Getting RP out of Stormwind

[Grakor456]

I've taken to calling Stormwind the "vacuum" or "black hole of RP." While part of this may just be my bias as a Horde player, there's some truth to it nonetheless. Stormwind is, at this current point in time, the single most popular RP spot in the game. This is frustrating, as I cannot for the life of me figure out why.

While we GMs are working on plots and ideas to generate more Horde-side RP, in the meantime I'm going to ask everyone make a personal challenge to themselves to RP anywhere but Stormwind for one week. I'll even give you five good reasons to RP in other locations:

1. Stormwind is "safe." With guards everywhere, no "wilderness" around it, and other factions unable to enter, there's essentially no ways to get combative RP started in Stormwind. This cuts out one of the main types of RP.

2. Stormwind itself lacks actual plot hooks. There is, really, nothing to do there beyond what you can come up with yourself. While this may not sound bad, a lot of RP can come from things like battling enemy organizations in other lands, which brings me to...

3. There are many cities out there with completely unexplored RP potential. There's so much of the world out there to RP in, yet no one leaves Stormwind to discover it!

4. Very little that is done in Stormwind HAS to be done in Stormwind. If you REALLY love tavern RP? Well, there are taverns all over the world, not just the human city.

5. Horde can't participate. Let's face it...Horde (and Sin'sholai) attendance is at an all-time low on the weekdays, and it's not uncommon to see twelve Alliance and one or two Horde on (one of which is usually me.) As no one wants to force people to roll races they don't want to play, it's therefore up to the Alliance to be responsible and RP in areas where Horde characters can get RP as well.

Now besides this challenge, I'm asking the playerbase: let's come up with ways to get the RP crowd out of the city. Let's find ways to inspire Horde-side or neutral RP so that we can get things rolling for characters not interested in Stormwind. Any ideas?

[freelight]

I challenge Stormwind RPers to RP in Theramore for a bit.

[Maulbane]

Thunder Bluff RP was fairly (For what the place is; Barren, most of the time) high while Maulbane (The character) was shouting for people to get their butts down there. However it's once again empty as Maulbane's second storyline has begun.

Really, the only character of mine which is in Stormwind is Taves, for good reason (Stormwind noble, rer di der)

I'd be pleased to participate in this, maybe get on Sarlek more often! (As I liked the RP with you other Orcs in Orgrimmar yesterday).

This just in, Maulbane uses way too many brackets instead of hyphens.

[QuantumLegacy]

Join the Peoples Militia! Get out of Stormwind and fight for your people!

Great idea!

[n0ttyb0y]

Free roleplay items at hidden vendors around the city. And a quest to guide you to where they are.. Only in horde cities.

I have the querys.

http://wow-v.com/item.php?id=3712&pitem ... 06a96f5ff3 For example as a roleplaying item?

[Dilly]

We have Stormwind craze again...?

...what did I miss?

I BET THIS IS WHAT TIMEZONES DO TO YOU. OH NOES!

[Maulbane]

Free roleplay items at hidden vendors around the city. And a quest to guide you to where they are.. Only in horde cities.

I have the querys.

http://wow-v.com/item.php?id=3712&pitem ... 06a96f5ff3 For example as a roleplaying item?

This plus Mok'tar = Possible greatness.

Nice idea, Notty! The D.E.H.T.A Trap Smasher as a reward for anything might work too...

Or I might just have to keep lobbying for Orc/Troll/Tauren RP as I usually do. And hey, it works.

[Krent]

I think the problem causing Stormwind to be the current gigantic hole of RP is that the current significant plot lines going on between factions / player guilds are far too stratified. There is little to no overlapping in the current string of plot lines that I know of. Unless you're a blood elf who specifically hangs around Silvermoon, there's no way you're getting involved in the 1984 Hand of Rommath shig. Unless you've got a specific burning desire to take back Gnomeregan, there's no way you're getting involved in the epic campaign to re-take city. Unless you're a decadent hedonist who's trying to make mad gold through amoral (but not necessarily evil) means, there's no way you're going to get involved in the dealings of the Steamwheedle Cartel. Well, beyond the "Hello customer! How're you enjoying the Bay / Arena / City?" treatment.

Same can be said for all the secret / public player run guilds that are running around.

I'm not trying to place blame on any specific individuals or guilds or plot lines. It's just the nature of RP. Everyone falls into a specific little group based on what race / RP flavor they like to take, and that group goes on and does it's own thing. Problem being it makes all plot lines go off in different directions, very rarely interlacing with someone elses'. It's like we all want a quilt, but everyone's knitting the yarn in random, isolated paths. I'm guilty of it just as anybody, and truthfully I make 0 effort to try to change it. 'cause I'm lazy. And a bad person.

So, for the people who just don't really want to devote themselves solely to one specific goal or plot line and just want to keep themselves "open" for opportunity, they have their characters walk around in the heaviest populated areas. Most go to Stormwind for the reasons Grak listed above. Then when people see a high population in Stormwind, it only encourages them to flock towards it, creating the "black hole" snowball effect I think that's being described.

