Honestly I find it kinda useless to make grand statements about massive servers like MG/WRA’s ‘culture’. The culture is diverse, there’s lots of big planned stuff, guild focused stuff, walk up rando stuff, high adventure crazy stuff, slice of life, whatever you want.
I don’t doubt people have bad experiences, and I’m sorry to hear about them, but that’s more an indicator of the people you were with than some grand ‘MG issue’ honestly.
Plus when it comes to culture, very time dependant
As an Oceanic player, different culture simply because I log in at the absolute deadzone for other parts of the world (i miss Horde RP at oceanic hours. not even WrA has it these days). But, server lore and all the big events sort of, just never been an issue at those times simply because its a different crowd and most everyone involved there is asleep at the time
Diff experiences for diff people, unfortunately. I found the Horde on both servers to be equally as petty and toxic as the Alliance. Just more of the same, mostly. People roleplaying characters too big to be bothered with anyone “below” them, and a community discord filled with constant drama. Granted, it was several years ago, but the taste was so bad I haven’t bothered to try again.
E: Decided to just post individual threads in respective realm subforums.
I keep thinking I should roll a Horde character eventually, but it seems most of the guilds are military-focused and I’m not really into military RP. Is there a broader spectrum outside of that?
And wait? There’s “server lore?” Honestly, I’ve never heard of it? Then again I’m pretty new here so my experiences have been casual walk-up RP so far.
Most of the server lore stuff you hear about is really just stuff that’s kind of self-contained between a couple guilds. And it’s almost entirely planned and discussed in discords that are advertised in other discords. Even when playing prime hours, it was rare to see people involved with these hanging around the rp hubs.
This is a very accurate statement of server lore.
To me “server lore” is just people who have been around a long time acknowledging things that they did in character years ago. If you don’t want to be a part of that story that is fine you don’t have to be but asking people to just forget about stuff they did IC and use as part of their character’s story is also not good.
The player base of WoW is shrinking as is the RP player base. That is simply a fact and that is why the RP servers have consolidated the way they have. Like any online community you get your good and your bad. You just have to find what works for you personally and pursue that.
Most of the circles I’ve run in have been military guilds so my knowledge is kind of limited here. I know WRA Horde has a few Tauren tribes. I think MG Horde has at least one. Both servers have Goblin cartel guilds too. There used to be a ton of Belf house guilds but those are all gone. I do think there’s also a Pandaren Teahouse guild on WRA too.
The guilds are there but they’re not as prevalent as the military style guilds.
To me, the issue with server lore and/or server projects arises when they go so far as to alter the greater canon narrative by either changing it or creating threats/villains so grand that it would be unreasonable for them to not be widely known by the overall populace. This phenomenon usually begins with good intentions but grows into something problematic over time. Sometimes the participants disagree with or dislike the direction of the canon narrative and choose to rewrite it in the manner they feel it should have been. Or sometimes they just want an epic story that takes place between major story beats, and so they cook up things so epic that they fundamentally change the world and the narrative.
I think this kind of situation is what many in this thread are talking about when they mention exclusion and needing to know a novel’s worth of headcanon just to interact in the same dimension as others. And that’s what makes server lore and projects so controversial as a concept. On the one hand, you create a coherent story that a lot of people opt into and engage with. On the other, you create division between you and those who don’t opt in.
I’ve always been of the mind that accepting the game’s main narrative and writing those smaller friend group or guild stories that don’t meaningfully alter that greater narrative is the best way to make sure the community remains as harmonious, welcoming, and compatible a place as possible. We’re writing together, not alone. This isn’t my personal novel, and I am not the main character. Yet, people are gonna do what they will; and we all see the trends and patterns the community has moved toward over time.
Maybe Crossfaction guilds will open up some options for Horde characters soon 
Agreed. Years ago when I was big into goblin RP at the beginning of Cata (and even before that, really), that’s kind of what we did-- had our own little group that had their own stories going on, but still adhered to the larger narrative of the game without trying to demand everything we did be recognized as canon.
I’ve also had a few people involved with some of these groups admit they don’t acknowledge the expansions/greater storyline of the game, just use it for world-building.
Which, personally, I find confusing since some of them still advertise to the greater populous but leave out that info. I found out by messaging a few people involved. xD
I’ve seen that too, and I just can’t get behind it. At what point do we recognize the difference between a story that is Blizzard’s to tell and the one we wish were being told? At what point do we acknowledge the difference between objective good/bad and personal preference?
I get liking the Warcraft universe and wanting to have your own story in it, but I do not agree with doing so at the expense of the roleplay community. I don’t want to fracture people into multiple polarized and divided camps. I want to write in a shared world where we all know what’s driving things because it’s quite literally given to us.
Personal fun is important, but it’s not more important than the health of the community. If I wanted to do my own thing, I’d do it in another setting either of my own creation or in one I liked better than this one.
most of the expansions are pretty self contained, and dont really affect the local rp hubs
the stuff they do bring over, is objectively the worst parts of that expansion
Like Calia treating a trip to the shadowlands like its a boat ride.
then the margrave going on about how shes not different than other forsaken. just absolutely talking out their rear end
I’m not going to unpack the interestingly-framed assertions you made in your post, but I think the point I made still stands. The RP community functions best when everyone can agree on the world in which we’re writing. And that’s most easily done when we accept the setting we’re given, personal perspective and perception aside.
Of course, everyone is entitled to feel as they will. Lord knows no amount of forum posts are going to change that.
^This. At a minimum, it’d be nice if guilds advertised if they’re AU from the world we’re in. I’m here for WoW, not some fandom version.
thought we all agreed Shadowlands was a fever dream
not a lot to unpack; travel between planes shouldnt be easy to do
Calia didnt have to endure being scourge and the horrors that came with it.
also didnt help to secure any of the land.
so for the Margrave to say “theres no difference” is just ignorance
It may come as a surprise but hot takes by a small portion of the community on the forums do not equal monolithic overarching community consensus. Sub numbers aside, there were still plenty of people who were just fine with Shadowlands.
The rest of your post is just more personal perspective and interpretation. I’m not really interested in opening a debate on each story point of Shadowlands, and such was never the point, which again still stands.
And that’s enough from me. Back off to my corner now.
yea, wasnt a lot there to unpack. just a bit of annoyances
well that just goes both ways