Enforcing RP
by Mike Schramm 
Aug 22nd 2007 at 5:09PM
The rogue Grenthar sighed as he slowly walked through the crowd at the main entrance of Stormwind. It had been a long day of slaughtering boars and thinning out the Gnoll population, but it was worth it-- he had a pack full of skins and trinkets to put up for auction. He entered the House, sticking to the shadows by instinct, and when his turn came, dealt quickly and quietly with the auctioneer, firmly setting each starter and buyout price for his goods.Suddenly, there was a yell from outside in the city: "OMG did you just see what happened on 24? Jack BAuer ROXXORS!!"
Yeah, personally, I'm not that big on roleplaying, but I can see what people get out of it-- complete immersion in a world where they're the hero. Unfortunately for those really interested in it, the illusion is so easy to break that even on RP servers, Blizzard doesn't really enforce roleplaying that much. From what I've gathered, the majority of it takes place in groups and guilds of people committed to doing it right.
So when Patsie asks why Blizzard even has an RP policy when they don't enforce it, I can see what he's saying. And maybe Blizzard should crack down on non-RPers, just as they've cracked down on gold spammers and AFKers. What if everyone on an RP server could report someone with just a right click, and if enough reports came in on that person, they earned a suspension or even a ban from the server entirely? You have to think that if Blizzard made a serious effort to shut down non-RP activity on an RP server, they'd become what they were meant to be in the first place-- servers where everyone actually played a role.
Then again, people who don't roleplay are paying their $15 like the rest of us, and, as Patsie says, there are lots of people on the RP servers who didn't join them to RP. But if Blizzard is advertising these servers as RP, shouldn't they be taking steps (beyond enforcing the naming convention, which is iffy itself) to make them so?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, RP
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Junzim Aug 22nd 2007 5:31PM
Ah yes, the oldest issue in the book.
Good RP encounters are far and away the most satisfying and incredible gaming experiences you could ask for. It's not so much about being the hero, most people like to play simple, down-to-earth characters who they can empathise with.
The problem is that it's hard to hit that sweet spot and unbelievably easy to wreck it.
I'm not an RP nazi per se, I don't mind if someone is bad at RP as long as they're trying (spelling mistakes, poor speech, I only draw the line at emoticons). However people who flagrantly and openly BREAK the server rulesets without any intention of EVER adhering to them deserve no sympathy.
There are DOZENS of servers online with easy means of transfer. All RP realms are CLEARLY marked as being such and they have some quite simple requirements:
1) Your name is subject to the stricter RP Naming Policy Rules.
2) You remain 'in character' in the /say and /yell channels.
Quite simply, if someone's spamming a bunch of Out of Character crap in the /say channel they deserve to be removed from the server. There are dozens of other servers they could be doing that on - there are only 3 RP PvP realms and fewer RP PvE realms.
Sorry, no sympathy here. If you want to RP you've come to the right place. If you just want to "escape the immaturity" of other servers, you're no better than the 15 year olds you're trying to avoid.
I have plenty of friends who play on the same RP realm as me who aren't 'into' RP but they know the rules and don't break them. It's not hard.
/party, /guild and prival channels you can write whatever the hell you want. Just don't go out of character in /say or /yell - have some courtesy for the players around you.
simplehiker Aug 22nd 2007 5:41PM
Why don't they enforce the rule of no racism or racist remarks. I wouldn't even reprint some of the character names I have reported for racism. I reported one guy who was level 30! with the name BigNigg COME ON! how does a guy like this get to level 30... this isn't to mention all the n-words that fly around chat and antisemitic "Jew" comments.
Blizz has no desire to make it simple to report people for common problems. Why should I have to wait in a GM queue for 20min just to report something as obvious as a char named BigNigg????
Ghen Aug 22nd 2007 5:42PM
Other games do just fine when they enforce the RP policy. People just play on other servers. Blizzard has really screwed the pooch on this one. Roleplayers know it and will jump ship as soon as something better comes along. Right now, there's nothing better from a fantasy lore standpoint. (arguably LotR but thats a different sect of the population anyway).
brett Aug 22nd 2007 5:48PM
I'm a raider on an RP server. I don't often RP but I do my best to keep non RP out of say/yell and respect other peoples attempt to RP.
I rolled RP to try and avoid a majority of l33tsp34k kiddies and it was pretty successful.
Rob Aug 22nd 2007 5:53PM
Dittos to @4, I'm on a RP server, I have NEVER seen or heard anyone doing RP on my server. But my main intent was to try and get away from the kids. I mostly succeeded.
RogueJedi86 Aug 22nd 2007 6:07PM
A lot of people get away with names like that because no one knows how to Report. Blizzard didn't make the interface for reporting people very intuitive(the same can be said of reporting bugs, but that's an issue for another day). I'd say 75% of the player base has no idea how to report other players, easily. So many categories, so confusing. Say someone's not roleplaying in /yell. Is that verbal harassment? If their non-rp /yell isn't harassing, then someone wouldn't go to Verbal Harassment, or Physical Harassment as a category. There is no category for miscellaneous problems that you want to report. It's VERY confusing.
