World of Warcraft®

Just had to say it. I wrote two news articles today, but I could've probably written seven. So many people uploaded amazing screenshots from events onto the AA today. There's fighting in the Hinterlands, tensions in Nagrand and a giant market day in Lordaeron as just a few things I can mention.

Whomever said that the best people in RP have left are wrong; There's some amazing people on this realm and they keep impressing me over and over and over again.

Alabast <3

If you werent a gnome, I would hug you. Never considered death? We got a special offer just for you...


But indeed, lately some great peopel sparked some events that is incresing the joy for roleplay. I remember when making my guild, forsaken was on an alltime low in poplation.. Some tensions and flexing from diffrent people later, and we are betetr then ever!
Gogo Forsaken!

I'd not question the quantity of role-play that's around. Other servers are slowly dying and their player-bases are migrating to Argent Dawn, which keeps our numbers relatively high. It's the quality of the role-play that I'd question. That's subjective, mind, but I suspect I'm not alone in being concerned.

The Crown's gone now, as has the Watch. The Sons were the pinnacle of quality on this server previously. S'my understanding that the leaders of the Kalimdor Project are jumping ship in the coming months, too.

Forgive me for sounding pessimistic, but I tend to get frustrated when people point a finger at an active, bustling event and shout, 'See, everything's swell!'. By all means, be optimistic, but there's been a definitive decline in the number of quality guild-leaders, event hosts and general community figures on this realm.

I've not noticed any real decline in the quality of roleplay. For every 'community figure' that leaves, there's a new, brilliant roleplayer that joins the server. I roleplay almost exclusively in starting zones lately and there's some bloody good newbies that've been wandering by.

Things are still going strong!

No decline? The Stormwind City Watch, the oldest established guild on the realm, has just died because there were not enough players who were either motivated towards, or capable of, keeping it going. Who've they been replaced with? No-one of note, no-one with a definitive theme or concept. It's not a like-for-like trade. I feel like I'm Jack and I'm trading my cattle for beans.

Then you look to the Crown. We're, in my opinion, a guild with a massive concentration of quality, motivated writers and role-players. The guild was borne of the remnants of the Sons of Thoradin, who held the same mantle prior to the Crown's inception. Albrect and Kaisis have both given up the project, through lack of desire and, frankly, interest. In those two players alone, you've leaders of the Watch, the Sons, The Crown, The Shadow Sentinels and The Legitimate Business Club out of the window. Again, I just do not see any alternative options, with perhaps the exception of the Black Torch (Who're comprised of Crown members at any rate), that operate at a similar level.

At the end of the day, the figures do not lie. For the first time, Warcraft's subscription numbers are tumbling. That's often the death knell for an MMO, and I suspect Blizzard have acknowledged it, particularly with the realease of this 'Annual Pack', which'd effectively keep you tied down. The game's losing motivated players and, at this point in time, isn't replacing them. It'll hurt every realm in the game, us included.

It's really good to see some enthusiasm and positive feedback on the forums.

Justyn.. It hasnt occured to you that a lot of Alliance player shifted to horde, has it?

Cause we got like 10 people in my guild alone that left Alliance to join horde due to various reasons, some of the guild you mentioned have also been mentioned to be the reason to their leave from the blue and joining the red.

But yes, there is a problem with the flow of players due to the game being so old. This Blizzard tries to do by updating the character model to match newer MMO game's graphics.

My criticism, Akru, is that we've lost many of the established institutions and orders that made Argent Dawn, well, Argent Dawn. Usually, that's just part of the cycle. This time 'round, though, they're just not being replaced by anything even slightly resembling the same level of quality, dedication and community integration. Losing the odd individual to the Horde isn't the issue; losing vast swathes of the player-base is.

24/10/2011 02:32Posted by Akru

Justyn.. It hasnt occured to you that a lot of Alliance player shifted to horde, has it?

Probably because the Alliance is full of people whingeing that RP is awful.

Or that, you know, we're gonna nuke Theramore.

24/10/2011 02:40Posted by Luilianna

Probably because the Alliance is full of people whingeing that RP is awful.

This is indeed why I myself shunned the alliance when I first came to AD.
It was to much "U suck, no u! NO U! And rp is for lossers lol!" etc etc.
I am still hanging on Alliance from time to time and had some great encounters and random rp with people who were both openminded and quality rpers.. I might consider being more active on alliance if the attitude changes, and people become more welcomeing of outsiders that hasnt been around for long on alliance to make a "name" for themselves.

24/10/2011 02:29Posted by Justyn

Albrect and Kaisis have both given up the project, through lack of desire and, frankly, interest. In those two players alone, you've leaders of the Watch, the Sons, The Crown, The Shadow Sentinels and The Legitimate Business Club out of the window. Again, I just do not see any alternative options, with perhaps the exception of the Black Torch (Who're comprised of Crown members at any rate), that operate at a similar level.

Thats simply not true. There are plenty of alternatives to those guilds but the vast majority of older players on the server simply can't see through the rose-tinted past. There's still this feeling that if the Crown doesn't, or didn't have direct involvement then a guild isn't worth joining. Newer guilds are hurriedly passed over by the self-styled elite of the server because, in short, their mates aren't in them and no matter how hard they try they'll never be as good as guilds that have come before. I think that does a massive disservice to a number of GMs running fantastic guilds but don't have the Crown stamp of approval on them.

Its not a matter of cliques. Its just that there are a fair few players out there who refuse to see past their own social group. Thats a real shame.

I have to agree with what Justyn is saying I'm afraid. I honestly wish it was not case, but what he's saying is describing my own perception of things down to a tee.

