...Very good topic. While it's sad that issues like the one proposed exist, I am still quite thankful for the problem being discussed out in the open, rather than being hidden away somewhere. It promotes cooperation and reaching a middle ground much faster, as oft' communication does.
Personally, I'm as stubborn as a mule sometimes, and changing my own views in certain respects depends strongly on whether I agree with the new opinion I'm shifting to, or not. And I have always been of the opinion that, regardless of position, any sort of authority figure you encounter in life, be they online or offline, is still only human. As such, I've involuntarily seen them as at least somewhat reasonable people you can talk to. Heck, some of the people that originally helped out my RP quite a great deal were the ancient GM Monolith and Co. I remember back when Loxy was a Trial GM and she helped out when I and a few others got stuck in mid-air over Dragonblight because the flight paths could still be attacked by mobs and thus you could die mid-flight. It felt really nice to know you could ask for help if something went wrong.
Thing is, when you've been around for nigh-on three years, it makes you think on how things've changed. The Rules haven't changed all that much since then, to be frank. If I compare the revisions of the rules and policies pages, well... I'll find pretty much the same things, with Kretol gently tweaking wording here and there so it makes more sense and the language is more understandable. What, then, has changed?
Well, the things not included in the Rules and Policies on that Wiki, for one. The amount of unwritten(more rarely), or unspoken rules on CoTH can be staggering, I imagine, for a new player. I've had the luck of easing into it, and having an absolutely superb and helpful community when I joined. I won't blather on and on about how X or Y was great to me and everything, but I have noticed one thing: Back in my day, I spent less than half an hour in the OOC zone. Per week. Compare that to nowadays' near 50% of the time(which is admittedly while I'm tabbed out or something; Life gets busier as you get older, 's just the way of things, I suppose), and you've got a few issues.
Speaking of change, though. There are a couple of suggestions/improvements(Or what I see as improvements) that I'd propose:
~More Constant RP: What I mean is, more day-to-day RP, as in, RP that you can take part in both today, tomorrow, the day after, and all week, and so on, and so on, forming a constant presence in one place or another, with a group. I've mentioned before how Silvermoon became this for about a week or so during this Summer. Can we bring that back? And it wasn't all tavern-talk, either. People were going around and doing things. Heck, I even got to host a mini-event during that time, which gave me an idea for a full-blown storyline. A really, really far-back example would be the Expedition turned Coalition. That thing lasted for over a couple of months. It was -incredible-.
Day in, day out RP, weekly travel and accommodating to new locales, the members of the expedition traveling, gathering resources, making contacts, crafting, engaging in diplomacy... That should happen more often. We need organized groups to go out and do stuff, and make it fun and attractive enough for new players to join. I can't count how many complete newbies to CoTH joined directly into the Expedition, and kicked off their RP careers on CoTH right then and there!
Thing is, you also want quality and meaning in the RP. You want it to be more or less flavored. It's often the case(but not always!) that single-faction RP is of better quality than free-for-all RP, and that singe-race RP tends to be better than single-faction RP, once more because it can focus on the specifics of the race in question. It's akin to RP in the World of Darkness franchise, if you've played any of those games(Vampire, Werewolf, Changeling, Geist, Mage, etc.) - basically, if you have members of every race, the concepts, specifics, and wants of the diverse individuals in your group might not provide for a cohesive storyline, because every species has a different tone.
Much in the way you won't go about the restoration of a Sanctum or the hunt for a dangerous Mage with a Troll, instead doing it with Blood Elves and Spellbreakers, or spreading the New Plague with Tauren/All Horde, instead doing it with Forsaken.
~Different leashes for different dogs. Say you have a small, yappy dog, right? Well, you get him a comfy collar, and a nice, fairly long leather leash. But then, say you have an aggressive, large dog. You get'em a chain collar and a chain leash, probably a short one at that.
In the same way, different issues on CoTH should be treated with differing amounts of strictness. Makes sense, doesn't it? Some issues are inherently inflammatory, and thus should be kept on a short leash(typically the offensive ones), whilst others could be given more leeway(Such as cosmetics in abilities and perhaps cosmetic traits for characters as well).
I personally take issue with rules denying cosmetic changes in characters that do not affect game balance(Such as cosmetic mutations that, admittedly, go beyond what we can represent in-game). I mean, if we allow female Kaldorei to have glowing amber eyes as a result of practicing Druidism, and male Kaldorei to have glowing silver ones, in spite of their models telling us otherwise, why do we not allow say, a BElf DK to have red eyes and thus play a Dark Ranger without a CMC? Or heck, a Blood Elf with eye-glow of other colors than usual? Or a Blood Elf with dark blue hair IC? Really, playing a character with say, only one arm, is a -FAR- bigger deviation from the character model than mere eyecolor or haircolor.
