There are a number of reasons to have RP servers.

The Normality, Reasons, and Useal Implementation of RP servers, in MMORPG's. (not to mention a key term in the name mmoRPG!)

The early adopters of an unlaunched MMORPG are not usually high school D&D players. They are the true believers, the dreamers, and the hardcore everything - hardcore PVP, hardcore fans of the license, hardcore roleplayers. All of these people are early adopters in part because they know that early in the development cycle is their best chance to impact the final structure.

Personal reasons why I like RP servers besides the fact of RPing.

I play on them because they tend to have better enforced social guide lines on chat, naming conventions and behavior.

It's not all about bad acting lessons, shakespearian accents or drama queens. It's about respecting the intended uses of chat channels, and tiny little things like not being allowed to deliberately break the immersion of someone elses playing time. I couldn't care less what you say or how you say it in an OOC channel, guild chat or a private convo; because I can choose to not be listening to them. However, I find having to listen to some moron named N33D5D0P3 talk about Chuck Norris in zone wide general chat to be really annoying.

So, no they aren't perfect and they really aren't about rigidly enforced "roleplaying"...but I find RP servers to be a better social environment than most MMO servers, simply because they actually allow for the enforcement of some basic rules of conduct and consideration.

While I admit that there are people out there who claim to be RPers and still powergame their characters, that does not completely define the RP community.

My Personal opinion on what RP is.

Role-playing is the act of taking on the persona of a character who isn't the player, making decisions and taking actions based on that character's moral values, history and personality rather than on the player's. This doesn't necessarily mean there's no element of the player in the character; there often is. Personally, I find it difficult to play characters whose moral compass is too far off my own, but I have friends – very lovely people in real life – who could quite happily role-play the scabbiest dregs of humanity (and other races) and pull it off without offending or alarming everyone else around the table.

Why not take over a server and claim it as an rp server?

Not all MMO players come to or ever see the forums. I would say forum population is extremely low useally compared to game population. I am not sure on the exact number of player to forum poster/lurker the ratio is, but I know its small, in comparison.

So an RP tag is NECESSARY, for the unity of the comunity. If there is not an RP tag, that could be a potentially lost customer all together, or a lost customer in the future, because it was something that is simple to tag ontp a server. RPing is also a great way to pass the time in an MMO when you have nothing urgent to do, or are waiting for friends or guildmates, so you can play together, or when there are lulls in game content.

People like to be entertained, and this is adding another level of entertainment to the game for us RPers.

So ultimately it's a smart move to for En Masse to implement them from the get go. Not only does this make a home for us RPers, future players will know. That, "Okay, that server is the server to go to for RPing" instead of trying to find the information online or on the forum. Its also something we in North America, have come to expect in our MMORPGs.

It's basicly, waving a flag that's saying "RP HERE!" And that is the main point, in my opinion at least.

We have to unite and MAKE our voice's heard. I have 10 friends that are on the wall, putting in RP servers would be the final push needed to win them over to playing Tera. They find EME's lack of support towards the RP community disheartening and are wondering what EMEs customer service is true like if they can not implement something as easy as this. And frankly I am starting to agree.

I've only played and will only play on RP servers. So if they do not implement RP servers, I will be demanding a refund at launch and will be a forever lost customer. If they can't accommodate us why should we give them our money in the first place? It only stands to reason that we do not. I have decided to speak with my wallet on this matter.

If I do not play that's me and my partner as lost customers along with 10 other people I know. so already that's, $719.88 lost from the sale of 12 digital collectors editions or the box set collectors editions. Not to mention, the subscriptions. Which is potentially another $2158.56 roughly. so all together from just me and my friends that's about a $3000 profit lost, just because there are no RP servers, not sure how many others feel this way but I know we are not alone in our thinking.

Yes, it might seem like a small thing to some people to not play a game over, but if you do not accommodate to your customer on such a simple matter, what else is EME not willing to do? This is the first step to EME proving their dedication and value of its player base to them, showing us we are not just $$$, showing us they are not like NCSoft, and that they care about their customers.

