How could we lure more people to try out Roleplaying?

For anyone looking at this and still caring about the original topic, the main recurring themes of the discussion on the official forums are:

"RP is too hard to get into because RPers are a judgmental crowd."

"RPers are too secluded and don't hang out with the normal population." (This extends to "Close DefiasRP" but I shan't go there.)

"MMOs aren't great for RP/don't want to." - Not much we can do there.

"Krogon wants my body, and it scares me." - Sorry, but that one was too funny to leave out.

The main prevailing issues seem to be our seclusion and the fact that it is easy to judge/ignore people who don't understand lore/RP rather than actually give them a chance and engage them.

Oh, and this Storm Riders social guild apparently RPs and does fairly well. Maybe the social guild RP setup isn't as much a dud as I previously thought it was? - Perhaps we should try to involve them in the community or something, just a thought.

Years ago when I was on Ravenholdt, I was in Stormriders. I vouch for them. It's still even the same management.
Band of Brave are still alive and kicking.
I've a friend starting a new role guild.
I see DoL about frequently.
There is a weird killer on the lose.
And Skarain's guild are doing things.
There is plenty of other rp going on.
There is rp.

I think the big problem is that most of the RP is going on outside the city and is often guild-restrictive. It all came with WoD and I really miss that Stormwind casual RP. We (the Braves) still have a lot of casual RP on our own, but that is mostly out in Draenor since that's where our events are kept.

Arabella I am still in Storm Riders - and I also vouch their credentials. We need to move this chat to realm forums - to show this is a RPPVP realm - just my view

Says hi for me
I still have Musher on real ID.

We need to move this chat to realm forums

It's already there. People need to move themselves to the realm forums, not topics.

That would require a subscription.

How to lure people to roleplay?

Mainly don't be toxic to fellow DBers, don't create bullshit accounts to hide yourself and start ranting on how you starting and creating Drama by switching realms and alts.. Is lovely how after this long some people makes you feel soooo welcome... even when you log in and search you on an alt or another server.. as if they own you. Is a lovely attitude... seriously this absolutely makes one feel soooo welcome... and loved by your own realm makes you  wanna stay

...

I think when people do that sort of thing they forget it puts off more than just their target from Rping.

Cannot do anything but mimic Iriel here. As someone who recently left DB (yes I am still watching these forums. Murder me) The whole "Let's hate on these people leaving to AD" attitude is not the way to go about dealing with things. because a GM/officer of a guild and it's guildies want to try out something new and possibly better is no reason to suddenly turn your back on them. We're all Rpers after all and instead of seeing it as a DB vs AD thing you should have respect no matter what. We're all paying this game to have fun RPing no matter where or whom it is with. Of course we've all had fun RPing storylines and such with people from this server and the next and I'm more than sure a lot of people here have come from servers that died before moving to DB for salvation. I don't believe that having one stable RP realm such as AD is healthy for WoW but I gotta' lay down my pride and love to DB to worry about the future of the guild I'm running and the interaction my players are having with others. Doesn't make us bad people. Just means we've moved on to something completely new - Like exploring a new expansion or some such. To any of those that wish to join us on that endeavour are welcome of course and they shouldn't be spited for such actions.

The DB forums are toxic. Of course they are. DB is like a countryside community. Everybody knows everybody there is to know and when a new somebody or group comes along they can be hostile towards new faces. If you wish to attract RP to DB again you need to advertise DB RP and what you have to offer not just on the realm forums but surprisingly enough just on the general RP forums. Post events, screenshots of events, story's. Heck post a picture of your naked IC grandad if it grabs attention. It's all about awareness of what is going on. While I am an avid lover of these forums as someone who checks them daily and has used them to their advantage it is very -Out of the way- for new Rpers. But that's just my opinion. Goodnight and love you all. Whether you RP on DB or AD. We're all Roleplayers in the end. Hope you find fun in whatever it is you do in this game you're paying for

People should remember first and foremost that they are chatting with other human beings. Now I'm not saying you should sugarcoat your opinions but neither one should be rude, aggressive or force others into submission.

