A lack of motivation regarding RP

Argent Dawn
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Greetings fellow RP’ers!
I do hope this is the right place to post this, since it’s regarding the lack of motivation to RP since this expansion hit live and as the current story is progressing. I’d love to hear if anyone else is currently feeling this, and if so, how you deal with it, what are your thoughts about it? Apologies beforehand for the messy writing, I’m honestly not the best at articulating my thoughts and keeping it consistent. But I’ll try my best! I’ll post a TLDR at the bottom.

This hit somewhere during Legion for me, as much as I enjoyed that expansion. I loved to write stories, develop and progress my characters, and interact with other players. I can’t exactly pin point WHERE it happened, but it gradually just did after more and more retcons happened within the lore. I’ve always loved WoW and its story, even if it wasn’t the best nor the most brilliantly written thing out there. I still loved it’s core elements, the fantasy and many of the simple concepts it had. It was neat, it was fun, and it was rather easy to keep up with.
More retcons happened, and WoW moved onto a more cosmic-type of storytelling, and it felt meaningless to interact and even keep up with the current lore at the time. Still, RP’ing was an activity I enjoyed, and I found that many other players felt the same thing as me. I still kept up with the story because I still wanted to see what happened next. Maybe it would get better? Maybe there were things that had yet to be revealed that would pull it all together?
Well… I don’t want to say no just yet, but it certainly doesn’t feel that way at the moment. When Shadowlands was announced, I was interested in which direction they were going to go with the story. Since they had been focusing on the cosmic aspects, I thought they’d expand more upon it, since the Chronicles were only written from the view of the Titans.
Well, fast forward to the ‘‘Grimoire of the Shadowlands and Beyond’’, written by the perspective of a Broker (as far as I know, please correct me on that if I’m wrong.) and I can’t really say I’m interested in the least. It feels pointless to interact or care about the current lore if they’re going to go with all of these “Written by the perspective of X, written by the perspective of Y” you know?
I read a comment regarding the Grimoire of the Shadowlands on the forums here, where Death and Life was the most important aspects in that book, versus Light and Void being the most important in the Chronicles and if Blizzard were to retcon that the Shadow and Light were the main forces of the universe that made it all. It wouldn’t come as a surprise if that were to happen, I just think it’s a shame if they decide to go that direction. Technically it wouldn’t be a retcon I guess, since they established that the Chronicles were written by the titans and their viewpoint on things, but still.

I personally feels like it just pointless to keep up with the current lore if they’re going to retcon everything, when WoW already had a pretty decent foundation way back in the day. It was simple, yes, but it worked. I don’t even want to get into how the current writers are handling the characters, dear lord.
Something as simple as light magic being good and shadow magic being bad just felt way better than the nuanced storytelling they’re trying to go for regarding the cosmic forces and how it affects the characters and already established lore. Things just feel meaningless and dull. I’m not excited nor really interested in the slightest about the future of WoW and its story after the Sylvanas cinematic in 9.1, as that was the straw that broke the camels back for me. It feels like another loose end that won’t be tied up, at least not in a way that is actually satisfying.

TLDR; Keeping up with the current lore feels meaningless, and I’m losing motivation to RP and interact with or even care about the world of Azeroth like I used to when so many retcons have happened. The current writing just feels way off regarding the characters and the entire world of Warcraft.

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I quit. The narrative shift and the storytelling done in WoW as is are really far removed from what I enjoyed in the setting, and while that doesn’t necessarily dictate what you RP, it really, really did a number on my enjoyment of the game and setting and subsequently made me largely uninterested in doing much to do with anything related to the setting anymore.

Desperately trying to make something I really did not enjoy ‘work’ for me wasn’t particularly good for me and generally felt like a lot of time invested into it all while the actual feeling of really not liking the setting or game anymore wouldn’t go away, so that’s the step I took - others are still making it work, obviously!

