To what extent should RP servers be enforced?

[Train Wreck]

I see my chocolate, I see my peanut butter, now someone fucking put them together.

By the way, I see this all the time and I have to say that it's a disgusting combination and all devotees should be shot for gastronomic deviancy.

I'll shoot you if you try to take away my Reeses Pieces.

[Jayce]

It was tremendously disappointing when this quest chain came to an end, and the fact that, as far as i know, thier is nothing else like it in the game.

I'm hoping that as time goes by, the develop features like this.  It's not out of the question given the current state of "mature" MMOGs as way different from how they launched.  I'm curious how WoW looks in 3-4 years.

[Toast]

The faction system in Everquest "Scars of Velious" was pretty good.

Faction choices affected what high-end quest armor one could get. It felt really cool to ally with the giants to get access to the best quest armor (with the added fun of walkng around in a previously aggro high end zone)

[Stephen Zepp]

The faction system in Everquest "Scars of Velious" was pretty good.

Faction choices affected what high-end quest armor one could get. It felt really cool to ally with the giants to get access to the best quest armor (with the added fun of walkng around in a previously aggro high end zone)

It had a huge flaw though--you could reverse your faction perfectly, and if you were in an "uber" raid guild, quite easily--in fact, you could go from full hate--dragon/full ally giant to the exact opposite simply by clearing that giant castle zone with the AoW, etc. in just a few uber mob sweeps. Need to do a dragon armor quest? Hit the next 2 AoW kills and you were good to go. Need to do a giant armor quest? Clear ToV in one night and you were good to go, or close. In other words, your faction didn't have persistence, just a latest net total.

[Simond]

Necro for hilarity: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=26262580162&sid=1

This topic is not a new one, and we know it's a concern for our players and our player-parents. We hear perennial complaints about spots in our game where this activity is said to take place, and Moon Guard Goldshire appears in that list with some regularity.

Often the public assumption is that unless a GM appears with a crack of lightning and a mighty hammer, Blizzard is turning a blind eye.... this is very much not the case, so I'm hoping to shed a little more light on this topic from Blizzard's perspective.

For reference, the In-Game Harassment Policy:
http://us.blizzard.com/support/arti...articleId=20226

Our Intent
It's our goal (and in our interests, obviously), to present a safe and accessible environment for play. While defining "offensive" behavior can be subjective, the policy linked above reflects our working definition, and our intent to keep certain types of offensive behavior from affecting the play experience.

Enforcement
With millions of players in hundreds of servers and thousands of channels, it is impossible to manually monitor everywhere. To this end, World of Warcraft provides features to help players protect themselves and help us moderate accordingly:

- Profanity/obscenity filter to automatically intercept the most obvious offensive language
- The ability to report any player violating the rules
- Ignore functionality to remove individuals from appearing in chat

No single one of these, by itself, is always sufficient. It's critical to understand the rules we're enforcing, and where they apply. Relevant to this case, whisper chat between two consenting individuals, guildmates, etc is not an area we are out to pro-actively police. Any offensive in-game behavior needs to be reported in order to receive the right followup.

"Punish in Private"
Some posters on this thread have suggested that Blizzard ignores those reports. From several years as a manager for our call centers, I can promise you that we take action routinely.... because they call us. Or they email us. Sometimes there's blame placed on a roommate or sibling, sometimes an account thief committed the offense, etc. The point is that players appeal because players receive actions. You won't see it happen.... well, unless it happens to you. Otherwise you can only decide whether you will take our word on it.

Okay, what now?
Members of our CS team will 'patrol' Goldshire on Moon Guard on a regular basis, and take appropriate action for individuals violating the Harassment Policy. Note that this pertains primarily to public messages (/say, /yell, General) and unsolicited whispers. We won't be showing up with that mythical crack of lightning-- we'll just be watching silently for any rule-breaking language and following up privately with the player in question.

[Ratman_tf]

5 year necro!

P.S. IME Alliance RPers are the creepiest mother fuckers on the internet.

[WindupAtheist]

We just threw a couple people out of my guild when one bragged about his cyberfucking a guildmate on Moon Guard in Goldshire. Specifically because he was 21 and she was 13. 

[Morat20]

I'm on a RP server. The only role playing I've ever noted is the occasional person who walks instead of running. Of course, I avoid Goldshire.

Also, my server is/was host to the most awesome PvP alt ever: A gnome mage named 'twinkerbell'. He was a fucking PITA in PvP, at least back before TBC. Don't know about now. Probably moved onto more fertile ground.

[Arthur_Parker]

I'm fairly sure some of the players mentioned in the "bad groups" thread are actually roleplaying.

[ajax34i]

Kirin Tor had very little RP back when I was playing.  Most people were playing on the server because RP servers are supposedly slightly more mature; few actually roleplayed, and most guilds were progression or pvp-oriented.

