Fairly certain those are never explained anywhere. At least I don’t remember such an explanation. I suspect it’s just a cosmetic thing, considering that some don’t have any.
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According to wowhead, yes - although the article does suggest that it’s mostly headcanons due to the lack of lore.
www.wowhead. com/guide=3550/kaldorei-facial-tattoos-what-do-they-represent
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From Elegy:
“Night elf females commonly marked their faces when they had achieved a significant rite of passage. Stylized claw marks were a typical marking, but Anaris Windwood had no need for stylized scars. A troll’s raptor had attacked her and given her real scars instead. The gashes ran the length of her face, from just below her hairline to her chin. By the grace of Elune, the raptor had not gouged out an eye. Anaris had chosen not to have them healed. Rather, she embraced what she called “the true mark of the soul” with pride.”
They are not specifically tied to adulthood mentally or physically. They do appear to have social significance on whether a Night Elf has truly reached “adulthood” though. However, not all Night Elves choose to have them and that doesn’t prevent them from being considered adults either.
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I’d like to offer an alternative perspective for new players, which basically boils down to: you really don’t need to worry about a lot of this right away. It’s really easy to see the lengths hardcore roleplayers go to and get intimidated or bogged down in it all.
Start out slow. Don’t worry about elaborate storylines for your character, or being part of elaborate formal roleplaying events, or having half-hour one-on-one chats filled with emotes where you pretend to be an Elwynn pumpkin farmer. That can all come later. Try to work out a few simple traits that define who your character is - maybe they’re quick-tempered, or pious, or self-important. Don’t go too far outside what the character actually can be, in-game. Maybe add a spot of motivation - again, it needn’t be anything hugely deep and complex at this point. A gnome might want to find a way to return to Gnomeregan, a rogue might be seeking her fortune to find a way off the street, that sort of thing. Work out some background - and if you think I’m about to say that it doesn’t need to be anything complex, just something vague like “came from a farming family but showed promise and was chosen to be a paladin’s squire at a young age”, well done, you’ve noticed the pattern.
Try to embody your chosen flavour and add some that personality when you’re greeting other players, running into them out in the world, or talking with your party. You’re bound to find some friends in other players willing to respond in turn, which will further help you to work out who your character is. Add or elaborate upon bits and pieces of your traits, background and motivations as seems appropriate, as ideas pop into your head. Chances are the voice your character ends up having in these conversations will be a little different from those one-word traits you chose earlier. Just go with it and let them be whoever they end up being.
So that’s my advice for new players here. Don’t stress out too much about all of this, and simply enjoy being a part of the world and not just a “player”. The more in-depth stuff can come later, when you have a clearer handle on who your character is and how to act as them.
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Okay guide though personally it feels it drags on a bit much with the examples etc to be “brief”.
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I hate to be Captain Negative but from reading this thread it seems that being a role-player is all about telling other people how and should and shouldn’t play the game and attempting to push a personal agenda of what is found IC socially acceptable to an audience that is prone to pitfalls of the whims of its in habitants.
While I can appreciate the gesture and intentions behind this and the subsequent contributions within, I think it is asking a lot to expect people to accept norms that are for all intends and purposes nothing but community suggestions. In list form how many do´s and don’ts would I need to scrutinize my characters actions by, before it is considered role-play? How many of them are contractive?
In my humble opinion MMO* role-playing should be about contributing to the immersive atmosphere without taking away the enjoyment of others (e.g. don’t be jerk).
What should be apparent, I think, is that:
- It’s not a realistic game, (I am mechanically prevented from depositing gold in the bank and my character can mechanically walk through other characters).
- It’s a nasty HIGH FANTASY game-world and by that, I mean you can buy magic items in shops and at auctions houses and demons roam the streets of major cities.
- There are no enforced RP rules save the ability to report someone for an inappropriate name.
Not accepting or worse trying to go against these three notions will only stifle players´ RP participation and what I think is intended to add to atmosphere becomes a bone of contention, everyone wanting “their” RP rules to be the ones every one else should adhere to and when they don’t, they get called out. A community that should foster mutual respect and inclusion becomes a toxic nest of intolerance and things get political.
As for the above three notions: - Embrace the unrealism and work with it instead of against it, or ignore the parts that disrupts your immersion (e.g. the jumping player trader who insist you buy their bags).
