What Should Have Been a Rant of Epic Proportions

Irenke, Roleplaying

I had a long article planned for this evening. The post — a mindless, idiotic burst of pure unadulterated ranting — outlined the plight of the roleplayer. The one harassed on her own roleplaying server. The one who sometimes found himself kicked from a group for deciding to actually enjoy being in character instead of using shorthand, leetspeak, or even dewdspeak. The ones who feel like they need to hide away in back alleys or pubs in cities because they’d otherwise face ridicule for remaining true to their characters while in groups with other people.

For every person who felt embarrassed or even ashamed¹ of being a roleplayer so that he avoided being in character around other people, this was supposed to be your post.

Being a roleplayer in World of Warcraft isn’t always very easy. We’re typically at the bottom of the proverbial food chain, somewhere below carebears, ninjas, young players, and even QQ-ing mages.² Whereas every group can turn to another and feel superior, roleplayers often find themselves with little recourse. We are often the reviled, the mocked, the ridiculed, and the forsaken of the World of Warcraft community. Roleplaying servers that had been specifically set aside for our use become inundated with non-roleplayers and any attempt to regulate the community is met with scorn and the adage that fifteen dollars a month should allow a person to do whatever he wants in game, irregardless of the servers’ intended use.

The post found its catalyst in various sources — including my general blah-ness as of late and some very specific incidents that I’ve experienced recently — but was actually instigated when I stumbled across a corpse in Orgrimmar this afternoon:

I hate anti-roleplaying sentiment.

So, What Happened?

Well, apparently I had a bit of a change of heart after writing up that post. Something happened on the Scarlet Crusade US roleplaying server that lifted my mood immensely.

Query: What do you get when you combine in a single group:

• a Protection warrior,
• a Retribution paladin,
• a Holy paladin,
• a Frost mage, and
• a Shadow priest?

Answer: A hell of a lot of fun of the roleplaying variety!

Instead of my rant tonight³, I’m instead going to focus on a wonderful group of wonderful people I interacted with earlier this evening. On a whim, I joined a group for Ragefire Caverns, where Irenke the troll Shadow priestess was invited to try her hand at healing. After assuring her group that “Irenke be embracin de Shadow, but de spirits, dey be sayin dat this be sumtin [she] can do”, we headed into the instance.

What followed was one of the most fun runs that I’ve had in quite some time!⁴

I know for a fact that there was at least one other dedicated roleplayer in the group. Daimina, our group’s Frost mage, was a cantankerous, in your face, “Yes, I crawled out of the grave wearing these robes, thank you very much” Forsaken with a chip on his shoulder. After some banter between “de deader” and Irenke, everyone else got involved. Shortly thereafter, we four⁵ had ganged up on Daimina:

• Omahu, the complacent tauren Protection warrior who seemed a bit unsure of her tanking abilities,
• Engella, a perky sin’dore Holy paladin who got a little too distracted by the conversation at times to heal properly,⁶
• Sabbys, a sin’dorei dress-wearing Retribution paladin who got easily befuddled, and
• Irenke, troll Shadow priestess and spirit woman of a small tribe from the Hinterlands.

To say that I was amused is an understatement!

So, even though none of those people have ever — or will ever — stumble across my site, I’d like to take the opportunity this evening to thank them. I had an absolute blast, despite the one wipe we had after our tank stepped away from the keyboard for a second or watching the Retribution paladin fall into lava three times during the entire run. They were absolutely wonderful peoples and I had a blast. They really helped brighten my mood this evening and made the run memorable.

And while I’m thanking fellow roleplayers, I’d also like to spotlight a troll mage that I met this evening in a Wailing Caverns run. Ashiko was an all-around nice guy and I giggled aloud at our attempts to roleplay virile young trolls with a straight face. If I don’t manage to somehow snag this fellow and get him into House Al’shar I’ll be extremely disappointed!

Related Posts

1. Embracin de Shadow
2. The Epic Conclusion to a Story of Heroic Proportions
3. How I Rediscovered the Joy of Roleplaying