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The latest patch 5.4 newsThe Broken Doll roleplaying storyline chills hundreds on Moon Guard
by Lisa Poisso 
Dec 8th 2011 at 2:00PM
Your days are numbered.
It takes you a moment to realize that's all that's in the letter you just opened in your in-game mailbox -- that, and the Hangman's Noose ("It's shiny with blood!") attached at the bottom. You flick open the guild roster, but nobody's online yet. You run the sender's name through the Armory, only to come up with ... nothing. You're not involved in any active roleplaying storylines, and you can't think of anyone you've roleplayed with recently who seems threatening in the least ...
Fine, then. You take it to the forums. You're met with the usual banter for a page or so -- but then another player reports that a friend received a similar note. Then another shows up. And another. Before you know it, the entire realm, Alliance and Horde alike, is roiling with intrigue. Hundreds of players are sucked in. Who are the letters from? What is the threat striking again and again at seemingly unlinked players? What is behind the unfolding string of horror unfolding before you?
Who is The Broken Doll?
Guild The Eyes of Old
Realm Moon Guard (US – Alliance)
WoW Insider: What is The Broken Doll storyline? How did players get involved, and what did they do?
Dalavesta: The Broken Doll was a psychological-based horror [storyline]. It was a title for a series of events that multiple people joined, played, and influenced. It was a storyline crafted by the participants -- but more importantly, it was crafted for them.
Players got involved by a few different ways. Most of the time I just picked out people I randomly saw RPing and sent them an in-game letter! But once people began to post about it on the forums, the people who commented or just made mentioned that it "looked cool" were quickly swept into the storyline.
Read the forum posts about the mysterious letters:
How did the puzzle that moved from in-game mail to the forums move back into the game?
A lot of what was posted on the forums has to do with fact sharing. People posted maps, clues, reposts of letters, but more importantly, a lot of the posts were short stories of different events. The first post about the mysterious letters started out as people talking about the weird person with the silly name The Broken Doll sending them eerily on-point messages. It soon evolved more. It got its own in-character and out-of-character channels on both Horde and Alliance, some of which still exist today and people continue to use to foster roleplay and connections.
Very intriguing! Can you summarize the storyline?
Difficult, but I'm sure I can manage it! The Broken Doll is a psychological-based thriller based around how many of these heroes once treated a dimwitted and overweight girl. After suffering a psychological break, she has looked to make sure that everyone and anyone will feel just as miserable as she did and still does. The Doll is plagued by a disorder commonly known as multiple personality disorder, even though the term is outdated.
The story revolves around finding out who the Doll is and destroying her, but also trying to save what redeemable parts are left. More important is the fact that the story offered characters a chance to evolve, to change, to grow, and to do so in a respectable storyline that would offer dozens of chances to be the hero.
That sounds ... epic. How did you come up with the idea for this event?
OK, don't laugh, this is pretty bad ... I wanted to get rid of the gray items in the guild bank. So I thought I'd just send them out to people, attach creepy letters onto them. I had actually seen someone get a weird mail and they posted about it on the forums. I just copied the idea but I did it in mass.
A man who only wishes to be called Sir Lord Cuttlefist actually came up with the name. It stuck, and it became a huge center of my interaction with the server and many others. As for the Doll herself, I've always loved psychology, and I study behavioral psychology for fun, which means that the science behind an evil mind was amazing for me.
How did you move the story forward? What was your role as the woman behind the curtain? How much was preplanned, and how much depended on in-game interactions and developments?
The story was never set in stone, and to be honest, I didn't participate -- at least, I tried not to. I used an alternative account to post on the forums but also to lead events in game, which was really hard to do as a level 1 running around trying not to die. Over time, I got one or two people to help me run the events, but even they didn't know that I was the doll! I simply told them I was a messenger to speak for her when supplying a brief overview for events.
