Or more precisely, what I feel today's RP lacks.
Not enough Tauren involvement, haha. A slight joke, but yeah. There used to be a strong Tauren presence on the RP scene. Quite a number of the well known personalities back in the day were Tauren. It's not so much there anymore. I'm a diehard Tauren. I love the culture and the possibilities it provides. I love how it can be expanded. You can have everything from those trying to maintain tradition, like Red, to the ones who are trying to break the boundaries of the old and become part of the new Horde. It's one of the things I like about Horde in general really. That because we aren't playing humans, for the most part, it is easier to be something else from the normal expectations of what is generally known about human culture. I think Tauren and Trolls are the most detached from human western cultures in the game and so have so much room to be different.
Not enough game lore involvement. This is actually a big one for me. Yeah, the storylines in game are 'static'. But it doesn't mean our RP should be separate from the world. Taverns and scavanger hunts can be fun, don't get me wrong. But there is only so much listening to people talk about their pregnancies or getting drunk or arguing about whether or not someone is possessed or winning prizes before I feel like I have to mention there's a war going on and the BIG BAD GUY is gonna kill us all what are we doing about that?! The best I can do is provide examples of the past to explain what I mean. The "Peace Walks" and the Armistice Ball grew out of the idea that Horde and Alliance were under a rocky truce. With the newly formed Forsaken nation back in Vanilla and such organizations as the RAS, the fear of the Plague was huge and created a massive ongoing serverwide storyline. Horntotem Tribe derived their RP from the protection of the newly acquired homeland of Mulgore to the degree of near fanaticism. Hrookzhin's creation of the Summer Tiger was tied to a made-up troll tradition. Our storytellings, a Tauren tradition.
I feel like so many people think their RP is a game separate from the one they play in. Yet there are elements within the game that we can attach to our RP and make them feel more alive and part of the world. One example would be the road the Alliance are attempting to build across Kalimdor. That could spawn some great RP. Some which could lead to possible RP/PvP. Drive the Pinkies off our land! Or how about causing a touch of descent and controversy among the Horde concerning how the Horde armies treat their Tauren allies in Stonetalon?
Not enough of a public face. This includes not just RPing publicly in game, everything with emote interactions with NPCs to RPing while in an instance to stopping people in a very public place to converse IC, but also spreading it to things like the forums. And I don't just mean the guild forums. I mean the WoW forums.
I admit it's not as easy these days. There's alot more going against the RP community now. But it's worth putting an effort into I think. I know I get frustrated when I don't get my fix. And the game loses some of it's luster when my character feels 'dead'. Stresses me out. It does! It might not be the same for everyone, but I do think people play their characters more when they feel like they're 'alive' with personality and not just a gaming tool. Do you look at the game through the eyes of your character or through the eyes of a player?
http://nerfnow.com/comic/450Anyway, some stuff to think about and do something about.