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I have discovered I love to roleplay as animals that act like, well, animals.
Around 99.9% "realistic" roleplays around Feral Heart are not really realistic at all. The animals can talk and have personified human personalities.
I used to join these when I was new to Feral Heart, but I can say now I am absolutely bored of them.
What I'm wondering is why aren't there more hyper-realistic roleplays on Feral Heart? No talking, no personification. Just like roleplaying a nature documentary.
The normal "realistic" roleplays only can have so many things happen. And it gets boring after a while. Since hyper-realistic roleplays are not that common, not many story-lines have yet to arise.
And it opens up many more unique opportunities for non-personified characters. And many of those old character cliques would go away.
Any thoughts on this?
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Well, believe it or not but researchers of many found that animals do have a form of communication as well as perhaps even a speech pattern that humans may not understand or might ever be able too. So talking between the lions is maybe possible but we won't know cause well, we're not lions. However I do think that there is a bit of sense by what you mean as realistic and non realistic, for example, a Hyena and a Lion, never get along. In fact, saying they do or they can be friends is a bit....Well....I won't even go there. If we were to have super realistic roleplays anyways, what happens if one lion is trying to hint at something, like maybe to go hunting, and than the other doesn't understand it, or is unable to. Not to mention we're still learning how animals show their languages through simple body structure so it doesn't make it any easier when even specialist don't fully understand all their sign language let alone body movements for speech. So, although its probably not the best thing in the world for you, its still needed just to get certain points across.
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I myself, love to roleplay as realistic animals, though I won't turn down a nice 'human-realism' animal roleplay. However, when I do roleplay as a real animal, I feel like I'm watching discovery channel or something. I've always loved the idea of realistic roleplays, so you really feel like you're a wild animal. :)
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Well, believe it or not but researchers of many found that animals do have a form of communication as well as perhaps even a speech pattern that humans may not understand or might ever be able too. So talking between the lions is maybe possible but we won't know cause well, we're not lions. However I do think that there is a bit of sense by what you mean as realistic and non realistic, for example, a Hyena and a Lion, never get along. In fact, saying they do or they can be friends is a bit....Well....I won't even go there. If we were to have super realistic roleplays anyways, what happens if one lion is trying to hint at something, like maybe to go hunting, and than the other doesn't understand it, or is unable to. Not to mention we're still learning how animals show their languages through simple body structure so it doesn't make it any easier when even specialist don't fully understand all their sign language let alone body movements for speech. So, although its probably not the best thing in the world for you, its still needed just to get certain points across.
I am well aware that a type of "speech" has been found among many animals. Monkeys, apes, dolphins, elephants etc. I didn't know about lions, but I'm not surprised.
The point is that it would be interesting to role play like a nature documentary. Ever since I was little I've loved nature documentaries. Animals have their own unique world and behaviors that I've always been fascinated by. By adding personification, the charm of that is taken away.
The majority of these animal roleplays in Feral Heart are really more of human roleplays. They follow the same plotlines used in human stories, and the characters are essentially humans in animal bodies, having human emotion and such. I'm not saying animals don't have emotion, because they do. But it's a different kind of emotion. More instinctual, more wild. And I would find it much more interesting to roleplay.
The point isn't that "realistic" roleplays are not realistic enough, the point is that it would be interesting to be part in a different style of roleplay.
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Hm...Well perhaps you should start a group on such a style, it would be interesting, but you'd also would have to teach people not to talk. And that takes away from personification, which while taking away from human qualities and would add animalistic, it'd make it more difficult to explain a characters back story. For example lets say my lion character Lerato just came in to the territory, he's depressed and hasn't exactly been in the best of moods. He ran away from his home at a younger age due to a highly aggressive father, and his mother is being beaten from her mate. How's he suppose to let you know that? That may be why we don't see that style around perhaps.
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See, you've already added personification right there.
The depression. Animals do not display depression like humans do, so by making your character depressed you have already personified him. The closest thing to a depressed animal would be one that probably is very inactive, and avoids other animals as much as possible. He would be most likely to pace around anxiously. (The closest thing to animal depression is probably the distressed behavior of animals in captivity). If his mother was being beaten by his father, a natural lion would not care about this too much. As bad as it sounds, it happens all the time in the wild.
It doesn't mean he's a bad character, it just means he's a personified one. You gave him human characteristics and that's alright.
If I where to start a roleplay like this, I would most likely make a new character. (Because of my current characters, all the ones I roleplay with animalistic behavior are all sci-fi themed)
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I would definitely see to joining that group if you were to make one. Role playing as if you were sharing a documentary, but still controlling the animals actions. The way that MOST animals communicate if through body language and sounds they make(Growl, roar, snarl, howl, whimper, etc). If you ever happen to make a realistic animal group, go ahead and tell me. I'd be more than happy to join it.
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I think one of the reasons that this style of RolePlay is so uncommon is our limited actions in-game. If actions such as wagging your tail, purring, barking, growling, sniffing, and panting were added, it'd be much easier to have your character show emotion without being personified.
If you were to make a Discovery Channel like group, I think it'd be fun if you filmed it and added narration to it ;) Perhaps something to make this kind of RP more realistic would be to name your character whatever species you were, and turn off name tags entirely during RolePlay. That way, when someone spoke an action such as *digs* or *sniffs*, it would look like this;
<Polar Bear F> *digs*
<Corgi M> *sniffs*
But the RolePlayers would not see the name tags on their screen. Instead, you would need to actually look for the animal whom had spoken if you were going to interact with them. But hey, it's your RP, go wild! :D
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Agreed! This would be so fun! In fact, I'll make one!
