Anyone who has ever been on an RP server in World of Warcraft knows that these people often do not understand fun. But why is that?
Atmosphere leeches harm roleplaying
For most players of World of Warcraft, roleplaying is a book with seven seals. RPers are a strange fringe phenomenon that simply behaves oddly and sometimes surprisingly hostile.
But why are roleplayers on their own servers often so terribly dismissive towards those who do not share their passion and love for embodying their avatars? This can basically be explained quite easily: It is a simple protective mechanism.
Roleplaying thrives on a vibrant world where as many other RPers as possible wander about. This “beautiful, perfect world” is gradually destroyed when more and more players join a roleplaying server who have nothing to do with roleplaying, but are only “here because of the nice atmosphere”. On the one hand, that is of course understandable: RP realms usually have a somewhat elevated linguistic style because roleplayers generally place a high value on spelling and are somewhat allergic to abbreviations. A “Let’s take off to deal with the witch” sounds much better than “lfm pvp-m8s, warlocks ganken“.
When all else fails, we become mean…
Most of the time, attempts are made to convert lost souls: Because anyone who is not a roleplayer can still become one. Some “Xhúntêrkìllôr” turned out to be a perfectly acceptable teammate weeks later.
The problem is those who come to an RP server and have nothing to do with RP. Over the years, it has unfortunately been shown that politely pointing out the wrong server choice does not lead to success. Only one thing has worked relatively long: Ruthless rejection, at least towards the worst troublemakers. Even today, the forum of the realm “Die Aldor” is regarded as a den of nastiness. Only a few still know the origins of this. Anyone who finds this harsh and unjustified I always like to give the following comparison:
Imagine a tennis team wanting to play on the tennis court. However, the court can only be used to a limited extent because unfortunately, a boxing club has decided to train on the tennis court today.
Exactly like this, RPers feel when everyone else comes with the argument “But I also pay my 13 euros a month!” – Hey, why don’t you play on a server that does not explicitly say “roleplaying”?
… and yet are actually quite nice.
Basically, RPers are also just normal players who prefer a different way of playing. Just like raiders would likely freak out if PvPers could suddenly attack an instance, it bothers us when someone in sparkling armor spams spells and hops through the RP tavern while spamming “olololol”.
Nevertheless, RPers are not so far from the others as one might think. While in PvE people complain about hunters, bad tanks, and AFK healers, roleplayers also suffer from their little problems. The video “Aldor-RP – Chapter 1” from the German Youtuber M.N. Machinimas parodies exactly such issues. From strange character concepts to the eternal “I do better RP than you!” discussion to the creepy figures from Goldshire, the video amusingly shows what roleplayers have to deal with.
I hope this post could help you empathize a little with the “elite, unfriendly, and aggressive” RPers – because behind them are almost always just ordinary, nice people who want to protect what makes them happy. And unlike other groups, they can only do this themselves, as game developers rarely care.
