There have been a few occasions during this week where some players, especially some lads of the Stormwind Guard, power-emoted and spammed their way into and through encounters, disrupting the actually fun and properly played encounter some people had. Making them aware of it only worsened their attitude and responses. Although in general most RPers and the experiences I had are very decent, the moments mentioned above really stick out like a sore thumb to me.
How do you handle these kind of situations yourself?
17 years ago I would sit down with them in whispers and have a small powwow where I presented my viewpoint, they presented theirs, and we discussed the merits and drawbacks of how we both conducted ourselves and how we can improve. Weâd either agree to disagree or reach a mutually beneficial conclusion where all parties would be happy to carry on with their roleplay ideas and goals without stepping on each othersâ toes.
Nowadays I donât have the time or mental fortitude after my normie 9-5 job to get into 6-hour long circular arguments with the Stormwind locals, who have devolved from being open or relatively receptive to other ideas to being extremely protective of their character concepts and RP scenarios (with the infinitely revolving argument points of âYou donât pay my subâ, âI donât care, the other 35 morons in my Guild/Discord/Circle of Stormwind Friends do the same so itâs fineâ, âThatâs gatekeeping, youâre a fascistâ, âWoW lore is so convoluted and bad, why would I care about itâ, âRoleplay etiquette is an elitist social constructâ and other heavy hitters) to the point that I usually decide after the first 1-2 responses that itâs better we donât interact IC or OOC ever again.
I grew to understand that my standards and expectations of roleplay are absolutely just as subjective as theirs and entirely futile to argue for or against them. If their idea of fun is to be a gaggle of slice of life, growth pot addicted circus clowns screaming about In-Character racism being a federal crime (because my Lightforged Draenei character dared tell an Eredar Imp Mistress to not be present near the former High Kingâs memorial on account of being a genocidal demon) then no amount of encyclopaedical Warcraft Wiki knowledge, common sense and logical arguments will deter them. I have much better things to do than to carefully educate and prod players like that.
Thatâs such a healthy way to look at it â not only during RP in WoW, but in regards to other disruptive people IRL as well. Good for you! I hope I can internalize this perspective a bit to make these moments not as wearing for me in the future. Thanks for sharing!
The first time I was starting to reach this same conclusion was when myself and our guild were interacting with a gaggle of criminal roleplayers who just threw themselves our way (people by the by who act the same, think the same and more or less have the same characters and guilds just under different names, if that, for the past ten or so years) and one of our druid characters dared to speak in his animal form. My gosh, that was just bad roleplay! We had to cease this behaviour! Animal organs arenât build in a way to facilitate speech, this is just pure science!!
insert a benny hill montage of us trying to explain the concept of âmagicâ for a few hours to this absolute numbskull
Over the years Iâve had many other situations like that (on top of some good and pleasant roleplay before anyone hits me with the âyouâre always so negative, hitler-jeyceâ non-argument) so yes, I reached the conclusion that some people are simply beyond repair and no amount of good-will, effort, civility and good arguments is going to change their minds.
Of course youâll hear arguments from your average forumite talking head about how âthis is just what stormwind looks likeâ (itâs not just stormwind) or how you need to go out of hubs more and attend events/campaigns (most of those people attend those events or campaigns) and thatâs what saddens me, really. The bad roleplayer (daring to call them that, I know) is much larger in number now, definitely eclipsing people who are actually interested in ROLEPLAYING A ROLE and being immersive vs all those things Elfculler wrote about and thatâs going to be the first and main point of reference for a lot of newcoming roleplayers, few as they are in number nowadays anyway. It sucks that theyâre probably going to learn from terrible examples (because they donât know any better) and before you know theyâre going to join the âitâs joeverâ pile.
You may disagree with this of course, but ask yourself the question of how we got in this situation in the first place. Or well, if you think everythingâs fine and roleplay is better than it ever was and weâre just a bunch of naysaying boomers who canât shut up about âthe good old daysâ then the only thing I can say to that is, lmao clown emoji.
Iâve been getting that impression, too. Itâs strange. Places like Duskwood and Stormwind I already didnât exactly consider beacons of fantastic RP but when I do stick my head in, their current state almost makes me nostalgic for the mess I initially saw when I got here circa BfA, and I donât see this downward trend shifting any time soon.
I move on with my life. If it seemed malicious and/or disrespectful to any kind of courtesy towards others and was done multiple times, I make an endeavour not to interact with them, and leave it at that. No need to overblow it or make some statement about it.
âYou donât pay my subscription!â is a statement that cuts both ways, after all.
I think it comes down to the fact that more roleplayers are coming to World of Warcraft, and many of them are new to the setting, or just new to roleplay altogether. There is nothing wrong with this, and we all have been there. The thing is that many people who are new get recruited by people with no courtesy whatsoever, and they are taught that thatâs just the way Argent Dawn works.