- Yes, warlocks with demons traverse the market place, if your character does not approve then address it in game in characters, don’t write a post about the negativity of meta gaming and expect people or their characters to meta-gamingly know that you don’t find it socially acceptable that warlocks disclose their profession or present their demons in public.
- Expecting all role-players to follow a set of “RP rules” that aren’t enforced in the game and in effect is just made up by other players will only lead to disappointment.
Sorry if this came across as a put down, I did not intend to call anyone out but I think sometimes a realism check is needed when talking about MMO role-playing. Trying to tell people what they can and can’t do on the internet is as effective as solving complex algebra using bubble-gum.
TLDR: IMHO MMO RP boils down to one sentence:
Ask yourself “How can I stimulate the immersive RP atmosphere through my actions without compromising my own or others enjoyment”.
Be this through complex narratives or small IC everyday interactions.
PS: Deviating too much from what is actually offered in game by creating a game with in a game is a difficult sell unless you can get an entire community to subscribe to the same meta game rules.
Also RP mods can sometimes be dis inclusive in that sometimes and or in some circles signal that the players that don’t have the RP mods installed aren’t real RPers so don’t bother interacting with them.
*As opposed to private pen and paper role-playing that has specific very rules enforced by a story teller.
Edit: Weird formatting
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Your post is still somewhat difficult to read the way it’s formatted now, but I’ll try my best to respond to it.
That’s how communities work, though. All the do’s and don’ts listed above there are things that the roleplaying community, by and large, agrees upon. Primarily because they make a lot of sense. Nothing about the stuff listed in the do’s and don’ts section restricts characters in any way, it’s purely about the type of behavior that roleplayers more or less expect from one another. Personally I don’t think that “don’t poweremote” or “don’t talk about levels” are particularly surprising or undesirable. Honestly, the whole “do’s and don’ts” section of this guide is, in large part, just an explanation of different terms and boils down to ‘play with others, not against others’. There’s really not much of ‘don’t play X, it’s bad’ in there, so I’m not quite understanding how you got the “attempting to push a personal agenda of what is found IC socially acceptable” impression.
They really don’t, though. You won’t find a single not-player demon roaming the streets of a city without being attacked by guards. That player-controlled demons can do that is true, but players can also run into Stormwind Keep, strip naked and spit on Anduin without being attacked by guards. Which I personally wouldn’t view as particularly great roleplay - and my view there kinda extends on Warlocks running around with their demons out. The game itself, via quest texts and NPC placement, tells you that Warlocks have to hide the whole ‘being a Warlock’ thing. That you can do it is simply an engine thing, because if you couldn’t playing a warlock would presumably be somewhat un-fun. Which brings me to…
I’m sorry to say, in my opinion this is bad advice that’ll inevitably make your RP experience worse, not better. I agree with you that one shouldn’t go and write forum posts whenever they see a Warlock with Demon out, but addressing it ingame has a few problems.
A warlock with their demon out will be one of two things - either they are there OOC and just didn’t put away the demon because they forgot, or they simply don’t care about hiding their demon. In the first instance reacting IC to the Warlock will just end in a brief “Oh, sorry, that was OOC” whisper. Which is the best case scenario.
In the second instance you’ll be attempting to play with someone, who has an entirely different view of the world than you do. This will in 99% of situations end in frustration and generally ruin immersion. Standing around in Stormwind, right in front of a bunch of NPC guards and arguing with a Warlock about hanging out with Demons is not how things would go in such a situation. It just isn’t.
Imagine I’m playing a Paladin and I see a guy summoning a Demon in the middle of Stormwind. Here’s how things would go if Azeroth were a fully reactive world: The moment the demon arrives everyone would be shocked. People would start screaming, panicking and running away, while my Paladin and every city guard in the vicinity draw their weapons and attack. No arguing, no discussions. A warlock summoning a demon four years after the Burning Legion almost destroyed the entire planet is dead meat.
This naturally would not go over well in an RP situation. So here’s what you do, when you, as a roleplayer, see a warlock with his demon out in Stormwind city:
You ignore them. They don’t exist at this very moment. If they attempt to RP with you, maybe fire them a whisper to inquire about that demon, but otherwise? Ignore them. Don’t start to argue, don’t try to resolve the situation In Character. It won’t work and will only end up ruining both your day and, potentially, the day of the Warlock as well.
