Defias' current state, low activity, etc

hmm I dont play much anymore but I doubt the situation is that "worse" than it has been at moments in the past. I never really liked ad (Im not a fag after all ahemlexgradahem!!!!!!!!!!) and always was happy with the lvl of rp on db but that's maybe just cause I have different rp "needs". if I rp'd once or twice a week, Id be happy personally!!! I think maybe thats just the kind of realm db is? its about perspective I guess, maybe less rp isnt such a bad thing!!! we have a more closeknit community where everyone knows everyone and says hi to each other and loves each other a lot

trying to change things and make db more like ad in terms of the amount of rp would be a monumental effort and its better to just accept it like thelos said!!!

also thelos I like how youve adopted the panda mindset full on now both ingame and out of game it pleases me greatly, can just picture you as a big cuddly hairy man and i just want to rub your tummy and feed you honey. also youve become more verbose and philosophical if thats even possible ha!! but I like it so no worries ps I miss you :[

The amount and quality of Roleplaying is on a constant movement. People come and go, old ones leave and new ones learn. It's like this it have always been. I see your concerns when you created this thread, just like when Gogol created [Rejuvenating role-play on Defias Brotherhood, a few easy steps] - Thread some months ago. There are many things that could be done to promote roleplaying, and kicking asses in doing that is only good. I myself am at my limits, even when i try to create more Roleplay, as i am just 'one' man.

I want nothing more than see Roleplaying to bloom, but i have to face the fact that my time is limited. I can not be everywhere organizing events, even less now while in the army and my time being limited. Thus, i have decided to focus on the Underworld, where my character currently resides, because then i can also enjoy the results of my hard work to create more Roleplaying. I am already hosting the Underforge gatherings OCC to promote Roleplaying. I created the Contract Board, again, to promote Roleplaying. I am doing work IC to create an entirely new power among the underworld. I get involved in everything i possibly can, talk with every group and organisation and see possibilities to bunch together to Roleplay, to enrich roleplaying. Do i appear as a person who have given up hope with Defias Brotherhood? Of course not, then i would not be doing all this.

Admitted, none of these or my efforts are visible to the Realm Forums, which is an ongoing question in my mind. I have considered making the Underforge meetings public and posting it on realm forums but to do that i'd have to talk with several other parties, as the concept is not mine, merely loaned. Secondly we're basically playing the concept in an area that should not be reachable, creating problems should anyone report it, although at worst merely forcing us to find a new place.

I do intend to create more RP-PvP Campaigns as The Jade Fist Campaign and other large things in the distant future, things with potential enough to bring Defias Brotherhood on the map again but none of them can commence as long as i am doing my military service. Until then, the ball is yours. I am already doing everything i possibly can.

Shaelyssa wrote:
also thelos I like how youve adopted the panda mindset full on now both ingame and out of game it pleases me greatly, can just picture you as a big cuddly hairy man and i just want to rub your tummy and feed you honey. also youve become more verbose and philosophical if thats even possible ha!! but I like it so no worries ps I miss you :[

People have started calling me Panda in real life, completely oblivious to my role-playing activities.

Because I am indeed hairy, chubby, very docile, have a great love of good food, sleep a lot and have a low sex-drive.

On the topic of great military campaigns: if there is truly such a great want for that, we should open a brainstorming thread where we can publicly discuss "the next big thing".

We'd have to appoint a leader - or more realisticly said, somebody will have to be bothered with playing one.

As I mainly play a neutral character, I would find it too awkward to adopt such a role, unless it were somehow involved in "Dah Thundah Keeng" storyline; something like brawling over Mogu ruins, Sunreavers versus Kirin Tor style.

Although it is true what thelos has said, that its natural. But then again, what exactly is the definition of natural? Its a given that people come and go. In many cases this is caused by reasons out of the game, in their real lives. Obviously change is inevitable and very much natural. But does that really mean that part of the problem doesnt lie with us, the roleplayers on DB (Aswell as the several occasions of ganking, such as aboc)? Dont take me the wrong way, I'm not trying to say that most, or any are utterly shit. But rather that, maybe we cannot influence the activity as much as we would want to. But that doesnt mean that we shouldnt try to.

