Horde RP is still going good and well. There are a few strange folk about but they come and go and I’ve yet to run into them over the 72 hrs of being back from Campaign in Orgrimmar. Though, this is not to say it hasn’t happened.
Some folk have moved to Razor Hill most namingly the PCU community does hang about there, Tehya and co can probably offer you more on that.
Other groups are out eventing, roaming and doing other stuff.
Orgrimmar is still in a shaky state but it can liven up. Namely last night it was livened up and Saturday night it had a fair few folk about and casual RP. I believe you’ve just gotten a bit unlucky.
I’m not sure how big an impact he had on AD roleplay, but Brigante deceased quite early in January/February.
That too might be a reason for the decline - he was a famous guy on AD from what little I know. Hundreds attended his memorial.
If you wish to RP on AD, then Alliance is the way to go, provided you are into high/void elves, OP. I would happily RP with the few belves I have, but no idea where the horde roleplayers hang out (ie. where the horde Goldshire is).
But to answer your question, it is just that people have been turned off from the Valley of Honor, because for some time it’s been a hotspot for a certain uncomfortable guild who would roleplay very questionable things that are more suited for Second Life than WoW.
They’re gone now, but there are still aftershocks and tremors remaining. Hopefully with most of them gone, nature can start healing and the RPers will return to their nesting grounds.
Horde players want Horde RP. Blizzard is actively making that difficult by shoving the Horde under the Alliance as some kind of formless, soulless vassalblob.
Neutral RP hubs are a good initiative, but I don’t think it is the thing that Horde needs.
But what it deserves
Jokes aside, a Neutral Hub is a good start to revitalize the Horde RP, and from there to branch out/go back to Horde RP
Blizzard won’t fix the problems that caused this situation so it is up to the players to salvage the ruins, and sadly you can’t go from 0 to 100, it is a slow process to heal the RP community on Horde side and lure them out to play again
That could work, in principle. However given the current stigma with “Horde RP = Guild RP” and how the Valley of Honor or any other area of Orgrimmar just drains as soon as something remotely bad happens. It would need a sustained effort to revitalise it, and as much as Neutral hubs can keep the social aspect in mind. But it also has a chance to increase social rp dependency from said areas. The style of social different, and the culture expressed.
So sure it could help it, but could equally be the reason why people would rather take the ‘easy way’ to social horde side. Instead of taking initiative to revive an area that could do with said effort.
That and, well, just not alot of Horde RPers, besides maybe mages and generalised Merc types would really go for a…
I was thinking about it for quite a while.
The reason I decided to do this instead of something else, is because there is no neutral hub idea that will suit every class and role. especially on Horde side. While creating only Horde Hub will be tooo difficult at the moment without having an established party that could create a foundation to build up the community around it. Another thing if some of the guilds would be interested in this idea, and they would agree to RP at some place of their choice together constantly. But again, we have discussed it earlier, and not everybody wants to bother themselves with the hub.
So I thought, how different players from different faction, and different classes can stay together at one place? The only answer that came up to my mind, is that they are outlaws, criminals or shady merchants, this way it is a window for anybody. If you are even a deathknight, you can find a reason to be there, or if you are a bartender - there is a room for that too, if you are a merchant - black market idea, literally almost any class can fit into this idea, if only they are outlaws or some kind of bad guys, which makes sense.
As far as I am not certain about the real numbers of Horde players who realy want to support the idea or if they don’t like it - you can always create your own initiative.
A lot of people like the fantasy of being an outlaw or some sort of it at least. But there were no HUB for such players at all. I thought, I will give it a try and see how it goes, and actually quite a lot of players like the idea and are very kind to support this. I will try my best.
About half of my Horde chars have no open hostility towards the Alliance, and even they have next to no reason to even want to set foot in alliance territories, former or current, regardless of wheter that territory is neutral leaning or not, or they are neutral leaning or not.
the goblin cities are considerably more appealing to them as neutral ports of call than the sewers that probably ran red with blood elf…blood
I think that the main issue is that most horde RPers that would not oppose your efforts and wish you luck are at the same time already accounted for and have their RP needs sated through their own guilds or even cross guild communities.
The ones who havn’t might have already all made the jump over to Alliance for the same reason alliance players outside of RP realms are jumping over to horde; to find people to play with.
I would say keep trying cause its a good effort and I have no way to confirm there is hardly a soul left on horde, all I know is that in general its rare to see a new face appear on the horde scene and horde guilds can go for quite some time without finding new recruits.
Maybe the launch of dragonlands will bring back enough of an influx to revive the larger horde hubs (SMC / certain Orgrimmar subzones)
You can’t really blame people for not taking part in your artificial hub then. If requirement is for a Horde character to be okay with going to Dalaran + having reason to go to Dalaran + being a bad guy/outlaw, you’re already limiting pool of available players a lot.
I think – if you want to create a popular / long-lasting roleplay hub – the best approach is to consult the population of the community you’re looking to cater to. Deciding arbitrarily for yourself what the best option is isn’t very viable; you have to ask others and see what the consensus is, then work from that.
If Horde players respond that the Underbelly doesn’t work for them (assuming they would otherwise be interested in what you’re selling), then you need to ask them what zones they think would work and expand upon the results of that.
No hub will ever work based on the decisions of one person solo.
Nah – that’s the idea with a guild or any kind of group with an organised storyline to follow, but when it comes to getting a roleplay hub, the more people the better, because it’s the people themselves who are the draw.
Tbh, if making a neutral/criminal type hub, surely the Goblin spots such as Booty Bay/Gadgetzen/Ratchet are the best no? especially seing as two of them are connected by boat, both being -reasonably- close to both faction capitols, and with alot of Horde actually having more reason to go to such spots.
