The RP Community Megathread

Hello everyone!

We’ve been given an incredible opportunity with the introduction of the WoW Community Council and the inclusion of some roleplayers. This is one of the best opportunities we’ve had to have a direct line of communication to Blizzard regarding roleplay in this game. We’ve spent several years talking about what we want included in the game and changes we’d like to see to make the roleplay experience better, and now it’s time to make sure we clearly communicate this to Blizzard.

This thread will serve as a repository for the collective wishes of the entire roleplay community for World of Warcraft. I’ll be posting links to it on the other realm forums so everyone can voice their opinions, not just Wyrmrest Accord. I’d like to keep everything condensed here so our representatives on the community council don’t have to navigate to different sections of the forums to see what people are saying.

Please bear in mind that our requests should be things that will improve the roleplay community as a whole, not just personal requests. What is an addition or change you think would improve the roleplay experience in this game? Why do you think it would be an improvement?

Please be respectful to your fellow posters and please keep this thread positive. This thread is a place for us to make our requests, NOT complain.

Let’s all come together as a community and make our voices heard. Really look forward to seeing what we all come up with and what changes we can bring about when we pull together as one.

Edit: a huge thank you to Krokthar, Banshih, Jabtrah, and Rommal for putting together a Google Doc to help condense all of the requests! Please continue sharing your thoughts and ideas everyone, we’ve had a great conversation so far.

https ://docs.google.com/document/d/1clLauPHROvrnkA2RsycwmHZlLlY6i2YWQOAwOsjn4FY/edit?usp=sharing

(For some reason it won’t let me add a link to the post, so you’ll have to paste this into your browser. Sorry :/)

23 Likes

Stricter moderation on trolling and griefing and done by a human and not an automated system.

The reason I stress for a human moderator is because automated systems will be abused by both RPers and Griefers. I can see some petty RPers using it to silence people they don’t like, it’s unfortunate but it happens and Griefers just to grief RPers. However we need some moderation towards OOC chatter and trolling chat that happens in RP hubs. A human will be able to see the difference between a few OOC posts vs people having a full on conversation about what they ate for dinner last night.

This also includes PVP trolling and again needs to be done by a human because the PVP trolling I’m referring to is people attacking RP hubs and instead of looking for an actual PVP fight. just do things like flag and fight guards and drop toys on top of non-flagged roleplayers.

I like (old) world PVP (not warmode PVP) and there’s a difference between people actually looking for PVP engagement and people that just want to get a rise out of someone.

I think stricter moderation on behavior that hurts the community will go a long way.

I also have a suggestion that RP realms can only group and play with other RP realms to avoid people anchoring in someone from Tich or Illidan with the soul purpose of trolling. This is specifically in regards to a streamer from Tich that intentionally trolled the WRA Alliance RP community. I understand this could be painful at first but it might even help revitalize some of the smaller RP realms knowing you’ll be grouped with the other RP realms regardless of your server’s population.

My more selfish wishes is more customizations and restrictions lifted on transmog which would be beneficial for others that RP. Someone that wants to play a battlemage can transmog plate armour. I just like fashion and looking pretty lol

20 Likes

player housing

halfhill market in pandaria is the perfect first iteration

to expand on it, we should be able to build one near our capitals (in friendly/green territories) and allow racial buildings

A few locations that i can think of:
Sathriels Haven, the NPC can go bankrupt or killed by something and you get their land
Ruins of Silvermoon, maybe tidy up half of it to minimize questing disruption

Phasing: you will always only see your own house unless in someone elses group and you’ve set your view to the party leads (same concept as WoD Garrison)
But, when at a house that is not on the same plot as yours (such as barrens) you will see a randomly generated house, unless in group with someone who does own land there

You will never be able to see someones house unless you are grouped with them

The house can be expanded to include a farm that can be updated with a seed/calf vendor for current exp mats, infinitely increasing replay value and keeping it relevant but optional
Farmland can be used for crops or meat or RP props (Halfhill Market allows user to plant and grow trees. When harvesting these trees you get a consumable item that lets you plant a tree anywhere in the game for 3 min. They provide no buff and you cannot interact with them. Pure RP prop)

The house can also store tools to make other props, such as tents, beds, boxes

Trophies for more customization as well as other knick knacks (flyin tome, belf hookah)
Can include banners as well.

