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Those who want to play expect some sort of interaction with the RP, they expect to do something and get feedback: Attack a player and get attacked back or build diplomatic relationship with a potential ally, in other words they expect to do something, they expect that THERE IS ACTUALLY WHAT TO DO. The reason most of the personal Rps failed is simply because there is nothing to do in them. Not even the story writers who just wanna make stories have anything left to do in those places as there is mostly 0 interaction between players and RP as well as players and players, it just becomes pointless. How long do you think its possible to keep writing "exposition" for a character plunked in a universe without a motivator or any possible way to progress the story ? Yes interactions are required to progress a story.

Unlike those personal RPs empire RPs have interactions built into them (though more "gaming" oriented ones are better streamlined for that). That gives the story a motivator to unfold. However those RPs mostly fail in some sort of misfit between the stories, mostly in the forum of some OP fleet that just fundamentally doesn't fit the RP universe. Whats even worse is that the offenders are rarely aware that they are ruining it all and they are perfectly legitimate RPers in fact; in their universe a fleet of 1000 cruisers is a common sight.

If you ask me stat based RPs are the way to go to solve all those problems. Those RPs are not only good for the "gamers" who actually want their protagonist to win (deep down we all want it) but also for the writers as they are making sure the stories of all participants can fit together (otherwise they are going to break at the first attempt of intertwining between em [read "interaction"] ). PPL will complain it is limiting, its only natural considering it IS in fact limiting you, not allowing you to make a 1000 cruiser army that won't fit with the rest of the RP. Does it require more work than a regular RP ? OFC, theres no gain without pain but the pain in our case is much smaller compared to the gain. On the upside you will actually THINK about what you are writing.

From all the RPs I experienced the best and the most stable ones were the stat ones. They were not only interesting gameplay wise (and most died due to reasons not related to the RP), they also gave birth to much more engaging stories with galaxy spanning conflicts and political drama and tension. Anyway in the story RPs I've experienced nobody got the balls to try and jump a nanite virus through a stealth capsule deep into stingifrome territory while circumventing deadly blockades. Just as much intrigue was born from the fact you NEVER had the whole picture available for you (like that piece of info I gave there is known only to two people including me).