04-08-2009, 02:50 PM
Sparked by a discussion on the chat channel that quickly got out of hand, I decided to write a quick guide to what the difference is between in character and in game. As you are most likely aware (or I sure hope you are), you're playing a game called World of Warcraft. You level from 1 to 80 and along the way you slaughter thousands of enemies who can just barely dent you, despite wielding gigantic swords.
When you reach that magic 80, odds are you'll have killed somewhere along the lines of:
1,000,000 followers.
Several lore characters like Sicco Thermaplugg, Edwin van Cleef and Illidan, just to name a few.
However...
This means nothing for roleplay. As far as roleplay is concerned, all those people you massacred was entirely out of character. There is no realistic way for five people to invade a city filled to the brink with Troggs and Leper Gnomes and make it out alive. To do that would require an army.
But then why is there a quest to kill him? Why can we go in and kill him with 5 people?
Because this is a game. World of Warcraft was never written with realism or roleplayers in mind. Do you really think that a soldier fighting in Northrend is capable of single handedly wiping out five hundred soldiers in Kalimdor? No, there's simply no way they could do that. These are simply game mechanics. Remember, Blizzard was making a game, not a roleplaying experience.
Then why does this matter?
Because we're not here to play the game. We're here to roleplay in Azeroth. If you want to play the game and raid bosses, this isn't the place you should be at. There are dozens of other servers out there that focus on playing the game. This server focuses on the roleplay aspect of it. On this server you'll likely see things such as Gnomish engineers and Orcish peons who have never lifted a sword in their life. Yet to get anywhere, the game forces them to kill stuff. These things are simply -out of character.- How your character got their training is something you can put down in their history, it's not something you do through game mechanics.
Examples of where this applies:
I'm level 80 and Bob's level 1, I can kill Bob in one hit.
Levels do not apply here. Simply because Bob is level one by game mechanics, doesn't mean he couldn't already be a full fledged Paladin. And that level 80 might be a Peon. On CotH, levels merely mean you can wear certain gear, they have no relevance for actual RP. If you feel that this is "unfair" because you put effort into gaining levels, I suggest reading up on the grunt and character application parts of the wikipedia.
When you have three people vouching that you are a good roleplayer, and your profile has been accepted, you can get your character levelled to level 80 by a GM. That level 1 can get a GM to level them to 80 without ever killing a single mob, as long as they've proven they're a good roleplayer and their character has been accepted. This is what counts on CotH, how well you roleplay. Not how much time you invested in doing quests.
I have three thousand gold, surely I can buy a huge mansion with this?
Gold is, once again, game mechanics. In reality, you wouldn't be going around smacking things on the head and looting copper from their bodies. Just because your character has a lot of money in game terms, doesn't mean they're suddenly a rich mofo. Likewise, a noble would have a lot of cash in character, but this doesn't mean that the character has to be carrying at least 5000 gold around. You could be hauling around tons of gold on your peon, but realistically, he'd own little more than the shirt on his back.
What do you mean, I died when I jumped off the roof? I only took about 30% damage...
This is, once again, game mechanics. Try jumping off a roof in real life, you'll break a leg. Yet you didn't when you did it in WoW. This is not because people in Azeroth are incredibly good jumpers with bones made out of steel, it's because it would be incredibly frustrating to break a leg every time you happened to jump off a roof.
This, however, counts for all types of damage. Do you really think that your character would be able to survive seventy five stabs with a dagger? After five good stabs, surely they'd be bleeding to death, but such a realistic combat system wouldn't make the game any easier. You have to remember that Blizzard made a game, not a roleplay. You might be able to survive a few blows from that Orc, but not five hundred of them.
People told me my gnome riding a tiger is lore-breaking, but I bought it, so it's okay, right?
This is another thing that is a game-term and spawned a huge argument today. The fact that you can walk up to the Darnassian vendor to buy a tiger doesn't mean you could do so in character. For one, Night Elves are rather xenophobic and don't generally even allow people into their cities, much less buy tigers, but think about it realistically.
Why is your gnome riding around on a tiger? Because you think it is cool. But pretend to be the Gnome for a moment. They're, for some odd reason, riding around on a beast large enough to devour them whole. In a city where horses, rams and mechanostriders are the norm. It is very likely that they'd get arrested for taking such a dangerous animal into the city. And even if they didn't, why are they riding it? "Because it's cool" is not a reason for somebody to ride around on a dangerous animal if they're not the norm.
Night Elves raise Nightsabers and are used to working with them, but to a Gnome, they'd likely be scary things to ride. You'd need a substantial in character motivation for your character to acquire such a mount. First they'd need to have some sort of relation to the night elves. Perhaps they helped with a big project in Darnassus? Why would the Night Elves actually sell the mount to your Gnome?
Then there is the motivation of why they want to ride it. "They think it is cool" is not a very good motivation. Most people will agree that wielding a sword with your tongue is an impressive and cool looking feat, but it's not practical. Likewise, it's not practical for a Gnome to be riding around on a tiger that'd likely eat them. Your character would need more than just the 'cool factor' to suddenly switch to something their race usually wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole.
Do they have an incredibly fascination with the beast? Are they trying to blend in better with their Night Elf friends? At least try to put some thought into it.
I killed Edwin van Cleef, so the Brotherhood is dead now, right?
You'll most likely get it by now, but this is also a game mechanic. In lore, there are four-thousand Defias members living in Moonbrook and the Deadmines underneath. The reason why the Defias is still such a problem is because they'd require an army to deal with it. For the game, it's okay if five people walk in there, kill hundreds of Defias and kill their boss. But in a realistic world, you can't do that. And we're trying to roleplay a realistic world.
