Sounds good, until people then start claiming you’re some insular little cult with aims to ‘monopolise’ and ‘control’ the roleplaying realm of Argent Dawn.
Honestly, be cringe. There’s always gonna be someone more puritanical about RP that’ll critique something about your character, concept, or execution of said character or concept.
Bad RP will always be there - regardless of where you draw the line of “bad” - so, like, just be someone’s definition of bad and let said someone cringe at you. Unless you’re putting the whole of AD against you with heinous, vile nonsense, it’s probably fine.
And yeah, okay, barkeeper DHs suck and don’t really make much logical sense, but it’s easy enough to avoid those concepts. In fact it’s been a good few years since I saw one, honestly.
You’re very brave for that one Obahar
I’m a gay vegetarian furry. Of course I’m an advocate for being cringe.
Nothing like the topic of the legitimacy of others’ pastime to rile up the jaded bro brigade with their incel-esque inside lingo.
Curate, don’t dictate.
Call me Medivh the way I prophesised this.
I have a feeling we’ll be making the headlines of a certain blog, boys.
Smile and wave at the cameras.
Probably for the best. There is no need to lower the quality of the thread by giving too much attention to useless posts no one believes anyway.
Edit.
To return on topic, I think you (and Shog) raised a valid point. I see a lot of complaints and very little direction. Like, I suppose for most people, having individuals trying to harass or constantly belittle and demean “bad RPers” sounds like a cure worse than the [presumed] disease.
So, assuming one practices gatekeeping, or just one wishes to curate one’s experience, how would you go about it?
Roleplay itself is broadly considered cringe by people outside of the hobby space (and inside too let’s be real), the game was rigged from the start…
Yeah and that point was already rebutted by Elfculler and others, but I guess those takes aren’t worth much because those posters promote bullying campaigns against bad roleplayers or something.
like clockwork. So, what exactly makes you say that we’re advocating for harassing those ‘bad roleplayers’? Because the way I see it, all you have so far are hunches/assumptions and
It wasn’t you or Elfculler that I had in mind when I spoke of harassment: there is literally a dude going “bullying worked” as a gatekeeping tool? Sure sure, plausible deniability and it is ironic until it’s not if you ask them, but don’t go “huh I don’t see it” when it is being advocated for in this very thread.
Now, that said. It’s hard to deny that some of your posts come across as condescending and, now and then, a bit snide or belittling. Feel free to agree or disagree on this matter, I am not invested in defending that part of the sentence: either I am reading the room wrong, and I deserved to be called out on that, or I did not read the room wrong, and it was a fair call to make.
It is completely legitimate for the two of you to complain. I partially see where you come from, it is also legitimate of others to actually wish for things to have a direction rather than see people complain about “good days” such as when Elfculler spoke for four hours to someone to convince them about how speaking in cat form is feasible RP.
Like, yeah, maybe a better approach exists out there?
The only reply is a cauldron of nothingness in which the two of you are patting each other on the back for not engaging with the question. And it is written in such a low effort, that you can’t complain if others will then ask you to make a bit more effort to elaborate what that meant.
I mean, given even the official CMs/Mods won’t do anything about anything blatant, like Goldshire, Lion’s Rest/The SW Docks then… yeah?
What are people supposed to do, honestly?
There’s always gonna be some element of this though I feel, regardless of who the individual blacklisting is, or who’s being blacklisted - nobody’s gonna accept everything, or get along with everyone. I think some element of gatekeeping is always going to happen but I think where I’m personally at is that unless the people are doing really genuinely awful things in-game, then it’s kinda live and let live.
Everything anyone can do is going to be cringe to somebody - for example, I tend to play my worgen and dracthyr in their monster forms by default, almost permenantly shifted to them which I know someone here isn’t keen on (Can’t remember who but it’s not really important - they’re allowed to think it’s cringe, and I’m gonna keep doing it regardless), so even if there are silly concepts and whacky headcanons out there that I don’t vibe with, I’m not gonna come for them for the most part.
Let they who are without cringe cast the first stone, is what I’m thinking.
Sidenote but is it that bad? It’s been a few weeks since I RPed there, maybe a couple of months, but I didn’t see anything in Stormwind’s Park that was even close to the docks or Goldshire.
Personally, I go about it by having my own little slice of community. I invite people I think might fit, and I have some close, like-minded friends helping moderate and encourage stories as they develop and happen. I put out clearly upon entry what the group is about, and what it’s not about.
Sometimes people don’t fit the vibe of the storytelling or the RP or the concept, and that’s fine, they simply get removed so they’re free to pursue others elsewhere and find their own fun.
In regards to interacting with public RP’ers that have no investment in the group, there are certain concepts we only keep “inside” the circle, because they’re a little out there and have the air of “you had to be there” in order to have fun interacting with it. I also keep a bit more scrutiny in interacting with randos to ensure no drama or unnecessary offense happens. I would call it common courtesy but the rarity of it feels purple at this rate.