I've also seen several cases, on the forum and outside, that guy nr1 "Hey, that guy moved over to AD".. guy nr2 "Haha, who cares, he wasnt that decent". Really? I know alot that are as good as them, if not better at roleplaying yet move over to AD for different reasons. The number one reason I have heard is simply that its more active, a larger diversity. I guess my question is 'how did this happen in the first place'. Since I seriously doubt that people simply "Hey, lets just randomly tranfer to AD, wheee!"

Anyhow.. I'd like to. No, I'd love to see DB more active, more people all around. The more we are doesnt mean the quality will decrease, actually, it can very well be the contrary. The RP does afterall become what -we- make it. If there are some below 'average' then fuck yes. I'd not mind teachhing them the ropes. So yeah, why not try gaining a few more people, it surely couldnt hurt. Make some public events, not too restricted every now and then, posting the events on the defias wouldnt be to hard aswell. If some people doesnt want to or simply are abit lazy, like me. Then dont do anything, noone will be forcing you!

Also about gankers. What do we do about them, do we simply kill them back or is there a way to resolve it.. more peacefully?

I've most likely writen some useless shit here. But hey, who hasnt? Love from Lordaeron!

EDIT: Argh, dont take me the wrong way. I'm lazy but.. I'm willing to contribute for the sake of DB! Just saying

I don’t know what is more disheartening: people who acknowledge that there is an issue and say that they don’t want to solve it, be for laziness or simply carelessness, or people who hide their head in the sand. Let’s show some numbers(Ally side, but by the look of it Horde side is not so better): on a rough count, the active rpers in the server are maybe(and it’s a very optimistic estimate) one hundred. Probably, half. When 50 rpers(!) are busy with an event, the rest of the world is empty(see for example Lunar Festival or the last Gilnean Banquet). These 100 people are spread, with various alts in something around 15-20 active rp guilds, more or less:
Disciples of Light, Holy Lightbringers, Stormwind Regiment, Blades for Hire, Forlorn Cartel, The Violet City, Freelancers, Black Hand, The Greyford Company, the Three Hammers, The Lordaeron Alliance, Nature’s Grasp, Blooming Lotus, Kingdom of Stromgarde, South Seas Company(?), The Fallen Cross, Blackblood Company(or how it is now). No idea if Tenth Legion or whatever it’s called is an rp guild or has just some rpers in it.
Note, I listed the active guilds, not those guilds which perhaps still exist but don’t operate as rp guilds anymore, like Omen of Discord or, afaIk, Wild Tempest. New guilds or get boycotted(yes, they do) or simply can’t live because the rpers population is already spread too thin in those other guilds. Hard to recruit people when the only rpers around have something like 3-4 alts in different guilds already.

So, sorry, but these are the numbers, this is not exaggeration: I can understand you don’t want to put an effort to repair the issues, but at least don’t try to hide facts. There could be solutions to this? In my opinion yes, but considering the ivory tower and the pedestal in which this community put itself on, I see it hard that any step will be taken.

these are the numbers

Wrong. They're not stats, they're a fragment of your mind and what you want to see.

And while you might see that the main events around the world are becoming smaller I've recently seen a rising in small groups spreading around the world, RPing for themselves. Atleast I myself don't enjoy large scale events and tend to stay away from them. An example would be myself on my Night Elf Celuwien. You've not seen her around, have you? Well here's a shocker: You can't keep track of all the RPers on the realm. That your circle shrinks doesn't mean that all do. People move around, try newer things and they make new characters.

As for the Horde side, there are currently two guilds rising around Silvermoon and the Shatterskull Marauders have recently been growing in numbers as well (21 people online yesterday). We've also had KoL pop up in great numbers. Seriously, I swear I've seen this thread atleast twice a year ever since I came to DB.

