What happened to Moon Guard and its once lively History?

Moon Guard
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Whatever happened to race/city/adventure RP? Or guilds/individual players that operated out on the map and in the wilds?

It seems that ever since Cataclysm, i almost never see players in cities/wilds equivalent to their race or culture. Sure Stormwind has always been the melting pot of each race, but i miss the days when i would visit an alliance capital and bump into guilds or groups specific for the races.

Ironforge had its dwarven guilds and smiths. The occasional Brewmaster who would offer free samples from one of the inns. The elite treasure hunting team off to kill some drake or other beast in the wetlands. Or the gnomes working on the next project showcasing their engineering skills. Even a few fishermen in the lake hoping for a surprising catch.

When i would visit the Exodar, there were groups faithful to the Aldor or Naaru who would preach about the Light, or trips among the isles listening to the quiet ambiance and pleasure of Azuremyst Isle. Paladin players dueling each other for skill or thrill.

The night elves of Ashenvale enjoying the tranquility of the forest, or the druids practicing their arts or offering a place to rest for the weary traveler. There was even a guild that offered alchemy ingredients or potions. (Mostly potions of Giant Growth lol).

Dalaran had its mages, those that worked together or offered free enchants to fellow players. Portals to locations, or the touring agency that used flying 2 seat mounts. Or would run dungeons like they were RP events.

I miss the days when the cities themselves were empty and you would see numerous players out and about. Now its like everyone hangs out only in Stormwind, or the capital city of the next Addon. There’s no adventuring to be had or more, there’s no traveling or visits into the wilds, almost like covid keeps everyone contained still. Even small cities like Booty Bay were bustling (pirates or con artists).

I think the primary reason is everyone holds the same character for too long. (New characters always bring new adventures even if to the same place as was 10 years ago.)

Unfortunately, a majority of the community never reads this, so most new players don’t even realize the glory of what moon guard once was. I see more players jam packed in Goldshire even fighting. Why not travel and fight in the arena in Stranglethorn for sport/entertainment. Players hug the Cathedral district, the Park, or stack/stand like enemies around the Slaughtered Lamb in the mages district waiting for something to happen.

If you look at society, how malls and shopping complexes used to be jam packed with multiple people back in the 90’s. Now they are closed making you travel far to get what you need or desire. Moon Guard is the opposite, so many gave up on traveling or RPing in the great beyond. They all cram together hoping to be noticed or waiting to be included, or someone to include them. Think how you sit to play the game and sit at bars or buildings in the game, what ever happened to walk and talk.

I do wonder how many players are socially afraid, hoping someone else will make the first word or first move to include them. The same people that can’t look away from a mobile device to have conversations like their folks can at dinner, if you think in detail but that’s just my opinion, not right or wrong.

Maybe its just wishful thinking, and maybe Moon Guard is no longer what it was. Just another place where the older players huddle together while new ones run around like in a petting zoo or toy store. Perhaps the veterans can still educate the younger ones in what they are missing out on. And hopefully new or recent players can still share that enthusiasm of a true adventure.

Not some LOTR fly on the eagle to Mordor end, and miss the journey of a lifetime.

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Well, there was a dragon who was all angry and angsty and he caused a lot of dragon drama which ruined things for a lot of people. Then there was this jade dragon and some stuff happened with it and a lot of drama ensued. Then there were these guys in spaceship who came to Azeroth and they were like really angry and they killed the King of the Long-Leggedies but then a big angry guy with a sword stabbed the planet and now nobody really cares about them anymore. Then everybody became super obsessed with these shiny rocks for awhile until a a dead elf broke a guy’s magic hat and now the King of the Long-Leggedies is in jail and that brings us to the modern day when dragons are causing some dragon drama up north because that’s just something dragons do.

And that is what happened to the history as far as the Pook knows.

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Your opinion of young people or new RPers doesn’t seem positive. You know, as someone who has been around since 2008, and RPed since 2012, young & new players aren’t really the problem.

If anything I’d place more fault on older players and more experienced RPers for damaging community perception of niche guilds. I can think of many single race guilds over multiple servers over the years that imploded upon themselves with drama – burning out their members who were just bystanders. These acts leading to people quitting, switching servers, scrapping characters/rerolling to something new, or just never wanting to be part of a niche guild or community like that again.

Nowadays, I prefer to blame Blizzard, though. They rarely care about RP and do little to make the game feel immersive. As the world in game grows/becomes bigger they make it inconvenient to get around to old places vs Stormwind and Orgrimmar. They are usually the easiest and most accessible cities to get to from expansion to expansion. Blizzard has a habit of making the world feel small and that isn’t a player problem.

