World of Warcraft®

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Originally I'd begun typing this as a rant on all the things I found bad about the way people tend to RP here on Sisters of Elune. I stopped in the middle of writing it and deleted the whole thing, realizing that it would not accomplish anything at all. Instead, I decided to word my post in a more constructive fashion and list a few pointers I would give to, really, the vast majority of the folks on the server.

This isn't a post meant to be read only by those new to RPing (though I would encourage those people to read it as well!), but rather an attempt to maybe open one's eyes to that one little thing they've been doing over the years in RP that has been silently grinding the teeth of everyone around them, unknowingly.

1. Spellcheck your posts! Like it or not, you are writing for an audience, and that audience would be deeply appreciative if you were to capitalize words and names when they needed to be, use commas, periods, etc. It really does improve the readability of your RP, and makes me and others more inclined to do so with you! Nobody wants to RP with someone when it's a chore to figure out exactly what their character is doing.

2. View your RP as a story, not a competition! Many people see RP as little more than a chance to flex their character's muscles and fight with other characters. I see it all too often: "Whoa, so-and-so insulted my character's girlfriend! Time to go open up a can of whoopass up in here!" The ensuing RP fight will then devolve as that person's character starts to lose, causing him to challenge the perfectly-legitimate posts of the other person, all in desperate bid to prevent something bad from happening to their character.

In good stories, bad things happen. That's the way it goes. Your character doesn't have to die but even then, your character dying or getting arrested doesn't mean you lost the RP-game. It just means the story has progressed. I always prefer to have those kinds of things discussed OOC before they happen, of course, but me? I'm always willing to kill off a character or two for the sake of a kickass story. We all love our characters, but we need to make sure the quality of the stories we tell isn't sacrificed because of that.

3. Don't attention-who re! This one might be a bit blunt, but I'm saying it anyway for lack of a better phrase. For clarity's sake, I'll show you an example of two posts I could have made from a character I once had named Malicia:

Malicia gulped down her Southsea Rum gluttonously, the beverage slopping down her chin and dripping every so often. "I'll drink to that!" she would say afterward. <--Quality post, right? I think so, if I do say so myself!

Malicia gulped down her Southsea Rum gluttonously, the beverage slopping down her chin and onto her massive, bulging breasts, which were becoming clearly visible through the tight shirt she was wearing, which was becoming increasingly wet with the dripping rum. <-- When I read a post like this, however, my manhood is insulted.

Your character is fully capable of being attractive or even promiscuous without being an attention-@%!!#. Each and every one of your posts doesn't have to be about your tits or your ass. In fact, when I'm reading your character description I prefer not to see mention of those body parts at all. I have a girlfriend for that.

And let's face it, you weren't making a post like that to write a decent character. You wrote that post because you're in a tavern with a bunch of male players and you love the attention. Male characters can do it too, but we see that less because male players tend to use female characters for that purpose.

4. Take note of where you are! I'm pretty sure it's against the law in Silvermoon to start fights in the middle of the Bazaar. If you do, you should expect to be arrested or even killed by the guards that would surely gank you. The reason people don't take note of these things is that obviously, the guards are NPCs. There are those whose RP characters take an active role in Silvermoon's law enforcement, but they are few and far between. That's because a lot of people refuse to acknowledge these Roleplayers. If you're one of those people, I'd refer you to tip number 2. If you wanna RP fight undisturbed and in a setting where it makes sense to do so, I'd suggest Orgrimmar, a city run by a race that doesn't have a reputation to defend as being more civilized and proper than the rest of the world, unlike Silvermoon. And that brings me to tip number 5.

5. Silvermoon is not that only place you can RP at! This one is particularly important to me. I like Silvermoon as much as the next guy but I love to get out of it for a while, and my guild does too. All of our characters recognize that there is a whole world outside of Silvermoon. Some of my characters I find it hard to even justify why they'd go there at all.

A friend of mine was in Silvermoon, and said in general chat "hey, let's all go to Orgrimmar and RP there! :D". He was met with a resounding "No." If you're one of those people who would have said "no," I ask you: What are you afraid of? Being griefed? People come TO SILVERMOON to do that now. There is no safe haven from griefing other than the use of your ignore list.

I can understand if people have performance issues in Orgrimmar, but it's a big city and there are less-populated areas in it, like the Valley of Honor. Some people just like Silvermoon, and I get that. But there's a whole world out there that you're missing out on, and people like me or my guildies who like to RP outside of SMC would welcome you with open arms to it.

