Disclaimer Disclaimer: This post was made with no ill will. A lot of people seem to have taken it as so which I can empathise with given past posts on the forums that criticise PCU In some rude ways. This was not meant to be one of those posts. I made this post after having mine and a group of friend’s RP in the city interrupted and ended early due to a lot of yells per second from the riot event. I made an annoyed yell after my previous one asking for the yells to slow down was met with a few angry whispers. I acted irrationally myself, apologised here in the thread, and think that instead of deleting this thread, I’ll keep it up with this disclaimer. Because amidst some of the chaos of replies, some of my queries and concerns WERE addressed, and discussed, just as I’d hoped, and might be helpful to others, and hopefully, still have some albeit more civil discussion. Thanks again to those who did so, apologies once more for those who took offense to my irrationally angered yell in game, I hope in time we can all stop hating one another about trivial stuff, and hope you all enjoy the game whether you’re PCU or not.
Disclaimer: On writing this, I am tired and fuelled solely by coffee. Some of this may not be fully coherent since I can ramble off easily, so I’m happy to answer and discuss questions regarding my thoughts, etc.
Also, I don’t post on the forums like… At all usually, so if this is posted a lot already I apologise in advance and hope maybe some of what I bring up to discuss is new.
Ok so to start, I’m not wanting this to be a ‘hateful’ or ‘supportive’ post to the PCU. Because I’ve only had brief interactions with the guilds and some of the members. And I wanna say, I appreciate the tenacity and desire Perroy seems to have for boosting server RP and making huge, somewhat accessible events. It’s a great initiative to do for sure, and I see a lot of hate to it, some I get, some I think is super unreasonable. And I kinda wanna discuss myself with a few others whether in a PCU guild or not, how it’s effected RP for us all personally. So I’m just gonna ramble/talk on my own thoughts and questions in regards to it all below for us to discuss maybe:
Event Accessibility:
Myself, I’ve never been one for guilds, I’m an Alt-aholic and especially with BfA, tend to take long breaks from the game. I usually ‘freelance’ RP where I’ll gladly join big events and take part, but don’t really commit to guilds since I know I won’t be able to stick around long enough/commit to it. This has never been a problem, and to be fair, still isn’t, but after returning lately and seeing a ton of PCU guilds, It has had me worry on event accessibility, and I’d like a lil word on it from some PCU members or maybe Perroy himself should he come across this.
With PCU guilds growing and spreading more and more, making more large-scale events, will they remain open to RPers like myself? Who don’t commit to guilds due to IRL and general opinion of the game resulting in them leaving every now and then? Or will some of us end up struggling and be left unable to attend some of these big events? It doesn’t seem like it’s the case now which is good, but I’ve only been back a few days and seen events like tonight’s riot, which seemed to have been open for anyone, but I do worry a bit that with it all being linked to the ‘PCU’ some of us may get excluded in time, especially since it all seems to be, (And may not be! This is just how I, an outsider thinks it may be.) run by one person? Albeit I’m guessing through chosen leaders of the individual guilds. It’s just a lil worry on having one person/group controlling what seems to be the vast-majority of RP and events and keeping them accessible, even to those they may dislike.
In-Game/Universe Lore:
On the guilds and such, one thing I find that keeps me from joining in so much on PCU so far, is that the events I see so far all seem to go against the in-game lore, which I know can be fuzzy anyway with some of it’s writing. But in regards of the city-wide riots tonight I couldn’t help but think “Well… Wouldn’t Anduin actually do something/say something IF this WAS happening?” This is just a personal bother to myself however, as I know those partaking are having fun RPing, which is the most important thing!
But the thing discussion wise on this I think is, how do we all feel on it? Because tonight, when doing my best to carry on as normal as I didn’t wish to partake in the riots myself, my chat window was spammed a lot with the /yells of the riots. Which when I’m wanting to stick to lore/current tones set by Blizz, where it seems the Alliance is for the most part, at peace and happy with the truce, can be a little irritating, especially as I don’t want to block those partaking in the event as I’ll likely bump into, and have fun RPing with them in less large events.
Attitudes and ‘sides’ of PCU Stuff:
This I think is my biggest thing I’ve noticed. That the PCU seems to have formed sides and some hatred amongst people. A lot towards the PCU, and some from those in PCU guilds back at those who speak ill of it. I try stay out of it but do want to at least discuss it and try find some middle ground perhaps for some, and reduce some of that hate maybe. Whilst defending your guild is always a reasonable thing to do, especially when you like your guild, I have talked to a few people who’ve said they genuinely feel ostracised and unwelcome in city RP due to disagreeing and not wanting to partake in any PCU events and guilds.
This is something I feel needs sorted as a community, just as the hatred towards the PCU needs to be toned down too. People outside of the AD community see some of the occasional back and forth and immediately think of the server as quite a toxic place. Perroy says he wants to enrich and improve the server’s RP and community. That’s a good thing. We should support anyone wanting to do that. But we should also consider some effects of such large scale changes and additions to the server such as how it may worry ‘freelance’ RPers, and how it may feel to those unaware of past PCU events and how that’s effecting a large amount of players ICly.
’Solutions:'
I will say, I don’t think there’s anything so bad that there needs to be some huge ‘solution.’ Some of it may exist and I may simply be unaware of it, along with a few others. For instance, I feel something that could be useful is some form of easily accessible and findable list/calendar of sorts for past PCU events. Just having small summaries of how it effects the area, like how the Riots tonight left city guards on edge for some time, so people would understand why the guards they interacted with a day or two later, were acting in a certain way. Ideally not on Discord, but somewhere like Argent Archives where anyone can access and see it and keep up to date so they can at least understand why things are the way they are, even when not participating in PCU events. Again, maybe it exists, if so, I would like a link to it myself, and maybe if possible, have it easily findable in an official Perroy post or something, maybe a pinned post if that is at all possible, as these events do seem to have server-wide effects ICly.
Another possible solution, towards the lore side of things, could be a slower, wider build up to events perhaps? For instance I saw nothing leading up to tonight’s riots in the last week of actively RPing in Stormwind. If I’d had maybe the odd person or two approach me and asking me about my views on the king, the truce, etc. I’d have been way more likely to be joining the riot event, and likely be less critical myself towards it’s possible lore-breaking. Another being perhaps less /yells in city-based RP events? A few are fine but when I can’t talk with an IC friend without having to scroll through a dozen yells each time something’s put in /say, it can be a small annoyance is all. Again, I know the lore problem is definitely a me thing for liking to try stick to as much confirmed lore stuff as possible, and don’t try force that on others, but I would like to maybe have some discussion on the /yelling stuff, especially when I don’t wanna ignore actual RPers who just so happen to be partaking in said event!
Thanks for reading, I hope i’m not upsetting or angering anyone, I do wanna keep this pleasant and just want to put my thoughts out there and have a more civil discussion on it all.
TL;DR:
I’m neither for nor against the PCU, I want to see less hatred on both ‘sides’ in the community ideally, but also wanna discuss and ask about views, worries and thoughts regarding conflicts against possible lore, RP Accessibility and general community effects.