Longknife/Decurius wrote:I don’t know what is more disheartening: people who acknowledge that there is an issue and say that they don’t want to solve it, be for laziness or simply carelessness, or people who hide their head in the sand. Let’s show some numbers(Ally side, but by the look of it Horde side is not so better): on a rough count, the active rpers in the server are maybe(and it’s a very optimistic estimate) one hundred. Probably, half. When 50 rpers(!) are busy with an event, the rest of the world is empty(see for example Lunar Festival or the last Gilnean Banquet). These 100 people are spread, with various alts in something around 15-20 active rp guilds, more or less:
Disciples of Light, Holy Lightbringers, Stormwind Regiment, Blades for Hire, Forlorn Cartel, The Violet City, Freelancers, Black Hand, The Greyford Company, the Three Hammers, The Lordaeron Alliance, Nature’s Grasp, Blooming Lotus, Kingdom of Stromgarde, South Seas Company(?), The Fallen Cross, Blackblood Company(or how it is now). No idea if Tenth Legion or whatever it’s called is an rp guild or has just some rpers in it.
Note, I listed the active guilds, not those guilds which perhaps still exist but don’t operate as rp guilds anymore, like Omen of Discord or, afaIk, Wild Tempest. New guilds or get boycotted(yes, they do) or simply can’t live because the rpers population is already spread too thin in those other guilds. Hard to recruit people when the only rpers around have something like 3-4 alts in different guilds already.

So, sorry, but these are the numbers, this is not exaggeration: I can understand you don’t want to put an effort to repair the issues, but at least don’t try to hide facts. There could be solutions to this? In my opinion yes, but considering the ivory tower and the pedestal in which this community put itself on, I see it hard that any step will be taken.

Thing is. These threads has come at least once a year since the second year of DB's existance. RP IS DYING WE GOTTA SAVE IT!

... And we're still here. Not the same people, not as many maybe, but still here.
And no thread like this will help it. These desperate panics will make it worse, not better.

Best way to fix it? RP in places you are seen. Go RP in Goldshire/Starting hubs so new players will see it. Don't do forum whine.

As Gor said. You can never see all the RP. Same as all the RP can't see things.

In the end less RPers is a natrual development. The game is over eightyears old and the amount of players is shrinking. Not surprising the amount of RPers shrink, and congregate to less and less servers. For ages it's been AD and DB, but seem's that maybe two servers for RP might be one to many now and people are realising this.

In the end less RPers is a natrual development. The game is over eightyears old and the amount of players is shrinking. Not surprising the amount of RPers shrink, and congregate to less and less servers. For ages it's been AD and DB, but seem's that maybe two servers for RP might be one to many now and people are realising this.

So, you suggest just to leave DB for good and make it just a PVP server? Constructive solution. It's like having a football stadium and, because everyone it's going to the other one, you abandon it.
I'm not panicked. I am already moving to AD anyway. Perhaps if the thread comes at regular intervals and the population is shrinking, as it's been admitted(while others server's pop instead is growing) maybe there's something true in it. I'd ask myself: what has AD that DB hasn't? What makes rpers leave, even seasoned rpers, from here to there? But clearly you(generic you, not one in particular) have such an high opinion of yourself and of this community that seriously facing the issues is not an option.

I'll just respond to this point as I've already spoken my opinion regarding the rest.

what has DB that AD hasn't?

A close knit community.
Friends.
Specific guild concepts that can't be found there.
Less overly complicated RP-PvP fights.
A less infested Silvermoon and Stormwind.
As a result of that AD is more famous most new RPers flock there. While the number of decent RPers might be higher there the percentage is lower.
Since there aren't masses of relatively new people on DB we're very able to help out those who join us and they melt easily into the realm.

Why is it sometimes assumed that the reason DB's population is shrinking, given that it is a dire decrease as some would say, is because people are moving to AD?

I know that some (or a lot) do leave for AD, but can people name everyone whom did and claim they are the higher percentage of DB's decrease in the population? I had always believed that the population initially shrinks because people either stop RPing or stop playing the game completely.

It's a positive thought at least(that I firmly believe), that it reflects that there is nothing wrong with our server. That it is just the natural shift in the realm's population over time.

Sure we could and perhaps should be encouraged to try to help the RP on our server nevertheless. But personally, I do not believe it is as dire as some would claim to be, in the sense that there is something missing on our server that constantly contributes to a dire decrease - sure such factors exist, but in the sense that it is the sole reason of our proclaimed decrease?

As some have already stated, my opinion is that it's just a natural transition - if our population really is decreasing.

