I think I came to a conclusion at some point that Blizzard don’t take the setting anywhere near as seriously as we do, so to within reason just vibe with it.
Provided it’s nothing as egregious as the old classics like being the son of Illidan Stormrage and Tyrande Whisperwind.
Everyone has their own line in the sand of what they are willing to work with, but that line will shift. Mine has moved considerably from serious gatekeeper to being fairly open minded and at least giving people the benefit of the doubt and engaging with them before I make any judgement.
I had roleplayed for years in Ultima Online before coming to WoW, but had very little clue of WoW lore in the beginning. Thankfully many of my guildies had played the other Warcraft games and quickly corrected me!
I still remember installing all those discs and anticipated to play an elf mage. Only to realize in the character creation that elves could not mage!
Blizzard’s near-sighted attitude of adding things without expanding on them hurts a lot in the long run.
Adding wordless NPCs doesn’t really expand much lore beyond ‘this individual exists’. Giving draenei Eredar customisation was a mistake without expanding on how they should be treated.
Even adding two eredar in Stormwind who were going through extreme questioning, while paladins keep tight watch on them and threats of ready to kill them if they so much blink wrong, would help expand the lore.
We have a whole buffet of possibilities to expand lore and provide details, but we are forced to use toothpicks to get it.
Like you, I too to prefer concepts that feel more grounded in lore, than wild headcanon, when roleplaying in the open world or meeting new characters. And to moderate my own enjoyment, I try focus on the things I do enjoy rather than dwell on the things I don’t necessarily agree with, when it comes to what other people are up to that I have no control over. Depends on the context.
For example, I might downplay the presence of particular characters at an area or an event, rather than make a big scene out of it IC/OOC. Especially if it’d risk distracting people from, or disrupting, an ongoing event.
That said, if someone brought up the idea of starting a Necromancy Book Club in Bel’ameth, I could imagine chiming in that it’s maybe not the best idea to go for.
Acrona was my first WoW character concept Just glad I never did something so thoroughly damning with her that I would’ve given her up as a RP character of 20 years, even if much has been learned along the way
Imagine hitting the jackpot on the first spin. My third character was solid but went through some questionably edgy RP during Classic that I’ve since scrubbed from his official history.
All of my first characters were male night elves with varying degrees of edge. Really fun entering a new world with no understanding of what elves actually are in the Warcraft setting and just assuming a Legolas type will work fine.
But that’s pretty much exactly what we’re talking about. Have to learn to swim in a new setting somehow, and just reading lore in advance is never going to cut it.
My first character’s main sin wasn’t really any lore missteps it was being unbelievably melodramatic. Just a ball of tropes a 16 year old emo kid was into.
There’s a reason I went for the silly pudgy hobbits from then on.
I see discussion on Vulpera
I stick to my pirate and magic fella who’ll scavenge scrap metal from wreckage in Vol’dun after the war among other places he goes to.
Just to turn that scrap into barely functional small gadgets and contraptions.
This sounds like the most mature approach to have.
I don’t like being snide to people, but I also have my own preferences and prefer to cultivate a role-playing experience that reflects those.
They also seem to make friends they shouldn’t have in the blink of an eye.
Same with velves, DH and DKs. Most people shouldn’t be inviting or friendly with them IC, at least not immediately. But it seems despite being filled with reviled magics, they’re saints and the safest of people.
That’s because the people who do that see WoW RP as nothing but a social platform to hang out with their friends.
They don’t care that these classes / races are dark vile murderous fiends who should not be hanging around places like Stormwind.
Not sure if I should call it a problem, but it has been a thing for a long time and it will always remain a thing so long as people don’t give a hoot about the lore behind said races and classes and just want to hang out with their friends.
I know it is off topic, but my curiosity is tingling me, as I can’t ever imagine Acrona be anything but a mage. As I recall her being a very old character, was she ever temporarily another class? Or was she made when the class was added for Night Elves?
But yes, pointing out IC that a maligned elf should get away from a holy site should be logical and met with agreement. Not “they have rights you know!” or similar.
Hey! While the mage class was unavailable at the time, I still wanted to play an elf, and went for the druid class - Balance Druid in specific to sate my craving to play a magic wielder.
When I learned of the Highborne lore, I saw an opportunity to incorporate that into Acrona’s background story early on, long before Cataclysm. I hadn’t fleshed out her family background yet, so I didn’t even need to retcon her story on that regard.
The original druid Acrona was renamed to Winterflow when I created this character. In-between I also made a priest version to better capture Acrona’s In-Character journey from druidism toward the arcane, and I remember being close to reaching max level when the news came that we’d get mages for night elves.
Just glad I never did something so thoroughly damning with her that I would’ve given her up as a RP character of 20 years, even if much has been learned along the way