Current state of RP

Krunch wrote:The role-play on the Horde side is pretty good. Sure it's guild-centered. But there's an easy way to get in on the action: namely, join one of the role-play guilds It's not like we're elitist or anything. In fact, Kozgugore often invites guilds that are new and low on numbers to come with on events.

It's not so much the joining of guilds, however, that is a problem - it's more to do with the restriction on the type of Roleplay offered by such Guilds. Not to be insulting in any way, shape or form, but it seems like RP is limited severely dependant on what race you are. For example (using the sparse list of guilds on the Defias Wiki to find out about current guilds), Orcs are confined to joining one of two major tribes - but what if the RPer wishes to be, for example, a Warlock outcast etc. ? Trolls are confined to either joining a group of trolls that are forming a new Gurubashi Empire, a group of trolls independent trolls that inhabit Dun Morogh or a group of xenophobic trolls that, again, are not loyal to the Horde - what if the troll wants to be loyal to the Horde? Albeit, with the undead, I'm somewhat impressed - They have an "evil cultist" guild, a military guild and a "gathering" guild - however, rare as it may be, what guild would the likes of a "Leonid Barthalomew" join, or a forsaken who is pacifistic (not out of feeling, but out of morals and honour they would wish to retain from their former life)? Tauren have the Mistrunner Tribe (which there is little information about on the wiki...) and, I may be wrong, but was there not also a Grimtotem tribe (no article on the wiki)? Assuming so, it's fairly balanced in the fact that a peaceful, "Good" character can join the Mistrunners, whereas an "evil"/violent character may join the Grimtotems - but what happens, for example, to a holy "zealot" character etc. ? Blood Elves, as far as I'm aware, are restricted to Military Regiment or Sunfury guild - what happens to a more refined, civilised character that would rather be found studying in some library than on the battlefield etc. ?

I could say the exact same thing for Alliance guilds, ofcourse, but I'm saying this mostly to prove the inalienable benefits of more open RP.

Krunch wrote:
PS.: To me, Stormwind role-play sounds quite... confining. Always the same venues, always the same kind of role-play. Quite repetitive.

It is, in a sense. The fact that it constantly takes place in Cathedral Square, in my eyes, is a huge disadvantage - the Cathedral is, with all due respect, the "Home of the Holy", effectively. Ofcourse, there have been a few mild surprises - such as when the occasional cultist would stir trouble, but those were very rare. Albeit, there is still a variety of characters - from Soldiers, to Zealot Paladins, to "hidden" warlocks/criminals, independent knowledge-seekers (who would not affiliate themselves with any particular guild) etc.

Back in the day, there were frequent RP skirmishes - between the likes of the Darkshire TDS and the Cathedral Zealots. I have no idea why the events ended, but they were most certainly enjoyable while they lasted. The only variety in venue nowadays is via Events - Guild or otherwise.

Its down to numbers, Etular. There just aren't the numbers of roleplayers to be able to form and effectively maintain a racial guild (nor indeed a multi-racial) that represents a specific niche - The other two Troll guilds than Gurubashi you mentioned went down the pancrack after no more than maybe a couple of months at best. Every other Worgen guild that as come about has fallen on its arse and died (With the exception of the Greymane Era; yay for unsubtle advertisement) and the race is amongst the most played now. Most people roleplay some form of military, combat-orientated character and thus why such guilds are popular and last longer.

Saali wrote:
- Someone ought to reach out to those loller guilds and give them an offer to be part of something greater (red pill/blue pill scenario).

They need to prove that they are newbs and not noobs. To this end, we do need to include them, or at least try to. If they refuse, then we bring the hammer down.

Saali wrote:

- Making horde rp in general more inclusive. Might be a bit hard with so many single-race guilds, but for me the horde seems to be fragmented to the point where guilds are distant islands.

This, I support wholeheartedly. Horde RP is all but dead unless you have a guild.


My two cents: The quality dropped since I started roleplaying on Defias early in Wrath and, while the quantity has increased, most of it sucked. Badly. I can't comment on the last six weeks or so, mind. The server needs (decent) new blood. Not just posting up a HEY YOU GUYS, COME CHECK OUT DEFIAS OR WE WILL EAT YOUR BABIES on the battle.net forum.

