Posts with tag RP

Is choosing a server becoming obsolete?

by Anne Stickney Jan 13th 2012 at 5:00PM

Let's hop in the wayback machine for a minute, because I enjoy doing that. Once upon a time in the days of vanilla WoW, players who had just purchased the game were faced with a choice upon logging in for the first time: What server would they call home? There were three different server types, each with their own flavor: PvP, for those that wanted to log in and have the opportunity to whale on the opposing faction at any given opportunity; PvE for those who would rather avoid fighting with other players and simply enjoy the content; and RP, for those who wanted to create character stories and roleplay with other characters. Later, the RP-PvP realm was introduced for roleplayers who really wanted to whale on the opposing faction as well as roleplay.

But the choice went beyond a simple matter of what type of game you wanted to play. Each server had its own cast of characters, and as the years went by, these players turned into friends and foes alike. Servers weren't just about how you wanted to play; they were a collection of people you interacted with on a daily basis. Guilds were composed of people with the same ideas in mind, but those guilds weren't the be all and end- all of your interaction with people in the game. Every server had that one guy who was always cracking jokes in trade chat. Every server always had a ninja or two. And of course, there was always the guy who didn't seem to get what social interaction was all about.

These days, we have cross-realm grouping via Real ID, the Raid Finder for those who don't want to bother with joining a raid guild, and now we've got the up-and-coming feature that will allow us to group with players cross-realm for raiding old content as well as the new stuff. So the big question is this: Do servers even have a purpose anymore?

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion

WoW Fashionista: Creating that "super" summer look

by Dawn Moore May 11th 2011 at 8:00PM

Patch 4.1 might have just come out, but it's been months now that you've been sporting that same old tier. With the trade chat PUGs finally catching up to you on gear, are you worried about how you're going to get people to inspect you while you fake standing AFK outside the bank? Sure, you could mount up, but you know in your heart that Invincible mount is sooo last expansion. Fortunately for you, WoW Insider is here to get your bags ready for the summer slump with the hottest new look!

With Thor already in theaters and several more costume-heavy blockbusters like Captain America and Green Lantern on the way, you can bet your Val'anyr that the superhero look is in. Better start dusting off those classic capes in the bank and hope to Elune you didn't shard that Netherblade Facemask.

Filed under: Humor

Learn how to spot and defeat your inner Mary Sue with Pox RP workshops

by Michael Gray May 6th 2011 at 8:00PM

We've talked about Pox RP workshops on WoW Insider before now. The goal of the workshop series is to help new roleplayers pick up the techniques and skills that empower you to really get into the role of your character. Silvermoon and one-hand jokes aside, roleplaying adds a lot of depth to WoW and can keep you with the game even if you feel like you're getting bored with the content.

The thing that makes Pox RP workshops great is that they bring together a surprisingly large chunk of community. I've heard the workshops get up to 100 attendees, and that's a lot of people to help you pick up the skills to be an elf. It's a great way to learn some nice RP tricks and meet new people to play with.

This weekend, on May 7, Pox will be covering the infamous Mary Sue. A Mary Sue is a character who essentially is an idealized projection of the author's self, serving as a sort of fictional wish fulfillment. Mary Sues run rampant in roleplay and are nearly universally hated. They're not great characters, and they tend to disrupt other people's fun.

The Pox roleplay workshop is at 6 p.m. Mountain time at the Thunder Bluff campfire on Shadow Council (US-H). If you've not attended one of these roleplay meetings, make sure you check it out now. This is the last workshop until August, since Pox will be taking the summer to relax.

Filed under: Events, RP

Breakfast Topic: Do you do RPish things on a non-RP realm?

by Chuck Gaskill Feb 23rd 2011 at 8:00AM

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

I've been playing WoW for about four years now (holy crap!). It fills that need in me to play a hero -- someone who helps the little guy, rights the wrongs, etc. Quite often, I find that I /bow or /salute the quest givers I encounter in my journeys. I've even been known to go to the Lower City in Shattrath and /hug the orphan you escort during Children's Week (okay, well, it's not the orphan -- but it looks like her!); I need to get back to Shatt; it's been a while since I've seen little Dornaa. Whenever I happen to be passing through Theramore, I always stop by the graveyard just outside of town and /kneel, /stand, /bow and /salute (in that order) the gravestone of the woman and child who were killed at The Shady Rest Inn.

