Erotic Roleplay Servers: How about it?


Pathfinder Online

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Vic Wertz wrote:
Pathfinder is not and will not be a "mature audiences only" property, and I'm not willing to entertain steps in that direction. Sorry.

What steps in what direction? I sympathize with your position, but isn't that the opposite of what the original poster was saying? Wasn't the OP suggesting a way to avoid that stuff, or keep it understated, precisely to avoid that reputation?

As I read it, he sees it as inevitable that some 'mature audiences' activity will go on, unless you find some way to segregate it off to the side, perhaps on a different server or in a separate zone.

Goblin Squad Member

I am not very MMO savvy but, does the Erotic Role-Play crowd need to be segregated?

I would think that so long as player housing and private tells are enabled in game the various lizzy elves and dwarves in bondage gear can ERP their socks off without interrupting anyone else's in game experience. To be honest I am much more concerned about getting a Role Playing server community together, even if some members of that community like to spend some of their online hours behind closed doors emoting dirty dirty things to each other. I much rather segregate the Leet Speakers and other various interwebz gamer with zero interest in Role Playing then segregate the ERP people from a server.

Creating a "Social Server" would only further divide up the already small number of Role Players that will likely be giving this game a try. Just to clarify, when I say small number of RPers.......I only mean to say that any given internet game's RP community is a very small percentage of the crowd of folks that look to give the game ago. Compared to the number of E-Peeners, Griefers, Gankers, Drones, Bots, PvEers, HARDCORE PvPers, Power Gamers, and various others out there actual Role Players looking to get in character and play the game much like they would their table top characters is a small group of folks.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Outl wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
Pathfinder is not and will not be a "mature audiences only" property, and I'm not willing to entertain steps in that direction. Sorry.

What steps in what direction? I sympathize with your position, but isn't that the opposite of what the original poster was saying? Wasn't the OP suggesting a way to avoid that stuff, or keep it understated, precisely to avoid that reputation?

As I read it, he sees it as inevitable that some 'mature audiences' activity will go on, unless you find some way to segregate it off to the side, perhaps on a different server or in a separate zone.

There's a difference between saying that player-to-player interactions may not always be rated "E for everyone" and setting up a version of the world where every third building is a brothel.

To provide another example, there's a world of difference between opening a 5-star restaurant where you may occasionally find a hamburger on the menu and opening a hamburger joint.

RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32

Vic Wertz wrote:
There's a difference between saying that player-to-player interactions may not always be rated "E for everyone" and setting up a version of the world where every third building is a brothel.

Like I mentioned before, Second Life. Or if anyone remembers it, The Sims Online.

You can make a decent trade in selling realistic penis models to people in Second Life. This is not even considered a weird thing to do. I can understand not wanting to end up in a situation where you have to either deal with this in marketing, or expunge it from the playerbase.


Vic Wertz wrote:

There's a difference between saying that player-to-player interactions may not always be rated "E for everyone" and setting up a version of the world where every third building is a brothel.

To provide another example, there's a world of difference between opening a 5-star restaurant where you may occasionally find a hamburger on the menu and opening a hamburger joint.

I find this perspective rational, reasonable, and frankly understandable, to say nothing of commendable.

My concern, and forgive me if my perspective is off, is that, in the underlying culinary and restaurant metaphor so-utilized, you could have something akin to that which is in the area in which I reside; a noteworthy chain of restaurants, perhaps falling anywhere between the one and four star ratings, where you can order everything on the menu...in ANY of the locations...except beer. Or wine. Or anything with alcohol in it whatsoever.

Never mind the fact that the chain might advertise as carrying delectable mixed drinks and other alcoholic beverages without implicitly noting that such things are not available in specific locations due to attempts at legislating morality via 'blue laws' and the practice of 'wet and dry' counties/neighborhoods/areas - if it is an establishment you've heard about through word of mouth or online advertisement in an area that suffers none of these restrictions, then it's cause for disappointment to visit this hypothesized establishment in question and find you can't have that lovely merlot to go with your surf and turf because there is a local council with a stick up its keister about selling wine in this particular instance of the fine establishment.

