okay homophobic dracthyr very cool
Which troglodyte brain cells made the neural connection leading you to write something like that?
I’ll limit my response to this to one post (this was a lie) because it’s off-topic, but that seems to contradict some of the comments that you have made in the recent past.
What is gatekeeping, if not the purposeful exclusion of people from a hobby, for the sake of your personal experience of that hobby?
It was sarcasm. I’m a stalwart champion of ignore, mute functions and CSS workarounds of hiding ignored posts as well.
That’s fair, I’m awful at interpreting tone on the internet sometimes, even if it’s followed by a smiley face. Sorry for the gotcha.
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Well thank you all kindly for your responses. Will take these into account, thanks again.
Peace 
Hell hath no fury like a forum scorned
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But sir before you go I was actually interested in reading what your ideas where you didn’t really elaborate on the hows and what’s you was going to do. 
Vanilla was forgiving when it came to lore. It was normal for people to get things wrong, and things that wouldn’t be very normal now, were quite normal then (a night elf leading the Stormwind City Watch? Turned out he was corrupt, and then arrested in the Keep?) We all played along with it. And it was a lot of fun. I joined my very first guild not because I was looking for roleplay, but because they were hosting a meeting in one of the shops of the trade district, and they were talking about another guild being suspicious.
Those were the days when /s (( Your OOC message here )) was being combatted. You could see that a community was starting to form around several of the bigger guilds like SCW, the Shield of Light, the Stormguard, the Legitimate Business Club … many had alts in several of those guilds, but always one main in one of them. It seemed in no way exclusive, as in actively denying people to roleplay with them, though I do remember the feeling that I wasn’t a good enough roleplayer to join certain guilds. Chat channels allowed everyone to talk to each other, even though they weren’t in the same guild.
What’s the main difference with today? Just presence, I think. You couldn’t fly and sit on the roofs. Going AFK somewhere was risky because people could find you and think you were still in character. Endgame was either raiding or PvP, but it was hard to get into either if you were in a roleplaying guild, since “hardcore raiding” required being in a raiding guild. So roleplayers naturally evolved to be one big clique, namely, not raiders and PvPers, but another kind of group, and we had our own rules (unless you were Vulcanus, who had a railgun installed beneath the cathedral floor …).
I doubt the mind of roleplayers has changed much, it’s just much easier not to roleplay all the time, these days. I guess in that regard, you could create a community that has certain OOC rules guiding their roleplay:
Hardcore rules:
- No OOC, ever (there were one or two players who did this in vanilla, you couldn’t even whisper them, but they would go with the flow of roleplay. You could make this an optional rule, since it’s very demanding)
- No flying, ever.
- Always seek to interact, don’t just walk around hoping to find something interesting. Include random people in your silly adventure to buy a fishing pole.
- Start using the mailbox again!
- If you don’t know what to say, a “yes” can lead the way! Allow for roleplay to happen spontaneously, be forgiving of mistakes and accept that bending a bit of lore can deepen the roleplaying experience sometimes, even if you wouldn’t do it yourself.
- When you log in, always have something going on with your character. It can be something small like “My character lost his wallet in the Cathedral Square” or something big like “I’m going to try to gather people to smash up the Pig and Whistle”. Or it could be something like “I’m going to check out what X is doing about Y”, and you join their roleplay.
- Story is conflict. Don’t try to avoid it IC.
And whatever else you can come up with that might help.
The community should evolve naturally to group of people who’ll always find roleplay with everyone, but will still be able to fall back on the core of people who roleplay this way.
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Blairwaen here, I don’t know why the forums continues to change my forum character.
I don’t think I understand, struggled in what way? Stormwind has mostly only ever been a hub for random roleplay, or where adventuring guilds would go for a break or to grab fresh guild members. Most of the guilds that called Stormwind home (guard guilds for example) don’t last long because there’s no agreement on what or how to enforce the “law”
How have you come to this conclusion? From what I know, guilds generally don’t want to stick around Stormwind for long, and I know at least some of the guilds i’ve encountered from time to time DO have events with other guilds, but that’s extremely anecdotal.
