08-17-2011, 09:45 PM
First and foremost: Tell us about yourself, as a player:
Discounting all childhood games of pretend, I first began roleplaying on the message boards at Neopets.com in the early 2000s. They were clumsy first attempts, mostly centered around predictable fairies and necromancers attempting to save the world but largely getting bogged down in egomania.
In my teens, my now-best friend and I essentially structured our friendship around roleplaying, largely though instant messaging clients. We developed an absolutely massive pantheon of characters with which to work; I believe we each had over a hundred characters before long. “The RolePlay,” as we were wont to refer to it, was very much character-focused, dealing with the relations between our supply of characters rather than with how their actions shaped their world. Other than occasional forays into message boards, this two-person, multi-hour, daily roleplay formed my primary roleplaying experience for approximately four years.
Sometime around entering college, I became more enamored of attempting to write my own stories than of collaborating on them and ceased roleplaying almost entirely. Dungeons and Dragons has been providing some stimulus to my roleplaying centers in the past couple of years, but it’s been my recent foray into World of Warcraft that really re-lit the spark.
What country do you come from? What is your primary language?:
I’m an American, born and raised in Massachusetts, and American English is my primary language, as well as my current field of study. I did take courses in French at one time as well, though I’d hardly call myself fluent.
How did you get into Warcraft?:
Blizzard’s introduction of a free trial version of World of Warcraft started my dabbling. I’d previously been curious about the game, given its apparent success and the likelihood that the fantasy themes and in-depth world would appeal to my tastes. The price tag and the necessity to subscribe to a server put me off, however, and I hadn’t heard of private servers at the time. Once the trial version appeared, though, I spent my first several hours of playtime on a blood elf hunter, and the following day, standing in the shower contemplating my next moves with the character, realized I’d already gotten hooked.
What made you seek our server over others? (Or how did you find us?):
A friend of mine has been a member of this server for some time, and in recent months I’ve had the opportunity to watch him play on the server. I found the dedication to roleplay here admirable and, for one who used to spend every day roleplaying on message boards and instant messaging clients, nostalgic. While playing the retail version of WoW, I’d found myself wishing the other players would engage in less jargon and chatspeak and in more roleplaying and character development. I wanted a roleplay server, and it seemed to me that if I was planning on joining one, it ought to be this one.
What kinds of roleplay do you enjoy?:
Most of the roleplay I’ve engaged in has been rather character-based, consisting largely of shifting group dynamics and the flowering of various relationships. That being said, I’ve always been fond of the epic, and a rousing war to save the world, or country, or city, or universe is never out of place. I suppose an ideal would be a melding of the two wherein one may fight battles and play a part in an epic quest while still finding time to swap jokes with an old pal or barter over a basket of particularly choice oranges. That answer is rather broad, though. To put it more helpfully: I love the battles and the quests, but for me it isn’t roleplay if it isn’t truly about character.
What is your favorite race/class? Why?:
I suppose my favorite class is easily the hunters. They seem to suit my play style the best. I enjoy their ability to act at range, to tame beasts and therefore act as a lone wolf, working with only a tough animal rather than another individual. Yet nothing about the hunter class necessarily precludes teamwork. I’ve only played up to twenty levels of any given class in WoW, but I found the hunter to be the most versatile both in a mechanical sense and in terms of the kinds of characters and personalities I had in mind. I suspect it’s that versatility that draws me to the class. That, and I also just like having an animal companion.
As to a favorite race, I suppose I’m caught between the worgen, the draenei, and the blood elves. As the worgen aren’t an option on the Conquest of the Horde server, I won’t go into great detail about them. Suffice it to say, I find the nature of Gilneas as an almost secluded culture appealing, and having the opportunity to roleplay what is essentially a werewolf has its own charm.
As to the draenei, their appeal lies partially in their aesthetic and more broadly in their refugee nature as a crash-landed civilization. They also strike me as inherently gentle, and that quality draws me to them. After all, how does one maintain gentleness as an adventurer who must kill and kill often?
Blood elves draw me in as they strike me as a particularly gray area, morally. Ambiguous morality is fascinating, and thus the blood elves’ inconstant history is fascinating. There seems to be an overall effort at painting them as cruel on Blizzard’s part - the maniacal nature of their laugh, for a surface example - yet the conversations they have between each other often draws that assumption into question for me. Yes, there is a ruthlessness there, but it seems to be a viciousness born of a wound more than anything else. Playing them usually means questioning, for me, and I’m inclined to embrace that.
