World of Warcraft®

Maybe this is presumptuous of me, but I don't really like what I see as far as the overall health and motivation I see on the Cenarion Circle / Sisters of Elune server group.

It is tough to say exactly what or if it is an actual issue without making a lot of blind leaps between observation and perception but as a hypothesis it appears that the server group is in a catch 22. Motivation and interest is lacking because of a lack in overall activity and interactions; there are fewer interactions and activities due to a lack of interest and motivated players.

That is not to say that the server group is dead or anything of the sort, but I have noticed that a lot of people are apathetic and uninterested. This from a server where at least a dozen people would show up and participate in RP events just to show support for fellow roleplayers and to encourage new RPers to join the community. Now I notice that painfully few people will even show up to things whatsoever, which is an incredibly difficult trend to get reversed as an individual without community support.

I don't know much about SOE as a server but long before this merger CC was an incredible server to be on. Deep down there is a lot of dormant potential among the community. Right now I am trying to think of ways to get more people active and involved across a wide spectrum of activities. Please, if you have ideas, share them. If you can attend functions, do so and participate. For those, unlike myself, who are the true geniuses of building the epic story driven RP; make things known and open.

I have and do consider the CC/SOE server group to be home, I hope others do as well. Let us try to get some spring cleaning underway and dust off the cobwebs binding up our community.

Broodin/Discocis

Please leave feedback and input, this isn't a gripethread, this is me trying to reach out for solutions.

I agree with you. I'm not going to start complaining either, but I do have one major thing that gets on my nerve:

If you don't do your part, then you only have yourself to blame.

Don't muss and fuss about the state of the State if you a) Don't show up. b) Don't speak up. c) Don't do either.

People/guilds that have events or want to have events need to post them on this forum and ALSO talk about them in the OOC/IC channels beforehand. There are a lot of people who don't come to these boards and won't know about an event at all...that's a huge shame.

I want this server to thrive. I want there to be a large group of people with varied styles of roleplay (No god-moding though). I want people to feel accepted for their styles, even if it may not be my cup of tea.

Maybe it's too convenient to just not care or bother showing up even for a few minutes to an event. Maybe we've become two complacent in our duties in the Garrisons and weekly raids to think about the other side of the game. Frankly, roleplay is the only reason I play WoW at all.

CC was my first server and it is the one I crawled back into bed with when I returned a few months ago. I don't plan to leave it, but damn it is getting frustrating. I just wish half of the people in the OOC channel would try something new and .. go raid a town or go naked instancing/pub crawling/cliff diving/etc. I sometimes feel like I am pulling teeth to even get a friggin' response in channel.

There are 2 weekly events hordeside that I try to attend every week. I will continue to attend these events and may even try to start one of my own.

I will be honest.. I've made an alliance character - some have figured out who - and I am thoroughly impressed with the roleplay opportunities Alliance side. You all have a wonderful group of diverse people. The horde has theirs as well, just not as many in number.

I haven't lost hope yet. I'll fight tooth and claw to keep it going. You're points are valid and we can fix this as a community.

I'm not entirely sure the server is in a catch 22 situation. I'd classify it as more of a hit or miss. Some events the turn out is huge and other events hardly anyone shows. The level of activity can vary from week to week or even month to month.

The recent Conclave anniversary events are a good example of this since the poetry one had a massive attendance while the scholar dress up one just a week after was a small crowd. Maybe the subject matter was part of the cause but I think people's own erratic schedules are a bigger culprit.

However... I have noticed an overall dip in RP activity for both factions since WoD launched. Originally I figured this happened because people were busy leveling but soon I realized that a lot of people are taking breaks from the game, many of whom confessed to me they are unhappy with this xpac.

Now I can ultimately only speak for myself but when you wrote:

03/28/2015 01:27 PMPosted by Discocis

That is not to say that the server group is dead or anything of the sort, but I have noticed that a lot of people are apathetic and uninterested.