Gunnell wrote:Its down to numbers, Etular. There just aren't the numbers of roleplayers to be able to form and effectively maintain a racial guild (nor indeed a multi-racial) that represents a specific niche - The other two Troll guilds than Gurubashi you mentioned went down the pancrack after no more than maybe a couple of months at best. Every other Worgen guild that as come about has fallen on its arse and died (With the exception of the Greymane Era; yay for unsubtle advertisement) and the race is amongst the most played now. Most people roleplay some form of military, combat-orientated character and thus why such guilds are popular and last longer.

Agreed completely. Hence, my support of the idea that "Open RP > Guild RP when it comes to variety of RP styles permitted".

Most racial umberella guilds do have some form of 'citizen/non-combatant' rank in order to make them more open for the race that they represent, its just that most people decide to play RAWRMESMASHALLIES/HORDE and thus are catered too more.

Wait, who were the third troll guild. SGE, Frostmane and...?

Perturbo wrote:Wait, who were the third troll guild. SGE, Frostmane and...?

Err, there was Dimday back in the early days and then <Darkspear Tribe> popped up for about five whole minutes.

The only race I can really see with a large amount of character options would be Dwarf. Most of the others(from what I can see anyway) have their military guild in some form, and then maybe a second guild, or its just one guild with a specific concept, but the guild is so popular there aren't alot of alternatives.

I agree with Elloa, non-guild RP is pretty damn hard to find, you really need to have some friends in guilds who can invite you along. The game is so accessable that most people want to try progression, be it raids or pvp, and the only alternative is screw that and join the niche guild for your race.

Alright then, lets move up a bit. Question; Can we make a list of whats needed, and what we can actually do to improve things, add to the immersion or generally help out? Any suggestions/concerns or ideas are welcome, no matter how wild or far fetched they might seem.

After the list is done/suggestions are gathered, lets see what we can do to pull some of those off.

I'd say self-improvement is the first and most important step.

Dare have your character move to someplace where there might not be loads of RP. Dare RP with characters you're uncertain you want to OOCly RP with.

You might be surprised. I've been numerous times.

Would be cool to see some RP in Redridge or Duskwood as others said. Not necessarily with only guildies.

The Darkspear Tribe isn't dead afaik. Unathi and his cronies pitch in from time to time. I'll reply to Elloa's and Etular's posts later, since typing on ye olde iPhonee is too much of a pain ATM.

"Self-improvement is masturbation. Now self-destruction..." - Tyler Durden.

Krunch wrote:...ye olde iPhonee...

*is jealous*

Everyone and their mom has an iPhone. No need to be jealous! Anyway, I won't steer this thread off topic. Sorry!

Right, as to what we need:

1) Ataris' suggestion is a good one that the established RPers should make more of an effort to RP with people they don't know. One of the things I have missed lately is the chance for random encounters (that don't involve being mugged xD).

2) A thread for current RP spots for people looking for random RP. Gahalla, you offered to make and update such a thread, and I for one would be REALLY delighted to have such a thing. I'd be happy to help organise it, if wanted.

Geldar wrote:Alright then, lets move up a bit. Question; Can we make a list of whats needed, and what we can actually do to improve things, add to the immersion or generally help out? Any suggestions/concerns or ideas are welcome, no matter how wild or far fetched they might seem.

After the list is done/suggestions are gathered, lets see what we can do to pull some of those off.

I'm for my part working on something in Whitestar at the moment. My purpose will be to promote role play and open it to a large population fo roleplayer, serious and hardcore rpers as much as casual and new roleplayers. Will be done on my scale, which might not be much, but still wil contribute.

Aniane/Vale wrote:Right, as to what we need:

1) Ataris' suggestion is a good one that the established RPers should make more of an effort to RP with people they don't know. One of the things I have missed lately is the chance for random encounters (that don't involve being mugged xD).

2) A thread for current RP spots for people looking for random RP. Gahalla, you offered to make and update such a thread, and I for one would be REALLY delighted to have such a thing. I'd be happy to help organise it, if wanted.

