Make the realm a place to be for role players again

Hello, this is another situation room post, like some of my other posts, I know. Just got a thought about this on some random discord chat and been thinking of the matter.

So the topic, how to make realm good for roleplayers again?

The first though I have is hope that the server tag pvp being removed from the realm when Battle for Azeroth launches in distant future. So I see it as a good thing, when players don't choose realm due to unwanted wpvp taking place. Have been a bit thinking as lazy I and anyone else might be, it is not very top thing to get ganked, so it's a good thing for the realm to get it off the list so to say.

Second thought concerns the bigger brother realm Argent Down. As much as I like their rp pvp events I can't see it to be a home for my main character(s). It's way too different than what kind of community I hold in value so realm this forum represents is still the number one for me. Even today, with the lack of players to interact, taking part or organizing things.

Third thing, is the fact that even though I've been roleplaying some less during some times, I've also been active in world pvp back in the day, and now I've been again roleplaying after getting bored in general with the lack of depth to it. I find rp pvp nowadays the best form of gameplay for me, and the rp that supports the rp pvp things. I know, it's warlike and might be too much to tolerate for some. I am not much interested in conflicts, but I like the wow possibilities to make things like battles, although being a lot for pacifism in the real life. I hate it and that is maybe the only things that keeps me playing this game. So I think one should not take seriously a battle with pvp in wow with tensions high, it's just not so depressing, since the game is like fantasy or a dream, not to be taken word for word.

Fourth thing, there is needed some more activity to be honest. I know we have two actively promoting their guild events to players. The Fraternity and The Ninth Company. There are the good oldies Stormwind Council and Ironforge Senate. I value these both, since they are great to keep things going. What I'd like is more courage to organize additional own story events to all to take part. It doesn't matter if first they don't gather many to take part, in the state of server, the playerbase is low. Just keep thins going and make ideas, connect to people and they maybe get going after sometime.

Fifth things is, respect to all still staying on the realm and not transferred to the bigger brother realm for more and more and more in not so nice way too. So keeping it up on this realm this forum is for, is a thing to respect. Thanks.

Well sixth thing would be to just take care, I'm not going anywhere, so live with it. Haha. It's enough for me to sneak cross real to AD parties and rp pvp events for some lifting the mood. Would hope others see it like a nice thing to cross realm some things, but maybe I'm just ahead of matters with it.

Well i would like to see DB growing again, and i do believe we have the ability to do this.
I'd start to drop few suggestions about what i've learnt in my time in RP. First would be nice to smile a bit more and avoid useless drama, at times swallowing the bitter bite, just to prevent players from getting upset and emarginating themself. This is because at the current state DB is small and you cant run away from people you don't like. (Yes Reyx i mean Lux)
And it will help the players to get more comfortable in joining the RP.

Second we should get more on the same page and act all a bit more togheder, this is a thing we are experiencing now in the council and it is working well. And this will allow a solid base to then have the chance to host other players even if non guilded.

But beside this i can do something about it and i will try to. I will start to manage more events open to the public, and trying to make an autospamming macro to advertise what DB has to offer in RP both in lfrp and general. Seems more then enough for me.

I'll just drop my two cents here.

Defias Brotherhood is a good realm according to my few years here now.. I joined in Draenor and, according to the forums, missed the 'golden days' of cataclysm and prior. There was clearly a lot of diversity and depth prior to becoming a ghost realm, which usually is a good thing.

My theory is that some people are dissuaded by their previous experiences on the realm. People recognize the various
individuals and/or elements which constituted a good days RP and fail to see them protrayed in the realm today.

I believe the main issue stems from guilds becoming increasingly insular. However, this probably also helped the overall survival of RP, but does so with the premise of exclusion. People interact with a mostly fixed cast of people, which arguably ensures a certain degree of quality.

So what's the real issue with that?
Well.. If we keep on hosting events exclusively in guilds, these guilds will eventually differ too much in terms of combat mechanics and guild interaction. Player A might be accustomed to a /roll combat, while player B prefers a duel or the stat-based roll system. Without dragging this out too much, we'll all perceive the realm through the people we RP with. These perceptions might just clash.

What could be done about it?
Besides what's already been mentioned, I don't have many additions. I think we need to revive the sort of events that brought characters together. By this, I mean events which might be perceived as the more mundane fragrance. Events that didn't necesarrily pit us aganst anything, but ratherj ust gave us the freedom to do as we pleased.