One mount parking space

baby fed and sleep

Edit to add: Remember the C.A.M.E.R.A? Hang portraits in your house. Size them as you like

13 Likes

Something that definitely needs to happen is that the player must be handed more control over their character’s animations. I’ll be using emotes as a way to illustrate.

Here’s the classic example of what I mean: Combat stances. Whenever we’re doing combat roleplay, we all wanna be able to take out our weapons and have our characters stand like they’re mid-combat, but the only way to do that is by finding an attackable NPC and targetting them, which isn’t always possible. And this only works for casters or melee, hunters will shoot the NPC if it walks into their LoS, so they don’t get to stand in a cool combat pose aiming with their bow or rifle.

So an emote like /battleStance that activates this animation without the need of a target would be very much appreciated. And that’s just the beginning! There’s also the new guard stances, like the ones the guards of Zandalar have, that could be /standGuard or /guardStance. What about emotes that play an attack animation like /strike for melee, /shoot for ranged weapons and /spell for casters? Then there’s the emotes that would allow you to play profession animations, like /work for the usual hammering/mining animation, or /brew for alchemy. And those are just the ones I can come up with off the top of my head! We already can /eat and /drink without actually having to expend an item, so why not all of this as well? It’s a relatively small addition, and yet would make roleplay so much better.

I’m not asking for new animations, not at all. I’m only asking for a way for players to be able to access the ones that exist already in the game’s files but are locked behind certain actions that can’t always be performed depending on where the player is and what’s around them.

20 Likes

Tourist mode for dungeons that allows full forty person raids in say, Deadmines, but the dungeon is cleared, rewards no loot or achievements, and exists to allow RPers to have instanced backdrops for their stories independent of lockouts.

Expand island expeditions to a guild level and allowsims style placement of items, rewards, buildings, trophies, flags, banners, RP aids, seats, and maybe some minor vendors (nothing beyond what you can get from simply mounting a vendor mount, sans AH of course) to give guilds a space to RP and allow guild officers and masters to invite those not within the guild temporarily al a Garrison visitation.

More cosmetic sets independent of the store, mix and matchable, ranging from easily obtainable to veteran reward status,allowing a full breadth of customization, including more heritage armor.

Overhaul PvP to be less faction focused and more team focused and unrestrict the factions. Potentially while keeping races segregated from main cities only but allowed communnication and grouping without potion aid. Allowing cross faction storylines easier as well as cross faction pve content.

Potentially allowing factions to raise with all the factions of the game, and allowing alliance and horde races to go where they choose though this will have a lot of things to work out with it and may be best left to a more gradual change.

Unlocking classes to all races, and adding a multitude of for example, druid forms for both racial specificity and cross racial druid forms that can be unlocked al a ardenweald spirit forms.

Opening up timewalking to be all the time, and increasing the content one can do to unlock their character advancment rather than removing content and discarding it every patch cycle, add a multitude of things to do that can all contribute to your character history and leaving things intact to be experienced truly as they were.

Respecting player time, this can be achieved by among other things replacing flight paths with a fade to black rather than a flight and allowing free access to them once they were gathered for the same modest gold fee.

Simply unlock old flying at a low level, once a zone becomes outdated flying is unlocked for it for everyone and all mounts can fly. No pathfinder, no gold fee, just simply unlock it, maybe do a quick intro quest that is just a hand off, turn it in, and boom flying.

13 Likes

Hello! This is a fantastic Idea! In fact, The Horde Community over on MoonGuard is working on a Massive Google Doc with requests and Ideas for the Devs and the Council as we speak! Once we get it organized and cleaned up we intend to share it with the community and the Council members representing RPers.

With luck they will forward what we have to offer directly to the Council members that can then tell it to the Devs! Everything being written is for what we believe should be added or changed in regards to RP, Quality of Life, and other content that could be added. We will let you know soon with an update on the doc!

7 Likes

Guild Garrisons

Mostly same as WoD Garrisons but different

Generated mats are stored in boxes and an NPC has to be sent to gather them, the NPC will then go deposit it into the GBANK

Trophies and customization options via guild achievements

GM can set permissions to let officers to initiate builds, upgrades and other customizations

Racial buildings

Ability to customize ALL npcs

Can be set in pre designated Horde/Alliance area in Contested Zones
Like my player housing idea, other garrisons will only show as randomly generated unless in group

fine tuning possible pvp aspect. will edit later

same same, but different

Edit to add: Remember the C.A.M.E.R.A? Hang portraits in your Garrison. Guild photo Day!

