Why dont you play on a RP-server?

[Al Gorefiend]

You did not quite read that correctly.

I said I want minimal social interaction. I'm all for playing with other people - I just don't want to talk to them or socialize with them. I want to, you know, play.

This is the sentiment I feel as well. Can't say I've ever made a long lasting relationship with someone I met online. Never felt the interest to! I rarely chat in game and filter my social to off. I appreciate the social aspect of MMOs but with a virtual 6 ft stick..
Sometimes I get little spurts of pent up socializing energy, which kinda feels like being hungry except up in my brain, I usually exhaust it with a few rounds of MMO-C

[Celista]

I do. I play on Moon Guard.

This is why I love Moon Guard! I remember there was a player who crowned herself Queen of Lordaeron (Madelynne) and it caused quite an uproar lol. I wish the game had more built in support for RPers.

[Rocksteady 87]

I find it amusingly ironic how much this thread perfectly exemplifies the reasons I avoid RP servers.

The genuinely hilarious thing is that the people like you replying in this thread is precisely why WoW has such a fucking toxic community. You people are the problem with the game.

But... powerful Dunning-Kruger rationalizations incoming in response.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

The genuinely hilarious thing is that the people like you replying in this thread is precisely why WoW has such a fucking toxic community. You people are the problem with the game.

Your lack of awareness is outstanding.

[Big Thanks]

Your lack of awareness is outstanding.

To be fair everyone is "you people" this, "you people that" i just wanted to promote RP servers in a funny way.

[Relapses]

To be fair everyone is "you people" this, "you people that" i just wanted to promote RP servers in a funny way.

The othering is coming from the RPers who are weirdly offended by players simply answering a question you asked. I don't look down on RPers. I love RPers. I just think there's a certain level of RP extremism prevalent on RP servers to which I'd prefer not to be exposed. Not because I see RPers as lesser beings; but because I'm looking to get a different experience from the game than they are. I have no idea how that can be seen as "toxic," but to each their own.

[Big Thanks]

The othering is coming from the RPers who are weirdly offended by players simply answering a question you asked. I don't look down on RPers. I love RPers. I just think there's a certain level of RP extremism prevalent on RP servers to which I'd prefer not to be exposed. Not because I see RPers as lesser beings; but because I'm looking to get a different experience from the game than they are. I have no idea how that can be seen as "toxic," but to each their own.

Oh maybe is different on US
In EU Argent Dawn...i would say there is a MAJOR part that is completely off character (non roleplayers OOC's) community.
Trade chat at least is a complete mess of OOC.
And i encounter many people OOC too.

But cant be quite sure.

I never got scolded by a roleplayer so far :O

[Relapses]

Oh maybe is different on US
In EU Argent Dawn...i would say there is a MAJOR part that is completely off character (non roleplayers OOC's) community.
Trade chat at least is a complete mess of OOC.
And i encounter many people OOC too.

But cant be quite sure.

I never got scolded by a roleplayer so far :O

It's not much different in the US. The only place any real RP happens is on Moon Guard at the Goldshire Inn and it's exclusively of the erotic variety. I've met a few Moon Guardians through the LFG and they were pretty reasonable; one of them had a macro that had their character making chibi faces in /s when they pressed cooldowns.

[Flame6]

i dont play on one because none of that interests me and I don't want to ruin their experience.

[Magistrate]

The othering is coming from the RPers who are weirdly offended by players simply answering a question you asked. I don't look down on RPers. I love RPers. I just think there's a certain level of RP extremism prevalent on RP servers to which I'd prefer not to be exposed. Not because I see RPers as lesser beings; but because I'm looking to get a different experience from the game than they are. I have no idea how that can be seen as "toxic," but to each their own.

I haven't RPed for years, but I continue to play on WRA (ED before that). I have friends on Moonguard and some others.

Me and a friend talked about this for like two hours a couple weeks ago and ultimately we basically agreed that RP servers function as social microcosms and are subject to the same recursive issues social groups do in RL.

Adherence to hegemonic concepts of acceptable lore, headcanon, in-universe politics, RPer seniority, and some other things essentially stand in for social/ethical/moral norms/values.

Some RP servers have really entrenched hegemony (certain community/guild leaders which select who gets to participate in events, which, when this is played out over years, creates communities that think/behave according to the same viewpoints).

Some RP servers also mix in-universe and RL politics, so that if you're RPing a villain that has some depth beyond "I'm a pirate" or something, their non-RP social interactions apply the moral judgment of your RP character to you, specifically, and they can sometimes just chase you off the server.

For instance, I had a friend that tried to RP a reformed Forsaken who had worked with the Scarlet Crusade (he no longer did), but the bigger RP server community leaders really did not like it and hounded him with rings of in-groups in trade saying that that meant the Scarlet Crusades problematic villain decisions were acceptable to him personally and that he advocated for them. RP guilds that accepted him got cut off from certain server RP events, and also became complicit "fascists," etc. Even if he hadn't been "reformed," it is still weird.

