Posts with tag roleplaying

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So let's talk about ganking and getting ganked -- vile, nasty, evil rogues. How WoW players rage against rogues! You'd think an entire collective of them would be utterly reviled by the player community -- but not this group, which is such a straight-up gang that many of its sap-and-drop victims actually become cross-faction buddies. Vile Thorn of Defias Brotherhood (EU-H), an all-rogue guild that recently packed up shop and moved from another slowly stagnating roleplay, is probably the amicable gank squad you'll ever come across (or that'll come across you -- you know what we mean ...).

With an ironclad one-kill rule and a hankering for cross-faction roleplay, Vile Thorn takes no prisoners when it comes to fostering realm-wide roleplaying and world PvP. Its roster shows no sign of tanks, healers or other DPS classes; this group is utterly dedicated to its dark duties. GM Arli reports a warm welcome from players on Defias Brotherhood, both in character and out, after the guild's weekend sprint in search of a wider roleplaying community. To gank, or not to gank -- why is death at the hands of the Vile Thorns so compelling that one guild of factional enemies even realm-transferred along with its nemesis?

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.

A lot of us come from a pen-and-paper background when it comes to roleplaying games. Many of us have even tried our hands at running a game back in the day when gaming meant crowding around a table with books, dice, pencils and paper. We pretended to be someone else from another world, swinging swords and flinging fireballs using the world's most powerful graphics chip, the imagination.

Not everyone is a great storyteller, and many of us that took up that role may have ended up with less than spectacular results. Then, after having played computer roleplaying games like Final Fantasy, EverQuest, or even World of Warcraft, you may have been introduced to a style of storytelling that may or may not have been completely different from anything you've experienced in the past.

After partaking of this new experience, has your own personal storytelling in your pen-and-paper games changed much? Are there game mechanics that you've altered in your game because you think it works better the way World of Warcraft does it? What elements from World of Warcraft (or other games) have inspired your creative bug to tell your epic and not-so-epic stories? Do you find yourself more inspired by the storytelling in single-player or massively multiplayer types of roleplaying games?

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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.

Adventuring in Azeroth, I never considered myself to be a roleplayer -- a point upon which I prided myself until recently. I was winning a debate among friends about my non-roleplaying status until one pointed out that WoW is an MMO RPG. My face reddened as I admitted yes, WoW was a roleplaying game, and therefore I must be roleplaying.

Crestfallen, I considered the implications for the rest of the day. Did this mean I had to transfer my character to a roleplaying server? Would I starve if I did not maintain the Well Fed buff? Am I going to have to change my name to something more Azeroth-appropriate? Thankfully, the answer was no to all my questions, though the revelation was not completely wasted.

Our friendly debate gave me a fresh perspective on roleplaying. Azeroth suddenly became host to a wide spectrum of roleplayers, from the lowbie who bought his girlfriend a white kitten on their anniversary to the fellow who wrote a novel of fiction about his character and chastised me for not removing my plate armor before jumping into the water lest I sink to the bottom and drown. The very nature of playing WoW is to roleplay.

Where on the spectrum of roleplaying do you see yourself? How do you think it compares to the way others view your degree of roleplay?

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

Gear is a fixture in the World of Warcraft. Your gear plays a huge role in determining your character's combat abilities -- arguably even more than your level -- and high-level gear is often seen as a mark of skill, or at least experience. But there's a lot more than top-tier gear in Blizzard's data banks. Aside from older armor sets, the game is filled with wedding dresses, bloody aprons, monocles, tiaras, rolling pins, fairy wands, and chainmail bikinis. And who could forget the hodgepodge of Outland greens?

The first piece of gear I ever saved in WoW was the Everglow Lantern. I kept it in my bank long after my baby druid outgrew its +3 spirit, just because I liked the way it looked. Then I started keeping odd pieces of neat-looking gear I came across, eventually dressing up my bank alt in the classic Tuxedo set and Diamond-Tipped Cane. Recently, I've graduated to collecting tier 1 while I work on my Hydraxian Waterlords reputation. It's not good for my bank space, but it sure is fun to complete an eight-piece set.

Do you collect old gear or dress-up gear for your characters? Do you ever wear the gear you collect, for roleplaying or screenshots or just around town? What's your favorite distinctive gear item in World of Warcraft?

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.

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

Atheism is a rejection in the belief of deities. In the real world, that is easy enough to understand. There are many religions practiced on Earth, and most of them (if not all) worship at least one deity. This could be a god or goddess that is associated with a certain characteristic or trait, or it could be a creator, one divine being that shaped everything that is everything from nothing. Whatever your beliefs are, atheism is simply a rejection that any of that happened or exists.

But what happens when we push reality into fiction and bring this thought into the game world that we all log in to? Can atheism really exist in Azeroth? We know that there are gods and goddesses that have roles in WoW. A few of them have even been seen in game, like Hakkar or Yogg-Saron. But there are many that have yet to make an appearance, like Elune or the other Old Gods that we've yet to uncover.

This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com.

World of Warcraft is a social game. Blizzard made this clear with the recent addition of the Real ID system. I myself have made use of this. Being an officer in several small roleplaying guilds on both Alliance and Horde sides of Cenarion Circle (US), I have found that there is a great bit of planning and organization required in running official guild wars. Currently, the Alliance guild I am an officer in is in a heated battle with a Horde-side guild. Both are roleplaying guilds. Both guilds (in the roleplaying sense) have similar ideas -- both are pro-Horde/pro-Alliance, respectively. One may hate the other side more than the other, but the hate is there.

These guild wars bring a certain fun dynamic to the game. Having a sworn nemesis, whether it is for a character of your creation or a friend from an opposing faction, is just a great way to enjoy the game. Plotting someone's demise, thinking of strategies to take him down? It adds another layer to an already multifaceted world. However, there are a few tips I have noticed that really help with these particular battles. Some things come in handy in a roleplaying context; others focus on fair play, so that people will want to continue to the "war" and not just want to ignore/report your taunts!

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

I have a confession: I am not a roleplayer, yet I feel the need to create a backstory for every single one of my characters, from the mighty main to the lowly banker alt who sits comfortably in Stormwind. I do not really know why. Maybe it is the storyteller in me, the sheer boredom, or the 60 ounces or so of various energy drinks that keep me up at night, but I begin to imagine the details of my characters, even going so far as to create a web of connections between them, as if when I'm not playing, they are banded together, battling side by side as brothers and sisters in arms.

A main example is my main and all the human alts I play on. There are only two at the moment, but a third shall arise, of the wolfish variety, come Cataclysm. Their story? All of them are brothers, my death knight being the eldest, a once-accomplished paladin who fell during the purging of Stratholme, being one of the very few against it. My main warrior is the middle child who was the least likely to accomplish anything of the three brothers but fought nonetheless as part of the Stormwind guard, before becoming a mercenary for hire. The newest addition will be a worgen rogue, the long-presumed-dead, sickly little brother who was astute in the arcane and was taken under tutelage of a sorcerer in Gilneas before being infected as a worgen. He will return instead as a quick and nimble character, one of the few worgen who likes his new form.

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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