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All the World's a Stage is a weekly column by David Bowers, now published on Sundays, investigating the explorative performance art of roleplaying in the World of Warcraft.
For some, the whole process takes 5 minutes. They log in, click on "create new character," choose a race, a class, painstakingly compare each and every face and hairstyle, type in a name, click "accept," and they're done. Some take their time by paying a visit to the forums of each class, or asking their friends about which race is best -- but who sits down and makes up a story idea, a personality, and actual characteristics for characters these days?
Roleplayers do, of course. But how? What if you'd like to try out roleplaying but you just don't know where to begin creating an actual character, rather than just an avatar for yourself in the game? Each roleplayer tends to have his or her own way, but there are are a number of things they have in common. One of the first things to remember about designing your character concept, is to make your character essentially human, relatable, based on real experiences that you know about.
Mine your life. Think of what kinds of experiences you are familiar with, and which of them could be used as the foundation for another person's life, a new character with a story to tell, and a personality to engage other people's interest. Today, I'll give you a couple examples of how I tried to do this, and explain some of the pitfalls people often fall into when trying to make up an interesting character.
"World of Warcraft Raid Bosses" dramatizes life on the other side of the screen for Arthas, Lady Vashj and Sylvanas Windrunner. Performed live at San Diego Comic Con last August, this WoW skit won the Judge's Choice award.
Unfortunately, the video posted on YouTube was shot by someone in the audience and very little of the actors can be heard. I found a clean MP3 of the dialogue, replaced much of the bad audio of the original and reposted the video. My apologies to the original posters, but this play was far too entertaining to be ignored due to audio problems.
All the World's a Stage is a weekly column by David Bowers, investigating the explorative performance art of roleplaying in the World of Warcraft.
Roleplaying the opposite sex happens. It is alluring to some, and repulsive to others -- a lot of people do it, while a lot of other people very openly proclaim (as if they know these things) that anyone who does this weird, manipulative, deceitful, and so on.
People also tend to come up with various excuses for why they play a character of the opposite sex, as if they need to justify themselves according to their own gender's traditional expectations. Some men say, "if I'm going to have to stare at a characters butt for hours while I play, I'd rather it be a hot and sexy butt," while some women say, "I get all kinds of unwanted attention if I play a girl, and the only way I can get away from it is to play a boy." All that may be true in some cases, but it's hardly the whole story behind opposite-gender roleplaying.
First of all, let me just say it here and now: you have every right to create whatever character you want, particularly in an actual roleplaying environment, and particularly if you intend to be faithful to the character you're creating.
It looks like we'll be getting another patch tomorrow, according to Nethaera -- Brewfest is coming! That'll be two consecutive patch weeks, for the first time in my memory. We've seen Dan's Brewfest preview, as well as some info from Blizzard, and all of it looks like it's going to be pretty fun.
The irony for me is that I don't drink any alcohol in real life. This may sound odd, but I usually try to avoid it in the game too, if for no other reason than I don't know exactly how my characters should act when they're drunk out of their minds. I've tried roleplaying it before, though, at the Darkmoon Faire, and I guess I was believable enough! It's not that hard to just be uninhibited. Still, something tells me that Brewfest isn't actually about getting drunk. What's the significance of this holiday for you?
Malygos is a new kind of antagonist for the Warcraft universe in that he's probably the enemy with the least actual evil we've seen so far, in sharp contrast to the Burning Legion, the Scourge, the Old Gods, and a host of others. As we've already noted, some players think he may actually be right: he wants to protect Azerothians from the magic they're dabbling in, for fear that they might end up bringing the Burning Legion back with it, except that he goes about "protecting" the people by waging war on them, which somehow eerily familiar....
Anyway, Malygos is just the latest example of an antagonist in WoW that we can almost sympathize with, a bad guy that isn't all that bad. Malygos' particular place at the other end of our attack buttons can be attributed mainly to his conflicting point of view rather than an evil and corrupted soul. His ultimate aim is still the greater good of all life -- he just believes (wrongfully, we hope) that he needs to destroy the minority of magic users in order to save the remaining majority of all other life on the world.
Tipster Shewa sends in this interesting forum discussion from an RP-PvP server (Defias Brotherhood - EU) about what, exactly, is in bounds on such a server. Is it griefing to attack an RP function? Or is it okay as long as you're in character as, say, a malevolent Alliance warrior who hates all blood elves and attacks them whenever he can, even when they're peacefully congregated for (as a possible example) a picnic in the woods?
I tend to be more in line with poster Rumbalt in this page of the thread, when he says Perhaps I expect to (sic) much of people, when stuff like this happens I have no trouble weaving unexpected stuff like this into a storyline, an a mass of the shadow being attacked by a violent and dangerous Horde guild. Back when I played on RP servers, I didn't wait for other people to roleplay, I played and let the chips fall where they may. Other posters point out that, since you can't communicate with the other side anyway, it's effectively impossible to know if they're attacking you in or out of character and so you should just always assume they're in character and ignore stuff like forum posts and message boards that would ruin the RP illusion anyway... since you're already missing one gloriously amethyst eye anyway. (I kid, but it's a good comic strip and deserves to be linked.)