Generally, events were really loose on design. Everything was in the hands of the heroes and their reactions, which is what we wanted. We'd give them tasks, clues, and it'd be up to them to figure it out. If they didn't, the story didn't progress -- or they'd get an angry letter, which was always fun! Events were normally based around a location or a magical item or something they were looking for in order to find the identity of the antagonist.
How many players participated?
Too many to count. Dozens of guilds from Horde and Alliance participated. I had sent out quite literally hundreds of letters. I couldn't really answer this question just because I couldn't always appear to be in the know; the more I participated, the more fishy it looked. But even people outside of the events participated. It was a floating rumor around Stormwind. Sometimes I'd fly by, catch an emote or two of people talking about it, and snicker to myself.
Sort of. Last night, a Blizzard representative contacted me. He explained that he wanted to see all of the events both myself and my guild had done. He didn't explain what all he intended to do with it but, and I don't have any high hopes that I'll get anything from Blizzard for this. But that'd be cool, huh?
And out of all of this has come a machinima trailer and upcoming video series! How will the video series tie in to the RP series?
My hope is that the video series really ties into the RP series, that it fills in holes and gaps in the storyline. This entire story was originally made without plans to reveal myself, but players were a lot craftier than I had intended. While there is only one antagonist, the heroes are the spotlight, and that's what we want to do for the series. We want to show off the individuals who lived, died, were beaten within an inch of their lives and came close to becoming heroes and vanquishing what they saw as a great evil!
So who's involved in that? And is there anyone else who deserves a nod?
There was Paul Frigon, our composer, who had to put up with me whining and would jab me relentlessly about the machinima, as well as Wazop, who was nice enough to actually make the machinima. It took more time to find someone to edit the trailer than it did to actually do the first set of events! Then there were the players themselves, Veresia, Argilla, Osuro, and so many more played major roles in helping me run this. Some people helped me send letters, and really I'm sorry if I missed anything that helped me with this. Everyone who participated made this storyline what it was!
The Broken Doll has inspired more than one delightfully creepy storyline. We hear it's taken on a life of its own in new, different events, is that right?
Well, the Hallow's End Project is just one of few. We did 13 server-wide events over one month. My guild, The Eyes of Old, does a lot to try and do multiple server-wide events, though it's not always easy, seeing as we play the bad guys in character. We do annual costume contests for the server, and we just opened up our new Secret Santa project we plan to run every year.
To top this off, we have a monthly server-wide event that draws in a few hundred people known as Grinning Skull, a market where you can buy BoE epics for a few gold coins, and the realisim of a fantasy market comes into play -- dice games, card games, exotic robes, silks, furs, even a pet vendor! And a strange lady in white with a mysterious ability to tell fortunes rather accurately! Grinning Skull is an event we've used to raise over $300 for charities, as well as holding PvP tournies and giving away time cards every month. Our events are always about fun and helping the community.
Sounds almost impossible not to find something of interest to participate in. So what's ahead? New storylines, new machinima ...?
I've always got new storylines in mind for the Broken Doll series and plan to undertake more when I'm able to. It likely won't be for another couple of months, though, and I'll be sure to post it on the forums.
But right now, I've got one big project that's in the works and I'm willing to share. It's called Project Nemesis. It'd be a machinima tribute to Lovecraft, the poem Nemesis being my favorite piece he's ever done. We plan on taking this poem, having a reading of it done, and animating it. A lot of it can be easily adapted to WoW lore, but more importantly, the Old Gods, Lovecraft's biggest gift to this game. I still need a voice actor and an animator, though!
How can players get involved?
The easiest way to get involved is just to ask. I'm online a lot (Dalavesta on Moon Guard US-A), and I'm always available to speak to people, be it about a new storyline, how they can get involved, art, voice acting, video editing, even parody music ... whatever it is! Joining our guild means getting a first-hand look at how these things function; it means being able to play the bad guy and not just participate in these stories but being the person they love to hate.