I realize that this whole wall of text may be viewed as “telling others how to play”, but it’s really not meant that way. The point is simply that roleplayers who follow the lore of WoW tend to have certain expectations, warlocks not being particularly well liked being one of those. If someone openly breaks those expectations the best way to go about it is, in my opinion, to avoid confrontation, instead of deliberately seeking it out like you suggested. Maybe whisper the warlock and try to explain to them your point of view, but even that risks ending in tears.
I agree with this point, though. I suspect our views on what constitutes as “immersive” just differ a bit. Which is perfectly fine 
You are also correct in that there’s no way to enforce “RP rules” as such, due to lacking a GM. I’d argue, though, that the GM equivalent we have is the game itself. The world follows certain rules, which are portrayed via quest texts and similar things, so you can draw your conclusions as to what is acceptable or not from there. Yes, there is nobody who will enforce this, but we have to set the bar somehwere.
Lastly (this is getting super long, I apologize):
I agree, that can be a huge problem. However, I feel the pros outweigh the cons when it comes to RP addons. Being able to describe your character via the use of a flag is just so, so helpful.
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Don’t apologize! That was a well-written answer with lot’s of very important points. And I totally agree on the description how to cope with the “demon invasion” in cities. It really is best to simply ignore that. Because, if you do not, you open a flood-gate of problems. Because then you also have to cope with kangaroo-jumping elves and dwarves trampling over the lawn of the Mage Quarter. Or NPCs which never sleep. Or a city which is supposed to have 200,000 souls and not just 200. You anyway have to add and ignore many things so your mind creates the RP world you are acting in. So just add those players which do non-RP stuff to it. And concentrate on the good stuff. On the people who DO the RP! 
(P.S. …but in case you meet a warlock which is running with his demon through a city AND has a RP addon installed which clearly flags him as IC, then go for it! 
)
Definitely. They are a wonderful tool to give you an idea how to approach and interact with the character in front of you, but personally I don’t use them for filtering other players. My main method of choice to find fellow RP players is simply to act out a short RP situation and then wait and see what happens around me.
I write this because I am passionate about talking about RP at times not to pick a fight, just to state my opinion.
I think we want the same thing: to stimulate the RP experience but perhaps have very different approaches to it? I write this not because I don’t believe in your intended goal but because your perceptions and methods are so different from mine.
I am not a fan of dissecting a post and addressing points individually as it seems like an attempt dismantle it into tiny pieces and negotiating them out of context in order to subvert their collective meaning which, in my case, was stating:
“Treat your fellow players with the respect they deserve,
stimulate the IC immersion
and
don’t complicate things with mods and suggested behavioural models”
as in my humble experience when one or more of these heuristics are ignored most people lose interest and it becomes incomprehensible for new comers to RP. Meaning while the intention of the majority of posters in this thread is probably noble, the effect or consequence often becomes divisive or dis-inclusive.
But I may not be up to date with expected of forum communication and maybe the quote-comment-quote-comment is how it should be?
“That’s how communities work, though. All the do’s and don’ts listed above there are things that the roleplaying community, by and large, agrees upon. Primarily because they make a lot of sense. Nothing about the stuff listed in the do’s and don’ts section restricts characters in any way, it’s purely about the type of behavior that roleplayers more or less expect from one another
If that was the case then this post is not about RP but how to gain acceptance within the RP community by teaching readers how they should walk, talk and conduct themselves to gain acceptance within the circles vocal members of the community, disguised as people stating their opinion about RP as some sort of factual definition the same.
“Personally I don’t think that “don’t poweremote” or “don’t talk about levels” are particularly surprising or undesirable. Honestly, the whole “do’s and don’ts” section of this guide is, in large part, just an explanation of different terms and boils down to ‘play with others, not against others’. There’s really not much of ‘don’t play X, it’s bad’ in there, so I’m not quite understanding how you got the “attempting to push a personal agenda of what is found IC socially acceptable” impression.”
“Don’t draw a sword in a tavern or you will be arrested” (by whom?)
“Do kill Murlocs!”
“Don’t do something if you would get arrested for doing it in real life”
“If you are not a beginner you are allowed to role play a criminal” (are criminals allowed to draw swords in taverns?)
“Don’t reveal if you know someone is a warlock unless they have told you in character.”
“Don’t speak anyone’s name unless they have told you.”
“Don’t run unless you are in danger.”