My suggestion is less plot lines focused on one specific goal ( i.e: Campaign to reclaim X territory or War within X territory) and have much broader things laid out. Like....the economy going down the shitter and everyone having to scramble around, exploring new territories / developing new techs / searching new ideas for one faction to leg-up the other one. It'd encourage exploration, conflict, and require characters of all makes. From the most rugged warriors to the intellectual thinkers. Or something.

'cause, I think this problem stems way deeper than "Horde's not getting any RP!". I've strolled around Stormwind when it had 50000 people online, and unless you're tight with a certain ring of guilds, you're not gonna have anything to look forward to than idle chit chat in a tavern. Which only ever leads to a minor scuffle or a quick cyb0rz. Sometimes both, if you're lucky.

[Grakor456]

Stuff.

Sometimes these things can't be helped. People will have their cliques and sometimes RP plots will be somewhat exclusive. This is particularly true with player-run events, so what the Steamwheedle Cartel does is really out of our hands.

However, as far as the GM run things are concerned...

Gnomer was something Lethys has wanted to do for a long time, and I believe something he started before this painful lack of Horde RP had really been identified. That said, this is probably one of the last Alliance RP lines we'll be doing for a while...and I also think (Piken or Lethys correct me if I'm wrong) this is something a lot of people can get into if they want to, Alliance side. If there's a limit that says you HAVE to be a Gnome to participate, I haven't seen it.

As for Silvermoon...yes, this is an event that really only matters to the Sinsholai, and even one half of it even. In our defense, I can only say that while this is the case now, we do have something in mind for this and we are hoping that it will lead to more RP for a much larger audience. I cannot say anymore without the rest of the GM team sending a gang of angry ninjas to assassinate me.

But it's something for everyone to keep in mind. A lot of the player-run events right now ARE very closed off and exclusive. Things like the Lunar Ball (just a random example I've seen discussed a lot recently) aren't going to make this any better since it just feeds into the larger problem. That's not to say the players can't run their own, non-GM-aided events however they choose, but it's something for people to keep in mind.

[Krent]

Things.

Again, I'd like to re-iterate that I'm not trying to critique any specific event or GM idea or player-run guild. I don't want people to try to rush out to pounce on me because this is something that everything has suffered from. Past, present, and most likely future. I just picked the current string of events 'cause, well, they were fresh in my short term memory and I had the most familiarity with 'em.

[Nexi]

Join the Peoples Militia! Get out of Stormwind and fight for your people!

Great idea!

^This.

Especially with Randy tossing 'nades at his own troops, we're going to need a lot more volunteers.

As for SW RP... the stuff drives me bonkers. If I'm not out and about, I'll get bored within seconds. I like the whole idea of Forsaken lurking around Elwynn, makes me all nervous to walk around the place alone, and that's lots of fun!

I'd love some more Horde RP since for now my only Horde toon is just sitting there collecting dust, but I've sent in an idea to the GMs and I got a decent amount of support for it. I'll just see where it goes. ^.^

[Maulbane]

I like the whole idea of Forsaken lurking around Elwynn, makes me all nervous to walk around the place alone, and that's lots of fun!

...Oh, no you don't. Hehehehe...

Oh, but if you /insist/...

*Innocent look*

EDIT: Uh, I mean, no.

[sunday12321]

Stromgarde RP could be a good idea aswell, I mean, the city was recently retaken, it's -the- Human city, Come there and... I dunno? Help it grow to the same ancient glory it was!

[Vrahn]

Well I would like to note that I don't really feel that it's appropriate to be shuttling people out of areas where they are enjoying RP. Stormwind is essentially an excellent place to center RP around when it comes to Alliance factions. There are plenty of different areas in the city that are excellent for RP, and the surrounding lands have enough turmoil to satisfy anyone feeling like going out for a stroll. I think I've seen over my time that no matter what outside events do end up occuring in the end people will return to Stormwind, but I don't think that is a bad thing. While I have nothing wrong with your personal challenge, I would like to say what a friend of mine once told me.

There are people that can get RP to go wherever they want, as we have seen before, if you really want people to leave Stormwind then you should consider finding some of these people and getting them to focus their creative energies on making a plot that will move the RP into a more open area. GM events I don't think are the answer. Every time I've seen RP move properly it has been a player event that has caused it.

Anyhow, just my two cents.

[DaveM]

Not to state the obvious, but isn't the idea of "let's see what not using Stormwind's like for a week" bordering on meta-gaming?

However, wouldn't it enjoyably jolt the life of characters and Rp-circles if Stormwind was ACTUALLY shut down IC for a short while? Maybe a few cases of a potential uber dangerous new plague that seems to be showing up, and requires evacuation and disinfection? City defense drills for the military.. I dunno.

For example, I think that if the Player population of Sillymoon would play realistically and not "mini-meta" towards where the RP is, half of'em, at least, would be out of Sillymoon by now.

2 Cents

Edit: Additional ideas - Dalaran needs to be "activated". It's perfect for Neutral interactive open RP, brilliant sceenery and it provides the context to keep inter-faction issues at a quality "tension" level. Maybe making a small gimmick that allows easyer acess into it IC, perhaps from each continent via something like portals?