When i remember the first upcoming of a modoc miltia, that wasnt RP in the classic way but one of the greatest roleplays in 2238 history.
Those guy made shops there, doctors meeting, people trading, newbies were teached (I was picked up and showed the basics by Gazoil there after I tried to steal from him
), fights occured.
And all the time the players there thought themselves as "modoc citizens" without beeing forced to play a character role. Sure some quit meta-gaming and did pure RP but it was not a problem if you said "lolz" or "look that up in the wiki/ check this channel in irc" - Hardcore RPers and non-RPers got along so fine. It was fun to hang around there all the time and never got boring.
Now the question is, why did it happen?
Because of people? Sure, many of them were good guys but we had some known PKs there too. Those PKs (believe it or not) were amazed by this little community and let their weapons holstered and joined along with the others.
Coincidence? Yes sure it needed a bit luck to become such an awesome in-game community.
Game Mechanics? In my opinion the main reason. (this is my oppionion on "game mechanics limitate roleplay) To that time, modoc had only one entry and could be guarded very easily creating full safety for all peacefull players there (some people said the entrance was camped noobish, but yeah who cares if camped, if you dont instantly try to start mayem and shoot you wont get shot by the people standing at the entrance either, so don't whine if you cant kill those peacefull guys standing around there - besides of this camping, whole modoc-militia was wiped out many times by BBS and others trigger happy groups)
If I had one wish for 2238 i would wish back the old modoc with 1 entrance and no TC avaible there. It would definitly flourish to a (role)player utopia again. This was real fallout, real post-apo. Going to a town with a no-laws but self-justice system, trade, try to rip off people, make friends, shoot thiefs and outlaws, search for hidden stashes or just hang out and wait, almost all 5 minutes something interesting happend. *sheds a tear*