Then there is just the fact that life becomes busier as people age and begin to have their own families and careers. Or they lose interest because the game has changed so much, or they themselves have changed so much. Let’s face it, for the longest time WoW was THE game. This isn’t the case anymore, there are tons of great titles out there worth playing and some much better than what WoW is today.

For whatever reasons, people come and go. This isn’t strictly the fault of anyone young, old, new, or experienced. With a revolving door of cast members, and some people having limited play time due to life, it is easier to understand why there isn’t much activity outside of the capital cities. It all comes down to convenience more than a lack of imagination.

I found these quotes to be ironic. You’re saying there is a problem on Moon Guard but it doesn’t seem like you’re offering any solutions. I’m not saying this to be combative, I don’t know you. I just think you’re presenting a problem you think Moon Guard has but where is your solution? Make a community that you’d like to see, put time and passion into it, and the people will come. As cornball as it is, be the change you want to see.

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What is fundamentally wrong with walking and talking in the city? I’m fairly convinced that when people think of “Adventure RP” they’re thinking about their Vanilla leveling experience, when people had a reason to be in the world and hadn’t settled in to the cities yet. We’re late in the Dragonflight expansion, but it’s entirely likely that some people were spontaneously meeting and interacting with other roleplayers as they went through that content.

Still, a week-long event just wrapped up in Uldum. The Tournament of Ages in the summer takes place for a week in Northrend. There are regular inn nights that run in Duskwood, Redridge and Booty Bay. There are monthly “fight” events in the Exodar and Pandaria. I also regularly see big groups of people doing stuff in Boralus and Gilneas.

Adventure RP specifically, as opposed to RP that happens in a fixed setting somewhere else in the world, is better suited to scheduled battle events and small parties, otherwise you’re basically asking people to go out in the world and sit around by themselves until someone decides to come out and find them. The former still happen through various groups and guilds, the latter tends to get organized with friends. My friends and I in our regular small group set out for all kinds of locales as the story calls for it, some proxies and some using the actual zones.

The way it usually goes, and has always gone since Vanilla for me personally, is like this:

  1. Make friends and get to know RP contacts in the city
  2. Build stories together that involve going out into different parts of the world
  3. Profit

The alternative is up to you, Padawan. Set up adventuring groups instead of complaining about kids these days. It’s a self-defeating narrative if you’re going to convince yourself before you start that no one will want to join you because of vague ramblings about COVID and mobile devices. If you build it, they will come. Like with basically every other “why don’t people do this thing” post, be the “someone” in your complaint and do it.

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This server really loves to throw this around casually without appreciating how difficult it is to actually achieve if you don’t already know someone.

I’ve thrown countless hours of my life away on this game and been relatively successful in most things I’ve attempted to make, but not everyone has the kind of time I had… I sure don’t anymore. I also don’t have the patience to weed out the bad actors or deal with drama from grown-ars adults who can’t be told that something they’re doing makes people uncomfortable, and those are all hurdles someone has to cross to “make the community they’d like to see”. Making my dream community isn’t worth it to me anymore, and it’s out of reach for a lot of folks for many reasons.

That said, ya know why we don’t have the things we used to have, OP? Because of this. People got tired. They got burned out. They got older and went through life changes that took away their free time. They moved onto other hobbies or other games and what remains has clustered into what you see now.

As someone once told me, the game has changed-- Persefaní I think it was-- and the only thing we can do is adapt with it and find joy where we can. Not to be the nihilist, but I don’t think the game you knew is coming back, fam. :frowning:

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I wholeheartedly disagree. I am an old character, back from vanilla on Twisting Nether and moved to Moon Guard in 2015 while my Co-GM has been on MG since the beginning. And I can tell you the there is no primary reason.

You can blame toons too old to bring new adventures, yet I run a community of people that go on adventures several times a month form archaeology to walking explorations to fishing trips. And also runs a tavern weekly for social RP that has regular special nights as part of it that can include contests like fights, drinking, and even axe throwing. But heck it is exhausting. And when I am not planning, advertising, running, and maintaining everything I am busy fighting off Moon Guard Toxicity.

What is Moon Guard Toxicity?

Glad you didn’t ask, but I am going to tell you anyways, it is this completely messed up concept that started about 2020 where no one can have anything nice. I don’t know if it was locked down with COVID or what, but everyone was spending so much time online and craving social interaction. Probably since they couldn’t go outside and had to feel seen and need to be needed, basic human needs.