6 Likes

I’m gonna put my post in multiple easy to digest segments to get my point across.

The Base Game
Add more Customization options regularly. The new options that they released at the launch of 9.0 was one of the biggest breathes of fresh air I’ve seen in the game for a very long time. There were people who were race changing from Allied Races to a Core Race just for the new options and to not make them a semi regular feature for a patch or expansion is like turning away money. I would be ok if its something small like sharing the same options with greenskin orcs and Mag’har orcs or having highmountain body paint on a regular tauren or vise versa. It’s an awesome feature that should be continually expanded on especially when there isn’t a new playable race for an expansion.

More Druid forms. It doesn’t have to be like an entirely unique model for a race. Just give us the option to turn into other animals to better represent the class and race fantasy of a character. Like have the option for a Troll to turn into a raptor or a snake for feral instead of the traditional cat form or maybe have a Tauren turn into a Kodo or a Thunderlizard for Guardian spec.

Update the old continents. It’s been nearly eleven years and there is still no bridge between Northern and Southern Barrens. Update the old world and maybe make some new quests to reflect on the changes of the world. In short, Cata 2 but make it so anyone can level or quest through those zones.

Try to find a way to really expand guild features like you did back in Cataclysm.

Player housing/Guild Halls or Guild towns. It’s time Blizzard. All of the other MMO games have it. You can make it so you would have to get the items to build the base stuff through professions to help boost the Auction House’s economy and encourage other players to invest time into professions.

Playable Ogres/Mok’nathal, Taunka, and Broken. It’s been years since those three particular races been established as allies to the factions and have yet to get them as playable races, not to mention getting cheapen out of the High elves with the Void Elves which came out of nowhere to be honest and the Horde got little furry fox people.

PVP
Add more Battlegrounds. Hell, try to reuse the Warfront maps for new Epic Battlegrounds. Anything to add more content and NO, I don’t mean add another gladiator arena.

Maybe consider making a Rated Epic Battleground? Sounds crazy? You’re damn right! What would the rewards would be? I figured it would give a massive boost to your rating if you win but if you lose, you’ll lose a lot of points. That way there would still be a reason to use the old RBG method but still have a short cut (if you want to call it that) to the ranking titles and mogs through Rated Battlegrounds.

RP
Zone phases. Let us RPers walk around in a zone without being attacked by hostile NPCs. If running to an empty area and then toggling the phase zone off to reach a treasure or rare monster is an issue then just have the player teleport to that zone’s nearest inn when exiting out of it.

Let us enter Battlegrounds instances to RP in. I’d kill to have the chance to RP my Frostwolf in Alterac Valley! Same applies to Islands from Island Expeditions.

Writing
Remove Danuser from his position as lead narrative developer and find writers who actually love and care about the lore and story. Don’t try to fill out a quota or let Danuser hand pick his successor. That man has done enough damage to the game’s lore and story already. I would be alright if Christie Golden takes the lead due to her track record but that’s out of my hands.

Go easy on the transmedia. Having to read a book shouldn’t be consider homework to fully understand what’s happening in the game. If something massive happens in the lore then it should be seen in the game first and add into a book after to get even more details for us hardcore story guys.

Return World of Warcraft to its roots. We don’t need some BS Big Bad Guy lurking in the shadows allegedly like The Jailer nor having to raise the stakes higher and higher. Not everyone needs to be the chosen one(s). Just take us back to Azeroth, expand the lore in a tasteful way, rebuild tensions between the factions for a while before going full on war (that doesn’t last for one expansion like BFA.) and then after some time has passed (two or three expansions later) you can have your big end of the world crisis. Because going through three world ending crisis events in a row begins to lose its meaning.

Have someone outside of the writing team proof read and see for any lore counter dictions that needs correcting. Maybe reach out to Nobbel87 and Red Shirt Guy?

Retcon Shadowlands from Canon. Too much to ask? Yes. But this expansion has to be one of the worst examples of writing I’ve seen and this includes the Michael Bay Transformers movies. There are so many counter dictions, lore breaking and poorly made retcons and the idea of anyone knows how the Afterlife works is too much. I feel it was a terrible mistake to go in this direction for the lore and does a big disservice to Warcraft 3 and all of the expansions in World of Warcraft to have Shadowlands remain in canon.

