Hey Potato. :) Thanks for your explanation, your story, and your suggestions. It is, as you say, a matter of preference, and different people have different senses of humor. I personally find "clowning" to be hard to do just right. I have tried and failed with some of my characters, such that what I thought was funny ends up looking just like a shallow gimmick, as you say.

But at the same time, it's not entirely fair to say that one form of humor is entirely bad just because you don't get the joke, or know how to respond to it. For instance, my draenei hunter's accent isn't actually based on vampires. I have some international friends who talk with accents that I just love to listen to; so in making this character, I mixed together all the things I loved about their accents and played it that way. Likewise, I live in China, so I have an intimate experience struggling to use a foreign language -- it may seem like a gimmick to you, but I guarantee it comes out of a very real human experience. Hopefully my character's accent doesn't sound too far from the accent draenei have in their voice emotes, also. Anyway, if you saw me doing it, I'd hope you'd give it the benefit of the doubt, rather than dismissing it offhand, assuming it's something it is not.

As another example, my trollish friend doesn't say Happy Skull Days to everyone in sight. These quirks are not intended to be spammed over and over again in yells all over Orgrimmar. She might wish you Happy Skull Days in guild chat, however, and you could always just thank her politely for the skull she gives you and then set it aside somewhere. She's really not trying to get attention so much as provide happy entertainment for her friends. Whether I like it or not, you certainly don't have to think it's good entertainment.

But still, don't give up on it. Heaven knows countless times I've tried entertaining and it didn't work out, but with the patience and encouragement of my friends, I got a lot better.

In short, I hope you don't mind me saying this, but your "elitist thing," as you put it, may be setting you up for disappointment. A curious and forgiving attitude would help you appreciate and encourage others much better, and might reveal diamonds where you thought there was only rough.