I wholeheartedly agree with this notion. We purists are a dying breed. I’ve never been a person who enjoyed playing alts unless they were to fulfill a useful purpose such as spying other guilds or serving as an emissary between vassal states ect.
I came to World of Warcraft rather late. Sometimes I wonder if I could have better influenced the thinking of this community if I got here a decade sooner. As much as I wish I could build a guild free of Zugzugs, I have taken a pragmatic approach by looking the other way. Those in my circle are content with a don’t ask/don’t tell approach concerning Horde alts.
I can proudly say that I don’t have a single Horde character nor will I make one even for the purpose of espionage (I would rather not dirty my hands with their filth). Despite my expectations being lower for everyone else, I must lead by example or be labeled a hypocrite and lose the little authority I have in this community that often leans towards anarchy.
At it’s best I would point to events like the War Campaigns. But in theory, maybe never in practice I would say it’s taking your battles in character and role playing out the wins/losses. It takes alot of maturity to RP-PvP properly but I think it could also be simple things like in-guild bounties and having a broad or direct theme that your guild stands for.
Back in the good ol days I’de say it served as a reason to claim a base and be called out it probably didn’t ever end up being about RPing out wins and losses due to drama but hey that’s people. I would still argue the drama caused by RP-PvP was wholly worth it for how well it kept people engaged.
My first real experience with WRPPVP was in the long long ago on Venture Co. with guilds like the Blacktooth Grin, Keepers of Stromgarde and eventually Suncrown and Gnomeland Security.
Most of it was just the factions having their various bases we’d fight over. Namely Stonard and Stromgarde as you’d expect. But there were some campaigns. The one I remember most fondly was an attack on Ironforge that started in Arathi and went through each Dwareven province before reaching the Capitol.
Players were encouraged to write their character’s takeaway from events in the forums. It was a lot of fun and felt like a better war campaign than BFA.
Of course WoW was simpler then. Guards could pose an actual threat even on their own which necessitated clever tactics and gave the defenders a hometeam advantage. I’m hoping SL’s level crunch fixes this as it’s a little silly I’ve three manned the Exodar and Velen.
Personally while I love the idea of bases I do think RPPVP fights might be better suited ro more unique locations. There’s a lot of sprawling crypts and mines that already deny mounting so flying mounts can’t ruin fun.
But most importantly there needs to be a story and community involvement in that story in both a macro and micro level.