Now, this would all be normal behavior for someone on a roleplaying server, right? I currently have my character on the Azuremyst (US) realm, which is not a roleplaying server. My son is always telling me that I should be on a RP realm.

What sorts of shenanigans do you do that have your friends or family telling you that you should be on a roleplaying server?

Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts

Pox holds RP workshops on Shadow Council this Saturday

by Michael Gray Feb 18th 2011 at 7:00PM

Roleplay is more than just something you do here and there; to a lot of folks, it can be a fine art. Roleplay goes beyond just the basic mechanics of the game and attempts to introduce another level of personal story and immersion to the game. Of course, for folks just getting started with RP, that can be a little intimidating.

Don't worry; your fellow roleplayers want to help. On Saturday, the guild <Pox> on Shadow Council (US-H) is holding a roleplay workshop. This event is the first such workshop, and for now, they're focusing on how to emote. Emoting really does go beyond /train and /flirt, and Pox will help show you how to get it done.

The event takes place Hordeside on Shadow Council (US) in Thunder Bluff on Saturday, Feb. 19 at 6 p.m. server time (Mountain Standard). Check it out, and let us know what you think.

Filed under: RP

Drama Mamas: Dealing with absent RP guildies

by Robin Torres Oct 29th 2010 at 6:00PM

Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm.

This week's is a long one, so let's get right to it.

Dear Drama Mamas,

I belong to a small roleplaying guild on a fairly heavily populated server. Two of our guild leaders have recently retired, and the discussion that followed seems to have opened up a particularly ugly can of worms. There are a lot of complicated drama subsets that are going on at the moment, but I fear I may have started the one that's now bothering me the most.

Previous to our guild leaders retiring, we had a few incidents of members who had been very active suddenly disappear with no word of why or when/if to expect them back. (We have a forum for the guild, so the means of communication are readily available). We have a very strong policy of RL > the game; but as a small, close-knit guild, I feel that someone disappearing impacts guild members both in story lines and in the way they feel OOCly.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Drama Mamas

Spiritual Guidance: Of lore, the forsaken and shadow priests

by Fox Van Allen Jul 21st 2010 at 9:00PM

In addition to being the author of Wednesday's shadow priest edition of Spiritual Guidance, Fox Van Allen is an accomplished songwriter. After Dawn Moore refused to use Power Infusion on him during a lengthy raid encounter, Fox wrote the song In the Air Tonight. He mailed Dawn front-row tickets to his first concert performance, and as he reached the chorus, a bright spotlight engulfed Dawn. She cried in shame. It was awesome.

Regular readers of Spiritual Guidance know that over the last month, I've been putting together a leveling guide for aspiring shadow priests. In the last installment, I made a seemingly innocuous comment about shadow priests' being able to take the talent Shadowform at level 40:

We're able to make that fateful decision to forsake the light in exchange for causing more destruction more effectively.

I was literally describing the game mechanics; staying in Shadowform requires you to give up the spells in the holy tab. One of our commenters, aramis, used the line as a launching pad for an interesting comment that addressed a very basic question for us shadow priests: What the heck are shadow priests supposed to be, anyway?

I won't reprint the entire comment here, but it's definitely worth reading. The gist of it can be understood by reading just the first few sentences:

Mr. V-A, we don't FORSAKE the light as Shadow Priests. On the contrary, we embrace it ... We accept the light as the balance of ourselves. Life is about balance: pleasure and pain; good and evil; life and death; light and shadow.

Is aramis right? Follow me past the break as we explore a little bit of shadow priest lore, dip our toes into the cold waters of shadow priest roleplay, and try to solve an identity crisis that most of you probably don't even realize exists.