Vasily Aug 22nd 2007 6:32PM
I had a main on an RP-PVP server, and my current main is on an RP server. I'm not heavily into RP, but I don't disrupt the experience for those who are. This, though, confuses me:
If you just want to "escape the immaturity" of other servers, you're no better than the 15 year olds you're trying to avoid.
That doesn't parse. What part of voluntarily trying to avoid leetspeaking idiots is equivalent to being one yourself?
dekulink Aug 22nd 2007 6:33PM
This is similar to the "no swearing" rule.
There's a profanity filter. If you turn it off and you see someone swear, it's bannable. How ridiculous is that?!
xcb Aug 22nd 2007 7:00PM
I almost paid for a character transfer after I realized what a RP server was. But after rolling an alt on one, I realized that they're just as lame as my PVP server.
So now I RP on my PVP server. I think it's probably more fun than the alternative. Hearing people yell "RP IS FOR FAGS YOU FUKIN LOSER" never gets old!
Michel Aug 22nd 2007 7:12PM
I'm all for RP, but in practice, is very hard to set rules.
rp , at the basis, is just playing your characters like his/her world was real for him/her. just live theater :)
but, many people can, on that premise, do zanny thing or mistake or differences of what the world is.
it's not easy to be on the same ground when many things have to be imagined.
So I understand reluctance of blizzard.
I'm on a rp server. in /yell /say, I only said what a tiny mage gnome female exiled from city would say. Because it's fun and there are sometimes great story invented when some people try their best.
It's challenging. the thing is, roleplaying has not to be prepared between players in advance. Maybe my character is a polite little pampered mage, but the weird dwarf approaching is a zany, gentle yes, but totally misinterpreting everything I say. so I have to adapt, run away, try to explain or whatever.
The other player I don't know can choose his character will never adapt with me and I have to face that... or not :)
I remember a time when I'm coming with a baby murloc, and suddenly a gnome rogue were crying "hAaa a murloc a murloc I hate them, MY boat has sunk because of them, haAAAA".. to discretely put away the murloc was a wise move :)
----
if you meet a pure moron only wanting to insult roleplaying, be noisy, wasting your time or summaring harry potter, well.. there are mad peasant in the world, it is a dangerous place you know :)
and you can /ignore them :)
and of course, in /guild /party /raid I said what it needs to be say to help people, play instances, fights the monsters, or whatever the quest of the day is.
RP is the not the game of writing torturous long novels when "omg DEAMONS INC" during a fight.
common sense is nice too.
-
so, I would love a roleplaying server only for people loving that. but we would need more "tools" (objects, settings, animation. you see.) to make that concrete, to help the game.
And the danger would be some "nazi rp" players try to definite a Pure Only One Way To Be RP and annoy people not adhering to the Pure Rule... brrrr frightening.
it's why I think Blizzard want to stay clear of that. the game support RP because players can says what they want, and that's fine for blizzard.
a pity, maybe.
but well, don't let people to put you down ! please do the game, you will meet some others players challenging you in fun way :)
just let the morons in their morons minds. they're happy.
enkafiles Aug 22nd 2007 7:12PM
"What part of voluntarily trying to avoid leetspeaking idiots is equivalent to being one yourself?"
It's not the ones that mind their own business and keep OOC stuff out of /s and /y, it's the ones who want to escape from the obnoxious kiddies that are ruining the game for *them* and then come to an RP server, ignore the stated RP rules (just two - how hard is that?) and ruin the game for the RPers, who are being every bit as bad as the "kiddies".
I'm not on the RP realms much these days, but the really vile ones should be dealt with like spam.
And on a side note - the hoppers, jumpers, leetspeak-swearers and physical harassers (follow you around, sit on your lap kind of thing) probably *are* the "kiddies" - 13 to 15-year-olds more likely - tourists from realms that are down...
BigRedPimp Aug 22nd 2007 7:15PM
What's bad is when people on an RP-PVP server have the grapefruits to blast someone for doing RP. I play on a RP realm where it's no problem but when I play my main on the RP-PVP realm, the minute I even show a hint of RP overtones, I get blasted with tells like "RP is lame, get off the server". Is it really that bad for all RP-PVP servers like Lightninghoof-H-US or is it just mine? I think a lot of these kids see the PVP and don't care that there's 2 extra letters before it.
Junzim Aug 22nd 2007 8:19PM
@7
"If you just want to "escape the immaturity" of other servers, you're no better than the 15 year olds you're trying to avoid.
That doesn't parse. What part of voluntarily trying to avoid leetspeaking idiots is equivalent to being one yourself?"