What members do or RP outside of the group doesn’t really concern me. They can spend their time as they like, I can only hope that the space I make is good enough to have that time be spent in the group. Of course, if they turn out to be toxic in other circles and make issues for other players… That’s not the group vibe, so either they cut it out or they’re “freed” from participation.
As far as public RP goes, if someone plays a concept we don’t like or doesn’t match the group vibe, there’s nothing we can do to stop them. Depending on what would allow us to move on in RP the fastest, we either ignore them, or interact briefly, but cordially.
While I get that sometimes guilds don’t want to invite strangers who show up to join their event, I find it more of a shame than something to be angry or upset about. A sudden arrival of unknowns to an event is an amazing way to get to know people, and to really spice up an evening.
I remember an event back in WoD, where I GM’d an attack on a settlement while a hunter named Ohlin and another friend just waltzed inside. I quickly threw them a debrief on what was going on, and this pair who had just been walking around chatting, suddenly became a surprise attack from the rear that threw the entire enemy plan into disarray. It took a little bit of fiddling, but it allowed these complete strangers to become BIG DAMN HEROES.
There was an event in Vashj’ir with Lionheart, and we were floating to the surface to escape from what seemed like imminent death. We were just going to be picked up by some boats and have RP there, but I noticed that there was an Alliance sailor guild actively using said boat. I wont lie, I asked the sailors where they were IC, and it was close enough to where we were, that I asked(read: pushed) the Lionheart GM to please contact them and have them pick us up, because it was practically tailor made for a good time.
So IC we reached the surface and yelled for help, screaming about how we were fleeing the Naga.
Said sailors immediately leapt at the opportunity, dropping their original planned RP , and had their entire crew go “MAN OVERBOARD!”, ringing alarm bells and preparing for a potential naga attack, while preparing warm blankets and soup, and stopping so they could fish us out of the water, providing medical care and saving us.
More recently, with the Boulderhelm Brigade, our guild was wounded and our healers were down, so we were stuck in the dwarf bunker in Hillsbrad. We sent riders to Stromgarde, and yelled that we needed healers. Some complete randoms leapt to the occasion and left an ongoing horse race event, and raced towards our wounded. We made some pretty good IC friends there.
It really does depend on the story being told – sometimes a narrative doesn’t have space or time to involve complete strangers, especially if it’s a plot heavy event/campaign. Like most things, there’s a time and place for unexpected inclusions of other characters and it can be very cool, but it wouldn’t always be immersive for those already involved.
Fun fact: the official WoW Youtube channel actually put out a video advertising MG and AD Goldshire as “romantic hotspots for valentines day”.
Yeah I just don’t like the people in the thread trying to play the Moralist game about it. Every single person here is a gatekeeper by the sheer fact we are all Humans with our own desires and whims and tastes. You may not like being called one, but we all are one ultimately. As I said earlier there is absolutely nothing bad or insidious about gatekeeping provided it is done with some manners and decency. Everything on God’s Green Earth is, in some fashion, “gatekept”.
Case by case basis.
I think a good answer might not be the one people want to hear. It’s likely that the ‘good’ RP people speak of it’s not going to be made within public hubs.
Elfculler [and Jeyce ?] both stated they RP in close groups and that may actually be a starting point.
Perhaps a solid approach would be to indeed treat role-play as a series of groups trying to find common ground, rather than have expectations that come from above when indeed: they don’t.
If we see role-play as something you build through effort, rather than something you take for granted [with rules you have made up for others], maybe we can make some of these groups meet, get larger, and as they show their role-play around the server, through channels, forums and whatnot, it will get more attention from other groups, and more opportunities will arise, and so on.
Etiquette and rules are bound to be there regardless, most people are likely going to look for ways to stay true to the World of Warcraft through different degrees, but I expect a higher degree of tolerance will be there, because people don’t pretend anymore that “Blizzard said elves get old at 75 years old” and if they do, most will keep the thought to themselves. It seems a high-effort, but highly respectful way to approach role-play as a hobby that requires the coming together of multiple sides.
Sometimes this kind of stuff goes a long way: just like how someone took the Moonglade Festival and copied it (uncool) to spread the role-play and the vibe (cool): there is value in role-playing by example, and advertising your group’s adventures.
A friendly reminded of a bit of lore or some spelling corrections is not an inherently bad thing, nor should it be gatekeeping. I think we should be supportive to each other in RP and correct one another, so long the language used is friendly and reasonable.
When roleplaying is a communal activity, then it should be a good thing that players try and help each other by try and stick to the lore. But only if its -actually- the lore, and the tone used remains friendly.
Just don’t insult, get rude, or threaten to not RP with someone if the mistake they made is a small one, ye know?