A shining example were the expeditions hosted by the League of Explorers. I remember attending one of these events as my first, shuffling into the camp with my half-written toon and not quite knowing what to do. Participants were divided based on the needs of our expedition at the moment and I was sent out to scout along two strangers. The most talkative of the two was a kaldorei woman, who took the liberty of loosely describing the scenery as we moved past it. I learned of flowers and creatures in Feralas, while brokering the first bond of my character. When we got back to camp, people shared their experiences in the local wilderness and there was a fair bit of carousing before players completely left the event.
The event had no need for a moderating DM to react for every NPC, relying on the attendees to portray realistic encounters for themselves. All in all, it allowed me an entry to what seemed like a very tight-knit community. People seemed genuinely excited about the prospect of new additions, which couldn't help but motivate me.

TL;DR
Let's make some community events with a limited need for narrative, allowing people the freedom to interact with each other without feeling an annoyance. It might help us close the gap between the various guilds and allow us to find a middle ground, or sub-genre of RP, which both sides will find enjoyable.

P.S.: I'll try and make my debut as a DM, attempting to add some regular events once I'm comfortable in the role. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway council and senate have anto high potencial in doing this, so if you can please participate and advertise them in the various chats.

We definitely do have abilities for this. While a work in progress, CoKM are currently discussing ideas and experimenting with recruitment videos. Still is going to be a while before we can produce any results, but we are working to get there.

On another note, and while on the "topic" of pages... While banned from that forum myself, we should reclaim the realm forum for our purposes. Some might object, saying that "we are free from trolls here" and such, but let us not kid ourselves. We need to make an appearance, be visible, take chances. We need publicity if we are to grow again. Our absence from those forums is part of the decline we suffered throughout the years.

I keep seeing people who look for RP on that forum on somewhat regular basis, but since seemingly no one here responds to those threads anymore (as I mentioned before, I am banned thus I cannot answer them myself), those curious people leave for greener pastures. We are doing ourselves a disservice by distancing ourselves from the realm forum.

Message macros are a good idea, advertisement is good to have. Always be on the lookout for a prime time to advertise (in my case, I send my macro once every 10-15 minutes or so before events).

These are my thoughts about the topic.

Cid wrote:
I keep seeing people who look for RP on that forum on somewhat regular basis, but since seemingly no one here responds to those threads anymore (as I mentioned before, I am banned thus I cannot answer them myself), those curious people leave for greener pastures. We are doing ourselves a disservice by distancing ourselves from the realm forum.

I'll follow up on this. I had completely forgotten the official forums as this has all the banter and quality guides.

When BfA or when the pvp tag is removed. There are two positive things about it and they both add to the "quality" of the then rp realm feature, which might add to the current playerbase.

1st pvp fanatics, who are a lot for world pvp are not going to like the less players to deal with in pvp in the world than the normal servers with shared pvp shards. So they maybe want to play on a normal realm more than a pure rp realm. As in the Q/A lately was mentioned, the rp realms don't share the normal realm shards, but rp realms work like the current Argent Dawn rp only realm today, when one can also on DB after the patch to toggle pvp on and off everywhere in the world.

2nd rp interested players, who would not want to have pvp on always in the world, can after patch play like they like by toggling pvp off when they don't want to pvp in the world. Leaves lots of less ganking so.

3rd There are really two choices: Argent Dawn and DB et al. to pick for a rp server after the patch. Which one chooses, is about the quality and standards the realms have. And I have to say they are at this point, not very similar yet of course things can change better or worse for either, but I see it wise to have at least something to choose from and thank goodness Blizzard has sense to keep them separated in game, so there isn't only one rp realm. Cross realm will work as earlier so there is still that too.

4th Time will tell, what will happen, but I can see the future is good for DB after the removal of pvp tag, it doesn't take away anything but the unwanted ganking, which has history of being a nuisance on DB et al., which is somewhat interesting point in the history of the realm, something for the scholars to study so to say.

5th It's a good realm to play, yesterday there was an even with 15 players in Northshire, which really is a good turnout these days. Just when things work well and players keep ideas and plans going, it's not a bad realm. As long as there are players, it will be a realm, there is no worry on it all vanishing either, wow is not getting worse as a game but from what I think, getting better, also for my narrow interest in the game, rp and rp pvp, and since there is going to possibly be the same gear balancing going to come out, I think I red about it, same as in bg:s these days, the gear in world pvp or rp pvp is not going to be so great grinding work to get decent gear for many many alts. Have hated it so far due to if one has multiple chars, and wants to rp pvp with them, the ilvl is not easy to gain when someone plays one or two chars with ilvl from hours of raiding, which is just too much time when one has like several chars one uses. So this great new expansion is going to keep me interested in the game I fear, lol.

