I’m going to start by introducing a concept called Metcalfe’s Law:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe%27s_law
If you’re too lazy to click links but not too lazy to read my massive text wall, Metcalfe’s law states that the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of users. That is to say, the more users a telecommunication network has, the more value it has.
I’d like to propose that a RP community is a telecommunications network. I’d furthermore like to propose that the value of an RP community scales exponentially with its’ size. There’s a reason why World of Warcraft has many RP servers, but only two successful ones--on NA, I think EU has Argent Dawn as the only successful one?
If you read the article, the reason that the value of a telecommunications network scales with the square of the number of users is because the number of potential connections is given by n(n-1)/2, which is asymptotically proportional to n^2.
A network with two users can make one connection. A network with five can make ten connections. A network with twelve can make 66 connections.
The more users there are, the more connections you can make. Connections are RP partners. The more potential RP partners are, the more selective you as an individual can be in picking the kinds of RP partners you want to engage with. You gain a better ability to pick better storytellers who are less subject to melodrama because you have more opportunity. You gain a better opportunity to select people with similar interests as you.
I will now make the argument that the value of lore-abiding RP is that it generates compatibility. Compatibility means that I actually can RP with you. If I have a character that has certain details that implicate a universe that is mutually exclusive with the universe that your character has implicated, we can not RP together. By adhering to lore, we create a common standard that is easy to define for everyone.
Imagine that Balmung has, at a given time, 1,000 RPers online. If everyone abided by lore, including you, that would mean that you individually would have 1,000 potential RP partners, and there would be 499,500 potential rp connections.
Now let’s pretend that only half of those users abided by lore. While there would be 1,000 RPers online, you would only be able to RP with 500 of them. The total number of potential RP connections dropped to 124,750. Halving the size of the network has reduced the number of potential RP connections to a quarter of the original size.
Many of the connections that do not directly involve you would create community infrastructures that would generate a consistent RP universe with consistent events happening that your character may or may not be interested in. If you have a friend who has a friend that did something interesting, that is a topic of conversation that could come up in RP that could ripple outwards into the greater community as a whole, generating plot. RP events that do not involve you directly CAN still affect you and CAN still be fun.
In my second example, wherein a community of 1,000 has its largest community of compatible RPers being a community of 500, it is not as though the other 500 that are incompatible with the largest community are compatible with each other. Some of them might be only compatible with maybe 10 RPers. They can make 45 connections. Much less than 499,500. Some might be completely incompatible with anyone. They can’t make any connections. They may as well not roleplay at all.
I will grant that you can’t successfully convince everyone to abide by lore. Some people don’t even know the lore which is a prerequisite to abiding by it. If if you, individually, choose to break lore, you are absolutely, really missing out--because you have radically reduced the number of potential RP connections for yourself.
