Four words: Scan for Roleplay button.
Sometimes if I spot a high level in an area doing dailies, I will whisper them and ask for contact if their TRP matches something I am looking for.
2 Likes
You really just need competent Guild masters from local guilds, that can bring people out for balance and good RP/WPVP, that’s how healthy rivalries and roleplaying happens.
Having healthy guilds, good GMS is the key from a player perspective, server issues over all balance issues - most of it blizzard could fix, if they wanted to.
Phasing ruins everything tbh.
back in FFXIV we have a fellowship called the Wandering Roleplayers where people would place something that was pretty much an advert of their character, where they are and how long they would be there. It was something to promote getting out of the city(mostly Ul’dah’s Quicksand) and while it still kinda suffers the same problem, the premise was a good idea. But like someone else says, phasing can be a problem…
This too. Tbh, sharding/phasing is a huge issue this xpac. I’m constantly disappointed how little use Boralus gets these days.
1 Like
No kidding, i did a test sometime back with some friends, I was standing at one spot in Boralus, so were all my friends… But in all different shards of Boralus, we were not grouped… so 10 different boralus shards.
World organic RP isn’t possible with so much phasing sadly.
Oh man I always forget that’s a thing.
Not all RP is improvised, most outdoor RP is planned ahead. Improvisation, in this instance, happens at a micro scale during these events. Like guild or community happenings.
Improvised RP usually happens along people already in the know, rarely do they RP outside their social circle or comfort zone; which are usually strangers.
Based on your clarification it sounds like maybe you mean impromptu RP.
I’ll be honest, in order for me to engage in world RP, I’d have to see it as an enjoyable thing, and I just… don’t. I’m really, really tired/bored of walkup RP/improptu RP, and it flares up my anxiety, so I’ll just pass.
You could be right. In which case I suppose should we consider World RP impromptu RP?
Honestly I’ve found the only way it works is with friends. Like, meet people in SW and Orgrimmar, then… ask them to do stuff with you.
I do most of my RP on Sarestha in Silverpine Forest, due to the guild I’m in. But you make friends through that sort of thing. So eventually you can be like “Hey who feels like some crossfac RP at booty bay” or something. And boom you’ve got world RP
It’s really difficult to get a lot of people to go out into the world and RP, because if you are playing far away from a major hub, especially without a group of people (i.e. a guild doing an event) you are going to have a much harder time finding RP than you would in the major hub. People just naturally gravitate toward larger crowds because they want more people to see their character.
For example, I played on a Starbound roleplay server called Galaxy Citizen with around 50 players on at peak times back in the day. On this RP server, there was a player-built hub called Horsebutt Inn (yes, that was the actual name). Almost all players who weren’t privately RPing used this hub.
Eventually, the hub burnt to the ground (either to encourage players to RP in a different hub, or in service of the story, IDK, I wasn’t paying attention at the time), but even though it was literally a pile of ash, players kept roleplaying in the burnt ruins of the inn for a few days afterwards. People were just used to being there, and they were worried they wouldn’t get the chance to RP if they went to a different player built area to RP.
People like familiarity, and people like being with lots of other people. So, the best way to get more people to come with you to RP in the open world, is to schedule a big event where many players will be roleplaying (at least in my opinion.)
4 Likes
I met a guild who became a close ally and great friend through a random encounter out in the world. So World RP is something that certainly does happen, and can create extremely meaningful relationships due to the organic nature of it. Its differnt, its out of the norm, its out in the wild. I’ve been close to them every since and it was all because I just decided to be IC while they were out there.
But much of whats being said here is 100% true All the phasing issues make it hard. Familairty make it hard.
And as much as people play this fantasy game where adventure is exploration is the draw, people actually hardly do adventure and exploration (perhaps outside of a guild. And even then…those people might be using it as a proxy for something else.)
A lot people just hang around in the tavern areas. Do the same thing. Meet the same people. A lot of the times that is a start place for other things, but it can get repetitive. But once people start spreading out, the hub goes away, and then people have no where to go to just “hang out”.
Then of course like the anxiety thing was mentioned. Sometimes people who are out in the world are there because they want privacy. You don’t wanna bother people having an important moment in their story, a picnic or uh…anything else. So no one is walked up to unless its made obvious.
And if you thought World RP was bad, If we get character housing, by how the state of the game is what whats provided (and not) I think that would kill world RP all together. I know there are many who would argue that it won’t, but people want housing because of the lack of space or places to go. Everyone is just going to huddle in their homes as hang outs and I feel hubs will be even more empty. But that is just my personal opinion based on the factors of what we have like the competition for empty houses, space in cities and over all privacy.