I suppose I fall on the side of the 'it doesn't matter what they intend by attacking, you're on an RP-PvP server, role play your PvP response and just move on'. But it's an interesting debate. What are your thoughts?
All the World's a Stage is a new weekly column by David Bowers, investigating the explorative performance art of roleplaying in the World of Warcraft.
As you know, WoW is a work of art, and roleplaying is probably the most creative aspect of the WoW experience. There are many reasons why people roleplay, and also many challenges to roleplayers, not the least of which is fitting in with all the other players who may not get why in the world you spend your time this way.
To put it most simply, as roleplayers, we view our WoW experience as a creative one. We want to make each other laugh and smile and share stories about our characters. By doing this, we not only have a good time, we get that sense of inspired expression that any artist loves, whether a comics illustrator or a knitting addict. Roleplayers aren't so different from other players -- we want to do quests, dungeons, raids, and fight other players just like everyone else, but we want to do it all in a creative, story-based way.
All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts,
Player and RP enthusiast Saphrona of the Shadow Council server has compiled all the known information about pirates in Azeroth. Most of the information comes from the WoW pen and paper roleplaying game. Blizzard lore guru Chris Metzen has approved all the lore added to the game by the PnP books, so it's as good as gold.
Saphrona has dug up some interesting facts, such as there are more pirate organizations in the game than just the Bloodsail Buccaneers. Roaming the high (and low) seas of Azeroth are:
The Blackwater Raiders
The Southsea Freebooters
The Southsea Pirates
The Defias Brotherhood
Also, the Bloodsail Buccaneers are using engineering to secretly construct a submarine fleet and the leader of the Bloodsails believes so strongly in human supremacy of the high seas, that he refused to aid the Alliance in the Third War. Scurvy dog, indeed.
For your pirate lore overview, check out Saphrona's full article on the official forums.
What pirate faction, you say? The Bloodsail Buccaneers of Booty Bay have their own limited faction gains and rewards. Killing goblins and doing the few available quests will get you a pirate outfit, but not much else.
Player Bloodysaber of the Uldum server would like to see more. He'd like to see it so much, he wrote up an entire faction design document for Blizzard to follow. This document not only including quests, NPCs and faction rewards, but also new pirate gear with stats, a pirate title and a pirate town in the form of a boat parked off shore with vendors, flight masters, engineer trainers and quest givers.
If you're in the pirate mood today, head over to his thread and give him your support.
Throw on some Azure Silk Pants and fish up some Buccaneer's Boots from Stormwind Canals for the Alliance or Wailing Caverns for Horde (or the AH.) Then head to the Deadmines and knock off a few Defias until one drops a Defias Rapier and Parrot. Or, you can fly down to Stranglethorn Vale and buy one of two parrots from Nark in Booty Bay.
Finally, for your head, farm 6 Long Elegant Feathers in Feralas from Frayfeather Hippogryphs for a tailored Admiral's Hat or you can settle for a quick and easy Silk Headband, made from simple materials.
Or you can avoid all that shopping and just hit yourself with a spare Hallowed Wand - Pirate from last year's Halloween Event.
Now, your ready to hit the high seas!
EDIT: I missed the easiest costume of all: eating Savory Deviate Delight will transfrom you into a scurvy blight on the high seas (or a ninja). I guess I'll be the one walking the plank this day!
We have discussed ways in which World of Warcraft is not only full of audio-visual art, but presents in itself a gaming experience that can reward players the same way that art forms like music or film can. For some, however, WoW is not only a game, but a stage. For them, the gaming element may sometimes fade into the background, when it becomes only a means to an end; they use WoW as a combination of acting and creative writing, telling stories and making performances all their own. They call it roleplaying.
One kind of roleplaying that is getting a great deal of new attention these days is "machinima." For those who don't know, machinima is basically a kind of film in which people use the game's existing 3D models and environments to make their own movies, and then share these movies with everyone on the internet (or very rarely on TV). As we have seen here at WoW Insider and elsewhere, these movies are especially powerful as comedies and music videos, especially for viewers who are already familiar with the game that they're made with.
But for most people who roleplay, it is not a scripted performance, but an improvised one; it is not carefully lip-synced, edited recorded and for all to see, but imagined, written out, and remembered only among those who played the parts. Someone not familiar with roleplaying might wonder why people bother with it.
I've been sidestepping writing about this issue for some time, since it's bound to generate some controversy here and I hate bringing publicity to bad people. But as the topic keeps popping up again and again, particularly on roleplaying servers, it might be time to bring it out into the open.
An erotic roleplaying guild that now spans two realms has been accused of defending pedophiles and engaging in extreme sexual situations without any way to verify that their members are above the age of 18. While the guild in question says it has been reported many times and is not violating policy, and that minors joining an ERP guild are being poorly parented, Blizzard has forcibly disbanded the guild -- only to have it reform under a new name. There might be some disturbing content following the cut, so click at your own risk.
I have a question for all the Horde and warlock players out there -- as well as anyone who plays their character in a so-called "evil" way. But first, let me explain where I'm coming from.
