Conquest of the Horde

This is something that has been bugging me for some time now on CotH. I had planned to address it through my yet-to-be-finished Dwarf Race Guide and my yet-to-be-started Human Race Guide, but I feel the need to bring this to light now, as the momentum and timing is good.

People often complain we have too many humans and blood elves on CotH. Is this really true? When you go into the neutral RP hotspots, such as Booty Bay, what do you often find there? Humans and Blood elves. When you see characters who are not following the racial norms of their people (such as pirates, freelance mercenaries, and the like), what race are they USUALLY? Humans and blood elves. When you see RP focused around a race's culture, or faction, what do you usually see? Everything else. What's up with that, yeah? Why is it orcs, tauren, trolls, forsaken, night elves, gnomes, dwarfs, and draenei can only get RP when its specifically tailored to their race, where as humans and blood elves pretty much dominate everything else?

Well, there is no definitive answer, and I'll tell you this much: it sorta sucks, big time. Unless there's racial RP around, you rarely see much of anything else run around. Might as well rename the server Conquest of the Humans and Elves, amirite? I suppose people choose these races because they can relate to them, physically... but that whole notion is flawed when you take into consideration THOSE races' lore and culture!

Here's a news flash for you: just because blood elves, and well, humans, LOOK human, does not mean they are the same as you and I. Here's a bigger news flash for you: blood elves, and ESPECIALLY humans, have their own distinct special cultures that are not like what you and I have in the infamous REAL WORLD. And here's the biggest news flash of all: in the GAME and LORE of WoW, the "irregular" groups of people such as pirates and criminals have MORE THAN JUST HUMANS AND BLOOD ELVES IN THEM. You see crazy shit like gnolls, dwarfs, humans, and trolls all working under the same banner in some cases (pirates near Ratchet come to mind). So why do we not represent this diversity in the player base?

Well, first and foremost, let me get some things clear...
Yes, I know we do have SOME human-lore based RP. Kingdom of Strom, Commoner's Party, ect. However, in the big picture of all race and lore RP around, it is miniscule. Too many human characters have no ties to their national heritage, or even have much of one at all.

Nextly, I do NOT dislike humans and elves being a part of the "irregulars" of RP. One of the defining elements of humans as a race is their unpredictable nature. I dislike that they seem to be almost ALL of the irregulars.

Thirdly, I do know there is a huge amount of Blood Elf lore RP. In fact, I actually think blood elves by and large get the most QUALITY RP out of the entire server simply because they get both adequate racial and irregular RP. You walk into Silvermoon, and you'll find not only a snobby magister, a vengeful Blood Knight, and a fel-addict crackwhore, but also colorful and outstanding weirdos. I'll be honest with you, it is for this reason that I -LIKE- the so called "Sillymoon" RP. What I desire is to expand this quality of RP to the other races.

So! What can we do about that? Well, really? Take a look at your characters. Go ahead, I'll wait. Done? Ok. Let's be honest with ourselves now...

How many of your characters have their characterization founded in their race, class, or culture? Don't feel bad if yours aren't. I have characters who are simply race X because I like/wanted to use race X too. We all do, I'm sure. Most, at least. But, now...

How many of those characters are humans/blood elves? Furthermore, how EASILY could you change their race and suffer minimal to no RP difference at all? Just cosmetic changes. I mean, sure, you'd have to change birthplaces around, ages, crap like that around. But how much of their CHARACTER would change? Would your blood elf still be the man or woman he is if he was a dwarf? Or a tauren? If you answered yes... well. You might be part of the problem.

BUT! Not all is lost. And I'm certainly not calling you a bad person for it. Like I said, I like the so called Sillymoon RP. Sillymoon wouldn't be Sillymoon if every elf that lived there was a stuck up magister or a fel addict or a pissy Blood Knight. But, what I am saying is... consider making a change. Just consider. You don't have to be all PEACE FRIEND SPIRITS WATCH OVER YOU to RP a Tauren. You don't have to EAT DRINK AND FIGHT YOUR PANTS OFF to be a dwarf. You don't have to be TURTLES FIGHT WITH HONOR/I HATE HUMANS/I LOVE THE SPIRITS to be an orc. You don't have to be a SUPER KOOKY MAD SCIENTIST to be a gnome. You get the idea. Is your character a human or an elf simply because you couldn't be assed to pick a race? Or, not to make you feel shallow, because they're pretty? If so... consider a change. Try rerolling them as something else, just because. If race isn't important, then it wouldn't matter, right? Yeah, some parts of the profile might need changing, but that's a small sacrifice for the sake of making the server more diverse, no? And hey, it might work out in your benefit, because when racial RP for your new race comes up, you can experience something new. You'll be doing the server good.