I confess feeling apathetic and uninterested but not because of the state of RP. I'm just feeling the drain of how chore heavy the "content" of WoD feels and it is getting to the point where I don't want to log in because I'm sick of all the overt repetition. All MMOs are a pointless grind but WoD feels especially job like with garrisons, mob killing faction reps, almost no compelling dailies and the awful Ashran CP cap. It's gotten to the point that I recently started playing swtor again and even though that's a game I raged quit from a few years ago I've been enjoying my time more there than in WoD.

The RP community and PVP Night are what keeps me subscribed but the things I do (or don't want to do) OOC do have an impact in my overall attitude when it comes to IC. Regardless, setting my little tangent about WoD content aside I can only really offer two bits of advice for helping to revitalize the community.

The first is to step out of your cliques when you happen to see a new person. Anytime a new face shows up at an event I try really hard to RP with them for at least a little bit so they know they are not just decoration. If you are lucky they will keep attending the event but, even if they don't, you at least made an effort to include them.

Secondly if you really want to involve a wide group of players in a spectrum of activities then you need to take cross faction events seriously. While CC has a tendency to be dismissive of the Horde RP community we do exist and several of us strongly prefer RPing our Horde chars. Thus if any event is held that is open for both groups then both sides need to make an effort to include the other. I've recently seen this done well and poorly but translators, not surprisingly, have proven invaluable.

Other than that... not sure what else can be done. I've hosted a few major story arch events, one currently active, but I have found it is immensely difficult coordinating even a half dozen players to regularly attend events for it. Most of the other story arcs we see, some of which have threads on the forums, involve literally a handful of people with maybe the occasional cameo.

Big sweeping events that involve dozen of RPers just might simply not be sustainable here which, to be honest, is arguably irrelevant. After all my past experience of being at events with massive numbers of players is that a half dozen dominate the tempo of the RP while the rest basically spectate.

*tackles Mormel and licks her face like a puppy*

These are interesting things you bring up Disc, along with some interesting comments made. I'm not totally certain how much I can contribute to this discussion outside of a few comments of my own... but here goes.

*gnome belly-flops into the pool*

I've noticed some what of a downward or slowing trend coinciding with a few different events, as with the cc/soe merge and wod release. By no means am I tieing this perceived trend to either, but I can only offer that "others" have commented about such things. "They" have said that RP tends to slow at xpac release for a while until people finally have their general fill of the content, at which point RP begins to pick back up. It seems to me that this just may be the case, coupled with a few other factors that Mormel and Clottia have already mentioned. (Namely that a lot of people are either still engaged in content or their schedules are such that they just can't participate as they once could.)

For myself, the latter two reasons chime true for me.
My personal RL schedule shifts back and forth and I adjust accordingly, so currently my log times have been a mix between early to late morning, spotty in the afternoon/evenings, and occasionally late night.
When I am online my focus is usually on wod chores (which I oddly do enjoy), and when I've finished I either have little time to spend, have completely missed event times, or I am just too spent to feel like I can contribute anything of worth to any RP so I log for the day.
There are also those times when I just can't find anything of interest to engage in.
This is a generalization of course.

Point of fact I have had recent periods where I've tried to be more active and supportive on one character or another, and I am constantly trying to come up with small ideas behind the scenes to help create or enrich my own RP or the RP of others. :D heh, I even came up with a neat open guild story idea months ago revolving around a chain of mini adventures that I've been trying to organize and get off the ground...but I sadly lack the skills and know how (and quite often time) to do so.

I've rather enjoyed my time on cc, and now within the cc/soe community. I don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon. I like the several smaller storylines that people have rolling back and forth, and I think it's neat that so many people have alts involved in various RP throughout the server on either side.
I feel like the community is open enough that if I ever came across something (RP related) that I'd like to get involved with all I'd ever have to do is politely start an ooc conversation about joining, and that's a good thing. :) Whether or not I get in is another matter, but that I can feel comfortable enough with people in the community to ask is a big positive.

I would like to see an updated list of events on both sides. A nice current list with days, times and locations.