Well, that concludes my post. "Like" it if you agree with any of the points I've made here.

Well said.

You nailed everything I need to say in mind, but can't seem to type out well. Both sides have been hit pretty bad in terms of scarceness of Open World RP.

Now I understand some people are not comfortable with the prospect of it, but still... It's at least worth to give it a shot. RP with new people in towns besides Silvermoon or Stormwind. Or RP outside your guild and stuff.

Of course there's a risk of bumping into griefers, God-Modders, and Extreme Lore Breakers, but trust me. SoE has lots of quality RP'ers who're at least not some Twilight-cum-Worgen Dragonball crossbred.

I totally respect your ideas on not being an attention w****, but somehow I always feel that the posts where somebody says they're tired of seeing people share more exact details of their character's body shape, are directed at me.

I get alot of hate because I add more descriptive visuals for my character's frame. But you know what? These RP addons are for details, so I'm gonna give them. I always cringe when I see somebody with an RP addon that says, "What you see is what you get." That's certainly not very exciting or interesting. Yes I can respect that you enjoy the exact setup of the character model itself, but for me... I want to be different, at least a little bit.

In the real world, we have men and women of all shapes and sizes, and that's wonderful. Why not bring that into WoW with the use of addons? "Well this isn't the real world. It's just a fantasy game." Right... Well I'm sorry for trying to make this fantasy more real and developed beyond just what the pixels and game mechanics can provide. So instead of being just another female night elf of the same height, weight, build, etc. I added details to not be like everybody else. Am I an attention w**** because of this? I don't think I am. I consider myself to be rather humble and reserved unless somebody is actively insulting me.

I really don't know what goes on over in Silvermoon or even Hordeside because I only play alliance, but if it's come to the point where you're posting something in response to seeing "too much" emphasis on people's bodies in their descriptions, then I guess I can understand. But anyways... at least I'm not walking around in black mageweave leggings. I do have some dignity. *smiles*

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Originally I'd begun typing this as a rant on all the things I found bad about the way people tend to RP here on Sisters of Elune. I stopped in the middle of writing it and deleted the whole thing, realizing that it would not accomplish anything at all. Instead, I decided to word my post in a more constructive fashion and list a few pointers I would give to, really, the vast majority of the folks on the server.

This is exactly the sort of thing the "So you want to RP" sticky thread was created for - you might want to copy it up there. The thread's not just for beginning roleplayers, it's tips and suggestions for just about anyone, and anyone can join in. Promise!

(P.S. Major pet peeve of mine, since you're talking about those: "I'll drink to that!" she would say afterward." Look, she either did or she didn't. Past or present tense. "She said afterward, grinning." or "She says with a grin." Or not even a grin. A loud belch. A soft glance at the door. Whatever you want to make her do. I don't know what possesses people to use this weird "she would/he would" phrasing but it drives me up a wall. )

Skrail, you rock. And number three made me snicker.

I actually avoid Silvermoon for RP unless I've got a good reason to be there on any of my toons. Which... I barely ever do.

(())

Originally I'd begun typing this as a rant on all the things I found bad about the way people tend to RP here on Sisters of Elune. I stopped in the middle of writing it and deleted the whole thing, realizing that it would not accomplish anything at all. Instead, I decided to word my post in a more constructive fashion and list a few pointers I would give to, really, the vast majority of the folks on the server.

This is exactly the sort of thing the "So you want to RP" sticky thread was created for - you might want to copy it up there. The thread's not just for beginning roleplayers, it's tips and suggestions for just about anyone, and anyone can join in. Promise!

(P.S. Major pet peeve of mine, since you're talking about those: "I'll drink to that!" she would say afterward." Look, she either did or she didn't. Past or present tense. "She said afterward, grinning." or "She says with a grin." Or not even a grin. A loud belch. A soft glance at the door. Whatever you want to make her do. I don't know what possesses people to use this weird "she would/he would" phrasing but it drives me up a wall. )

I was once like you. Honestly, I'm not sure how I picked up the habit of wording the occasional post that way. But technically it is grammatically correct, and I suppose it's just a style I picked up. I can see how that would bother you, though, and if not for my laziness I probably would be inclined to go edit it. <.<

Also, I will take your advice and copy/paste this stuff in that thread. Thanks!

Another basic tip I can offer. Try to keep a good pace. No one likes waiting five minutes for a wall of text. Try to let out one or two sentences at a time and keep pace like a real conversation. Makes RP much more entertaining when you're not sitting and waiting on the other guy to say something.