Moon Guard on the other hand is gaining popularity as THE roleplay server, and it sounds like their Goldshire is pretty bad.  Played to level 28 on it briefly, saw some roleplayed "News" sessions in Stormwind with people sitting non-disruptively and listening, and a few guilds with a RP "purpose."

[Fordel]

Moon Guard Goldshire Inn is like nothing I have ever seen in a MMO.

[Sjofn]

Non-Goldshire RP on Moon Guard seems to be more present than on any other RP server I've been on, but yeah, their Goldshire fucking blew my mind. There was some post on their boards that was a sort of "Welcome to Moon Guard!" thing, and it had DO NOT GO TO GOLDSHIRE as one of the "rules." And I thought, "Oh ha ha, every RP server says that!" But then ... then I went there. 

I play Horde there, though, and it's pretty cute.

[Riggswolfe]

Ok, I'm gonna regret asking but what is it about their Goldshire? I'm picturing some kind of creepy red light district kind of thing.

[proudft]

Just imagine the inn filled with a hundred or so characters, about half of them naked, about three quarters of them level 1, and the screen merrily scrolling away with /say and /yell and /emote descriptions of, well, all sorts of things.

As to WHY Goldshire, who knows.  It's an easy jog for a level 1 human, I suppose.  And once it became infamous, it fed on itself.

EDIT: Here, I got you a picture.  This is at 1 am server time, btw:


The chat is really the thing, though, so you unfortunately need to log in to see that for yourself.  The Tuskar-seeking dude in this pic is just the tip of the iceberg.

[Riggswolfe]

Ummm...wow.

[Nevermore]

I like how bearform druid/tuskarr fetish is fine, AS LONG AS IT'S NOT GAY!    Because GAY tuskarr/bear porn is just going too far!

[Sjofn]

Oh Jesus, and someone who wants someone who knows about Gor. I almost linked the wikipedia entry but it somehow manages to leave out the absolutely astounding misogyny involved.  


EDIT: My favorite Goldshire moment was someone asking in General for some family RP. Then there was a beat. And then the follow up "No ERP" request from the same guy. <3

[Rendakor]

ERP? Erotic?

[Sjofn]

Yep.

[Paelos]

  Why? The WoW population just takes everything to frightening levels.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Um...I hate to break it to you but every single online game has some sort of community devoted to adult entertainment. It may not reach SL levels but it's always been out there.

[Paelos]

Sure, but to the level where we found out about it even if we weren't involved on that server? Or the mass gatherings that had to be policed by mods for being too over the top?

I mean sure, put 100 people in a room and a few of them are going to be total anti-social deviants. That's just odds.

[Zetor]

This stuff be out there, it's not a WOW thing.

The MUD I played on and built a few zones for (Pandora's Box, it was your standard run-of-the-mill diku... most of the population, me included, didn't even RP) had an 'adult entertainment RPer' clique back in 1997. They started with evil vampires, switched to Gor (that's when I learned about it too... there are some things you cannot unsee or unlearn  ), then back to evil vampires and pixies once the public outcry got the Gor guild broken up.

[Morat20]

Oh Jesus, and someone who wants someone who knows about Gor. I almost linked the wikipedia entry but it somehow manages to leave out the absolutely astounding misogyny involved.  

I love Gor.

Not like in the sense I want to participate in it, but I've always felt Gor really helped out the kinky community by skimming off a sizeable contingent of crazy into a seperate, crazy-filled pool.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Is it a bad time to mention I run an adult themed wow guild on moonguard?   

[Rasix]

How much for a tusk-job (not gay)?

[Morat20]

Is it a bad time to mention I run an adult themed wow guild on moonguard?   

Is it Gorean? Is it only open to rogues and druids, and pre-40 Hunters? (I think those are the only leather-wearers...)

[Lakov_Sanite]

Haha, it's just a roleplay guild that doesn't shy away from adult oriented storylines. It's not a brothel and god help me it will never be Gor, just a place unlike other guilds  where sex is stygmatized while violence is celebrated.  I mean seriously, I can't tell you how many rp guilds are fine with their members having belts made out of baby feet but the minute someone rp's a tit coming out suddenly it's ERP and forbidden.

[Musashi]

It's forbidden because it's inappropriate for children to read in public channels.

[Morat20]

It's forbidden because it's inappropriate for children to read in public channels.

I was a member of an adults-only guild, that had an affiliated guild for those under 18. And the "affliates" were pretyt much entirely children of the main guild.

It wasn't for sex -- it was for adults, with kids, who worked to play in a guild that did low-end raids but mostly were just available for questing and group stuff.

I don't remember there ever being any roleplaying, though there was a nice ceremony whenever a new person joined. Engineers provided fireworks. :)

[Lakov_Sanite]

Most rp doesn't actually take place in public channels anyways. regular rp or otherwise it's almost exclusively done in party chat or whispers, mostly to avoid griefing and partly so your posts don't get lost, of course anyone doing anything unsuitable for children in public should be banned.