@Llewyn
It's important yes to have transparent events, where anyone can join, since there is so few who might be interested to even do rp on realm. So I see guild interaction quite same as I got your idea of it. The guilds are just for the players who want to participate as a certain type char in character with other with similar idea for char, but of course it doesn't mean one should only interact with the players in same guild, it's not my wish to stick to only guild in rp, since that's not how it's the best. It's just to get the certain type char background and to group with chars with similar idea for char, which means there should be various different guilds, and yes it lacks, but its also due to lack of players involved.

@Cid
The realm forums indeed are quiet mostly from roleplay topics, yet recruitment threads there are at least. It's good to work there too, since it's what the new players see mostly as a first glance outside game. I got just an idea, to post there the DefiasRP Discord current guild recruitment channels content, so there would be easily updated rp guild list again. I might be a good idea, and will look into it. Yes I got the idea as I typed this.

@Flemk
It's the best thing there are players who hold these Council and Senate meetings/gatherings, since they are easy to see, if one is really into getting to rp outside guilds or public events, that happen a bit every now and then. But two weekly events a week is a nice thing, even though the players joining first time might see them a bit passive as to participate first time, since they are mostly about what others have planned for the sessions and not easy to get into quickly.

First of all, I know this is my second post on this forum so my experience is still relatively quite new compared to everyone else, but I'll give my two cents as well.

@Llewyn
I think your point about guilds becoming more and more separate with their own events is absolutely on spot. This concept is called "silos" in business and can have a severe negative impact on everyone (teams that should but are not communicating with each other leads to big trouble).

However, presumably the councils are meant to help with this. But it doesn't really do that, I think (or not always). What confuses me is this: the council is an RP event in itself, probably one (SW one for instance) that has the most activity (or at least that has the most number of guilds involved). I see people advertising their events at council, but this doesn't necessarily increase the activity of said event. Or at least this is my impression of what happens, if I'm totally wrong then forgive me. So then I have some open questions/ideas with regards to this for all of you:

* Why do you attend the council? What makes it more appealing than other events?

* Do we need some rules for events advertised at council? For instance, if someone mentions an event every guild representative needs to do their best to bring it to the attention of their guild such as: make a calendar guild event, post on their on forum (if applicable), advertise it themselves in some way in their own separate guild events/meetings?

* Should we add another council (or similar type of event)? I've been thinking of starting a Darnassus council, but I always thought it might seem like a bit too much to have 3 councils in a week.

* Or a different idea: what about a monthly meeting (could be Darnassus or somewhere else, like Argus or someone's Garrison maybe? ) where someone would hold a presentation (we could take turns for this) and talk about all the events of the last month and upcoming events already known of (like a sort of a team briefing).

* Another thing on my mind: is it me or do the people from the Ironforge council not attend the Stormwind one? Why is this?

By the way, I don't mean this is a criticism to anyone (i.e. people not attending events, the Ironforge council or whoever), I'm just trying to start/continue a conversation.

Also, if the answer to any of these questions/issues is something related to personal drama (between individuals or guilds) like @Flemk was mentioning, then you have your answer: grow up and fix this drama or such a small community will never thrive. I know, cynical and pessimistic, but maybe something that needs to be said (or maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about).

Thanks!

Hi to all its been a while since I have been on the forum, guess I was getting home sick of not seeing some of your names.

these are my honest opinions and if anyone takes offence or feels any of it is targeted at them because of some incident in RP I don't really care. its the truth

too many people carry wrong attitude on DB in Roleplay, for one there are people who will refuse to role play with an individual and then complain later when they get less roleplay because people refuse to roleplay back with them.. beyond just the person they choose to push away.

if you cant swallow your pride sometimes and at least accept roleplaying with other players you may at times not like so much YOU ARE part of the problem.. the people who make the realm unwelcoming ,.. thats you! its no hidden fact I left the realm because i had enough of this kind of attitude of elitism that "i am so important" pride made someone feel it worth denying  others having fun on a claim they cannot have fun them self if another person is present.. yes I am pointing the finger at kelinn there and I dont care if someone bans me for it because it happened and I still think it was a pathetic excuse to take roleplay away from someone out of spite fuck anyone who wants to tell me im wrong for thinking it. (and no i wasn't talking about MY roleplay being taken away I walked because i was too angry about it to want to be there anymore)

this attitude ruins a lot of RP. it can a long time before it gets to where the incident I mentioned above got too, but Id call the isolation and RP denial the number one thing that makes DB less attractive than other RP realms right now. when you have a small group of active players for this you cant afford it if you want a welcoming experiance .. how can you ever expect things to get better with you and them if you refuse to speak to them?

