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If a true roleplay environment (like some of the many MUDs out there that focus on it), you simply need to draw a thick line between IC channels and OOC channels, and make it clear to users which is which.

For instance, if you have a channel that broadcasts to anybody in the game, or the area, it better be labeled OOC. Either that, or every character in the game has a 500-decibel voice and perfect hearing. The rules in WOW RP servers actually *oppose this directly* by saying that the "area" channels are IC channels. Tell is the same way, unless you want a game where each character can telepathically communicate with every other.

What really bothers me is that WOW could be made into an *actual* RP environment very easily with only a few changes, but Blizzard will never bother because:
1) It takes more admins to run the world. (Heck, I'm on an RP server in WOW, and I see names like "Cellphoneia" at *level 50!* even though it's a blatantly wrong name for an RP server.)
2) It doesn't appeal to the vast majority of players.

I do programming at Eternal Struggle MUD http://esmud.com/ ... stop by if you want to see how an actual RP environment works.

"Milady, please come forth and take the head of Van Cleef, after you I will take his head as well seeing as he appears to have one for everyone in the group."

There are volunteer-run free RP MUDs that have solved that problem, if you go seek them out. None of them have graphics, but if you're into table-top games you probably don't mind reading a lot of scrolling text.

I recommend The Eternal Struggle. http://www.esmud.com/

Yeah, but RPG stands for "role playing games." There's no role playing on MMORPGs, there's just getting a list of numbers to change into slightly higher numbers. That's boring as hell to me, and a lot of other people I know.

A MUD like (ahem) Eternal Struggle (http://esmud.com/), on the other hand, has a close-knit community, detailed backstory (that players actually *read*), and tremendous character interactions.

Here are some of the things that encourage RP that MMORPGs haven't done:

1) RP Leveling. ES, as well as a few other RP MUDs, have a system where you can gain levels by role playing with other characters.

2) Separation of In Character and Out Of Character game elements. Channels are clearly marked unlike in MMORPGs. (Is the General chat channel IC? Or OOC? Are Tells? If Tells are, does that mean our characters are psychic?)

3) Immersion. MMORPGs are about the least immersive games there are... hell, just look at how every character can clip through every other character. It's like the game's full of ghosts. Eternal Struggle allows you to turn off EVERY OOC communication in the game and immerse yourself entirely.

4) Character Recognition. When you walk along the street, you don't see huge names floating above people's heads. Similarly, you don't know a person's name in ES until they introduce themselves-- and if they give a fake name, so be it. This adds a lot of depth to the game.

Anyway, I'm not saying that all of these features have to be present in a good RPG. But the fact of the matter is that the staff of ES spent time to think about every one of those points and, for the most part, MMORPG makers simply don't.

(And of course there's always number 5) Players who don't suck ass. It's really hard to get immersed in a game where half the players have names like "Cellphonia" or "Goku69KIKIKI".)

A *real* MUDder would type "rec rec" and not the wasteful "recite recall."

Mudding isn't bad advice, but it's also not really a good example of the type of typing you'll need to do in real life. Most MUDs consist mostly of typing commands for attacking a MOB, and very little of actually talking to other players.

What you want to find is a MUD based around RP, in which you're typing to other players much more than you're giving commands to the environment. (Plug: The Eternal Struggle http://esmud.com/ is an excellent RP MUD.)

Let me plug a MUD I do work on and have played for the last 7 years. (The MUD is about 8 years old. Everything is mature except the combat system, but it's an RP-based MUD so combat is not a high priority.)

See the website at esmud.com. We're very newbie-friendly but, as I said above, VERY RP-based... if you are not interested in role-playing a character, you will not find much on ES to interest you.

There are MUDs in the US that do that right now and for free.

For instance, (shameless plug) Eternal Struggle MUD has nothing *but* roleplaying, including a RP-based combat system and a RP-based levelling system.

I'd love for the big MMORPGs to focus more on RP in their games, but that's just not going to happen, at least not for a long time.

Well, that's one of the reason that free-form RP sucks donkey balls. To be frank.

Play on a MUD like Eternal Struggle where the code of the MUD provides structure to the game, and players like this will be much less of a problem. (But not gone! The article *is* right when it says they'll always be around. We can minimize, but we can't eliminate.)

Most of the time, when we get 'free form' chatroom-type RPers on the MUD, the first thing they say is, "wow, this is SO much better!" Some of the structure is coded in, some of it is printed in numerous help files and webpages, but the point is that it *has* all the structure that free-form lacks, and that's what makes it more fun to play.

(Shameless promo: Eternal Struggle MUD. Disclaimer: I write code there.)

Shameless plug:

Eternal Struggle MUD. 90% of character advancement is done via an "RP AWARD" system where players can reward those who RP well. The old-fashioned SMAUG combat system has been replaced by a shiny emote-fight system, which basically means that combat is resolved via descriptive actions rather than boring "X hits Y. Y hits X." crap. There are MUDs out there that cater to RPers, and no MMORPG will *ever* get this right, so there's no point to even trying to play them.