RP etiquette and rules are such a weird thing.
I have to remind myself that what I'm used to may only be the norm for my particularly circle of friends, and that not everyone has the same opinions. So take the rest of this with a grain of salt; these are my opinions, and the type of players I prefer to play with.
Monday, September 23, 2013
Monday, September 16, 2013
Neverwinter Nights: First Impressions
Well.
At the request of one of my friends, I've downloaded Neverwinter Nights and have given it a bit of a test run. I'm not really sure what I think of it so far.
At the request of one of my friends, I've downloaded Neverwinter Nights and have given it a bit of a test run. I'm not really sure what I think of it so far.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Recording
The final part is the scariest of all.
Mixing and Recording.
I will admit it here: I have no idea what I'm doing.
Mixing and Recording.
I will admit it here: I have no idea what I'm doing.
Friday, September 6, 2013
Instrumentation
I've had fun documenting my thought process on writing Silence of Silvermoon. While on one hand, it feels a bit like boasting, it's been an interesting experience forcing myself to stop and think about why I made the decisions I did. This should be the next-to-last post on the subject, though!
Instrumentation!
Instrumentation!
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Melodic Methodology
Melody is what makes a song.
There are some songs that sound great as poetry. You can read the lyrics and be moved.
Other songs are incredibly boring if you only read the lyrics. The Lament of the Highborn? Totally boring to read, but it's one of the best loved pieces of music in Warcraft when you get to hear it.
I hope my melodies can inspire such a transformation.
There are some songs that sound great as poetry. You can read the lyrics and be moved.
Other songs are incredibly boring if you only read the lyrics. The Lament of the Highborn? Totally boring to read, but it's one of the best loved pieces of music in Warcraft when you get to hear it.
I hope my melodies can inspire such a transformation.
Friday, July 19, 2013
Lyric Methodology
I'm happy to report that for the first time in months, I've done some significant amount of composing. I am very happy.
Big surprise: it's Warcraft themed.
On another odd note, it's very much in the same mood and theme as "Lady by the Lake," and both songs were written while I'm being stressed out by inventory prep at work. Perhaps that says something?
Since I apparently have little else to talk about, I thought I'd spend some time documenting how I usually go about writing a song.
Big surprise: it's Warcraft themed.
On another odd note, it's very much in the same mood and theme as "Lady by the Lake," and both songs were written while I'm being stressed out by inventory prep at work. Perhaps that says something?
Since I apparently have little else to talk about, I thought I'd spend some time documenting how I usually go about writing a song.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Why I Ignore Questing
To show you how slow I am sometimes at writing, several months ago Anne Stickney wrote an article for WoW Insider called "When lore and roleplay collide". Her article was about how questing in Pandaria had become more "personal" and how players could interpret those quests for their characters and decide on what motivated them, or how they would react to the quests.
I was one of several commentators who, frankly, didn't feel the article to be very useful for role-players. Anne wrote a lovely article about why someone would be doing all the quests in Pandaria and how it would affect your role-play. It didn't feel useful to us, on the basis that questing was a separate thing from our role-play and that she was assuming we were playing characters who were on the front lines in Pandaria.
DrunkScottishCyclops wrote (a little rudely):
I wrote a few comments attempting to explain my dissatisfaction with the article, which, to my surprise, actually prompted Anne to write a couple of follow up articles, one for Horde and one for Alliance. (That's one of the things that's truly great about the WoW community, how people listen to each other.) However, I think the main confusion, for my part at least, stems from different people's definition of role-play and how we treat questing.
In short, I do not consider questing by itself to constitute role-play, nor are quests automatically part of my character's story.
I was one of several commentators who, frankly, didn't feel the article to be very useful for role-players. Anne wrote a lovely article about why someone would be doing all the quests in Pandaria and how it would affect your role-play. It didn't feel useful to us, on the basis that questing was a separate thing from our role-play and that she was assuming we were playing characters who were on the front lines in Pandaria.
DrunkScottishCyclops wrote (a little rudely):
Is it just me, or is this inability to differentiate between in character (IC) and out of character (OOC) gameplay a running theme in this site's roleplay articles?
I wrote a few comments attempting to explain my dissatisfaction with the article, which, to my surprise, actually prompted Anne to write a couple of follow up articles, one for Horde and one for Alliance. (That's one of the things that's truly great about the WoW community, how people listen to each other.) However, I think the main confusion, for my part at least, stems from different people's definition of role-play and how we treat questing.
In short, I do not consider questing by itself to constitute role-play, nor are quests automatically part of my character's story.
Monday, April 8, 2013
Stress Testing
One of the things I enjoy about role-play are the unexpected things you can learn when trying to enter a character's frame of mind. I have mentioned, I'm sure, that there are things you don't know about a character until you're actively RPing with them and figuring out their reactions.