Looks like I've missed a few posts in here.

There's quite a few things to address in this post, so I'll just go right ahead;

- Why do you attend the council? What makes it more appealing than other events? a
I attend the council to receive updates on the general vibe of Ironforge ICly, to receive information on upcoming events and to enjoy well-structured bit of RP. Sometimes it leads to more interactions, but often I log for a proper nights sleep.

- Do we need some rules for events advertised at council? For instance, if someone mentions an event every guild representative needs to do their best to bring it to the attention of their guild such as: make a calendar guild event, post on their on forum (if applicable), advertise it themselves in some way in their own separate guild events/meetings?
I think rules would be a good idea, but they might not be as motivational. If we settle for some gentle nudging and provide reasoning, people might be more willing to do the work. Overall though, this will be great to implement and should further guild interdependence.

- Should we add another council (or similar type of event)? I've been thinking of starting a Darnassus council, but I always thought it might seem like a bit too much to have 3 councils in a week.
Another gathering could be a great idea. My only suggestion is to make it more specific to our realm than another one pertaining to the capital of a certain race. The way I would love to see this brought in motion is through a weekly meet between all the guilds on the realm, free-form and preferably without official hierarchy. Initiates, veterans and leaders of the various organisation might 'break bread' with each other, reporting on their weekly encounters and adressing the possibility of joining forces. Without ever meeting up, how will we know we're fighting for the same.

- Or a different idea: what about a monthly meeting (could be Darnassus or somewhere else, like Argus or someone's Garrison maybe? Smile ) where someone would hold a presentation (we could take turns for this) and talk about all the events of the last month and upcoming events already known of (like a sort of a team briefing).
. I'm all for it, in whatever shape it might unveil itself.

- Another thing on my mind: is it me or do the people from the Ironforge council not attend the Stormwind one? Why is this?
I personally don't. This is not due to a lacking wish, but rather the result of it being on a tuesday. WoA guild meeting and Stormwind Council starts at the same time, but varies in length. Issue is, I have to make a choice between the two and usually have something to report within the guild.

As for the part about RP denial, I haven't properly encountered it yet. In situations like these though, I think we're better off reaching a healthy compromise OOCly. If you think your character needs more resilience in a given scenario, don't just brush off your assailants and make them feel like meek pawns. Present your reasoning and be prepared reach a middle-ground, so that the two parties might continue RPing together afterwards.
This is, of course, easier said than done and I have no clue as to what has been going down. I guess my point is RP denial happens for a reason and while I certainly don't like it, there's a reason for its occurence.
Sorry for potential typos or failure to convey train of thought.

Llewyn wrote:- Why do you attend the council? What makes it more appealing than other events? a
I attend the council to receive updates on the general vibe of Ironforge ICly, to receive information on upcoming events and to enjoy well-structured bit of RP. Sometimes it leads to more interactions, but often I log for a proper nights sleep.

Most people do this because they are interested in RP, I think a lot of RPers do enjoy knowing the world they play in has more going on than just what they have been doing, I know there are other reasons and motivations, but i bet a lot of people are there because they DO enjoy seeing plots and storys unfold even the ones there not overly involved in.

Llewyn wrote:- Do we need some rules for events advertised at council? For instance, if someone mentions an event every guild representative needs to do their best to bring it to the attention of their guild such as: make a calendar guild event, post on their on forum (if applicable), advertise it themselves in some way in their own separate guild events/meetings?
I think rules would be a good idea, but they might not be as motivational. If we settle for some gentle nudging and provide reasoning, people might be more willing to do the work. Overall though, this will be great to implement and should further guild interdependence.

this one I dont know on, implementing rules onto how to 'council' for the guilds and event runners who attend may prove to be counter productive, what if your story hook or how you do RP dos not co-operate well with what ever rule is implemented. im not saying its a bad idea but maybe one i would tread carefully with.

Llewyn wrote:- Or a different idea: what about a monthly meeting (could be Darnassus or somewhere else, like Argus or someone's Garrison maybe? Smile ) where someone would hold a presentation (we could take turns for this) and talk about all the events of the last month and upcoming events already known of (like a sort of a team briefing).
. I'm all for it, in whatever shape it might unveil itself.

do people want more just gathering events though? you have two weekly events that are gatherings that focus heavily on a few individuals talking and many spectating, I personally felt the loss of the Explorers guild idea and other events akin to it took away a platform of RP that was a gathering which was more focused on the people attending and less on the people running the show. maybe im wrong?

