the thought of having an elven spire with a view of Quel’Thalas is basically the dream in my books.

56

My guess is that we´ll either get neutral housing area in Silvermoon in one of the patches (after elves get reunited) or there will be Horde area in Silvermoon and Alliance one in Exodar coming with the Azuremyst Isles patch (that is totally coming in Midnight, mark my prophecy).

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57

Very good.

58

Quite honestly, I believe it is too early to make assumptions about whether it is going to have an effect on RP in any significant form. But I think we should remain open about its chances.

Imagine what forms of event spaces people can create with Housing. We see this in FF14 already, where people use the housing system to open a bar, a cafe, a restaurant, an adventure guild and whatever else.

Customization like this allows us to create new avenues for roleplay. These spaces could then be advertised on the forums, in discord servers, on other sites, which may very well create interesting roleplay opportunities.

I am still waiting for more details, but if possible I would love for one of my characters to run a small library and place for public lectures, where scholars and mages can exchange ideas.

In short, I believe housing can be a huge chance to enrich roleplay, rather than take away from it

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59

The name of this village should not be next to the word ‘RP’ cause we all know what’s happening there is anything but. In fact, maybe with a little bit of luck Goldshire will be cleansed and available for actual RP.

In regards to the overall sentiment of the thread though, I’m of the opinion that the guilds already secluded might be more drawn to housing and those who are not will continue being as they are now. People thought the same with the introduction of garrisons and it didn’t come to pass. At best housing will offer some complimentary locations to add to personal RP, rather than strip the community of its members.

60

I have opinions about housing, whatever. But this is really good point, I hope it could indeed lead to more people to rp evil concepts for example, without having to worry about somebody wanting to use them as free npcs and just have a place to take a breather and plot world domination in peace between events.

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