Carnal intimacy is not the foremost function and focus of simulation in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. I accept and acknowledge this fact. However, if it is to be based in or on the River Kingdoms and Kingmaker rules set and concepts, as a consumer I would be rather put out to find that brothels have been dummied out in the game because someone's crotchfruit might ask mommy and daddy some uncomfortable questions, particularly without a corresponding cut in the violence or overtones thereof.

TL;DR please refrain from complete undergarment bleaching kthx.


TheAntiElite wrote:
Carnal intimacy is not the foremost function and focus of simulation in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. I accept and acknowledge this fact. However, if it is to be based in or on the River Kingdoms and Kingmaker rules set and concepts, as a consumer I would be rather put out to find that brothels have been dummied out in...

Well, nothing's preventing you from starting up a player-run brothel in-game. XD (Assuming that they don't make that part of the Terms of Service or something, and even then if you fly under the radar, well....)


Ansha wrote:
Well, nothing's preventing you from starting up a player-run brothel in-game. XD (Assuming that they don't make that part of the Terms of Service or something, and even then if you fly under the radar, well....)

Roleplay, nothing, I'm talking about the bonuses to kingdom!

I kid, mind, but I mean it as much as a thematic design element as much as a set piece or level of included content.

While I don't plan to make Lavender Lil, I would not mind having the option of playing something in that direction without being in violation of ToS.


Blergh. Can't people just fap to free pr0n on the internet like normal folks? Then you can go get your gaming fix once you're spent. Some great tastes just do not go together.

Scarab Sages Goblin Squad Member

Vic Wertz wrote:

There's a difference between saying that player-to-player interactions may not always be rated "E for everyone" and setting up a version of the world where every third building is a brothel.

To provide another example, there's a world of difference between opening a 5-star restaurant where you may occasionally find a hamburger on the menu and opening a hamburger joint.

I for one am sick and tired of these "candy coated" MMOs. Pretty sure that killing something is not that child friendly, but children are killing millions if not billion of on-line creatures and people each day. Hmmmmm...

How many of these kid also play Battlefield 3 or Modern Warfare 3, both Mature rated games?

Why is sex treated so different from murder and death?

Liberty's Edge

maldar wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:

There's a difference between saying that player-to-player interactions may not always be rated "E for everyone" and setting up a version of the world where every third building is a brothel.

To provide another example, there's a world of difference between opening a 5-star restaurant where you may occasionally find a hamburger on the menu and opening a hamburger joint.

I for one am sick and tired of these "candy coated" MMOs. Pretty sure that killing something is not that child friendly, but children are killing millions if not billion of on-line creatures and people each day. Hmmmmm...

How many of these kid also play Battlefield 3 or Modern Warfare 3, both Mature rated games?

Why is sex treated so different from murder and death?

Because sex is evil and murder is good wholesome fun.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
maldar wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:

There's a difference between saying that player-to-player interactions may not always be rated "E for everyone" and setting up a version of the world where every third building is a brothel.

To provide another example, there's a world of difference between opening a 5-star restaurant where you may occasionally find a hamburger on the menu and opening a hamburger joint.

I for one am sick and tired of these "candy coated" MMOs. Pretty sure that killing something is not that child friendly, but children are killing millions if not billion of on-line creatures and people each day. Hmmmmm...

How many of these kid also play Battlefield 3 or Modern Warfare 3, both Mature rated games?

Why is sex treated so different from murder and death?

Ever heard of that country called United States? Where disemboweling somebody in a PG material is fine, but showing a nipple for half a second during SuperBowl leads to emergency Congress sessions? Well, it's a nice country.


America is overrated. Also, Stefan seems to be going on the right track here. =D

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Icyshadow wrote:
America is overrated. Also, Stefan seems to be going on the right track here. =D

Paizo is an American company that answers to American law. US is 70-80% of RPG market. That's two reasons enough not to consider American specifics overrated.


And it's the decision of an American that is about to get the internet banned. So, what was your point again? :P

Joking aside, I don't think the devs would bother with M-rated servers. It's possible, but unlikely.

Scarab Sages Goblin Squad Member

Gorbacz wrote:
US is 70-80% of RPG market.

actually I would disagree with that statement- yes there are alot of players from the US but I think the world market would constitute a large percentage - in my MMO experience most of the players I grouped/associated with were from Europe, Asia & Australia & most of those played RPGs as well.

your percentage may be influenced by who you play with & if using MMOs as a basis of percentages - what time you played. Since if you play when most Americans played thats all you would see but if you played when most were asleep then you would alot of other countries.