Community Relations
Actually, use the community council forums, look and listen to high profile youtubers and not just Talisin and Evitel. People like SoulSoBreezy, Nobbel87 Bellular, even Asmondgold.

Control your employees’ social media posts. Don’t let them belittle, block or talk about their personal beliefs to their customers. If someone is throwing some criticism towards them then they shouldn’t take it as a personal attack even if it’s something like. “Hey, I don’t like that you’re nerfing my character’s abilities like this.” If they want to do that tell them to make a secondary personal account for themselves for that. They are representing your company and image and it’s important right now especially not to anger your customers.

9 Likes

Krok, would you mind if I add the doc to the OP when it’s ready so it gets more visibility? I plan to reach out to Jabtrah tonight so we can get more input from MG.

1 Like

More open and less linear zone and quest design. Actual places to explore with no specific purpose. Blizzard seems to think that having NPCs and mobs everywhere makes for a more “living” world, but it really just takes the mystique out of the setting and makes it harder to make it our own.

Race-flavored spell skins. I want to be a leafy, feathery, starry, moony monk, not a panda impersonator. (And let me use my staff while we’re at it.)

Here’s one thing I’ve never seen mentioned. Every time I roll a new character, I find myself loving the speed of low-level mounts. It’s perfect for cruising around town, RPing cavalry without it getting out of control, or following quest NPCs that run at in-between speed. The walk-run toggle should be a walk-canter-gallop toggle.

And of course, as is mentioned constantly, housing (though I believe guild halls would serve a greater purpose without isolating people too much) and unrestricted transmogging. There’s no class identity anymore when you can wear nothing but pants or dress as a faerie dragon.

Even with all these things (and what everyone else has mentioned) implemented, at the end of the day it’s still up to us. RP in WoW was never as great as when we had little at our disposal but imagination. So the best thing Blizzard can do is help to foster our imaginations with a grounded and compelling world with which we can relate and that we are encouraged to explore and inhabit.

7 Likes

Very much so! Me and Rommal from UCN are working on it at the moment, we plan on adding to it over time (and hopefully removing things if they take the suggestions and run with them).

When its ready for public eyes youll be sure to get it! Jabtrah is also adding to the doc too so their suggestions will be added to the doc.

2 Likes

This is something I shared back in November in a similar thread, but will repost it here and expand on a few sections.

A lot of these subjects are poplar and recurring, and have been relevant across more than a few roleplay servers over the years. I drafted these Discussion Topics back in November and based them on conversations I have been party to during my time on Argent Dawn EU, Moon Guard US, and Wyrmrest Accord US.

Each bullet point represents a unique Topic.


:gear: Mechanical Content Topics :gear:

1) Improvements to community communication and accessibility tools. This would include a discussion about a Community Feature Overhaul, In-game calendar updates with more customizability and more space for listing event details and the option to link WoW Forum threads directly to in-game calendar listings and/or add in-game calendar listings as direct 'join' links to WoW Forum posts.

2) Open a conversation with regard to updating and overhauling Guild systems in-game, including: member and officer permissions, custom guild graphics for guild tabards, consideration of new systems to encourage community interaction such as guild-forged Custom Achievements or Quests (for PvE, PvP or RP) with direct rewards supplied from the Guild Bank.

3) New consideration; guild website domain hosting through Blizzard Entertainment with relevantly themed graphic templates and direct links to community forums and server-specific forums. Website information can include things such as custom Guild graphics, guild rules, members, events, achievements, quests (-etc).

4) Roleplaymode. Now that phasing tools like Warmode exist, what are the odds of something like a Roleplaymode coming to fruition? Interest and populations fluctuate on most roleplay servers, and sometimes it can be challenging to locate roleplay out in the world for a variety of reasons (time of day, server population, zone - etc). A Roleplaymode feature could be implemented to assist roleplayers with locating roleplay more easily. This mode should include a Character Profile, where players can share their character's full name, display earned titles, and a brief description about their character that can be viewed by anyone using this feature. Live, open-invite roleplay events could be listed with this feature as well.


:performing_arts: RPG Content Topics :performing_arts:

1) Continually Improving Customizations, and Communication about them. For a long time, Blizzard has kept their new content very close to the vest. That is largely for security purposes (so concepts aren't openly advertised until they are actively in progress for publication) and for PR; but communication regarding new customization content, which is a highly sought after feature as WoW continues to age, is something that needs recurring spotlight time and open and direct communication from the creative teams to the community. This includes any manner of customization that could ever be added to the game, from character creation, transmog, tabard design, and maybe (someday) even player housing.