Sadly EME is making the same mistake, EME is just starting to look like a branch off of NCSoft. They are starting to prove they are no different in my opinion. They are claiming it's a $$$ thing now, and man power. Tag a server as RP make the rule-set enforcement later on. I don't find this that difficult matter to grasp but they seem to. EME is rapidly losing me as a future customer.

I honestly can not believe we have to BEG FOR RP SERVERS. I've had it! The day before launch I am canceling my pre-order and telling them the reason is because there are no RP SERVERS!

TL:DR - RP Servers = more money and more customers that are on the fence. Do us a favor EME, stop making us beg!

PS Yes I know there are other threads about this, but they are so far pushed back now because of the forums being poorly done. They are buggy as heck!

Hey you know I actually agree with this person with most of what he says, I mean for all these years I've always felt odd sitting in chat with people rambling about each other's mothers, or chuck norris and all of the rest of that... Effectively I originally thought an RP server was where you'd be forced to strip your character naked before swimming across a river because obiously in full plate mail armor there's no way in hell you're gonna do that in real life xD But okay, thanks for opening my eyes to the RP side of things, it seems like a place where I might finally find a touch of paradise - IE: Away from the 12 year olds complaining about Chuck Norris and spongebob squarepants..

I would appreciate some decent upper level conversation for once xD

Thanks again :)

No Problem. Thank you, for the mature response.

As for 12 years old's getting in well, that's the parents and the retailers fault for not asking, or checking the game ratting. I understand the retailer just wants the sale, but there's nothing we can do to stop this, so we have to just suck that aspect of MMOs up I suppose.

Looking forward to playing the game I really am. I hope EME does implement RP servers, I would love for them to prove me wrong.

Quote: Jaydefire on 2012-02-06 09:23:56 UTC

I.... can't tell whether that's sarcasm or not... Must be time to sleep. :O

As for OP, let's look at swtor NA and rift NA. Rift has 1/16 RP server. Swtor has 12/124 RP server. None of those servers are high population servers. And that's pretty much the ratio you can expect. Begging is not really gonna do anything. If they have 10 servers at launch there won't be an RP server because not enough people will want to play on it. If they have 20+ servers at launch, you might see an RP-PVP and RP-PVE. I don't think they will only do RP for one ruleset and not the other.

Well that makes the both of us then Calindor. With the way the EU version of TERA has started, I have heard some interesting reasons behind their apparent system failure.. One of the stronger reasons was something to do with Censorship, besides the point anyway, if they continue to fail at light speed, my wife and I will probably come chase you guys up on an RP server in the states ;)

Er Imperial I think sleepy time is a good idea I'm confused trying to see the sarcasm in my own message >.> lol. There was not meant to be any O.o

I didn't take you as being sarcastic. And yeah, bed time for me as well. I hope this thread doesn't get push back pages like all the others have.

Quote: ImperialPanda on 2012-02-06 09:38:32 UTC

The demand for RP servers is actually high. But I do not expect, everyone to know this. RPers are useally a games longest lasting customers, because they have something to do to keep them busy.

Quote: calindor on 2012-02-06 09:48:59 UTC

Well, unless rift and swtor's server status have different thresholds for RP servers, I think the facts point to demand for RP servers being relatively low...

I honestly personally don't care one way or another. EME is certainly free to make an RP server even if they have four servers total. But you'll just be playing on a ghost server and EME will be paying for an empty server.

I sub both Rift and SWTOR.

Rift's server Faeblight is a high pop server. At this moment it is currently the 3rd heaviest server via Rift Status. Also, at this moment, the second heaviest server on all of SWTOR, via its own site, is Ajunta Pall a PVP-RP server. Please actually check stats prior to posting "None of those servers are high population servers."

As to an RP server here, I would love it. On nearly ever MMO that I have taken part of alpha, beta, and launch, there was an RP community that planned on having a server as their own - one way or another. The same case is being built here already as the RP community will simply choose a server if EME does not. I may not agree with everything that Calindor says. I do, however, agree that an official RP server is better than an unofficial one. Just as Calindor, and many others, have pointed out, not everyone reads the forums or will realize if there is an unofficial RP server. Again, there will be an RP server, but it would be a great invitation and welcome if EME was the one that tagged it for us.