All the World's a Stage: Joining the right circle
by David Bowers 
Mar 30th 2008 at 5:55PM
So, here you are. You decided that you want to give roleplaying a try, so you picked an RP server and started leveling up. You even tried roleplaying with one person you met along the way, saying "Hail, traveler! Would you like to undertake this task with me?" Things were going along quite nicely for a few minutes until the other person said, "Dood, this quest suxxors, lol," and you realized that something had gone horribly, terribly wrong.
A mystery baffles roleplayers everywhere: why is it that even on a space like an RP server, set aside for roleplaying, it can be so hard to find other people to roleplay with? Even if you have thoroughly researched the question of which server is the best place for roleplaying, still you will not be happy there until you find a circle of friends whose roleplaying you can appreciate, and who appreciate yours in return.
Strangers in their own land
Indeed, many roleplayers nowadays find themselves stuck on an RP server which has seen better days. The community which used to be so vibrant now seems as though all the old roleplayers have either given up or gone elsewhere. They, too, wish that they could have fun acting in character like they used to, but nowadays it's all about so many Badges of Justice and Arena Points that they, too, find it difficult to really get themselves in the right mood for roleplaying.
If you're like me, you want to raid, PvP, and do everything the game has to offer, but you don't want to give up roleplaying to do it. For a long time I thought this might be a pipe dream, that no one on my RP server had time for RP anymore. I posted my wish on my realm's forums and asked my friends if they knew any guild like this, all to no avail. Finally, I gave up looking and began investigating other servers that I might transfer to. I also investigated a couple guilds I hoped might work, but found that none of them really suited me -- until finally I stumbled upon the right person with the right advice: the Guild Master of the raiding guild I was trying out used to be an avid roleplayer herself, and she recommended a full-time-RP guild she knew of. This new guild does everything in-character, from PvP to raiding Karazhan, and it creates an entirely different atmosphere which I enjoy a great deal. They're a gem of a guild surrounded by a majority of non-roleplayers on my server, and they have made me very happy to stay where I am rather than look for a new home.
Hidden bastions of hope
Chances are that no matter which RP server you play on, no matter how depressingly rare it may seem to find another roleplayer, small pockets of serious roleplayers remain, waiting for you to seek them out and find them. The problem is that they may not be very inclined to advertise their little group out where everyone (such as you) can see. Many roleplayers don't really feel welcome on a roleplaying server, oddly enough. It's as if they are the last remaining exiles of a once noble civilization, and they have to just cling to one another in order to survive. They may feel as though their style isn't so popular anymore, and even if they announced themselves to all the world, it might draw too much unwanted attention.
In your quest to find such a guild, however, you have several tools at your disposal. The first, most obvious idea might be to post your ideal guild description on your server's forums in the hopes that someone will see it and match you up with the guild that fits. Sadly, I must caution you not to expect too much from this. Many of the best players of any sort reject the forums entirely as a cesspit of degenerate and useless nonsense. You might be lucky enough to find someone intelligent there, however, so give it a try.
The guilds who advertise in the various chat channels also aren't likely to be very reliable in my experience, and are best avoided. Those of you who are especially patient and adventurous may prefer to meet your roleplaying friends in the wild this way (as many experienced roleplayers did long ago before we discovered forums and guides and such), but for a newcomer I do not recommend it.
A journey through the grapevine
Most likely, your best bet will be to talk to as many reasonable people as possible, and rely first and foremost on word of mouth. Formulate a clear explanation of what kind of guild you want, what kind of playstyle you think will meet your needs and then ask about to see what people know.
But here's the most important thing: don't just ask your friends - be sure to go out of your way a bit to ask people you don't normally talk to all that much. That's not to say you ask just anyone on the street -- think of people who seem well connected, reasonable people, whether or not they are avid roleplayers. Feel free to ask your friends of course, but remember that if you spend a lot of time with them now, then you probably know most of the people they know already. It's the people you've met a few times but haven't talked to in ages who might be able to help. Send them a note asking how they've been and what they're up to, and... "by the way, do you know a guild that fits this description...?"
