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WoW roleplay

Started by Anna Katrine, August 25, 2013, 10:49:54 AM

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Anna Katrine

Hey all who may read this :)

Ive recently got myself a World of Warcraft starter account in order to dive right back into the RP elements of the game. And in that relevance I thought it could be fun to see if there were a couple of others who might join me in my adventure, and maybe help guide me.

Either way I'd appreciate any advice on RP in WoW, especially concerning useful addons and such :)

(Playing on European servers btw ;) )

Dovel

I haven't played in about 10 months but at the time TotalRP2 was a great addon to have. It let you set every detail about your persona and physical features. It also put up a tag to let other people know what your current RP status was and what kind of RP you were looking for.

I am sure by now it has probably been updated a few times.
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Madriv

MyRolePlay does the same thing TotalRP2 did but was more recently updated.  A lot of RPers like Gryphonheart Items, an addon that lets you create items not actually found in the game that you can share with other people who have the GHI addon. WIM (WoW Instant Msg) was really useful to me for popping out chat windows for RP rather than trying to keep track in the usual scrolling chat.

Choose an RP server - I'm pretty sure Argent Dawn is the most active EU. You can find other role-players via the WoW forums or possibly elsewhere on the web. Most RP guilds have guild web sites so you can research their policies and backstories out of game.

Try to bone up on the lore of whatever race you choose to play; it makes for much richer RP. WoW has such a wealth of history and events and locations, there was never a lack of RP potential. I am strongly Horde biased, so... for in-game locations, Silvermoon City is the hot spot for blood elf RP. Otherwise, The Wyvern's Tail Inn in Orgrimmar was a key site for the other Horde races. Some Alliance dog will have to chime in for info on the other side.  ;)

Anna Katrine

Neat! Thanks for all the input, Ill definately check those addons out.
Funny coincidence that I was planning to play Horde on Argent Dawn :)

Madriv

Quote from: Anna Katrine on August 25, 2013, 01:30:35 PMI was planning to play Horde on Argent Dawn :)

Allow me to be the first to congratulate you on your Good Taste.  ;D

Chris Brady

Wait, hold on.  You wanted RP and you picked Horde?  OK...  Good luck!
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Madriv

The key to doing anything in WoW is to play the race/gender/class combo that appeals to you the most because you're the one who has to look at the back end of that character for many, many levels. If you want to level it, that is.

Blood elves *are* the prettiest and as with any MMO RP you'll find a lot of people Mary/Gary Stu-ing it up. Playing a belf who actually goes out to interact with the other Horde races was always more fun to me than playing politics in Silvermoon, but your mileage may vary.

Troll is a great race to play, with a variety of tribes and lots of lore. They were always my favorite. Orcs and tauren also had rich elements. Goblins provided some much-needed comedy. The Forsaken are amazing and pretty much the antithesis of "pretty" RP characters. Pandaren are... well, they never just appealed.

The Alliance has dwarves, who are of course completely awesome. Other than that... can't say I ever had a positive RP experience with Alliance races. I know there's a significant quantity of RP on that side, but it all seemed to focus on humans and honestly, I don't understand why anyone would play a boring ass human in a fantasy setting.  :P

Shjade

I'd say good luck regardless of which faction/race you choose to play. I can count on one hand the instances of RP I could find that weren't one of the following:

- Elves being haughty/slutty because they're elves, regardless of whether it suits the context

- Drinking at the local tavern

- My parents are deeeeeeeeeead

- Nice boots wanna fuck

Maybe I've just been consistently unlucky, but I've yet to find an MMORPG with a worthwhile in-game RP atmosphere. It usually seems better to look into sources outside the game - WoW forum RP groups and the like - than to go hunting for it in the game itself. But then, I'm pretty picky, so maybe it's just me.
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Anna Katrine

The way I see it, whats the point of Rp in WoW if you dont play Horde? I mean if you take away all the Orcs and other less pretty creatures then its just Humans and Dwarfs. And you can find those everywhere. Anyways Im gonna fool around a bit :) Thanks for all the input guys ;)

meikle

Quote from: Anna Katrine on August 27, 2013, 02:29:32 PM
The way I see it, whats the point of Rp in WoW if you dont play Horde? I mean if you take away all the Orcs and other less pretty creatures then its just Humans and Dwarfs. And you can find those everywhere. Anyways Im gonna fool around a bit :) Thanks for all the input guys ;)
can you not find orcs (and elves, and minotaurs, and goblins, and trolls) all over also?

at least alliance gets space goats.  nobody else has space goats.
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Shjade

Quote from: meikle on August 27, 2013, 09:24:41 PM
at least alliance gets space goats.  nobody else has space goats.