Cosmetic difference bans are a relic of a by-gone age, that ended the day we gained access to Tattoos, in my opinion.
...Again, I'm talking about cosmetic differences. Things that -do not- affect balance. Who cares if my Smite is shaped like an arrow or like a sphere? Or if I turn my Holy Fire on a Priest into a bow of flame and shoot it outta' that? Or if the Power Word: Shield actually shapes itself like a suit of armor rather than a bubble? It does the same thing.
As long as things do the same thing, to the same 'power level', they should be allowed.
It's nothing revolutionary. The Free-Form system already allows us to reinterpret our abilities, -as long as they still do the same thing-. Melee stuns will always be melee stuns
(Example outta' my own chars: Shockwaves and Sunlight: Sap and Gouge are an Arcane-infused smack on the head, aimed at knocking the target out by overloading their brain. Blind is the reflection of unnaturally brilliant light off whatever metallic gear Ghanima has on her, to the point of blinding and disorienting enemies. A testament to its arcane nature is that it works even in total darkness.), ranged Fire AoEs will always be ranged Fire AoEs, summoned Succubi will always be summoned Succubi, in spite of being triple-[CENSORED BY THE GOVERNMENT], and a Lightning Generator will always generate lightning.
I'm not asking for anything drastic, like playing Catgirls, High Elves or Forlarren(as much as I would love to RP the latter two), just tiny cosmetic changes to differentiate a character from others among their class/race/gender/organization. Characters should all be different and have different personalities, no? Why not reflect that appearance-wise? IRL, no two Humans save identical twins, are alike(discounting the existence of dopplegangers).
~One thing I'd love to tighten the leash on, though, is being a part of your chosen race's culture. Now, I'm a Lore-hound. It's pretty much a given. I love the Lore and I love seeing players make characters that go with the Lore and exploit it to its fullest potential. It's sorta' sad, to me, when a character just comes off as completely disconnected from their racial or societal background. Why play a Night Elf if you can play a Human with the -exact- same Personality, with just minor tweaks in History?
-Embrace- just how different the races and societies are, and take heart in the cultural identities of the peoples of Azeroth. Play a Troll to play a Troll, play a Blood Elf to play a Blood Elf, and so forth. I'm not saying individuals can't be a part of a culture outside of their own people(even IRL, inter- and multi-culturality happens more often than you'd think!), but they will always have an outsider's perspective on it. Sure, a Blood Elf can be utterly fascinated with the Naaru and the Draenei, after what happened at the Sunwell and with M'uru, -but- they will have a different perspective compared to the Draenei themselves.
Of course you can play a Nature-loving Blood Elf - the Farstriders are practically physically different from other Blood Elves thanks to it(Physically stronger/faster/healthier), but you're not going to go about it in the same way that a Tauren does. An ex-Silver Hand Blood Elf Paladin will be different from an ex-Silver Hand Human Paladin. And so on.
Respect your cultures, because the background of a race is why you chose to play them. Because of -who- they are, as a people bearing a certain cultural identity. It's -so- much more fun to see people act as genuine people, individuals of their own societies, as opposed to Humans in Suits, because then character variety extends far, far beyond what one'd think immediately possible.
Different cultures have different approaches to problems, and ways and means of solving them. There's the famous example of where the Orc starts a lumber mill, the Night Elf will rouse the forest itself to fight them.
~One issue I don't know what to do about, though, is 'If we give X to <Player>, everyone will want it'. I really don't. I may be more or less ego-maniacal sometimes, but even if I were somehow awarded discretionary power to pick and choose who gets access to certain races/classes/abilities, I would not trust myself to make the right choices(Then again, I don't even trust myself to fight Trust fights, most of the time).
So, in the end, I think a sort of approval system is needed, aye, and characters be judged on a case-by-case basis. What's okay for someone to pull off might not be okay for someone else to do the same in perhaps a different manner. And we kinda' have that in place already, with the Character Profile system.
I recall speaking to someone at one point about characters, and being told that they weren't allowed a Steamwarrior, back when I was getting one approved myself. Knowing full well they've been approved in the past, I shrugged and just told the person that they're actually doable, though I could not really give a reason as to why their Profile didn't go through and mine did, not having actually seen their work. I just assumed there was something wrong with the Profile itself, rather than the class.
If the Profile's sound and the character well-reasoned, the concept should be doable, within the limits of the Lore and the rules as to what's playable. Makes sense, no?
Lastly, I think I like CoTH, and that it has become the best that it's ever been in some respects, and though it's still working on others, there's always room for improvement. Strength comes from cohesion and consensus, though, so keep things as civil as possible. It's not always that we're given the opportunity to contemplate the foundations the community is based upon in such a manner.