Yep.

based on feedback I'v received from several sources it is starting to all make sense. First off, RP is only part of what most players want out of the game, which makes sense to me. Improving individual events or trying to liven up any individual segment doesn't address the overall big picture. That being that players want a variety of things to do, PVE, PVP and RP in various combinations depending on the individual. Secondly, there is a lack in overall purpose and design concerning RP as things stand currently. This makes it harder for seasoned RPers to make events appealing to wider audiences and for newer RPers to enter the fray.

I have a few ideas on how to address the second issue and am working on ways to upset the status quo that has led to an RP gridlock. As far as the first, there really isn't all that much any individual or even a single guild can do to curb this trend with the exception of community wide PVE, PVP functions to open up WoD content to a larger amount of people. In the spirit of this Pia is hosting Blackrock Foundry on Tue/Thu 7:30pm-10pm Server time, and battlegrounds on wed 7:30pm-10pm, Sat 4pm - ? server. All are welcome and it will be formatted as a community event.

At the guild level the simplest and best thing right now is to stay positive, pessimism and down-talk is by far and above the most damaging behavior regardless of circumstance. Please try to engage both guild members and anyone who is feeling down or new to the community. The outstanding showing at the B&B Bagel shop last night was a testament to how fun things can be just by having enough happy people in one place. I encourage highly that guild leaders and guild officers across the server start thinking about how to help open content to your own members. It appears that as a server we have lost a massive amount of people simply because they are not able to experience game content as it becomes current.

This is a community, and therefore is greater than any individual or even the sum of its parts. The stories and characters here are what makes the community what it is and it remains the responsibility of every member to be supportive of other community members and to make newcomers feel welcome. At the end of the day this server group and the community that resides within are our responsibility, if we want it to be healthy and thriving then we need to be the ones to nurture the roleplay and game functions that the community needs to be content and happy. A happy home makes for happy players.

03/28/2015 09:15 PMPosted by Clottia

I would like to see an updated list of events on both sides. A nice current list with days, times and locations.

Yep.

Working on this and something else. Stay posted ^.^

03/29/2015 08:52 AMPosted by Genevra

03/28/2015 09:15 PMPosted by Clottia

I would like to see an updated list of events on both sides. A nice current list with days, times and locations.

Yep.

Working on this and something else. Stay posted ^.^

Coming from anyone else, I would say this sounds ominous.

It would be up today but due to circumstances beyond my control (horrible tech glitch) it has to wait for tomorrow.

Coming from anyone else, I would say this sounds ominous.

It should. Clottia *will* crash Alliance events if possible. It's just her nature... Not to be a douche, but to maybe promote some rp.

I'm working on a nice, inciteful Sunday Sermon event to take place in Ratchet (PvP/RP of course) Details to come shortly. Just need to get some translators and it.is.on.

Looking forward to the event list with rabid drool...

For now Clottia, check out the community calendar in the latest issue of Scholar, it has the events for this week.

<span class="truncated">...</span>

Working on this and something else. Stay posted ^.^

Coming from anyone else, I would say this sounds ominous.

Are you kidding Zep? coming from her its more ominous than about anyone else.

and clottia, I would like to talk to you about a couple things, hit me up sometime. Disco#1645

I'll start by apologizing for being sparse recently. I have audit deadlines, and the tax filing deadline right around the corner, so I haven't been able to make it to events recently, particularly given that the backward parts of the country decided to all change their clocks a few weeks ago (seriously, why do you do that?).

That being said, I would pin the problem, as far as the server group is concerned, on RP mostly being the same. We have the same events each week with the same people, focused around the same guilds and in the same places. Where do you find random RP on the server if you're in the Alliance? In the Blue Recluse!

We have successfully confined the server's RP to a bar and to a few events.

This is regular, predictable, and accessible, and I don't want to take anything away from the people who worked a lot harder than anyone else in building this infrastructure - who I respect greatly - but the server is focused around very specific themes and two or three large guilds. We have great cohesion, but we have little diversity.