One can get the point across with good manners too. Other than that, I agree with Robin. People are free to do what they want, how they want and when they feel like it.

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Edit: I also wish to clarify that when I say I agree with Robin, it's regarding the the part where people should respect each-other and that they are free to enjoy the game the way they wish, as long as they don't seek to directly harm others or the community.

Despite going this late into the thread, i will repeat my suggestion which i was all about when i first wrote the title of the thread.

How could we lure more people to try out Roleplaying attract people who play the game on the RP-PvP servers, new players, old players who have not try out Roleplaying before... to try out Roleplaying

When i first created the thread, i had hoped people to touch the Forums, DB forums, Realm forums only briefly. I did not speak of luring people who are searching out for a Roleplaying server through forums.... i spoke of luring the people who already play on the RP-PvP servers to try out roleplaying.

Take a step back and think. How many people of World of Warcraft regularly browse Forums? Any forums? Likely not to often. Most players are more concerned of playing the game instead of lurking the forums and banter with people. They do and farm achievements, level up alts, do raiding, do PvP.

I will elaborate.

In less than a week, i have met over 5 players who are entirely new into Roleplaying, but i've regardless roleplayed with them and had a chat with them, told of them of all the Roleplaying hotspots and be friendly towards them. 3/5 of those players were low-level alts or new characters to the server, 1 a recently made Death Knight and one 100 Druid who does Raiding regularly.

The RP-PvP servers, all RP-PvP servers are connected. We do not -need- to lure people -from other servers- here. We are already a huge server-bundle to which people will come.

...So forget the forums. Forget the endless banter, the "competition" of players between AD and DB, all the drama and toxicity that even this thread have seen...

...and focus on Showing the People who come into the RP-PvP servers the Beauty of Roleplaying. Do not hide it behind instanced walls, in the safety of your bubble environment. Take up your macros and do recruitment ingame. Walk before the faces of players, be it to Roleplay in starter-zones, Trade District, Stormshield or any place where there is players.... and show them, seek to recruit them IC and interact.

Sure, that may "hurt your immersion" when you see all the OOCers, see OOC talk in responses, but take a moment to consider. If you do not show Roleplaying to others, how will others be drawn into Roleplaying, something that they may have distantly heard about but never had a part of? Your utmost immersion on the moment is a small sacrifice in comparison to the benefits if such activity would draw even a single new player into Roleplaying.

And yes, we really need to get better announcement going for public events, such as Trade Macro for Stormwind Council and any other event and reoccurring event about Roleplaying... possibly including /yell Announcements of it.

Forget about the Forums. Set your gaze on the world that opens before us.

I haven't read all the pages, so I'm not sure it has already been suggested. But one idea could be some people make City Criers to ICly announce things like Council meeting. That can also be done in /trade. Alternatively if someone wants some random RP to show up at specific locations this can be done too. Something like /trade *Rumors has it there are some shady folk hanging about at the Pig and Whistle right now*. Things like that can be a nice and o be honest, easy way to show people RP exists and where it may be found.

"I'm not mad, i'm just disappointed" Some of the suggestions in this thread tbh have been said for quite awhile, due to people seeing the beginning of a decline, these people were ignored with "lol, server is fine, nothing wrong", so I can see why some people can be annoyed about it all.

But as for people leaving, well far as I see it that is a new opportunity, it's a catalyst for change, one we're already seeing for the better now on DB, seen plenty of Rp on the server now and it's been relativley good, all we need is to get more of it. The Shady Lady seems to be doing reasonably well, hopefully soon it will get into the criminal side once things sort itself out on the server.