“Don’t unsheathe your weapons when you are not fighting”
“Don’t wear your armour when you are not in battle.”
“Don’t equip Ashbringer.”
“Wear simple clothes nothing flashy!”
“Don’t swear”
“Don’t say you killed any NPCs even though you did”
“Don’t say you are friends with NPCs”
“Don’t say you are related to NPCs”
“Don’t role-play a none playable race” (why would you?)
“Don’t role-play a warlock if you are new to role-play”
“Don’t play anything with a complex story if you are new to roleplay”
…
Imagine having to go through a list of RP tests like the above to understand whether what you are role-playing to acceptable standards or not. Would this encourage or dissuade people from engaging?
While I would argue some of these things are covered under the concept/idea of “don’t be a jerk” and most other things are precisely ´don’t play X´. Learning all these expected behaviours amounts to homework. Game becomes chore (more than it already is in some aspects (PvP grinding, Raid prep Farming, Raid Farming, Raid tactic homework, Achievements, etc.)
When I say “don’t be a jerk”, I mean for your role-play to be enjoyed by those participating (or at least not disruptive to others play or role-play) then it has to not unwantedly or uninvitedly visit upon anyone else’s intention. And you are right stuff like power emoting and mind projecting can be a really weird manipulative behaviour in that it is a player trying to dictate the story in ways that makes her or him make choices for other players.
Also sooooo much assumption. So many RP differences are rooted in the need for some people to try to quantify and explain things that don’t need to be measure or explained. What is the significance of the exact date/time Kaldorei botanist would have a midlife crisis to your role-play? If someone gets it wrong, do they then need to be schooled and corrected in and or out of character?
I get the passion for the game and for the lore, in fact I admire it, truly passionate people are some of the most attractive I find, regardless of the subject(s) of their passions (unless their passions and cruel towards others), but when it becomes lecture or discussion about trivial and minimalistic differences of perception of lore it stops contributing to the game and feel and starts taking away from it, in that it makes people have to hold back on good RP out of fear of not being 100% accurate. I find that it discourages RP when it is overdone.
“
I’m sorry to say, in my opinion this is bad advice that’ll inevitably make your RP experience worse, not better. I agree with you that one shouldn’t go and write forum posts whenever they see a Warlock with Demon out, but addressing it ingame has a few problems.
A warlock with their demon out will be one of two things”
^^ Assumption ^^
” - either they are there OOC and just didn’t put away the demon because they forgot, or they simply don’t care about hiding their demon. In the first instance reacting IC to the Warlock will just end in a brief “Oh, sorry, that was OOC” whisper. Which is the best case scenario.
In the second instance you’ll be attempting to play with someone, who has an entirely different view of the world than you do. This will in 99% of situations end in frustration and generally ruin immersion. Standing around in Stormwind, right in front of a bunch of NPC guards and arguing with a Warlock about hanging out with Demons is not how things would go in such a situation. It just isn’t.
Imagine I’m playing a Paladin and I see a guy summoning a Demon in the middle of Stormwind. Here’s how things would go if Azeroth were a fully reactive world: The moment the demon arrives everyone would be shocked. People would start screaming, panicking and running away, while my Paladin and every city guard in the vicinity draw their weapons and attack. No arguing, no discussions. A warlock summoning a demon four years after the Burning Legion almost destroyed the entire planet is dead meat.
This naturally would not go over well in an RP situation. So here’s what you do, when you, as a roleplayer, see a warlock with his demon out in Stormwind city:
You ignore them. They don’t exist at this very moment. If they attempt to RP with you, maybe fire them a whisper to inquire about that demon, but otherwise? Ignore them. Don’t start to argue, don’t try to resolve the situation In Character. It won’t work and will only end up ruining both your day and, potentially, the day of the Warlock as well.
I realize that this whole wall of text may be viewed as “telling others how to play”, but it’s really not meant that way. The point is simply that roleplayers who follow the lore of WoW tend to have certain expectations, warlocks not being particularly well liked being one of those. If someone openly breaks those expectations the best way to go about it is, in my opinion, to avoid confrontation, instead of deliberately seeking it out like you suggested. Maybe whisper the warlock and try to explain to them your point of view, but even that risks ending in tears.