That is when larger server stories went to crap (even outside Blizzard’s terrible stories like Shadowlands) because the competition became so heated it was about pumping out quantity over quality. The same for sizes of projects. “Rules” for these projects and communities became documents that are dozens of pages long because everyone was suddenly a lawyer to get away with treating people like crap so they can keep the numbers when really, all we need is about the size of a mattress tag saying be bad and be gone.

And this isn’t just communities, this is guild master’s as well. And screw the sanity of us that are silly enough to run a guild and a community, because even being a GM means we can be harassed for years if we just get rid of someone that isn’t a good fit.

And at the end of the day, yeah things changed. No, it isn’t all because players are older, newer, same toon, new toon; it is because the mental shift that somehow roleplaying has become second life for so many individuals they forgot they are not their toons. So, we are stuck adapting and finding joy where we can, or making long posts on the forums about how things used to be.

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I agree on that part considering how WoD felt so “Incomplete” or taking out content that other people miss out on. Think the effect of having WQ as filler for the lack of zillions of quests that were born from old content made the adventure more worthwhile. Not to mention the effects of having some content that gets wiped after a particular quest.

A good example is how Jade Forest has a big black mark where the Sha is summoned then it remains. I never finish that quest on any character because it ruins the serenity of the location. Im just glad they didn’t do the same to Suramar City. Imagine it looking like Theramore after the bomb.

Hard to do that when you play outside the box and other players tell you “Sorry, I only play with Lore abiders.” or “Sorry, you aren’t cut from the same cloth as us.” then everyone else around them follows suit. I’ve stopped trying to be friends and just play alone after a while.

I start to wonder if anyone can take a leap and say i refuse to be a slave to popular opinions or be a follower for the rest of my life.

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I didn’t say it to be antagonizing or hateful or combative. It was a real suggestion, meant to be encouraging and friendly. I don’t know the OP but they might be pleasantly surprised if they gauge other players interest in participating in the things they like to do in RP. If nothing else, they will make some friends to adventure with.

I’ve ran many PVE guilds over my time in WoW and I know what it takes and how draining it is. It is why I prefer to be a “free agent” these days and do the things I want to do and I’m okay with doing those things alone. Sorry if I came off as rude or like I have no experience on the matter.

My point I made to the OP is that young people aren’t why they don’t see RP out in the open world anymore, us older players are just as much to blame for that. A lot of new and younger RPers are very creative and I think they deserve some credit.

One of my favorite things to do is just turn the music and ambience up and tour around old vanilla zones. I love when I come across groups RPing. Just last week I stumbled upon 5 or 6 people in the Stonetalon Mountains, I didn’t interrupt, but it was neat to see. People still get out there and do stuff, it just isn’t as large scale.

Secondly, I think it is just a problem with how old the game is and the lack of care Blizzard has for the old zones. They constantly underestimate how sentimental the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor are to many players – not even just RPers. If they updated them people would come back to the game, and there would be more activity around. I’m not sure if it would help RP, but it would be nice to see people in these old timeless zones again.

Spreading everyone out with a new continent every expansion or keeping phasing/sharding in the Cata zones just makes it hard to RP or feel like the game is alive outside of current expansion zones. It is sad to see, that I agree with OP on.

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Always keep a level head. it just my opinion there’s no need for anger or hate please. I do wonder why guilds are so heavy detailed to join up. Go to this website or URL, post your age and interests and we will get back to you if we wish to play with you.

I tried joining the Magus Senate of Dalaran years ago, their requirements felt like i was joining a secret society, a few rituals, a sacrifice or two and voila, application complete you will receive a response 2-6 weeks later.

I try to be inclusive, often speaking to other players asking for assistance but then they lose interest the next day or 5 minutes later. I make the first step but then they move on. Rather than tell me sorry they are busy or have other matters to attend to, i find myself ghosted even in simple conversation, thus making the effort tiring over a while.

I spent a year trying to get Shadowmourne for my DK, asking players to help or asking if someone would help, utter silence unless i mentioned gold or payment then it becomes a maybe situation. I do wonder how many players are really willing to help anyone in need or spend a day doing community service with no hope of a reward. I saw it evident back in LK days but now…

Hard to make a community or an idea last when so many of the old players leave and new players seem so judgmental. Everyone wants to be in charge in my experience, every guild leader only gets to make the story, but i wonder how many players are willing to follow orders or play any role that is not primary or secondary. As a particular anime i once watched stated, “I am just a mob character.”

In my opinion, the days of labor and hard work come to a close although blizzard is more at fault for that. Think how many of you worked hard to get your characters rep levels up in DL and they release character level boosts that make it all done in a day for $60 and you can still do the same quest chains to max out rep/rewards in less time.
Their fault making gold swap for play time a thing.