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Awesome! I'll totally join your rp group, FeralKitten. My username is Smilodoncat in game. Do you plan on it being mapped?
As for personified characters, I told a friend about my idea and she helped me come up a simple test to tell if a character is personified or not. We call it the "Morgan Freeman" test. Basically, imagine a Morgan Freeman, or just any nature documentary narrator, describing your characters backstory as if it where part of a real documentary. If it sounds funny, your character is most likely personified. If you could really see it as being part of a nature documentary, then your character is just fine.
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Maybe your Roleplay could be held in the Planet Earth map? o0o I know there to be one in the making/made, perhaps the creator could give you acess to it. Anyhoo, I may join in this RP sometime in the future, I'll have to wait and see... O3o
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I didn't expect the idea to be so popular! I'm still thinking about how it will be :)
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I'd guess the reason why it's so uncommon as a type of roleplay is because people like being able to connect with characters. We personify them so that they're easier to relate to, and easier to get emotions, ideas, and concepts out of, since emotions and human-like actions and traits are what drive storylines a lot of the time (revenge, love, hate, betrayal, jealousy, the lust for power, greed...etc etc.) Of course, a lot of those are still very possible to accomplish without removing any realism at all, but it feels a lot more limited and difficult, I guess. My character, Lars, wouldn't be the same character anymore just by removing his ability to think and talk like a human would. Personifying it makes it easier to connect and relate to, because we're human.
The idea sounds really interesting, though. I like it ;u;
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Ok, thought about how the hyper-realistic roleplay I am making is gonna be. It will be semi-literate to literate, 100% realistic, (of course) and for all species. More information coming soon.
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I've actually seen only one instance of this hyper-realistic roleplay.
In fact, had I not been busy at the time, I would have joined it.
It was back when General was still around, and I saw an ad for a wolf pack that was about as realistic as it could get on FeralHeart-- no dialog, and not even any real names for the wolves. It was Alpha Male, Alpha Female, Beta Male, and so on as the character names.
While I personally would at least give my character a name that would match their appearance (perhaps like a traditional Warrior name, like Darkfur or Greeneyes), I personally find the prospect of roleplaying a dialog-mute, purely realistic character a interesting and fun challenge for roleplaying.
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I've actually seen only one instance of this hyper-realistic roleplay.
In fact, had I not been busy at the time, I would have joined it.
It was back when General was still around, and I saw an ad for a wolf pack that was about as realistic as it could get on FeralHeart-- no dialog, and not even any real names for the wolves. It was Alpha Male, Alpha Female, Beta Male, and so on as the character names.
While I personally would at least give my character a name that would match their appearance (perhaps like a traditional Warrior name, like Darkfur or Greeneyes), I personally find the prospect of roleplaying a dialog-mute, purely realistic character a interesting and fun challenge for roleplaying.
I remember watching a Documentary that called the wolf they were studying 'Black Wolf' or 'BlackTail', and
Here is the thing,it can be VERY difficult to do a HYPER REALISTIC because, not many people Rp like that ;-; I want to find a honest-to-goodness-down-to-earth-realistic Lion Pride RP!
IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK WORLD?!?! WHYYYYY!?!? D:!
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Well, you should give them names such as Black or Sharpclaws, just names that describe what they look like. That, I think would be more fun then no names at all, and realistic.
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What about names from the area where the species is native too? Such as Swahili or other African names for lions, Chinese, Russian Indian names for tigers etc.
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Hehe, I do believe I made one of the first hyper-realistic roleplays a couple of years back. It was known as Trinity Pride and there was just one male among a number of other females. Anyone who spoke was warned via whisper or reminded it was a roleplay where speech wasn't permitted. It was a good run, but after around 6 months of roleplay, I went inactive due to a computer shut-down and the pride dispersed. It was a good run, and I love the roleplay, but they can't all last forever. I'd love to join a hyper-realistic roleplay again... Perhaps I'll get around to making one some time c:
~Nym
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I'm a fairly new RPer and FeralHeart user. I've only been here for a few months, but in that time I've seen only one Roleplay that was Hyper-realistic.
That's right, count 'em, ONE.
Though few and far between these Rps facinate me because they really are the definition of roleplay: Acting like a spieces or persona that ISN'T you, and acting it like it is in real life!
I'd most definitely join one that was active, but my timezone would make my life hard XD
Great idea, though!
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I joined one once, but lack of information on the species made it extremely hard. I'd join a wolf one if I ever found one.
They are about as common as unrealistic rps. So near impossible to find one.
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Well, since I saw this topic and posted on it, I've been talking with my friend about building one or two up... We're in decision about the species though. If anyone would like to suggest one feel free to PM or quote and reply... I might even make my own topic on it and see where it goes from there. ~ It would be long term and site, though I don't expect people to sign up to the site.
But yes, I do thoroughly enjoy hyper-realistic roleplays, I believe some know them as Doc-RPs, short for Documentary Roleplay... I know I know them as Doc-RPs but... It's only a few others that use the term xD -Flails- I'm off to planning for now. :P
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I've Hosted many of these role-plays in-fact I'm working on a mapped one I'm just waiting on my terrain to be made.
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I can't find a SINGLE Hyper-Realistic Lion Rp ANYWHERE! D:
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Good on yah Crystal xD Though personally I see too many Lion Doc-RPs... Which is why me and my friend are finding it hard to pick a species. So far, we've narrowed it down to Wolf. Hyena or Horse. Thing is, we'd have to do a lot of research on their communication, behavior and overall actions before we built up the roleplay properly. The trouble with Doc-RPs is that when you join one, it seems no one knows what it is they're supposed to do because they haven't done their research or they don't know as much as they thought they did about that particular species.