Longknife/Decurius wrote:

In the end less RPers is a natrual development. The game is over eightyears old and the amount of players is shrinking. Not surprising the amount of RPers shrink, and congregate to less and less servers. For ages it's been AD and DB, but seem's that maybe two servers for RP might be one to many now and people are realising this.

So, you suggest just to leave DB for good and make it just a PVP server?

Im not sure you are actually reading what he was typing.. He didn't say "time to jump ship guys" He just said it like it was. This is a old game, of course the playerbase is shrinking.

Always fun to see that the people bitching the most about the server dying are the ones already contributing to the problem instead of the solution. (The problem being the realm dying and people moving away)

I can't say I've noticed there being less activity, atleast not beside the normal fluctuations.
Neither would I be able to say if there are more or less guild compared to a year (or two) ago.
Ofcourse I only see the horde side and have my hands in a few (repeating) SMC events.

Longknife/Decurius wrote:

In the end less RPers is a natrual development. The game is over eightyears old and the amount of players is shrinking. Not surprising the amount of RPers shrink, and congregate to less and less servers. For ages it's been AD and DB, but seem's that maybe two servers for RP might be one to many now and people are realising this.

So, you suggest just to leave DB for good and make it just a PVP server? Constructive solution. It's like having a football stadium and, because everyone it's going to the other one, you abandon it.
I'm not panicked. I am already moving to AD anyway. Perhaps if the thread comes at regular intervals and the population is shrinking, as it's been admitted(while others server's pop instead is growing) maybe there's something true in it. I'd ask myself: what has AD that DB hasn't? What makes rpers leave, even seasoned rpers, from here to there? But clearly you(generic you, not one in particular) have such an high opinion of yourself and of this community that seriously facing the issues is not an option.

I don't suggest just leaving DB. If I still played I'd still be on DB and cling on. Far to much mediocre crap on AD for me to wade through. (Yes I am elitist thank you very much).
What I'm saying is, don't be alarmed. Things evolve.

As for what AD has that DB hasn't?
More roleplayers. Some want it, some don't. No PvP that can kill you if you dislike it. (Turns away a lot of players who don't enjoy the PvP Mechanics). When communities start to go away, those left over will always migrate towards the one that seem's the healthiest of those left over. AD seem's that because of the bigger amount of players. And more obvious RP on the realmforum.

Edit: Althaløs and Tijb got what I ment. Game's old. Less players. Less players with shared intrest. Ofc they try to gather together where most are. Etc
Not "We're doomed jump ship!" (I've had a character on AD alliance and I found it to be hell)

Didn't this same post come around the time SWTOR came out? Aswell as with Diablo3? xP

Like many have stated this has been an issue for a very long time but we are still here, the community still has the council every week, guilds have their events, people are robbed *Stares at the cartel*, arrested, told off (ICly ofc) and so much more is actually going on then what everyone can see.
Maybe the server isn't as dead as people state but there is little RP for their own characters to join in on.

I haven't been actively RPing since the Chapter made the move to AD, it was alot of work and everything with it burnt me out so I took an RP break. Suddenly I came back (Because someone bought me a gamecard to get my ass back on wow xD) with a plot that is already in motion and has involved a few people I've never RPed with before.
Point is it really doesn't take much thought to get new people involved.
There is also a matter of time though, people work or have school untill about 4-5 in the afternoon so RP ANYWHERE will be lacking untill that time a day, or sometimes even later on the day.

Looking for some random RP? Start a buisness like I did with Reyleigh, I admit I haven't had it active lately but that's because of different things, but I still have employees who can come and go there, work and have customers, that is probably the spot I've had the most random RP on DB so far.
People come inside to have a weapon fixed, renewed or are looking for something special. (I know I have had a few times I've taken on a job and then gone inactive, for those of you that involves I apologize).
People always have a reason to go to a blacksmith ICly in this RP world, armor and weapon related, I'm sure that an enchantment store would work, I tried to open a leather and cloth shop aswell but its manager went a bit unactive on me and I'm not sure I can even keep it going if it was ever active
Not every plot of RP needs to involve something more special then just everyday stuff. We need a clothing and leather store in my opinion, a magical trinkets and items store aswell, hell even a (non-combat) pet-store would be fun to go to!
I think there is an engineering store somewhere and even someone doing tattoos?
Endless posibilities!