South korea alone has a massive internet gamer base


Oh Exploitable wrote:
Blergh. Can't people just watch LotR on cable/DVD like normal folks? Then you can go get your gaming fix once you're spent. Some great tastes just do not go together.

Standard Fantasy MMO.

Snowclone wrote:
Blergh. Can't people just watch Ringu on DVD like normal folks? Then you can go get your gaming fix once you're spent. Some great tastes just do not go together.

Survival Horror.

X on a Y wrote:
Blergh. Can't people just watch Die Hard on TV like normal folks? Then you can go get your gaming fix once you're spent. Some great tastes just do not go together.

Action.

Tautology wrote:
Blergh. Can't people just watch American Idol on TV like normal folks? Then you can go get your gaming fix once you're spent. Some great tastes just do not go together.

(Insert Casual Social Game Here)

Overly Long Gag wrote:
Blergh. Can't people just watch Twilight on cable like normal folks? Then you can go get your gaming fix once you're spent. Some great tastes just do not go together.

WoD Online?

Dead Horse wrote:
Blergh. Can't people just watch Yu-Go-Oh on TV like normal folks? Then you can go get your gaming fix once you're spent. Some great tastes just do not go together.

MtG Online.

Oh Exploitable wrote:
Blergh. Can't people just watch DBZ/Bleach/Trigun/whatever anime on Cartoon Network like normal folks? Then you can go get your gaming fix once you're spent. Some great tastes just do not go together.

Ragnarok Online among a heaping pile of other freebie (and not) MMORPGs.

I'm sorry your delicate sensibilities are pained by sexuality. Perhaps a tube of generic astringent creme will help with this?


Arikiel wrote:
Ah ERP. Where two frumpy middle aged men con each other into believe the other is a hot young teenage girl.

But I am a HOT teenage girl! ~looks in the mirror~ Damn. I was wrong. I am not hot or a teenage or a girl.


TheAntiElite wrote:


I'm sorry your delicate sensibilities are pained by sexuality. Perhaps a tube of generic astringent creme will help with this?

My sensibilities are not delicate. I just find people rubbing pixelated groins together while having dirty chat to be silly and a waste of a game.

People hacking other people and things to bits with bladed weapons in a simulated environment rather than real life is a good thing. People sexing each other up in a simulated environment rather than real life seems like avoidance.


Shadowborn wrote:
TheAntiElite wrote:


I'm sorry your delicate sensibilities are pained by sexuality. Perhaps a tube of generic astringent creme will help with this?

My sensibilities are not delicate. I just find people rubbing pixelated groins together while having dirty chat to be silly and a waste of a game.

People hacking other people and things to bits with bladed weapons in a simulated environment rather than real life is a good thing. People sexing each other up in a simulated environment rather than real life seems like avoidance.

I find that going into a pixelated environment to antagonize other individuals to be silly and a waste of time, and people still do that anyways.

I find gathering in large amalgamations of people to watch the sporting event of the night to be silly and a waste of time, and people still do that.

I find people getting their knickers in a wad over simulated sexuality while fully endorsing virtual violence to be an exceptionally silly waste of time, particularly when just as often is the case with violence certain individuals getting their thrills virtually as opposed to in the real world is actually a very good idea due to the lack of repercussions involved therein as well.

In essence, calling simulated sexuality sillier than simulated slaughter bespeaks more of the speaker than the subject if their suspension of disbelief will allow them to imagine impaling a dragon on their long hard phallic weapon, but sticking their imaginary phallus into a nymph is more than their creativity can handle.

"Your escapist entertainment is more pathetic than my escapist entertainment" is what it comes down to.

And back on topic, it still is not the crux of the focus I'd like to see in the game - I simply don't want to see it, having been established as part of the milieu, excised because of excessive outcry against prurience. Certainly, any building could be constructed and, as prior example was noted, staged as a house of ill repute, without giving its corresponding Kingmaker bonuses and penalty; imaginations are great enough to handle such things, but it strikes me as almost a petty thing to change mechanically, on par with turning alcohol references into 'Frothy Mugs of Water'.

RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32

maldar wrote:
Why is sex treated so different from murder and death?

Because of Goreans, because furries, because Second Life. Because people do not play a game where you are allowed to kill things and feel the need to extrapolate that into gruesome, explicit torture. However, when they play a game where mature sexual content is allowed, they do feel the need to extrapolate that into explicit or deviant sexual activity that would shock or at least put off even the most open-minded libertine. You can argue that this tendency is somehow a double standard, and you'd even be right! Nonetheless, that double standard exists and must be dealt with.


Vic Wertz wrote:
Outl wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
Pathfinder is not and will not be a "mature audiences only" property, and I'm not willing to entertain steps in that direction. Sorry.

What steps in what direction? I sympathize with your position, but isn't that the opposite of what the original poster was saying? Wasn't the OP suggesting a way to avoid that stuff, or keep it understated, precisely to avoid that reputation?

As I read it, he sees it as inevitable that some 'mature audiences' activity will go on, unless you find some way to segregate it off to the side, perhaps on a different server or in a separate zone.

There's a difference between saying that player-to-player interactions may not always be rated "E for everyone" and setting up a version of the world where every third building is a brothel.

To provide another example, there's a world of difference between opening a 5-star restaurant where you may occasionally find a hamburger on the menu and opening a hamburger joint.

Ok, I guess it's decided. That's a sensible (and fairly common) attitude. Just be aware of what you lose by that position: the ability to have a 5-star restaurant that *doesn't* serve hamburgers. That is, there will never be a way to say to parents "on this list of servers, Goreans, furries, and player-run brothels are not allowed". They will be rare everywhere, instead of common somewhere and banned elsewhere.


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TheAntiElite wrote:
In essence, calling simulated sexuality sillier than simulated slaughter bespeaks more of the speaker than the subject if their suspension of disbelief will allow them to imagine impaling a dragon on their long hard phallic weapon, but sticking their imaginary phallus into a nymph is more than their creativity can handle.

Quote of the month


ITT: Pervs wish for a special roped-off area in which they congregate with like-minded pervs.

Here's a hint: in the real world, public (or private) violence is frowned upon and illegal because it is doing harm to another person. Overboard public displays of your sexuality are illegal because ew, nobody really wants to see that.

There are plenty of places available on the internets for understimulated exhibitionist wannabes to do their thing. A game for adults AND children is not one of these places.


"Special roped-off area" doesn't have to be public! I mean, that's why it's roped-off, right?

Or do you mean, like, rope play? I'd be down for that.

Silver Crusade

Yeah, I do not get the whole ERP thing! Isn't that the reason people still frequent chatrooms?


Someone else who doesn't get it wrote:

ITT: Meatheades wish for a special roped-off area in which they congregate with like-minded Meatheads.

Here's a hint: in the real world, public (or private) violence is frowned upon and illegal because it is doing harm to another person. Overboard public displays of your sports team loyalty are illegal because ew, nobody really wants to see that.

There are plenty of places available on the internets for underaccomplished weekend warrior wannabes to do their thing. A game for adults AND children is not one of these places.

Yet those cesspits of meatheadedness, sports bars, exist and turn a profit.

Seedy and disgusting as I find them personally, strip clubs are still out there and turn a profit, though my complaint about them is the stuff of a different rant entirely.

Someone else who doesn't get it wrote:

ITT: 'Bronies' wish for a special roped-off area in which they congregate with like-minded 'Bronies'.

Here's a hint: in the real world, public (or private) cults are frowned upon and illegal because they lead to doing harm to another person. Overboard public displays of your MLP obsession are illegal because ew, nobody really wants to see that.

There are plenty of places available on the internets for little girl wannabes to do their thing. A game for adults AND children is not one of these places.

I'd take umbrage at the term pervert if I didn't wear it with pride, and find the petty small-mindedness of sexuality being somehow 'icky' compared to 'murder simulators'. I'm sorry people are so repressed that they don't think such subject matter isn't part of their daily lives in advertising, television, novels, and fashion, engaging in deceptive brinksmanship because someone has a case of the Moral Guardians over the very act that brought about the children they're impersonating Mrs. Lovejoy over.

