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Yes, this will be a gripe post. I've become nearly sickened by the fact that people consider this to be an RP-dead server. Look at trade chat some evening and see what I mean. People wondering how come they don't see RP on an RP server. Others who are not in the know about our RP community telling them there is none.

When I first started playing in early 2006, I saw RP all around me. In BC it continued although Hordeside it was all about the elves. Well, the damn expansion was about the elves' story, so it's understandable. At least we were RPing.

But then we have griefers coming into play. They are the annoying little shits that jump around naked and dancing while spouting nonsense in the middle of a group of people RPing. They spoil the moment, but they're easy to ignore (it's too bad the toon itself doesn't vanish with their speech when you /ignore them) and a simple warning and GM report is usually enough to get them to stop.

Now we have casual raiding adding to our burden. The raids are fun and we all want to see content. We even now have a raid ID extension so that we don't have to cram it all into one week. I think that's an awesome tool for RPers.

But the worst thing that has happened to RP here has been RP inbreeding. We seem to want to keep our stories to ourselves, our guilds, and our cliques. Is the story so scripted that it can't withstand injection by people not in the know about it? Are we just unwilling to include other playstyles or races into the mix? Are we just afraid of strangers who may not know the lore as well as we do? Are we afraid of conflict that we can't control through peer pressure?

Whatever the causes are, the end result is that there's nearly NO open RP going on. Open RP encourages more people to RP and it brings in fresh ideas that keep things running fun and crazy. Too much closed RP means it will stagnate and die out.

Can we get some discussion going on? I want to see if others are seeing this problem. I want to see how we can solve it before this realm really does become RP dead.

In general, I am open to people jumping into my RP when I am out in the open. (Yes I know your rant isn't directed at me, just putting that out there). I've noticed a number of people now seem reluctant to join in if they see me RPing even in, say, the inn in Silvermoon. I don't get that. Maybe other people have yelled at them, which is sad. A nice OOC whisper of (is this okay?) is always appreciated but not neccesary - if I"m out in public, I have to expect out in publicness happening, you know?

As an additional note, I would like to add that when I'm writing stories here on ad-rp, I generally consider them open to anyoine whom it makes sense to join in, unless I specifically state otherwise. And if someone thinks its a neat story idea and wants to join but is shy, feel free to PM me.

I'm not sure what else I can do.

There are many problems with our RP community though unfortunately there aren't any resolutions.

Personally, I have pulled back and out of active RP for many reasons. Some personal, other related to general asshattery of some sections of the RP 'community'. I can deal with griefers, I can't deal with asshats in the community. This post isn't going to get into naming names, or re-hasing the past. Simply felt relevant to comment with the topic at hand.

Unfortunately, the biggest problem IMO is the fragmentation of the community. We have the AD-RP people...those who use the Wiki...those who use neither. Private guild RP forums, AD forums RP (very rare). There just isn't a common place that the entire 'community' feels welcome to participate in for one reason or another. As long as the 'community' remains segmented, this sort of clique-ish RP groups will continue.

I think there might be a general level of shyness (for lack of better word) on the part of people looking for role-playing. We all have a story, but sometimes folks are not sure how to relate that story to others. Often the fear of (perceived) rejection leads to many people keeping a "closed" RP with family and friends.

I know that I could do better, and enjoy my forays into open RP, but I have to admit, the lack of response is a bit disappointing. Sometimes, however, it can be somewhat humorous.

Recently, I was playing on Blonriht, a low-level hunter alt in the Crossroads. He possesses both an heirloom bow and axe. Another orc came up to me an pst'd "war did u get tat ax?". I responded, "This is the great axe, Gutripper, passed down to me from my father who perished in the Plaguelands." The orc's response? "...".

That was fun.

*chuckles*

Being IC while out amongst the 'populous' is always good for a laugh.

Another thing that *I* personally have noticed along the lines of 'shyness' it always isn't that. Most of my character's personalities are quiet observers, tend to not get involved types unless approached. This is clearly problematic and I think the best solution is more people being friendly in the OOC channels, learn eachother's characters OOC a bit to make IC interactions a little easier.

ADHRP channel is dead alot of the time, and so cliquey is hard for anyone to join the community, this is another major problem. I also know of several other OOC and IC channels horde side but again, they are all just cliques, not representative of the AD RP community...

Bear with me, it's difficult to type since the a key on my kb is broken and I have to use a second, also broken kb to type now...so if I misspell, I'm sorry up front.

adhrp is inactive usually when:

1. Few if any are on.
2. Furious raiding time.
3. Furious RP time (when it's so intense you can't comment)

Usually, it's option 1. Why do we not invite more RPers there? Even the ones we might not like so much? It's not the "RPers only we like" channel, I've been getting some of the Caffies there too (Hi Xan). If they're clumsy RPers, that's what the old hats are for.

I mean....really we can't complain about the state of RP if we are not actively doing anything to fix it. And if we don't fix it, we're going to find our home's RP stands for "Raiding Place" and the quality of life here will sail off like lead balloon.

AFAIK there is an open invitation on this board to join adhrp but its probably lost somewhere in the archives.

As the semi-official loudmouth there I welcome other people to talk more so I don't feel like a babbling idiot quite so often >.>

The problem is systemic. It's not local, not the AD community, not the griefers. The problem is that the system for RP servers is broken.

1. Blizzard gives virtually zero effort to cleaning up the few RP servers they have. Naming violations are rampant among characters and guilds alike. Chat channels are not monitored, and improper conduct is rarely punished, even when specific violations are brought out to GMs.

2. There is no "RP requirement" to be here. I understand people come to the server because their friends play here, but while here, they do not play by our rules. See number 1 for the reason why.

3. There are no real tools or differences for RP servers. If RP was truly possible, we'd be able to go through rigorous series of quests and trials to prove ourselves to any faction, regardless of racial affiliation. We'd be able to perform diplomatic actions as that title suggests should be possible. Actions would have consequences. The entirety of the Warcraft universe is analogous to a primitive, martial "society." People run around killing each other simply because they can, NPCs have the same reaction to someone who spent the last 5 years slaughtering their people as they do to the people who've been helping them for the same 5 years. It's just silly. Time of war or not.

Quite frankly, until there is something done to actually facilitate participation from a systems, enforcement, interface and game design point of view, the only likely RP will be between small groups of the same people. We've been trying and fighting to keep RP alive on this server for years now. I am humbled by the efforts of the vocal minority and try to contribute whenever possible. I just don't think any kind of widespread movement is going to take hold unless there is something done beyond our capability as players, and it's pretty damned obvious that Blizzard isn't going to expend the effort required to fix the system for such a small percentage of players. If I cannot reliably expect Blizzard to take care of the asshats running around as Beefstick, Iamevil, Ipwnjooguud, and Steveielazrchkn, I'm not going to hold my breath on getting full-time GMs or a revamped rep system.

DOCH

U NEED BEER

*agrees*

you ain't just whistlin' dixie