I mostly just post here because it’s a very quick and easy thing to do/type out while waiting for a game to load etc

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It’s easy to ignore because they’re all off in the Shadowlands, and we have Azeroth to ourselves for a few years. That’s cool for me

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Yeppers

I quit WoW

pretty much because of this
the writers have lost interest in the actual world and the races in it and with that it’s very hard for me to be invested at all in the story.

accurate
All the Shadowlands lore will be instantly irrelevant after 10.0 hits, you’ll only have to pay attention to what happens with the living (and undead) azerothians in the Shadowlands to know the important bits.

:handshake:

I guess all the useless cosmic lore is epic for the like 2 people on this game that RP ethereals (i don’t count gimmick characters that never appear again after 1 week of RP)

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I quit and went to play other mmo’s that actually give a flying ***** about there lore making any sense.

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I agree 100%. I let my sub expire this month. Now I just do BGs on a trial character.

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As Tehya mentioned, for roleplaying, the cosmic origin lore doesn’t really mean anything unless you’re playing as a weird spacefaring race or 500IQ 7th dimensional know-it-all, so that doesn’t really matter in that regard.

A far harder pill to swallow is the butchering of factions and characters we’re familiar with. Aside from a lot of personal head-canon to help put a band-aid on things, play with people who care as deeply about the lore as you do and create your own traditional Warcraft storylines. Rich faction squabbles, dragons, monsters, and all the fun stuff we started playing for in the first place.

For me it’s that and a whole lot of clinging to hope for the future. If both fail, well…

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As roleplayers, one of the best things we can do is create our own stories. You don’t like where the expansion / game’s central narrative is going? Avoid it; the Mawsworn may be Azeroth’s greatest current threat, but that doesn’t mean they’re the only threat.

The setting is extremely broad, and there’s so much potential for things to engage with in roleplay that don’t have to have anything to do with Sylvanas and Zovaal and all the rest beyond the Veil.

Granted, this may be a lot easier for me, as someone who likes Shadowlands.

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I think there’s a lot of negativity here and tbh I don’t think “just quit lol ;p” is very constructive so:

When the writing is :poop:, ignore it and write better. Seriously, like, nobody can take your sub time away from you for going back and taking inspiration from a time when WoW’s writing was good. Nobody can ban you for ignoring all the Shadowlands shenanigans. It’s your sub time and you can do what you want with it.

some anecdotal wall of text if you rly want to read more

I’ve been struggling with motivation when it comes to RP for at least 18 months now. Sure, the pandemic has sapped a lot of my energy and drive to do things, but the state of WoW’s current lore doesn’t help.

Recently I’ve brought my guild back to do one of the longest DM campaigns I’ve ever planned and I’m loving every moment of it (and I hope my guys are too lol). The campaign is in Outland, so it’s given me the chance to get far, far away from Azeroth and indulge in old TBC lore. I’ve gone back and done old quests, reading the quest text for the first time, enjoyed the very mysterious /vague setting of a demon-infested world and tried to bring that into my RP.

It’s really helped me to get back into RP and just to get that motivation that I once had, prompting me to reach out to all sorts of other guild masters I’ve known over the years to set up future storylines and get the ball rolling with the RP that WE want to do, followign the stories that WE want to follow, and not whatever it is that Danuser has thrown at us.

sorry for the rambling wall of text

TLDR - if you still want to pay your subscription fee to roleplay in the warcraft setting, pay it and play it.

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

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oh i agree, there’s nothing constructive about it. But it is the truthful answer to the question OP posed.

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As far as I’m concerned, Shadowlands lore doesn’t concern our RP on Azeroth. As far as I’m concerned, it’s just elaborate fanfiction, which it basically is. And as long as the official writers stick to their cosmic realms, we RPers have Azeroth to ourselves, like Altsino said.

That said, it’s demoralizing. I’m not going to renew my sub after it expires. I wouldn’t have renewed it last time either, but there are some RP loose ends I wanted to bring to a close first.

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I’ll echo what others have said, and focus on stories you want to make. Your character doesn’t have to be engaged in Sylvanas’s schemes or cosmic lore. As someone who’s not having that much of an issue with Shadowlands, the biggest extent I’m involving it in my own RP is currently trying to save a soul from the Maw (without understanding why souls are going to the Maw. Just knows it’s happening and decides to save someone they care about) and then resolving to save lost souls on Azeroth’s side as well.