Though it's highly tempting to quote George Carlin vis a vis children, the problem is that one cannot quote him without the deliberately obtuse turning it into some manner of paedophilic misinterpretation.

I suppose there's a substantial number who are perfectly fine with diluting content because OH NO THE CHILDREN - I wonder how many of them are Robert E. Howard fans who defecated metaphorical bricks over the heaving abortion that was the Saturday Morning Cartoon version of Conan and its over-sanitation.

Oh, and lest I forget...

Someone else who doesn't get it wrote:

ITT: Nerds wish for a special roped-off area in which they congregate with like-minded Nerds.

Here's a hint: in the real world, public (or private) violence is frowned upon and illegal because it is doing harm to another person. Overboard public displays of intelligence are illegal because ew, nobody really wants to see that.

There are plenty of places available on the internets for pointdexter wannabes to do their thing. A game for adults AND children is not one of these places.

ITT: STOP LIKING WHAT I DON'T.


Chubbs McGee wrote:
Yeah, I do not get the whole ERP thing! Isn't that the reason people still frequent chatrooms?

You say on a forum about...role-play. Which plenty of people don't 'get'.

"Why not just play cops and robbers?"

"Why not just go play paintball?"

"Why not just play Final Fantasy?"

There's about eleventy bazillion reasons why people role-play, for starters. Some people get their jollies pretending to be SPEHS MURHEENS in the GrimDerp of the future. Some people like Cowboys and Indians. Some people want to be wuxia heroes. Some people want to track down unspeakable horrors from beyond time and space, when they can find those hanging out at the local Wal-Mart.

Wannabe cowboys could go learn rodeo, if they like it so much. Covert ops enthusiasts could go play Call of Duty or sign up and join the military if they like it so much. People can drop their Role-Play hobby and take up a martial art, if they want to start down the path of being able to emulate their favorite movies. By the same token, a person who enjoys sexual situations in their game of pretend, be it pretend-kill-aliens or pretend-conquer-primatives or pretend-shoot-Fascists, somehow gets called out as being lesser than the ones who focus on the killing and subjugation and violence, because that flavor of pretend is the most attainable, socially acceptable thing?

The fact that getting laid is theoretically an answer is somehow an excuse to denigrate the concept of erotic content?

I genuinely don't mean to dump this on you, Chubbs (even though I loathe your avatar beyond all reason and it prompts the reading of your query/comment in a 'Lenny-alike' voice as though you were asking some hypothetical 'What's an EE ARE PEE George?'), but the very question itself, while not meant as such and fully acknowledged as not being your intent, comes across as disingenuous and willfully self-deceptive.

If you can understand why a person RPs in general, wouldn't such reasons apply to any subsects of RP as well?

This reply has gone far afield of my original intent in this thread - my $.02 was meant to say, "An eRP server would be nice, but not a deal-breaker, so long as existing sexual content in the system was not chucked because of whinging outcry out of a few stuffy would-be Moral Guardians." Mostly because having building set-pieces that function are a nicety in any game, but having the Kingmaker brothel option, even if NOTHING is shown of an explicit nature of the nature of the business itself, allows for environs and set-pieces that would facilitate verisimilitude, would be a great thing. I want all the set pieces to have their interactive functions and purposes, from taverns to jails to exotic craftspeople, even if their functions are simply to exist and be looked at.


There are plenty of places you can go to fulfill all of your Erotic RPing needs. It doesn't even take much effort to find them (Google, anyone?).

This entire thread is just silly. Erotic RPing servers have no place on a game that will no doubt have children playing. And yes, I noticed that you tossed out a brief blanket statement about someone mentioning that very thing. You obviously have no children of your own.

Grow up. (If only my dad could see this. Never thought I'd start mimicking him this quickly.)

RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32

TheAntiElite wrote:
I'd take umbrage at the term pervert if I didn't wear it with pride, and find the petty small-mindedness of sexuality being somehow 'icky' compared to 'murder simulators'. I'm sorry people are so repressed that they don't think such subject matter isn't part of their daily lives in advertising, television, novels, and fashion, engaging in deceptive brinksmanship because someone has a case of the Moral Guardians over the very act that brought about the children they're impersonating Mrs. Lovejoy over.

