Goldshire in World of Warcraft is fun, especially on roleplay realms. But one thing MeinMMO demon Cortyn finds utterly disgusting there.
I like my realm in World of Warcraft. “The Aldor” is a roleplay realm where a lot of RP still takes place. On “The Aldor” there are:
- Annual events like the wool fair with hundreds of visitors
- actively played mage guilds
- warlock circles
- gangs of thieves
- more noble houses than in Game of Thrones
It doesn’t matter if you actively participate in the RP or just read along and enjoy the atmosphere. I feel really comfortable on the realm. It is simply the best RP realm.
At least most of the time.
However, there is one area in almost all roleplay realms that some see with humor, others with a shrug, and still others with pure disgust. But especially in recent years, disgust prevails. Because what you get to read there has no place in World of Warcraft or any other game.
It’s about “roleplay” in Goldshire and playing childlike characters.
But let’s start from the beginning.
The last exit to more amusing, lighter topics:
Goldshire – the swinger club of World of Warcraft
What is Goldshire actually? Goldshire is basically a small place in World of Warcraft in the Elwynn Forest, the starting area of the humans. There are a handful of quests here, and most heroes pass by here a few times early on and then never return.
On roleplay realms, however, it is different. Goldshire usually carries a nickname in the community, such as “Pornshire”.
The reason for this is that characters and players gather in Goldshire at all hours of the day and night, who clearly have sexually connoted RP flags.
At the same time, RP flags are used to recognize other roleplayers as such. Because anyone with an RP flag is very likely engaging in RP and can therefore be “approached”.
There is a succubus by the fire wanting to seduce paladins, a “Draenei mare” looking for “human slaves for her harem” or a Kaldorei femboy searching for a strong man for the night. Night elves in scant clothing are lined up against the railing as if ordered and not picked up, someone is dancing on the tables, and a horde player jumps into the crowd with a “kek” and kills all the NPCs.
You may find this inappropriate, silly, or funny – or you might be one of those who enjoy such things and usually spend time whispering about it.
I don’t even have a problem with that. For some, erotic RP is part of roleplaying, and for some, that’s even the only content they engage with. I know many roleplayers who usually engage in quite “normal”, mass-appealing RP and still have a character in Goldshire. That doesn’t bother me because it’s practically “separate” from the rest of the realm in Goldshire. Anyone who goes there knows what’s up – and those who really don’t know will understand it after a maximum of 10 minutes.
A visit to Goldshire can indeed be amusing. If we finish our raid a bit early, we pilgrimage to the little village and read out the most entertaining or funniest flags in Discord while collectively sinking into secondhand embarrassment. It’s usually silly, but often funny.
But now we come to the thing that makes all of this no longer funny or acceptable:
Children.
Underage characters with a clear purpose
Because while browsing through the various flags, you repeatedly see characters described either passively as “quite young” or who explicitly and unambiguously have a young age.
There is nothing fundamentally wrong with child characters in roleplay. Occasionally, they are played out in the roleplay day-to-day. After all, there are some RP characters that have existed for almost 20 in-game years. These roleplay characters have since started families, and so the next generation is being played out as well. So this is fundamentally nothing reprehensible.
However, it is a completely different matter once this occurs in the context of Goldshire. Because Goldshire has its reputation for good reason – it is simply a place where roleplay with sexual themes is sought.
Would you like a few examples?
While writing this article, I placed myself as a rogue in Goldshire and in just two hours these things jumped out at me:
- A “12-year-old who is on the run from her abusive stepfather”, with a request for “someone to play her evil stepfather”.
- A “little sweet boy with a cute face, with whom you can do quite a bit”.
- A “small boy of 1.20 meters who wants to experience the world and its pleasures”.
I feel sick.
The problem is the test accounts and powerlessness
Even though I generally consider test accounts a good thing in World of Warcraft, in this case they are a problem: Because test accounts cost nothing, are limited to level 20, yet can fully participate in RP activities as long as they occur in a private chat like “whisper” or “group”.
At the same time, these test accounts are generally completely detached from the main accounts. This means that even if an account gets banned, it has almost no consequences for the offenders. One simply creates a new account and endlessly repeats the whole cycle.
What particularly bothers me is this powerlessness. While there has long been an option to report players for the content of their flags (which is a bit more complicated than a normal report), that alone does not help. Because most descriptions are formulated so “neutrally” that the wording alone would not be a reason to impose a penalty. The fact that a character is “young” or “looks cute” is not in itself a reason for punishment.
It is the combination of “someone is roleplaying a child here” and “this is happening in Goldshire”, which makes it absolutely clear what is going on. You see these characters and know that they exist in a place like Goldshire so that someone can act out pedophilic fantasies under the guise of roleplay.
Even if a ban is eventually imposed – nothing is gained from it. The next test account is created in 20 seconds and the disgust resumes.
I can’t look away, no matter how much I want to
I know that some of you will be thinking “Oh, that’s just fantasy” or “What does it matter to you if you can’t see their RP” – but it’s not that easy for me. Just knowing that such things happen on “my” realm creates an indescribable disgust in me.
Knowing that my otherwise beautiful realm has such a disgusting dark side sometimes makes me completely lose joy in World of Warcraft. I can’t block it out. I know it exists and I know that there’s currently no good way to prevent a few from living out their pedophilic inclinations and fantasies there.
I hate it. I really hate it. Deeply. And I wish Blizzard would actively put an end to it with all their might. Because it doesn’t just cast a disgusting shadow over the otherwise beautiful, fulfilling, and creative hobby of roleplaying, but also on the realm that I have called my home for almost 18 years. And yet The Aldor brings forth so much great stuff.
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