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All the World's a Stage: WTF is IC - OOC? WTB RP! OK THX, CU L8R
All the World's a Stage is brought to you by David Bowers every Sunday evening, investigating the mysterious art of roleplaying in the World of Warcraft.While many online gamers are famous for using "leetspeak," there's a certain portion of the community that places a great deal of importance on complete sentences and good spelling. Roleplayers, as a whole, are friendly and communicative, but nonetheless have special ways of interacting that other gamers may not understand. As a new roleplayer, I remember having to figure a lot of these things out, although I was blessed to befriend many people who kindly explained things to me as well. The first and most important concept I had to get a grasp of was the idea of "in-character" versus "out-of-character" communication (usually abbreviated to IC and OOC), and in what situations the use of either sort would be appropriate.It's fair to say that on an RP server where roleplaying is still the rule rather than the exception, anything in the /say or /yell channels should be "in character." That's to say, it should be phrased with good spelling and proper punctuation, and should only refer to happenings within the WoW universe. In situations where one must say something out-of-character in these channels, it is polite to at least couch your OOC words in double parentheses to clarify your meaning.
Addon Spotlight: FlagRSP2 and MyRolePlay
FlagRSP and its descendents have long been the de facto standard addons that most roleplayes use to "flag" themselves, letting other roleplayers know at a glance not only that they're interested in roleplaying, but also sharing character descriptions and basic information about what sort of roleplaying they prefer. The original FlagRSP is defunct, but the torch has been passed to two worthy (and superior) successors: FlagRSP2 and MyRolePlay. Both use the same methods to communicate with other roleplayers, so you need only choose one and you'll be able to share information with players who use the other (be careful not to use both at the same time, however). Both addons help a lot with the problem of roleplayers being hard to find.FlagRSP2 and MyRolePlay both give you a space to write things like your character's first or last names, a character title (such as "Priestess of the Dark" or "Wacky Troublemaker"), as well as some description about what your character looks like; and of course they both enable you to see the information other people have written about their characters too. Both have "roleplaying flags," which can tell other people whether you are a "casual" or "fulltime" roleplayer, as well as whether you are in or out of character at any given moment.FlagRSP2 has a cleaner, more intuitive interface, in my opinion, and it has nice little popup windows for character information which can appear whenever you mouseover or target someone. MyRolePlay only has a popup button which you must click on to see other characters' information, but it also has two separate spaces for physical descriptions and story backgrounds, which FlagRSP2 users sometimes mix up together. MyRolePlay also uses less computer resources on my system, and keeps things running a bit smoother. I often switch between the two since I can't really decide which is best.
Breakfast Topic: Where the roleplayers at?
After writing last week about getting started with roleplaying, it became clear that a number of people want to try roleplaying, but are having trouble finding the actual roleplayers, even on RP servers. Some players have even said that "RP is dead!" Those who still don't think RP is dead often complain that it's certainly not as alive as it used to be. You might even say that RP is undead in some places, which is a wholly unspeakable extreme.So today I'd like to ask you, where does the rumor mill tell you to find the best place to roleplay? Does your server rock the house with roleplayers everywhere you look? Have you heard your friend's girlfriend talk about how one time she overheard of her cousin's roommate's elder step-sister's 7-11 store clerk say where the RP really gets immersive? Or do you think it's not a matter of servers at all? Do you have to just team up with the best RP guilds around? If so, how do you find these guilds? Server forums?I have in mind that I'll go check out some RP servers to research this topic for myself as well. I'm pretty sure my home server (Scarlet Crusade) isn't the best. There, it seems a lot of the old roleplayers went off to do other things, or got involved in other activities and got too busy to roleplay. In any case, with your help and some additional research, perhaps we can come up with practical suggestions for how to track them roleplayers down and actually play the roles!
Another way to get started with roleplaying
In last Sunday's All the World's a Stage column, we talked about one way to get started with roleplaying, using mainly a character description made of two simple words that highlight the essential qualities of your character, without too much concern for background and details just yet. The idea here is that you can start with a basic character idea, and fill in the details later on as you get involved with other roleplayers.Over at WoWBlues, however, Nairuil has a different way of getting started. She has a list of questions for you to answer that are designed to help you think of your character's background, as well as give you some helpful tips for what sorts of backgrounds would be inappropriate for WoW (such as the cliche "vampire" idea), all before you actually get started roleplaying in game.Which approach do you find more useful to you personally, and why?