The problem is that if getting your sale chases off ten potential customers, you are not a worthwhile customer. And what you are asking for means throwing the doors open to a certain element that does chase off ten potential customers.

Goblin Squad Member

I like how getting into seedy cyb0rz sessions in an MMO is artfully platformed by the smutty basement dwellers as 'sexuality' and some sort of legitimate bulwark of diversity that they can hide behind.

No, it's not your sexuality any more than sitting on the bus in a trenchcoat with no pants on.

And no, you don't get a special server.


A Man In Black wrote:


Like I mentioned before, Second Life. Or if anyone remembers it, The Sims Online.

For once I agreee with MIB..just look at the number of 'Goreans' there are in SL..at last count they numbered in the tens of thousands.


Shifty wrote:
I like how getting into seedy cyb0rz sessions in an MMO is artfully platformed by the smutty basement dwellers as 'sexuality' and some sort of legitimate bulwark of diversity that they can hide behind.

But there could be gay porn.

Interested?

Goblin Squad Member

Not even if it starred George Clooney (oh yes he is!) rumbling Brad Pitt (Oh no he isn't).

Goblin Squad Member

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The community should designate an unofficial ERP server at the get go.


Uninvited Ghost wrote:
The community should designate an unofficial ERP server at the get go.

"This is your Sisters of Elune. Don't let us see you outside of here, perverts. Violators will be openly mocked and told to go back to the swinger's club."


Uninvited Ghost wrote:
The community should designate an unofficial ERP server at the get go.

The community can't do it. It's just not possible. The *most* you can hope for is players willing to help enforce the rules. That's iffy even with official support; without that, most players won't even bother with the MMORPG version of yelling "get a room". Even if the community unanimously chose an area on their own (OMG, did I use community and unanimous in the same sentence?), with enough conviction to be willing to break up their own guilds and friendships to keep their area 'pure', there's still other folks in it for profit. Good luck getting a bunch of Chinese gold farmers (or other... opportunists) to follow your community standards.

On another subject... A Man In Black wrote:

if getting your sale chases off ten potential customers, you are not a worthwhile customer.

Nice to get back on topic. I totally agree the ten customers are more important, but my question is: Does having ERP everywhere chase off those ten customers more than or less than having it in only some areas?

Goblin Squad Member

I don't know if it would chase me off, but I really wish it could have it's own place, so that if I wanted to avoid it, I could.


Arikiel wrote:
Ah ERP. Where two frumpy middle aged men con each other into believe the other is a hot young teenage girl.

It's the Internet: Where men are men, women are men and children are FBI agents.

As for the OP: Heck no.


Outl wrote:


On another subject... A Man In Black wrote:

if getting your sale chases off ten potential customers, you are not a worthwhile customer.

Nice to get back on topic. I totally agree the ten customers are more important, but my question is: Does having ERP everywhere chase off those ten customers more than or less than having it in only some areas?

Officially endorsing it in any sense will chase off more customers than it is worth, and will more than likely cause the game to be stuck with a word of mouth label that places it on par with The Book of Erotic Fantasy, F.A.T.A.L. or Second Life.

In other words, allowing ERP by ignoring it and letting players create their own chat channels will be far less likely to earn the game a reputation as a perv haven than endorsing it and giving it it's own official space. Sometimes looking the other way really is the best compromise.


Serious Q, as I'm working with an unstable combination of hearsay and anecdote and I would like the opinion of people who might have BEEN there.

Did it chase people off of Age of Conan? I mean, given the art I've seen, it wasn't exactly prudish.

This is a separate question from 'did the game itself chase people off' - I mean the blatant sexualized content, not the mechanics.


TheAntiElite wrote:

Serious Q, as I'm working with an unstable combination of hearsay and anecdote and I would like the opinion of people who might have BEEN there.

Did it chase people off of Age of Conan? I mean, given the art I've seen, it wasn't exactly prudish.

This is a separate question from 'did the game itself chase people off' - I mean the blatant sexualized content, not the mechanics.

The mature rating was earned by Age of Conan for the realistic, bloody violence more than for anything sexual. I am not aware of the game earning any sort of reputation or losing customers due to such things either.

