I mean personally as much as I hated BFA it did provide a well of RP ideas for me.
The Forsaken refugee crisis, suring up defenses in other Lordaeron territories, trying to install a puppet government in Raven’s Hill so a base could be established under the cemetery to launch counter attacks in case Stormwind tried to invade weakened Forsaken territory, diplomatic maneuvering with Kaldorei organizations because they weren’t really a threat to Lordaeron and so on.
BFA was bad but it had some ideas you could work with. SL is pretty great so far but in terms of undead RP ideas all I got so far is
“Let’s get buddy buddy with Dracula and Acecerak because they gotta know something useful to us”.
I’m not saying it can’t provide ideas, or that my flippant description of what was being sold to me is the absolute limit of what I could have done. What I’m saying is that the world as presented does an abysmal job of convincing me that I should want to RP in that environment. It’s demoralizing, and that demoralization drove people from RP. It’s one of the two big reasons why, as I and others have discussed, the big Night Elf RP guilds that we knew from the past just aren’t around anymore, and why I and the lions share of RPers that I knew, some of whom I continue to keep in contact with, left the franchise, many of them for good.
This is not a possibilities conversation - this is an appeal-of-the game conversation, and I bring this up once again because of the mimesis effect - or the subconscious tendency to role play characters even among those who aren’t as deliberate about it as we are. Those feelings of demoralization, based on that effect, trickle into the general population, and I lay all this out to illustrate the flaws in the product that potential solutions need to address.
If we agree that BFA is bad then, it makes no sense to me to say “oh, but if you imagine this that and the other thing, it’s not that bad!”. It’s the lipstick on a pig answer that doesn’t even try to cut to the core issue.
I mean, I think BfA being horrible when it comes to storytelling is the only thing can seem to agree on. But, like you, I have a ton of RP ideas for my forsaken. She’s working for Ardenweald to you know, prove not all forsaken want to blight the world and raise everyone like she was. While also helping the vulpera and such settle in Orgrimaar and shore up defensive positions they do have left the EK.
But when it comes to BfA, I personally try not to dwell on it too much. It’s easier when you ignore it.
I guess. Just seems like your characters let Slyvanas win there.
Losing UC and Brill was a blow to Forsaken RP to be sure, as most of their other zones are phasing land mines. But we adapted. SFK’s overworld interior has actually really grown on me and I’ll probably continue to use it even if Tirisfal gets all patched up.
Dire Maul’s mostly accessible and all that empty space can be a blank canvas to hang guild flags.
See, this is weird to me. Sylvanas didn’t create this situation - the game master did. They showed up and created this awful situation and then started to wax poetic about what their other pet characters were doing and how they felt about it.
I and my friends got up and left, because the game wasn’t fun anymore.
That’s where we are. The Game Master’s crappy self-insert all powerful villain figurine isn’t the extent of the issue here. The Game Master’s choices are.
I’m just saying I played the hand I was dealt. If you decided to just leave the table then that’s your prerogative. I’m not saying that was the wrong move, this is a game feel free to check out if you don’t like the DM. But I am saying you could work with it. I know Kaldorei guilds that did.
I mean, if you want to play a crappy hand, fine, but that’s not a convincing reason for me not to fold and move on to something that actually would be entertaining. That’s the heart of this - you’re trying to tell me that I should look for reasons to see this whole thing as better than it appears rather than trying to show me how it actually is appealing.
Most of my RP fun is derived from user made content that is at most tangentially related to the overarching narrative. That was true of Legion as well, and continues to be in SL.
I think WoW is best used as a sandbox to tell your own stories. Blizz is a schizophrenic DM who changes the whole story because he saw a cool movie over the weekend and now wants the plot to be all about a bad rip off version of it. That’s why I don’t use them as a DM. I walked over to an empty table in the same store and just did other stuff with cool people I met there.
It’s only night elf fans that are told “Get over it and play the hand you are dealt” when we are upset over something.
You have legions of Horde players that complain about how the story has ruined their interest in the game, and aside from from the Hardcore Stormwind Alliance Player, people sympathize with that.
Nelf players say the same thing, and it’s “Get over it” and usually tied to some kind of braindead Teldrassil Campfire joke.
Edit: For the record, Myself and my guild did play the hand we were dealt. We were one of the few Kaldorei guilds who did. But when an entire community vanishes in the span of a single expansion, that is a problem with the game, not the community.
And what are we supposed to do other than get over it?
As I said in this very thread I am at peace with Blizz’s craptastic treatment of the Forsaken. Because duck it. Yelling at other players isn’t exactly going to fix anything and hey at least there’s a floating skull fortresses and vampire parties to play around with.
I’m not sure where you get “yelling at other players” from.
I’m trying to highlight an issue, and illustrate one of the effects of that issue. I’m drawing a circle around one of the negative effects of the story that Blizzard presented as part of a larger argument for change. My opponents necessarily are taking the opposite position - that these negative effects are not there, and that nothing needs to change. It’s either that or they’re confused about what they’re arguing against.
Let the Horde come to terms with the villain card, because this opens up opportunities for RP. You can use any weapon - but you cannot win. Royale of heroes, stupidity of your workers - whatever you want to make the Alliance win. But rejoice! You have an RP that is not limited by a rigid moral code (Does not allow for the role of a hero)!
Rejoice, because a variety of characters is available to you! What difference does it make that every day you have a coup, do not care that your rituals and practices are cruel and disgusting, do not care that you have no excuse. But you have a complete deck of character cards! And a whole book of villain action! An unrestricted hero book that doesn’t even have a dark hero feature. More precisely, there is, but even it makes you incompetent (what haven’t been done before?) Or not friendly (oh, are there lizards in the jungle?). You will consistently live and be punished.
But live! You will not even be killed beyond measure, and the punishment is purely moral. But what is morality for a free RP?
In addition to being told I am a bad person who should feel bad. Because liking a spooky cartoon zombie race is evidence I’m a genocide apologist IRL to the sort of people who have difficulty differentiating WoW from reality.
