I came back to the game just a few days ago after having been away for a good while I did not know at all what I was going to be met with in terms of roleplay as I have no contacts that play the game.
Now I am chilling in Orgrimmar right next to a san’layn and someone from Maldraxxus. It does feel very weird, but so far I just look for the bits of roleplay I -can- find, and all is good in the world then.
I have already been recommended a guild and I saw there is some sort of public campaign nearing the end of the month, so I think maybe you just need to keep one eye extra open to find roleplay. It seems to still be there, despite the state of the game.
The chat ranges are really good, lore allowing for all sorts of genres, emote variety is decent albeit obnoxious how much is npc-only, racial variety is well above average, racial lore is extensive and allows for cool interaction (even if the writers want it snuffed out), you have a ton of toys to use, well made addons like TRP and Listener (and poor addons like Tongues), trials as convenient npc chars that can be used most anyplace, and saving the best for last:
Glamour prisms and the pickpocket glyph.
Absolute hard carry by those.
WoW is an extremely good platform/foundation for RP, beyond a shadow of a doubt.
The lads harping on that the sub fee is not worth the content we’ve gotten are actually spot on.
Blizzard are charging us monthly for a game that is a glorified waiting room. That’s why RP has dried up.
The “world” of Warcraft has been left to wither, rot and fall off. What is added is token at best. You begim to wonder what all those months of sub fees are being used for.
Even if we’re only giving enough to pay basic salary for 12 people, why is it those specific people who don’t seem to have much enthusiasm for the World?
The RP is still there even outside of SM and O altough be it a bit rarer.
My caravan for example travels the World(s) to look for goods, traders and adventure. We do offer a Bazar that is open for anyone to approach and trade with.
And of course you can run and rp with us anywhere!
Currently we have set up Camp in the Hellfire Peninsula.
But I do agree, RP outside of the main cities is not as common anymore.
Let’s change that there are many great settlements.
I agree with my furry little friend above.
I have played on and off over the years, since reallife tends to intervene quite regularly for me. The roleplaying scene has changed, and the patience required until you settle into an enjoyable “biosphere” is too much to ask for some. You cannot partake in gardening, if you are unwilling to pick some weeds aswell.
Some of the casual roleplay you find might turn into quite eventful friendships or rivalries that can be a blast, if you find people you resonate with. So the single advise I would give is, be patient, give people a chance. You will get surprised both ways, good and bad, but if you stick with those that you enjoy your time with, you will build yourself a neat habitat over time.
As for the complaints, some sure are valid, but if you are unhappy with what you can gain from the game, just leave it be. You can suggest improvements if you want to better things, but this is a PG 12+ game, so the time where mama picks you up if you cry loud and long enough should be over.
It wasn’t even common back in BfA. You’d occasionally had Norf RP in ye olden Lordaeron/Hillbrad/Arathi and that was about it.
As for cities/settlements - you’d actually had to try really hard to get RP going anywhere, even Ironforge was a graveyard 90% of the time unless people were doing events there. The only time you get RP outside of the main hubs which I guess are Dalaran, SW and OG, is if people have events there or if there’s a large campaign. Nobody is going to /sit on a chair in a tavern in some backwater zone that hasn’t been updated since Cataclysm for 2 hours just to hope for a crumb of RP. At least not with how the game is now.
I guess fairly popular hubs are Redridge(?) and I don’t know about Duskwood. Then again, Duskwood has never been a bastion of greatness - especially since that one thing in BfA
i think i missed that Duskwood incident.
And isnt Booty Bay also somewhat alive, or Ratchet?
Eitherway this was more an idea of “lets try it again” and “dont give up”
RP end and starts always with yourself.
yeah i know sounds preachy yet…its not that wrong
I’m not 100% sure I know what the Duskwood incident is, but if it is what I think it is then thank goodness that the person/people involved aren’t around anymore.
Boralus as an RP spot does sound amazing though. It has the layout and feel of an actual city, and its far more up to date in terms of graphics than any other Alliance hub.
There is a level of inability or reduced willingness to really engage that I see however.
People despairing for Orgrimmar will then opt to leave it to its fate than to attempt to inspire and create the RP they would prefer was housed there.
No one of course is obligated to create or provide, but those that do have the drive to do it are feeling driven off by the recurrence of doomsaying.
RP still exists of course. I am in a community where RP is still very strong, people are greatly eager but it is by virtue of these people caring to maintain it.
I always feel it is always worthwhile to make sure ideas, even fleeting, are actioned! Throw that event, run that IC shop, have that fight.
Every expansion, barring WoD, has either wrapped back around to Azeroth or spent some effort to show the global state which as roleplayers we can engage with. SLands doesn’t have that. Everything is divorced from Azeroth and contained wholesale within the Shadowlands. Are the Jailer’s forces attacking anywhere on Azeroth? Are they still contained to Icecrown? Are they still even coming through like with the pre-patch event? What’s going on with Azeroth missing a good chunk of its leadership figures? We don’t know and we haven’t been told.
For some that’s a liberating prospect to explore new ideas and for others like myself it’s incredibly frustrating to be left in the dark. I feel much less engaged in RP than any previous expansion because not only do I feel like engaging with the main plot is uncomfortable to explain from an IC standpoint, I have no scraps to work with in the background. I am in stasis and it blows.