Except Dota 2.

But seriously, space goats were kinda the bottom of the barrel of WoW lore. If you ask me, Tauren are where it's at, not because they're basically minotaurs but because of the culture clash: generally peace-desiring culture, very naturist and meditative and spiritual, and yet they're allies of the war machine that is the Horde because of timing and political needs. So much internal conflict to work with just as a baseline! I always felt like they didn't get nearly enough love.
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meikle

Yeah there's nothing really redeeming about the Draenei, but if your argument is "You can get X anywhere else!", then the draenei are the only race that doesn't fit that claim.
Kiss your lover with that filthy mouth, you fuckin' monster.

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Sain

Had some pretty cool draenei RP back in the day. The selling point of draenei RP really is their long life and how few of them that remain still manage to persist in this yet another new world. I know immortality angst and other related emotions can be played with other races, but with draenei you don't have to be a special sue for doing it, and you actually might be lucky enough to find some other people who are willing to play that aspect of the race out. It can seem like a boring race but will be fu

Sadly there were only very few decent draenei RPers, and a lot of time you just see blue humans or lazy people who can't bother with lore playing >100 year olds.
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Chris Brady

Quote from: Anna Katrine on August 27, 2013, 02:29:32 PM
The way I see it, whats the point of Rp in WoW if you dont play Horde? I mean if you take away all the Orcs and other less pretty creatures then its just Humans and Dwarfs. And you can find those everywhere. Anyways Im gonna fool around a bit :) Thanks for all the input guys ;)
The issue is that on some servers, most Horde are categorized (probably unfairly) as Xbox players.  As in they go in, blow through the content within days of release, and then farm it repeatedly until they've maxed everything out and then...  Not entirely sure, then they come back for the next expansion and repeat it.

They tend (not all don't) not to RP much.  They're too focused on getting everything.  Now admittedly, that means that the Horde tends to dominate things like PvP or the end Raids, and thus hit the leader boards more often.  But it doesn't really promote RP.

And given that my first character was on a PvP server and a Forsaken Tank (that was a baaaad idea) and the fact that all the other times I've played Horde the same attitude of 'Rush, Rush, Rush' was constant over 6 server hops, I admit, I might be a bit biased.

Either way, I hope you get some RP going, the game needs some.

Also, before I forget, in most fantasy games I've played there's been some sort of Orc/Goblin/Dark Elf/Troll analog(s) as 'bad guys' or 'the other faction' for as long as I can remember.
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Vampricprincessty

I recently started playing WoW myself. I am looking for a few good rpers to play with because everyone else is just.... ugh....
   

meikle

#15
Quote from: Chris Brady on August 29, 2013, 12:21:53 AMThey tend (not all don't) not to RP much.  They're too focused on getting everything.  Now admittedly, that means that the Horde tends to dominate things like PvP or the end Raids, and thus hit the leader boards more often.  But it doesn't really promote RP.
You don't tend to find the best RPers if you stick to the crowds of people who look down their noses at the people who play the game well.  Pretentious RPers and good RPers don't usually tend to overlap, especially not in WoW.

The theory that the Horde doesn't RP because they're also interested in playing the game is not ... a good one.
Kiss your lover with that filthy mouth, you fuckin' monster.

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Chris Brady

That's not what I said.  I said they tend to focus on achieving everything, and frankly, are damn good at it.  Now, admittedly, there are some good RP guilds Hordeside, Feathermoon had several, but those seem to have mostly retired now.  One of which I know is gone because they were done with WoW.  They reached what they wanted in terms of content, and no amount of RP was going to keep them there.  Alliance side, I know of a couple guilds still there who've not cared to finish past BC.

Horde Roleplayers are usually Content first, RP second.  Alliance Roleplayers are RP first, content second.

Which of them RP better or more?  I have no idea.  All I know is that Alliance side tends to ignore some of the content to keep RPing.
My O&Os Peruse at your doom.

So I make a A&A thread but do I put it here?  No.  Of course not.

Also, I now come with Kung-Fu Blog action.  Here:  Where I talk about comics and all sorts of gaming

Shjade

Both factions have groups who do that, Chris. Just a matter of finding them if that's what you're looking for.

*high-fives KaylaM in a manner intended to represent solidarity* Honestly, I'd love to RP in MMOs, but the limitations are just...they make it more effort than it's worth. The chat buffer is a killer, for one; most MMOs hardly let you finish two good sentences before you hit the cap. I think GW2's chat buffer is something like 100 characters-ish? Shorter than the length of this paragraph at any rate.

