So, a while back, Kretol requested that I make a blog post explaining why we don't allow "conquest RP." A little while after, a concern was raised among the GMs (an old one, actually, but it sort of fades and resurfaces now and then) that ended up being related, if on a tangent. I'll be talking about both here, and yet, terribly late, but better late than never, since I think it can be still relevant.
There are a few reasons why we do not allow conquest RP. Rather than go on a disorganized ramble, I'm going to make a list:
1. Conquest RP ends up going against the mission of CotH, which is to remain as faithful as possible to WoW lore. It'd be problematic on that front if we have guilds taking over cities.
2. Significant and sweeping changes to canon areas can end up being both confusing and discouraging for new players. I recall back during times where we had more severe, world-changing events (Sin'Sholai, for example) where new players would come on and be utterly confused and had great difficulty getting into the server. In fact, we had a few folks leaving almost immediately after joining because of that. It's fun for older players to shake things up, but creates a less friendly environment for new players.
3. There are only so many good places to take over, and because we can't create an infinite number of bases or things for people to use, it's very difficult to be "fair" with something like this.
4. Related to the above, conquest often comes with players wanting areas decorated for them, which ends up being time consuming. Not to mention, most conquests are temporary and so the work done on an area may end up going to waste later...or, even worse, require tearing down and rebuilding later down the line. So much hassle for what is little gain.
5. I say little gain because we do allow people to have buildings of their own ICly. Rigley has made several great RP locations just for this purpose. We just don't allow you to have the authority to lock others out of RPing at an OOC location, because of #3.
6. Conquest leads to a lot of conflict, both IC and OOC. IC conflict RP is the primary source of OOC drama.
7. There are other servers that cater to this particular desire. Now, I don't make a habit of telling folks that if they don't like our server to go to someone else's. That's not very productive. However, Kretol and I both realize that our aims for this server aren't necessarily going to jive well with everyone, so it's best to recognize that if our mission statement doesn't suit the kind of RP that you prefer, there are alternatives and we don't think that's a bad thing at all.
Now, there are some folks that disagree with this idea, and rather than try to work within the rules of CotH as we set them, will break the rules silently. That's the sort of tangent that I said linked the two things I wanted to talk about. There's a certain amount of intentional omission going on with some of the players when they think, or know, if something that they want to do wouldn't pass by the GMs or Administration. That's not just on the topic of conquest, there's a number of issues where this crops up, but essentially there are players that go "I don't think this will pass by the GMs, so I'm just not going to ask them and do it anyway because they're not watching. If they find out, I'll just pretend that I didn't know and at worst they'll yell at me for a couple minutes."
I could go off on a rant about how this isn't okay and blah blah blah, but I think everyone knows that on a practical level, that wouldn't do any good. After all, if these people cared about what I think, they wouldn't be intentionally going around me (that likely comes off as hostile, though I intend it to be taken at face value. They disagree with the beliefs of the GMs and thus wish to circumvent them.) Obviously, I've known that some people do this kind of thing and I've known for a long time.
I'm actually not as upset about this as I probably should be. Yeah, I'm kind of disappointed that players don't think they can come to us to hash out ideas; contrary to popular belief, we don't look for reasons to shoot down the ideas of others, personally I just want to see things fit within the lore and would like to see ideas be morphed to fit in more with the setting, as per our mission statement. Ultimately, though, these folks aren't really getting away with much. What folks do in their private RP is really only affecting them and their social circle (much like how I've said in the past that I don't care what you do in your ERP, I just don't want to see it.) The problem is when it crosses over into public RP, which is when such problems are most likely to be caught.
I was going somewhere with this, but now I can't remember where. I've meandered quite a bit. Going to just post this and maybe get back to it later. Maybe.
There are a few reasons why we do not allow conquest RP. Rather than go on a disorganized ramble, I'm going to make a list:
1. Conquest RP ends up going against the mission of CotH, which is to remain as faithful as possible to WoW lore. It'd be problematic on that front if we have guilds taking over cities.
2. Significant and sweeping changes to canon areas can end up being both confusing and discouraging for new players. I recall back during times where we had more severe, world-changing events (Sin'Sholai, for example) where new players would come on and be utterly confused and had great difficulty getting into the server. In fact, we had a few folks leaving almost immediately after joining because of that. It's fun for older players to shake things up, but creates a less friendly environment for new players.
3. There are only so many good places to take over, and because we can't create an infinite number of bases or things for people to use, it's very difficult to be "fair" with something like this.
4. Related to the above, conquest often comes with players wanting areas decorated for them, which ends up being time consuming. Not to mention, most conquests are temporary and so the work done on an area may end up going to waste later...or, even worse, require tearing down and rebuilding later down the line. So much hassle for what is little gain.
5. I say little gain because we do allow people to have buildings of their own ICly. Rigley has made several great RP locations just for this purpose. We just don't allow you to have the authority to lock others out of RPing at an OOC location, because of #3.
6. Conquest leads to a lot of conflict, both IC and OOC. IC conflict RP is the primary source of OOC drama.
7. There are other servers that cater to this particular desire. Now, I don't make a habit of telling folks that if they don't like our server to go to someone else's. That's not very productive. However, Kretol and I both realize that our aims for this server aren't necessarily going to jive well with everyone, so it's best to recognize that if our mission statement doesn't suit the kind of RP that you prefer, there are alternatives and we don't think that's a bad thing at all.
Now, there are some folks that disagree with this idea, and rather than try to work within the rules of CotH as we set them, will break the rules silently. That's the sort of tangent that I said linked the two things I wanted to talk about. There's a certain amount of intentional omission going on with some of the players when they think, or know, if something that they want to do wouldn't pass by the GMs or Administration. That's not just on the topic of conquest, there's a number of issues where this crops up, but essentially there are players that go "I don't think this will pass by the GMs, so I'm just not going to ask them and do it anyway because they're not watching. If they find out, I'll just pretend that I didn't know and at worst they'll yell at me for a couple minutes."
I could go off on a rant about how this isn't okay and blah blah blah, but I think everyone knows that on a practical level, that wouldn't do any good. After all, if these people cared about what I think, they wouldn't be intentionally going around me (that likely comes off as hostile, though I intend it to be taken at face value. They disagree with the beliefs of the GMs and thus wish to circumvent them.) Obviously, I've known that some people do this kind of thing and I've known for a long time.
I'm actually not as upset about this as I probably should be. Yeah, I'm kind of disappointed that players don't think they can come to us to hash out ideas; contrary to popular belief, we don't look for reasons to shoot down the ideas of others, personally I just want to see things fit within the lore and would like to see ideas be morphed to fit in more with the setting, as per our mission statement. Ultimately, though, these folks aren't really getting away with much. What folks do in their private RP is really only affecting them and their social circle (much like how I've said in the past that I don't care what you do in your ERP, I just don't want to see it.) The problem is when it crosses over into public RP, which is when such problems are most likely to be caught.
I was going somewhere with this, but now I can't remember where. I've meandered quite a bit. Going to just post this and maybe get back to it later. Maybe.
Have you hugged an orc today?
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- I am not tech support. Please do not contact me regarding technical issues. -
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