Alternatively, if getting into touch with me in-game is difficult, you can contact me at AzerothOnline.net through my admin account there. And of course, you can always use the realm forums, which I browse every day. We always have a recruitment topic up, and you're more than free to ask and discuss things with us there. I'm never out of reach, and I certainly hope that people feel like they can speak with me on anything -- I'm always up to discuss things, idle banter or the serious stuff!
"I never thought of playing WoW like that!" -- and neither did we, until we talked with these players, from a player battling Alzheimer's disease to Game of Thrones' Hodor (Kristian Nairn), gaming industry insider Liz Danforth and El of El's Extreme Anglin'. Know someone else we should feature? Email lisa@wowinsider.com.
Filed under: RP, Interviews, 15 Minutes of Fame
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Rosoe Dec 8th 2011 5:32PM
Dalavesta didn't mention the auctions driving up prices of fictional or grey items for RP which went to insane lengths just because people wanted to get involved in this storyline. I - and my guild - have only been tangentially involved, and it's still been an amazing experience. We look forward to being the dark horse (*snicker*) as events continue.
No one expects the Knights of Menethil!
DarkFinch Dec 8th 2011 5:46PM
This is brilliant! I would love to see some of this awesomesauce on Emerald Dream US...
Delan Aiden Dec 8th 2011 6:13PM
If I am correct, that third picture is when my character's body was being brought to the Stormwind Keep! Thanks again Dalavesta for giving my paladin an awesome ending!
biggjudicem Dec 8th 2011 9:19PM
I'm considering rolling alts on moonguard now
Tael Dec 9th 2011 4:12AM
Am I the only one who thinks this is a bit creepy?
First, the decision to mail threatening notes - with nooses and shit, yet - to random people you don't know. I can tell you if I received such a thing with no explanation, RP would not be the first thing that leaped to mind.
Second, the fact that the villain here is... a "dimwitted and overweight" girl who was picked on until she had a mental breakdown? And the heroes are the people who are targeted because they used to be among her bullies? And now THEY'RE supposed to redeem or destroy HER? I see a bit of a disconnect here, honestly.
Dala Dec 9th 2011 5:16PM
I suppose it could be a little bit creepy, but that's the point of a psychological thriller. The storyline was made to frustrate people both with being unable to figure out who it was, and with the situations they were presented with. I guess this is a good time to note something that I said in the threads but may not have been clear in the article! I didn't send Lellex that first letter, in-fact I never found out who did. I simply took what was done and went to a whole different level with it. Usually, while poetry was disturbing or just plain weird, the creepy parts of it came from someone who you didn't know, knowing your characters secrets. I also revealed how I did this on the forums later on without meta-gaming.
And yes, the villain is a 'dimwitted and overweight girl', nothing was to say she didn't have issues before but you'd snap too if you got beat up on a daily basis by people that claimed to be for the Light! It was not those exact people that got involved, afterall with so many people joining it would have been impossible to say 'Only the people who tortured her are going to be doing this', with the scale of the events. It was heroes as a collective, or people who looked out for the 'greater good' but still had their own flaws. I'm sorry if I made any of that unclear.
It should be noted that DID (dissociative identity disorder), more commonly known as MPD (Though the term is outdated), often comes with irrational thinking like this. Understanding the disorder may help to give you a better idea of what happened. The Doll is a different personality, that a psychological break lent to creating, she is not Dalavesta, but exists in an entirely different mindset all together. Unfortunetly, DID is something that's hard to explain from a fantasy game point given the crude psychological understandings of the times it's based around. Treatment for disorders like this often did more harm then good. Coupled with the fact that often time there is only one 'aware' personality (Meaning they not only know everything the other personalities do but have more control as to when they're active.), it makes for a very weird, twisted, and of course creepy storyline. The Doll is Dalavesta, but Dalavesta is not the Doll. Confusing? Most likely.
But did it make for fun times? I'd like to think so! I hope that cleared up some of your questions! And I'll be sure to keep some of the things in your comment in mind for our next script writing session to make sure any and all gaps in the story are filled in!