Wrong. They're not stats, they're a fragment of your mind and what you want to see.

Sorry, no. Sure I can’t keep track of all rpers, but for sure I can keep track of the most active guilds on a Faction. And, sorry, the number of alts one can make doesn’t grow the rp population. I can have ten alts on the server, with a backstory and possible active rp, and still I can play just one of them at a time(unless anybody here thinks that multiboxing is possible in rp, and then I’d ask myself how could anyone really patronize about rp quality).

Specific guild concepts that can't be found there.

Please, tell me one. As far as I’ve seen, most guild concepts here present aren’t at all original, nor particularly specific. With perhaps a couple of exceptions(Forlorn Cartel and Chapter which, ah wait, moved, I guess they were all rpers of low quality). Ah, of course: some ‘specific’ things, very original just got killed, often by the community itself. I could name like 3-4 projects/guilds eliminated in the last year.

Less overly complicated RP-PvP fights.

Here I accept your point, but there’s the other side of the coin. There everyone or almost everyone can join ‘rp-pvp’ events, while here they’re available only to those rpers who want/have time to gear up and level their toons.

A less infested Silvermoon and Stormwind.

Better infested than deserted. Better new rpers, even crazy rpers who are at least trying to rp instead of deserted streets in a city which should be, by lore, filled with people in their everyday business.

As a result of that AD is more famous most new RPers flock there. While the number of decent RPers might be higher there the percentage is lower.

Mhm. I could answer you as you did before:
Wrong. They're not stats, they're a fragment of your mind and what you want to see.
I’ve roleplayed there for months, by now, and sure, there is bullshit, but instead of closing myself in the name of the ‘quality’ of rp, which is a sort of Molok not better identified, I chose, as I always do, to go with the flow. Teaching, imposing even myself in some moments, but always in a positive manner, and always accepting what I had in front of me.

Since there aren't masses of relatively new people on DB we're very able to help out those who join us and they melt easily into the realm.

When they don’t disappear soon, seeing that most rp guilds are inactive or barely active.(When they find the one fitting their char, that is).
-
I use Althalos post to point out the same thing for Tjib as well:

I know that some (or a lot) do leave for AD, but can people name everyone whom did and claim they are the higher percentage of DB's decrease in the population? I had always believed that the population initially shrinks because people either stop RPing or stop playing the game completely.

Sure there is the fact that people leave the game or stop rping, but it’s not that the issue: more or less the game pop as a whole is more or less the same since Mid-Cata(actually, there was a good peak after MoP launch). Issue is that people, and rpers, don’t go to DB and go to AD instead, and that many rpers of DB went, and go, to AD. Was the Chapter just a bunch of mediocre rpers? Was Lex? Was Sonitus? Was one of the ten rpers who recognized me on AD(same toon name, class/race) when I rolled there? All of them just mediocre rpers? (Am I? But the thread isn’t about me, and I don’t fucking care about your opinion about my rp).

We’re losing what, and who, we already had, and nobody makes themselves a question? Just shrugging? That is all? Db is doomed so, just take the best you can and give up trying better things? If you want it like this, it’s okay, perhaps I just thought better once more, and was wrong, as always.

shift work is what kills rp for me. as for the low activate can say i noticed that in the groups i've been rping with.
have i thought about jumping ship befor yes plenty of times. but little projects keep me here

Lex is a horrid Roleplayer! Everybody knows that!

I see that this discussion has reached the point where the only purpose it serves is to sour the relations between the RPers present on our Realm. Good job.

For those who see this as a problem and want to solve it:
Do what Feral said.

For those who don't really agree with the problem:
RP as usual. It helps more than most here seems to give it credit for.

Feral / Blackfall wrote:Creating RP creates things to talk about IC, which creates more RP!