Of course no guild will be 100% perfect. It's important to think about what kind of guild you really want, so that you can keep guild hopping to a minimum, find what will make you happy sooner, and spend time developing relationships that will last.
Think about these questions: How much do you want to roleplay? How do you prioritize your various activities in the game? Are you always in character? Or is raiding priority with a side of RP now and then? What do you want to contribute to your guild, and what do you hope to receive? How important are all these questions in relation to the other guild issues?
Every week, All the World's a Stage presents to you tips and thoughtful ideas about roleplaying in World of Warcraft! Thanks for reading today's installment of Finding Roleplayers -- and be sure not to miss out on part one, about the right server and part three, about the right attitudes. If you have already found lots of roleplayers, consider reading some of the ways your friends can help you when you get into RP trouble.Filed under: Virtual selves, Guilds, Guides, RP, Forums, All the World's a Stage (Roleplaying), Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
prudychick Mar 30th 2008 6:32PM
I was RPing the other evening (Stormwheedle Cartel) I happened upon another player. I said hello and said my trainer was working me hard. He was like huh what's that. I said my rogue trainer, and he's like what that for a quest or something? I broke character and was like no to level my skill level.
It was rather frustrating. I couldn't understand why someone would create a character on an RP server if you aren't going to RP. Like joining a PVP server and getting mad when another player kills you.
Zeplar Mar 30th 2008 7:16PM
I joined an RP server because my friends were on it. If someone talks to me in character, I'll respond in character, and perhaps even do some serious roleplaying... but that's only happened once so far. Once, in the year and a half I've been playing, on one of the largest US servers.
obo Mar 30th 2008 8:48PM
@Zeplar: That's the biggest problem with Blizz and RP servers. If one person RPs and they invite friends who don't play WoW to try it out, the new players ignore the server designation and play where their friend is at. Usually, the friend on the RP server assuages the newbie by telling them that RP isn't required and very few people do it anyway. That new player does the same to their friends, and so on.
That's exactly how I got pulled into WoW, and how I got others into WoW. The person who recruited me quit, and now there's a half-dozen people whose mains are on an RP server, but don't RP and have no interest in it.
There's no undoing this. Some sort of amnesty move to Normal servers wouldn't work - inevitably, one RPing friend wouldn't want to go, and the rest of the non-RPing friends wouldn't want to leave them. But strictly enforcing RP rules without allowing transfers would cause players to quit. Nobody will pay money to transfer off a server where their friends play to one where they don't know anyone. This is doubly painful for PvPers who don't realize until it's too late that they can't even pay to transfer to a PvP server - not even an RP-PvP server.
The only thing I can think of is to open one or two RP servers, offer free transfers on the guild level instead of the individual level, only allow individual paid transfers from RP realms and — most prohibitive — close the server to new toons by accounts without a toon transferred during this launch window, unless invited by an existing account.
Heavy RP guilds would carry their own friends and support to a fresh realm; light RP guilds and non-RPers could stay behind and lose nothing. Hardcore unguilded RPers would likely pay to transfer at launch, or join a guild before the transfers. Limiting new accounts to invitation would allow the community to do the screening that Blizz refuses to do. For non-RPers, it's an easy decision between transferring to RP Central with their few, if any, heavy-RP friends or staying put with their light-RP or non-RP friends.
That won't ever happen because it's too much work for too little gain for Blizz, but that's the only way I see the debate ending, or even quieting down at all. Much more likely is Blizz converting all RP/RP-PvP servers to Normal and PvP and telling the RP communities to fend for themselves, which is what they've had to do anyway. It wouldn't be very different at all.
Stormscape Mar 31st 2008 12:30AM
"Strangers in their own land" is very much a truth. I've been there. I play on the RP server Cenarion Circle, which has been my home since 2005; it is among the very oldest, the ones there when the game lauched.