Makes me wonder if DnD is dying out. Its party after party that I see. Who needs RP when you have World quests that fill the position of unique stories and ideas for others to follow.

And very few roles of villains when the heroes always have to win. I am curious how it feels to try and play an Eredar Warlock when you have to lose and noone else dies. Again this is just my opinion from what i see.

While online someone did bring a good point about how time zones have always played a factor in everything.

Cities once empty are filled with mob characters.

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Yeah, there are a lot of problems with the game, no argument there. Don’t get discouraged though. There’s some bad apples on every server, in every form of content, whether that is PVE, PVP or RP. There are a lot of good beans out there though. I’ve met some of the bestest people on MG and it is why I stay here. Sorry if I came off as rude, I really am. I sympathize with ya. Its hard seeing things you love change, its hard changing yourself, and so on. Getting older just flat out sucks!

As for the part about not getting help in game with stuff, I’m always down for some PVE and t-mog runs and stuff. I’d help ya with Shadowmourne!

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Sorry if I come off overly aggressive or jaded about it, that particular line just irks me. It’s constantly thrown around to take all the responsibility away from all other parties, and is especially bad if you go over to Horde side on either MG or WRA. “Make your own fun” they say. “Make your own community” they say… but there’s nobody to make that community with.

Nobody’s willing to take a chance on anyone anymore. Someone comes to the forums upset with the state of affairs, and the only answer anyone can give is “make it yourself”. I find it more demoralizing than encouraging. This is usually someone’s last stop after they’ve tried everything they know. Nobody uses forums anymore… and that’s all we could give them. A shrug and a “sorry bub, nobody cares- if you can’t find it, make it” and nothing else. Is it any wonder the game’s RP population continues to shrink?

Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED talk lol

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I got Shadowmourne eventually. Thats old history. On a side note ever notice how it never played any part in the SL story. The only remaining Vessel of Domination in existence made by Azerotheans. Makes you wonder, plenty of potential RP events with that.

Moon Guard has softened since PVP has also taken over. If only we could bring back the SL launch event and wipe out Goldshire that would remove a stain on its record. I’ve never seen a day other than the aforementioned launch when Goldshire wasn’t a brothel.

Blizzard needs to remove the trial accounts. Or make them work only on a Trial server.

All things considered, its possible the golden age that made Moon Guard special for adventure is over, but its different age more like the toy party age perhaps for a name.

Given Custom Guild names with the TRP addon.

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I get it. Safe to say anyone playing WoW in the year 2024 is VERY passionate about it. Passion can go a lot of ways so I just let everything said be water off a duck’s back, ya know?

RP still happens out in the wild Jarasum. It is just harder to find, absolutely, but it is out there. You can use TRP3 to scan old zones for RPers, and you can even ask them if they’re doing an event or if its okay to walk-up and participate. There is no shame in asking! Most people will be willing to include you, I have no doubt.

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As a recent-ish mover to MG, one thing I’ve noticed is that it feels almost impossible to just ‘jump’ into rp (which I did move to MG for, when my old realm finally felt too dead/empty I chose my new one based on the fact that I used to love rp during MoP and WoD). As a newer person to the scene, I definitely migrated with the intention of experiencing it but feel very lost on what to do.

Now, I’m 100% speaking from my own experiences here, but it feels pretty difficult as a new person to enter into RP without really knowing much about it/the community. I have a background of RPs from around WoD (I remember using custom group finder when it was still new purely to RP) and still feel intimidated by trying to join the hobby on a genuine RP realm. This could very much boil down to some anxiety on my part as well, but my experience being newer to MG has been like being stuck behind a barrier regarding RP.

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Yeah it can be pretty daunting either being new to RP or coming back from a long hiatus with all unfamiliar faces. I find most people in Stormwind are just waiting for someone to approach them vs them approach someone else. A lot of people are shy and anxious. So it is hard to break the ice.

The best advice I could give is spend time learning about the RP guilds on the server and seeing if they do things that sound interesting to you.

Stormwind is populated but it isn’t all that is out there. People do in fact leave the city and have events all the time. There are a lot of great guilds and people on MG so don’t let bad experiences in Stormwind turn you away or make you feel like giving up.

I don’t have my ear to the ground like I used to anymore, but I’m sure there are RP community discords, and a lot of forum posts about guilds on here.

Out of curiosity, what kind of RP would you be interested in? Maybe you can explain what you’d like to do, and maybe some people can recommend guilds to you?