All the World's a Stage: Getting started with roleplaying
All the World's a Stage is brought to you by David Bowers every Sunday evening, investigating the explorative performance art of roleplaying in the World of Warcraft.For a long time now I've wanted to write an introductory guide on how to get started as a roleplayer. After all, roleplaying is something a lot of people would like to try, but really don't know how to begin. The problem with getting started is that various misconceived assumptions may sometimes block us from trying and dampen our enthusiasm. In the particular case of roleplaying, these mistaken assumptions might be along the lines of: "Roleplaying is lying to people about who you are," and "roleplaying is something weird people do," and "roleplaying is a waste of time for noobs." To the contrary, we have seen in previous articles that roleplaying is actually an exploration of who you are, a way to understand and connect with other people, and, in fact, a variant on things perfectly normal people do all the time anyway. So now -- where to actually begin? Certainly there is no perfect way to begin as a roleplayer, so today I'll outline three basic steps, which you can try and see if they work for you. I would be particularly interested in feedback from people who try out this method as first time roleplayers: if you do try it and have a great time, please come back and tell us about it; or if you try and something doesn't work, come back and tell us what went wrong. It's been a long time since I was a beginning roleplayer, and though I'll do my best to plot a path into this hobby, I only got to be a beginner once! Perhaps other beginning roleplayers will also share their experiences below, and you can see which path suits you best.
All the World's a Stage: Oh the drama! -- When to "/ignore"
All the World's a Stage is a weekly column by David Bowers, published on Sunday evenings, investigating the explorative performance art of roleplaying in the World of Warcraft.We've talked before about roleplaying as an art form, whether you think about it as acting or puppeteering, fiction or improv, there's definitely something creative going on here. But like any art form, roleplaying is best when it means something; that's to say, when it expresses something ultimately "true" about human experience, and perhaps even illumines the minds and hearts of the roleplayers in some way.Roleplayers all want to achieve that creativity, of course, but one problem often stands in our way: it's a rare work of art that really works for everyone. That's why the regular old art world is such a complete mess -- one man's fingerpainting is another man's post-modernist masterpiece. People constantly disagree about what subjects make for acceptable art, whether some art pushes extremes too far and becomes obscenity, and whether real art actually requires talent and skill. One person may curl up with their favorite Jane Austen novel and read it for the 10th time, while another may come home from the comic book store with the epic adventures of the Bone cousins. Each story conveys very different things to the reader -- but then the people who want to read these stories are looking for different things to get out them as well. Each form of storytelling speaks its own language for its own special audience.We have the same problem in roleplaying. To illustrate, imagine there's a teenage boy going through public school and not getting along with his peers very well. When he roleplays, he plays an intimidating character who likes to try to get in your face, pick a fight with you and insult you to show how very powerful he is. That power fantasy may be very annoying for you and me, but for him it really means something. That's not to say it's high-quality art by any means, but nonetheless, his feelings are important too, and he has his right to play a character on an RP server the same way we all do. It's just that for us, the "/ignore" command starts to look really tempting every time his sort comes along.
All the World's a Stage: It's not just about sexy butts
All the World's a Stage is a weekly column by David Bowers, investigating the explorative performance art of roleplaying in the World of Warcraft.Roleplaying the opposite sex happens. It is alluring to some, and repulsive to others -- a lot of people do it, while a lot of other people very openly proclaim (as if they know these things) that anyone who does this weird, manipulative, deceitful, and so on.People also tend to come up with various excuses for why they play a character of the opposite sex, as if they need to justify themselves according to their own gender's traditional expectations. Some men say, "if I'm going to have to stare at a characters butt for hours while I play, I'd rather it be a hot and sexy butt," while some women say, "I get all kinds of unwanted attention if I play a girl, and the only way I can get away from it is to play a boy." All that may be true in some cases, but it's hardly the whole story behind opposite-gender roleplaying.First of all, let me just say it here and now: you have every right to create whatever character you want, particularly in an actual roleplaying environment, and particularly if you intend to be faithful to the character you're creating.