I would regard the regular events as being a strength that we shouldn't fiddle too much with, even if perhaps we need a few different ones or some variation - but our sore point (bearing in mind that this is just my opinion) is random RP. Again, if someone on the channel asks about where they can find random RP, the answer is "in the Blue Recluse". Even if you accept that all random RP should occur in Stormwind, this is still extraordinarily limiting and easy to get sick of. I think a person should be able to wander around the city and find bits of things going on in different parts of it. If they don't like the Blue Recluse, maybe something is happening at the Keg, or the Pig and Whistle. Maybe a group of paladins can be found talking in Cathedral square, or perhaps someone is doing something seedy in Cutthroat alley. There is a lot of opportunity that is just being missed in this category - and this is again if you take the position that random RP should happen only in one city.

Outside of Stormwind, we have the advantages of CRZ, which is why I still feel closer to Wyrmrest Accord as a CCer than I do to CC/SoE. I can interact with those people and I'll occasionally get the question "how is CC? I'm thinking of changing servers". We have a lot to offer people on those large realms - but if we're going to do that, we have to step out of that bar once in a while - and not just for events.

Now, I will disclaim this slightly. RP has been down in general since WOD came out. It's difficult to find random RP period, and you've always had to find a way to overcome the problem of "fishing" (keeping in one area, sending emotes out every so often in the hopes of people coming over and interacting with you - they usually don't). But changing that requires active effort. We need more random RP, in more places, and with more random RPers.

The Union has recently revised its patrol program in order to try and encourage Watch officers to spend more time on the street throughout the city and the kingdom. We certainly would love to have more RP that did not involve the Recluse, because bar fights tend to get old after a while. Since one goal of patrolling is building positive community relations, you certainly don't have to have a problem to interact with officers on patrol. They'll be happy to stop and talk for a while.

We also have a growing number of medics who can respond to medical emergencies of one sort or another. They're kind of like our paramedics. If you have a character suffering from a serious injury or illness, call the Watch and we can help.

For another RP spot, I'd like to put in a plug for one of the Union civilians, Rosylin, who ICLY runs a tailoring business in the Cathedral District right across the canal from the Jewel-crafting Shop. She's not open all the time, but I'll encourage her to announce in AOOC when she is so people can stop by if they want.

Finally, the Union has on occasion held recruiting events in the CRZ starting areas, the idea being to attract people to the server, whether they end up in our guild or not. If nothing else it at least shows people on the bigger RP servers that RP on CC/SOE exists, and if they don't make a new character on our server immediately, maybe they'll consider it down the road. We'd be happy to involve other guilds next time, if any of you all want to hang out with us.

Where do you find random RP on the server if you're in the Alliance? In the Blue Recluse!

We have successfully confined the server's RP to a bar...

Being *very* new to the Alliance, having made a 'throw away character' that I have since decided to keep....I had no clue where else to go to find rp! My hearth is there and I try to roleplay -to sometimes sad result- with anyone there. I am just now learning of these other events and locations (like the Feathers bar in BB) by accident. Seeing the list in the recent Scholar was great, and I am excited to visit these new places and faces.

I haven't really looked around in other capitals/towns for places to rp, but that's just laziness on my part. Something I will remedy immediately.

We have great cohesion, but we have little diversity.

With the game as old as it is that comes with the territory, unfortunately. It may also be due to lack of anonymity between players.

We need more random RP, in more places, and with more random RPers.

I noticed the IC channel for both Alliance and Horde are extremely underutilized. Not sure why, but both channel population and activity are scarce. Should they exist at all? Be revitalized as a meeting place via hearthstone to expedite roleplay in person? Become their own incarnation of a tavern? I don't know but their current state is 'blah'.

Would visits from the opposing side be fruitful? Personally, I would love to see some bar fights be they real PvP or emote...anything different to not-so-different events could be a catalyst for new things.

I'm up for nearly anything to help. I just love the community, on both sides now, to just walk away in frustration.

Would visits from the opposing side be fruitful?

I'm not sure in the context of barfights because then you run into questions of trolling, but crossfaction RP? Absolutely.