But World RP, really, just go out with your friends to hang out instead of the city. Pretend you booked an appointment with a mage to send you and your friends somewhere rather then the popular hub. Go hang out in another tavern!
1 Like
I would echo both Leafbweeze and Crowley’s thoughts here.
World RP is unfortunately a challenging proposition given the sheer enormity of thr game world. That combined with consistent use of phasing and sharding? (Which, let’s be honest, does serve its intended purpose in keeping the gameplay of WoW healthy and without too much lag or fighting over quest NPCs/items.) – It’s a very difficult task.
Although Crowley touches on what I think is another large aspect in perpetuating World RP, that being the idea of proxies. Most guilds or organized RP in the open world doesn’t use the space they’re occupying literally. It’s often, in my anecdotal experience and from what I have heard from others, simply a proxy for their own storyline’s location, subzone, etc. Which isn’t a bad thing, don’t get me wrong. Blizzard does not give we RPers many tools to ensure an immersed experience in the open world. The gobbilty-goo of the timeline is already bad enough. (No, I do not consider Chromie Time to be any help for RPing the inconsistent in-game material, although it is a fantastic gameplay addition).
But it can be disheartening when I, random RPer #11, find a group of other RPers out in the open world and stroll up with a hook, or a sentence, or what have you – only to get it in the pink that “Oh, sorry we’re ~Wayne’s World Sound~ not actually here, we’re in .” – Although obviously that’s their business and it’s no one’s responsibility to suddenly twist their RP on a dime to facilitate a newcomer wholly unrelated.
As with anything involving the hobby of RP, I think good interpersonal skills and OOC communication goes a mile past the horizon. (I also think it would be beneficial if people used some of the in-game communication tools more readily and with polite manner to encourage RP. Not everyone is attached to multiple Discord groups to facilitate their RP or memes to build relationships, nor does everyone immerse in social media platforms like Tumblr for these things. I think it would be quite neat if /general was used more, for lack of a better word, aggressively in giving invitations/hooks for other people to come RP. I always thought this could even help move people around more in the social hubs, like Orgrimmar in particular).
I think most people do, that’s why I mentioned it haha.
Kind of relevant, but how does this work with Chromies timewalking? I guess with low levels it will become a bit more of a challenge?
Yes hello someone said World RP? Come to Duskwood, we have dusk, and wood.
Real talk, Thomas has been nothing but world RP and word of mouth over the last seven months I’ve rp’d him, and I’ve met over a hundred unique characters if my TRP directory is to be trusted. World RP definitely is a thing, not a huge thing, but a thing.
But this is very true, I’ve dedicated myself to being the Duskwood random encounter. It’s an rp style that I seriously enjoy, but it’s not for everyone. It requires patience and the ability to, as Vannadrel put it, play with yourself. But I can attest, if you put your heart and mind to the challenge, you’ll have fun.
This really depends on how it’s implemented. FFXIV player housing is a massive boost to roleplay. People build homes specifically as public venues and advertise them in the party finder every night. You’ll always be able to find some random home to go to that’s open to the public and probably full of new people. Taverns, dance clubs, brawl houses, etc. are all common and welcome. I own a botany-themed bar that is always open at any time for people who want a venue, and it feels great to have that hard work of decorating it be useful.
However, that’s with the addendum that FFXIV does not use instanced housing. It’s open wards with many homes in each (and sometimes the wards themselves are used for events). This is great for RP! But it does create the issue of limited housing space, and getting a spot on one of the RP servers is downright dire. Instanced housing would solve this and allow anyone a home, but would absolutely kill RP. So, you end up with two factions, one who really wants instanced homes and others that really want to keep wards.
I tend to be in the latter. Wards own, and as frustrating as it was getting a spot, I think there are better ways to ensure parity in getting a spot than just straight instancing everything. Garrisons really shot down random and walk-up RP for a time if you weren’t in a dedicated group, and you couldn’t advertise an open space without having to form several parties for large events.
So, it can be really good for encouraging places outside of Org/SW, but, man, I really wouldn’t want instanced player housing as someone with little interest in a guild and preferring random events out in the world.
2 Likes
I don’t think the major problem is with getting people out there, it’s with some of the people. They don’t really want to do open world RP, they’d like to hang out in the cities, ironically enough, the roleplayers who want to do lewd things to one another are probably engaging in the most open world RP, LMAO.