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A Call For Diversity
#31
(11-22-2011, 01:24 PM)CappnRob Wrote: Well my big problem with humans is that they're used for JUST "irregular" RP, and their lore-based RP suffers for it. Outside of the Kingdom of Strom guild, what human LORE based RP do you see? None of it.

Hmm do you have ideas for human lore based RP? I'm clueless :( Crazy2
Allons-y!

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Have you hugged a dwarf today?
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#32
(11-24-2011, 07:11 AM)Holynexus Wrote:
(11-22-2011, 01:24 PM)CappnRob Wrote: Well my big problem with humans is that they're used for JUST "irregular" RP, and their lore-based RP suffers for it. Outside of the Kingdom of Strom guild, what human LORE based RP do you see? None of it.

Hmm do you have ideas for human lore based RP? I'm clueless :( Crazy2

Just a human that actually shows respect or attachment to one of the nations. A Dalaran wizard, a Lordaeron survivor, a Stormwind noble, a Westfall farmer, a Stromgard soldier, a Kul Tiras sailor, a Gilnean outcast, an Alterac runaway, you get the idea.

Storylines are a bit harder to think of on the spot, but for now I'd just like to see more humans who actually show they're human in some regard other than physical appearance.

To give a personal example (not to seem bigheaded), my human paladin is from Lordaeron, and the culture of Lordaeron has shaped him appropriately. He has a close kinship to dwarfs and elves, and personally believes the elves leaving the Alliance was the fault of the Alliance and dislikes confronting blood elves because of it, and is willing to give them a chance (however naive it may be) due to him having elven friends in Lordaeron.

Whenever I get to making my human race guide, you'll get a better idea of what I mean.
Your stories will always remain...
[Image: nIapRMV.png?1]
... as will your valiant hearts.
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#33
Actually, thank you for bringing this up. I agree completely, and I can't tell what I do at all. <<

So in light of this and that, I'll try to push my characters to be a bit more like their race, while still being themselves. I also wanna bring back my Kul Tiras sailor... I love Kul Tiras.

>> And I ramble. Apologies.
10,000 days in the fire is long enough,
You're going home...
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#34
I just got onto this server, but I was certainly surprised, and happy, to see a discussion thread about diversity.

Now that I have said that, I am a firm believer of having a diverse population, and I hope to do my best to help in anyway that I can. I actually have some personal rules when it comes to RP that I have developed over the years; and since I am new here, I wasn't sure how they would fit in with the community. This discussion on diversity leads me to think they might actually take well.
Spoiler:

1) Every expansion I retire or kill of my character and roll and new one.

2) I never play any of the "favour of the month" races/classes.

When TBC came out and everyone was a Blood Elf or Draenei, I rolled a dwarf.
WotLK hits and you can't throw a stick without hitting a DK, I rolled an Orc Rogue.
Cata comes in and the Worgen/Goblin population explodes, I rolled a Draenei.

3) Stay as true to the race and class as I can, but give them a personal touch.

My Draenei hated Orcs with a passion.
My Gnome disliked being forced to live in Ironforge and thought Dwarf's smelled funny.
My Dwarf was obsessed with treasure hunting.
My Orc had brought dishonour to his clan and was depressed and reckless because of it.

4) When I decide on a character to roll that is the ONLY character I will play and I spend my time developing that character until it is ICly time to retire them or they have been ICly killed.

After reading this thread and looking at the population data, I can safely say I wont be rolling a human or blood elf. In fact, I am heavily leaning towards a Dwarf (priest or rogue), Orc (warrior or mage).

It will still be a few days before I decide which one, however. Been reading through the guild threads to see if there is anything that is interesting and may influence my choice, etc.
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#35
(11-24-2011, 12:32 PM)firefighter26 Wrote: I just got onto this server, but I was certainly surprised, and happy, to see a discussion thread about diversity.

Now that I have said that, I am a firm believer of having a diverse population, and I hope to do my best to help in anyway that I can. I actually have some personal rules when it comes to RP that I have developed over the years; and since I am new here, I wasn't sure how they would fit in with the community. This discussion on diversity leads me to think they might actually take well.
Spoiler:

1) Every expansion I retire or kill of my character and roll and new one.

2) I never play any of the "favour of the month" races/classes.

When TBC came out and everyone was a Blood Elf or Draenei, I rolled a dwarf.
WotLK hits and you can't throw a stick without hitting a DK, I rolled an Orc Rogue.
Cata comes in and the Worgen/Goblin population explodes, I rolled a Draenei.

3) Stay as true to the race and class as I can, but give them a personal touch.

My Draenei hated Orcs with a passion.
My Gnome disliked being forced to live in Ironforge and thought Dwarf's smelled funny.
My Dwarf was obsessed with treasure hunting.
My Orc had brought dishonour to his clan and was depressed and reckless because of it.