It’s impossible to impose a standard because nobody will determin what that standard should be - yes, there should be a level of implicit respect for your fellow gamer but where do you draw the line? Is it respectful to be running around as a fringe concept in the middle of Stormwind for example?
Because these are an easy way to draw a crowd in without needing to worry too much abou tmaking a compelling narrative, and it’s also a relaxing style of roleplay, both of which are sensible considering for the first time in a long, long time, Azeroth isn’t under immediate danger of being exploded in some way. (Well, until TWW at least)
Of this, I have no doubt but I suspect the people who do enjoy this are already part of a guild roleplaying out these stories with like minded roleplayers, and the people who have made Stormwind their roleplay spot are probably not the sort who want to do it.
Perhaps I have not understood, is this thing aimed at the general roleplay community or at the people who hang around Stormwind? I just feel like the very concept you’re trying to create is just a guild but without actually forming a guild, so maybe i’m simply just not grasping what is being laid down.
The last “church guild” was imo, worse in my opinion, really, really bad. There was a lot of over-reach taking place with authority.
This has never existed with maybe the exception of The Watch (I think they were called that) who were the Monty Python of a guard guild, and did it very well.
We can all be thankful this isn’t a thing
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It’s not technically over since it’s an armistice, one that Turalyon himself says is incredibly fragile.
Definitely this. I think a lot of it stems from the fact that “usually” and now I will say “back in the day”, you had to conform to the community to be able to be part of it in a larger scale. Most of everything was connected in one way or another, for better or worse - in my experience, mostly for the worst.
Just rolling with the punches as they come is a big yes to even enjoying RP to begin with, I think! Which is also something I’ve seen change a lot in recent years, some people are definitely more interested in curating their experience entirely rather than just accepting what is going on - at times even forcing others to change.
My personal thoughts on the subject is that I don’t know if it is because of recent lore developments (or lack thereof) and I will never claim that “back in the day” was any better. I sure do remember the GoT days, just like today you see characters entirely based off of anime characters down to name, abilities and things they can do.
Sure, you still need to conform a bit to get a spot in guilds that function in a certain way (mine being one of them) but a lot of people simply divide themselves in to slots where their characters and their type of RP, no matter how alien, over the top or weird their concept or character is. (Looking at you 50 meter tall Dracthyrs.)
It used to be a bit more, I think, that you needed to conform to the wider community in order to be “part of it”. Not everyone did that of course and often than most it was forced on you. We were all much younger too, most of the “old timers” have grown up and we’ve found our people and our ways of doing things. We’ve got jobs, lives, families and responsibilities that really don’t allow us the same time as before.
I also think a lot about the drama that unfolded in the past, we’ve seen peoples’ lives ruined because of what they’ve done with RP. Bullied, ostracised and beaten down in to oblivion - thanks in part to how connected the community was, most people knew or knew of each other. This isn’t always a good thing.
It’s easy to remember the good bits, I can at times feel like AD is a bit dead but then I find a small little hub in the middle of nowhere or come across a travelling band of people and even if it’s just for a short time it’s all there again.
But people have definitely looked to become more self-sufficient in their RP, doing most things themselves or through close friends because of their history with other players and communities.
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Inspired by Alamindras reply, wouldn’t an initiative to inspire and improve roleplay do better as some kind of game or challenge rather than the typical cluster of allied guilds? A group for players looking to elevate their roleplay in itself rather than the contents of it. Tasks, achievements, dailies, inspired by gameplay challenge communities but adjusted for roleplay, like all those things Alamindra suggested and more. I think trying something fresh is gonna do better than trying what’s been tried before.
I guess so.
Maybe I am just lamenting that I feel that a lot of lore’s and the community’s potential cannot be used, because of the reasons mentioned in this thread.
I think this is another part to it as well.
We don’t have many “newer” and “younger” folk coming into RP trying to take up interest in it. You’ll get a few here or there but back then we was the new guys taking over from the old guard we was that generation so to speak.
It’s a case of we’ve grown up and naturally when we all used to be so closely knitted be it on Horde or Alliance. Nowadays we’re all too busy in our heads doing our own things with our group, friends, families etc.
