Over the past eight or so years that I’ve been rping here on AD I’ve noticed a serious decline in the… Interest(?) I see from other people when it comes to general conversation.
Most of my time is spent on Alliance, and I haven’t noticed this so much on Horde, but I’m not saying it’s not there.
I’ve heard this from a lot of the people I know too, that when talking to people they only seem to talk about themselves and rarely stop to return that ‘how are you?’ that keeps the conversation flowing.
Speaking from personal experience I’ve been in one too many conversations that go; ‘hi how are you?’ ‘Fine thanks’ Insert tumbleweed here
It gets pretty tiresome, I won’t lie, and I’m sure I’m gonna catch a lot of flak for this but it’s how I’m feeling right now and I’ve noticed it for a long while.
I think what I’m doing with this post is asking you guys if you’ve experienced this, or if you know any ways to combat this and overcome this.
I can’t match my own experience to it, as whenever I have the proper time to stroll trough the city and get invovled in some casual RP i’ve had both situations happen equally in numbers.
Not much to do on that part, what I do personally is when I notice someone isn’t returning the effort for interaction, I break it off.
Of course holding in account something might occur OOC, but mostly they had notified me if that was the case
In case I can drop it here, to all these that I’ve interacted with randomly and returned the effort, you guys are the pillars <3! Kuddos and hats off.
I agree with Karyin above to the precise point. I find the players I meet on AD pretty good at keeping up a conversation.
Sure the odd exception is there like the random loller dropping a snarky/salty remark and then running off afraid of getting a response. But that’s kind of rare.
A bit more often I encounter the player mentioned in the OP, the one who seem to lack fantasy. I have found they are often just insecure/new and given a bit of patience over a few days they develop quite good conversational skills.
I’m a bit jaded, but I think it’s symptomatic of the reasons a lot of people roleplay. It’s why I’ve slowly weaned myself off casual/random RP over the past couple of years. It does seem (especially in hubs and in certain niches of roleplay) that the majority come to WoW to project how cool they are. They see interaction as a form of validation, not as the entire point of the hobby.
It’s a shame, but there’s no real way to ‘fix’ or ‘combat’ it. It’s just the way some people are.
Sometimes, conversations need to start from a source. Small talk can be difficult to do because… well… as small talk usually is: unimportant or uncontroversial matters. Sure, you could ask ‘how things are’, but unless you have an idea of what your character has done during the day, you are left pretty much with very little to actually work with.
This is the problem with most role-players you see in city hubs. The ‘statues’ who stand at the sidewalks, staring off into space. They don’t really have much input to the story because usually, they way they built themselves up is that they are waiting for a story to occur for THEM to act on.
Usually one where they can be a ‘hero’ or show off how edgy their dark brooding character with a super serious background is.
This is why I adore playing more ‘NPC’ like characters from time to time. Town crier, chef vendor and many other ideas I am eager to explore. There are a lot more conversations you can have with a simple ‘NPC’ styled character than one of the many mercenary/lord/ladies that you see.
I think, at least of personal experience the most times my conversation just out right have died is when both characters are stood idle starring into the void which often seems to be a habit connected to Stormwind.
Thats not to say it can’t happen anywhere; however my personal solution to void awkward pauses is to do idle small day-to-day chores and tasks, even going so far to ask for help with starting a campfire, recommendation for a drink at a bar, ect ect. Or some times just spout some random information for someone else to react to.
I do need to admit, that there are times where I need to statue as well, when I’m combining RP with other activities, yet not fully AFK.
But I do firmly believe there is a difference in this situation, then those who spent 7/7 just standing around.
Could be that they are merely observing, and they’re still a level above the roof top roleplayers.
I do a lot of lamp posting myself, partly because my character is a sentinel and have a personality that is generally very slow and partly because I image it a befitting trait of a extremely long lived race.
I’d recommend this guide to everyone here and to your friends, guildies and casual RP contacts! If you’re interacting with someone who struggles, and you think they’re humble enough to give it a go, please pass it on to them.
It’s a very well written handbook.
