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.
Monday, April 8, 2013
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?
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Naming Conventions
There is an odd thing I've noticed when interacting with my online friends.
I've been playing now on Cenarion Circle long enough to make people I'd really call "friends"... something that never happened despite playing for just a long on my old server.
It was a little odd when I first started hanging out with the new social group, particularly because people had a habit of referring to someone by a name that wasn't the toon they were currently playing. Or occasionally, even by their real name. But I started to pick up on who was who. Making a handy alt-list to refer to helped.
It was a little odd for a while, too, when I'd change social circles and the name I was called changed. If I were playing with people who primarily knew me from Horde side, they'd call me "Kezrin." It was a bit jarring, since most everyone else at the time called me Derscha, or very occasionally, Ketlan. I am now pretty used to being called multiple names based on circumstances.
But the truly odd thing that caught my attention several months ago was that it didn't bother me to think of people in terms of multiple names. I will just as easily refer to my friend Arietha with any of her other names. I have even switched which name I've called her in the middle of a conversation.
This has caused me to think a lot about the meaning of names, and the etiquette of names online.
I've been playing now on Cenarion Circle long enough to make people I'd really call "friends"... something that never happened despite playing for just a long on my old server.
It was a little odd when I first started hanging out with the new social group, particularly because people had a habit of referring to someone by a name that wasn't the toon they were currently playing. Or occasionally, even by their real name. But I started to pick up on who was who. Making a handy alt-list to refer to helped.
It was a little odd for a while, too, when I'd change social circles and the name I was called changed. If I were playing with people who primarily knew me from Horde side, they'd call me "Kezrin." It was a bit jarring, since most everyone else at the time called me Derscha, or very occasionally, Ketlan. I am now pretty used to being called multiple names based on circumstances.
But the truly odd thing that caught my attention several months ago was that it didn't bother me to think of people in terms of multiple names. I will just as easily refer to my friend Arietha with any of her other names. I have even switched which name I've called her in the middle of a conversation.
This has caused me to think a lot about the meaning of names, and the etiquette of names online.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Back in the Game? One Year Later
...err, out of the game?
Yes. I have been spending far too much time in game lately. I admit I have been having lots of fun, and with the expansion around the corner, I've had things to get done before it all changes!
Yes. I have been spending far too much time in game lately. I admit I have been having lots of fun, and with the expansion around the corner, I've had things to get done before it all changes!
Thursday, July 5, 2012
AAMS Featured on WoW Insider!
I know I've not been a very good blogger, but I would be horribly remiss in not writing about the AAMS being featured on WoW Insider today!
Link to article here!
I have been on an emotional high all afternoon.
Link to article here!
I have been on an emotional high all afternoon.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
WoW Terms at Work
I occasionally find myself thinking of WoW terms in real life.
The first few times weren't intentional. Now I do it for fun when I'm bored, mostly at work.
There's some easy stuff. My set responsibilities are considered quests. I have a series of "dailies" with checkpoints I need to cross off. Completing them faithfully earned me reputation with the Boss Faction. I think I'm finally at friendly. It's a long grind if you're only doing dailies.
The first few times weren't intentional. Now I do it for fun when I'm bored, mostly at work.
There's some easy stuff. My set responsibilities are considered quests. I have a series of "dailies" with checkpoints I need to cross off. Completing them faithfully earned me reputation with the Boss Faction. I think I'm finally at friendly. It's a long grind if you're only doing dailies.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
My Characters... as Villains
There's been a few posts around the Cenarion Circle community about villains, and requests for villains. Really, a good villain is needed for a lot of plots, and if you find one, treasure him/her/it.
One day, it might be fun to roll my own villain and see what fun I could stir up. Right now, though, I feel like I'm busy enough with the three characters I play the most- Derscha, Ketlan, and Kezrin - and don't want to add another. So it made me wonder: if one of my current characters became a villain, what type would they be? How would they operate?
One day, it might be fun to roll my own villain and see what fun I could stir up. Right now, though, I feel like I'm busy enough with the three characters I play the most- Derscha, Ketlan, and Kezrin - and don't want to add another. So it made me wonder: if one of my current characters became a villain, what type would they be? How would they operate?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)