Ideas (feeeeel free to steal any and all, anyone):
- Duplicate posts on Roleplay, Realm + DefiasRP forums.
- Weekly marketplace "event"
- More inter-guild interaction, friendship, cooperation
- Guild for "citizens" that don't fit other guilds' niches, and which OOCly trains new RPers. Could be run by alts from other guilds.
- RPers rolling alts to wander around just causing trouble in the city.
- RP challenges: ex. roll a char the exact opposite of your main, and play it.
- Cathedral Hospital (constant supply of medics, to promote more travel across city ICly)
- Travelling Rp groups - i.e. caravans of goods, merc guards, dem travelling thespians, Darkmoon Faire carnies etc, could run from SW to Arathor to Hearthglen and back (to promote out-of-city RP too)
- "Travel Agency" guild? For example, could hire guides, guards, caterers, ships, whatever, to ICly travel to other capitals and destinations around Azeroth, to give guided tours, again to promote out-of-Stormwind/general RP)
- "Raiders"--i.e. mounted bandits that roam, attack towns, settlements and caravans for money


Summer is coming, and there'll probably be a good chance to pull people in then. Once Stormwind RP is on a high, rejuvenated scale and there are established travelling groups of RPers all over the world, it's quite possible that RPers will then be able to base themselves again in places like Booty Bay.

For the lazy.

Tjib/Oragg wrote:

Longknife/Decurius wrote:

In the end less RPers is a natrual development. The game is over eightyears old and the amount of players is shrinking. Not surprising the amount of RPers shrink, and congregate to less and less servers. For ages it's been AD and DB, but seem's that maybe two servers for RP might be one to many now and people are realising this.

So, you suggest just to leave DB for good and make it just a PVP server?

Im not sure you are actually reading what he was typing.. He didn't say "time to jump ship guys" He just said it like it was. This is a old game, of course the playerbase is shrinking.

Always fun to see that the people bitching the most about the server dying are the ones already contributing to the problem instead of the solution. (The problem being the realm dying and people moving away)

Agree with Tjib, this is just a quite blatantly stupid thread that comes up every time something happens. "Pope resigns, RP IS DUYING!", "SWToR out, RP IS DUYING!", "I ate a goose, RP IS DUYING!"

Get a grip. If you think things go downhill, they will do so just because your mind is set to fail. If you transfer to "avoid" the fail, you contribute towards the fail. Simple as that.

I won't even bother replying to that Decurius, because all I see is ignorant and onesided/biased argumentation with no real sense behind it.

I don’t know what is more disheartening: people who acknowledge that there is an issue and say that they don’t want to solve it, be for laziness or simply carelessness, or people who hide their head in the sand.

If you disheartened by it, I feel pity!

Not gonna be an AD fan boi or anything buuuuutttttt!

Gor'Thrak Frosthowl wrote:I'll just respond to this point as I've already spoken my opinion regarding the rest.

what has DB that AD hasn't?

A close knit community.
Are you kidding? We have grudges upon grudges. We have an atmosphere in here that is not unlike the metaphorical school yard. AD has that too but as there is more guilds you can avoid that guild who did the unforgivable crime of "not rping how I want". AD has nurd rage and omfg moments as does DB. There is no difference.

Friends.
I guess I like some of you. Not Shae or Dref though

Specific guild concepts that can't be found there.
Go look at the AA guilds list. For every warband/ally military guild you have 5 really really exacting guilds. I do not see a difference either way.

Less overly complicated RP-PvP fights.
DB saying its RP PvP is better than anyone elses is like..... I mean..... "We wont charge unless they only have 3 healers/omg they res'd/they called in a pvp guild!!!! Best thing about RP PvP is RPing in the camp after (for horde guys, that is what the allys do instead of logging an alt(ok I am just trolling ) and AD do this just as well but much larger)

A less infested Silvermoon and Stormwind.
RPing as an AD Belf atm, the times I have xrealmed to DB I get lonely : /

As a result of that AD is more famous most new RPers flock there. While the number of decent RPers might be higher there the percentage is lower.
Since there aren't masses of relatively new people on DB we're very able to help out those who join us and they melt easily into the realm.

I do not compute XD

Shaelyssa wrote:Im not a fag after all ahemlexgradahem!!!!!!!!!!

Muzjhath wrote:Lex is a horrid Roleplayer! Everybody knows that!

That is two.... One moar and you summon the Lexadin back to DB. Choose carefully.

Also... two mean :/

Also shae you are every kind of fag!

Lexgrad wrote:

I do not compute XD

Lex, give up: I answered to those points, seriously, even going deeper about them and all I got was:

all I see is ignorant and onesided/biased argumentation with no real sense behind it.