no but constantly bringing it up - yes.
I don’t think anybody has constantly brought it up. But it is what RP entails.
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Thank you for the clarification. What would I do without you!
What?
/shrug
I agree with the OP, but I don’t even think it’s an RP issue alone. WoW was fundamentally built for these open world spontaneous and organized interactions, whatever the reason. Everyone deserves to have this and for it to work, and it doesn’t, and it’s a big shame.
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Roleplay is for everyone, and that’s the beauty of it. It’s about creativity, storytelling, and placing yourself in a world where you can explore different ways, like perspectives and experiences. There’s no one way to RP—some people focus on serious lore, others enjoy casual fun, and many just love bringing their characters to life.
If you’ve had experiences that made you feel a certain way about RP, I’d love to hear more! At its core, roleplay is about freedom and community, and there’s space for all kinds of styles and approaches.
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I completely agree! The phasing in Undercity and Tirisfal has been a challenge for years, and it affects everyone, not just RPers. Events like Hallow’s End really highlight the issue when players can’t even access the same version of a zone for quests or celebrations.
I love your idea of a menu-based phase selector! Even if it’s less immersive than Zidormi, it would give players control over where they land instead of having to guess or rely on quests we may or may not have done. A system like that would help with so many zones—imagine being able to pick your phase before entering Gilneas, Darkshore, or even Arathi Highlands!
I hope Blizzard considers something like this in the future. It would be a game-changer for RP and just general quality of life. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!"
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You summed it up perfectly! Phasing and sharding are some of the biggest obstacles to spontaneous RP, and it’s frustrating when something as simple as a missing environmental clue or an invisible NPC completely disrupts immersion. The TRP3 quest-campaign issue is a great example—how can we create deep, interactive stories when the world itself isn’t consistent for all players?
I totally get why Blizzard prioritizes new content, but at the same time, in my tiny opinion. RP thrives on worldbuilding, and right now, that world feels more fragmented than ever. The fact that we still have two Dalarans, a phased-out Gilneas, and a scattered Lordaeron just highlights how much of Azeroth remains in a strange limbo phase. It’s not just about nostalgia—it’s about keeping a cohesive world that makes sense for storytelling.
And yes, random RP is so difficult with sharding. I’ve had moments where I felt like the only roleplayer online, even though I know people are out there. Stormwind during the Hearthstone event was a nightmare for that, and it’s worrying to think that newer zones might feel the same. I just wish we had an RP-dedicated layer or even a manual phase-selection system to help communities stay together.
I really appreciate your insight—it’s nice to know others feel the same way. Hopefully, Blizzard takes note and finds a way to make the world feel more stable and connected for RP."
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"Exactly! This isn’t just an RP issue—it’s a broader MMO issue. WoW was built for spontaneous interactions, whether it’s RP, world PvP, helping a random adventurer, or just stumbling upon something cool. Phasing, sharding, and fragmented layers have chipped away at that, and it affects everyone, not just roleplayers.
The game feels less alive when people can’t reliably see and interact with each other. A more stable, consistent world benefits every type of player, and it’s a real shame that it’s becoming harder to just exist in the same space together.
Also, not sure what RP has to do with ‘snowflakey’ anything, anways. RP is just storytelling, and storytelling is for everyone. 
"
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Rping in WoW just means gooning in goldshire and there are no instancing issues there
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Not everyone rp’s the same way you do…
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Spontaneity and consistency isn’t enough, though it is definitely important!
The true soul of a great MMO is that these accidents seem to repeat themselves because of the persistence of the world. It stays present, whether you live in it or not, and other players “live out their lives” within it as they level up, and the people there stay broadly the same. You meet them again and again, and it bonds you in the end.
For the same reason you will meet the same people frequently in a small town where you grow up together because you stay the same age, so too will a server of ~20.000 people have you meet the same people often, spontaneously, in the town. WoW makes an equivalent to when you’re shopping, when you’re going home, or when you’re looking for colleagues; when you farm, when you trade, and when you raid.
Yet there are still so many you can never know them all, and they slowly come and go.
World of Warcraft replicated this scenario for millions of people across the continent, giving them their own towns, creating relationships and bonds like they were from your home town, but actually spanning the entire continent.
It is beautiful beyond measure. One might dare say it is indistinguishable from magic - and I feel sorry for all those who never experienced it.
WoW could be that again one day, but never while the game is run as it is today. Not even Classic can do it, for even there they could not resist making megaservers and layers that shift and change on a daily basis.
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Thats Beautifully said, and I agree. That persistence like for example the feeling that the world is truly alive and ongoing, with or without you. That is what makes MMOs so special. a living and breathing world, the familiar faces, the shared spaces, the spontaneous interactions that build community over time… It’s what made Azeroth feel real. <3
But modern design choices, like sharding, layering, and megaservers, have eroded that. Instead of being part of a world, we’re in temporary instances of it, disconnected from the very people who make it feel like home. We should be able to farm, trade, explore, and RP while naturally running into the same people—not just in our friend lists or Discord servers, but out in the world itself.
WoW could absolutely be that again, but it requires a shift in priorities. Stability, spontaneity, and a persistent community presence should matter more than short-term technical fixes. The magic isn’t gone, but it’s buried under systems that pull us apart instead of bringing us together.
I hope Blizzard sees that before too much of what made WoW special is lost. 
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Bumping for visibility, because it’s starting to get really bad.