Filed under: Priest, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance

For Gnomeregan!: Refugee Party live stream

by Robin Torres Jul 20th 2010 at 11:00PM

For Gnomeregan! is where the members of <B.L.O.G.> on Shadow Council (US-RP-A) roleplay guild meetings as part of an in-blog and in-game RP campaign. The rules for this campaign are: no ERP (Erotic RolePlay) and no vampires (though death knights are welcome). Everyone is invited to participate. Assume that to get into the guild, you at least pretended to be in full use of your faculties and are willing to fight for the cause. You are all welcome to join us here in the comments and those who wish to play with us in-game should friend Peenk and ask for an invite on Shadow Council (US-RP-A).

Hello! Peenk Sparklebolt here. In order to efficiently lead tonight's Refugee Party, the Operation Gnomeregan engineers have provided me with this gadget thingee. I'm not sure how it works, but it seems that people outside of our guild can actually hear me and see what we are doing tonight. Fascinating. I will be dismantling it to see how it works after this shindig is over.

Anyway, you can hear and see what is happening on my gadget thingee right now, or you can join us at the Refugee Party in Coldridge Pass. But hurry! We're starting immediately.

(( Watch the stream above or at WoW.com's Justin.tv channel. If you wish to join us on Shadow Council (US-RP-A) for tonight's RP event, please read the details and rules for the Refugee Party. ))

Filed under: Events, RP

The Daily Quest: RP edition

by Elizabeth Harper Jul 20th 2010 at 9:00PM

Here at WoW.com, we're on a Daily Quest (which we try to do every day, honest) to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.

While we're all skulking about waiting for our servers to come up -- or skulking about on Shadow Council waiting for tonight's RP event -- it seems as good a time as any to talk about pretending to be people we aren't in places we aren't. (Secret: I'm not actually a troll shaman. But do keep it quiet.)

Some oldies but goodies from Too Many Annas, covering being left out of RP and the many places RP can go.
The Lazy Sniper talks about choosing names for characters.
It may not be WoW-centric, but the latest issue of The Escapist is all about roleplaying.

Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment, and you may see it here tomorrow! Be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW-related sites.

Filed under: RP, The Daily Quest

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.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics

For Gnomeregan! Your thoughts on the Midsummer Fire Festival

by Robin Torres Jul 4th 2010 at 8:00PM

For Gnomeregan! is where the members of <B.L.O.G.> on Shadow Council (US-RP-A) roleplay guild meetings as part of an in-blog and in-game RP campaign. The rules for this campaign are: no ERP (Erotic RolePlay) and no vampires (though death knights are welcome). Everyone is invited to participate. Assume that to get into the guild, you at least pretended to be in full use of your faculties and are willing to fight for the cause. You are all welcome to join us here in the comments and those who wish to play with us in game should friend Peenk and ask for an invite on Shadow Council (US-RP-A).

I am Peenk the Scorchling! Flame on! It's like magic! I love this holiday! Woohoo! I will admit, however, that I am squeamish about all of that fiery torch tossing and what have you. But those bonfires make me feel like I am magic or a fire elemental or both!

My cousin Kixi was right about this holiday. I feel so wise and more experienced when I participate in some of these rituals. It's like things just come more easily to me. The enchantments are so strong! It seems an invaluable way to speed up our training.

Filed under: RP

Breakfast Topic: Strange habits

by Dawn Moore Jun 13th 2010 at 8:00AM

As I write this, I am dreading the week to come. After many months of going back and forth on the matter, I have decided to leave my guild for greener pastures. I'm reluctant to leave, though, since I do like my current guild; the people are nice, the raids are fun and we have a raiding philosophy of "work with what you've got" that I have always enjoyed. Still, for everything that I love, there are shortcomings and I am willing to risk losing what I have to see if my perfect guild exists somewhere out there.