All the World's a Stage: And all the orcs and humans merely players
All the World's a Stage is a new weekly column by David Bowers, investigating the explorative performance art of roleplaying in the World of Warcraft.As you know, WoW is a work of art, and roleplaying is probably the most creative aspect of the WoW experience. There are many reasons why people roleplay, and also many challenges to roleplayers, not the least of which is fitting in with all the other players who may not get why in the world you spend your time this way.To put it most simply, as roleplayers, we view our WoW experience as a creative one. We want to make each other laugh and smile and share stories about our characters. By doing this, we not only have a good time, we get that sense of inspired expression that any artist loves, whether a comics illustrator or a knitting addict. Roleplayers aren't so different from other players -- we want to do quests, dungeons, raids, and fight other players just like everyone else, but we want to do it all in a creative, story-based way.As Shakespeare has so famously put it,All the world's a stage,And all the men and women merely players:They have their exits and their entrances;And one man in his time plays many parts,
WoW is a Work of Art, part 3: All the world's a stage
We have discussed ways in which World of Warcraft is not only full of audio-visual art, but presents in itself a gaming experience that can reward players the same way that art forms like music or film can. For some, however, WoW is not only a game, but a stage. For them, the gaming element may sometimes fade into the background, when it becomes only a means to an end; they use WoW as a combination of acting and creative writing, telling stories and making performances all their own. They call it roleplaying. One kind of roleplaying that is getting a great deal of new attention these days is "machinima." For those who don't know, machinima is basically a kind of film in which people use the game's existing 3D models and environments to make their own movies, and then share these movies with everyone on the internet (or very rarely on TV). As we have seen here at WoW Insider and elsewhere, these movies are especially powerful as comedies and music videos, especially for viewers who are already familiar with the game that they're made with. But for most people who roleplay, it is not a scripted performance, but an improvised one; it is not carefully lip-synced, edited recorded and for all to see, but imagined, written out, and remembered only among those who played the parts. Someone not familiar with roleplaying might wonder why people bother with it.
Around Azeroth: Our first trip to Ironforge
Reader Christopher has recently started playing on an RP server, and is commemorating big moments for his character by the use of screenshots. Here, he's snapped a photo of his character's first time to Ironforge, with both his Dwarf and his pet Panda mimiking the the massive Dwarf statue in the background. Never having been much of a roleplayer myself, I have to wonder -- do many of you keep photo galleries of this nature? Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! Or perhaps you'd just like to see more of your pics from Around Azeroth. %Gallery-1816%
Breakfast Topic: Chose your realm
On first entering the World of Warcraft, we're given a choice of four distinct realm types (PvE, PvP, RP, and RP-PvP), and this morning I'm asking which one you chose for yourself and why. Are you a carebear at heart or can you not miss the excitement of leveling on a PvP realm? Or perhaps a roleplaying variety is more your style... We want to hear about it! Tell us how you roll, and why in our comments!
Get your news RP style at Azeroth World News
If you are into roleplaying and World of Warcraft lore, Azeroth World News may be just the place for you. It's a relatively new fan fiction site where news stories are written in-character.For example, under the Culture heading you can find an article about the history of Duskwood which ends in a request for heroes to help them in their time of need. Another article describes how to get a chicken pet in Westfall, also completely in character. The only OOC content they currently have on the site is something that may make a lot of you not want to support them. Azeroth World News has a classified section where players offer up their characters for sale or trade. I, for one, am very disappointed by this section of the site. They also have full column sized gold ads (among other advertising). Unfortunately, I have tried repeatedly to contact the people who run the site for more information but they have not yet answered any of my queries.If you are ok with the existence of the anti-ToS transactions on Azeroth World News, it is a pretty site with some entertaining reading. I can see using it as a way to get some RP inspiration for zones you are about to quest in. Or you could use it as a way to immerse yourself in Azerothian lore during a quick break at work.
Best RP quest chains pre-Outlands
So you leveled your main into the late 50s and are ready to jump into the time-sucking goodness that is the Outlands. But before you head in, you want to experience any good pre-BC quest chains you may have missed. One player on the official forums is in this exact situation and wants to know: what quest chain should she do that has good XP and an interesting storyline before heading into the Burning Crusade content?Many players have chimed in so far with their fondly remembered misadventures. Tirion Fordring's Redemption chain out of the Eastern Plaguelands gets many recommendations. As does the Marauders of Darrowshire chain in which you have to find a little girl ghost's missing dolly and along the way relive a critical moment in the history of the lands.You can also summon a helicopter out of Azshara, get killed on purpose out of Un'goro and learn the history of the Moonkin which takes you to the same area where you can quest for a mechanical yeti. But there is one quest that is getting the most enthusiastic recommendations.
Ask WoW Insider: Advice for RP noobs?
It's time once again for Ask WoW Insider, wherein we publish one of your questions for our readers to answer. Last week we looked at Bar AddOns, and this week we concern ourselves with how to get into RPing. Thomas asks: I have always wanted to get into a RP server but none of my friends are into it, so I find it hard to find anybody else to RP with. Do you have any suggestions as to what I could do to get into a good RP guild? Also, are there any essential mods that are commonly used on an RP server? Any other advice would be much appreciated. Thanks! What advice do you have to give RP noobs, or folks interested in getting into role-playing in WoW? Do you have any hardcore RP guilds or servers to recommend? Tips and tricks on imaginating your character or proper RP etiquette? We need your questions! Send your submissions for Ask WoW Insider to us at ask AT wowinsider DOT com.