It creates a lot of opportunities for traveling around, meeting new people and engaging in different kinds of storylines as the character travels around the world in search of lost souls to lay to rest. It’s a very down to earth approach, but still one that ultimately spawned from the Shadowlands (i.e. knowing that the Maw is out there) without involving any of Sylvanas’s anime filler episodes or the cosmic lore in the Grimoire.

9/10 of the stuff is not relevant to your RP if you don’t want it to be. Do what makes you happy; the world doesn’t stop existing just because the current spotlight is on Shadowlands.

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Some have said that what happens in the Shadowlands doesn’t really matter since we still have Azeroth to ourselves. That is true, yes, but there also isn’t all THAT much to do. You can’t fight the enemy faction since we’re all at peace. There’s small regional threats but most of the characters I see are too powerful for them, so I can’t have a months long campaign of beating some gang of brigands. We can fight the scourge, but no one IC seems to really acknowledge it (which I understand). Then there’s the thing that apparently the portal to the Shadowlands is canon and anyone can go in, which means I can’t pretend it doesn’t exist for long.

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Not openly. :male_detective:

This isn’t actually true, there was a Q+A by Bellular and Danuser. And the big D said that not really anyone can get there and what is there for game mechanics isn’t necessarily there for lore. So really, Tom, Dan and Harry the potters turned wannabe heroes aren’t going to the Shadowlands.

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tell that to calia, taelia and ol’ emma LOL

i’m afraid danuser simply slipped some fibs in on that one and instead anyone who feels like it for whatever reason can go hang in oribos

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To be fair, I think we can very easily ignore that - even if it is frustratingly inconsistent to consider. Just because ol’ Emma managed to get in, anyone roleplaying in the setting can simply have either no reason to go there, or lack the means to. They could even just believe they wouldn’t be granted entry, and as such not attempt it.

On some of the other posts above, I do think suggesting that someone who doesn’t think their RP is compatible with the current expansion should just quit is constructive. At the very least, it’s a more constructive approach than staying and grumbling if they’re not having fun anymore.

If it’s really impossible to find enough enjoyment from the game to justify your sub fee, then yeah, absolutely the most constructive thing is to step back and channel those creative energies elsewhere, on something more entertaining / worthwhile.

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oh sure, super easily. yet, it lingers at the edge of every single discussion about the shadowlands, a dread-fact lurking in the shadows, waiting to be pointed out.

And yeah, while ‘i quit’ isn’t really super constructive feedback it is however still just real feedback. People don’t enjoy X, they quit X.

It should be no surprise that it’s an answer that crops up on a thread related to how one deals with the game’s… interesting state of affairs.

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Which is what I’ve done, taking a stint away from roleplay and the game to chase up other things while my interest in the setting has dipped.

There’s a lot you can do to carry yourself like Ortellus said, it’s just a shame that Blizzard has zero interest (currently) in giving us a whiff of anything that’s happening on Azeroth.

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From my experience, there’s generally two types of people on AD who commit to the game despite disliking its current narrative and setting.

There’s the people who stay because they’ve got a well-established community, people they can continue to RP with safe in the knowledge that they’re of similar minds – they may not be happy with the game, but RP is enough of a pull to justify their sub.

But then I also feel like there’s a not insubstantial number of people who are still around because of some sunk cost fallacy; WoW is all they’ve known in terms of roleplay and long-term gaming, so they can’t let go, and hope that the fun times will come back if they just keep struggling through it.

If someone is the former, the advice about how to continue engaging and having fun is probably the right way to go. For the latter? Yeah, probably best to disengage and get some distance from the hobby.

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this is pretty much why it took me give or take a year and change to quit Guild Wars 2 after I’d long-since started outright disliking the game. It’s hard to just ditch something that has a ton of time invested and memories made, but it was definitely the right thing to do.