2) Delivery of story content, or lack thereof, between novels, comics and the in-game world. Obviously, they cannot fit an entire book into an expansion. But finding ways to present new lore and content from novels in an up-front way (such as resolutions on territorial disputes between Horde and Alliance) and to make it accessible and available in-game is essential to the upkeep of world-building and resolution of storytelling.

3) Paying special attention to what makes every race/faction* in World of Warcraft unique, and striving to add layers to this with each new expansion. This does not all need to be waffled into the game on the release day of each new expansion, but characters and the involvement of characters from each player race/faction* is an important aspect of storytelling and world-building in-game. We want to know what our favorite factions* are doing, and how they are involved in the conflicts and adventures of this growing universe.

4) New Suggestion: Player's Choice Class Customization. What I mean by this are things such as Class/Race identity combinations; maybe some troll shamans want to develop a Witch Doctor aesthetic that's unique to their race/class, or perhaps a night elf priest wants to tinge her spells from gold to silver, to better reflect her devotion to Elune.

This could be a fun and new way to reintroduce class trainers and make them relevant again, and a easy insert to add new and old lore that is unique to various race/class combinations. A visit to a night elf priest trainer may enlighten you about the importance of "Balance" and "Harmony" while providing your class abilities with some unique new aesthetics related to Elune. Or perhaps you can venture to a draenei paladin trainer to learn about the philosophies of the Light as taught by the Naaru, and update your generic Hammer of Wrath to a crystalline vindicator's hammer. This does not need to alter every spell, and this does not need to be race-locked. It can be something set behind the Reputation barrier shared by the player factions, similar to faction* mounts, where all members of the Horde or Alliance can choose to train under any Horde or Alliance faction* class trainer they wish.

5) New Suggestion: Upgradeable and Instanced Housing Options. We all know the Warlords of Draenor Garrison was fun and unique while it lasted, but it didn't quite hit the mark here. I believe that linking a system of this nature to things such as game progress, achievements, professions, and the guild/community features will provide all types of players a space they can use to engage with their past achievements, practice professions or simply relax with friends.

Player housing is also an opportunity to make old content and professions relevant again. Players could expand old and new content, enjoying their favorite aspects of the game across multiple expansions, to unlock incredible new crafting recipes and items to decorate their homes.

For Guilds, these instanced houses could potentially be upgraded via the Guild Bank and converted into Guild Halls instead, which any guild member can visit at any time. I feel that the implementation of a system like this will add value to the achievements, equipment and more that players earn during 'live' expansion content, and will bring back relevant and old content for those eager to acquire specific items from past expansions.

* When I say “Faction” I am specifically referring to all race-related factions, Darnassus, Stormwind, Orgrimmar, Darkspear - etc.

13 Likes

From a personal standpoint, I’d like to see the following be added over time that is specifically designed towards the role-play community.

  1. Personal/Guild Housing

This allows us to cater to events that we host or allow for a more personalized experience in RP where we can have a sense of style and decoration that creates a multi-dimensional sense of immersion that we can control the environment.

  1. Suramar without enemies.

This is rather specific but being a part of a large Shal’dorei Rp community, the fact that we can’t walk around the city without being attacked by countless mobs is saddening, as we personally want to host a lot of events out there. This can even go farther and allow us to have an instanced version of many places, to avoid trolls of those who grief us.

  1. Allow us to get transmog items of any armor/weapon class regardless of character.

I understand that this may go against the idea of more play-time to farm specific items on characters that can use them, but it would be much more incentivized for many to be able to get transmog orientated gear, such as from low level raids and dungeons, that don’t limit us based on our character’s armor and weapon sets.

These are some of the things I can think of now, but I believe many are touching on these subjects to some extent or another. If that is the case, I am just posting this to mirror and echo their sentiments.

6 Likes

Suppose I’ll throw some posts in here. Don’t know how comprehensive I’ll be in this first post, so if I never get on the council this time around might as well post some thoughts here.

I’ll start with zones:

Location is extremely important with RP. We have to pretend so much is there, or use other places as proxy. While that’s well good and what a lot of people and places do, it would only be more attractive to add more acccess and options to locations to RP in no matter how useless it is.