Tael Dec 9th 2011 6:01PM
My point is this: the people you randomly contacted didn't volunteer to play out a "psychological thriller" scenario. Unless there was some kind of opt-in, "sign up here to get your own creepy letter!" process, you were still sending unsolicited messages to people who might have found it seriously disturbing. As one LJ friend of mine put it, lynchings are not a thing so far into the past that she as a woman of color would be happy about receiving a noose as part of an anonymous threatening message, even "just in a game".
And I'm not saying it's surprising that the girl snapped - I'm saying it's surprising, and disturbing, that you painted her as the villain and not the people who abused her.
Still not impressed. Sorry.
askblammy Dec 11th 2011 4:22AM
Tael, you're not going to understand the intricacies of the event based on a single, brief article. For those of us who participated, the story was cohesive, intriguing, and entirely *non-threatening on an OOC level*.
I was one of the people who received an unsolicited letter. However, I'm also someone who RPs *all the friggin' time*, so I was a "target", so to speak, because I would understand that it was something done as part of a fictional story. This is Moon Guard we're talking about here; *the* RP server. It's not hard to pick out the roleplayers, and oftentimes, said roleplayers are also active on the forums talking about their roleplay, and thus it's pretty simple to figure out who will understand what's going on when trying this kind of thing out of the blue.
If this was on some random Normal or PVP server, then yeah, I would expect people not to "get it". But that's not the case here. As someone who got pulled in without having asked for it, I'm *super* glad that I chose to get into the story, because it was one of the best roleplay experiences I've ever had, on this game or any other.
Heartling Dec 10th 2011 3:10PM
There was an opt-in. The first few people, iirc, didn't so much 'opt in' on the list, as they did expressed interest in the subject of the letters. As far as I can recall the noose was only ever sent to one person, and they weren't even involved in the broken doll thing--I honestly don't know why that picture is up there, other than to show the precursor random letter that started this whole thing, which wasn't made by Dala at all, and really had nothing to do with this series of events.
The Doll is painted as the villain, because she snapped and is out trying to kill people because of it. If you took part in the story, you'd know that yes, the ones that abused her are seen as rather unsavory folk, and you'd start sympathizing with the Doll for it. In one such case, the Hordeside investigation team's goal was to capture her, rather than kill her, and try to help her with her problems. It was a rather fun situation, but the story is not yet done!
While I don't know the full extent of what went on Alliance-side, Hordeside, we had a rather close-in story about the history of the Doll, what happened specifically to her, a general 'why' it happened.. While the Alliance, iirc, mainly dealt with her antagonism.
I forgot why I was saying stuff, but uh.. Yeah, the noose still had nothing to deal with the Doll's storyline. There was, however, a big definite 'opt-in' process, and by the end of it, Alliance had 80+ people for it, while Horde had about 30 at most--Mostly because less time was spent over there, and the organizers on Hordeside liked it not being so riotous!
I hope this ramble made some point.
specialist_9 Jan 9th 2012 9:04PM
The noose was sent to a lot of people, not just one.
Rachel Jan 9th 2012 8:58PM
I'm a little appalled that you failed to mention all of the people who helped you by name. The people who ran a good majority of your DM events for you so you could stay anonymous, and btw... THEY DID KNOW WHO YOU WERE. I knew who you were. I was told who you were even and still kept it to myself for the sake of others.
Not to mention the story line is fail. "My daddy didn't think I was evil enough so I'm going to try to be evil." Really? This has no depth. A true villain does not think themselves to be evil, they believe their cause to be righteous and justified. They force the reader to dive into their own beliefs, question them and question if they are indeed thinking clearly. This is just a woman begging for attention and this article is proof. Good job ripping off the creative rights of those who participated by taking all of the credit. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Alex Jan 16th 2012 2:24PM
AUGHHH the voice acting for that video killed it- they should've stuck to creepy music like a children's lullaby or something. Regardless this is a pretty epic storyline, really cool to see so many people just going with it. :)