In the spirit of considering all perspectives and having honest conversations, has the WrA scene on both factions, but specifically Alliance, seen an influx of truly new players? Is the landscape expanding beyond regulars on alts at all? Because as a recent WrA expat to MG, I’ll say that one of the biggest reasons I decided to jump ship after seeing the “resurgence” that followed the creation of WCP was the realization that most people were there to either bash on Blizzard and WoW’s storytelling/writing, spit as many basic character ideas as they could without really ever investing long-term in those characters so that they could grow beyond a single personality trait or two, or both. This created a very shallow and negative environment. And then further realizing that the majority of people who stuck around were simply the same handful of old regulars on armies of alts who, if you didn’t gel with them for any reason, left you with zero options and solidified the decision to go swim in a bigger pool.
I know some of these things need to happen. Regulars are making efforts to invigorate things, and that often means populating the server with their own characters to get something started. I know the Discords sorta need to welcome and encourage conversation in and around the game, server, and story. But how are things developing differently this time? Are the Discords cracking down on the echo chamber effect that made them feel so unwelcoming to me personally and others I’ve spoken to who dared to hold viewpoints contrary to popular sentiment? Are people who genuinely enjoy WoW’s story not being told they’re stupid for feeling the way they do now? Are alternative communities and groups beginning to form so that players can find their people when and if they find they don’t mesh with the established crowd yet?
Because if not, I can’t help but feel like WrA is just at a point in the cycle it’s arrived at many times before. Not to be negative or to speak out of turn for someone who has made the detestable decision to swap to MG, but I’m genuinely curious as to how and what is different this time from the other times.
OP here. No need to apologize, it’s been an interesting read. It honestly gave me some insight. It’s why I was silent for as long as I was, as I was interested in reading the conversation on both sides.
Just for some clarity, here’s a bit of my history on things.
I joined WrA back in 2009. Was my first time joining a roleplaying a community. I was attempting to find the ‘fun’ in World of Warcraft after spending 4 years of being denied access to group content on my original server due to picking an Orc Warlock. Apparently by playing that class/race combo, no one wanted me in their dungeon or raid groups since I was ‘wasting racials’. RPing on WrA is what caused me to fall in love with WoW and it was something I enjoyed until the whole situation happened in the Blood Elf Noble House guild I use to be in. Went over to MG, even though it meant no longer playing as a member of the Horde. So when my friend told me she wanted to play WoW, as a Horde character, and try roleplaying, that is when I made this thread because WrA came to mind since it was the server that caused me to fall in love with RP and WoW in the first place.
Also, off-topic, found out that even though I deleted the original Arathyen (who was a Blood Elf Death Knight), the only post I had made before deleting him is still on my post history on the new/current Arathyen. So that was an interesting turn of events.
At times, the forums and community have been less than welcoming. I remember specific incidents of Blood Elves fighting over corners of SMC, characters being ignored by the Dwarven community if they weren’t Dwarven or at least a Gnome, having a group of Forsaken call Kirsy some choice names because she - an elf who RPd in the Forsaken community - was riding a vicious skeletal warhorse - that i earned - through Brill, arguments on the forums of whether or not every person of a race/class combo (or Horde players during Sylvanas’ tree burning) were IRL evil, etc. But this has been over the entire existence of WrA.
Do these things still happen? Not really (to my knowledge) like they used to. There’s a small bit of drama here or there, but we no longer have entire groups within the community trying to force viewpoints or rules on everyone. I don’t think anyone is hating people for liking Shadowlands, playing a specific race/class combo or not wanting player housing, for example. There’s a lot less vitriol, and I’m hoping we’ve grown past that.
A lot of “regulars” moved en masse to MG for RP, but while I know they’re over there, they also have seemed to lost their voice, disbanded, or otherwise changed as well. And MG is such a big place that the negativity there is probably buried a lot deeper than it is here.
With regard to new players or MG players on WrA - we’ve always had them but we were carelessly letting them fall through the cracks. New players, returning players, people wanting to try RP for the first time, etc. do exist here, even on Alliance side. I have MG RPers in my guild and Discord who tested the waters and then decided to reroll on WrA. It’s not a mass exodus, but they’re there. Alliance side could use a lot more population, but when events happen, RPers do turn out.
As far as the same people on alts - no? I personally have more RP alts this expac than I’ve ever had and this is new to me. I’m generally on 1 RP main per expac, but since my guild is cross-faction, I revived Kirsy’s RP and last year I made an alt to play out of Duskwood (Callie). I still have Larisi as my guild leader.