As for Rp'ing on both servers, I find that completely counter-productive, one server is always going to win out on which you spend more time on, would rather focus my time and energy on one server and promote Rp on it, then their is also the fact officers/gm's can't really hop between the two, it's not like me and Beladon can hop to AD and back, so quite a few people can be in the same boat with that. (nor would we want to having seen and heard the elitism on that server ingame and via skype call with an AD'er. With this we can say that Disciples of Light will never be moving to AD, besides it wouldn't make sense for an Rp-PvP guild to do so.)


As for the council, it honestly doesn't feel like they do anything, cannot possibly see the point of council if A) The councillors don't really come on and casually Roleplay beyond the one meeting a week. And B) Don't create things for the roleplay community to partake in. As well as this councils are very short.

Every time I have joined a server to rp, I've used the /lfrp to ask if it's active, or I've gone to the typical hot spots. I know a few people who have recently moved to the inactive RP servers (moonglade, sha'tar etc) and they did the same thing. Active presence in game is the best way to introduce new people to the server.

"We should close down DefiasRP and use the realm forum!" No one is stopping you from using that forum. I enjoy DefiasRP, there's always something to read.

Whenever I open myweb browser, I open this sight ffirst, then check Facebook, then check tumblr
I do this every time. I Have a love hate relationship with these forums, and how buggy it is to write posts on your phone.

Vardrek/Burgen wrote:As for the council, it honestly doesn't feel like they do anything, cannot possibly see the point of council if A) The councillors don't really come on and casually Roleplay beyond the one meeting a week. And B) Don't create things for the roleplay community to partake in. As well as this councils are very short.

Yup. At this point the Council either needs a serious reformation or it should be eliminated entirely. Any reformation has to be one that removes every member that isn't actively doing anything outside of Council sessions. Seriously, the Tuesday sessions should be a small fraction of your RP, Councillors, not the entirety of it. You're supposed to be public servants, not museum pieces on display once a week.

It's pretty blatant when I, someone who hasn't even played for two years, have offered regularly to update the stickied threads in the Council forum only to be met with silence. I eventually just struck out the entire status thread since it's so out of date.


As far as the realm forum suggestion goes, at this point we all know that's never going to happen even though it's the most important step that has to be made. Many people have been saying it for years and that suggestion continues to go ignored by people who refuse to disassociate from DefiasRP. That suggestion is never going to take unless an administrator takes the bull by the horns and straight up shuts down DefiasRP.


Regarding transfers: Yes, people who move to AD have, over the years, contributed to the downfall of DB. While it is understandable at this point, people want to find enjoyment out of the game, it can't be denied that for every person who leaves DB is another nail in DB's coffin. The server doesn't have the capacity to continue bleeding out its few remaining RPers. While I've finally relented and transferred a toon there since resubbing, I honestly have no real desire to RP over there or to go through the hassle of getting involved in a new community and so all of my current RP has so far been on DB still. I don't know how long that will keep up if more people keep leaving, but for my part I'd much rather roleplay here than on AD.

Regardless, people who try to encourage other people to transfer to AD need to knock it off. It should in my opinion be against the forum rules to promote and advertise another server (or private server). This is a Defias forum and should be for people who play on Defias. Server poachers do nothing but discourage Defias roleplay. If you play on AD and enjoy it? Great, awesome! But keep your enjoyment of it to the AD forums.

*Edit* The above comment is a about promoting AD, not about playing on it. Playing on it is understandable with the condition that Defias is in right now. But if someone has permanently moved to AD and they post here only to advocate it and try to get other DBers to move, that is rude and discouraging to DB players.

If you post here you reach about 20 peepz - on realm forums it is at least 200 - why we still wasting time outside realm forums?

margwethil wrote:If you post here you reach about 20 peepz - on realm forums it is at least 200 - why we still wasting time outside realm forums?

I dunno, why are you?

I will always be nicer on realm forums than I am here. This website literally brings out the worst in me.
I don't even act like I do here, in game.

Arabella Greene wrote:I will always be nicer on realm forums than I am here. This website literally brings out the worst in me.
I don't even act like I do here, in game.

you just need some love and cuddles