As you know, one of the main differences between the Alliance and the Horde is their sense of style. In fact, the question of what looks and feels good to players of either side may be one of the biggest areas of disagreement that actually exists between them. To a lesser extent, this sort of disagreement exists between classes as well. Warlocks give off a very different feeling from Paladins for example, and different people are attracted to each sort of "aura."
Like many players, my sense of aesthetics and beauty fits in squarely on one side of this aesthetic equation, and the other side can be rather difficult for me to understand. I play in the Alliance, and my favorite races are usually the ones that are "beautiful" and noble-looking in a traditional sense. To me personally, the Horde races are hard to relate to.
I do sometimes start up a Horde character if I have a funny idea for roleplaying him or her, but eventually something about them starts to bother me. Now that the Horde has prettier blood elves to play, I admit this helped me a lot -- I am gradually leveling up a blood elf alt in my free time -- but somehow being a blood elf in the Horde feels rather out of place, as if I'm not really part of the Horde because I'm not hunched over with a ready-to-kill look on my face.
For a long time I couldn't play a warlock either for similar reasons. The class just seemed inherently evil; summoning demons and stealing people's souls seemed wrong somehow. Even though I knew it's just a fantasy game, I still had no desire to mimic in the game something that would be abhorrent to me in real life. I often wondered: what is attractive about the look and feel of these characters to Horde and warlock players?
It's a problem: here you are, a master of your very own runed blade, a summoner of an army of undead, an immensely powerful tank and damage-dealer -- and yet no one will let you into the lore party over at Starshine Shadowstrider's house!
"Yuckie!" they say. "He got his powers from the Lich King! ...Eww!"
"But I turned against him!" you proclaim in your defense. "I wised up and came back to the Light, sorta. Okay not really but I'm still not completely bad! It's like... fighting..." your voice gradually gets quieter as party-goers stop listening, "... fighting fire with ... fire. Dammit. I'm gonna go kill Onyxia by myself! That'll show 'em."
Yes indeed. It's looking like the future's going to be pretty rough for Death Knights. As Nethaera explained, "It's most likely that Death Knights aren't going to find themselves being popular guests at the town picnic."
But Death Knights aren't alone in dealing with this sort of thing. "Keep in mind," Nethaera points out, "that Warlocks aren't generally welcomed with open arms either (depending on the culture of the race in question)." Here we have a good role model for plucky summoners of the undead: Warlocks are magic users who use the powers of the Burning Legion against the Burning Legion itself! Have not the Alliance and the Horde not gradually come to accept that just because some people happen to summon demons, cause agony, corruption and ruin, as well as steal people's souls -- that doesn't make them inherently evil, right?
So it is with Death Knights. So what if you betrayed all the peoples of Azeroth to go and serve the Lich King for a little while? So what if his taint of undeathiness is still flowing through you while you draw those unholy runes and create zombies? You can now go to Shattrath to have your picture taken with a Naaru! Your reputation should be squeaky clean.
While Blizzard may yet find a plausible reason for Death Knights to be fighting against the Lich King rather than with him, keep in mind that even if that doesn't work out, you've got one magic word that will make everything okay. Whenever people won't trust you or play with you just because it would seem that you might possibly be technically evil (on the outside)...
I played on Thorium Brotherhood – a roleplaying server - when I first came to World of Warcraft. I'd enjoyed playing on roleplaying servers in the past in other games and thought I'd continue in that tradition.
What I quickly discovered on Thorium Brotherhood was that roleplaying there was barely clinging to life. The chat channels were filled with questions like "What is roleplaying?" and "What is different on this server?" I could never deduce whether they were sincere questions or whether they were simply meant to antagonize the roleplayers.
I ran a "light RP" guild for several months before throwing in the towel out of frustration with guild members who wouldn't roleplay. Then I did a one-eighty towards the other extreme and joined a "heavy RP" guild and just about lost my mind. I love roleplayers to death, and to an extent I consider myself to be one, but some of the folks in that guild frightened me. We'd spend more time sitting around a fire telling stories to each other than we'd spend playing the game and if anybody got up out-of-turn during story time to kill a flagged player who passed by, there was a severe tongue-lashing in store. It felt like kindergarten all over again. All I wanted was a "happy medium" but I never found it, so I emptied my bank, vendored everything, and presented a large handful of gold to my best friend on the server and left the realm.
Nova Barlow over at Escapist Magazine writes about how World of Warcraftkilled her inner actor. Nova speaks fondly of roleplaying characters she has played in the past, but concludes that the place to find roleplaying these days is not in any online game including World of Warcraft. Do you agree?
I've been sidestepping writing about this issue for some time, since it's bound to generate some controversy here and I hate bringing publicity to bad people. But as the topic keeps popping up again and again, particularly on roleplaying servers, it might be time to bring it out into the open.
I have a question for all the Horde and warlock players out there -- as well as anyone who plays their character in a so-called "evil" way. But first, let me explain where I'm coming from.
It's a problem: here you are, a master of your very own 
I played on Thorium Brotherhood – a 