4) When I decide on a character to roll that is the ONLY character I will play and I spend my time developing that character until it is ICly time to retire them or they have been ICly killed.

After reading this thread and looking at the population data, I can safely say I wont be rolling a human or blood elf. In fact, I am heavily leaning towards a Dwarf (priest or rogue), Orc (warrior or mage).

It will still be a few days before I decide which one, however. Been reading through the guild threads to see if there is anything that is interesting and may influence my choice, etc.

We have a healthy supply of orcs. Our lowest populations tend to be dwarfs and tauren. We have a modest collection of trolls, gnomes, night elves, draenei, orcs, and forsaken, and a surplus of humans and blood elves.

Well, lowest active populations anyway. Everyone seems to HAVE a dwarf alt they never actually RP with.

Personally, I say go for the dwarf priest! We need more religious dwarfs :(
Your stories will always remain...
[Image: nIapRMV.png?1]
... as will your valiant hearts.
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#36
Pssh. Go Wildhammah.
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#37
There's two "problems" here, and I put that on quotes because it depends on perspective if they're really problems. The first is that most everyone plays humans and blood elves, and the other is that those that play them don't always take racial lore into account.

Here's the thing, though...these have been problems since the server began. No, these have been problems since roleplaying as a whole began. While I applaud the idea behind this thread, I also point out that it's unrealistic to expect that these problems will ever get fixed.

People will play what they want to play, whether it is due to the appearance of the model, the lore behind the race, or whatever. I could make a derogatory comment about people rolling "pretty" races, but really? I'd be hypocrite to tell people to not roll what they find aesthetically pleasing, as I roll orcs at least partially because I like the look. And yeah, all of this sucks when you happen to play a race that is under-represented, but I don't think effectively trying to guilt-trip them into rolling a different race, or trying to appeal to a spirit of superior RP to do the same, is really going to help either.

Similarly, it's all well and good to say "a Belf wouldn't act like that" or somesuch and bring up racial lore and what-not, but that doesn't really help or change anything either. Everyone wants to be the exception or the unique individual...and, well, that's what PCs are, in a sense: individuals that are unique and different from the relatively nameless masses surrounding them. They're exceptional in one sense or another, that's what makes them fun to RP.

If there is any call to action that should be made, in my opinion it is one to make RP more inclusive. Yeah, it sucks when you're the only orc/tauren/dwarf/whatever, but it sucks *even more* if you can't actually get RP. What's worse, fixing that part doesn't require other people to change their characters, all it does is require situations to be made open and RP locations to shift as necessary. If you're playing a bunch of Belves in Silvermoon and there's another Hordie looking for RP, invite them in or shift the RP to a more neutral Horde location to get them in on the fun. If the server is almost entirely Alliance-filled, move to a neutral hub so the few Hordies can get RP. That's not difficult, and helps keep everyone having fun.
Have you hugged an orc today?
- I am not tech support. Please do not contact me regarding technical issues. -
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#38
Well. Thanks for the ideas, I suppose.. I stick to my dwarfs, but I do have ideas for a Westfall farmer gone rogue.
Allons-y!

[Image: awesome-mario-gif.gif]

Have you hugged a dwarf today?
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#39
(11-24-2011, 12:55 PM)Grakor456 Wrote: If the server is almost entirely Alliance-filled, move to a neutral hub so the few Hordies can get RP. That's not difficult, and helps keep everyone having fun.


Just putting it out there, I did explore a few of the older threads. Like. Years old. One of them, your thread concerning overabundance of SW RP (which to some degree has died down if only by a little, though I anticipate more with the SW Gang RPs being organized). I won't link or post it, as that thread seems to be dead by now, but in several ways it still holds relevant.

Many players gripe and complain about neutral areas. It's rather paradoxical how Booty Bay (and Stranglethorn Vale) has the most activity, yet at the same time it receives the most IC and OOC hate. At times the real difficulty in increasing racial or factional RP is because of unwillingness among chunks of the playerbase to give that race/faction a chance. Hey, you wanna RP a Tauren and get Tauren RP? Good luck in doing that, even if you host an event revolving around Tauren lore. I can't surely speak for myself only, but it seems fairly difficult to find racial RP when availability and population is a problem... and at the same time, you can't force players to roll a character just to even out the numbers. Yes, I have at least one of every race, but I honestly can't be bothered to play my dwarf or gnome on a more regular basis. We all have our preferences in what race or faction to play more than others, and who gets the shaft of lack of favoritism? Dwarves and Tauren, sadly. Others include Trolls and Undead, at least in my observations.