Llewyn wrote:- Another thing on my mind: is it me or do the people from the Ironforge council not attend the Stormwind one? Why is this?
I personally don't. This is not due to a lacking wish, but rather the result of it being on a tuesday. WoA guild meeting and Stormwind Council starts at the same time, but varies in length. Issue is, I have to make a choice between the two and usually have something to report within the guild.

this one is easy, there is both IC and OOC bridges that need to be formed if both these partys are to be more involved with each other, many of the interactions between both partys from when i joined DB up until i moved realm where negative IC and OOC often had backlash of drama that went beyond the role-play, we have topics still on this forum relating to some of these events now if you bother to look though them enough.

On your final point you made of not seeing what i was discussing here

Kelinn Everstride wrote:The whole thing boils down to this:

If you do not enjoy the interactions you have with a player, then you are not going to play with them. I do not make any secret that I dont like Hutchins' char, and do not want to rp with him. That is my choice, I allowed it, nothing to do with picking favourites.

I do not stop anyone else from Rping with him, but it doesnt mean I have to accept him to the things I plan. Trying to force me to Rp with him is unrealistic.
Rose made her choice, but she cant say she couldnt have attended the event as she could have.

I accept your apology for calling me a prick, and wish you well in AD.

firstly let me point out.. Hutch WAS denyed Rping with other people, we had shown up to a large event and he was told IC (and me OOC) that there was no way he was aloud in BECAUSE OF ONE PERSONS dislike. later this turn into a more heated argument in whispered chat which i wont post here, but I still call what happened exclusion as it was both mentioned IC and OOC that he was not aloud to take part in an event which he had attended after rushing home to get online.

despite the nice way of wording it, this mentality iv just quoted is your biggest barrier on DB, iv seen it often and it comes in one word. "I"! when you put I as the only concern then RP is always going to be touchy, because RP is beyond I

two RPers left the realm to find RP else where and were not the first two to do so because of Elitism and peoples issues with not been able to bite there tongue a little for the better over all, a druid called Voodoodrudo (ingame) left the realm because he felt excluded despite trying to make forged bonds with a number of players IC and OOC.

I suppose one way to cure this realm, not really going to address the points here because I have no idea on the current state of the realm though I can't imagine it being any better than the one it was in when I decided to stay on AD for my rp fix(generally boils down to not having to rp on schedule when I might not feel like doing it). Woah.. Tangent. Anyhow, look to the past. What did guilds do, what did people do in the past that we don't do anymore? A good example of someone who I feel actually re-envigorated rp on Defias for a limited amount(and time) was Zackarus. You can't deny he started a lot of rp going on while he was here, he was super dedicated to his guild which in the end got the better of him. I'm not saying do everything exactly like he did, but take a look at what he did and see if you can find some use in it.

I remember logging on after a good night sleep and still seeing him promoting HoY in trade chat, he had stayed up all night and eventually he asked me to do it while he was off. He wanted that thing popping up every 10 minutes 24 hours a day, that is a lot of comittment but his guild by far grew to one of the bigger ones on the server and it brought a lot of new people into rp which might otherwise not have joined.

Zackerus is one of the most committed GMs we have had on DB, no matter what people might think of him he made content for his RPers as well as putting insane amounts of effort into guild lore and story (I still prefered the non retcon HoY history as I actually liked the sinister history behind there order)

There are things to be learned from how he treated HoY for being successful and forming active RP daily

A : zack advertised his guild heavily, if he wasn't on he would have other officers also advertising there guild in trade, there was a point early on they had a post up in trade every half hour minimum 24/7 most days. This is extreme but hell it worked

B = zack was proactive at working with his officers and there story's they make, he got involved and discussed and ideas he could think of to help give RP events some direction.

C = zack was determined to have HoY involved with other guilds, THIS is one of the most important ones, zack never wanted HoY to be isolated from the main RP hubs that people already did

D = got involved with other GMs and RP groups early, zack never left himself out of the loop. Council? He was there senate he was there, he wanted in on all of it

I'm going to skip the bad stuff as I think Charlies post already mentions things went bad at the end, dos not change that RP was incredibly more regular active and FUN, I personally enjoyed most of the RP around this time.

