I first started roleplaying here in 2013. I made a level one human and roleplayed a vagrant. I was soon recruited by a rabble of pickpockets and petty criminals who were trying to fend off competition from a group of brutish Old Town thugs all while avoiding the eye of the City Watch. There was a lot of organic and dynamic roleplay between different guilds and characters who shared similar attitudes to roleplay (and agreed that collaboration is key). They also shared an understanding of the setting / lore.
I think one issue is that Blizzardâs exposition around lore currently is really poor (i.e. regarding the integration of void elves in the Alliance and the tolerance of defiance towards Sylvanas in the Horde). This is creating fractures.
I also agree that people are so obsessed with playing stupid noble characters who answer to no one - which makes any sort of collaborative interaction difficult. Hopefully it begins to end alongside Game of Thrones.
Otherwise, some of the really good roleplayers on Alliance are becoming older and busier and there arenât that many newer roleplayers replacing them. A lot of the Hordeâs more experienced roleplayers have stuck around and this shows in the quality of the guilds and campaigns they produce.
I can definitely agree with this. I get the impression that WoWâs player base is aging, with younger gamers choosing to play the fads that are most popular now; battle royale games, generally speaking.
We WoW loyalists are here because itâs where we started off.
âF**k your mother, whoever wants to beat my hound will have to beat me too.â
Actual written quote from Czech noble from 15th century.
There isn´t much swearing in WoW lore, so people shouldn´t swear like sailors, period, but nobles were often swearing like crazy in real world history.
Well, I stand corrected. But in that case, were they not looked down upon or even remotely shunned for their language. In the end they probably didnât care.
No idea about the west, but nobles in Hungary actually thought that being able to read wasn´t proper for nobles. They were warriors, warriors don´t read, that´s not for strong men.
There was also another quote in the book I read from Hungarian noble who described another one and it was something along the line of âThat honorless son of a w**reâŚâ (forgot the rest, but it was filled with insults, quite poetic).
Mentality was completely different in Middle Ages and what we see as noble today really wasn´t seen as such back then (my most favorite was Charlemagne, whose doctors told him to stop eating pork because of his gout, but he refused, because eating baked pork was something kings did and he was the greatest king of all, so he WILL eat baked pork, damn it!).
You make an excellent point against what I have stated previously. I have taken that on board, and I might as well retract what I said or even re-phrase it.
âThere isn´t much swearing in WoW lore, so people shouldn´t swear like sailors, period.â That much is correct, I know there are three swear words used throughout WoW. If they kept to those, I donât think I would be complaining or even being so picky about it.
I think the âgive guilds/people a chanceâ thing really goes a long way to be honest.
Iâll be honest and say I canât do much more than parrot that saying, and for the most part I havenât played much during BfA. I unsubbed for a while, though I can at least give a personal example of the mindset of giving others a chance.
I quit mostly because BfA and the expansion + story didnât appeal to me. What ended up happening was that I naturally got the itch to RP again and re-subbed, and I came back to figure out my time away from RP and the realm at large had lifted a lot of the cynicism I had about players; essentially all I wanted to do was RP, and it didnât matter who I did that with. I spent my money on a sub, and that was that, I wanted the moneyâs worth.
I checked out Azuralâs initiative on assassination contracts, and pursued one with an IC agenda of my own. When in Darkshire I got into the mood of asking around and really immersing into the role of a ranger tracking down a target. What I felt for the first time in quite a while was the sense that I should give players the atmosphere that a ranger was patrolling the areafor reasons unknown to most. So I rode around, I bothered people, I emoted even when only in the periphery of conversations and interactions and I generally ended up enjoying myself.
Aside from the bounty hunting I actually ended up interacting with the Church of Eternal Grace, which prior to unsubbing Iâd likely have not bothered with. With the veil of cynicism lifted I gave them a chance; I got it into the mind my character, while not a pious man exactly, would find it disturbing that an independent splinter of Light worshippers might hurt the Church of Stormwind, and by extension humanity as a whole. So I had him spy on them a little.
After coming back I think I learned a lesson that Iâll hopefully carry on, and I think thatâll be me just letting interactions be interactions, and not focusing to much on a personâs/guildâs reputation. How do you go about transferring this attitude realm-wide for the Alliance? Iâm not sure.
The vague feeling niggles at me that you have to start fresh with something. I think itâs interesting that you mention the AA having waned, because only recently I had a thought that what if there was something new, or an alternative that people could get behind? I think with something like that you might be able to light a fire under people.
Really just spitballing here. Iâd love, say, a website that has stuff like a codified Stormwind/Kingdom lawbook like was the case some years ago. I forget if that was hosted on the AA though. Obviously people could either use it or ignore it but ideally youâd want more people adhering to it than not.
The inverse is true on Horde, and with more damaging consequences. The culture on Horde has steadily followed a trend of very much absolutist âDo this or get out of my wayâ mind-set (especially in racial groupings like Orcs and Blood Elves).
The reaction to that has been a complete collapse of central âHordeâ rp, in the sense of a united faction. There are conflicting bubbles which refuse to interact with one another because of large weaponised egos refusing to even consider the other players in question - human sometimes. There is a complete lack of trust and general politeness on the red side between conflicting bubbles.