I recently made 3 alts I want to try to develop, but I’ve only RPd one of them. Of the current event runners I know, none of them are on alts. There’s at least 4 different tavern type events, 2 soup/potluck events, a couple of socials, various markets, holiday events and a few other events on the calendar weekly, monthly or one-time. There’s also walk up in 3 different places currently. Of these, I’m the only one I know who is utilizing NPCs/alts for events.
I won’t speak to what’s going on with WCP. I will say that they’re far from the only WrA Discord currently. There are at least 3 others that are either WrA-based or cross-community for WrA/MG, not to mention the one I’m running (WrA-RP) and numerous others for communities or events. The problem (and I know I’m beating a dead kodo here) is advertising. It’s taken weeks to find some of these Discords because they’re not well advertised. Some of them are very quiet. At least one of them is political. Some feel dominated by MG RP.
I made the WrA-RP Discord to try to fill in some missing infrastructure WrA no longer had - it’s been active for 2 months and I’m using it to reach out to new and returning players, but also to focus RP, brainstorm fresh event ideas, and talk in a smaller forum that encourages people to participate. I write the Quibbler from that Discord and I keep a calendar that offers event listings, walk-up spotted as it’s happening, and unique offerings that aren’t found anywhere else.
We completely shy away from discussions on food, other games and media. We don’t have a lot of irrelevant channels so it’s not overwhelming, and I try to keep announcements and clutter to a minimum. Our rule set is basically “don’t be a jerk.”
WrA-RP has a completely different crowd participating in our General Chat than you’ll find anywhere else, and we don’t spam about coffee or anime (or whatever else you’re probably seeing in other Discords). I personally hate cliques, so I try to keep that from happening.
I’d say the difference between WrA of the past and currently has to do with - and I don’t say this to be negative - the knowledge that if we don’t do it now, then when? If we keep saying it’s fine or ignoring problems because they’re “not my responsibility” or “I’m too busy” or “someone else will handle it,” then we may as well shut the doors and close up shop because WrA would die a slow death. But we’re not doing that. In the past 2 months, there have been new events hitting the calendar, held by people who haven’t hosted events before. They’re getting support. And a little growth goes a long way. I’d say the test will be how WrA looks in January. We can see what kind of difference we’ve made over a quarter.
Look at y’all being reasonable and apologetic with each other.
Back in MY day this thread would’ve hit 200+ replies hours after it was posted, and we’d already be up to three call-out posts on Tumblr and at least one guild disband. Smh my head, kids these days.
It’s almost like we’ve all matured and aged and no longer have the mental real estate for high school drama in our make believe time any more.
Also for my part, I kinda stopped giving a toss about “respecting the setting” when Blizzard themselves have spent multiple expansions just squeezing out a long trail right atop the setting while maintaining unblinking eye contact. So if people want to roleplay as a happy raccoon couple who spend their evening making pies for the local Gnoll encampment…more power to them.
This has since changed. The above description is not the environment of the WCP and has not been for some time. I encourage you to come in and take a look at all that’s changed in the last year: https://discord.gg/wrawcp
Since the flattening of Admin/Mods to Staff, updated thread with the correct link, and it’s outdated 2021 rules updated with its new social contract, the WCP has been expanding and its culture shifting towards collaborative storytelling and networking. It always had these characteristics but with a more active, efficient Staff, 2024 has been a great year to fully embrace its mission. Its active chatters have also expanded and we continue to add new voices every day, including folks who play part-time on MG but are checking out WrA again due to positive word-of-mouth.
Our old rules were also so vague that Staff felt they couldn’t cultivate the environment we sought, and here are snippets of our updated social contract that directly addressed the perceptions below.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
I can’t speak for every other time because I’ve been on WrA since 2021. I did, however, experience the long-term decline of my previous server and am acutely aware of the signs and what it’s like to live through them. WrA does have some but it has an overwhelming amount of energy behind it lately in addition to a growing momentum and word-of-mouth.
No, our path isn’t guaranteed but as all RP servers dwindle to nothing outside MG, WrA is uniquely positioned to be a potential alternative because we are the only other RP server that is mentioned by name. No one remembers my server or the countless others that died as people consolidated on here and MG. We’re trying to seize the moment and could do with all the helping hands we can.