I dont think zack had it "right", there were problems with some of the things he did but his guild success is definitely worth looking at for pointers for making a community for sure

Which is why I said don't take all of it in, the problem with being too comitted is you often lose sight on things, one can grow a little bit too paranoid etc. Which might end up hurting the guild and community in the end. Maybe once I return from the US of A I'll see if I can do what he did, but until then people should try some things, it just might work a second time.

Now now.
@Azapha, i don't think this is the right post to accuse someone. I might understand and i share that some attiture might be bad for the realms, expecially small ones. But this happens here as it happens in Argent Dawn.
Also troubles always comes from two people, as a single one never shout alone, if you get what i mean.

Beside all this, being commited to make a guild grow, doesn't make the server grow, as the major effect this makes is a reallocation of the players tha moves between the guilds looking for a better offer. And i've have experienced all this when i tried to make the Fraternity grow, when i was there.

Also, legion has not been a proRP expansion, as with the amount of farming and all it didn't really let people the time and the happines to do some RP. We should also consider that the server decay might be something that is behond us, not due to anything but a social phenomenon which sees servers with more population and a big name, as Argent Dawn, more suitable. As if i have to join a RP server as a new player i would directly join Argent, as in good or bad it made itself a name.

Also being a little server has its good side, its unlikely that in Defias you can start huge camping and stuffs like that, but in the experience i have such RP isn't fun, as it doesn't leave space for character developement. Usually good rp comes from smaller grups, maybe 4 or 6 people, groups small enough to give the chance to RP to everyone and give the right differentiations. And this happens a lot in Defias. I've never been in lack of RP, and when i've seen it missing i've tried to bring some up.
The number of people around in a server might sound appealing in the beginning, but if you really think about it, it doesn't really make any difference. Either here or on AD, after a while everyone ends up RPing with the same few people.

Charlie kinda think it takes something inbetween casual and what Zackerus was to succeed, committed yet able to step back and think before getting to absorbed, I still count House of Yore to be one of the more successful guilds, sure it lived shorter than DoL and other guilds but they also probably did more RP in a year and was active than some of them guilds have managed in most of there existance. Kinda proves Zackerus was a good GM despite any disagreements people had with him.

On topic of bringing more life to DB RP community, I still suggest not trying to form yet another council. Council RP is a group of by standers watching the RP of the minority, its fine and it works but I think a more involved RP for randoms and people not running the event would be more interesting.

Adventures guild is a thing from many RP settings, maybe worth an idea, people can RP quest givers (I personally love doing this) adventures or just rumours of things going on around azeroth or what ever, the fact is there is little need for a spokes person or representative of what ever in that kind of setting, hell even a homeless man could attend asking for help or work, to me the ideas behind that are near endless

@flemk
It probably isn't, I just picked the first post of recent that proved my point, AD has the same issues but there you don't have the shortage of players to join RP with, kelinn is far from the worse and I can think of players we had on DB who have done much worse, my point was if people on DB are feeling the shortage of players in RP then they should be more thoughtful of how they act there personal feelings about the people on the community, damaging ties between a few because one person can't ether resolve there issues or swollow some pride every so often and remember that player is there for fun too.

That is how you brake ties and shorten your list of players who will join the community you have. I personally don't care if I offended anybody in my post because as far as I'm concerned it's true, truth hurts to hear sometimes but if you avoid it you get no were.

Your realm has lost to many rpers to a minority who can't see the attitude of "my feelings " being more important than seeing the bigger picture, anyone remember the guilds who left DB because a few people in DoL took there personal feelings about RP and forced it down the necks of some cultist guild until they disbanded and refused to RP on DB again? I don't blame DoL because it was just a few, don't change that few made a whole guild leave

Players are people, people so players are having their own lives, they are here to do what they like in a game, it's just simple. The community is formed from these players, I have to say, I couldn't commit to the way some like to play, hours of raiding, rp with standing in same place for hours talking in chat, rated pvp or just trying to grind for achievements. Ok, I do these at times, but mostly it's what ideas I have got or getting to something that seems interesting for the moment, without overly planning with exceptions too.

Just doing too much in game, is bad for oneself. It's not even good for health so sit overly long. So I have to refrain with that knowledge from doing long events and in general being too much online. I know it's too much already, so I need to keep some evening schedule to not stay on too long, which I hope also others would check to not get too addicted. Ok most are adults, they can deal with it, but I know it's also very much for younger folk who play this, so it needs to be somewhat safe and with good intention one should be in the game. I don't want to have anything to do with players who want to harm players with forced to join events for example, or give them chores that they do not wish to do, that just is not imo good for a thing.

