Is RP dead or is it just me that moved on from it?

[rjfryman 1,120]

Kinda click baity title thanks for listening to me ramble or not hope you have a good day and do something you love.

 

RP at least the way I will use it in this article is writing, podcasting in a way where you “remove” your person and instead write or podcast as your player or gm. 

 

Let me explain a little about when I first started in the league. I started in Halifax after the draft but before the start of the season. So I got to pick who I went to and if I’m being honest I had no idea where I was going. I didn’t know anyone I joined his Reddit and that was about it. So I joined the team of the person who helped and guided me to knowledge of the site. All in all it was decent I went to Halifax where it was McWolfs team for a little before he took a leave of absence. When I joined the team discord I had fun bantering and keeping up with everyone. 

My first type of rp was team related I wanted to be a bigger piece and be a leader so I hung out and talked a lot. That wasn’t really rp or good rp in my mind but it did allow the team to get to know me as a person and a little about my player. I was no nonsense and I was a tryhard. I looked at every way to earn tpe and I did everything I knew about to be a better teammate and raising my draft stock. If any rp happened it was one or two instances of me claiming where I would be in the depth chart at the end of the season. Halifax was decent but back then there could have been teams with near max before the first game came by. Still happens now but less so than back then. You would see teams where their starting forward line and top defensive pair and goalie were all max before a game was played. So I was lucky to be on a team where there was room to make that claim and actually achieve it.

 

One of the biggest rp things I did was create a fake rivalry with HHH or beaviss if you know him better than the player. For me personally I never attacked him or even said a bad thing in my mind. It was always coming from a place of underdog coming for the top prospect. I loved those articles because it was a way for me to get to know other players build a narrative around myself but also and more importantly build up someone else and give them something interesting to read. To me this is just about the best way to rp in my mind build someone up and create a cool world for my player to live in.

 

However I got a job and was more focused on my job and duties rather than anything else involving my player. I no longer had to write media spots and my connection to my player started to wain, to the point where when my first player retired I didn’t create for 3 seasons but still did all the duties of my job to some degree helping out when I was needed or when someone needed help with something.

 

I had three things I had to do for myself if I were to RP in any capacity: 1. I had to make it fun to read and write. 2. I had to build all players up. 3. I had to further a story in some way. My main rival my entire career was HHH and truth be told it was a fun way to have someone there with me my entire career and if I’m being honest lead to some great nights with beaviss. Maybe he didn’t notice any of the RP I was subtle and not very good or he just liked me for me but it was fun.

 

The last few times I have been involved in RP have not been on my end. One time I was involved in a trade request from my team while I was on vacation  and the person in question said it was RP but by the time I could really confirm with them and try and make it right the entire thing blew up in my face and it did not end pretty.

 

I have had players be mentioned in other peoples RP in passing and a few times pretty hard. Nothing too bad or too good more just this person exists. There is nothing wrong with this but on the other hand I am getting a little concerned with how some people RP. I’m not trying to be a fun police but I’m seeing more take down pieces about other players and gms than I used to. Not sure what that is about. Other players is hard to complain about anymore. The problem is that there is a whole meta player issue going on right now where you could win the cup and have the most points out of everyone because of the meta-ness of your build and your teams build. I’m not saying that’s necessary a bad thing I don’t personally like it since I have tried to be a max earner my entire career on vhl but now it almost seems like that is not the best way to play since your meta build will finish before too long and adding extra tpe just makes your team harder to be cap compliant. The problem is that you could literally get people to buy in to do less and it can work in their and the teams favor. Idk to what extent that it’s broken but it’s not like the old days where the people in the top of stat categories were capping most if not all weeks. It just sucks the motivation out of Me or anyone else who feels like me that the extra work doesn’t seem to be worth it or matter in this new meta world. 

 

Since I’m already here what do you think of trash talk. It feels wrong to me to trash talk in a simulation league. That’s just me since so much of it is knowledge of the simulation followed by luck rather than hard work or determination.