And best of all, you'll be shutting up the people who whine in Hyjal Cave all day about there being too many elves and humans. And better still, you'll be showing you care about those races culture and lore by not just using them as your "yeah whatever" race of choice.

Especially humans, man. Just you wait for me to write that human race guide. Humans ain't boring in Warcraft.

I remember when I made my Hydromancer of Neptulon, Jinque, who was human, and went around preaching the worship of water and Neptulon himself, being irrational and unquestionably humourous and unique.

Or when a few freinds and I made a trio of Dwarves that, when put together, would assemble a giant gun! The biggest would carry the firing mechanism, the other, medium sized dwarf would carry the barrel, and the smallest would shoot the gun.

I remember another time when I created my Orcish engineer Magda who was obsessed with blowing up Ashenvale and all the Night Elves in it, teaming up with the Bloodsworn, Brutalskarrs saying, "No, no grenades up close. . ."

Lazari, the giant 6'7" sailor who was on Clovis's boat, stating his concern for Valira by saying, "It ain't no good to have a wench on th' boat cap'n, she be a rag by th' end of the voyage" and getting, eventually thrown into the propeller of a Zepplin, his remains were then eaten by Tarne. . .

Or how much fun I had on Tenissa, the homophobic, racist drugdealer/pimp who went around and graced all the women with back and generally inappropriate pick up lines, while attempting to display his dominance among the strongmen who protected the girls.

And, let's not forget Minythe who went around claiming the "Dark Lady" was speaking to him while trying to find a juice of some sort that "tasted good" to "increase the moral of the undead" despite the fact that undead cannot taste and do not require material possessions to lead their goals.

Habeki, my awesome Troll Warrior who nailed the heads-- faces and all-- to his shield to display his dominance over his enemies-- Even and especially players!

Lecretia, the pale woman with a ton of piercings and her ability to persuade and use contacts, her dotted and disturbing past, and her love affair with Tavren and several other evils.

Or my green Tauren, who I can't recall the name of, who wore all green and killed non-stop to "feed the Earthmother the blood of my enemies!" and was generally beligerant in his approach?

Kafgar, with his superior concept of death and impenetrable fortress of saronite and dead flesh, he's truly surpassed all my expectations and made himself a light name on the server which has done my proud.

I don't know-- All these characters mean something and have something special to my heart, and in reality, they're the ones that I did everything in my power to be "unique" and have very strong ties with lore. Absolutely zero of them can be replaced in another race, with the exclusion of Tenissa who I brought from being a Blood Elf with a really shoddy and generic concept of a "Warlock" to a Human with a flamboyant pink dress and purple wizard hat who's homophobic, racist and generally lude.

I mean, I don't know about you guys, and I don't know about the point of why I'm writing this, but good memories come from good character creation, which is the result of legitimate, realistic and unique concepts only you can develop. My opinions, ideas and beliefs have always been squealched, and rarely answered with praise because they're never heard. But if I can say anything, if I'm the one of the most ignored and disregarded by the community in general, then what's holding YOU from atleast doing as good as I do?

But then again, who's this attack on an invisible enemy, we'll never know. Maybe it's not time to not make humans or blood elves, but to make characters that have depth. It's very easy when you've been playing the game for years now, but many Grunts these days aren't seriously competant in that art, and that's who our audience ought to be. I give to my previous arguement I gave a year or two ago:

Like I said, there is nothing wrong with having out of place characters of any race, including humans or elves.

My beef is that's ALL they are. You have mentioned not just humans and elves, but also a tauren, an orc, a troll, a forsaken... you get my idea.

This is not meant for people who have dear and close, creatively designed characters.

This is for people who RP character X as race X because they didn't really care enough to consider the hidden depths and creativity another race could bring out. They just went with the "pretty human-y race".