While the quantity of roleplay may still be high, the quality of it has almost perceptibly declined over the course of the expansion. People are jumping ship left, right and center. Prominent, established guilds are dying off. We have Skyrim, SWTOR, Guildwars 2, Diablo III - all of them coming within a timeframe of months and promising to take yet more roleplayers with them.

It may be true that where one roleplayer is leaving, another is arriving - but what exactly are they arriving to? Certainly not a community filled with thriving guilds and promising futures.

Frankly, I think your argument regarding the existence of cliques is somewhat negated by the fact that you're looking to out Carinia as someone who sought to under-mine the Watch, as opposed to someone who looked to work with the concept. You come across as someone who's quite bitter and, rather that looking at the arguments laid before you and demonstrating a knowledge of the subject by presenting me with examples of these 'fantastic alternatives', you've just decided that the Crown can't see past its own nose and, as such, is too full of egos and cliques to offer an opinion on the politics of the realm.

Bravo.

EDIT: I see you've, in hindsight, altered your post, Picady. Probably a wise move.

Bloody well agree on that one, Picady. Threw my white blanket into the sea after running across one of those issues too many.

24/10/2011 02:38Posted by Justyn

This time 'round, though, they're just not being replaced by anything even slightly resembling the same level of quality, dedication and community integration.

Not to be rude, but the times I RPed on Alliance, I managed to do perfectly fine without that what makes AD according to you.
I found your post filled with sheer arrogance "Look at us, without people like me, your nothing AD, your completely lost, we are -the quality-."

But alas, your intent most likely wasn't to come across as that, at least I hope.

Not to point out how people are so furiously against new ADers making new guilds, getting discouraged all the time here on the forums. I don't find it odd that other guilds don't rise up due people shouting the same old "Don't need more guild, but need more members." What is to an extend true, but yet not making it able to replace such guilds because they simply don't get created any more.
With that, it is mostly the old cliques who seem to be keen onto shouting this as well. Action reaction dear sirs and ladies. You discourage people to make guilds nine out of then times, well you know, you might just successfully managed to destroyed more quality RP.
Personally I get rather fed up with these sort of post, you should give new people a chance to rise but instead they get bashed down before they even started something.
Short version, it are people, those elitist jerks, who created this fate themselves.

Anyhow, it was indeed refreshing to see so many people at the Market Day again! Yet I can't deny the roleplaying community is slowly getting thinner, though coming from a server with hmm, 20 Horde roleplayers left in the end, I still find the numbers I find here incredible.

Quality is something what is lacking, I won't deny that either, but people are trying their best to get things rolling again, at least on Horde side.

As someone who actively dabbles in both factions, I can safely say that the exact same issues are present on both sides. Claiming the Alliance to be worse than the Horde is pretty redundant at this point and just reeks of bitterness and jealously.

As for me? I agree in part with Justyn. The quality of roleplay has slipped a lot over the past couple of years to the point where those who value immersion are forced to be tarnished with the tag of elitism. There's very little interaction these days, aside from the typical ranting upon the realm forum. I see guilds and individuals praised as the best thing since sliced bread and then sadly see that they rarely interact with anyone outside of their immediate social circle. I admit, there's exceptions to this but I do think it's unfair to single out the supposed gems of the human roleplaying community when other racial roleplaying communities have been enduring chaos for the past few years.

I'm not bitter in the least bit. I removed that comment so not to be too inflamatory in an otherwise positive thread, but as you bought it up anyway...The view amoung most of the Watchers that I knew over that period was that Carinia would log in once in a blue moon, yell at people and throw a spanner in the works for the people that were on every day trying to keep the guild running. There was very little working with the concept, but then again I doubt he had time between his romance dramas in the Crown.

There arn't any arguements laid in front of me aside from the "I don't think things are as good as when I was around". You're entitled to your opinion, but to come onto the forums and try and state that as a fact reeks of the same elitism you're so keen to deny. The only alternative you put forwards is the Black Torch and while I think they're a great guild from what I've seen, its a bit much to point out a guild full of Crowners as the only alternative and then tell everyone you're not full of egos and cliques.

Also, trying your best to be patronising doesn't help your case one bit.

Justyn.. It hasnt occured to you that a lot of Alliance player shifted to horde, has it?

Probably because the Alliance is full of people whingeing that RP is awful.

Or that, you know, we're gonna nuke Theramore.

Yay for the influx of bads?

To be fairly honest, both sides of the argument have merit. To deny the existence of cliques in this game is a little silly. They do exist and guilds thrive off them. In that sense, the dissolution of some of the more revered guilds is basically what one can term creative destruction in that it frees up materials for fresh and perhaps new concepts. I've often seen people who will only consider joining a guild based on whether it has the endorsement of their buddies, rendering one guild dependent upon another. The thing is though that people are not staying in WoW but leaving it. The loss of numbers will surely enhance the "cliqueish" element present in RP on this realm, and it is in part what drives some RPers away - the ego-stroking and the knavery that is the meat and bread of some guilds on this server. I agree with Justyn that WoW is pretty much finished.

There's also the irritating calcification of often baseless stereotypes, e.g. justifying treating night elf RPers as imbeciles (or ignoring them) based on IC behaviours of some characters rather than traits of the race exemplified in the lore. This happens too with Blood Elves, and also with those who stick more closely to the race's prior portrayals in TBC/TFT at the expense of its supposedly redeemed character.

You missed the clash on the Thandol Span as well, Alabast!

The dwarves have been busy.

Wow: So much roleplaying going on

It's great, innit it?