Dispelling the Myth: Roleplaying Servers

General, Roleplaying

As a starry-eyed itty-bitty neophyte roleplayer who stumbled upon the Feathermoon US roleplaying server over three years ago I knew little to nothing about roleplay and server policies. I was one of those strange misguided souls who roleplayed ocassionally on non-RP servers, but that was entirely at my discretion and because I thought that it was quirky fun. Joining a roleplaying server, however, was daunting since that meant — to me — that not only were the rules codified but also that the community could possibly react negatively towards my attempts to roleplay. I compared it to moving from the neighborhood sandlot to the Major Leagues.

I’ve learned a lot since then.

For those of you considering the jump to a roleplaying server — or those who have questions but have never thought to ask — I thought that I would take the opportunity to discuss that today.

Roleplaying Servers

Blizzard says this of roleplaying servers when describing the possible realm types:

If you enjoy role-playing (RP) and would like to imagine that you are an inhabitant of a fantasy-based world, then a role-playing realm may be for you. Players who choose to play on an RP realm should abide by the Role-Playing realm policies and remain in-character at all times. Role-Playing realms give players the chance to develop characters with a backstory who do not simply progress from quest to quest, but instead assist or hamper the efforts of others for reasons of their own.

That’s a lot of information, but what does it mean?

Roleplaying servers operate under a single governing principle: each individual in the game should conduct himself or herself entirely in-character. These realms exist to provide people with a place to develop unique characters who are able to interact with other players in the Warcraft universe. The mechanics of the game are identical to all of the other realm types: if you select a RP server, you essentially are playing on a normal server; if you select a RP-PvP realm, it is similar to being on a PvP server.

There are, however, a unique subset of rules that make roleplaying servers innately different from any other server type.

According to the official Roleplaying Policy, there are rules in place (often referred to as roleplaying conventions) that guide how people should conduct themselves while on roleplaying servers. One of these rules governs names appropriate to the server: not only should the names follow the rules that exist for every server, but they should also appropriately medieval or fantasy. So, no, names like Doublebubble, Solidsnaake, and Cropduster probably wouldn’t make the cut — all names that I disappointingly spotted within the last hour. Furthermore, there are three other rules that should be followed:

• The General Chat Channel should only be used for finding Storylines (SLs), finding Party Groups, and various other discussions pertaining to the Base Storyline (BSL), game-related topics, and continuity.
• The General Chat Channel should NOT be used for any “Off-topic,” Non-Storyline, or non game-related discussions.
• Absolutely no out of character (OOC) or non-fantasy related dialogue should take place in the /Say, /Yell, or Party chat channels.

And the Reality

Mind you, I said “should be followed” for a reason. As many current and former roleplayers may tell you, roleplayers seem to be the minority on many servers. Furthermore, the rules are typically disregarded in light of the diminished roleplaying population and the lack of active enforcement on Blizzard’s part. As with many of their policies, the staff at Blizzard isn’t proactive in ensuring that their rules are followed; instead, they rely on the community to enforce the rules by reporting infractions. This results in two things: first, a server where the rules are rarely or selectively followed and, second, an occasionally disgruntled roleplaying community that sometimes wants to report violations but may fear retaliation from non-roleplayers.

Which isn’t to say that you won’t find roleplaying if you join a roleplaying server. It’s there, if you know where to look and how to recognize. On Feathermoon US — my server of preference, of course — there is a thriving and active roleplaying community. Events are organized weekly, numerous roleplaying guilds exists (many of which are actively engaged in PvP or raiding!), and these wonderful folks also maintain a website to help promote, encourage, educate, and entice fellow roleplayers at Feathermoon.net.

Of course, this might sound overwhelming to the neophyte roleplayer and might scare off some people who would otherwise make wonderful, contributing members of the community. I should probably further explain why people choose to roleplay — but that’s a topic for another day!

Related Posts

1. If Your Name is Listed Here, You Should be Ashamed
2. I Regret That I Have But One Life to Give
3. Why Do People Roleplay?