I was a hard-core RPer, and in the early days things were good, but then things started falling apart. I went from RPer to soloist, not wanting to give up being IC, then I was a casual RPer, forced to be OOC pretty much anywhere I was doing something game-related like instances or questing, still clinging to RP with my slowly dwindling circle of friends.
These days it very much feels like being an exile of a once-noble civilization, and we do cling to each other to survive, trying not to draw attention to ourselves, though we've long since lost what we were.
It is truly a sad thing, that the once vibrant RPers (such as myself) have degenerated to the point where the only thing that distinguishes us from the non-RPers is slightly better grammar, as we play world of numbercraft.
There was a time when we'd abhor the even a small slip out of character.
Then there was the era where "more than half your time IC" was the standard to meet.
Now days we("hardcore" RPers) can shift into character so rarely and so briefly, some of us are forgetting how, and some of us have stopped trying.
Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy the game, I still intend to play for the foreseeable future, but this is only because I, as a player, have had to change as much as WoW has since those early days of 2005.
I make machinima now, it could be said, INSTEAD of role-playing, which I'm perfectly happy about. It is a far more rewarding outlet for my creativity. However, I will always mourn the death of the glory days.
Cynra Mar 31st 2008 8:47AM
I feel your pain, Stormscape. I joined Feathermoon about three years ago, a starry-eyed roleplaying neophyte who was too afraid to roleplay but very interested in learning how to do so and getting involved. I joined the wonderful Feathermoon.net community, I interacted with them on a regular basis, met up with a group of people who had a roleplaying guild, interacted with another, and everything seemed new and idyllic and wonderful.
Now, years later, I feel like I'm barely eking by. Most of my time in-game is consumed by raiding with people who mostly don't roleplay. I've dropped most of the standard roleplaying conventions while around them, though I'm strictly in-character outside of the raid. I wander the streets of Stormwind and Ironforge, Orgrimmar and Thunderbluff, and wonderful how I can reclaim that feeling of my roleplaying youth. I push and pull, struggling to remain in-character in an environment which isn't just conducive to roleplaying. I sometimes feel silly roleplaying in a group of complete strangers, dreading the questions of "Why are you talking like that?"; "What's with the weird accent?"; and "Why are you using (())'s around your words now?" Every couple of months I start feeling vindicitve and report all of the non-roleplaying names I come across: the Solidsnakes and Nubnuggz and Flagcarriers and Healplzs that I come across and can't stand seeing.
It's hard to remain optimistic in light of that. It hard having to explain or defend your actions as a roleplayer. And it's hard to be a roleplayer even on a roleplaying server where - oddly enough - we seem like the minority when we used to be the majority. At least, as far as I can remember.
Last night after a cancelled raid on Tempest Keep, I was doing my weekly stroll through the streets of Stormwind looking for something to catch my fancy. I'd already done my dailies on two characters. I was bored and even a bit saddened to not see any of the random roleplaying that used to catch my attention in years past. I crafted a couple of blacksmithing items for people and was disappointed when they didn't roleplay the exchange with me. I saw a couple of people with FlagRSP tags, but most of them said Out of Character and were involved in non-IC chatter.
All in all, feeling a bit dejected and ready to log off for the evening, I took the opportunity to reclaim some Auction House earnings from the mailbox in Stormwind Park. While there, I was approached by an obvious roleplayer (he had all the signs: the outfit, the strolling casual walk, the emotes as he blessed people - everything!). We began talking, had an argumentative dwarf join us, and headed into the inn to discuss philosophy and semantics (which, sadly, were well over my character's head, the poor girl!).
Two hours later, as I leaned back contentedly in my seat, I thought to myself, "THAT's why I still roleplay!" Thanks, Raethos of Feathermoon for giving me the opportunity to experience again that feeling.
Felwrathe Mar 31st 2008 12:43AM
lol @ picture.
That is all.
