Really there’s only (typically) two or three reasons you get people doing emotes where they say “my character does this” and not giving a reason to respond and I think my response kinda lies on how I read the person.
First reason is that they’re new - we were all new at some point, we’ve all done something as a statement rather than as intent, or metagamed, or anything of that nature. In that case I just try and roll with it - a gentle correction, maybe emote that their attempt partially succeded and so on.
Second reason is that they just wanna win RP. The biggest, strongest, smartest, whatever-est character who always wins because the player wants them to always win. That’s the one I distance myself from.
And the third is just someone forgetting to put the “attempts to” or “tries to” in their sentence - I just roll with it, same as with the first.
I guess to TLDR it: bad and new are two different things, kinda, and deserve different responses.
Sorry to hijack your thread a bit, but I think it’s worth talking about expectations from roleplay too.
My solution for dealing with what I deem is “bad roleplay” during my limited time to play these days? Do what I used to hate. When I was young I thought people that RPed in closed off cliques were elitist and rude, but now that I’m older, and have seen the way the server has developed? It’s 100% understandable. I know it’s not exactly as exciting as walk-up roleplay, but the best way to deal with “bad rp” is to simply not get involved with it.
People have different interpretations of the lore, different expectations from roleplay, and public roleplay has changed so drastically between 2015 and the present day. If you don’t like someone’s RP, just walk away, it’s not worth getting into arguments over.
It’s the same with people that dislike a piece of lore. If you don’t like some lore, simply don’t get involved with it. There’s part of WoW lore post-WoD I despise, but instead of lamenting or making big bold statements in my OOC info, I just avoid it at all costs.
Bit off topic, but hope it’s at least relatable or insightful.
It’s not off topic at all, and you’re also not hijacking the thread – don’t worry. Thanks for sharing your perspective. I actually just stumbled into a group of people RPing the way I (and most of you guys commenting here, I assume) do and I think I’ll be keeping a bit to them for the foreseeable future.
The only thing I don’t like about this is when I’ve gotten /w on my druid characters in the past with people very smugly telling me ‘ermmm actually druids can speak, if you’ll look at these notes…’
YES. I respect that. I also respect the point that your druid, within your character’s own experience of nature magicks, may not be able to, or may choose not to speak in animal form(s).
For god-emoting/power-emoting: Commonly, if they go out of hand, I whisper them, and if it continues, then I would commonly make something (as Lochton) on the line of filing their name for further complaints to the Stormwind Command, and not to their guild/commander IC (Though, I do send my complaint to the guild leader as well if their people go out of hand). And if a whole guild becomes a problem, then ICly, my character would consider them a rogue group who operates out of their approval - or wishes hostile actions, and thus is a threat to the faction, thus letting me hide the issue behind, “Alliance guards will handle them soon, I hope”, following with ignoring their actions.
Okay I’m not actually that passionate about this anymore but a few years ago I remember this being everywhere, but to me at least - that’s always been a case of gameplay trumping story, or a quest designer not necessarily asking the question of “is this possible” before doing it.
Personally I think it’s more fun if a druid has to change forms in order to be able to speak, but I’m not gonna go after the folk that talk in their forms, it’s not that big of an issue compared to lore issues such as “would this character be permtited in this area (yes it’s another reference to man’ari being out in civillian zones)”
The lore situation is essentially “most druids can’t speak in animal forms, some can as exceptions”. It also doesn’t seem to be tied directly to their ability as a druid, since the novice Zenkiki can do so during his WPL quest.
Maybe you’re born with it.
Maybe it’s magic vocal chords.
Maybe it’s a case of retconned lore from Blizzard’s side. All druids that come to mind Legion onwards can speak in animal form. But I say that with some reservation.
Not quite. Elegy (the BfA short story) has the following excerpt:-
She felt cold, but strangely, the pain was lessening.
“Soon, it will not hurt at all,” came a warm, familiar voice. A loved voice.
Ferryn was beside her in his favorite shape—that of the nightsaber. For a moment, Delaryn rejoiced. But then she realized that he was speaking. He should not have been able to.
Feline mouths could not form words.
“You are . . . not real,” she murmured, disappointed.
“I am as real as you wish me to be.”
She was dying, and her mind was conjuring comforting images. She was oddly at peace with that thought. One thing she knew, though she did not understand how: Ferryn was dead. And she was at peace with that, too, for soon, she would be joining him.
So at least as of BfA they’re still on board with the idea that it seems to be a minority of druids that can speak - certainly not all of them, since Ferryn couldn’t.
It’s not even about punishing. As mentioned above some people have been rping the same dessicated rp concepts for 10-15 years without changing an iota. Literally groundhog day roleplayers. They aren’t interested in improving, they aren’t interested in constructive criticism, or pushing themselves out of their comfort zone and they are walking talking examples of the Dunning–Kruger effect in action.
That’s fine, if they keep themselves to their own circles. But they don’t. There seems to be an unwritten rule that the most inept RPers seek to (metaphorically) consume the most of the public commons.
How do you contend with such a problem? It’s really quite easy. Standards [cue dramatic and hyperbolic screaming]. You have a set standard about the boundaries of what kind of thing you’re wanting to roleplay, and in turn those that fall below it are excluded from your roleplay. It’s stunningly simple. Is it elitist? I don’t know, is literacy elitist, fellow redditors? Is being able to divide yourself the player from your character… elitist? Is playing to the setting and not using the setting as your sandbox elitist? I don’t know.
You mean the same one who continually plays Legitimate Business(wo)man™ COMPANY branded guilds, usually with some trite of ‘Syndicate’ in the name and these days goes about organizing market day events in Stromgarde and Gilneas - that the Horde of course can attend too because we’re all friends now guys
You also can’t enforce these standards on anyone but yourself and your closest circle… So, again, as I said, the only real way to deal with this is to not engage with it.
I’m simply open and honest about it. I don’t see much point in beating around the bush.
I’ll strive to be polite about it but I am a firm believer in putting my foot down in a way that ensures that I do not waste my free time or that of anybody else.
That doesn’t just apply to low quality role-play either. If I get the impression that someone is going to be emotionally manipulative and require me to tiptoe around them constantly to avoid the tiresome gossiping mean girl act then I also take the opportunity to bow out.
It’s very simple to me. If I don’t enjoy the rp ill just make my exit. Saves both my time and my sanity. And if it’s particularly bad or if the player OOC is really nasty, I’ll make sure to not interact again.
I just don’t engage with RP that doesn’t interest me. Which has become a shorter and shorter list as the years have wittled past. I honestly don’t know if I’ve gotten less tolerate or if RP has genuinely gotten worse.
I’m inclined, on balance, to think it’s a mix of both.
Honestly a well constructed emote doesn’t need ‘attempts’ or ‘tries’ in it, they’re just crutches for poor construction 90% of the time. Which I get, time is a constrant in writing an emote after all but yeah.
Kinda like me saying tbh tbh. How will I start this sentence? Tbh I don’t know.
This is a misconception on the declaration of intent.
When it’s with strangers, adding ‘attempts’ or ‘tries’ to the emote is a very good way to convey “I’m trying to do something* to your character, but I’m cool with it if I fail”.
* something
The something is often a negative action e.g. tries to slap your character, it can also be anything explicitly declared as an interruptible action, e.g. tries to reach the item before you do.
And while it’s not needed between friends, it’s exactly the same situation, you just handled the negotiations with them before the RP, therefore when you don’t add those words they already know you’re not trying to power-play them.
Establishing a contract of fairness among players isn’t a crutch, nor a writing problem.
