What makes a Half-Life 2 Roleplay "Good"?

[SteyrShotgun]

I thought I'd break the ice by making a thread about this subject.

Reminder, this is a civil discussion about what you believe (as an individual) makes a community/server interesting, engaging, otherwise positive to interact with and play on. So, be mindful that your opinions may not fit with others. This gamemode is a decade old and then some, so most conflicting ideas aren't invalid, but rather saturated from some kind of success. There's no wrong answer. Just looking for a decent conversation. (Tough, I know!)

No meme responses either!

Some starter questions to start this off are pretty simple:

What makes a server worth playing on?
What features, additions, or characteristics do you look for and what is positive to you?
What are some things servers and communities often get wrong, but you feel like should be obvious?
How does a server keep you interested over long periods of time, and what brings you back?
Have you ever changed opinions about something, and for what reason?

I'm interested personally. Myself, I'm an old player who was around during the OpenAura/Early-Clockwork days. A lot of my experience and beliefs come from a time where a popular HL2RP server was 20-30 players on a Saturday, with maybe a handful of other communities otherwise. Obviously, we're way past that time now, and second even third generation players are coming into the frey. I'd love to hear your say on what makes these communities tick, especially since we've been around for so long.

 

[verTix]

Great question. I think it requires a balance of immersion and roleplayability. Unfortunately, most servers sacrifice one for the other and it shows.

I also think that automation is required in order to minimize the presence of admins and their oversight. Yes, this means I prefer servers with more scripts, automated /mes in some cases, and automated combat systems like S2K/S2M because they require very little biased admin involvement.

"You do not need scripts to roleplay" is a terrible, terrible thing for CW to have drilled into the heads of its players. The truth is that the scripts are what give the setting a level of interactivity that can't be found elsewhere, and they also provide legitimacy to roleplay that only admins or forum authorizations could hope to achieve. After all, why make a Gmod server if you're going to force your players to write out every single action instead of using the tools provided to make something more streamlined?

Also, I find the servers that make an effort to separate IC from OOC are much higher quality than those that don't. Sometimes you just lose. If you do, you shouldn't complain about it. You should move on. HL2RP is not a hugbox for you.

 

[Gyrann]

What makes a server worth playing on? Its population. No dead server is worth joining. High pop attracts even more pop and as a long as a server is alive things can always improve.


What features, additions, or characteristics do you look for and what is positive to you?
Personally I don't go looking for specific features. Each community offers something unique and in these dire times for the hl2rp community, beggars cant be choosers.
However I strongly believe that new communities need to learn from old ones and what they did/do right.
For example. I encountered a certain insanity system on another server that quite literally forces people to interact with eachother so their character doesn't go insane. A full insanity bar results in a PK.

What are some things servers and communities often get wrong, but you feel like should be obvious?
A Lot of servers try to give players the "vanilla hl2rp experience!" but they don't realize people are dead ass tired of everything vanilla after 10 years of it. I want original ideas, custom lore, stuff from HLA... like, are the classic CWU and the classic CMU really the only thing everybody can come up with? People are tired of the same 3 factions repeated over and over and over across the entire hl2rp community. I strongly reccommend you read some books (preferably dystopic) if you are so out of ideas.

I ask you to step out of your comfort zone and be creative.

How does a server keep you interested over long periods of time, and what brings you back?
What brings me in the first place is a stable and high population. What makes me remain and/or come back is the community itself and the friendliness of its members. I have fallen in love with another community in the past and it's hard to let go sometimes. At one point you can't just leave.

Have you ever changed opinions about something, and for what reason?
I changed my opinion on the validity of the S2K system after I stopped playing nebulous and ventured to other communities. I used to think of it as too fast, too unfair and too focused on ooc skill. Only after I had my first, then my second and then my third s2rp scenario that I regretted hating S2K.
The LOOC bibles that fill S2RP scenarios are too much for me to handle.
Fortunately we have TBC, but even TBC has some real issues and scenario-breaking bugs.

All in all S2K completely bypasses problems such as timescale, powergame, some metagame and all LOOC whine! Poof

 

[Tengu]

How does a server keep you interested over long periods of time, and what brings you back?
What keeps my interest are the different stories that are ALWAYS going on in the background, no matter how small or large. Shopkeepers planning to buy out or undercut their competition for gains in the long run, civil protection members holding back on a charged criminal to score a huge bust against more important resistance members, or even the rebels down below everyone in the tunnels plotting some scheme to kidnap an administrator. There is always something going on that only a few people know about, and if those stories cross in some way, it expands the possible outcomes and makes it incredibly unpredictable in the servers day to day. I've found myself in more random encounters than I'd of thought possible, something as simple as taking the wrong turn down an alley and ending up being taken off the street and used as a hostage.. only to be recruited by my kidnappers and used to cause chaos in the city.