Guilds are just combined effort for the guild members, there is shit guilds with leader taking care of the bullying and there are guilds with common understanding, where no one feels like they are being oppressed. I like it the last way, it's shit to be a guild leader also at times, since there are those who wish to do some personal or indirect attacks, when it gets on nerves and causes pressures that get sometimes too be bad for anything really. I have to say the guilds atm. the rp guild are respected imo, and by me, since they are not doing effort to damage anyone ooc. That is the way it should be, less is better also since with many players there is easily sprung something ill and that will do also something to harm ooc mostly, and that is what I worry and the reason I can't be on AD, it's too many like wanting to be a jerk without any idea how it should go in rl and in game. I'm not saying it's all bad, but having it in the soup, the even tiniest piece can spoil the complete soup.

I'm just a bit tired and getting off for today, just wanted to tell something I have not maybe told anyone at this game, but I like the way it is now, since there is no dangerous things going on I mean ooc, no one wants to do harm to others ooc, but if there is something like that going on, I do at times things too that might seem unwanted and unpopular, but really I want to have fun in a good way, I don't want to be a bully or being bullied or see other being bullied.

Off the record I'm waiting for some great things for the rp scene when BfA comes out, since it maybe will get to be actually something to do with joint operation with AD if the pvp shards are connected inbetween rp realms, it seems at this point to me to be the case, ofc it's not yet ensured by blizz, but it's possible from what I've red. I also wish to continue the Alliance Convention idea, since it would be more involving to every rp:er on Alliance, when it's for all Alliance and not just one Alliance nation. So I just wanted to relieve some things I've not said on this forum yet, but I honestly think this situation is good, it's quality and yes maybe over quantity, but diamonds are rare, I think you got that.

Hi,

Hope people can take a moment to stand back and think of all the fun rp that has been done, and is still happening on the realms.

I do understand we have a clash of personalities at times, can we be adult enough to see beyond that and find some way to play nice together? I have had ic and ooc disagreements with some people. I like to think that those I have argued with ooc still feel welcome to join events I run. I know that in some cases this is true as they attend.

I am running a cult group, lead by the crone. Anyone who wishes to have input on the cult side is welcome to join, the only thing I ask is that injuries, deaths and kidnappings are agreed ooc with the other player before the ic rp starts.

I do try to advertise any events, although I am not the most organised person and not the best person to sort things out. All people are welcome to attend the events I run. Yes, (I will not mention names) even you who had troubles at my last event, if you are reading this.

I have not been rping in wow long, but outside of wow have been playing dnd longer than most players admit to being alive. There is usually a tendency to become fond of a character, and perhaps have ic and ooc spill over into one another. I do understand that people feel excluded and harassed by other players ooc sometimes. Usually both parties, or all parties feel they are the one injured.

A small rp community like ours needs both ic friendships and conflicts to make it interesting and alive. I would ask those who have taken this ic emotion into ooc drama to take a deep breath and pause for a moment. What could you, as the person hurt, do differently? How could your ic character grow from the conflict that has caused the ooc drama. If you admit you played a part in the conflict as a player, what will you do differently in future? How could your ic character grow and learn from this? Could he or she be more subtle, more sly, or just a little more tolerant?

I believe we have a wonderful group of roleplayers, and I miss some who I have not seen for a while. I wish you all well and hope to see you in character, even if not on Narin.

It's been a while since I've actively popped up on DB, and as many others have, I've transferred several characters to AD, much for the same reason as Charlie. Unscheduled RP. That is pretty much it. DB had/has some great events and story lines but its sometimes tricky to attend and be involved when you work shifts/strange patterns.

However on topic, some of you probably remember the Meeting o' Explorers I used to run weekly for several months (before various things interfered with it in game both IC and OOC). The entire concept of the event line was very much in sync with Reyxor's post in general, making the realm a place to be, having an accessible DM-lite event where players could just interact without huge worries about lore/backgrounds and previous RP knowledge, but still able to cater to other more experienced RPers. Events where I could hand off the individual groups to more experienced RPers to run their own event with artistic licence and we would all just roll with it and have an adventure, we went from the Hinterlands, to Feralas, to Stranglethorn and beyond, and I still put the success of the event down to it being so honestly open to any RPer and being run on a toon that had no previous affiliations to -anything-.

Its never easy to make an entire realm 'active' or 'RP friendly' but sometimes just having events that don't have any prerequisites can help so much. Even when people try to be inclusive sometimes (not for lack of trying) they still exclude people from day 1 with the event archetype. I mean sure your guard training can be open to all, but what on Azeroth is Steve the Baker going to do at an elite guard units boot camp? You might be running an investigation into another string of murders, and again even by being open its still very hard to involve others unless you give them solid reason to.