From my experience Age of Conan had a lot of issues, but they seem to be the same sorts of issues that a lot of MMO releases make these days...releasing a buggy game, unfinished or undeveloped content and features, hardware unprepared for launch day assplosion, and simply not having enough content.

As far as the last thing though, there is no such thing as enough content. No matter how much work you put into a game, within a couple months (sometimes weeks) of release, there will be a player or players somewhere who have explored it, discovered it, crafted it, beaten it, or quite possibly every bit of it.


Moro wrote:

The mature rating was earned by Age of Conan for the realistic, bloody violence more than for anything sexual. I am not aware of the game earning any sort of reputation or losing customers due to such things either.

From my experience Age of Conan had a lot of issues, but they seem to be the same sorts of issues that a lot of MMO releases make these days...releasing a buggy game, unfinished or undeveloped content and features, hardware unprepared for launch day assplosion, and simply not having enough content.

As far as the last thing though, there is no such thing as enough content. No matter how much work you put into a game, within a couple months (sometimes weeks) of release, there will be a player or players somewhere who have explored it, discovered it, crafted it, beaten it, or quite possibly every bit of it.

I'm certainly all in favor of content - though as much done by players as by the actual devs. It's why, even if I am outspoken about eRP, it's no more a deal-breaker than non-con PVP (something I'm not even remotely a fan of, but I could see how it could actually be awesomely implemented, and having it as a per-established conceit helps lessen the sting that it may bring). The main caveat would be in that if not contained, it should not be overtly Net-Nannied away. That also, unfortunately, hinges on my eternally optimistic expectation that peers know how to restrain themselves.

The reason for my query sprang from this NSFW wallpaper that I'd seen some friends making use of, and had to do a quick bit of searching to find. To me, it's thematic, artistic, and not unpleasing to the eyes - some might disagree, and drastically. I would not expect that sort of image in-game or even in promotional materials, in Pathfinder Online. If some variation of the Kingmaker rules were implemented, however, I would like to think, especially with a robust profession system, even if players are not engaging in 'Teh Cyb0rz oh noes', performers could play music for the patrons while the building is providing its Loyalty, Economy, and Unrest modifiers...and quests to keep moralistic proselytizers away, or provide healing services to prevent problems among the employees, or answer requests for more materials to facilitate expansion, or any number of other things that ties to that particular end of the social spectrum.

This would hold true if one was working with Taverns, Temples, Theaters, or the Garrison.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

I removed a post and the replies to it. No name-calling, please.


Ross Byers wrote:
I removed a post and the replies to it. No name-calling, please.

Duly noted - if a post is removed for name-calling, is re-posting sans offensive content and cleaned up for civility permissible, or is all previous information from the post rendered verboten?

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

TheAntiElite wrote:
Duly noted - if a post is removed for name-calling, is re-posting sans offensive content and cleaned up for civility permissible, or is all previous information from the post rendered verboten?

It is allowed to repost the content with offensive content removed.

Goblin Squad Member

It puts the lotion on it's skin or else it gets the hose again.


TheAntiElite wrote:
I'd take umbrage at the term pervert if I didn't wear it with pride, and find the petty small-mindedness of sexuality being somehow 'icky' compared to 'murder simulators'. I'm sorry people are so repressed that they don't think such subject matter isn't part of their daily lives in advertising, television, novels, and fashion, engaging in deceptive brinksmanship because someone has a case of the Moral Guardians over the very act that brought about the children they're impersonating Mrs. Lovejoy over.

You're going to find that most people are going to think along similar lines. It seems that most North Americans take more issue with topics about sexuality than they do with violence. You've got lots of Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner causing violent things to happen to Wile E. Coyote, and lots of Coyote trying to commit violence on the RR and Bugs, but you've got exactly zero (official WB stuff) cartoons where Bugs and the Coyote engage in casual sex. Sure, dressing in drag is just fine, and so is dynamiting someone, but no casual sex or threesomes. We're that bent. :P

It comes down to the kids really. If PFO was an adult only game, the sex tangent really wouldn't be much of an issue. But as soon as kids are allowed to play the game, well... anything sexual goes out the window. I mean, I imagine my friends watching their kids playing WoW.