I think that there should be a distinction made between people who are wilfully being uncaring of anyone around them, or worse, taking joy out of upsetting fellow roleplayers for the heck of it; and players who are just⊠new.
This is particularly hard, because often times, the latter will be in groups led by the former, where the former will tell the latter how theyâve ought to act, roleplay, and take the setting as - and when told that it is not that way by anyone just trying to help, they are told that they are being insulted for just being a new player; and sometimes, it does kind of come off like that from some people, so, itâs all a bit tricky.
As I said in the first part of this post, the best course of action is to just not engage. Nine out of ten times, the people who didnât know better will eventually know better, and the people who were doing it because they enjoy treating others like a demonology warlock treats his imps will eventually disappear, and fade away.
Honestly I think the the way thatâs worked for me is to adopt a diplomatic manner even if it goes against your OC and disengage as quickly as possible if the RP is upsetting/bothersome. The reason for it is cause if your OC is for example is abrasive and you act as they would, you risk the whole thing dragging out longer.
Thank yâall for your perspectives and the context youâre giving regarding the server and how the RP landscape seems to have changed.
While I see disengaging (and then afterwards âmoving onâ) as the best option I do struggle with the perceived âpowerâ these âbad actorsâ (for a lack of a better term) seem to have over people that want to play properly or maybe already are in a RP situation. In one of the examples that prompted me to create this thread I was already in a nearly hour-long RP encounter with a few others, and we had lots of fun, but then these âbad actorsâ showed up disrupting the whole thing. I, for myself, do struggle to just disengage or abandon the RP encounter in a situation like this because I actually do want to play properly and grant the others I was playing with a fulfilling, fun experience. Hastily disengaging just feels wrong for me. But maybe thatâs just my problem, then.
Abandon the roleplay? I did not say to abandon the roleplay. I said not to engage with them. You can roleplay just fine without acknowledging them, if itâs something akin to TRP scanning you and magically bringing down the might of Stormwindâs military-complex on your character without any kind of rhyme or reason.
What are they going to do? Glue your hands to the keyboard to type back at them? Just keep roleplaying, but not with them. Arguing with them is clearly useless, and breaking off roleplay because of them would defeat the whole purpose, so, just move on in the sense of not acknowledging them. If itâs stirred you enough to make a thread about it, surely just not writing with them isnât all that much of an effort?
It feels like a cowardâs way out, but the alternative 9/10 times will be these bad actors dragging you down to their level when you try and engage them OOC.
Youâre the one who will have a headache eventually when a guildâs worth of troglodyte guards are adamant about their stance, actions and the validity of their lawbook while you argue to the contrary, strictly because they are validated by others while youâre painted as the contrarian or bad actor.
That doesnât mean they can displace you or tell you to take a hike though.
I second what others have said, it shouldnât have to disengaging, but as others also have said, most of these people are difficult to reason with, IC or OOC.
Youâve chosen the hard way, but I admire you for it. Itâs just sad things like that have to happen in the first place. I say this a lot in my forum responses, but as the server is rather large, itâd be nicer if people were mindful of not everyone doing things as they do and were more open to meaningful communication.
RP is a hobby I do for fun. If I am not having fun I will try to politely but firmly exit the situation and go do something else. I am too old to be getting into big arguments about pretending to be an elf on the internet.
Honestly I think people are often way too slow to break out of character when something is upsetting them, making them uncomfortable, or just plain not a fun way to spend their time.
If someone is doing something that youâre not enjoying engaging with, just tell them. Whisper them or if itâs a whole group, hit them with a little â-OOC, Iâm not having fun with thisâ in /e. If theyâre open to changing or disengaging, good on them, if theyâre not⊠Just leave and donât RP with them. Filter your spaces and circles. The only real way to punish âbadâ, unfulfilling, or un-fun RP is by not taking part in it and actively removing yourself from it.
And unfortunately youâll be fighting a loserâs battle and you are free to join the ranks of those poor souls whose numbers are diminishing because realistically, thereâs no better alternative. As implied by myself or other posters, trying to resist or (God forbid) reason (or maybe even try to educate) is futile since youâre not going to change the minds of those bad actors, especially when they feel their opinions and their actions are just because they are backed by a league of yesmen who belong to the same group/guild/discord/clique/you-name-it.
Attempts to control RP on the server have never truly died, but the good thing is that these people still donât have the superpower that would allow you to be mindcontrolled and play along to whatever garbage spiel theyâre trying to offer. Of course it sucks that your roleplay gets hijacked when you put effort into being immersive and trying to be a part of creating a fun atmosphere, weâve all been there.
But your efforts are better spent trying to do it another time, another place, preferably away from all the bads. Unfortunately the warâs been lost and weâre part of a resistance now, all thatâs left is to do these guerilla roleplay sessions.