Concepts can be more powerful than storylines, explorers groups need anything and everything, citizen aid organisations (E.g. when I ran the Azerothian Home Front which actually took off really well and developed into a few stories before I had to give it up, mainly thanks to Azapha and Hutchins supporting the idea and using the concept as a resource to run some small events). If you can pool together and storm up some concepts that can take all sorts of characters on board, you can get a longer standing group that regularly meets for RP without having a set in stone storyline, and then further RP can grow organically.

Apologies for the wall of text, I've not spoken about RP in a long time and have been out of the loop for quite a while, but I'm sure I'll still be poking my head in on things now and then and will likely make an active effort once again with BfA to run something around DB. Until then, look after yourselves and have fun RPing, and for fuck sake work together

@Naroma
I agree with your comments in general and that something that is more open to anyone, like the "explorers" concept you were talking about would be better than more scheduled, story heavy events. However, this below, this is what blows my mind:

Naroma wrote:I mean sure your guard training can be open to all, but what on Azeroth is Steve the Baker going to do at an elite guard units boot camp? You might be running an investigation into another string of murders, and again even by being open its still very hard to involve others unless you give them solid reason to.

This is where some of you, I think, take RP a bit too seriously. If you're thinking of IC reasons to not join an event, you're just looking for excuses. Who cares what Steve the Baker is doing there? He wants to learn how to wield a sword and stop being a baker? He wants to defend his family? That's what makes it even more fun. This is where we differ and I would look for any IC excuses to BE there if I was interested to join the event/do some RP that night, rather then find excuses to not be there - RP is ALL still made up shit remember? I mean we had a mage saying she knows nothing about sword fighting win a competition against more experienced fighters (by pure dumb luck in rolls, but who cares) - that was perfect outcome for me.

I'm not having a go at you personally, I don't know you. And I'm not just defending my event as you might rightly suspect (I think half of it was quite successful and the other half was a disaster; it was my first ever event I organised so I'm happy with that outcome or any criticism people might have had). The reason for this post is that I've seen this mentality quite a few times now and I think it is partly the culprit for low numbers in some events that would benefit from more numbers and would be fun for everyone if people tried a bit more to get involved (especially if you're bloody online that day and even bored of doing that same ol' dungeon again).

Basically a TL;DR would be something like this for me:
To anyone saying "My character doesn't quite belong here" I would reply "You're not trying hard enough".

The caveat to this are, of course, events where people (or character types of whatever) are actively being excluded, which a whole other story.

@Tudo

Firstly I can see the error in the way I typed what I did without clarification, I mean, I roleplayed an agent type edgelord night elf, but I still attended charity auctions, buffets, markets et al. Newer players found it odd and/or difficult.

Secondly I didn't even know you had any kind of event and the fact you ran a guard event, it seems you were a victim of circumstance and it seemed like a dig, sorry! I just recall guard training events previously as one example. I'm inactive at the moment on DB. I'm speaking from previous experience on the realm is all. However I do agree with your point, but I'm primarily speaking about creating RP opportunities for newer players, experienced RPers know exactly how to create a reason to attend anything and everything, but for John Noob the PvEr, it might feel difficult and/or intimidating. Which can of course be countered by the event co-ordinator providing and creating reasons for the 'come one come all' attitude.

Good on you for running events, it's great fun!

I totally agree people can create reasons to be at events (but again I'm mainly aiming my points and involving those less experienced etc), but it can be very strange/odd/difficult when things all consist of chasing down demonic cults et al. I simply mean to take into account open concepts and remember that niché events will obviously have a smaller turn out.

Slightly off topic:

@Naroma

Thanks for your reply, not much else to add. But I will definitely consider your point of making more "open" RP events for any newcomer to feel more comfortable. It's not an easy task and I'm not very experienced or very creative for that matter, but I'm sure I'll figure something out with the help of others. So thanks!

Naroma wrote:
Concepts can be more powerful than storylines, explorers groups need anything and everything, citizen aid organisations (E.g. when I ran the Azerothian Home Front which actually took off really well and developed into a few stories before I had to give it up, mainly thanks to Azapha and Hutchins supporting the idea and using the concept as a resource to run some small events). If you can pool together and storm up some concepts that can take all sorts of characters on board, you can get a longer standing group that regularly meets for RP without having a set in stone storyline, and then further RP can grow organically.

I was sad when that stopped, it was really fun!