What are your expectations of this server?:
I’m looking forward to both a large amount and high quality of roleplay, and I’m eager to immerse myself deeper into the Warcraft lore. Based on the rules and policies of the server, I’m also anticipating a respectful, friendly climate free from many of the irritants of the retail World of Warcraft servers. Ultimately, though, I’m looking for fun and a chance to reaffirm my love of roleplaying.
Out of all of our rules and regulations listed on our server, which appeals to you the most?:
Rule #1: Respect. Respect often seems like an obvious quality to maintain and exercise, and yet it is often the one most quickly forgotten. I think respect is key in all aspects of life, from one’s job to one’s relations and extending out to one’s fun. Why would anyone want to play a game in a crowd of hostile strangers? That respect is taken so seriously here is all to the good, to my thinking, and I’m eager to meet the community that that focus breeds.
Lastly, tell us a story! It can be short, it can be long; but most importantly, we want to see your work in action. Go!:
Autumn leaves crinkled beneath Elaris’s slippers, the morning dew quietly seeping into the cloth. The blood elf blinked against the rising sun. She had spent the night poring over a heap of recipes, and the languid scrawls detailing precise measurements for each and every ingredient had left her feeling half-blind. Still, the search had been worth it, and she’d gathered a stack of scrolls to guide her in creating a true Pilgrim’s Bounty feast.
Elaris lit across the village square, stepping lightly from grass to cobble stone and over the threshold of her inn, across the lacquered wooden floors and into the kitchen. She dropped her recipes upon the worn oaken table that dominated the room as its centerpiece, scooping scrolls from the floor as they scattered and fell, skittish. Her middle son, Reis, stood by one of the trestle tables wedged against the eastern wall. Several tidy mounds of chopped vegetables stretched off to his right, bringing a smile to Elaris’s lips. The boy had a knack for cooking; he’d almost certainly memorized half the recipes that Elaris still had to look up, even several decades after she’d opened the inn.
She gave the boy’s shoulder a squeeze. “I see you’ve gotten started.”
“With the inn this full we should have started yesterday,” he said without looking up from his knife.
Elaris murmured her agreement and went to the scrolls, unrolling each and pulling the ingredients her son had not already prepared from her stores. Her youngest son, too young to be of much help in the kitchen, ran in to filch an apple, scurrying away again before Elaris had the chance to scold him.
With her ingredients gathered, Elaris set herself to cooking the dishes, multiplying every serving size to accommodate the tens of mouths currently resting in her halls. She left the preparation of each ingredient to Reis; he was better with a knife than her, after all. Her eldest had been even more gifted, though he’d had no interest in cooking. A small crease formed in her brow.
Elaris and her middle son worked in silence for the first several hours. The slow-roasted turkeys had just begun to brown, and Elaris could already smell the spiced bread stuffing roasting inside the birds. She was readying the pumpkin pies for baking when Reis glanced up from the bowl of cranberry chutney he was preparing to ask, “Do you think Vilthas will come to the feast this year?” He sounded like a child and a stranger as he asked it.
Elaris’s thumb slipped, denting the sleek surface of one of the pies. She opened her mouth and closed it again, grimacing.
Reis turned to look at her, eying her critically. “It’s been years since last we saw him.”
“Yes… Your brother was always yearning for adventure.” She smoothed out the surface of the damaged pie. “I would not count on his presence, sweet one.” The words came out hoarser than she’d intended.
Reis’s fingers drummed against the trencher. “You’d think he’d tire of adventure eventually.”
“Do you suppose the adventurers that pass through on their mighty mounts with their glowing armor and flaming swords grow tired of adventure? With all that world before them and all those riches in their pockets and so many other adventurers to greet or fell?”
“Mm.” Reis returned to the cranberry chutney. He kept his silence for half an hour or more, but once all of the pies were baking safely and Elaris had gotten a handle on the candied sweet potatoes, she heard the boy murmur, “Actually, I think they do. Dad did.”
Hands covered in honey and sweet potato, Elaris nodded. “Would that Vilthas were so fickle. A pity he takes after me, that way.”
Reis may have smiled. She wasn’t sure.
Her youngest son dashed back into the kitchen, grabbed another apple, and beat a hasty retreat, giggling. His race in and out chased the Vilthas’s armor-plated memory from Elaris’s mind and returned her to the hungry mouths who would be wanting a banquet fit for the Pilgrim’s Bounty.
Is there anything else you would like to add, ask, or otherwise clarify?:
I’m looking forward to playing with everyone, assuming I’m accepted. Cheers!