Examples in Hidden Details here so my big writing doesn’t frighten people:

Access to Battle Grounds Maps

Summary

A big worry I can see with bg maps being open is I suppose pvpers using it to their advantage to practice rehearsed movements in a competitive mode. But the catering already leans so heavily to PVPers, they likely don’t need any help at all.

We already have a couple of battlegrounds unphased such as Ashran and I’m not sure you would count Tol Barad. But these are two spots heavily used by event planners and RPers as an extended form of RP be it one on one, imaginary housing, events, guild bases and so on.

To add an option to phase into an unphased BG would vastly open up more places to explore and enjoy. So many BGs have a lot of wonderful nook and crannies, design and art, that you can’t really -enjoy- them in the 40 minutes to an hour or two you’re there clenching your teeth into shoving through the battle in the most tunnel visioned way possible.

By adding an NPC to the location of where the BG naturally is, be it in the world, racial captial or the scenario npc, would allow people to go to these places no matter how useless or unnecessary it may be.

It would allow for immersive exploration and story creation for dwarves, trolls, and orcs in Alterac. As well as Twin Peaks for the Dragonmaw and Wildhammer, two groups who I feel have been a little sidelined.

Island living, beach parties, camping, sea exploration on the Seething Shore.

Deep Wind Gorge for market places and guild recruitment. (Though, I actually have not checked the location this is suppose to be in if its a location that can be visited.)

But this goes for all battlegrounds. They can be used for anything, it doesn’t have to reflect the area its suppose to be. No one uses Ashran in its correct location anyhow! And its messed up Frostwolf Village is hidden behind a BG.

Dungeons and Raids

Summary

Many of the same sentiments above, but the ability speak to an NPC outside to teleport into an “phased” “unphased” version of the raid or dungeon. While RP can be done in raids and dungeons with a group, with a place like Ragefire Chasm and the Stormwind’s Stockades, you’re barring off interesting extended parts of the city that could actually be used and make the cities bigger and would open up far more player driven creativity.

This also brings me to several options that can possibly be done with raids and dungeons for RP phases.

  • The ability to phase into a public use of the location, making it no different then zoning into booty bay and meeting up with friends.
  • The ability to speak to an NPC attached to that raid or dungeon and pick between four different phases. One being the world, and the other four being separate phases incase there is a party going on in one phase, and a guild event going on in another. This is to eliminate needing to be a raid or party and still allow outside people to join up without over lapping someone else’s event.
  • Creative Raids or Party. This is an idea I had recently, that isn’t fully developed. But this would be the ability to queue with a group for the sole purpose of entering into you’re own unphased version of a raid that is explicitly only for the people in your raid. This can be done now of course, but the creative mode will automatically remove every npc and event tied obstacle to open it purely for the purpose of exploring. No need to go through and clear it out first.

Island Expeditions

Summary

Probably the most upsetting of zones that we cant enjoy are these islands. Full of hidden lore, homes and interesting terrain that cannot be enjoyed. Opening up islands opens up even MORE locations to explore. With solo mode now implemented , I wonder how if this is a stretch to add.

The idea for my island expedition expasion would be to add a Zandalari (Or what ever the Kul’tiran version of this would be) sitting in small wooden boat right in the water next to where you would sign up and wait for an island. Upon interacting him , he’ll offer to take you on a trip to return to some of these islands for fun. After all the adventurers went and stripped them of their resources, not many people go to these islands anymore but still have a lot of land to explore. All that’s left there now are many of the animals. He’ll ask you where you want to go , and it is not determined what Island is up for PVE, every island should be available, and once you pick your destination you hop in the boat and load into an a cleared, unphased version of the island. He’ll wait there for you in the same location the Alliance or Horde vessel, but instead, it is a little wooden boat.

To return to Dazar’alor or Kul’tiras, you just simply talk to the npc and off you go. Much like how you visit Mechagon.

These will all be open world and will provide extended locations for story, events, exploration and world building. Plus, being able to better appreciate the work that went into making them and perhaps finding any hidden lore bits that might of been missed.

Suramar

Summary

Suramar is a bit of a unique situation, because it’s not phased like a raid or dungeon, but a very intricate and highly detailed city that is unusable and hard to appriciate without worrying about aggro, or seeing fel and demons ruining aesthetic. An NPC like Zidormi could be added just outside the bubble for her to show you the current liberated Suramar free from hate and violence. This would remove all world quests and quests from the area, hostile npcs, fel, demons, and anything associated with the Legion or Elisande. You would get FULL access to all of Suramar. General NPCs could be milling about to make it actually reflect the fact that it is an open and living city.