I quipped to one of my friends that I was "stress testing" a character when she agreed to do some RP with me with a new DK I'm playing for a storyline. I think that can be an apt term, as I was learning what strengths and weaknesses I had while playing Dearnly. I was trying to test what did and didn't work with him and discern any quirks the character may have. About half way through the "test" I was surprised at a reply Dearnly made; how odd it is, to be the author of a character, and yet be taken by surprise at his actions.
I quipped to one of my friends that I was "stress testing" a character when she agreed to do some RP with me with a new DK I'm playing for a storyline. I think that can be an apt term, as I was learning what strengths and weaknesses I had while playing Dearnly. I was trying to test what did and didn't work with him and discern any quirks the character may have. About half way through the "test" I was surprised at a reply Dearnly made; how odd it is, to be the author of a character, and yet be taken by surprise at his actions.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Cross-Realm Zones
I am still very much on the fence about cross-realm zones. The truth is, it has not impacted my gameplay enough for me to solidly say "the pro's outweigh the cons" or otherwise. There are things I like about the feature, and plenty I don't.
When CRZ was implemented, it was blast being able to play with friends from other realms while out and about in the "real" world and not just instances. However, it only took about five minutes' thought for me and my friends to come up with various ways to exploit realm-hopping. It was clear that the ability to chose which realm you were on via changing the Party Leader meant you could hop realms to farm mobs faster, escape crowded areas, or launch surprise PvP attacks by gathering on one realm then hopping to the target realm.
We also talked about the positive ways to use it; Cenarion Circle was having a particular problem with an RP troll at the time, and it would have been very nice if we could simply realm hop to avoid trolls. We used the party system a couple of times to "invite" players to come to our RP events when they were from servers that didn't automatically show up in our area. It was nice!
I understand the reason they took away the ability to hop to the party leader's realm; too many people were using it to exploit game mechanics and cause trouble. However, it took away what I felt was the most important feature for a roleplaying community: the ability to consistently and reliably be able to invite people to your realm and event. We lost some of our control. Partying with other people meant we couldn't chose were to end up.
On a larger scale, I'm upset that I have less of a choice now about which realm I am on when I'm not in Stormwind. Moon Guard is the usual target of these attacks, even if it is otherwise a good roleplay server. Like it or not, there are plenty of people who specifically avoided rolling on Moon Guard because of it's reputation, and now that choice didn't matter. We used to be able to confidently say our Goldshire was safe. That's no longer true. We are the roleplayers who chose to buy a house on the other side of town from the airport, but then Blizzard moved the airport into our backyard. Of course we're not happy.
The world does feel like there are more people, and I've run into more roleplayers, and the results have been mixed. Cultures are clashing. We have met some very nice roleplayers who we'd like to see again, but we've also come across roleplayers who style doesn't mesh with the established tone of our community and it can be awkward. Yes, that does sound horribly elite, but it's true. Just like individual guilds can have their own "style" and "tone," Cenarion Circle has its own culter of roleplay, and it's jarring when you meet people who casually accept playing San'layn or what-have-you. I'm sure other realms would probably balk at the idea of the AAMS and that CC would accept the concept of a neutral courier company.
There's the issue of what to do when guild with conflicting themes collide. If a player from the <Stormwind City Watch> and another realm's equivalent City Police group show up, how do you resolve the confict of who is in charge?
If two roleplay guilds are using the same building, what happens then? One would hope they'd be reasonable and either agree to ignore each other, or work out an IC compromise to explain why they'd both be in the same place. Every now and then I've run into other roleplayers at Aerie Peak, but that does not mean I give them grief about violating Terra Incognita's space. Tehcnically speaking, we consider our guild to be guests of the dwarves, so I ignore any other "guests" or "visitors" unless the issue is specifically address in an IC way.
However, we recently had a guild driven out of its roleplay base because cross-realm players were harrassing them and giving them a hard time. After weeks of trying to ignore the harrassment, they decided it was easier to relocate someplace more remote. So it's clear that not every roleplayer - or just regular WoW players - are as willing to be adaptable. Driving roleplay into the far corners of Azeroth to avoid harassment is sad.
Cross realms zones have limited someone's options to avoid harassment. That guild did not have the choice to change realms, because it would not have escaped the players causing the problems.
In a way, there are now fewer realm choices. When I roll a character, it's no longer as simple as saying, "Not Moonguard." Now I have to have to lump every realm that phases with Moon Guard into the same category, if I were truly serious about finding a MG-free Goldshire. Players are understandably upset about Blizzard taking away choices.
Eventually, slowly, we're going to find a new balance and a new culture that encompasses each realm that we're been grouped with. Change itself isn't bad; having more people to play with, more perspectives, can be good. It can shake up a stale situation. It can encourage more people to roleplay, if they see more examples of it everywhere they go. CC will lose a little of its uniqueness, but also some of its isolation.
I would like to explore the option of rolling characters on grouped realms when I need a quick character, or if I've filled up my character limit on Cenarion Circle. I could create a roleplay character on Wrymrest Accord for roleplay and still attend Cenarion Circle events... assuming phasing in my favor. I would miss out on server chat, but at least with Battle Tags, I could still talk to all my friends and guildmates. I could even monitor guildchat via the Armory on my phone while on another realm.