“
Most of this seems to be your head-canon. It is a narrative based on how you see the game and the world. I fear you will be setting yourself up for disappoint if you try to enforce your view as ´required lore/reading´ or that close yourself of to only role-playing with a very closed off circle of equally intolerant people.
Just want to re-quote this:
“So here’s what you do, when you, as a roleplayer, see a warlock with his demon out in Stormwind city:
You ignore them. They don’t exist at this very moment. If they attempt to RP with you, maybe fire them a whisper to inquire about that demon, but otherwise? Ignore them.
”
Am I correct in understanding that your RP advice is to ignore people? And if they try to RP with you, you will respond out of character questioning them about their choices and then ignore. That seem very dis-inclusive and that is my whole point. All these rules, protocols and suggestions for behaviour are just players proposing things they would like to see but they are often just as disruptive as the very thing they are trying to advocate against.
Tolerance, inclusions and treating people/players/characters with what level of respect they have earned should be the goal in my opinion, not policing other peoples´ game.
I don’t play alliance because well the Alliance are all a-holes obviously 
(yes, irony) but if a warlock with a demon out approached my character ((and I was playing a character with demon sensibilities) and am in the mood for some RP) I would react to it in character. If it is ignored then I would think nothing of it.
Best thing that could happen, the player reacts IC and some RP ensues.
A good thing that could happen regardless of whether the warlock reacts is that someone else nearby is exposed to some RP and maybe it will make those player smile.
A bad thing I think that could happen, warlock players ignores and that does not bother me.
Worst thing I think could happen was if the person started throwing abuse OOC.
I would never whisper the player and fire them questions about their demon. That’s rude and far more disruptive than a blue balloon creature standing next to me at in the bank.
Can I ask you something, does your immersion falter when there is a hunter’s pet tiger lose in a gnomish butcher shop? If the potential narrative is taken very seriously that is carnage waiting to happen. Or is it just demons? Point being that the game is a mechanical modelling of a story in an imaginary world so putting time and energy into getting annoyed by game mechanics will bring nothing but frustration. According to the WoW pen and paper roleplaying Horde Players Guide Crossroads is a few buildings surrounded by a massive shanty town with tent camps inhabited by refugees from all over the world after the war in WC3 and there are roughly 10.000 humanoid creatures of horde and other races living there. Last night in game a dwarf paladin single handled killed all NPCs there. Was he god modding?
Setting your immersion up against mechanical things that is outside your control is like rowing up river.
“The world follows certain rules, which are portrayed via quest texts and similar things, so you can draw your conclusions as to what is acceptable or not from there. Yes, there is nobody who will enforce this, but we have to set the bar somehwere.”
Who has to set the bar for whom or what and why?
The game exists in many spheres:
The mechanical game
The game story WC1-3 up until whatever version of WoW Classic or retail you are playing. (this story by the way has been retconned countless of time)
The literature which sometimes also conflicts with the game story.
The comic books stories.
The Expanded canon in pen and paper RPG
I think there is a trading card game and a computer-based trading card game as well but I don’t play them so I don’t know if that they have stories.
The “game rules” the wow game world follows is mechanical (e.g. gravity, combat, economy, etc.).
What I think you are talking about in the quoted sentence above is a narrative that exists partly somewhere between the game lore, the expanded canon and the literature and partly in your head in assumptions. In game there are stories with continuity that can you immerse yourself into but you would be silly to expect or demand others to immerse themselves to the exact same interpretation and or subscription to these varied and interchangeable narrative.
The authors/developers don’t take the narrative super serious themselves (there is modern metal rock band called Level XX (the level keeps changing) Elite Tauren Chieftain) and the game is littered with post-modern cultural references.
What I am trying to say is that that think a very solemn and restrictive style or RP attempted projected onto others does more to split than bring together in the context of the collective voluntary suspension of disbelief and in extend the community.
What my issue is with the descriptive RP mods is that they too project things that aren’t there, if I use one to state that my character is missing a thumb those with the mod would be able to see and then have to decide whether to accept it and or respond or act upon it. Those without the mod would be clueless. If I’m RP´ing with a group where some can see things others can’t, it can quickly make things awkward.
Also, the descriptions tend to be borderline metagaming or god modding at times. Imagine sitting on the bus on the way home from work and a thug looking person comes over to you and say “see this scar, looks like I got it from a knife fight doesn’t it?”