So that's one big red flag right out the gate built into the game. After that there's the risk of staff problems if you ever happen to slip up and say something inappropriate on a public channel instead of a private one, or talk to the wrong person and get reported, or whatever else my paranoia comes up with as a possible reason to get kicked off the game and lose all the time (and money, if not a F2P game) you've invested in it. Makes it a little hard to stay in the right mindset for RP of any flavor when I'm constantly weighing my considerations for RP options against the likelihood of it blowing up in my face. What can I say, I worry about things.

That's all before even getting to know the game's community and whether or not there's someone in it even worth your time.
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Chris Brady

Quote from: Shjade on September 02, 2013, 03:34:32 PM
Both factions have groups who do that, Chris. Just a matter of finding them if that's what you're looking for.
You're dead right.  Thing is, for World of Warcraft, since Vanilla, the Horde with it's 'ugly races' has been home to (not all) people who look down on those who choose their class based on looks, which are mostly (not all, but typically more than half) casual players, who want something cool or pretty to look at.  And because the Horde side races tended to be uglier, they tend (again, generalization and not all do it) to focus more on stats, and builds and getting the most out of what they play, which they find fun.  Also, the Horde tends to draw those types of people, because the original player drag friends in, who are typically like minded.

Does that mean they don't RP, or have no casuals?  No.  Hell no.  What it means is that there's less of them, usually.  And one of the reasons that Blizzard (and I wish I could find the article) made the Blood Elves go to the Horde side was because of a large population imbalance.  More people played Alliance.  I believe PvP was cited as a reason for trying to get more Horde players, but it never needed it because despite the smaller Horde base population, more of them actually PvP'ed regularly, then the Alliance side.

(Example (and these are BS numbers I just made up, but the concept remains the same) Although Horde may have had 70% of the Alliance side, they still had a 90% PvP rate, as opposed to the typically 30% of the Alliance side of dedicated PvP players.  Again, made up numbers, but that was the issue that Blizzard tried to use the Elves to get people to play Hordeside.  Which caused a huge uproar on the Forums at the time of Burning Crusade, and people STILL look down to this day.)

Again, not all servers are the same, and everyone can RP.  But because Alliance tends to be more casual, there's a better chance of finding RP.

Will it be any good?  I have no idea.  Because to me, if it's got a plot, and a story line, I don't care if it's got cybersex or thinly disguised mary sues or cheap comic plot.  As long as it's fun, I'll do it, if people will have me.

[Tongue in Cheek]

Besides, if you want to play the true villains of WoW, you want to play Alliance.  The Humans are racist jerks (Hey, let's kick out our Allies the High Elves, you know the ones who've been with us for nearly a millennium and taught us Magic to fight their enemies the Trolls, because...  I have no idea, actually), the Night Elves bemoaning their lack of Immortality to the point of siding with Demons (TWICE), the Dwarves are brilliant, short sighted scientists (Their focus on the Pantheon and willingness to disregard the warnings) and idiots (What kind of moron let's the treacherous queen of the enemy kingdom sit on the ruling council?) and Gnomes?  Well, they're just incompetent.  Not only do they literally nuke their own home, they irradiate/drive mad all the survivors, and still don't get rid of the original issue, the Troggs.  The Draenei's biggest problem I suppose is their singular lack of direction and piloting skills (they crashed their Dimensional Space Boat on an island and completely totaled it and the island), although the fact that a good chunk of them got corrupted and have been most of the 'demons' of the Legion for almost time immemorial, and the other chunk are devolved morons...

[Remove Tongue in Cheek]

And most of the Horde's problems were caused by Humans in some way.
My O&Os Peruse at your doom.

So I make a A&A thread but do I put it here?  No.  Of course not.

Also, I now come with Kung-Fu Blog action.  Here:  Where I talk about comics and all sorts of gaming

Shjade

It's...it's like watching a lab experiment on how racism begins. Remarkable.

Seriously though, if you're just looking at numbers, yeah, you're more likely to find dedicated groups A-side than Horde side because, as pointed out, there's simply a larger quantity of players in the pool A-side. If you have 100000 players in column A and 70000 in column B, column A is more likely to have what you're looking for in higher supply regardless of player tendencies simply because there's more of them around. All the assumptions and generalizations are unnecessary.
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Conversation is more useful than conversion.

meikle

#20
Quote from: Shjade on September 03, 2013, 01:04:21 AM
It's...it's like watching a lab experiment on how racism begins. Remarkable.

