Hello there!
First of all, I would like to preface this post by saying that I am no sort of trained professional when it comes to dealing with people or breaking down their thoughts and such, however I wanted to write down here some observations during the years. I am also not a saint, so in the past I too have fed some of these topics that I see as problems now in our larger community.
The OOC Among Us
I think for a lot of RPers on Argent Dawn, people who are strictly OOC are just folks who have rolled on the server to play the game, but unfortunantly griefers and lollers are still a thing that happens often on the realm. We have ways of dealing with griefers right now, that being the /ignore and report functions, while not perfect they are the best we have at hand now. Additional moderation from Blizzard would be a great thing to see, even if only on the Forums to start with.
But most of you who are reading this already knew all of that, so what was the point of me bringing it all up?
âUs VS Themâ
In the recent year or two, several of ADâs communities seem to have taken to basically labelling every OOC player on the Realm as a griefer or a threat to the stability of the Realm. In doing so for many it has created the sort of athmosphere where you are basically either part of Team RPers or Team OOCers. Some have used this as a chance to basically demonize these people, to make them feel like the âOtherâ in the Realm, going on about how these people âSee us as zoo animalsâ and âWe are not objects to be looked at for your entertaimentâ. In my opinion, this sort of self-victimizing mentality over the issue of âOOCersâ does more harm than good, especially when at times the people pushing this sort of thing have themselves experienced such labelling IRL in society, be it school, etc.
Escapism
Many of us are extremely passionate about our characters, their stories and the RP we create and partake in, but at the end of the day everything that happens on this Realm should still be a hobby, nothing less, nothing more. When you have communities where people basically shape their personalities around fitting in, especially if the person has never really felt like they have ever been able to be part of a group of people who like the same things as they do, it can become a extremely slippery slope to escapism and tribalism. Veteran players of AD have seen it happen over and over again, from Horde to Alliance Guilds and communities. People overlook things done by others OOC in order to keep that community afloat, because if it crumbles, some are left with nothing.
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I am writing all of this in hopes of bringing up discussion about these topics. I am not simply looking to dunk on any individual people with the points I have brought up either. Iâd hope that people would discuss these things in a civil manner, but the Forums generally donât stay that way about a post for long.