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I was never really picky about the story, and the only times I can recall not enjoying an RP I joined happened to be because of a few bad sports deliberately trying to ruin it for everyone else. My absolute favorites were the classic Gilneas and the Darkshire mystery ones that were popular at the time, but I could genuinely find enjoyment in any of the ones I was able to hop into from the custom group finder.

For me, the hardest part of getting back to it is the move away from using the group finder to ‘recruit’ for an event. I used to be able to browse a few different options at almost any given time and pick whichever sounded the most enjoyable at the moment, nowadays whenever I check it there’s almost none hosted that way.

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Pretty sure one of the main reasons no one takes a chance on anyone is that most folks have been burned too many times. Not saying I’d be against such things, but considering the aforementioned Moon Guard Toxicity, most folks nowadays arent too trusting of strangers, for they’re always waiting for that other shoe to drop.

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I think that everyone (or most people) who pull out the “if you want it you build it” line appreciate how much time and effort it takes to actually do something like that. We’ve all seen it happen successfully and it takes an enormous amount of effort and dedication to build out the necessary contacts, community good will and people who are both aware of what you’re doing and want to play along.

But it’s still really the only solution to “A thing I want to see happening isn’t happening and people are wrong and bad for not doing it.” If someone has a strong need for something to happen, to the point that they’re going to lash out at people for not doing it and make judgments about their generation as a whole, their RP habits and…screentime? Then the onus is on them to - as they say - put up or…more politely, simmer down about it. See how much effort it takes, how much time is involved, how much of it is just showing up to do a thing over and over and over again for very little praise or thanks if any, but more often just complaints from people that the thing that they did wasn’t exactly to their tastes.

I mean…it’s a big server. There’s tons of people on it. You might not mesh with some of the big formal groups, but most of the battle of ongoing RP is finding your people, wherever they are. They might be on MG Alliance, they might be on WrA Horde, they might be in a different game all together. But with the sheer mass of people on MG-A you’re very likely to find at least a handful of people who are into what you’re into, no matter what that is. There are people of all skill levels, of all preferences, of all experience levels, of all character types, and if you don’t go looking for them, you won’t find them.

Will your people always turn out to be the Big Names doing the biggest, most visible stuff, who will suddenly discover a preference for your type of RP? No. They’re going to continue to have their stuff that they made be the cornerstone of how they spend their time because that’s what they enjoy, which isn’t a fundamentally bad or wrong thing. But the people that you find will be your people that you gel with, and you’ll have fun doing what you like to do with them.

I’ve definitely had lulls, I’ve had characters that I’ve pulled out of mothballs and off back burners that were there for years when I finally found my people. We’re a tiny group, and we throw all our mains and alts into a big story mosh pit to build out our numbers instead of having to maintain all the expectations and the need for individual focus that a real larger group has. Your people can even just be one person who likes to consistently hang out with you and do stories together.

If it’s not what most of the other people on the server want to do, who cares? They’re off doing their own thing, it only has to affect you as much as you let it.

That? Is not a great attitude to have, that you assume that people universally have this outlook. If you think the worst of people, confirmation bias based on a couple of encounters will usually confirm it. You need to be fit company for someone to be around before they’ll be fit company for you.

I mean…have you ever tried starting to watch a long, complex show just in the final season? And nothing made sense and it was way too much to sink in. Some people really enjoy that level of pretend bureaucracy, they love to dive into a pit of fussy details that they’re deeply familiar with and wrap them around themselves like a comfortable old blanket.

Large, extremely long-standing guilds and groups aren’t for everyone, for sure. Fortunately, there’s a billion other people around doing a billion other things instead. Guilds like that aren’t really ones that I’d generally recommend that a person who hasn’t been along with them for a lot of the ride just up and join. But there are newer guilds trying to get off the ground all the time. Will a lot of those fall through? Yes, probably most. But if guild RP is your thing, you can monkey branch with a couple of people who go to do a new thing, and then to the next thing, and then maybe you just make your own thing together, and then maybe that falls apart…permanence in RP is extremely rare, unfortunately it always will be unless you can manage to glue people’s fingers to keyboards. Sometimes the very best that you can ask for is a few glorious years where things really click, and then people move on and you start looking again.

It’s always a process. It’s always an effort. It’s always a matter of timing. That’s just how RP is - here, tabletop games, in other games, everywhere.

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Hello! o/

:worm: :apple:

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Obviously, you haven’t been to Amirdrassil lately. Or to the server-wide events in Uldum with the WFC or to Northrend when ToA is hosted. Go actually look around, there are plenty of places filled with RP besides the “city”.