Your mistake, mister CappnRob, is that it is a problem, and that people shouldn't be allowed to RP what they want to RP.

Yes. I understand where you're coming from.
No. I don't think we should force people to RP differently.

What use is it to ruin the fun some people are having?

(11-21-2011, 10:45 PM)Aphetoros Wrote: [ -> ]Your mistake, mister CappnRob, is that it is a problem, and that people shouldn't be allowed to RP what they want to RP.

Yes. I understand where you're coming from.
No. I don't think we should force people to RP differently.

What use is it to ruin the fun some people are having?

I'm not forcing anyone. And I never said people shouldn't be allowed to do X because bawww I dislike X. Don't take me out of context.

Hell, I even literally said its "just a suggestion". People will RP what they want. I don't really care, as long as they do it well. I never said we should force anyone to do anything. That'd suck, and it'd be a dick move to boot.

But it would be nice if people would consider something to RP other than humans and humans with pointy ears.

Next time read all of my post better plox.

(11-21-2011, 10:45 PM)Aphetoros Wrote: [ -> ]Your mistake, mister CappnRob, is that it is a problem, and that people shouldn't be allowed to RP what they want to RP.

Yes. I understand where you're coming from.
No. I don't think we should force people to RP differently.

What use is it to ruin the fun some people are having?

Hold up, broham. I think you're a little fuzzy on the six.

Anyway, Apheteros, it's nothing about "forcing" other people to RP differently, it's about having people who are on the server take RolePlaying past the level which is expected by a Peon. Having RolePlayers on the server is excellento, but having the majority of them as good as, if not slightly better than that of Retail roleplayers-- Or better yet, competant roleplayers who still play like retail roleplayers and create retail-like characters-- It's just no good. For everybody. If they're enjoying themselves, that's cool, but I guarentee you that they're hindering someone elses experience by providing an insufficient amount of competancy. He's not trying to be a control freak, he's just trying to get the moderates to think about making themselves make better characters instead of generic ones.

And stop playing devils advocate, you're not who he's talking about, yo.

@Capn'

I'm on your side bro. I'm supporting your arguement. . .Hehe, not sure if you caught that.

I sort of did, but it never hurts to be certain, Sourpuddle.

(11-21-2011, 10:54 PM)Sourpuddle Wrote: [ -> ]Having RolePlayers on the server is excellento, but having the majority of them as good as, if not slightly better than that of Retail roleplayers-- Or better yet, competant roleplayers who still play like retail roleplayers and create retail-like characters-- It's just no good. For everybody. If they're enjoying themselves, that's cool, but I guarentee you that they're hindering someone elses experience by providing an insufficient amount of competancy.

Oh, I know who he's talking about.
              Recent post by Krent has made me depressed and hopeless.

The funny thing is I'm not talking about anyone specific at all. I'm not so petty as to make a thread made to shoot down a single person and then try to guise it as "you know who you are but I won't say any names".

Mostly because I WILL give names. I will break you freakin' heart if you let me. Noone specific has pushed me to make this thread, and if they did, they'd have been named in the first paragraph.

That's what I'm doing with my dwarf-dominated characters, there's your pally Dwarf all conservative and who sticks to dwarf lands and sometimes SW, there's your upcoming freelance rogue Dwarf, and too =) there's the dwarf hunter who explores wherever she goes and pretty much does stuff that most dwarves would "not" do...yeah well thats for diversity for me..IC

Well, my character my night elf goes out of the norm as a thrill-seeking, adventure-loving, comical, clumsy, friendly druid that can surely work as a comical relief-main character. That's out of the grumpy and serious night elf typical.

Well, onto the direct topic then.

It's just that people prefer the sparkly new things. For an example, Cata. As soon as people got a chance, they race/faction-switched onto the sparkly new models of the worgens and goblins, because they were the newest addition, while the other models look dumb except BElves and Draenei.
"It's just that the Horde races seem repulsive and 'with a high amount of flaws'."

Undead? "Rotten meat and bones."
Tauren? "Half-cow-half-(wo)man with a derpy hooved look."
Orc? "No need to explain that."
Troll? "Who'd want an ugly troll?"