You would be able to appriciate and go on dates or outing with your high society friends to the arc-wine vinyard, marvel at the absolutely astonishing beasts in the Menegerie, or host actual classy parties. New vendors could be added with new items. New toys, pets and plushies. High society items to make you feel fancy. Possibly costing those mana rocks to make those relevant again (or not.)

The things are endless. And if those things make people roll their eyes and say “Well, I see where they put all their work in. Fix your trinkets, Blizzard”, then I’d say a job well done.

I’m in the minority here where I don’t want player housing to be the focus first. I know that is the easiest and quickest thing to think of that would give people more options to feel unique and personal - I feel that without giving players more options on their own housing should not be the first the thing to be tacked on.

I would much rather have more zones hidden behind swirling vortexes available for exploration first and the ability to visit and enjoy certain areas without worrying about pretending certain enemies or npcs are there. This makes the world bigger, creates more places for people to host events and expand the community. Housing is wonderful, but its a very a lonely venture even if you can invite people.

If not considered properly, housing will completely devastate the RP community. People will be holed up in their homes, only doing things in a small manner and never experience the world. I know that anxiety is a thing, trust me. And it’s okay if thats what you enjoy. The reality is still there. That housing, I feel, is what stands between a bustling world with people enjoying the world and meeting each other, and the community split down the middle. Disappeared behind a phased wall for their little home.

Sure, the novelty wears off and people head back out. Things need to be put in place outside of the homes. No AH or Bank in the home. No access to to profession trainers.

So first. Work on the world. Work on the characters. Pad them with lively things…and with a bigger world , who knows, more housing plots.

I should clarify, I’m not anti-housing. I just want it done right and want to see other zones opened up too.

2 Likes

I wanna play a bad guy by being able to make the choice to have my character do bad things. Gimme some agency. Blizz almost did something with the bfa Silvie loyalty quest, but that was one quest in a game close to two decades old. Gimme some more. Let it have some impact where my character’s story goes. This should not be a foreign concept in a rpg.

4 Likes

I’m going to have a lot to add to this topic but a couple of my top features:

1 - As a crafting leatherworker, please open up the ability to use the tents I can craft in WoD on any world map area. My disappointment level was off the charts when that happened. I was able to craft these great little tents and then NOPE, only on Draenor. Please let me craft them, use them anywhere in the world and sell them on the AH. Most of my characters have an ‘explorer’ desire in their story. It’s most unfortunate that I cannot go exploring and set up a camp with my friends, especially when the items ALREADY EXIST TO DO SO.

2 - As a database item nerd, please hire someone to start taking the ‘unavailable’ items in your database and put them onto loot tables or vendors. It is a criminal shame that there are so many amazing looking items to wear, but they are not accessible.

4 Likes

This is going to fall under harassment and trolling/griefing and the way it is looked at by moderators.

During the course of 2021:

  1. I was trolled/griefed by someone with no RP addon multiple times over the span of a week and, I’m too lazy to check to be 100% certain, 3 tickets until he finally stopped. It was not just me, but it was largely me and those who interacted with me.
    Many of the ticket responses were clearly automated/copy pasted. I clearly indicated he neither spoke nor emoted and purely stood ontop of myself/RPers interacting with me using mounts and toys. I included screenshots. I also included screenshots of people, politely, asking him to stop in both public channels and whispers. It took until the third ticket, when I received a response that was clearly not automated/copy pasted (which was coincidentally after I tweeted it at BlizzardCS) for him to finally be gone.

  2. I was harassed by an individual for putting them on ignore. I had a screenshot of them acknowledging that I had put them on ignore (from a mutual acquaintance). They would repeatedly throw a toy at me that can be used in stealth, without breaking stealth. It took around 4 tickets to receive a response from an actual person that actually understood the issue. I think the process would have gone quicker had I not mentioned RP at all.

In both instances I listed above, I got the distinct impression my mention of RP relating to the two incidents (did not reference it in my type-out above but I did in my tickets) made it difficult for the responding blues, even after getting past the automated/copy paste ‘put them on ignore and report them for bad chat’ (when I never mentioned bad chat in the first place) to comprehend the situation. I feel like the mention of RP muddles it somehow- like they are worried out of context IC posts are attempting to be used to generate punishment for the other party, or that they are confused and think that is being attempted.

