Breakfast Topic: Why don't you RP?
by Robin Torres 
Jul 20th 2010 at 8:00AM
I'm an old-school RPer. And when I say old school, I mean sitting on the floor in a circle around a map with painted pewter figurines on it and a bag of dice that I jealously guard. I also used to roleplay my characters in EQ quite a bit, though not 100% of the time. But I only recently got into WoW RP with the formation of <B L O G> and For Gnomeregan! and I still haven't gotten that into it because of the time I spend doing other things. I really want to though. After all, according to the official site:
World of Warcraft is an online role-playing experience set in the award-winning Warcraft universe.
Tonight, we're holding the RP Refugee Party on Shadow Council (US-RP-A), and we've already had quite a few people join us. But many have expressed nervousness about making mistakes. And I think others are not joining us at all because it's RP. I have some theories on why:
- LOLRP The LOLRP gang, particularly those who join RP realms only to grief, think RP is LOLworthy and not the "right" way to play WoW.
- Bad experiences Whether you were yelled at for doing it wrong, got griefed or whatever, a bad RP experience can make you not want to go back.
- Fear of acting It's hard to make a character, speak in character and not feel a bit silly. There are also many good RPers out there who can be intimidating.
- No desire This is the most valid reason not to RP. If it's not fun for you, you shouldn't do it.
- Misinformation It's not all ERP and vampires -- though there is a lot of both. You can find good troupes out there or just make your own.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 13)
kyusswren Jul 20th 2010 8:05AM
Because all of the options for RPing an evil shaman are unappealing.
and the mere mention of raiding on every RP server I've visited sends trade chat into a troll frenzy.
Achileaus Jul 20th 2010 9:12AM
Every "rp" realm Ive been on (my mains are on Maelstrom RP-PVP) has very little RP and trade chat is NEVER dominated by RPer, they all are just looking for raids or more importantly they're just doing the normal trade chat garbage thing. I'm amazed you actually got trolled by RPers on a realm for that.
Joker Jul 20th 2010 10:24AM
Why doesn't Blizzard do something about cleaning up the RP servers?
We pay them money every month but they don't bother cleaning the trash (non RPing ppl that play on a RP server) from the RP servers where the people that do like to RP choose to play.
RP-PVP servers were the best places for world PVP before Blizz decided to destroy it by allowing people to have both Horde and Alliance on the same server therefore destroying the pride of ones faction on the server.
I love WoW but it's sad seeing Blizz making so many bad decisions so they can make more money.
monk Jul 20th 2010 10:39AM
I'd love to be an evil Shaman! But more importantly, I'd want to be able to communicate with my enemy. esPECially if I was an evil Shaman. And that's the main reason I don't RP in WoW, but have in other MMO's. The battle of wits is reduced to /rude, /mock and /laugh.
Chairman Kaga Jul 20th 2010 11:28AM
Wait, what? People actually trolled you for *not* RPing?
Tell me what server this is. I must witness this.
CaryEverett Jul 20th 2010 11:28AM
eRP stands for "erotic roleplaying" which is a polite way of saying "cyber sex"
Greeni Jul 20th 2010 11:42AM
@ Joker
And exactly how do you propose cleaning the non-RPers off of RP realms, by having Blizz monitor chat and sending everybody a free mandatory server change when they say stuff that's obviously not RP? Good luck doing that.
Also, with your QQ-ing of allowing different faction characters on the same realm, you didn't mention that a player has always been allowed to be on different factions on different servers. Doesn't that somewhat "destroy the pride of one's faction"?
And, no, i don't cross-faction on the same server, mostly because the people that dragged me to that server only had one faction.
-----------------------------------------------------
(sorry for piggy-backing)
No, i don't RP, but occasionally, it does seem like it would be fun. Then, one thought pops into my head: "why? it's just a game." Sorry to pull that card, but i am me, not the little animated character that runs around and can't do nearly all the things i can IRL.
Mr. Tastix Jul 20th 2010 1:14PM
First off, I play on Moon Guard and we have pretty much more of everything. This is both good and bad. We have more good roleplay, more bad stuff too, we also tend to have more griefers and, of course, way more people sitting in Goldshire cybering their way to happiness.
Moon Guard, whilst slow in raiding progression in comparison to a "normal" PVE or PVP realm is by no means so far behind we're still doing Ulduar. I am a roleplayer, I tend to only roleplay with friends, but I also raid with these same people.
@CaryEverett: You are wrong. There is a big difference between what is erotic roleplaying and what those level 1 Night Elves do at Goldshire.
Cybersex is, just as the title implies, sex online. Erotic roleplay is a mature form of roleplay where the writing is more erotic. This can be anything from romance to roleplaying out sex for storyline purposes. I have done both but will only -ever- do the latter one if it is going to enhance one of my character's storylines.