Breakfast topic: Roleplaying
We don't do a whole lot with roleplaying here at WOW Insider. As far as I know, none of us has mains on an RP server, and it can be a tough thing to get into from a non-RP background. There seem to be few happy mediums between "You must be in character and follow all rules at ALL TIMES or you will be gkicked" and "RP is for sissy nerds who want to cyber with gnomes." (I never understood why non-RP players constantly make fun of RP players for being geeks. Is there a non-geeky way to pretend to be an elf for hours each week?) But having dabbled a bit on RP-PVP servers, I can see the attraction. Even without RPing in general chat, players on RP servers seem to be a little friendlier and more likely to spell correctly. And RP allows you to get a little more depth from the game than is offered by the quest text. It adds a whole new dimension to WoW, beyond simply raiding for phat lootz or PVPing to fulfill your bloodlust. Even though my blood elf paladin isn't on a RP server, I've thought a little bit about my motivations for playing her. I play my paladin as a good guy -- healing the sick, protecting my teammates, even helping injured Alliance. How can I reconcile that with draining the Light from a Naaru? Well, I find the Naaru sickeningly good, and I really like the current theory going around that the Naaru are actually evil beings setting us up for a fall, so I sort of transferred that to my character. Since the Naaru are bastards, it's totally cool to drain the Light from them, and my pally is still good. What do you think about roleplaying? If you play on an RP server, do you have a background for your character, or are you just there to enjoy the sights? Why do you RP (or why do you choose not to?)
To RP or not to RP...
I have always found RP-ing to be something of an alien concept to me. I do have a low-level rogue on an RP-PVP server that I occasionally attempt to play, but I'm never quite sure how to respond to other players who attempt to RP with me. I suppose I just don't approach the task with the right mind-set. However, these hilarious RP posts by Gnomish mage Whiffle amuse me to no end -- and strongly encourage me to give RP another try. While every entry on the site amuses, I have to say my favorite is about Fizzlelicious, Whiffle's Nightsaber-to-be...."Be gone, little Gnome, you know you have yet to gain the full favor of the Night Elves before I can give you the training you need.""Jartsem, ol' buddy, ol' pal, ol' long ears. Come on. I know a few Night Elf Maidens looking for a good time. Know what I mean? How about I arrange things for you."He smiled at me and for a second there I thought I had it."Whiffle, you have come here every week. Since you were in your 10th season. I know of your passion for Moonring.""Fizzlelicious""Until she is yours, she is Moonring. I will keep her for you, but you must earn the right.""Alright, I understand. You sure you don't want the Night Elf Maidens? One of them can turn into a bear, you know ... if you're into that type of thing.""Whiffle!"[Via Gitr's WoW Blog]
Breakfast Topic: Realm type
Before we even go into this... yes -- I am a carebear. I play almost exclusively on PvE servers. I just, personally, have never been that excited by the full-out PvP experience, and the amount of PvP I can find on a PvE server has always suited me perfectly well. However, when first logging on, there are several options of realm type -- so today's question is what's your favorite? PvE, PvP, RP, or RP-PvP?
Two New US Realms Today
Two new RP realms opened up this afternoon - The Venture Co (RP-PvP) and Sentinels (RP). And, before you ask, both realms are in the PST time zone. So, for the countless players who have been eagerly awaiting new RP-PvP realms, here's your chance! However, opening new RP servers without opening any other servers does run the risk of attracting many non-RPers who are just looking for a fresh realm. Let's hope Blizzard knows what they're doing with this schedule..!
Beginner's Guide to Roleplaying
I know the first time I started my World of Warcraft client, the option of roleplaying servers surprised me. Never having been a roleplayer myself, it wasn't what I'd bought the game for, and while I've spent a little time attempting to play on them, but never really had a good feel for how to interact with players there. However, Manovan from EU server Scarshield Legion has written up a good guide for a beginning roleplayer - providing a good start for players who don't know where to start.
Breakfast Topic: Hidden gems
From an out-of-the-way inn my guild uses for meetings, to the time I finally managed to watch a race in the Shimmering Flats, Azeroth has many well-kept secrets. How many times have you stumbled across a location or piece of scenery and wondered what on earth it was there for? Aside from the game's easter eggs, which are fun to track down, some places seem to hold unfulfilled potential.I've found that RP gives me a whole new outlook on these places; every one suddenly suggests several possible storylines, although I've acquired the habit of dismissing a lot of the empty-looking content by saying "oh, that's only for RPers". Do you think this is true? Are the deserted buildings and empty locations there for RP enjoyment alone, or to lighten the hearts of the players who love running around into every nook and cranny? Have you found a particular spot that surprised or delighted you?