But maybe I have just seen some terrible ones when I used those mods? (titanium rib cage and other impossible anatomies, many often needlessly sexual for a PG13 game)
On the topic of RP mods and god modding/suggestive manipulative play, I am sure you can appreciate the irony of players telling each that they shouldn’t be telling others how to play or react.
To go back to the beginning, I don’t disagree with the intentions of this thread, I too want to help foster an immersive IC atmosphere, but a lot of the suggested methods seem to be counterproductive to this in my opinion.
We both want to reach the summit of the mountain where MMO RP is utopia, but from my perspective I have chosen a path on the sunny slopes where tolerance, respect and inclusion are the guide posts, you have chosen a dark path on shadow side of the mountain where passing judgement, stating protocols and narrow assumption leads you on, to phrase it dramatically.
But who is to say my path is the right one? Who is to say that there are just two paths?
Thanks for reading
If you’re sharing a common open world and someone’s is doing something that goes against what you consider the logic of the universe to be in the public space, your options are to ignore them, discuss it OOC and amicably, or roll with it anyway.
There’s a non-zero number of people that are well-aware that their RP concepts do not conform to general lore, and they simply do not care. In that case there’s little to do if you don’t want to be involved with them than to not involve yourself with them and go your own way: play with people that interpret the world in ways you like, and if you don’t want to play with people that interpret the world differently, then don’t.
Role-playing is a hobby in which you pretend to be a character. You have no true obligation to promote the immersion of anyone, to include people you don’t want to include, to promote the atmosphere, or any other thing. You have to play a role. You can’t aspire to police the RP of others. On the other hand, nobody can demand you acknowledge them if you disagree with their RP views. Find like-minded people for your fun. RP is not a lore knowledge competition, but it’s also not a public service.
Selecting what concepts you engage with and which ones you don’t engage with is your way of “voting”. It’s why so many out-of-universe concepts that people found fun were legitimized in the past even if they’re not recognized by the lore. Like when everybody read A Song of Ice and Fire and thought it was neat.
… then again, the guide proper wasn’t really trying to police anyone’s RP, I think that the discussion originates in a strawman argument from potentially other guides in the past that do delve into the personal do’s and don’ts of segments of the RP population. This was a general introduction to what RP is, and it was pretty unobtrusive.
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That was not my intention. If It came across like that, I apologize. The reason why I quoted parts of your post was because I was specifically responding to those and the quotes make it easier to see what exactly I’m responding to. Speaking of which, your use of quotation marks instead of quotes makes your post even less readable than the other one 
If you’re on desktop you can easily quote someone by marking the lines you want to quote with your mouse. A handy “quote” hyperlink will show up, click that and it automatically quotes it in the text editor.
I’m honestly not in the mood to write out another wall of text like I did yesterday, so I’ll keep it brief:
No, my advice is not to ignore other roleplayers. My advice is to avoid deliberately inciting conflict with other people.
If you spot a character roleplaying in a manner that does not suit your view of what should be acceptable, be it a guy roleplaying as Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master, someone claiming to be Thralls long lost daughter or just a Warlock with their pet out (and yes, those are not all the same level of silly, I’m exaggerating deliberately here), you have two options. Either you can approach them, foaming at the mouth and trying to convince them IC or OOC that what they do is wrong… or you can leave them be and let them do their thing.
Personally I find the latter to be better for my sanity and enjoyment of the game.
Yeah, that’s my opinion as well. A lot of the arguments made here don’t really seem to go against this thread in particular, but make assumptions (heh) based on, presumably, past experiences.
Thank you for advising me how to use the forum.
I’ll try, and probably fail, to make this short as my other interests and obligation prevents me from giving the game the one thing that it craves – TIME, at least no longer to the same extend I was earlier. I fear my debating this is coming across in a manner that is perceived as hostile or aggressive. That is not my intention. I am merely sharing my opinion on the topic. The topic being a guide to role-play implying the authors are mentors the field of MMO RP in WoW and target audience are students. That assuming those roles and presenting certain schools of thought on the topic I have no issue with, in fact I like it, which is why I have probably taken more interest in the topic than what is appreciated. But in areas where topic methods differ a lot from my own preferences, I feel the need to share the fact that there are other schools of thought on the topic of MMO RP and also that they are not mutually exclusive. They are different and have advantages and disadvantages. If my sharing these ideas feels like a hi-jacking let me know and I will see my self out of the thread.