Crossfaction RP would be great, but the biggest issue for me and rping, is my schedule. I tend to work in the evenings when everything is going on and I tend to be up late at night because of it. Nothing is going on when I am awake so it is very, VERY, hard for me to get to an rp event these days unless I have a day off, and even then I tend to be busy. And because of the inability to go to events and such has driven me to play other games and only being on to chat with people or to send people off on missions for a whole 5 minutes. But when I get on at about... 10 at night to 2 in the morning, not that many people are around which makes it hard for me to run into rp.

Random RP would be great as well, and when I'm not doing anything, I try to wander around ICly on a toon, hell I'm even leveling a character ICly, however the only other people I normally see at the times that I'm around, are other server people. And, from my experience, that doesn't always go well. Just the other day I was in Darkshire and decided to stop by the tavern for a little bit to set up addons and such and maybe strike up a bit of RP because I felt like rping and not too many people were on. Surprisingly enough, I was completely ignored.

This kind of stuff has somewhat killed a bit of interest in actually going out and hunting some down, most of the time now it is more I'm getting told that someone is in the Recluse or that someone wanted to continue a story with me. With our server's size, I'm not going to start demanding that there needs to be events hosted in the middle of the night, because I know that it isn't practical. I have the same kind of opinion for random rp, I'd love to see it happen and I think it would be amazing, but I really don't think it is something we can do effectively like a bigger server. However, that won't stop me from at least giving a bit of a try in hopes of getting some rp thrown in there. On some characters, I consider myself almost always IC, however even wandering around different places, it is extremely hard to get "random rp" with people on this server. Shockingly enough, I have better luck running into random people from other servers, which most of the times it has a poor result. I would really support the use of the IC channels more, I know I have a few ideas which might involve calling the Watch for the smallest things.

And to PvP rp events, there have a been a couple before and normally they just turned into drama which sucked, but if they were done in a way where both sides were happy with how things turned out, it can be amazing. I know some people hate pvp with a fiery burning passion, but I am one of those who love it... Clottia might remember the time I caught her in the Recluse. But it also turned into a fun bit of rp between the two of us and Ardam, even though we couldn't understand what the other was saying.

Firstly, I haven't been as involved with RP since I got back as I ought to have been (and the aforementioned interest in exploring the new expansion is partially to blame for that) So some of this is based on experience from a couple of years ago. However, I'm pretty sure the same issues still apply, if not more so than ever.

03/29/2015 07:21 PMPosted by Clottia

I noticed the IC channel for both Alliance and Horde are extremely underutilized. Not sure why, but both channel population and activity are scarce. Should they exist at all? Be revitalized as a meeting place via hearthstone to expedite roleplay in person? Become their own incarnation of a tavern? I don't know but their current state is 'blah'.

I'm tempted to say here, the OOC channel is underutilized too. It *ought* to be full of announcements that "I'm in location X, anyone want to join me for RP? or even just "anyone up for RP?" but instead people tend to wander around and expect RP to happen, then grump when it doesn't. It's a big world, we don't know you're sitting at X unless you tell us, and sitting around waiting when there's other things in 99% of the world we can be doing isn't really a good use of time. OOC communication, as with most things RP-related, is key.

The IC channel? I don't even have that turned on, I ran out of channel space and figured as I never actually get any use from it, that would be one of the first to go.

Onto community events.

What I'd like to see more of is events organized by a committee of people from across a number of guilds. Ensure that more people get a say in what is going to happen and when, and it should follow that more people will want to show up. Some ideas are fantastic, but just occur at bad times which could have been pre-empted if more people had been involved in setting it up. Sometimes it's the event itself - sometimes it's just not an idea that anyone's interested in going to. Again, the better the cross-section of the community involved in setting it up, the more likely you'll come up with an idea that interests people.

03/29/2015 08:54 PMPosted by Kyalin

Would visits from the opposing side be fruitful?

I'm not sure in the context of barfights because then you run into questions of trolling, but crossfaction RP? Absolutely.

One of the reasons the AAMS exists, after all. And there are some on the red side who don't want to kill you (or more likely, be killed by you). Yeah, I'm looking at you, Clottia. *grin*