Have you ever changed opinions about something, and for what reason?
For the longest time I never wanted to play the part of rebellion, I always thought it would be boring and be nothing but trading scrap and praying a sweep wouldn't come our way. But the last character I had ended up making a choice that got them marked and their citizenship revoked. I ended up having a great time and made a lot of friends and really felt like part of the uprising. Went on missions, got into firefights.. And then a painful death after getting caught out and refusing to surrender. BUT WORTH EVERY MOMENT!

What makes me remain and/or come back is the community itself and the friendliness of its members. I have fallen in love with another community in the past and it's hard to let go sometimes. At one point you can't just leave.

Oh my god yes.. I remember awhile back I started a new job and just couldn't find the time to play, always trying for an hour here and there. It just got to me that I had to let go at the time but being in a different situation now I'm glad I can come back to the roleplay communities, really participate and spend more time playing and being apart of the stories and memories.

 

[Merlinsclaw]

A good story and good roleplayers. I just find that the default Dystopia mindset is to bland. Explore the setting to its fullest and don’t get held back by arbitrary lore.

Some of the best story tellers in the overall Community do shit that would never be in default HL2.

I also enjoy having good RPers too. Some of the best, emotional moments have been told in this gamemode and it’s great to experience with other people. Bad RPers just take me out of it.

 

[Stinky Rags]

What makes a server worth playing on?
It really is the age-old question isn't it? For me personally, what makes a HL2RP server worth playing on is a stable and varied population base. A general higher expectation for the quality of roleplay so that generally anyone you talk with is of a generally good RP standard and you can have sufficient character development. Another major thing for me is the quality of the staff team; this includes response times, attitude, professionalism and overall friendliness when interacting with the community... no one likes the stereotypical 13-year-old staff that tells you to go away when you need help.

Finally, I think a server that has staff and developers that listen to feedback and take them on board is extremely good looking for me to want to join. No one likes shouting into an empty void.



What features, additions, or characteristics do you look for and what is positive to you?
Having a fair bit of experience with roleplays in other mediums like forums and MMORPGs, I don't personally take much stock or interest in entities and scripts, although I do feel that for HL2RP it is a part of the way people roleplay. Therefore, I think firstly a server worth playing on has varied, custom and unique entities and scripts for people to work with-- things like character's personal books, or unique CID terminals like we have here.

I also don't personally mind much if the server has content or upgrades that are innovative for the sphere they're in, but I must say that the great lengths Willard has to go with the framework are extremely impressive, and it definitely sheds a positive light on the server.

Generally, any features, additions or characteristics that serve to progress and foster a Roleplay environment where roleplay is the focus, and people interacting is a large drive will always be positive to me. At the end of the day for me personally I don't overly care about my character's stats, I do care about who they interact with though and why it's worth my time.



What are some things servers and communities often get wrong, but you feel like should be obvious?
First thing first: Staff.

Staff is something I can't really understand servers have gotten wrong when it's really so simple; you promote people you trust and people that have shown a level of professionalism and friendliness with the server regardless of the group they hang out in. You pick the guys who you know will answer requests even if they're going to be roleplaying elsewhere at the time and you pick staff that is largely unbias, care for the server and its health and want to foster roleplay for everyone to enjoy. Somehow over the many years I've roleplayed I've seen this fail repeatedly, and often servers just pick staff based on if they're real-life friends and then refuse to punish them because of that fact-- it's a community bane, really.

I also think the PK question is something servers and communities often get wrong.

Servers either PK you for breathing the wrong way at an OfC, or they don't pk you, even when you're publically executed and you're the leader of Lambda. I personally hate that PKs can happen to NPCs as it's host to many problems, namely client-side lag, server lag, glitches, being away from the keyboard for a moment, and many more. There isn't any RP to be attained from being one-shot by an Alpha Headcrab, there is RP to be attained from getting gunned down by a rival gang over a dispute that has been forming over the last three weeks.



How does a server keep you interested over long periods of time, and what brings you back?
Quality Roleplay, friendly community, interactive staff and a feel of progression and development for any character that I decide to play. Oh, and events.

Have you ever changed opinions about something, and for what reason?
I used to be crazily against S2K/TBC but after realising how butthurt people get over P2L and actually roleplaying I realise how important it is, especially TBC in that regard. Nice system =)

 

[maxi]

For me, the creme of the crop is ironman mode. I detest NLRs, I detest PK appeals and I detest everything to do with death other than death itself.

This is meant to be an ever changing world, the thing that attracted me to HL2RP was PKs and how a character was not permanent. My one main wish is for all deaths to be a PK. Workplace accident? Dead. Shotcop? Dead.

People get too affixed to characters, the gamemode is not that, the gamemode is a temporary story that always changes. I personally play on ironman myself - if and when my cop dies, he's getting a PK, same for all my chars. I wish we did that as a rule.