 

1073 words

Edited January 10, 2022 by rjfryman

[Shindigs 1,771]

I don't know if I would classify it as RP necessarily. But the whole Team Clue thing I got going on just started from seeing the GFX made for @MubbleFubbles player on my first day in the league when doing reviews. Then I also came across his PSR while trying to get some idea what to do for mine. It just cracked me up so I decided to start playing off of that, and now here we are with a Team Clue in the JST. Having created a real fake brand with ad campaigns and other non-sense.

 

I wouldn't call it deep RP by any stretch of the imagination, but it does make the league experience more fun for me. So I'm just running with it. Also created some cool relationships with other players, especially now that @nurx is launching a competing brand that's signed @JardyB10's player. I'm honestly just looking forward to seeing where all this takes us. Because it's creating some very fun community interactions.

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

When I first joined in the mid to late S20's I feel there were more RP articles, but it's slowly gone away.

 

I think in general the longer you've been here the harder it is to keep any type of RP going.

[jRuutu 2,464]

After a few players, you pretty much need to create your own fun. Not just in VHL but in other leagues too. For example, I have tried to make my current player sound like he is the best player in the world. I was a star right away when I came up to VHL. I deserved the best as I'm going to be the best. These are, I guess, mostly noticeable in the way I react to things, not as much on point tasks and how I sound in those. I was also planning early on to ask max salaries for RP reasons, but that failed. I need to try that one again later. For my amusement, I pop into general chat to give autographs that nobody asked, I misspell people's names and call everybody kid. That is funny to me, and shows well what I want this player to be. I have also tried to create some kind of one-man rivalry between Seattle. If I keep at it - I think there is potential for some fun twists and turns. At the very least games against them will offer a good source for material for me to write and talk about.

 

If and when I look back once I'm retired this story of mine could be a fun one - for me at least.

 

 

Edited January 6, 2022 by jRuutu

[v.2 1,406]

As someone who mainly does GFX I find it hard NOT to RP when doing any form of writing (like the career tasks or a .com article).  Only time I break character is in pressers.

[JardyB10 4,865]

Even as someone who doesn’t do it, I wish there was more roleplay in the league. When I first came back there was some trade request drama (maybe literally the exact one you mentioned) that, whether it was role play or not, I disliked a lot of the responses to it. 
 

I made my career point tasks role play, and initially I was doing press conferences in character, but eventually I found it easier and quicker to be out of character. And since I do podcasts so casually I find it a lot easier to be more meta about my topics, though admittedly it hadn’t ever really occurred to me to role play in podcasts (other than my wonderful Code of Conduct piece).

 

In conclusion, I’d be in favour of gutting the VHL and making it more RP heavy.

[BOOM 8,745]

I RP'ed in the ISFL and a teammate took offence and the GM wanted me to apologise to said user. I left the team in Free Agency instead. I doubt I'll try and be "in character" again. 

[frescoelmo 1,276]

Roleplay ended when we didn't have to do point tasks anymore

 

but seriously

[der meister 3,188]

All of my characters are RP

[rjfryman 1,120]

Week 2 claim

[Daniel Janser 2,169]

I endeavour to role play during my .com articles and the media spots... not so much in discord etc.

[Doomsday 4,130]

Review:

 

To me, role play is basically something for point tasks and interviews/press conferences. Back when the VHL was forum-driven with its content, you would see a bit more RP as well, especially in game threads, and that led to a lot of really passionate rivalries. I still remember how heated the rivalry between Davos and Riga was in the 30s, and while you do see some rivalries pop up now, it's not as intense as the ones I remember where RP factored more into it. 

 

Additionally, yeah, I think trash talk has a place. As long as you don't get personal against a user, it's a fun way to get immersive with role playing, and a big part of getting rivalries going. The key difference, to me, is that it's known what trash talk is coming from a player, compared to a user. I don't want other users to be afraid to talk to me because they think I'm not a nice guy over role playing. 

 

This was a fun article to read, and it made a lot of people stop and think about it as well. It's nice to see a media spot generating discussion like yours did, and it takes great writing to capitalize on a thought-provoking idea like this. I definitely did have to get myself to buckle down and read it when seeing the giant wall of text, but that quickly passed once I started to actually read it. Great execution, this was really well done. 

 

9/10