Vanilla / Classic Servers RP

[Deleted]

The first question is for those playing Horde before BC - was there any Horde RP then? I started playing with WotLK and have never seen Horde RP outside of Silvermoon + Eversong. Blood Elves are the most popular races among Horde RPers. So how was it before BC?



The second question is for everyone - will you RP on Classic Servers? If so, how do you imagine it? What would be the most popular race and spot for Horde?

Would you be ok if someone used an information we know now but we didn't then? Example: Someone claiming to see a Tol'vir (not necessarily using the name but describing it)

How would lack of future events (demon invasions, cataclysm etc) impact your character? If you RP as a hero, would you feel forced to switch to something more common?

How do you feel about the idea Blizzard is considering - making Hyjal an other Kalimdor & EK zones that were added later playable? I would love to see Silvergale (now Bloodmyst Isle) before Draenei crashed there and interact with Dragonmaw / Wildhammer in Twilight Highlands before Cataclysm hit.

EDIT: Actually, spying on pre-Cata Gilneas (as both Alliance and Horde) would be epic! Something like Suramar (An illusion? What are you hiding?!)

[Deleted]

1. No idea sry :X
2. I won't RP on Classic servers. I RP on live servers now and while the lore situation is not...let's say optimal for RP, I don't like the limited immersive possibilities in vanilla because of missing systems like for example the great amount of transmog we have.
3. I would not have a problem, if it is potentially possible. Tol'vir? Needs very very heavy reasoning. But things like Pandaren? I am GM of a Warcraft Pen & Paper Group and they saw their first pandaren this weekend. Could be. The possibility is there and, while rare, not impossible.
4. I wouldn't play the same character. Would conflict with so much things that I'd find it awful. I play commons on my server anyway, but I don't see why vanilla lore should conflict with heroism. 'Being a hero' is relative.
5. I don't see that coming. Classic Servers won't be a designer thing, but something that has to be programmed, nothing more. Stay 1.12 (or whatever) but don't make a 1.13 - I don't want two parallel World of Warcrafts in that sense.

Hope I could give some more opinions (but excuse my possibly bad english, german here)

[Lochton]

Yes, Horde had plenty of diverse RP, even before Silvermoon.

And no, I won't be RP'ing on classic. It would be like RP'ing in a dream. You would already know everything for the future. You would have to force yourself to forget certain events as well.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The second question is for everyone - will you RP on Classic Servers? If so, how do you imagine it? What would be the most popular race and spot for Horde?

Unlikely. It's pretty difficult for me to want to go back and hamstring my capacity to roleplay in the visual, adjustable medium that is a MMORPG.

With the current WoW, you have access to:

• Toybox: You can use any toy you have learned on a short cooldown, whereas Classic had few gimmick items on long cooldowns that took up a very limited amount of bag space. Today, we can carry around hundreds of items for granted, while in 'Classic you'd be lucky if you could carry forty. Furthermore, you had to carry around multiple sets of gear for various activities (different specs, ammo for bows, alternate weapons, etc). Without transmog, you have to lug around your costume sets too. Without a variety of toys, it becomes more difficult to express and idea through roleplay.

• Costumes: As I said above, you're RPing potential in WoW is hampered without the ability to "show" what you are trying to express in the game, as your costume - an extension of your persona and your character's characterization - must compete for very limited bag space. This is even more awkward in RP-PvP events, where you can't change from your RP costume to your optimal set of equipment during combat. If you're going to RP in a video game, you want to take advantage of the fact that video games are a visual medium, a form of expressing your character and his actions rather than just saying something from across the table and imagining it. On a related note: most of the vanilla pieces of armor look pretty bad today, and it's hard to go back when you have ten years of stellar art to pick from to represent your character.

• A lack of player customization options: continuing from the above, the current servers simply have better and a wider variety of art to choose from to express your character. There are also far more emotes and animations to use too.

• MRP & TRP3: these are pretty essential to roleplaying, and are dependent on the advances made to WoW's code over the past 14 years. With 'Classic being rebuilt from scratch (see Blizzcon 2017's panel), and with the aim to recreate the vanilla WoW experience, it is highly unlikely that there'd be the necessary tools in place to build a new RP addon just for 'Classic servers. I also don't imagine the devs of MRP and TRP3 wanting to go out of their to learn how to develop a new version of their addon without the leeway and flexibility the modern WoW offers. Without that, you're basically relying on other players having to explain indepth how the appear or their own miscellaneous attributes every time, to every new player they meet, or having to lookup their RP profiles online.

Would you be ok if someone used an information we know now but we didn't then? Example: Someone claiming to see a Tol'vir (not necessarily using the name but describing it)

I'd expect RPers to be reasonable and not peer into future events, but I could foresee the denizens of Azeroth seeing glimpses of civilizations that had not officially revealed themselves to the world at large yet. Yes, but with temperance.

