A Roleplayer's Perspective on WoW

Hey guys!I’m just a simple roleplayer from Moon Guard (yes, yes, I know, weird place. But it’s rather quite lovely when you get past Goldshire), and I’m only speaking for myself -I certainly don’t represent the roleplayer community!-, but I thought it would be nice to share a slightly different perspective on WoW and the state of the game, given the charged atmosphere we’re all experiencing lately.WoW is a big game. An immense game. From a content angle, sadly, most of it gets quickly trampled and forgotten, as levels, gear, and new challenges obsolete everything that came before. That’s reasonable, and to be expected; we want new stuff to fight against, new puzzles to solve.When your focus on the game is more narrative, however, you start seeing things in a different light. Suddenly, all those old zones become alive, full of amazing locations to roleplay a scene. When a city is abandoned for a new hub, the taverns that used to be heartstone locations are now open for social gatherings and drunken brawls. Those dramatic vistas around endgame content can now host equally dramatic stories, or become the site of huge community events, some of which can gather hundreds of individual players for days on end.Your gametime as a roleplayer will include casual and formal parties; perhaps you’ll have to attend a trial, or stand watch as a soldier. You could be in charge of performing an execution, or officiating a wedding. Maybe this week you’ll be joining a caravan across the desert, and the next duelling werewolves atop a haunted castle! All these things require different dress codes, so old dungeons and raids become treasure-troves of new looks; “Closet Progression” becomes a thing, and you genuinely enjoy hunting for that last pair of gloves to perfect a look (along with cursing everyone when you don’t get them on the twentieth attempt).The game has many flaws, that’s objective. While I’m a roleplayer, I also like to do content. Perhaps I’m very casual about it, but I also like to see new stuff, try new challenges. And yes, the drought certainly demotivates, and even with a patch mere hours from dropping it’s reasonable to be nervous, even hopeless, about the rhythm of new content in the future.But while we’re certainly a minority, roleplayers really get to tap into a lot more of WoW than what one would think. This doesn’t suddenly make the flaws go away, but it could maybe help open the eyes to just how much wonderful stuff this game has.Much is said about whether developers care for the game or not; of course they do, it has to be a labour of love, even if we don’t see it or agree with the way it’s communicated. For me, the love and passion is evident in all those tiny details, in all the amazing locations, funny items, impressive vistas, atmospheric music, and just the endless amount of *things* the game has. Maybe much of it gets lost when they don’t serve a perpetual purpose as content we can feel challenged by, but when you dial up the nerd just a bit more and dip your toes into roleplaying, it’s hard not to feel grateful for the game they have built.There are many ways to enjoy this game we all love so much, and I felt that maybe offering the view of a simple roleplayer could help put some value on those aspects that get overlooked or forgotten. There is just so much passion and love poured into crafting all of it!