Krytara already took a stand for themselves but to add: I think posters should be able to post honestly about their WrA experiences in the past. WrA is experiencing a resurgence due to honest conversations about its past and pitfalls, not by sweeping things under the rug because we don’t like to hear them.
I understand the tireless energies involved with pushing roleplay initiatives and how crushing it can sometimes feel when you read about a negative experience when all you want is growth and people to feel good, but invalidating people’s lived experiences denies WrA both its history and learned growth.
Anyway, as for SMC, it’s not its previous walk-up status but there are groups who still play in the city. Come Midnight and the hinted changes, it may be even moreso of a cross-faction hub but that future currently rests in the hands of Blizzard’s design team.
I hope not, we’ve lost enough cities. Come Midnight, I’d love if Silvermoon’s docks were expanded, city updated to reflect sin’dorei culture after the Sunwell’s restoration, add a shal’dori embassy or maybe a few Suramar-inspired structures to reflect their close relationship, and perhaps add some sort of exiled underground community as far from the Lightwell as possible where ren’dorei are barely tolerated.
Oh, and also no longer be phased behind a dated Burning Crusade loading screen with no flying.
Oh absolutely. But there’s a world of difference in tone between:
“I haven’t seen any in the past couple of years.”
and an abrupt
“Nonexistent.”
Anyway, the point of this thread isn’t to continue this particular discussion. Krytara had already signed out and I hadn’t replied to her for the same reason. The point is, there’s RP in the community and growing, and also Vanndrel’s sense of humor is superior.
I disagree. It’s still an invalidation of someone’s lived WrA experience by policing their tone.
The point is, let people talk freely about their positive or negative experiences on WrA. It’s better for us as a server to know where our missing stairs are than pretending they aren’t or were never there.
Enekie also can give out negativity permits if she feels so inclined.
As long as I’ve been on both MG and WrA–since about 2010 or so with sporadic breaks–this has just always kind of been a thing.
At its most well intentioned, it’s a plea for positivity and constructive discourse for fear that repeated reinforcement that a location or even a whole faction is "dead’ will cause people to seek greener pastures and eventually it comes true.
But at its most negative, it really does become a case of visitors (or even long-time residents) lamenting difficulty at finding the RP they want, and being directly told hey shut up, lol nobody cares, of course it’s another post that the server is dying, RP is where you make it, nothing is wrong be quiet.
I’ve seen both aspects of this exchange over the years in equal measure, and been involved in both. And I do think that while in this overall discussion everybody involved definitely has positive intent, it’s a situation to be mindful of nonetheless.
My honest thoughts are, if you like organic sometimes chaotic walk up RP then MG-A or WRA-H will be better suited for you based on what faction you play.
We have someone in the guild that tried to give WRA-H RP a go because they really like Blood Elves but the walk up scene was no where near the same as MG-A, so they went back to MG as a VE (IC a Blood Elf) because that’s the place to find the RP they like. It’s their sub.
If you like more story focused/guild/event type RP, then WRA and MG are both suitable choices regardless of faction or even realm now that cross faction/cross realm exist. So find the people you like and get along with.
Do I wish WRA was like it was before BfA, absolutely but it’s just how it be now I guess. I don’t think it’s dead but it’s also not the same as it used to be.
I also think some people are weirdly spiteful and anti MG which honestly doesn’t help make WRA feel welcoming to new people or people from MG give it a try.
There’s a lot of just negative comments on the forums. There’s people who hate on MG. There are people who hate on elves. People who drop in after 5 minutes of gameplay and say the server is dead - both factions. They do no work and look at no guild or event ads, but still complain.
All of those do some damage to the server, and moreso now because as busy as our forums are, they’re still less busy than they used to be. In some ways, that’s not bad because we don’t have some of the obnoxious trolls we’ve had in the past. But in others, it gives more audience to the posts we are presenting.
I’m not the “no negativity in the dojo” person as much as it might seem. I’m a realist. I don’t like pessimism or optimism when they seem unfounded. Years of unchecked “we’re fine” and “MG is for Alliance” posts let us get into the position of having a slim Alliance RP community. And years of “it’s dead” isn’t helping either faction. We all know that WrA isn’t what it once was. No one is debating that.
