It’s been a long time since I role played in WoW, longer still since I did walk-up city RP. And since I’ve been back, I’ve noticed that the Valley of Honor is flooded with people talking out of character in /say without parenthesis, playing with toys, generally messing around. They don’t seem to be griefers - the people involved tend to have TRP installed.
Is this normal and expected? Has the “etiquette,” as much as there is such a thing, changed?
If not, what’s the right thing to do here? /ignore the players en masse (and try to avoid looking at them bouncing around as giant glowing dinosaurs)? Gently remind them that the rest of us are role playing? Or take it as harmless fun and just focus on those around me who are IC?
I’m not trying to make a commentary on it, or passively call them out. I genuinely don’t know the norms of RP anymore (it’s been about a decade).
As an aside, I haven’t noticed this on Moon Guard’s Alliance, but that could be because Stormwind is so spread out.
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Pretty much that’s how it is. You just kinda filter it out if you’re going to RP there.
Those people kinda don’t think about how their actions affect others RP. Whether that’s malicious or not depends on who it is. Most people just don’t really care and want to be seen and the center of attention. At least the center of SOMEONE’S attention. Try not to make it your attention.
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The same crap all but killed the Mage District, honestly. People who insist on OOCing in the RP hub.
Unfortunately yeah, all you can do is politely ask them to stop, or ignore them. I tend to err on the side of the former - but it’s hit and miss. Sometimes it works, people apologise and move on. Other times, it just makes you the target of the trolling.
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Just sorta how Orgrimmar is these days. I’ve noticed that it’s a little bit better in Silvermoon but that’s because there’s less people in one condensed location. Either way, the most RP you’ll find is within guilds these days.
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Tbh all you can really do is just walk away and look for a different spot. It is what it is, and it’s been that way for a while.
Pop those bad boys on ignore and you’re good to go. I stopped by Org the other day and some people were talking about Dark Souls. Naturally, as I am stuck on the twin princes, I needed to chime in and say that I was stuck on the twin princes. Then I went about my business.
I hope this didn’t negatively affect anyone. That boss fight is hard and I was hoping for some tips. They just called me trash though.
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This was a big change I noticed too as someone who played on the server when it first launched and then stepped away from the game for a long time. I’m in the same boat as you; I feel like I’m learning this totally new etiquette to RP and I’m not sure how to take it.
I think placing them on ignore is probably the least confrontational and easiest way to go about it. It has started to bother me less and less as I focus on adapting to this less serious perspective on interacting around the server.
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It’s practically reversed in MG. To be in character is not the norm.
I had a little of RP at Silvermoon with a guild mate, but we were the only ones among 30ppl at the Inn.
Here’s the thing. OOC chatter is going to happen. This is a game and social platform in some regards. Its going to happen… I think the most kind gesture you can go about is this:
- Filter OOC chat and keep it to a minimal in a highly dense area. (IE: Wyvern’s Tail, big player spot, or event.)
- Take it to whispers if you think it’s going to cause trouble if people walk in with no context.
- Don’t be rude when trying to ask others to keep it down. Show respect and most will return in kind.
There’s no real way to stop people from OOC chatting. But one little problem is seeing people jump at others for being in a discussion first before any roleplayers show up around them to be agitated. Typically occurs around the Sign post in the Valley of Honor. I’d say take the discussion away, OR use a listener addon to filter specific people talking.
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That’s interesting, I didn’t know that existed. I’ll give it a shot, thanks!
OOC discussion was pretty rare in my day in /say and /e. Most of it happened in channels, party chat, and whispers. It’s been quite some time though, and things change. The only choice to be made is whether to adapt or find another creative outlet.
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Might be on the rise due to the status quo of the expansion hiatus. Granted, this is also the best time to encourage more open world RP 
Alas, the people who OOC’d on the mage tower ramp changed to Horde and now OOC in the middle of the valley. I tried asking people who were bold enough to do it in the middle of the Tail to take it elsewhere, but I just ended up getting cussed out.
But I should confess sometimes I do it. I try to do it in less populated spots and always use parentheses but I realize it’s just unnecessary chat bloat. So I apologize and promise not to do that anymore. I’ve also noticed guildies doing it too, so I’ll try to work on discouraging that.
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This is why Blizzard needs to implement instanced player housing.
Too many ooc folks in your favorite rp spot? Take it to housing.
Capital city getting blown up by off server raid? Your personal instanced home is there waiting!
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I also noticed this, and there were many people with basically joke trp’s.
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Didn’t blizzard try that (with Garrisons) and have it fail spectacularly? It made open world very dead (since lots of people would just sit in their garrison instead of being out and about).
…I also remember hearing horror stories of people on RP servers going into their garrison and getting blasted by very… explicit roleplaying from people in other instances of the garrison during the first week or so of Orcords of Orcnor.
This is mostly due to them abandoning WoD early and not providing players with much outdoor content 
Missions from the table that should have been quests that the player participated in, were just that. Garrison Missions you afked to complete.
That was sort of more of a game play issue, as I recall it, and less of an RP problem. Don’t quote me on it though as I was one of the people sitting in their garrison until raid time.
I stand by that it wouldn’t have been an issue if they had given players their faction hubs.
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Essentially this. That’s one of their party lines, as well as why they aren’t that interested in trying again, but there was no neutral city, no dailies, save the Apexis one, the only new PvP was also an auto-queue thing in Ashran, and there wasn’t even a reason to go to the entrances of raids or dungeons.
Once Tanaan came out it turned out there were actually still other people in the game.
There was a tremendous amount of potential in Stormshield and Warspear and then they did what they did with the rest of Draenor and made no real reason to visit it. You were never closer to a legitimate “front line” in a faction hub before but there wasn’t any reason to stay there (and barely any space to stay there anyway without getting run over).
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https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1874264-A-collection-of-all-known-cut-delayed-content-in-Warlords-of-Draenor
So many people were incredibly disappointed when they canceled the Ogre island and Karabor for the Alliance and Bladespire Fortress for the Horde.
Pretty much. There was zero reason to go out into Draenor because they made the Garrisons too powerful. If they had made the profession building in the Ashran hubs as well as had the AH there instead of the Garrison. It never would have been an issue.
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