To actually say how much blood elves are used, take an example. There is one fun server I play on that has "All Races/Classes Combo" on. Most of the Horde druids are blood elves. The occasional tauren I see is just a newbie that doesn't know about the system. As before mentioned on teh frrmz, blood elves are being used as a human substitute. Foul-mouthed, street-born, arsehole, drunkard blood elves. If anyone took a moment to look at the Silvermoon map, the poor area is tiny compared to the noble and standard part of the city. And yet they're used diversely in a bad way.

Onto, Alliance.

Humans are not really that outnumbering. Night elves and draenei are there too, not really rare, occasional gnomes, but the dwarves lack in numbers. Really lack.


If my rambling answer seems unusual and broken, it's because I'm dead-tired. Good day.

(11-22-2011, 11:28 AM)Dukica Wrote: [ -> ]Well, my character my night elf goes out of the norm as a thrill-seeking, adventure-loving, comical, clumsy, friendly druid that can surely work as a comical relief-main character. That's out of the grumpy and serious night elf typical.

That sounds very typical to the Night Elves that are played today. Not only are they extremely common, but also extremely unlikely given what the lore we follow states. I don't mean to attack your character concept, but just the concept in general. You should try to follow your characters racial restrictions while still finding a way to be diverse. Otherwise, you're basically making a human in an elves body. There is no magical remedy, no complex scheme, just. . .Make sure your character is realistic given the current milieu. Let your Night Elf, well, be a Night Elf. No need to change so quickly, or at all, but if you do; just ease into it.

But you got the idea, Dukica. I mean, these statements have always been said, but rarely are they ever acted upon. It's good that you get the groove.

Apheteros Wrote:Recent post by Krent has made me depressed and hopeless.

Krent and I are on the same page, you know. NOTHIN' TO LOSE.

Well, actually, the younger night elves are more open than the older ones.

And I knew that it'd be shunned upon if I made a night elf played as accepting, but it's mostly social isolation and feeling left out that lead him out into the world, as he felt empty inside and 'empty' in a personality way, like a shell, since there were not enough social stimuli to make him a normal person. And waking from the Emerald Dream in a multi-racial-cultural world, he accepted that as his view. Though he still has some basic dislikes, like undead and orcs.
And yet again, if this seems weird at writing, I AM tired. But can't sleep yet.

(11-22-2011, 01:01 PM)Dukica Wrote: [ -> ]Well, actually, the younger night elves are more open than the older ones.

And I knew that it'd be shunned upon if I made a night elf played as accepting, but it's mostly social isolation and feeling left out that lead him out into the world, as he felt empty inside and 'empty' in a personality way, like a shell. And since there were not enough social stimuli to make him a normal person. And waking from the Emerald Dream in a multi-racial-cultural world, he accepted that as his view. Though he still has some basic dislikes, like undead and orcs.
And yet again, if this seems weird at writing, I AM tired. But can't sleep yet.

I mean, hey, it's your character, you do what you do. I think you're just sort of making excuses for yourself, but I mean, it's all you, bro. It's not a multi-racial-cultural world, by the way. We, unfortunately, as a community had only made it seem that way to avoid conflict. Read this again:


But hey, bro. It's your character, and your experience. You do what you do, but I appreciate you taking a moment and thinking about it; it's a lot more than what others do.

Quote:You see crazy shit like gnolls, dwarfs, humans, and trolls all working under the same banner in some cases (pirates near Ratchet come to mind). So why do we not represent this diversity in the player base?

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Wait.

Are you saying.

The lore could support me.

Rolling a swash-buckling, rum-swilling, saber-waving gnoll pirate?

............................................................................................................................
YES.

Quote: Recent post by Krent has made me depressed and hopeless.

WHAT. WHY. I'm sorry. I don't mean to sow depression in my wake. What is it that I said that crushed your hopes and dreams for the future? And whhhhhyyyyyyyyy?

Quote:Krent and I are on the same page, you know. NOTHIN' TO LOSE.

We are? AWESOME! I don't know what page I'm on. My mind has a tendency to wander around like derp. Also, I APPROVE THE J MUSIC.


I am surprised my name popped up. That doesn't happen. I must be rubbing off on people. Which would be great, if I wasn't infected with icky stuff.

GO GET YO'SELVES A DOCTOR VISIT.