Conquest of the Horde

All righty, CotHites, I won't dance around the idea. I think we should move the major RP hub from Booty Bay to Shattrath.

I have a lot of reasons for asking this.

1. First of all, having all of those races and allegiances in Booty Bay seems ridiculous. Why are they here? Just 'hanging out'? Are they here on vacation travel? Are they here to fight in Gurubashi? There are very few logical reasons why a character who isn't a Cartel member would linger.
There isn't anything there to suggest that it would be so popular. Furthermore, there are absolutely no unique features to marvel at and enjoy.

Shattrath could be considered a hub of many things. Commerce, travel, military, political, etc. Whatever your character's leanings, there can be a plausible reason for your presence there. And there are MANY examples of unique features that can add to roleplay. I'll get to that later.

I realize that asking all races to divide and play only in their own locations is bound to fail, yes. That is one of the reasons this is a decent suggestion.

2. Shattrath is convenient. There is a portal right in the center to WSG that is unobtrusive and fast. Similarly, the WSG portals will take you right back quickly. Not to mention that there are Alliance/Horde portals to all cities (which makes it another logical choice for a hub, since those portals are IC).

On the other hand, the fastest route to Booty Bay runs from an area which is now considered defunct and will not remain by the time we upgrade to Cataclysm. It requires some searching and/or questioning on newbie's parts. And the teleporters placed all over the area does detract from the feel of the place (if you care intensely about the realism).

3. Shattrath has more space. As a city and a zone, it has far more space to offer than Booty Bay does. Just LOOK at all of that empty floor on the tiers, as well as the Scryer/Aldor tiers.
It is a higher level place, preventing lowbies from traveling easily, but there's more space inside than there is in the Bay. Also, we could make the same level argument for BB.

There are also the Scryer and Aldor tiers for housing and affiliations. It would add interesting depth for players to be aligned more with one side than the other - say you tend more towards Aldor, but you have a friend who prefers the Scryers. That could be an interesting argument, now couldn't it?

Oh, and flying. Need I say more?

4. Shattrath is true neutral. A'dal accepts pretty much everyone without bias as long as they don't have evil intent. This would remove the city and town power struggles which seem to be getting more common. In fact, I am beginning to have an axe to grind with those.

There would be smaller sub-groups, but none of them could actually threaten you or force you out of the city.

5. There are many more 'flavor locations'. It is a short travel to many beautiful locations which see very little RP. Nagrand comes to mind, as does the rest of Terokkar.
How about Zangarmarsh? Auchindoun for the historically-inclined? Hate the Legion - how about Shadowmoon Valley?
If this permanent-display change also comes to pass, this change in location will also permit for creatures such as Naga, Ethereals, and Broken.


That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Thoughts/complaints/observations/whatevers?

I find it sort of strange that the entire world is located at booty Bay as well. I had to really come up with an IC reason to go there (I have a more legitimate one now. The initial reason sort of stunk). I find that people may also have some reasons to go to Shattrath, not all, but some would still have more reason to go there rather than Booty Bay.

Hi Lene!

Most of the people who go to BB do not really check the forums. And while I do agree with the reasons you have listed, I find that it seems more plausible for some characters to be in BB than it is for them to be in Shatrath.

Outlands is an awesome area for RP, I agree with you. But...some people may consider the surrounding area -too- dangerous for their characters. Or the characters themselves may go 'Outlands? Demons? Hell no.' Plus the second someone steps out of Shatrath, it's all 'Dude, I'm in the danger zone now'.

I'd use my character as an example, but I...don't really want to.

My only complaint would be that I'm just not incredibly fond of Shat...

One of my two main characters (Ventus) would have alot of great reasons to goto shattrath. But yea...not many people at my rp time head there though.

People didn't go to BB because there was a forum post to move RP there. CotH has sort of an organic cycle, where people just go somewhere because other people are there. I've seen it happen with the tavern in Azshara crater, Stormwind, Ratchet, and Booty Bay, all at different times. It might move to Shattrath at some point, but I think that will happen when it happens.

Also, big guilds tend to draw people to certain locations. If you'd really like to get RP initialized there, try starting a guild based in Shattrath.

I don't need to convince all of the BB crew to move to Shattrath, Xigo. If they see enough people roleplaying there, they will come.

If anywhere, I think we should move the RP hub to Azshara Crater. It's a huge zone, completely neutral, has a Horde and an Alliance presence, easy access from Warsong Gulch, loads of unused areas to explore and no enemy mobs whatsoever. It was even created specifically so that we could use it, so the fact that I never see anyone RPing there kind of saddens me, especially given how much RP used to be there before the restart. So there's no real reason not to go there.

However, I would still prefer Shattrath over Booty Bay any day of the week.

Here's an additional problem:

Not everyone wants to play a character who's an awesome level 80 hero or what have you. They might want to play, say, a simple blacksmith, or maybe a pirate. Shatt is the center of another planet and the last bastion of defense for a world infested with demons.

A major turn off for a good many character types. :|

Instead of saying.

"Urpa durpa, forum post on why I think you should move..."

You should be saying/doing...

"My character has no reason to be here! Let me get a group together to go on a trip/adventure/disaster and have them move elsewhere!"

I think Wiseman hit on an important point: there are equally valid reasons why my characters would not go there. I know it goes against Kretol's signature (which I often agree with), but I think that the problem I would have with a change like this is one of accessibility. A vast number of my characters would not have a reason to travel to Shattrath, or would have an equally powerful argument for not going as they would for going.

Wiseman Wrote:Here's an additional problem:

Not everyone wants to play a character who's an awesome level 80 hero or what have you. They might want to play, say, a simple blacksmith, or maybe a pirate. Shatt is the center of another planet and the last bastion of defense for a world infested with demons.

A major turn off for a good many character types. :|

And being in a pirate-riddled city isn't? The only reason I roleplay here is because it is neigh impossible to find roleplay elsewhere. Sure, I can LFG for RP somewhere else, but it is never permanent. I don't see any good characters being there for any extended period of time.

And it isn't that easy Cressy, Booty Bay is the hub for RP. It is where everyone defaults to it seems. So even after the adventure, you still end up have to go to Booty Bay for random RP encounters or even storyline encounters.

These are just my observations, though.

Edited for grammar.

Honestly, I don't have that problem.

Even on my alternate account, I try and get an event going or a group of people together for RP. . .

And it happens.

You know what -I- hoenstly miss? And remember, this is me we are talking about. Stromwind RP.

But, that's why I tried to create some with Rensin a while back. -Hint hint-.

In my opinion, Shattrath is -too- big. It has none of the charm of the old world cities.

If anything, I think people should find a reason to go to Northrend. It's beautiful, and the local wildlife should be sufficiently culled now for more emigrants moving in and building townships and making the land prosper and grow.

Of course this is me being biased. I never liked Outland at all, and I still don't. I can't even wrap my head around inter-dimensional travel between planes of existence, so it would be unfair of me to assume that my characters can.

The thing about Booty Bay (as much as I loathe it for not being a very good RP town if you aren't a sulky blood elf or a promiscuous draenei ) is that it's cosy and feels secure. If there were more snug and cosy places to RP, the RP would also move there. If a player feels good in the surroundings, that's where the person will likely stay.

And just to remind everyone that this thread has been had dozens of times now. "Why is all the RP in Stormwind? Why is there never any horde online", and "Why is all the RP in Ratchet, why does nobody play alliance?". In four months the RP will be somewhere else and someone won't like it then either, but it doesn't change via forum petitions and posts that starts with "In my opinion", no. It starts with someone going somewhere interesting, and then making others interested in going there. And that automatically attracts other players.