How would lack of future events (demon invasions, cataclysm etc) impact your character? If you RP as a hero, would you feel forced to switch to something more common?

There are twenty-five years of exciting events in between WC1 and WoW to explore. That's plenty of room to create your own history of fantastical backstory events. Granted, there hasn't been anywhere near as many fantastical and whacky events during those twenty-five years as the thirteen years of WoW, but it's still more than enough. Instead of RPing as adventurers who went to other planets and timelines, you'd RP as a soldier who has been a part of many different expeditions and fought in several more old fashioned wars.

How do you feel about the idea Blizzard is considering - making Hyjal an other Kalimdor & EK zones that were added later playable? I would love to see Silvergale (now Bloodmyst Isle) before Draenei crashed there and interact with Dragonmaw / Wildhammer in Twilight Highlands before Cataclysm hit.

I'd be fine with Blizzard adding new, exclusive content to the 'Classic servers, even if Vanilla didn't have them. As long as the changes are still in the spirit of the old game, ie long travel times, indepth skill trees with loophole abuse, no PvP flagging on PvP servers, spells with 24 hour long cooldowns, etc.

[Deleted]

The first question is for those playing Horde before BC - was there any Horde RP then? I started playing with WotLK and have never seen Horde RP outside of Silvermoon + Eversong. Blood Elves are the most popular races among Horde RPers. So how was it before BC?

There was Horde RP but you have to remember that Warcraft was an ENTIRELY different universe back then, the game has changed so, so, much since then it beggars belief. The lore has just been retconned and rewritten in so many places that they aren't similiar, original WoW was essentially the RTS in third person, it took itself way more seriously and is very simplistic. Even in the artstyle was drastically different. Keep in mind old WoW was high fantasy while modern WoW is high fantasy at the far end of the spectrum and borders on marvel comic book capeshit. There was Horde RP but compared to Alliance it was mostly RP called 'villiage hours' otherwise it usually revolved around guild roleplay. It was quite mixed but trolls were by far the most popular race for my server. I would recommend making an Alliance character just because.

The second question is for everyone - will you RP on Classic Servers? If so, how do you imagine it? What would be the most popular race and spot for Horde

I'm definitely going to RP on classic servers, infact, it's going to be my main spot if the community gets itself together. I imagine it's going to be big at first but as time passes it'll either become small and tight knit, or explode with popularity. It's really hard to tell, the right guilds and people can honestly make a huge difference. Hopefully the old school pillars will come back if they do we'll all be set. As for the most popular? If it's anything like last time it'll go troll > forsaken > orc > tauren. With a huge emphasis on social RP. (Pillars = Pillars of the community. People that enjoy writing storylines and creating roleplay, usually run big guilds.)

Would you be ok if someone used an information we know now but we didn't then? Example: Someone claiming to see a Tol'vir (not necessarily using the name but describing it)

Well look, cool as it might sound that's taboo even in standard roleplay. Generally speaking you have to stick to what your character would know which all depends on who and what they are. Even say, a well traveled magus and senior of the Kirin Tor knows very little about Uldum even with the vast knowledge they possess. We knew the Tol'vir somewhat existed back then because the scourge used them as a unit but it wasn't really elaborated on properly.

How would lack of future events (demon invasions, cataclysm etc) impact your character? If you RP as a hero, would you feel forced to switch to something more common?

It's the community and guilds that make the roleplay, not Blizzard, the vast majority of it is player generated content. Most of time it's just one storyline after the next with social RP inbetween and maybe a realm wide event every now and then. Blizzard events are cool but they actually produce very small amounts of RP by comparison usually in the form of a realm wide campaign that ends after the event, after that everything goes back to normal. Believe me though, the opportunies for RP are endless. There is a lot going on in vanilla. You just need to find the right guild. If the community gets itself together you'll be swamped for choice.

How do you feel about the idea Blizzard is considering - making Hyjal an other Kalimdor & EK zones that were added later playable? I would love to see Silvergale (now Bloodmyst Isle) before Draenei crashed there and interact with Dragonmaw / Wildhammer in Twilight Highlands before Cataclysm hit.

Mixed feelings, I don't trust the current team and I feel a lot of the old school players are very wary that they'll do something which will very negatively impact the game. The people I know barely trusted Blizzards old A team and the new devs have them on edge to put it very politely, I personally wouldn't be opposed but it would depend on what it is, what happens and how they are doing it otherwise I couldn't say. It would be kinda cool to see Hyjal with out it being a smoldering daily quest hub. Only when all other content is exhausted and if it doesn't fundamentally change vanilla, fits with the theme, the gameplay and is true to the setting then we could probably stomach it otherwise it would cause a lot of unsubbing.