"Look daddy, I'm killing a giant spider." "Cool!"

Now I imagine: "Look daddy, this guy wants to show me Mr. Wrinkles.."

WTF?!?! It goes downhill from there. :P


I operate under the fairly qualified assumption that, on an RPG board, people have plenty of imagination, applicable to any and all things; just look at the Homebrew/Conversion section for an example. The very notion that people can wrap their brain around just about ANY character concept with minimal effort, but the minute things step past the PG realm on the sex side instead of the violence side, suddenly it's a massive problem? It boggles the mind.

I don't think people are being intentionally hypocritical. I think the differing weight between sexual content versus violent content is perplexing. Then again, I'm also similarly vexed about how the cultural baggage around miscegenation and the political hassles thereof somehow are lost on people of my ethnicity who are opposed to equal rights for people of same-gender attraction who wish to marry. It seems like a sort of unintended cognitive dissonance, and it is lost on people because of their personally invested perspectives, fed by their personal experiences and thus not something that could be looked at from the abstract.

I missed out on Age of Conan, and I'm not that much of a fan of the vast majority of licensed properties based on Conan, but I was told by peers who DID enjoy such a thing that the environs and aesthetic maintained the feel from the novels and comics, and the screenshots I've seen have shown the truth of their claims. That being said, naked ladies (or fellows) everywhere does not an erotic scene make, never mind tasteful.

This feels like discussing the Hot Coffee hysteria all over again - which may be part of the frustration, as the 'poorly made' part of most peoples' arguments against eRP comes right back to the fore in light of that. I don't think we need to have fully rendered acts playing out on the screen, because frankly that goes beyond prurient and while it doesn't bother me I can at least understand where someone who is going to let their kids play who can handle low-cleavaged bar wenches but draws the line at blatant portrayals of shagging on/under the table might be put off.

The quality part of the argument, the argument that eRP isn't worth permitting due to being done so badly so often, I'll confess - I've got nothin' on that. All I can do is cite Sturgeon's law and move on. The 'it's creepy' bit is a difference of perspective, which again is not something I see as surmountable because I could cite movies and novels all day long where sexual content is not only plot-relevant, but addressed in a tasteful manner without devolving into the oft-referenced 'I put on my robe and wizard hat'. The Night Angel trilogy, in particular, comes to mind.

Spoiler:

In specific, the head of the prostitutes is also the head crimelord in the setting's city, one of the protagonist's best friends ends up a catamite working for her and is groomed to be her successor, and in one of the books the citystate is conquered, with the women pressed into service as comfort women for the conquerors...only to have that act of hubris turned on them in a way that is both incredibly heroic and, I daresay, epic in its implementation. While some would be quick to dismiss the sexuality as being inconsequential to what happened, it made for a part of the narrative that was anything but peripheral fap-fodder. While not the driving crux of the protagonist's main story, it was still important to the happenings, in a fully believable, understandable way.

To be certain, in a fully fleshed-out world, most of the subject matter can be glossed over, faded to black, and for some characters completely left out as their goals and motives may involve the disavowal of the pleasures of the flesh. I can fully understand and respect the desire of people to not want to touch upon it, and in a standard tabletop game where one is GMing one can excise to one's satisfaction, as any and all rules can be ignored to fit the content safety level that fits their specific play groups; if your players don't do the booze'n'wenching, there's not really any cause for having Profession: Courtesan.

I also do not think there is any harm in allowing for what some have derided as a 'honey trap' to allow those who can and would implement such things in a tasteful way to try to use their Charisma to charm their way into positions of power and influence, or see their heroic conquests as merely the means to their indulgent ends - see the iconic Cavalier as a prime example.

As for the supposition that eRP stems from lack of other outlets for those who participate, my wife and I, along with untold numbers of other gamers, will have varying levels and degrees of disagreement. Just as some people game with or without their spouses and/or their approvals, and groups have differing levels of sexuality in their campaigns, the assumption of people who do role-play without excising the intimacy component of character needs as desperate basement dwellers without alternate recourse is on part with...associating role play with desperate basement dwellers without alternate recourse.

You'd think we'd know better by now.

(revised with deliberately confrontational accusations and derision excised - I hope that the point remains, even if disagreed with)

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