The Troll Hunter

Greetings and a happy November! This month’s first post leaves me a little torn on the subject of role playing (RP) on my current server because honestly it’s just not there anymore. So the question is do I just delete my FlagRSP addon and just start to focus more on raiding & PvP, or do I just carry on in hopes that role playing will somehow make a comeback?

For those of you who have just dropped by for the first time and have no clue what I’m talking about, let me explain a little. The WoWWiki definition of Roleplaying is as follows: “Roleplaying (RP), or Role Playing, in World of Warcraft means taking on the role of a character and acting it out in-game through emotes, /say, /yell, and sometimes other channels. Players may also participate in roleplay outside the game by posting on blogs, wikis, or forums (official or otherwise). Roleplaying has similarities to improvisational theater, with the participants acting out characters in unscripted situations. The character’s personality, goals, morals, and quirks may resemble that of the player or be completely different. Regardless, roleplayers recognize a boundary between what is in character and what is out of character.”

Some role players also use different addons like FlagRSP, MyRolePlay, & Immersion RP so that other role players can mouse over their character and get a little bit of a description and/or backstory on the character. This in some ways can help “break the ice” so to speak when it comes to initiating RP, but again it can also lead to “Godmoding” in some cases too. Here’s a little example of what you would see if you moused over The Troll Hunter’s RP addon: “Standing at 7′3″ and weighing 260 lbs., he has the figure of a normal sized troll and the spirit of an Orc. His toned body and fast reflexes make him remarkable in battle and his quick thinking usually saves his butt in the end. You’ll hardly ever see him without wearing his battle gear with the exception of when he is riding his hog or out fishing.” So basically if I was reading this character’s backstory it would tell me that he likes to PvP (gear description), and he likes to ride his Mechano-Hog & fish too.

On Warcraft though (at least on my server), the Role Playing crowd has dwindled down to where it’s now almost non-existent. If you’re a Horde player the only place that you’re going to find any RP going on is in Silvermoon City and usually that ends up being 90% OOC (Out of character), or the 12 y/o “Hot Chat” whispers start to fly. *sigh* And of course you’re always going to find the occasional RP basher around to, but that’s what the /ignore function is for.

Another problem to that I seem to run into trying to initiate RP in Silvermoon is that I find that the Blood Elf players really hate trolls a lot. I don’t know whether this is a “I art thou a uppity ass Blood Elf “and I’m better than you attitude, or if it’s that “Dey’ just not be understanding di’ lingo mon?’ Either way it can be very frustrating at times.

I’ll have to agree with Falconesse when she says: “RP happens with you, not to you. And it doesn’t happen “at” other people. You can’t really RP at someone else without annoying or boring them. If their character isn’t involved, they’ll lose interest quickly.”

Anna over at Too Many Annas also says this: “Each new RPer is a risk though, because sometimes you run into a bad egg. And some nights, you get lucky enough to have a not-so great experience with one new person and a fantastic experience with another one.”  Well put!!

I think what it all boils down to (at least from my point of view), is that I chose to play on an RP realm and rolled a Troll a few years back because I liked their carefree attitudes. So no matter how bad I think the RP may be there,  I still need to play my character the way he should be played in the World of Warcraft. In my humble opinion if others don’t be liking us trolls or da’ way we be talkin’, then I guess it’s just their loss anyway.

So to answer the question to RP or not RP? Sure! I’m not giving up that easily, maybe I can make a little difference on my realm too?

As always your comments are always welcome, take care, enjoy your week and ‘May Da Spirits be Wit’ Joo!’

((The Troll Hunter is a duel specced 0/57/14 Marksmanship and a 0/15/56 Survival hunter who plays on a RP-PVP server, he talks funny because this is how trolls are supposed to speak in a role-playing environment.))