Blizzard,
- Thank you for acknowledging the topic, that is better than nothing.
- Introducing an RPPVP ruleset down the road is awful. So right now people are forced to plant their roots somewhere because they don’t have the home they want and deserve, just to uproot and move over? Would it be a fresh start server or start everyone at level 1 with however many months of post-release content and new raids added?
- From Aggrend’s statement I strongly disagree with using Anniversary and SoD as a sample for Forever. They are incompatible.
- Many RPers invest a tremendous amount of time into their characters bringing them to life. RP progression in many cases takes years of development. SoD and Anniversary had the perception of not being permanent. SoD was opened as a seasonal experience. Anniversary was opened as another cycle of rapid expansions with more and more people quitting with each new content update and the exact same treadmill as Classic.
- So yes, of course a lot of RPers didn’t want to start, level, write and develop a character that has a short expiration date.
- Forever is advertised literally as forever, eternal, with continuously new content added and active development. A fresh start that isn’t the same treadmill and doesn’t have an expiration date will attract far more RPers than any prior iteration of the game.
- There is clearly a large community that wants RPPVP, and right now they are truly homeless when they should be moving into their forever home. No offered ruleset will realistically give them the experience so many people want.
- RPPVPers trying to RP on a PvP realm will have to deal with every toxic part of WoW. Ridiculous immersion breaking names and behavior. Anyone trying to RP on a PvP megaserver will be harassed, trolled and griefed endlessly by “{name removed}” and “{name removed}”. They’ll receive this behavior from same-faction players in safe hubs, and if they leave those hubs they’ll receive that behavior from the opposing faction. Behavior like this even still happens from non-RP communities in retail coming to RP servers and griefing. The behavior will be exasperated by it being a megaserver with everyone on Azeroth where the hubs are packed full of non-RPers and streaming communities.
- RPPVPers on the RP ruleset will have to deal with the impossibility of having a dangerous and fair world. The immersion breaking sight of countless enemy faction characters running through what SHOULD realistically be a contested area. And they can definitely elect to remain flagged at all times, but 90% of any world fights they have will be at a severe disadvantage. What most often than not will happen is people will only flag when they have the numbers, and since they’re not flagged they will always have the ability to group up, position, coordinate and always have the opener on people that are already flagged. Ultimately the experience will lack what they desire, and the cheap imitation they try to force into it will be needlessly frustrating and devoid of any real immersion. Nothing like a fierce Warrior of the Horde having to ignore all the enemy players in Horde territory, and to just… stand there and let several Alliance group up and buff up to 3v1 him.
It took 22 years to get a Classic+/fresh launch of World of Warcraft with new experiences in the game. This is likely the ONLY opportunity these communities will have to make a permanent home in the game that appeals to them without all the baggage of retail. Saying no to RPPVP on LAUNCH is hammering in the final nail in the coffin of this entire community of your game.
Forever is completely unprecedented for World of Warcraft, if ever there was a time to give us an honest chance of making RPPVP our home, the time is now. Not 6 months from now. And if it fails? If somehow your perceptions of SoD and Anniversary apply to Forever, then we made the beds we begged for ourselves.
Please just give us a chance. If it doesn’t work now, it never will, and we can put the topic to rest. Don’t pull the plug on a passionate community that has existed since 2005. If it’s no for now, it’s no Forever.