Those you see in Goldshire? Completely different story. ERP is just as valid as any romance novels. There -is- a thing called tact, erotic roleplaying doesn't consist of "COCK GO WHERE?!" but can be a very romantic side to it (which is what I prefer).
Bronwyn Jul 20th 2010 1:30PM
I really must know what server you were on when you got scolded for NOT RPing. Most RP servers I've been on (Sentinels and Farstriders come to mind first) have fairly regular discussions in trade about how "lame" RP is and if you attempt to discuss RP in a positive way in trade chat, you get shouted down by people with names like "ihavbigbullz" who apparently joined an RP server just to talk shit about people who RP.
Now, I imagine on a server with a more vibrant RP community like Moon Guard that this trolling isn't quite as bad, but even there I know there are raiders who disdain RP and think it is stupid.
From what I've seen, a mention of raiding usually leads to people complaining that the server isn't very progressed because of the RPers.
Oteo Jul 20th 2010 3:46PM
@Achileaus
I'm also on Maelstrom (US). If you play Horde there's a weekly RP event in the Filthy Animal on Thursdays, starting at 7 or 9 PM server (I think? Maybe 8.... well, we spend hours there anyway). I can tell you that a lot of RP guilds RP only within guild chat or global channels. WOTH and Felbrood Order do world RP but are small groups and we have scheduled events. You should come to the weekly Dalaran meetup, which is an interguild event.
Oh, but if you play Alliance I guess you're just SOL?
JaneLame Jul 20th 2010 5:21PM
My experience proves RPers tend to be a lot more elitist than the most hardcore raider. If people spent half the time they spent mocking in actual RP, our server would actually have a vivid RP community. So stop wasting your time on mocking people who play belves, death knights, worgen or whatever. Just RP with who you see right and disregard the rest.
kyusswren Jul 20th 2010 5:52PM
Hey, whoa, nobody said I got scolded for not RPing.
its just every time I bring up raiding in any of the available chat channels it sends people into a troll frenzy.
This vocal minority really just rubs me the wrong way. I almost prefer the endless GDKP spam on turalyon horde's trade chat to it.
The reason for this is that this vocal minority that attempts to drill it into your head that "RP is not Raid Progression" really just serves to demoralize the general public on the server, which makes anybody that is even remotely serious about raiding either have to transfer to or reroll on another server.
After damn near a year of putting up with this vocal minority, I nearly broke down in tears after spending 15 minutes in Lightbringer-A's trade chat. So you might be able to imagine just how demoralizing, and just how thorough that particular vocal minority was.
I do believe that blizzard should take steps to remedy the situation, and if their community team could do that by whatever means possible... I would greatly appreciate it.
Guildenstern Jul 20th 2010 8:06AM
Blizzard's abysmal support for RP realms doesn't help with encouraging people to try RP. Names are very little policed, OOC /yell or /say is never watched and griefing is never punished, despite ALL of these things being very strictly against RP realm rules.
Considering the (horrible) thing they tried to push through to the forums regarding RealID, they don't seem to care for immersion or RP on the forums either.
Josin Jul 20th 2010 8:23AM
Agreed. There's been players who we've run trains of tickets on, and years later, they've still got their names, constantly /yelling about the latest South Park episode, acting like a fool with their pants on the ground.
Szass Jul 20th 2010 9:06AM
Blizzard really need to HIRE some PEOPLE.
If they would just make a serious effort into banning the; forum trolls,gold traders,gold spammers, people breaking the RP rules, and just those generally acting like jerks.The game worlds would QUICKLY become a better place once the word got out.
They have rules and codes of conduct, they just do a poor job of enforcing them.
I mean a SERIOUS effort and start smacking these people over the head and hurt there accounts, because I for one am getting sick and tired of being Blizzards Police force.
Why should I have to report every gold spammer to get it off my screen?
HIRE MORE PEOPLE AND FIX IT BLIZZ.
Sleutel Jul 20th 2010 9:00AM
This is exactly what I came here to post.
IMO, there's no point in trying to RP when at least half the population is either there to actively grief you or because they just didn't care what kind of realm they rolled on.
Faith-lb Jul 20th 2010 9:25AM
My personal yuck feeling towards RP is the stigma a lot of people have RP = ERP , I went to a couple RP server to check out the atmosphere and goldshire is always full of ERP , and it just makes me wanna scratch out my eyeballs... seriously.
Hiwa Jul 20th 2010 9:49AM
I've run into this before but never asked : "What is OOC?" Thanks.
Robin Torres Jul 20th 2010 9:54AM
Hiwa, OOC = Out Of Character
Hiwa Jul 20th 2010 10:02AM
Ty Robin, that's what I thought but I wanted to be sure.