That’s why it’s became more of a when you find RP you cling to it for as much as you can before it suddenly poofs again and you’re back to finding it.
I do think this harkens back to the old days is maybe the older people who used to RP with us felt that way when we came around that they couldn’t find any long-lasting type of RP from us.
Idk just a nearly 30 year old boomer take 
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This is another part of it, yeah. It’s very hard to set up anything long(er)-lasting. RP, characters and guilds come and vanish quickly.
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And not to mention as well we lost a lot of players over the years to more “free” places like Epsilon, RPH, etc.
As much as I personally don’t like them private servers or that, others did and still do.
I don’t know if they’re still ongoing to this day (I’d assume so) but, when you have a lot of people dropping for more easier places they can build for their group of friends you know there’s that.
I think in general as well the Youth of Today have games competing for their attention with Free to Play motives.
Think of how many games have gone F2P over time maybe they just don’t see WoW as worth getting into especially WoW RP.
Pepsilon is still going strong, yeah. I’m using it to play out and script scenes for my book.
Yes, I RP with myself on there.
lol
Nothing wrong with that sometimes a singleplayer mode is not too bad when you’re thinking of storylines and things to do. 
People are doing this anyway.
Fair, but the act of harkening back to the “good old days” is in itself an act of showing umbrage to the current era.
This is code for ‘low power, low fantasy’ which is almost always an inroad to a slippery slope of bizarre and unfounded headcanon that is disconnected from the presented reality of the game environment.
You can have high fantasy character driven experience, and to be honest all roleplay is character driven, or it’s really not roleplay is it? Let’s not even give the courtesy of naming second life fantasists as roleplayers.
Peaceful coexistence is quite literally a term the Eastern Bloc used in official diplomacy speak towards the West during the Cold War. It’s an implication of complete incompatibility with ones own values towards another group.
In this case a minority who are set on a particular set of headcanons rooted in a past that never existed.
Discord is neither organic nor propagates the ‘spirit’ of what you are after. Discord is largely responsible for the cliqueification of Argent Dawn, specifically Stormwind RP which you seem to be egging towards.
It has been used by notorious factions of players who have used the ostensible claims you have put forward to “provide” roleplay to others and “build community”.
When its reality has been the opposite, to control and dictate what is and what isn’t “allowed” ro be roleplayed in a particular area, usually through insane innovations such as “law books” and the like.
As mentioned already here Argent Dawn has had a history of these kinds of “projects” (note, schemes) that have been put out and turn out to be little more than power grabs and attempts to impose some kind of authority over other roleplayers, which in turn can only be achieved through harassment and coercion of players who are not “getting with the program”.
The server has only really just started to recover from the last batch of crazies trying to impose their reactionary inspired “utopia” upon everyone else, we really don’t need anyone new (if you really are new) coming along and doing the same.
Even if this was all done in good faith as well, there will be those who are not as virtuous who are drawn into this pot purely because they see an opportunity to use it as a vehicle for controlling others.
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Update 1.0
Solely In-Character Community.
As of its inception, the Old-School Dawn initiative will aim to offer an entirely in-character (IC) community and experience using Discord as its primary hub for roleplay. In short, it focused on immersion and fostering smaller “spice of life” roleplay in Stormwind. This community will not offer a general chat, meme channels or anything other, nor an overruling of councils and leaders. In short, down to earth roleplay with a value for lore friendliness.
There will be channels to share your character profiles, or anything in character related.
The community events will emphasize on grounded, civilian roles such as shopkeepers, guards, craftsmen, and more, allowing characters to engage in organic, day-to-day interactions.
Discord will serve as the central platform for in-game communication, announcements, and coordination of roleplay events.
Alongside the everyday roleplay, (weekly not yet determined) player-driven quests and dynamic, low-stakes adventures will be added for fun across the Kingdom of Stormwind. (Redridge, Duskwood, Westfall etc)
Aswell as utilising Discord, Argent Archives and perhaps the forum page will also be another avenue to gander what’s happening.
Also some thanks goes to the reasonable and even sceptical posts, perhaps this is not trying to recreate the past but instead trying to take the best aspects from it.
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