I’ve come to a rather sad realisation today. What once was a hub and hive of activity is at risk of crumbling like the Gilnean Wall, and seems destined to break and never return. The strangest thing? It’s not even the Horde that is collapsing. For all my predictions on what would end up dividing utterly the Horde into a complete lack of RP, I have actually seen RP hubs bustling with Horde activity, far from what I was expecting. In contrast, things I have seen over on Alliance side have been…far from savoury. And I can see it bringing the end of RP as ER knows it.
I’ve been checking around on both ER and AD of late, studying the state of RP in both servers. From what I have seen on AD, there’s a few good RP groups that come by, but most of them return to their own RP hub when they’re done recruiting and that seems to be that. The number of criminal/clan guilds also is rather staggering, and from what I have seen a lot of them seem to enjoy fighting among themselves. The fact there is so many though does help to keep RP active at least, albeit random and often OP just to save their own skin. And then there’s the characters that seem only interested in looking for a fight, which is overdone and really boring to see. One guy even started looking for a fight then professing his allegiance to the (Burning) Legion on top of the Cathedral steps, which immediately ruled him out as any sensical roleplayer.
Meanwhile, on ER, it’s empty going on dead. From what I hear, there are RP hubs in the Plaguelands (Silver Hand comes to mind straight away), Gilneas (No idea what here, but wasn’t that overrun with Forsaken, just like all the lands up to Hillsbrad?) and Stormwind (which I’ll get to shortly). There was some RP developing in Redridge, but that has seemingly died along with all those taking part in it. It was some RP hub I was looking to get into with Hawkshot, but yeah, it’s apparently collapsed into nonexistence. But all these RP hubs that are out of the way of some and the kind people will only hear of if they read the forums or discover them by chance? Really?
And then we go to Stormwind. While there is still some RP community there, it’s fading fast. From word on the forums of late, there’s been a major argument between two RP groups for one building in Stormwind. And then that group that considers “their building” to be a base of operations also decides to conflict with the only other lawful RP group now in the city on an IC basis. And I’m hearing about all this and I’ve come to one question: Where is the RP regeneration? Not only have you got splintered RP in places that are usually so out of the way that there’s actually a level requirement to join simply to survive the monsters on the way, but for those still RPing in what once was the main hub, everything is theirs and there’s a complete feeling of possessiveness for something they claim to be “their property”. Isn’t RP for everyone, not just the little cubby holes and the selfish?
I had actually thought at one time that there was an RP community that existed to both improve RP and to welcome new and existing roleplayers into the community, no matter what side they chose. That the entire purpose – the entire reason for roleplaying – was to coexist and to enjoy the stories people could create in this world (I would’ve said lore-rich at this point, but Blizzard screwed with that idea) and to not alienate other people’s roleplay simply because of some absent-minded possessiveness or selfish greed. Petty squabbles over ownership and bringing down other people’s desire to roleplay only destroys roleplaying and creates a destructive environment for roleplaying in general. And what good does that to for roleplaying in the long run if there are legitimate, serious roleplayers looking to get involved? Does it help build a good reputation for the groups as a whole if so easily dragging down other people’s wish to RP?
If this is the extent that roleplaying has devolved to, maybe it isn’t worth my time coming back at all, or perhaps I would find better purpose starting RP elsewhere, with an entirely clean slate and backdrop to fall onto. Part of me is seriously considering the idea to move to an empty RP realm and beginning RP there with those who also show an interest in generating a new RP hub for those who possess a more sensical approach to roleplaying and don’t exclude anyone simply for the sake of selfish greed. It’s an ambitious goal, perhaps, but I’ve already had one headache with the RP community outside of WoW in recent months. I don’t need another right when I’m trying to consider returning.
I hope, for the sake of all RPers, the RP community comes back to their senses.
0 Responses to “The Fall of the Roleplayer”