Yeah I was a little vague there, what I meant was that if you're coming to an RP server to escape idiots on your realm and ignoring the server ruleset (ie: breaking the 2 rules) then what you're doing is entirely analagous - you're impacting negatively on someone else's gameplay.
As the rest of my post made clear, I have nothing wrong with people who just want to avoid immaturity so long as they don't break the ruleset.
Gambeson Aug 22nd 2007 8:36PM
When Maelstrom (the first PVPRP server) opened, there were as many griefers as RPers. Those of us who rolled characters expecting a more immersive experience were overwhelmed by people who were only there to harrass us. I can't imagine any way to deal with a situation like that.
This is my first roleplaying game, and my first MMO. So I'm not a die hard roleplayer. But I did expect the experience to be more like a movie or novel, where people are interested in the story and characters, rather than in the mechanics of stats and loot.
Blizzard has created a very fun game. It is very convenient for people like me, who don't have a lot of play time. But the only way to suspend disbelief in WoW is to turn off all chat channels and find an out of the way corner in a low population server.
Vasily Aug 22nd 2007 8:45PM
@11, 13
Ah, okay, fair enough. I'd thought you were conflating passive evasion of RP with active non-RP jackassery.
pikachunks Aug 23rd 2007 12:05AM
In my experience, RP stands for 'report people'. I've played on PvE, PvP, and RP servers since launch, and I can tell you some of the biggest jerks I've run into were on RP servers.
I guess in medieval times, people walked around saying 'Reported.' to each other? Nit-picking eachother's names? Pointing out the flaws in each other's grammar and spelling?
Mind you, I've met plenty of cool people on my RP server, and had a lot of awesome spontaneous RP experiences. But in my experience, if PvP servers attract 15-year-old leet-speaking morons, then RP servers attract 35-year-old, klingon-speaking lore nerds.
There are two types of RP-ers - the kind that enjoy role-playing and respect other people's experience, and the type that enjoy having an extra set of rules they can abuse by correcting, nit-picking, and threatening to report every poor soul that has the misfortune to cross their path.
Medros Aug 23rd 2007 12:20AM
First, let me say that I agree that if blizz can build in a way to easily deal with spammers and AFKers, they can find a way to build in a way to report those who ruin RP. Hell, they could take it one step further and make it more intuitive to report someone for anything they do wrong. when the spammers were in full force, I asked my guild if they were reporting those who they had just complained were spamming, and most of them said they didn't know how and didn't care enough to learn. When you need to go through 5 steps to file a report, including 'detailing your complaint', then talk to a GM, well, it's gone too far. Mods can't even help with this anymore, so it's all done by hand.
As for the RP PvP realms, well, Duh! PvP realms are full of idiots. Many of them come to harass RPers when they are bored with their realms. What the hell did you think would happen when you gave them a place to be @$$es AND grief like they did on their home realms???
As for players being on RP realms that were advertised as such, my home realm of Argent Dawn is a perfect example of this problem. In the first few months of WoW, AD was being recommended for people looking for all server types. Want PvP? Here's AD! It's to the point that a person who takes time and effort to add RP to trade channel finally gave up after so many @$$es were harassing her, and has gone to the same old boring trade ads. I wish these people could be punished, but when Blizz does nothing after months of repeated reports about names and ruleset violations, your player base eventually gets the hint and gives up.
Juliah Aug 23rd 2007 12:29AM
Is it so much to ask for the GMs on RP servers to enforce the rules? We pay our money just like everyone else, and we should get what was laid out in the server rules at the time we chose the server.
I really think it should be two strikes and you're out. One warning, explaining what a RP server is for those who accidentally chose the server (and giving them the opportunity to adapt), and with the second, you're transferred to a PvE server.
tool03 Aug 23rd 2007 4:01AM
I'm on an RP sever for reasons other then RP but i've found RP to be kind of funny at times. Although I don't think I ever seen such large group of anal people until I got on my RP sever.
I hate it when people tell me that "You're not RPing correctly" because I like to do RP in a different way (town drunk), not everyone has a emo sob story to live out in RP, some of us like to RP "assholes". I can name a few times though when it goes great, like the time I chased an Undead all around Silvermoon because his "race" was evil and out to "destroy the Horde". Good times.
Fareni - Sentinels
Shevva Aug 23rd 2007 6:45AM
I settled on an RP realm just before the BC came out and i think its also luck as it appears i chose the right RP server, yes barrens chat is well barrens chat but trade and /s /y channels in citys are rarely flooded with L33t speak and when people are openly RPing around ogrimmar bank and everyone around them is respecting there RP then i can see the up side to being on an RP server where RP rules are followed.
Guild's that break RP rules get on my tots, you report one of there members to there guild forum and are told to get lost because they don't care? but your on an RP server the extra rules apply to guilds as well as individuals? Nubs