How to break into the Orgrimmar RP scene?

Wyrmrest Accord
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Is it true that in Orgrimmar, in the Wyvern’s Tail, you are only taken seriously if (a) You have the TRP3 mod and profile, or (b) you’re at least 110?

As a relatively new player in WoW, my poor level 22 orc hunter is completely beneath notice. There are many conversations swirling around the bar, but as usual, there is no way an outsider could become involved in any of it. I’d go somewhere else, but the Valley of Honor in Orgrimmar appears the only reliable collection point for roleplayers outside of Silvermoon, which if anything is even more elitist.

I’m beginning to understand why people fall into the trap of being an obnoxious drunk at the bar - it gets you noticed, even if it’s for all the wrong reasons.

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  1. A mod: Lots if people like transparency. They like to know what they’re getting into. Likewise, they want to be sure that you aren’t some troll. A RP profile addon signals that you are a RPer.

TRP3 is not the only profile mod. XRP and MRP also work. You only need one.

  1. Levels: You might have a hard time finding ongoing plot oriented RP on a low level toon because investment is low. This isn’t to say 110 is a requirement, but that people may be less willing to engage in meaningful RP with a stranger on a new character.

  2. “No one notices me,” Welcome to World of Attention Economycraft where many players want to receive RP attention on their characers but don’t want to concede their attention to others.

The result is people sit in a bubble beside others and do nothing at all.

The best way to get interaction is to start talking directly to people IC. Don’t scene steal or be dramatic, just be cool.

When you give some of your attention currency to another person, that person tends to reciprocate in the form of a mutual RP exchange.

That’s kind of how you do it.

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I wouldn’t so much say that a TRP (or other addon) profile is necessary to be taken seriously – but it does allow others to see that yes, you are an RPer, and probably aren’t going to turn out to be there just to visit the auction house or, as happens sometimes, troll them.

Some players are hesitant to engage very low-leveled characters due to such reasons as having encountered low-level throw-away trolling toons before, as well as other factors. However, most of the people I know don’t care too much about character level, and if you make a good impression then your level shouldn’t matter too much.

It can definitely be hard to break into an environment where people are already engaged! However, one thing I would ask is, are you walking up to others and being turned down, or are you waiting and not being walked up to?

I’ve stood at the side of the road in Silvermoon City a lot. I’ve watched people pass by, thought about flagging them down for RP, and decided not to, because shyness is the devil. If you haven’t tried walking up to a few folks yourself with an RP hook in hand, I’d recommend giving it a shot or three, just to make sure that other people being shy hasn’t been the problem.

This is usually best done with people who aren’t already involved in a conversation, but who seem to be sitting intentionally in an IC setting. If you want to be sure of things before you walk up, it usually doesn’t hurt to send an OOC whisper asking if they’d like a walk-up, either.

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An RP addon makes your life easier, and everyone else’s too! TRP is fine, though if you prefer simplicity, I’d go for XRP or MRP. I’m an XRP user myself.

The level thing has no real bearing on walk up RP though, from what I’ve seen. You don’t need to be level 110 to RP. But as Zandrae said, if you want more plot-focused stuff, a higher level is better… if only because you can visit more places in the world.

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I personally tend not to try to RP until my character is at either the max level or what had been the max level of the last expansion. That’s a personal hangup, though; it’s been quite a while since I’ve encountered somebody who refused RP based on another character’s level.

Getting attention is the trick of course, as everybody wants it, but honestly you’ll go far by just walking up to people, simply because most of the people who desire walkups are too shy to initiate them. A lot of public RP spaces are like wax museums, with people standing around proclaiming “Walkups welcome!” in their addon profiles and not daring to reach out to each other.

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Yeah… personally it’s part of why I simply don’t mention ‘walk ups’ in my profile, as I cannot guarantee I will always be walking up or actually ready to receive a walk up (though I try to be ready for RP at any moment.)

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All of this. These are the biggest factors when it comes to involving yourself in RP, I think - it’s all too common for me to sit around and watch others RP and not do so myself. I don’t expect others to come up to me, but it’s difficult for me to engage with people because I can’t always think of something to say.

Like Zandrae said - all you can do is walk up to people. Be polite, be friendly, and try not to be obnoxious. And -definitely- don’t scene-steal. I’ve been in RPs before with a friend when random friends of theirs will swarm without warning to either of us and shove me out by default. I’ve had this happen with rando’s, too.

Then there are the people who will shove themselves into scenes and dominate -everything going on- by being zany, wacky, and generally unpleasant to be around. I bet a certain someone amongst you knows exactly who I’m talking about, too.

