Posts with tag roleplay

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.

I think it is long past time for another results edition of Drama Mamas. Some letter writers have already sent me the outcome of our advice, which is always wonderful. But we could still use some more. If you have written the Drama Mamas and we have answered you in print, please send us an email at robin@wowinsider.com. We will compile the responses in a future column, once we get enough of them.

On to the drama ... This week, we have another RP romance conundrum.

Dear Drama Mamas --

I've recently started roleplaying on Wyrmrest Accord, and I really love it! It's a fun way to meet new people and really get into your character, even if I only do it somewhat-casually. However, I have an issue that I need some help with. When I first joined my roleplaying guild it was fine and dandy, but one person in particular gave me more attention than anyone else. I was fine with it, as we were in character and my character was single and all, so I flirted a bit and over time our characters started a (somewhat) romantic relationship.

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As is often the case with Breakfast Topics, I write about what interests me, asking commenters questions that I genuinely want to know the answers to. So it should be no surprise that I read the comments pretty religiously, and often they will spark ideas that lead to more Breakfast Topics. You've only yourselves to blame for being such interesting folk.

On a recent BT about gender in WoW, two commenters got my attention. Dez and Nagaina, thanks for replying! The parts that caught my eye from their comments were as follows:

Dez wrote: I know some players consider their toons to be extensions of themselves (1st-person narrative), but personally I see them more as other people whose adventures I am following (3rd-person narrative).

Nagaina wrote: I'm principally a roleplayer. When I create a character, I'm usually doing so for storyline related reasons not representing myself in game related ones.

I personally consider my characters to be extensions of myself. When I refer to them, mentally I'm thinking, "I'm over here," "I'm getting my face chewed off by a murloc," or "I'm going to get myself a kickass new cloak." When I'm talking in game, I do much the same.

The idea of the character as a third person fascinates me. I suppose it might be reflected in games like The Sims where you control the life of a character in a different way or maybe in FPS games where you're controlling a character with a predefined story. Or perhaps it's something that is a big part of roleplaying, creating a story for a character that is (maybe by definition) not your own story. I freely admit to knowing barely anything about roleplaying, so of course there is the strong possibility that all that might be utter nonsense!

What do you think? Are your characters extensions of yourself? Are you representing yourself in game? Or, like Dez and Nagaina, are you following a third person? And why?

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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?

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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.

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

Imagine this scenario: You play on a non-RP PvE or PvP server. You come across a quest such as The Art of Persuasion that brings out some sort of reaction in you. A while later, you're leveling a different character and come across the same quest. Is your reaction the same, or does the toon you're playing affect your reaction? Do you react at all?

For me, my character colors my reactions to the quest. The Art of Persuasion made me cringe on my druid, hunter and paladin, but I absolutely reveled in it on my warlock and death knight. The Nesingwary quests, D.E.H.T.A. quests, and even whole zones can make me elated or squirm. Now that Cataclysm has hit, it has only gotten worse. I could barely stay in my seat questing in Hyjal, I was so involved in the quests. I made snarky comments in /say to NPCs, I refused some quests I found distasteful, and I reacted like I think my druid would have to the events around me. Even at the end, after the final quest, I felt like I have many times at the end of a large campaign in a traditional tabletop RPG: I felt accomplished. My character had done something.

Granted, I come from a long background of roleplaying. From tabletop games to LARPs, I've played one character or another for over a decade, so it's second nature to create and act out a new persona. I don't play on an RP realm because I generally don't agree with where many WoW RPers take things, but I do enjoy getting to know my character as more than just my avatar in Azeroth. No matter how hard I try to keep him quiet, my character will eventually get a few words in.

Does RP get into your gaming, no matter what? Can you withstand a character's call to live and not just be?

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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.

Throughout history, there have been more songs written about love than any topic. Sad songs, happy songs, angry songs -- all of the facets of love have been and will continue to be explored in popular music. And as long as there has been roleplaying, people have been falling in real love with each other through playing fake characters. Keep reading for fake love turning into real love and me going off on a tangent about love songs.

Dear Drama Mamas,

I've been a roleplayer for several years, and for the first time I developed a crush on my character's in-game partner. Our characters have been a couple for six months. While their relationship evolved from flirting and banter into deep, passionate love and then sharing a home, our out-of-character relationship tightened too. We would flirt, exchange secrets we told no other soul, pull all-nighters chatting. He really is a charming, understanding, considerate and giving person.

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.

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. ))

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.

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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.

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From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame.

The popular saying about leading a raiding guild is that it's somewhat like herding cats with a feather. Imagine then, if you will, tickling players through day-to-day game life amidst the friction of potentially volatile in-character roleplaying. Arialynn, the GM of <Templars of the Rose> on Earthen Ring (US-RP), leads an established troupe of roleplayers that's spent the Wrath era not besieging Arthas but running medieval-style market days in Dustwallow Marsh. Headquartered in Theramore Harbor, the Templars most assuredly exemplify the road less traveled, both literally and figuratively.

What's it like to lead a guild that spends more time tossing back stiff ones in the inn than it does wrestling with Defile before the Frozen Throne?

World of Warcraft is an online role-playing experience set in the award-winning Warcraft universe.

• 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.

For Gnomeregan! is where the members of <B.L.O.G.> on US Shadow Council 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 US Shadow Council-A.

For Gnomeregan!

I've lived a sheltered life since my familee escaped our home citee, so I took my normal-sized feet to see the wide world. I traveled to all of our major allied citees in Azeroth, funding my trip by runneeng errands for people along the way. I was particularlee moved by my trip to the night elf lands. While prospective employers have treeted me with respect and have withheld judgment of my appeerance until after I have proven myself, the local adventurers have largelee been prejudiced and insulteeng. Emphasis on the word "large." They are gigantic there.

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.

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.