As my last post went over, my faith in the current state of the RP community is reaching a fairly low level. And I’ve come to the realisation of late that I’m not the only one. Sadly, along with finding that out I also discover there’s not so much enthusiasm for roleplaying anymore. Not so much because it’s gone downhill (though it has in some cases), but because of more urgent, real life commitments. It just seems that casual RP is no longer being demanded and is becoming more direct in requiring an active timespan to participate in roleplaying. Time that very few people are able to spare or commit to of late through having other commitments outside of the game.
While I don’t blame any one person for leaving – I’ve always said the real world comes before any game – it’s a trend that is also buckling the knees of the RP community as a whole. With nobody showing an interest in keeping things organised and active, things tend to fall into disrepair until their existence is completely forgotten, and all interest in what might have been pushed completely to one side. Sure, there can still be great RP to be had, I do not doubt that for one moment, but it’s getting rarer now to see things being organised for people to take part in, either through invite or freely should it be an open event. If roleplayers do have a desire to keep things active, efforts will almost certainly have to be redoubled and not at the sacrifice of quality (I.E. Don’t overwork yourself! – That’s a lesson for life too, kids!) else it will simply devolve into a pit of madness and confusion.
Perhaps it’s because of this realisation that I’m having a lot of second thoughts about my idea. You remember? Starting a new realm from the top and building an entire community on it from scratch? Yeah, the only issue with that is the fact that there would have to be a group of leaders for that community for every possible aspect that could be thought of RP-wise (and that isn’t as easy as you may think, as there could be organisations for criminal guilds, perhaps a City Guard or two, Cathedral members, traders, Sentinels, nobility, Highborne…it’s a long list of possibilities) and, atop of organising each one individually, each has to come together to develop as a whole the entire RP scene. That would require a lot of interaction, activity, time, effort, patience…there’s very few people these days who have any of this left in them.
Some of the roleplayers I used to take part with have left already, never to go back. Others have switched realm in the hopes of finding better roleplay. A few keep on trying to keep things going, despite the challenges that lay at their feet. I left to recharge my batteries and work out if it’s worth coming back to once the drama and chaos I was personally a part of in some cases has died down, but the more I am talking and reading what is going on, the less enthusiastic I am about coming back. It’s only the start of September for some, but for me, this is the month that decides if my return is imminent or if my absence is absolute. I am keeping my options open, but right now starting a new realm seems to be the most interesting option – and that requires so many people to get involved it’d never get off the ground without interest prior to the start.
I guess I’ll see how things turn out. Might even bash out a Normal realm if I can get friends around to simply play the game.
So I’m guessing you chose not to return, huh? Just stalking you in the dark of the night, for lack of anything better to do. This blog of yours just came to mind since I just recently got a free seven day return to WoW; went and checked out good ol’ Earthen Ring again. What I saw didn’t exactly make me want to return.