Overall, I'm still in a very much wait-and-see position. We're at a tenuous time right now, and it's our responsibility as roleplayers to help shape where our culture is going to go. Are we going to be active about trying to encourage the positive aspects? Accept other people from other realms? Work on compromises so no one else feels persecuted? I believe Cenarion Circle is up to the challenge. . . is everyone else?
When CRZ was implemented, it was blast being able to play with friends from other realms while out and about in the "real" world and not just instances. However, it only took about five minutes' thought for me and my friends to come up with various ways to exploit realm-hopping. It was clear that the ability to chose which realm you were on via changing the Party Leader meant you could hop realms to farm mobs faster, escape crowded areas, or launch surprise PvP attacks by gathering on one realm then hopping to the target realm.
We also talked about the positive ways to use it; Cenarion Circle was having a particular problem with an RP troll at the time, and it would have been very nice if we could simply realm hop to avoid trolls. We used the party system a couple of times to "invite" players to come to our RP events when they were from servers that didn't automatically show up in our area. It was nice!
I understand the reason they took away the ability to hop to the party leader's realm; too many people were using it to exploit game mechanics and cause trouble. However, it took away what I felt was the most important feature for a roleplaying community: the ability to consistently and reliably be able to invite people to your realm and event. We lost some of our control. Partying with other people meant we couldn't chose were to end up.
On a larger scale, I'm upset that I have less of a choice now about which realm I am on when I'm not in Stormwind. Moon Guard is the usual target of these attacks, even if it is otherwise a good roleplay server. Like it or not, there are plenty of people who specifically avoided rolling on Moon Guard because of it's reputation, and now that choice didn't matter. We used to be able to confidently say our Goldshire was safe. That's no longer true. We are the roleplayers who chose to buy a house on the other side of town from the airport, but then Blizzard moved the airport into our backyard. Of course we're not happy.
The world does feel like there are more people, and I've run into more roleplayers, and the results have been mixed. Cultures are clashing. We have met some very nice roleplayers who we'd like to see again, but we've also come across roleplayers who style doesn't mesh with the established tone of our community and it can be awkward. Yes, that does sound horribly elite, but it's true. Just like individual guilds can have their own "style" and "tone," Cenarion Circle has its own culter of roleplay, and it's jarring when you meet people who casually accept playing San'layn or what-have-you. I'm sure other realms would probably balk at the idea of the AAMS and that CC would accept the concept of a neutral courier company.
There's the issue of what to do when guild with conflicting themes collide. If a player from the <Stormwind City Watch> and another realm's equivalent City Police group show up, how do you resolve the confict of who is in charge?
If two roleplay guilds are using the same building, what happens then? One would hope they'd be reasonable and either agree to ignore each other, or work out an IC compromise to explain why they'd both be in the same place. Every now and then I've run into other roleplayers at Aerie Peak, but that does not mean I give them grief about violating Terra Incognita's space. Tehcnically speaking, we consider our guild to be guests of the dwarves, so I ignore any other "guests" or "visitors" unless the issue is specifically address in an IC way.
However, we recently had a guild driven out of its roleplay base because cross-realm players were harrassing them and giving them a hard time. After weeks of trying to ignore the harrassment, they decided it was easier to relocate someplace more remote. So it's clear that not every roleplayer - or just regular WoW players - are as willing to be adaptable. Driving roleplay into the far corners of Azeroth to avoid harassment is sad.
Cross realms zones have limited someone's options to avoid harassment. That guild did not have the choice to change realms, because it would not have escaped the players causing the problems.
In a way, there are now fewer realm choices. When I roll a character, it's no longer as simple as saying, "Not Moonguard." Now I have to have to lump every realm that phases with Moon Guard into the same category, if I were truly serious about finding a MG-free Goldshire. Players are understandably upset about Blizzard taking away choices.
Eventually, slowly, we're going to find a new balance and a new culture that encompasses each realm that we're been grouped with. Change itself isn't bad; having more people to play with, more perspectives, can be good. It can shake up a stale situation. It can encourage more people to roleplay, if they see more examples of it everywhere they go. CC will lose a little of its uniqueness, but also some of its isolation.
I would like to explore the option of rolling characters on grouped realms when I need a quick character, or if I've filled up my character limit on Cenarion Circle. I could create a roleplay character on Wrymrest Accord for roleplay and still attend Cenarion Circle events... assuming phasing in my favor. I would miss out on server chat, but at least with Battle Tags, I could still talk to all my friends and guildmates. I could even monitor guildchat via the Armory on my phone while on another realm.
Overall, I'm still in a very much wait-and-see position. We're at a tenuous time right now, and it's our responsibility as roleplayers to help shape where our culture is going to go. Are we going to be active about trying to encourage the positive aspects? Accept other people from other realms? Work on compromises so no one else feels persecuted? I believe Cenarion Circle is up to the challenge. . . is everyone else?
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