So off I go to a new guild and server where I know no one. I'm scared -- scared I won't be good enough, scared they won't like me even if I am and scared I might be making a huge mistake in leaving my friends. You just have to swallow those kinds of thoughts, though. As a raider, I'm no stranger to moving around, and I've come up with many ways to deal with it.

One thing I do to cope is heading up to the spot you see in the picture before I transfer. This is my favorite hiding spot in the game, only accessible by players meticulous enough to complete the Higher Learning achievement. Up here, I will sit and eat some cake, then after I've had my fill, set out my little green rag doll on the bed and /sleep. The reason for this is so that when I log back in after my transfer has gone through, I know exactly where I'll be and I can pretend I'm waking up from a dream (or nightmare) to a new, promising day. I'm not sure why I do this; maybe the familiarity? It's really all quite silly, but I've been doing it for well over a year now and it seems natural.

Do you have any strange habits or rituals you do in game?

Filed under: Breakfast Topics

Choose My Adventure: Week 5 stories

by Robin Torres May 5th 2010 at 2:00PM

Choose the adventures of the WoW.com staff as we level our characters in <It came from the Blog> on US Zangarmarsh-H.

Oh my. With Foxlight on the scene now, the CMA adventures have become far more fabulous. Have you voted on his spec and professions yet? The polls are still open. Here is the remaining schedule for the week:

Elizabeth Harper as Faience, the troll shaman, and Robin Torres as Robinemia, the undead mage: Wednesday, 11 p.m. to midnight EDT.
Matthew Rossi as Andrenorton, his new troll mage: some time Saturday.
Fox Van Allen as Foxlight, the blood elf paladin: Saturday, 8 p.m. EDT.
Michael Sacco as Sahko, the orc warlock: Wednesday, 7 p.m. EDT.
Amy Schley as Patent, the troll rogue, Adam Holisky as Adammentat, the tauren druid, and Gregg Reece, the orc warlock, will be making appearances as they can.

Turn the page for the stories from last week and some advice.

Filed under: It Came from the Blog, Choose My Adventure

Choose My Adventure: Week 4 recaps and leveling advice

by Robin Torres Apr 28th 2010 at 6:00PM

Choose the adventures of the WoW.com staff as we level our characters in <It came from the Blog> on US Zangarmarsh-H.

We have recaps from last week after the break and personalized leveling advice on page 2. But first, here is the schedule for the rest of the week:

Elizabeth Harper as Faience, the troll shaman, and Robin Torres as Robinemia, the undead mage: Wednesday, 11 p.m. to midnight EDT
Michael Gray as Grayfields, the tauren hunter, will be making appearances as he can this week.
Amy Schley as Patent, the troll rogue will also be making appearances as she can.
Matthew Rossi as Andrenorton, his new troll mage: some time Saturday.
Adam Holisky as Adammentat, the tauren druid, will be making appearances as he can.
Fox Van Allen as Foxlight, the blood elf paladin: Friday, 8 p.m. EDT.

Filed under: It Came from the Blog, Choose My Adventure

WoW.com Guest Post: Creating lore-based characters that aren't Mary Sues

by Anna Apr 9th 2010 at 9:00AM

Anna writes about roleplaying, healing, raiding and creative writing over at her blog, Too Many Annas.

One of the most frequent criticisms leveled at any kind of roleplay or fan-written fiction is the presence of the dreaded Mary Sue.

If you're not familiar with the term, a Mary Sue is a character who is overly idealized, has few or no actual flaws and functions as a wish-fulfillment or fantasy for the author. In WoW, this type of character is also frequently tied to major lore figures – the stereotypical lovechild of Thrall and Jaina (or some other such invented tie to a major character).

Unfortunately, sometimes this turns into an avoidance of all lore information in an attempt to not make the character Sue-ish. In a world like Azeroth that has a lot of really well developed lore, that can result in characters who are dangerously ambiguous and don't have any connection or history.

So how do you write a lore-based character without toeing the Mary Sue line?

Filed under: RP, Guest Posts

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