Hopefully, this should shed some light on the whole in character vs in game thing. Feel free to make suggestions/posts, ask questions and the like. ^_^
When you reach that magic 80, odds are you'll have killed somewhere along the lines of:
1,000,000 followers.
Several lore characters like Sicco Thermaplugg, Edwin van Cleef and Illidan, just to name a few.
However...
This means nothing for roleplay. As far as roleplay is concerned, all those people you massacred was entirely out of character. There is no realistic way for five people to invade a city filled to the brink with Troggs and Leper Gnomes and make it out alive. To do that would require an army.
But then why is there a quest to kill him? Why can we go in and kill him with 5 people?
Because this is a game. World of Warcraft was never written with realism or roleplayers in mind. Do you really think that a soldier fighting in Northrend is capable of single handedly wiping out five hundred soldiers in Kalimdor? No, there's simply no way they could do that. These are simply game mechanics. Remember, Blizzard was making a game, not a roleplaying experience.
Then why does this matter?
Because we're not here to play the game. We're here to roleplay in Azeroth. If you want to play the game and raid bosses, this isn't the place you should be at. There are dozens of other servers out there that focus on playing the game. This server focuses on the roleplay aspect of it. On this server you'll likely see things such as Gnomish engineers and Orcish peons who have never lifted a sword in their life. Yet to get anywhere, the game forces them to kill stuff. These things are simply -out of character.- How your character got their training is something you can put down in their history, it's not something you do through game mechanics.
Examples of where this applies:
I'm level 80 and Bob's level 1, I can kill Bob in one hit.
Levels do not apply here. Simply because Bob is level one by game mechanics, doesn't mean he couldn't already be a full fledged Paladin. And that level 80 might be a Peon. On CotH, levels merely mean you can wear certain gear, they have no relevance for actual RP. If you feel that this is "unfair" because you put effort into gaining levels, I suggest reading up on the grunt and character application parts of the wikipedia.
When you have three people vouching that you are a good roleplayer, and your profile has been accepted, you can get your character levelled to level 80 by a GM. That level 1 can get a GM to level them to 80 without ever killing a single mob, as long as they've proven they're a good roleplayer and their character has been accepted. This is what counts on CotH, how well you roleplay. Not how much time you invested in doing quests.
I have three thousand gold, surely I can buy a huge mansion with this?
Gold is, once again, game mechanics. In reality, you wouldn't be going around smacking things on the head and looting copper from their bodies. Just because your character has a lot of money in game terms, doesn't mean they're suddenly a rich mofo. Likewise, a noble would have a lot of cash in character, but this doesn't mean that the character has to be carrying at least 5000 gold around. You could be hauling around tons of gold on your peon, but realistically, he'd own little more than the shirt on his back.
What do you mean, I died when I jumped off the roof? I only took about 30% damage...
This is, once again, game mechanics. Try jumping off a roof in real life, you'll break a leg. Yet you didn't when you did it in WoW. This is not because people in Azeroth are incredibly good jumpers with bones made out of steel, it's because it would be incredibly frustrating to break a leg every time you happened to jump off a roof.
This, however, counts for all types of damage. Do you really think that your character would be able to survive seventy five stabs with a dagger? After five good stabs, surely they'd be bleeding to death, but such a realistic combat system wouldn't make the game any easier. You have to remember that Blizzard made a game, not a roleplay. You might be able to survive a few blows from that Orc, but not five hundred of them.
People told me my gnome riding a tiger is lore-breaking, but I bought it, so it's okay, right?
This is another thing that is a game-term and spawned a huge argument today. The fact that you can walk up to the Darnassian vendor to buy a tiger doesn't mean you could do so in character. For one, Night Elves are rather xenophobic and don't generally even allow people into their cities, much less buy tigers, but think about it realistically.
Why is your gnome riding around on a tiger? Because you think it is cool. But pretend to be the Gnome for a moment. They're, for some odd reason, riding around on a beast large enough to devour them whole. In a city where horses, rams and mechanostriders are the norm. It is very likely that they'd get arrested for taking such a dangerous animal into the city. And even if they didn't, why are they riding it? "Because it's cool" is not a reason for somebody to ride around on a dangerous animal if they're not the norm.
Night Elves raise Nightsabers and are used to working with them, but to a Gnome, they'd likely be scary things to ride. You'd need a substantial in character motivation for your character to acquire such a mount. First they'd need to have some sort of relation to the night elves. Perhaps they helped with a big project in Darnassus? Why would the Night Elves actually sell the mount to your Gnome?
Then there is the motivation of why they want to ride it. "They think it is cool" is not a very good motivation. Most people will agree that wielding a sword with your tongue is an impressive and cool looking feat, but it's not practical. Likewise, it's not practical for a Gnome to be riding around on a tiger that'd likely eat them. Your character would need more than just the 'cool factor' to suddenly switch to something their race usually wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole.
Do they have an incredibly fascination with the beast? Are they trying to blend in better with their Night Elf friends? At least try to put some thought into it.
I killed Edwin van Cleef, so the Brotherhood is dead now, right?
You'll most likely get it by now, but this is also a game mechanic. In lore, there are four-thousand Defias members living in Moonbrook and the Deadmines underneath. The reason why the Defias is still such a problem is because they'd require an army to deal with it. For the game, it's okay if five people walk in there, kill hundreds of Defias and kill their boss. But in a realistic world, you can't do that. And we're trying to roleplay a realistic world.
---
Hopefully, this should shed some light on the whole in character vs in game thing. Feel free to make suggestions/posts, ask questions and the like. ^_^