(10-09-2012, 09:19 PM)Aphetoros Wrote: [ -> ] (10-09-2012, 07:18 PM)Reigen Wrote: [ -> ]The current GMs are story tellers. We really don't need another rank to the point where staff outnumbers the amount of players we have.
If this is the case then I definitely would like to see more of it. People may still disagree with me, but the stagnation of the server as of current is leading to what seems like an overabundance of tavern RP and idle chit-chat RP and more prevalent OOC chatter in the OOCC (Out of Character City ;D.) With, of course, the occasionally story-less tourney in the arena.
I'm not saying this is bad; if people wish to have mostly these sorts of RP, then more power to them! It's not really the kind of RP I find myself enjoying as of late (I literally cannot get into any sort of idle tavern RP right now, it seems) and I really do wish something epic could happen that, at least for a while, would change the world and the way things work. If even by the end of such an event, things are back to normal and ready for Cata, by all means let it all be rectified at the end of said long and poignant storyline. I personally feel that something big needs to happen to spark avid RP again-- to make people remember what it was like when you could walk through Stranglethorn Vale and Duskwood to find cults, battle, ambush, and intrigue. I know I was not here for this, and some do not look on it fondly as I understand, but things like the Sin'sholai.
I am not quite sure why we are so very set upon sticking with the lore of Blizzard aside from remaining prepared for a Cataclysm change-over, when this universe we've based our own stories in is near limitless with potential quests and journeys that simply cannot be done due to the constraints of this distant and yet uncertain cataclysm. I know we've veered off-topic, and for some reason I'm writing in a style that... feels odd and slimy when I reread it, but I'm tired and have no time to rewrite it in a different way, I hope my point gets across and I do not offend.
At the end of the day, it has become increasingly difficult to spur random RP. Everyone has begun to, whether noticing it or not (including myself), form cliques and inadvertently divided the server. People don't just RP anymore; it's got to be an event for anything aside from a few bros in a tavern joking around for consistent and random RP to occur. It's almost as if, apologies if I'm jumping topics, we need another Heretic Circus or even (despite the drama involved at certain points) White Sun Covenant (although I was admittedly more fond of the RP spawned by the Heretic Circus.) Perhaps I'm looking back on those days with rose-tinted glasses, because I really do wish I wasn't as jaded (yeah, I feel jaded it's weird) when it comes to RP. Back in the day I could RP with anyone, and despite the fact I know I may've left a bad impression because of my nubbery then, I didn't seem to care, y'know? I'm totally rambling, but whatever. I miss when it didn't really matter what I thought about what people thought of what I was doing, because it seemed to make everything more free. For some reason now, I worry whether or not I'm coming across as a good writer, a good RPer, an intelligent person, interesting character-wise and kind OOCly.
I don't know when, or how, but everything seems far more complex than when I first began RPing and I feel almost like it's ruined, because I have a hard time getting into RP without being hypercritical of myself, or of others.
[/endrant]
Sorry, that was really unusual. O_o
I agree with ya on most everything you've said, but I just wanna say that this is the way that things have
always been on COTH. And not just on COTH, but on every other RP server in general. I think you may be falling into the trap that all of us oldies have fallen into; the seductive lure of nostalgia. It's a very easy thing to talk about the "good old days," but hard to really examine them. You'll come to find that the RP of then isn't better than the RP of now, and that the server has always been 'stagnant' and 'unmoving.' It creates a sense of bitter loneliness and isolation, of alienation and frustration.
You just want to move away from it all. Move away from the stupid little cliques and their stupid little memes and the constant parade of OOC drama and reliance on events and constant showmanship and all of that. You want to wash your hands of it all, say to yourself "I won't spend all my time chatting away in OOCC. I won't contribute to the problem. I'll rise above, and RP solely for the sake of RP'ing."
But this disconnect only exacerbates the problem. You don't fall into a clique, you don't have any characters that fit in nicely with the "Guild of the Month," you refuse to make a throw-away alt to 'fit in' somewhere, and you won't have anyone to RP with. Tavern RP does little to facilitate a significant connection between characters. Yet, you'll find that the sheer number of people participating in events leaves little, if any room, for your character to develop.
You become faceless. And unrecognizable. Another blip on the radar. And it just creates this...bitter, lonely, yearning personality.
I'm only speaking to you this way because this is what's happened to me, in my four-or-so years here. I wish I could offer a solution (believe me, I've thought long and hard on the subject) that could shake away with this creeping disconnect. But I can't. All I can suggest is to just keep going on. Keep going into the taverns and hope that somehow, someway, you'll find a connection somewhere. But it isn't easy.
The good news, I guess, is that if you're feeling this way...you can officially call yourself a 'veteran.' Because we all go through that. Exactly that. Isolated and ostracized.
Yay?
Also on the subject of dragons, I don't really care much. If RP'ing a dragon can help further RP, go for it. If not, don't go for it. Dragons and the such should be treated like the other important lore figures; tools to be used sparingly to further the narrative.