Now that we realize where we are - we have decent numbers on regular events, hosts, RPers, communities, etc. - we should offer this information in a constructive way so people can see it. It’s important if WrA is going to stay healthy. The alternative is to keep letting posters tell us we’re dying. I’m sorry if this hurts anyone’s feelings, but it’s simply not true. WrA hasn’t passed on yet. We’re not telling the posters to be the change anymore. There are many of us who are already handling that change. We just don’t want the new people to come here, ask how things are and be given a response that sends them to other servers or other games, or discourages them from RPing.
It was awesome to see how busy WrA still feels even with its relative age and after being away for a few years. There’s always quieter hours but during prime-time I’ve seen walk-ups thriving and regular guild-oriented events going on here and there. It’s definitely still vibrant.
That’s quite alright. I’ll be sure to walk around with a rag and wipe up and restore balance to everything your stinky undead touches. It’s the least I can do.
Toxic positivity/negativity both tend to shut down the kind of authentic conversation we need, especially at a juncture like this. WrA is experiencing a resurgence because members of the community have been willing to talk out its shortcomings honestly then work to change them. Real change — and shifting perceptions about that change — takes time, especially for those who aren’t deep in the mix yet.
For my part, after watching my old server fail to rebuild because it couldn’t have real conversations about its shortcomings, I’m determined not to let those habits take root here. WrA has done well so far in walking the line between constructive and destructive dialogue during this mini-renaissance, but I don’t want people to feel like they’ve missed a memo or aren’t part of the “in crowd” just because they share a personally negative past experience — even if me or others feel that WrA isn’t like that anymore. It’s part of its history and we can’t deny it but we can learn and move forward from it.
WrA is growing because so many in the community are working to make change happen — let’s make sure people feel welcomed to witness it, join in, and make new, better memories than what’s happened in the past.
Yes, we’re far from. Having come from an actually dead server, WrA may be smaller than previous years but it’s still extremely active compared to every other RP server. The only server that’s more active is MG and it’s consistent population, momentum, and — let’s face it — infamous ERP scene all lend to its success. This isn’t to crap on Goldshire, it’s to acknowledge its influence on MG activity and partly why that server consistently maintains its popularity while other servers stumbled.
WrA has been making itself into an alternative space to roll once other RP servers have dwindled to nothing. It’s why my guild came here in 2021 and I’d like to encourage more to do the same. No, we don’t have the public ERP scene that MG does and I’m not suggesting we foment one to compete with it… it’s more that I ardently believe that if folks knew there is a viable alternative to MG for Alliance and cross-faction roleplay, they’ll take it.
All that to say: Let’s keep going, we have a lot of work to do.
I posted as Krytara in this thread. After having some time to think about everything said, I have a few more things to say.
First, I sincerely apologize to the OP for causing a topic derailment. I did not intend for that to happen.
Second, as I look back at my original response I can see why it may have been taken in a direction that I didn’t intend for it to. It comes off as being curt when I was just trying to be concise.
Third and as others have better articulated than I’m about to, I believe in a free exchange of opinions and ideas whether they are pleasant or otherwise. If I were to be the OP in this thread, I would not just want to know the “positive” parts I would want to know the whole picture and I don’t want to be inadvertently mislead in the name of positivity.
Lastly, to Kirsy, I genuinely understand where you are coming from and I know how hard you are working to make WrA the best it can be. I know seeing someone like myself come along and speak in opposition of what you are trying to accomplish probably was upsetting and for that I apologize.
No need to apologize. I’m sorry if I came off as militant. I just had different information, and a lot of posters on the forums over the past 2-3 years have been extremely dismissive of WrA RP.
I, for one, am finding it extremely difficult to adapt to the clear lack of chairs for hordies. And, when I try to sit on the logs, in lieu of proper seating, I keep getting splinters and find this quite consternating. Therefore, I naturally blame the elves.