The original and several subsequent post seemed to be from the school of thought where RP all about is telling other RP´ers how to walk, talk, what to wear, what they can and cant do, what part of the contradicting lore is right and wrong, how they should write posts on the forums and to what degree realism should be observed in a game of elves and orcs. (E.g. “If you would get arrested for doing that IRL you are not allowed to do it in the game”). It is not a school of thought I am a supporter of. It reminds me of the behavioural patterns of helicopter parents.
The school of thought or RP philosophy that I would like to think I subscribe has 3 axioms that are all circumstantial:
- Treat players with the respect they have earned
- Stimulate the RP atmosphere through example
- Don’t complicate things with invented protocols (only cowards hide behind rules and children)
I agree with Richter to a point as it is, in my opinion a more mature approach to RP, but it’s the binary view of do or don’t that I object to. The stating that you have two options when someone Role-plays (or fails to role-play) in a way you don’t appreciate, option 1 being ignoring them and option 2 exhibiting symptoms of rabies when you insist IC or OCC that they conform to your way of role-playing. I think it is false dichotomy. I would like to propose and explore a third options but stating that there is probably more and advise care in the use of presenting people with binary choices as the only outcomes. The reason I particularly disagree with false dichotomies is that they limit potential. If people think they only have two choices then they will not even attempt to explore options 3, 4 or 5 and then the false choice risks becoming a method of control rather than a guide or mentoring in that it can be presented in a way that there is one good and one bad choice, the good choice being what the mentor wants the student to do and the mentor is no longer guiding but instead deceitfully directing.
For the sake of the example of the PC exhibiting what is to you undesired RP or unwanted OOC in public channels.
Option 3: Address the situation IC expressing your IC discontent. E.g. “Demon, Demon! DEMON in the bank!”
Not being able to predict or explicitly foretell the exactitude of all outcomes here are some that I think could happen:
- The player could respond IC which I consider a win, he/she could be hostile or apologetic or arrogant or paranoid or anything in between, it doesn’t matter but RP is happening. It’s a win.
- The Player could respond OOC with a disinterested or rude comment which is not desirable but it happens and it would be no skin of my back and more importantly I would not close down my personal RP-shop because of it, I would stay IC because IC inspires IC. I may not wish to continue interacting with the person but I would not go OOC in any channel and rant about the state of the server and how non RPers come here and ruin it for everyone as that would mean the trolls would win (internet trolls whose objective often seems to provoke negative reactions online). So maybe not a win but a neutral at worst unless it inspires other to interact IC, ignoring the OOC person then it would count as a win.
- The player could ignore it but others might react, perhaps people with torches and pitchforks would come to the bank and RP with you, regardless of the OOC guy that is depositing his daily Peace Bloom harvest without giving thought to the RP that goes on around him. This is a win. RP is happening regardless of the participation of the involuntary initiator. A dwarf might tug your sleeve and say “tell me about it laddie, we are seeing a lot of this in Ironforge as well, come let me buy you a pint”.
- No one responds but your head canon RP has you down as the hero that stood up to the demon dealing miscreants in what way you can (as permitted by game mechanics in that you can’t physically challenge players of same faction). If he doesn’t respond and turns and walk away with his demon then in your head or aloud in /s or /y say “yeah you better run a-hole!” RP has happened – it’s a win.
So, options 3, as explored in my mind, has the potential for 3.5 good outcomes and 0.5 neutral/indifferent outcomes.
I’m sure there are many other potential outcomes and options but it is the simple approach of stimulating the atmosphere and interacting with those that want to participate, instead of
“approach them, foaming at the mouth and trying to convince them IC or OOC that what they do is wrong”
As that serve little purpose and will most likely only make a bad situation worse.
You can’t beat hate with more hate or rudeness with more rudeness.
Only love for RP defeats the OOC demon.
My point and what I have been trying, and failing, to get across is that just because some other player isn’t role-playing the same way I am, it shouldn’t shut down my role-play. If role-play that doesn’t involve unwanted participation from people who are not interested or disrespectful, but accidently originates from them, maybe even without their knowledge, initiative and or willingness, isn’t that a good outcome? Something good being born out of something that was seemingly bad at first glance.
I don’t want to let bad people ruin my day by dwelling on differences.
I want to seize opportunities to turn potential storm clouds into rainbows.
Thanks for reading!
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