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This! It’s okay to be shy about engaging with strangers. But when people don’t interact with a quiet character, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re ignoring you or unwilling to engage in RP. Most of the time people won’t engage with quieter characters because (1) the players don’t notice you because you’re not posting stuff or (2) because they’re already in RP and busy writing with others - but that doesn’t mean they won’t engage with you too if you insert your character.

The other thing worth trying is whispering people to ask if you can join an RP. Most people won’t say no.

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Goblin salesman stereotypes walking up to a serious scene and trying to sell people their shoddy inventions are the folks I’ve had the most disruption from.

When I see one approaching I know my RP is about to be derailed. While I choose not to engage, other people I’m playing with might. It’s not uncommon for me to leave a scene because of it.

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Unrelated but I remember you wrote a more detail response in the past about attention economy. I actually took that and shared it with a male friend that was having trouble with dating. Unfortunately they didn’t like this advice or any advice really RIP :woman_shrugging::woman_shrugging::woman_shrugging:

Anyway back @ OP -
I honestly don’t RP with people without an add on. There’s a lot of folks on the server that are not RPers and an add on is the best way to signal to other RPers that’s what you’re here for :woman_shrugging::woman_shrugging::v: You don’t even need to do much with it, you don’t have to bedazzle it to impress people, just having one with a simple mock up hey I’m an orc hunter doing orc hunting things is more than enough :gem::sparkles:

There really isn’t a scene either.

The rest of this is just common social advice but you are new and a stranger walking into a room full of individuals that have established social connections. This doesn’t make them “elitist” or “a scene” that you are being excluded from. They have connections, whether it’s from being in the same guild or similar guilds in the past or something else. Another is by putting in the time, some of the RPers you see are simply regulars that consistently log on and RP in the area. Eventually establishing connections with the various other consistent RPers over time.

You’re gonna need to quash this idea of a “scene” or people being “elitist”. This does nothing but create mental and social barriers for things that don’t exist.

Yes, you might run into a few jerks and you might come across a few groups not interested in bringing a new face in. Perhaps they’re in the midst of a story and just don’t have the energy to onboard a new stranger for some reason or another. Perhaps they RP their character as a jerk or their character has some hang ups and you caught them at a bad time. Sometimes people are just jerks and not worth your time too. Yet the idea that there is a scene needs to go away.

Anyway get an RP addon.

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Go ahead and walk on up to one of the many socially awkward individuals loitering around the major RP hotspots and voila, you’ll either A) Find some RP, or B) Meet someone you’ll want to avoid in the future.

Rinse and repeat until you either rip your hair out and go back to doing other things with your time or meet some good people with whom you can routinely develop storylines.

Versa touched on this already but, at least for me, REPETITION is what has been most effective. Just walking around and RPing with people in Stormwind a few days a week gets me ‘noticed.’ Not directly, but it shows I’m actively engaging other RPers and carving out a small piece of this living hell for myself. As a result, I get more regular RP.

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An add-on not only flags you as an RPer, but helps people to know potentially how to approach your character and what visual queues they should be aware of before engaging with you. For example, if you walk up to someone and your character is supposed to be disfigured in a way that others would immediately notice, nobody will know without you having a profile or attempting to awkwardly whisper someone prompts and backstory before you engage them. The profile sets a ton of groundwork before the RP even starts. It’s usefulness really cannot be overstated.

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As a new player to the roleplay aspect of the game, I can say that I learned a lot from this thread.

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I knew a fellow back when I lived in Texas who used to talk about it in the context of online gaming. I think he gave a talk at GDC one year about it.

I look at it more from the frame of view of RP interaction. A lot of the concepts are similar.

As time has gone on I’ve begun considering the flow of attention in RP groups as a predictor of group health and longevity.

I hypothesize that a group where there’s a sustained attention inequity between members will develop a discontent member base which ultimately leads to drama and/or group death.

I also hypothesize that sustained inequity in RP interaction in and of itself can be a red flag to certain types of abuse playertype.

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gee i wonder why he had trouble dating

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Yep, there’s also a reason (many) why we’re not really friends anymore :woman_shrugging::thinking::fire:

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I’m sorry that happened.

F to pay respects.

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SLAMS THE F KEY UNTIL MY KEYBOARD BREAKS IN HALF!!

Anyway, just wanted you to know I thought your Attention Economy from way back whenever was a very good written piece. I had forgot all about that until it was brought up again :sparkles:

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Thank you. :peacock:
Eventually I’ll finish rewriting all of those things.

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My attempt to install TRP3 ended badly, but that’s subject for another discussion.

Judging for the responses, I’m guessing that about half the RPers are not interested in interacting with someone who lacks an add-on with profile.

That’s useful to know, since it gives me an idea of my basic odds - until I can find an add-on with technical info about installation/deinstallation for someone with NO prior experience with WoW add-ons.

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