As I stated earlier in this thread about a list/thread of what, where and whom RP is, I've put up an example of what Shattered Hand: brotherhood are up to and where in this thread:
https://defiasrp.forumotion.net/t2584-shattered-hand-brotherhood-rp-files
Using this a a starting block other non guild organisations and guild could do the same, so more random RP could be made on purpose perhaps

I've made a topic for public rp locations now now:

https://defiasrp.forumotion.net/t2585-ahpublic-rp-locations#59403

Elloa wrote:

But there's an easy way to get in on the action: namely, join one of the role-play guilds

This is not a good solution. In fact it's well known than raid guild have huge difficulties to RP, or doing something else than just slaking arround in Stormwind at best (outside raids). For all players who want quality role-play, they can not join a raid guild. Are they forced to give up raiding? raiding need to be open, well announced, well know, promoted and open to everyone. or it will die slowly. That's my opinion atleast, I've been on 2 servers where raiding is completly dead today.

Just to illustrate I can reason that way too.

Why should I be bothered to cater to people in raid guilds that have no desire to arrange events for me as well? I am no samaritan and to be honest, if you don't scratch my back, I will most likely not be in the mood to scratch yours. Why should I want to put effort into building a role-play relation with people who want all the benefits without putting effort in themselves? The notion that serving casual role-players their role-play is good for the community is most likely not true. And who is part of this community to begin with?

What I am trying to say, in a nutshell, is what do I gain out of it?

Krunch wrote:
Why should I be bothered to cater to people in raid guilds that have no desire to arrange events for me as well? I am no samaritan and to be honest, if you don't scratch my back, I will most likely not be in the mood to scratch yours. Why should I want to put effort into building a role-play relation with people who want all the benefits without putting effort in themselves? The notion that serving casual role-players their role-play is good for the community is most likely not true. And who is part of this community to begin with?

What I am trying to say, in a nutshell, is what do I gain out of it?

Speaking as someone who is in a raid guild and have arranged or helped with several RP events, I'd like to ask what is required for someone to be worthy of RPing with you?

That's quite the selfish and elitist attitude Krunch, you seem to have it in your head that just because someone isn't in an RP guild they are lazy and just want benefits and aren't putting any effort into it. Well that doesn't automatically happen just cos your not in an RP guild on that character. The only benefit should be having fun RPing.

Krunch is right tbh

Do you see the raiding guilds offering to take RPers along and boost them in endgame content? I don't think so. Seems a bit lopsided to expect the RP guilds to cater to everyone and not the other way around.

Now that's just retarded. You really don't know how much organisation goes into raiding and so boosting random out of guild people is just impossible. Just cos your not in an RP guild doesn't mean you arent an RP'er, so saying "oh what have they done for me, why should they come to my events" is just stupid.

Im in a PvP RP orientated guild that does endgame PvP and I arrange RP events, and RP in general for people regardless of their guild or PvP/PvE orientation. This is not done for personal gain, its done for the enjoyment that everyone gets from a well executed event or a campaign and that is the biggest 'gain' anyone can get from it.

If you RP to gain something else than fun from it, then you are certainly, doing it wrong.

PS: What Perturbo and Saevir said.

PSS: People should come up and post constructive and helpful things that would help the improvement of our community in general, like Gahalla and a few others already did. If you cannot do that, then please, do stay away.

Krunch wrote:
Why should I be bothered to cater to people in raid guilds that have no desire to arrange events for me as well? I am no samaritan and to be honest, if you don't scratch my back, I will most likely not be in the mood to scratch yours. Why should I want to put effort into building a role-play relation with people who want all the benefits without putting effort in themselves? The notion that serving casual role-players their role-play is good for the community is most likely not true. And who is part of this community to begin with?

What I am trying to say, in a nutshell, is what do I gain out of it?

Firstly, the belief that non-RP guild members are the ones "who want all the benefits without putting effort in themselves" is flawed and one only has to look at certain people, Geldar, Jayse and myself included, to know this. I don't know how much you are aware of but we do put effort in RP, whether you believe it or not.

Secondly, you make the whole thing sound like a profit transaction. RP is about fun, not bargaining or gaining anything. You seem to completely misunderstand the entire concept, awaiting to receive god knows what. That's not the purpose of RP.