There's many people really invested in these server RP communities. People who have been doing it for decades. So, they're really 1) dependent on the social engagement such communities offer, 2) comforted by the familiarity of the lore, headcanon, and social standards they've established, and 3) know everyone who operates on most levels of RP.

The closest analog I can think of is one of the churches I went to as a kid. The church board, head deacon, and pastor were all the same people for like 30 years. They detested instruments besides the piano and any aesthetic deviations from what they had come to cherish about their weekend event. Worship team people, small group leaders, youth group leaders, etc., would all get bullied out of time slots to use certain church spaces, have presence in the regular church events (Christmas stuff, Easter stuff, Sunday service), and would get denied funding. I can understand where they're coming from, but it was, in my opinion, really toxic, and the in-group/out-group politics of some RP servers feel very similar.

I don't think any of this is because any of these people are bad people. I think it's because overtime in-groups undergo a recursive power hierarchy glitch that warps how we see each other and distorts what we deem as acceptable.

[NekoOwlAzure]

The genuinely hilarious thing is that the people like you replying in this thread is precisely why WoW has such a fucking toxic community. You people are the problem with the game.

But... powerful Dunning-Kruger rationalizations incoming in response.

The obnoxity of those types of people that are up and full of themselves in WoW is the problem with the game yes. And when I knew what they were gonna say, it's pathetic, and their way of acting is NOT why I ever joined this game. So goodbye to them.

[glowpipe]

Because I have zero interrest in roleplaying?

[NekoOwlAzure]

The obnoxity of those types of people that are up and full of themselves in WoW is the problem with the game yes. And when I knew what they were gonna say, it's pathetic, and their way of acting is NOT why I ever joined this game. So goodbye to them.

They are the type of people that say "umad" "git gud". Like bye basement dwellers. I don't think you have to be a nerd just for playing this game, I've always thought well what if I wanna play but don't wanna be that? Don't want that label, like I played this game for the surreal, not to be a nerd or to be thought of as that for playing it etc, but maybe those types are where that comes from, the ones that ruin it with elitists, numbers, addons, gear etc. I always thought that label was bs, but then again I've never been the one that think the gear system and heirlooms is good etc, that did /laugh in pvp unless it was to attack someone who did seem to have the belief of doing that. Or think that the gear system in raids is good, or that having to select certain talents or suck instead of being able to be versatile as anything is good either.

[Celista]

Because I have zero interrest in roleplaying?

I had an alt on Moon Guard and I rarely roleplayed, but I liked being around it. It made being in cities much more enjoyable. The game felt more alive.

Just my $0.02.

[Arikara]

OT: I should have been. Those servers are the only place where people are still sane.

But that speaks more to the degeneracy that has grown everywhere else. It's always about efficiency, rush-rush-rush, and addons that play the game for you. And the gold-sellers and raid carry trash. Consumerist weaklings.

Wasn't always like that.

[Manhands]

I was one of those "I just want to play the game" players for years: skipping all story and cinematics, keeping social to a minimum, and instead focusing on min/maxing the gameplay. But you know what happened? I realized I wasn't actually having much fun. The feeling of accomplishment was sometimes fun, but overall, I felt the game was missing something. Then I made some friends who were excellent at gameplay but ALSO were excellent at rp. I was bad at it. And it dawned on me that the reason I pretended I hated to play a role was because I wasn't good at it. I didn't want to embarrass myself.

Not saying the above is true for you, but if you get anxiety at the thought of roleplaying because you worry you're going to embarrass yourself, then this isn't about rp; its about insecurity. And rp'ers are wonderfully understanding. You'll probably end up having a good time. But you do you.

[Neuroticaine]

Who cares what's cool, it's world of warcraft.

Maybe I am just roleplaying, that I am a caustic asshole to everyone around me? I seen wars and demons and shit..

You know what? That actually reminds me when I first started playing back in early TBC and I was in Elwynn Forest and a Draenei was in general chat roleplaying someone who got brain damage from the crash of the Exodar... That was actually pretty fun.

[Coidon]

I played on RP servers last couple of years because I wanted to be my character & be in another world but I did not want any RP besides that.
I think only 1 EU RP server has any RP.
There was just as much spacebar abuse as on pve servers so I gave it a rest, which is a shame because WoW was stronger than any psychiatric pill. I considered Azeroth to be my real home.

I love being evil in SWTOR but the only ting I can come up with how someone can do something as sick & weird and harass and bully another real player is that they are total shit in the head, a big mean child, being on a RP realm didn't help. You'd caught me dead before I'd bully'd someone yet it is what I faced every time I logged in in the seminal years. take care now.

[Tarx]

I play now and then on Silvermoon EU is a full rp server I like you can find people everywhere. But the problem is there no good pvpers or pvers which is a big part of wow gaming.

[ravenholm019]

PVP servers are PVE servers because it's have blue mode.