Discounting all childhood games of pretend, I first began roleplaying on the message boards at Neopets.com in the early 2000s. They were clumsy first attempts, mostly centered around predictable fairies and necromancers attempting to save the world but largely getting bogged down in egomania.
In my teens, my now-best friend and I essentially structured our friendship around roleplaying, largely though instant messaging clients. We developed an absolutely massive pantheon of characters with which to work; I believe we each had over a hundred characters before long. “The RolePlay,” as we were wont to refer to it, was very much character-focused, dealing with the relations between our supply of characters rather than with how their actions shaped their world. Other than occasional forays into message boards, this two-person, multi-hour, daily roleplay formed my primary roleplaying experience for approximately four years.
Sometime around entering college, I became more enamored of attempting to write my own stories than of collaborating on them and ceased roleplaying almost entirely. Dungeons and Dragons has been providing some stimulus to my roleplaying centers in the past couple of years, but it’s been my recent foray into World of Warcraft that really re-lit the spark.
What country do you come from? What is your primary language?:
I’m an American, born and raised in Massachusetts, and American English is my primary language, as well as my current field of study. I did take courses in French at one time as well, though I’d hardly call myself fluent.
How did you get into Warcraft?:
Blizzard’s introduction of a free trial version of World of Warcraft started my dabbling. I’d previously been curious about the game, given its apparent success and the likelihood that the fantasy themes and in-depth world would appeal to my tastes. The price tag and the necessity to subscribe to a server put me off, however, and I hadn’t heard of private servers at the time. Once the trial version appeared, though, I spent my first several hours of playtime on a blood elf hunter, and the following day, standing in the shower contemplating my next moves with the character, realized I’d already gotten hooked.
What made you seek our server over others? (Or how did you find us?):
A friend of mine has been a member of this server for some time, and in recent months I’ve had the opportunity to watch him play on the server. I found the dedication to roleplay here admirable and, for one who used to spend every day roleplaying on message boards and instant messaging clients, nostalgic. While playing the retail version of WoW, I’d found myself wishing the other players would engage in less jargon and chatspeak and in more roleplaying and character development. I wanted a roleplay server, and it seemed to me that if I was planning on joining one, it ought to be this one.
What kinds of roleplay do you enjoy?:
Most of the roleplay I’ve engaged in has been rather character-based, consisting largely of shifting group dynamics and the flowering of various relationships. That being said, I’ve always been fond of the epic, and a rousing war to save the world, or country, or city, or universe is never out of place. I suppose an ideal would be a melding of the two wherein one may fight battles and play a part in an epic quest while still finding time to swap jokes with an old pal or barter over a basket of particularly choice oranges. That answer is rather broad, though. To put it more helpfully: I love the battles and the quests, but for me it isn’t roleplay if it isn’t truly about character.
What is your favorite race/class? Why?:
I suppose my favorite class is easily the hunters. They seem to suit my play style the best. I enjoy their ability to act at range, to tame beasts and therefore act as a lone wolf, working with only a tough animal rather than another individual. Yet nothing about the hunter class necessarily precludes teamwork. I’ve only played up to twenty levels of any given class in WoW, but I found the hunter to be the most versatile both in a mechanical sense and in terms of the kinds of characters and personalities I had in mind. I suspect it’s that versatility that draws me to the class. That, and I also just like having an animal companion.
As to a favorite race, I suppose I’m caught between the worgen, the draenei, and the blood elves. As the worgen aren’t an option on the Conquest of the Horde server, I won’t go into great detail about them. Suffice it to say, I find the nature of Gilneas as an almost secluded culture appealing, and having the opportunity to roleplay what is essentially a werewolf has its own charm.
As to the draenei, their appeal lies partially in their aesthetic and more broadly in their refugee nature as a crash-landed civilization. They also strike me as inherently gentle, and that quality draws me to them. After all, how does one maintain gentleness as an adventurer who must kill and kill often?
Blood elves draw me in as they strike me as a particularly gray area, morally. Ambiguous morality is fascinating, and thus the blood elves’ inconstant history is fascinating. There seems to be an overall effort at painting them as cruel on Blizzard’s part - the maniacal nature of their laugh, for a surface example - yet the conversations they have between each other often draws that assumption into question for me. Yes, there is a ruthlessness there, but it seems to be a viciousness born of a wound more than anything else. Playing them usually means questioning, for me, and I’m inclined to embrace that.