This is fundamentally correct, even to the point of players who were playing back then are now ten years older, wiser, etc. It is a completely different culture in the roleplaying community.
I would say this is related to a cultural turn, people these days not just in video games but in life in general want instant gratification - that extra thumbs up, that extra subscriber on youtube, that extra viewer on twitch, that extra bit of publicity for their brand. This all detrimentally influences any activity that requires an investment of time and care, roleplay included.
Again. Very much agree, this has largely come about due to similar reasons outlined above, inability for compromise or settling of egos, the desire for that instant hit. People have realised they donât need other people outside of their echo chamber to enjoy themselves, and have adjusted themselves accordingly, silencing any dissent against their truth.
Not just an Alliance issue, again as outlined above, the Horde has a long history of guilds and players attempting to sabotage one another, but being the smaller faction this is obviously less clear. Coupled with a uniquely Horde cultural phenomena of brushing sordid happenings under the carpet (let us not forget the highly prominent controversy that embroiled a well known blood elf guild master last year) and simply ignoring valid criticism.
This is a good idea, however we can take it a step further.
Instead of passive acceptance on the server of a culture that says itâs fine to persecute, ridicule and harass fellow players players for a myriad of reasons ranging from what they roleplay/how they roleplay it, their personal differences from the norm all the way to rather petty things like alternative opinions to the mainstream - we collectively as a community should be much more tolerating of things that are done outside of our own personal norms and values.
I think weâll find a lot of the problems we have listed here will quickly become meaningless if we accept that difference in players and players style in how they roleplay are embraced more - on both factions mind. To say the Alliance is the only faction with issues is a complete fantasy and a denial of reality. Both factions have severe issues that need solutions.
I have seen this too much on Alliance, and it seems to jump from IC into OOC. A fine example I have witnessed way back at the start of Legion. A new member was an officer for a guild, but that previous guild fell and he joined our one. Immediately he started to act like an officer, to the point he was down right undermining the GM and making guild decisions behind the GM and officers back.
Eventually he moved on and did the same thing in another guild. But I actually donât know what it is and this whole undermining stuff. It still happens today, I still see it happen more today than I do on Horde,
I canât agree more. As I said in my post, the persistent OOC battles and OOC persecution has made people paranoid to RP with people they donât know. Report and move on if someone breaks the rules. That is really all that needs to be done.
Back then people generally wanted to invest, today they just want a quick fix. It takes a long time to garner trust, and that does not want work when you want it all right here and right now.
Hitting the nail on the head, I think. This, paired with a lot of people being very distrustful of others and perhaps⌠a little selfish⌠causes a lot of opportunity to be lost.
RP is a group effort after all.
Edit: Also I suck at the reply quote thing, I canât make it look right. Sigh.
I know that is a quesiton I wonât get answer on, but surely you can provide with examples of such, uh, âmind-setâ? If not for orcs - then blood elves.
I agree with a lot that has been said here. Back in âye olde days,â the LBC would rob banks, pickpocket, bribe corrupt officials and hide out in the tavern they owned (The Pig and Whistle.) Iâm fairly confident that all four of these things would mostly end in disaster, these days.
There was a social contract back then. It wasnât perfect, of course. We had lots of people who ended up being ignored, or who were difficult to deal with, but there were broad conventions in RP. The City Watch even had a rule about never speaking OOCly, and only ever acting IC. It lent them this weird legitimacy, somehowâŚ
I think respecting ranks (within reason), consequences for actions and not treating every encounter like a competition goes a long way to making the RP environment better. Similarly, institutions like the City Watcj and Shield of Light (and maybe even my own Legitimate Business Club ) really brought the world to life.
RIP Fingels Tavern, the Old Town Blades, Stormguard and the Silvereye.
The City Watch even had a rule about never speaking OOCly, and only ever acting IC.
One thing Iâve noticed from going from Horde to Alliance is just how much people OOC in /s and /e to communicate. Itâs horrendously jarring every time I see it - especially because /w or a Discord are much better places for it, depending on the scenario.
If I could stop just one thing from Alliance RP, itâd honestly be this.
Iâm one of those players. When I make an event and put effort into the creation process, having it crashed by some random people who have a completely different view on their roleplay than my group, is not something I look forward to.
Respecting other peopleâs spaces is a mature thing. âNatural RPâ would require a Comunity that agrees with each other and Cleary we do not have that. Also this would result in cliques or organized groups having more influence in the server plot which is disgusting just to think about that. That happened to my old German RP Server (Forscherliga) and it was disgusting seeing the results.
The best solution is to leave people their freedom and personal spaces and if they do not want to cooperate with you, then leave them be.
Many people I know especially on Horde side(Alliance side too) just want to RP stress free with people they trust without having their events disrupted by people who invite themself to everything without announcing themself respectfully via a friendly whisper or whatever. Especially when itâs guild- or group intern events.
![:slight_smile:](https://d1bg94bbsh66ji.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=6" ":slight_smile:")
) really brought the world to life.![:frowning:](https://d1bg94bbsh66ji.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/frowning.png?v=6" ":frowning:")