Seriously though, if you're just looking at numbers, yeah, you're more likely to find dedicated groups A-side than Horde side because, as pointed out, there's simply a larger quantity of players in the pool A-side. If you have 100000 players in column A and 70000 in column B, column A is more likely to have what you're looking for in higher supply regardless of player tendencies simply because there's more of them around. All the assumptions and generalizations are unnecessary.

I've been playing WoW since release pretty much consistently, active more often than inactive.  I've played Horde and Alliance about equally in that time, and here is my experience:

People who try to divide behavior into "horde" and "alliance" are deluded.  There are no meaningful distinctions between the factions and their playerbases, and people who say there are are kidding themselves.  At this point, I think, people who play only Horde or only Alliance are in the minority; paid server and faction changes, as well as the removal of one faction per server limit, have a lot to do with this.  The introduction of flex raids next patch will probably lead more people to play both factions simultaneously if they have friends that play cross-faction to them.

I don't think that the Blood Elf thing was really a population imbalance issue.  It made a huge difference on RP servers (where the vast majority of high level characters, generally above 50% Horde side and ~25% overall are blood elfs), and not nearly as significant an impact on Normal and PvP servers.  There are still many servers where Horde vastly outnumber Alliance, and would even without blood elves (Area 52 and Thrall, for example, have massive blood elf populations, but outnumber the Alliance even without them.)  Since leveling has become so much easier and quicker, and the design has moved from expecting a single main that eats up all playtime (as in Vanilla and BC) toward allowing players more opportunity to maintain a stable of characters progressing through the end-game (WotLK onward), race has become less of a deciding factor; most people play characters of many races.

The only line I'd draw is this: People on RP servers (especially Moon Guard and Wymrest Accord, the latter especially where roleplayer hostility reached a height at one point so severe that they drove most non-roleplayers from the Alliance side of the server -- all of the progression players, at least, leaving WRA-A a miserable place full of sad roleplayers for a long time) tend to be really bad at progressing through PvE content and their PvP is bottom-of-the-barrel as far as performance is concerned.  This is true regardless of faction, though RP realms tend to have higher Horde populations than Alliance populations owing to blood elfs.  Neither of them are very good; Horde roleplayers aren't significantly better than Alliance roleplayers when it comes to their performance in a server-wide scale, but their larger population does make it easier for them to find dedicated players to fill out a progression raid.  Between WRA and Moon Guard (remember, the two largest / most active roleplay servers as far as roleplaying goes), only one guild (one 10-player raid, at that) has actually cleared the content for this patch, and 0 more are set to do so before the next.  This hardly reflects of an atmosphere of tryhards putting roleplay on the sidelines to maximize their loot intake or whatever.

Granted, clearing content can be difficult and demanding, but when only ten people on a server of thousands actually do it, I can't take the criticism that "Those guys are all too focused on winning to do other stuff!" very seriously.  On RP servers, everyone sits around with their thumbs up their butts, it's not really divided by faction.
Kiss your lover with that filthy mouth, you fuckin' monster.

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Stormraven

Quote from: Anna Katrine on August 25, 2013, 10:49:54 AM
Hey all who may read this :)

Ive recently got myself a World of Warcraft starter account in order to dive right back into the RP elements of the game. And in that relevance I thought it could be fun to see if there were a couple of others who might join me in my adventure, and maybe help guide me.

Either way I'd appreciate any advice on RP in WoW, especially concerning useful addons and such :)

(Playing on European servers btw ;) )

Back to the original question, I currently play on a couple of European RP realms. AD seems to have the most active RPers, but this also means they have the biggest number of bad RPers. If you want good RP its a question of finding the right guild, not the right race so much. I can direct you to a good guide that tells you everything you need to know about NightElf RP or suggest some alliance guilds with a decent reputation, but I've never really played Horde races. I would suggest FlagRSP and Tongues as addons.

It's always a pleasure helping new players and old find decent RP in the game. Send me a PM if I can help.

Anna Katrine

Thanks for the input Storm (and everyone else :) ).

Y'all can keep discussing if you want :)

Dovel

The 5.4 Siege of Orgrimmar: content looks interesting. I may re-sub just to play through some of it.
Now we live, tomorrow not
Enjoy your pleasures, lest they rot
Let not them pass this very day
For on the morrow regret may with you stay



Hemingway

To add to other people's lamentations: It's been a while since I did anything resembling RP in WoW. Nowadays, I just get on to troll people in my guild, basically. But I still know people who RP! And they tell me it's awful.

Or, rather, it's excellent if you can find the right guild. There are apparently a few good ones. And a lot of really bad ones. Alliance side is apparently overflowing with people who love A Song of Ice and Fire way too much, and play politics and intrigue in Stormwind.

*sigh.* I miss my old raiding / RP community.