I do not know how they can fix this beyond overhauling CS to hire more people again. I can think of providing training/notes on how RP works, fundamentally, and how to identify the differences between IC and OOC, but that still does not fix the problem of time constraints requiring blues to respond with copy-pasted or automated messages that fail to address, or even misread, the actual problem at hand.

9 Likes

Alright I finally have time to post my own thoughts.

Tourist Mode

I really like this idea. Being able to enter empty dungeons and raids would provide so many RP opportunities. I once hosted an RP raid, a 4 hour long event where we RPed fighting through a Void infested Ahn’Qiraj. I had gone in the day before and cleared the raid so we could do this. It was a huge success and people had alot of fun. Now imagine being able to use these dungeons and raids as RP bases. Scarlet RPers in the Scarlet Monastery, the Stormwind guard putting prisoners in the stockades, Horde military RP in the big base beneath Orgrimmar in SoO, etc. It opens up so many opportunities.

Playable Races

This request is a little selfish and anyone who knows me understands why :smiling_imp:. This is obviously a major topic though, GD has a number of large megathreads requesting various races to be playable. Adding in new playable races adds depth to the game and the player experience, and creates new storytelling opportunities. In particular, there are a number of highly requested races already established in the game and lore. It would be easy to add these races given they already have a backstory and a in-game model to work off of. Adding in highly requested playable races would go a long way in earning goodwill and increasing time played metrics. I know when Mag’har came out I spent so much time running around doing WoD questing as one. I wasn’t looking for achievements or transmogs or anything, I just wanted to be a Mag’har in Draenor.

Additionally, new playable races add countless roleplay opportunities for players. Arakkoa players RPing in the mountains, Jinyu players exploring the depths of the ocean (a part of the game I can guarantee doesn’t get much usage right now), Broken spending time with their people aboard the Exodar, etc. New playable races gives players plenty of things to do and increases time played metrics.

Customization

Customization is a big part of this game, and while great strides have been made, players want to see more. This was made evident when Blizzard announced no new customizations during SL and players got upset. Hair options, piercings, body types, are all different things that should be looked at to be included. Additionally, options of offshoot races should be included. Buff Trolls for Trolls, Taunka options for Tauren, Frost Dwarves for Dwarves, etc. This was already done by giving Sandfury options to Trolls and High Elves to Void Elves and Blood Elves. Players want more freedom with how their character looks and will be more inclined to spend more time playing not only to make that perfect look but also enjoy it.

Transmogs

Players like to play dress up. I like coming up with cool mogs for my different characters and more is always better. While it’s ok to have some cool unique ones in the cash shop, many unique transmogs should be available outside of the shop. Blizzard has generally done a pretty good job here, but feedback should continue to be solicited in this area.

Player Housing

Player housing is an extremely fun feature, and WoW has so many different locations to make this wildly successful. Cities, zones, there’s alot of ways this could be done. I personally feel houses should be their own instances. Furniture and decorations can be earned through professions, and special drops could be made available in dungeons, raids, BGs, questing, and other various activities. This is an extremely easy way to increase time played metrics and earn goodwill from players. By forcing players to engage in content to gather items for their house, we can avoid the WoD garrison issue where players weren’t leaving their garrisons.

6 Likes

One of the council people made this post with many of the ideas present here so that’s nice!

3 Likes

Honestly, class skins? Maybe colored or different particles for each class? They have done this before. Warlock green fire was perfect. We’ve had glyphs change how things appear (looking at you raven glyph for spriests), so it is not outside the realm of possibility. Time consuming for sure, but if each druid can have unique forms and colors then I think other classes should be able to have that same treatment. It’s high time priests were given a silver light, different shaman totems and colors for them since they’re mostly unused assets now, and so on. Perhaps combine certain classes to make prestige classes like in other RPGs. Some already exist such as Paladin being a Warrior and Priest. But what about a Necromancer? Instead of a new class, you can give warlocks a rot-type set of skills even if it’s just in color change. Already have half of it with Affliction after all. And this way it benefits not only JUST RPers (even though RPers are the designated audience as this has been something brought up multiple times by specifically RPers), it benefits everyone as well.

5 Likes