One way to remedy this--and something I hope to spearhead--is to spark interest in players who wouldn't have interest in the first place. Maybe the players didn't like Race A because they know too little of lore. Or they find no appeal in the culture of the people. I've learned in my experiences in RP that players can be more interested in playing a race when they find something appealing about that race. I remember how a couple players would have zero interest in rolling a Draenei ("I can't RP a Lawful Good race"), but when presented all the possibilities one can take to RP a Draenei, they would begin rolling that character. Same goes for other races, especially for me when it comes to blood elves, a race I swore to never roll but now I have 3 regularly RPed characters.

But how can this be done? Well, observations of how the playerbase prefers their RP can be done at the moment before promoting or advocating for more diversity. Humans and Blood Elves by far are the most popular race because most players can associate them the easiest, while the two races with the smallest population (Dwarves and Tauren) have the most number of perceived cultural restrictions and less chances at personality variability (dwarves are believed to be all about drinking and adventuring, tauren to be pacifistic and naturalistic). I've had my hand in disproving that draenei are all about being pious to the Light and being Lawful Good, and I hope to do the same for at least the Tauren (I'm not dwarf savvy, sorry).
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#40
Neutral areas like Booty Bay do not offer good, deep RP, and they tend to clutter up so fast that noone can tell what is going on.

I am not trying to guilt trip anyone with this thread. I am asking players to look at their characters who aren't lore-heavy, aka the "gangsta elves", and consider playing them as another race entirely. Your character stays the same, and RP at least LOOKS more flavorful. I can not force people into a lore they don't care about (though I hope my dwarf guide sparks some interest in them), so at least I can ask people to roll their Booty Bay-lounging elf thug who loves everyone as a race that isn't... an elf.
Your stories will always remain...
[Image: nIapRMV.png?1]
... as will your valiant hearts.
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#41
(11-24-2011, 02:23 PM)CappnRob Wrote: Neutral areas like Booty Bay do not offer good, deep RP, and they tend to clutter up so fast that noone can tell what is going on.

I've had deep, good RP in Booty Bay before. It's not the place, it's the people and what you do with it. If you're just going there to do tavern RP, of course you're not going to get anything deep out of it. Not to mention, sometimes casual RP is fine and all that's required.
Have you hugged an orc today?
- I am not tech support. Please do not contact me regarding technical issues. -
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#42
I've had some of the best RP in my Role Playing 'career' in STV, a large portion of it in Booty Bay. Just because an area has a certain stigma to it doesn't mean that you need to conform. If people are RPing horribly in one of the few neutral hubs people are willing to go to, don't just ignore them because of it. They aren't going to get any better at RPing that way, and it's simply going to continue a rather vicious circle where they continue to pump out poor (At least, from the perspective of some. I'm sure they think they're doing awesome) RP and end up isolating themselves further from more experienced players.
"Every gun..."

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"...Makes its own tune."


~ The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly ~
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#43
I've had good RP in Booty Bay too.

But I've had more not-so-good RPs. But I digress, I don't mind Booty Bay as a whole, unlike others, and its not the point of this topic at any stretch.
Your stories will always remain...
[Image: nIapRMV.png?1]
... as will your valiant hearts.
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#44
Alright, so Dwarf or Tauren it is! Now, the question is, how does someone like me, who is new to the server, get into the RP you are all describing (the deep, immersive kind)?

I am a North American Player, West coast (Pacific Standard TIme) who mainly plays weekday evenings and randomly throughout the weekend. It wasn't so much a problem in retail as I played on CC (Cenarion Circle) and it was a West Coast based server, so many players had the same schedule as I did. Fast forward into my first venture into private servers and I found myself on a European server. Tons of people to RP with, but at the wrong time. Prime RP time (evenings) in Europe is mid-morning for me, and I am out the door and off to work. I can be active on the forums (like I am now) but not in game.

So, rolling a dwarf priest, which I am comfortable RPing, might be a good idea, but if one is available when I play, perhaps a Tauren Warrior (something I would like to try) would be a better choice because there are three other people that who prefer to play Tauren's with a similar RL schedule.

Does that make sense? Last thing I want to do is come up with a great character that I am excited to play, like a Dwarf Priest/Missionary, and find out that 90% of the population during my play time is in Silvermoon; or roll a Tauren Warrior and go looking for a clan to join, only to find everyone is in SW.

Which perhaps is part of the problem? If a new player comes in and see's that it is mostly Blood Elves online during the time they regularly play, they might be more inclined to roll one; vice versa for Humans. Whatever RP they have access to based on the times they play might influence the race they decide to pick.
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#45
You'll have to feel around for the best time to RP. We have people from all over the world, so things get crazy all around. Generally the best time though, is around 12pm to 9pm server time (Pacific time).
Your stories will always remain...
[Image: nIapRMV.png?1]
... as will your valiant hearts.
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