Even Dawn’s Blossom in Pandaria is having phasing problems lately.
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That’s the tragedy of it all, yeah.
They don’t have to add systems to fix this, they have to get rid of the ones they added… >_>
But they keep adding more.
They just put down a team to promote “roleplaying and community”. 5 people I think it is.
We will know of their competences soon enough.
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I’ve said it before but they should add a warmode but for RP with it’s own set of rules and mechanics.
Such as:
No server requirement to enter.
Everyone on the same layer/phase (capped by server capacity ofc).
Severely reduced or completely disabled exp, loot, honour gains.
Severely reduced mobs, ores, mines spawn rate.
reduced or removed mob aggro.
Cross faction chat and grouping enabled.
Personal character free-for-all pvp enabler.
Removed toy item cd’s.
Ignore makes target invisible and completely removed from your chats and any interactions.
etc
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Personally I think it was the destruction of the faction conflict that caused the most damage to the role-playing scene.
The most vocal opposition to the faction war typically comes from the ‘slice of life’ role-players who want little more than to stand around in settlements and attend date nights, karaoke nights and market nights. They’re free to do that, of course, but in my experience a lot of them have a sort of smug glee at the idea of those of us who enjoy war focused role-play being left without much to actually do.
I remember the server wide campaigns on Argent Dawn where many Horde and Alliance players and guilds clashed in battle, providing plenty of role-play in the process. It wasn’t just about the battles themselves. It was the build up, the aftermath. Mourning the dead. Avenging the fallen.
Now? There’s barely any of that, since the ‘lets be fwends with every1’ and ‘don’t look back in anger’ approach to genocidal acts like the horrific murder and torture of innocent Blood Elven civilians during the Purge of Dalaran and the Burning of Teldrassil has robbed the setting of much of its grit and consequences.
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I love some of your ideas! like a dedicated RP mode with its own rules would solve so many of the issues we face, especially with phasing and sharding splitting up communities. Just imagine stepping into a zone and knowing that everyone you see is there for RP, without needing workarounds like War Mode toggles or Discord coordination.
The cross-faction chat & grouping would be a game-changer, especially for neutral or faction-blurred RP groups. And I really like the idea of personal free-for-all PvP enabling—it could make duels and combat RP so much more immersive without needing external addons.
I’d tweak a few things, though—some players might still want loot/XP gains, even in an RP setting, but maybe there could be an optional toggle for that? Also, I’d love for it to include a more consistent phase selection for old zones like Tirisfal and Arathi for example so guilds aren’t stuck RPing in different versions of the world.
Honestly, Blizzard should consider this seriously. An RP mode toggle could bring back that persistent world feeling we’ve been missing and make spontaneous RP so much easier.
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Personally, I prefer story-driven RP over big PvP battles, but I agree that Azeroth feels ‘too forgiving’ now. Past atrocities should still fuel division, revenge, and rebuilding efforts. Maybe we need more tools to shape our own ongoing conflicts?
There’s definitely still an audience for war-driven RP, but without a centralized in-game conflict, it’s harder to organically create those rivalries. Maybe the next expansion will bring new ideological divides that spark fresh RP opportunities.
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I would love for that to happen. It would also do away with the constant issue of new zones being incredibly prone to phasing for a good long while, and main hubs being similarly impacted whenever player numbers go up - typically when new expansions go live.
I see the idea, but at that point you’d probably have an influx of OOCers and farming bots as well. Negating most progression gameplay discourages that, leaving the mode largely of interest only to RPers.
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Ye I’d like for the game to have all the functions and necessities for RP inside of the game and not forcing one to rely on outside applications or convoluted workarounds.
I also suspect/fear that Blizz will do away with several separate realms/servers in the near future and instead opt for multi layered “mega-servers” as they have with the anniversary servers. If it happens I really fear that there might not be a RP realm option.
An RPMode would allow players to still enjoy rp in a way that better suits Blizzards modern server system.
The reduced loot/xp/etc gains would be to solely reduce any incentive for abusing the mode for non-rp reasons.
With normal loot and especially with herbs and mines the mode would quickly be filled with farmers and bots abusing a less populated layer and the ability to quickly phase jump between normal, warmode and rpmode for maximum profit.
With normal exp rate it would attract players looking for a calmer place to level, while it could be considered harmful at first it does risk pushing out and disrupting rp if it’s popularity as a “leveling heaven” takes over.
I’d like for it to have normal world setting and being able to do your normal activities with the added benefits for rp but I don’t thinks that possible to be honest. Unfortunately, as I think most roleplayers have experienced, RP often doesn’t really mix well with normal gameplay and players.
The improved ignore function for example would be mainly to combat players entering the mode solely for the reason to disrupt rp.
I’ve always preferred rp-pvp servers for the ability to actually act out combat (against one faction at least ^^) rather than simply keeping it text based and in discord for the enemy faction. Large scale rp-events with actual in game pvp combat is really something else in my opinion. It’s hard to beat.
Doing it through something like discord works but it’s clunky and kind of takes you out of immersion when you’re tabbing between the game and other applications.
As I said , I’d like to have everything I need for the game within the game.
A phase selection system would also be great. It could be something as simple as a drop-down list on the map where you select what expansion you’d like phase for.
It doesn’t have to be complicated like a npc with lore and dialogue that you have to interact with. Often that just makes it more cumbersome.
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