Sean Riley Mar 31st 2008 1:15AM
David, one thing that could help get more people into RPing, but especially lapsed RPers, is the RP event. Perhaps you should do a column on staging an RP event/plot and how you do it?
Matt Mar 31st 2008 8:00AM
That is a totally awesome picture.
Dwuffy Mar 31st 2008 8:13AM
I play on Twisting Nether, which is an RP-PVP realm. We've gone through phases where there is so much RP that it's hard to juggle which events to schedule, as well as lows where people get lulled into a false sense of RP-doom. Currently we are doing well on both Horde and Alliance side, although neither is "peaked" at the moment.
As for finding RPers on TN, There are the ways you've mentioned here, ingame word of mouth, official forums, and we also have the The Twisting Nether Gazette (http://wow-tng.org), a site built specifically to cater to TN RPers (forum-based RP, journal based RP, a wiki for guild/character information, and general forum chatter without dealing with the anti-RP trolls).
We have a game on the official forums where when people do the random "is this a good RP server?" all of the trolls tell them "no" and "go away!" while the RPers try to convince them that the server isn't as bad as the official forums make it out to be. Good times.
Viper007Bond Mar 31st 2008 9:29AM
Maybe it's hard to find others to RP with because there are literally few people who find RP fun.
It's no different than dressing up as your favorite character and going to a park to throw LIGHTNING BOLTs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_ekugPKqFw). Most sane people find that retarded.
Not trying to be an ass, just statin' the truth. ;)
Syme Mar 31st 2008 9:54AM
Stormscape,
I play on Cenarion Circle as well. I remember when people spoke IC in Barrens General. I remember when RP wasn't some special thing, but that everything was done in character including choices about how one played and which quests one would accept. We stayed in character while smashing the Alliance assaults on Crossroads. Now RP is off in a seperate box away from playing the game, which is not what I wanted. If I am an adventuring shaman making the world a better place for decent Horde, why would I want to instance out of character?
But, I don't think there is a better guild for me. I like the people I play with, and friends are better even than RP.
Dulcet Mar 31st 2008 10:22AM
I'm on Steamwheedle Cartel, and I see random RP every day. Even so, the ooc channel is far and away busier than the ic.
I think one part is the misconception of how it's done. You don't need to talk like "Verily, thou hast reason to deem her words doggerel. Prithee." unless you are playing someone who talks funny. You just immerse in the world. As an avid RPer, I play on my server because I don't feel like hearing about pop culture, world news, US politics, what you're having for dinner, or the horrible drama between you and your babysitter. I like to escape that sort of thing.
Sean Riley Mar 31st 2008 6:43PM
Exactly, on the speech. Speak as your character demands, which for me ranges from, "Tally ho! Into the breach, eh wot?" to "I find your lack of comprehension simultaneously adorable and frustrating." to "You're a kitty!"
Badger Mar 31st 2008 12:53PM
"A mystery baffles roleplayers everywhere: why is it that even on a space like an RP server, set aside for roleplaying, it can be so hard to find other people to roleplay with?"
Blizzard doesn't enforce any of their server policies. Mystery = Solved.
Calybos Apr 4th 2008 5:07PM
Agreed. And when non-RP behavior IS reported, the offended LOL-er whines about "free speech" and "It's just a game."
I've made up characters on every RP server I can find--Argent Dawn, Sister of Elune, Silver Hand, Steamwheedle--and there's just no roleplaying to be found. It's sad, but for REAL roleplayinig, it looks like you still have to be around a tabletop.
Itsysprokit Nov 12th 2008 12:58PM
Viper007Bond you say that most sane people don't enjoy rp.
1) What is your statistical basis for this? Or is it simply the usual "I don't like it and if I don't like it it is teh suxxor"
2) Blizz apparently thinks enough people like it to create rp servers.
3) The regular servers are for people who feel like you do. Rp servers, oddly enough, are for people who like to rp.
4) If you roll a character on an rp server and don't want to rp, please at least have the respect and good manners to name your character appropriately and leave the rp'ers alone.