What are your expectations of this server?:
I’m looking forward to both a large amount and high quality of roleplay, and I’m eager to immerse myself deeper into the Warcraft lore. Based on the rules and policies of the server, I’m also anticipating a respectful, friendly climate free from many of the irritants of the retail World of Warcraft servers. Ultimately, though, I’m looking for fun and a chance to reaffirm my love of roleplaying.
Out of all of our rules and regulations listed on our server, which appeals to you the most?:
Rule #1: Respect. Respect often seems like an obvious quality to maintain and exercise, and yet it is often the one most quickly forgotten. I think respect is key in all aspects of life, from one’s job to one’s relations and extending out to one’s fun. Why would anyone want to play a game in a crowd of hostile strangers? That respect is taken so seriously here is all to the good, to my thinking, and I’m eager to meet the community that that focus breeds.
Lastly, tell us a story! It can be short, it can be long; but most importantly, we want to see your work in action. Go!:
Autumn leaves crinkled beneath Elaris’s slippers, the morning dew quietly seeping into the cloth. The blood elf blinked against the rising sun. She had spent the night poring over a heap of recipes, and the languid scrawls detailing precise measurements for each and every ingredient had left her feeling half-blind. Still, the search had been worth it, and she’d gathered a stack of scrolls to guide her in creating a true Pilgrim’s Bounty feast.
Elaris lit across the village square, stepping lightly from grass to cobble stone and over the threshold of her inn, across the lacquered wooden floors and into the kitchen. She dropped her recipes upon the worn oaken table that dominated the room as its centerpiece, scooping scrolls from the floor as they scattered and fell, skittish. Her middle son, Reis, stood by one of the trestle tables wedged against the eastern wall. Several tidy mounds of chopped vegetables stretched off to his right, bringing a smile to Elaris’s lips. The boy had a knack for cooking; he’d almost certainly memorized half the recipes that Elaris still had to look up, even several decades after she’d opened the inn.
She gave the boy’s shoulder a squeeze. “I see you’ve gotten started.”
“With the inn this full we should have started yesterday,” he said without looking up from his knife.
Elaris murmured her agreement and went to the scrolls, unrolling each and pulling the ingredients her son had not already prepared from her stores. Her youngest son, too young to be of much help in the kitchen, ran in to filch an apple, scurrying away again before Elaris had the chance to scold him.
With her ingredients gathered, Elaris set herself to cooking the dishes, multiplying every serving size to accommodate the tens of mouths currently resting in her halls. She left the preparation of each ingredient to Reis; he was better with a knife than her, after all. Her eldest had been even more gifted, though he’d had no interest in cooking. A small crease formed in her brow.
Elaris and her middle son worked in silence for the first several hours. The slow-roasted turkeys had just begun to brown, and Elaris could already smell the spiced bread stuffing roasting inside the birds. She was readying the pumpkin pies for baking when Reis glanced up from the bowl of cranberry chutney he was preparing to ask, “Do you think Vilthas will come to the feast this year?” He sounded like a child and a stranger as he asked it.
Elaris’s thumb slipped, denting the sleek surface of one of the pies. She opened her mouth and closed it again, grimacing.
Reis turned to look at her, eying her critically. “It’s been years since last we saw him.”
“Yes… Your brother was always yearning for adventure.” She smoothed out the surface of the damaged pie. “I would not count on his presence, sweet one.” The words came out hoarser than she’d intended.
Reis’s fingers drummed against the trencher. “You’d think he’d tire of adventure eventually.”
“Do you suppose the adventurers that pass through on their mighty mounts with their glowing armor and flaming swords grow tired of adventure? With all that world before them and all those riches in their pockets and so many other adventurers to greet or fell?”
“Mm.” Reis returned to the cranberry chutney. He kept his silence for half an hour or more, but once all of the pies were baking safely and Elaris had gotten a handle on the candied sweet potatoes, she heard the boy murmur, “Actually, I think they do. Dad did.”
Hands covered in honey and sweet potato, Elaris nodded. “Would that Vilthas were so fickle. A pity he takes after me, that way.”
Reis may have smiled. She wasn’t sure.
Her youngest son dashed back into the kitchen, grabbed another apple, and beat a hasty retreat, giggling. His race in and out chased the Vilthas’s armor-plated memory from Elaris’s mind and returned her to the hungry mouths who would be wanting a banquet fit for the Pilgrim’s Bounty.
Is there anything else you would like to add, ask, or otherwise clarify?:
I’m looking forward to playing with everyone, assuming I’m accepted.
Cheers!