RPing Azeroth as a Living World
Of all the great things there are to do in the wild world of Azeroth, the one I haven't done any of is roleplaying. Sure, I hate gnomes as much as the next orc, but I haven't even scratched the surface of some of the things people are doing on the RP servers-- creating whole backstories and fictions about their characters, and interacting within this war in ways even Blizzard never planned. Sure, people can be a little strange when they "put on my robe and wizard hat," but there's some cool ideas floating around.
Like, for example, this article over on the Defias Brotherhood EU forums (found via RPblog Into the Web). Athlithuil suggests the extremely interesting idea that the Azeroth we're playing in is actually a smaller, mini-version of the "real" Azeroth that our characters live in. Sure, a flight across the Barrens might take five minutes in the game world, but according to evidence found in the earlier Warcraft games and the official novels, that trip is supposed to take weeks at least. That quick two minute walk you take to find the wildkin in Winterspring actually represents, says Athlithuil, a one or two day journey into the wilderness hunting the elusive beasts miles in the middle of nowhere. And the "real" world of Azeroth is bigger in other ways, too-- in the game, we can choose from nine different classes, but not everyone in Azeroth must fit into those. There have to be janitors, or poets, or farmers, or sword salesmen in Azeroth-- it's up to the RPers to make sure they're portrayed, too.
When you wrap your head around it, it's an amazing idea-- Athlithuil references the opening cinematic of the game, and asks what things would be like "if your every moment in World of Warcraft was rendered like that." Now, I'd imagine that most of us play this game to be the hero, or probably just loot some nice epix (or gank noobs now that XRealm PVP is possible). But even though I don't play on an RP server, Athlithuil's idea is a really interesting one-- just thinking about the World of Warcraft as alive and kicking seems to add something to the game on almost all levels.
