Wildfire Riders

So I received the following email (sadly, longer ago than I care to admit) - and while I responded to it at the time, I wanted to expand on that response and turn it into a blog post. But I'm not really sure where to start and need some ideas

Hi Anna,
Stumbled across your blog on wow ladies, always nice to see another RPer who raids.

In any case, I was wondering if you had any thoughts on a problem I've been running into for a bit...and one that has mostly killed my desire to RP.

Namely, being flamed, pseudo ICly insulted, or generally followed around and insulted for raiding. I've had several people from some of the larger RP guilds on my server do this, and I'm still uncertain about any viable IC ways to respond. It appears to be a jealousy issue, especially since I've heard comments from several of these people about how they need to start raiding so they have more epics.

But, I'm still rather lost on how to deal with the situation.

<Name Redacted at Querent's Request>

So - what kind of advice would you give this person (from the character name, I'm assuming female, but we all know how well THAT works) - aside from "fuck 'em, they're morons".

Many <3s!

Fuck 'em, they're morons. >.>

Flamed for Raiding?


It is entirely possible to Raid and RP at the same time. TRI is proof of that. Our Naxx Runs are proof of that.

First, I would recommend that he, or she, ask politely for the people to stop--screen shot it--and then report continuing griefing. Then I would recommend she looks on her realm's forum for other RP.

I am a bit skepetical here. What is his RP style? Who does she raid with? I do not doubt that she is being flamed and that should stop. At the same time, this situation, as described, strikes me as odd.

Yeah - I'm addressing some of that - especially if her raid group has been openly hostile/griefing to RPers in the past, it could explain a lot.

As for the "you can raid and RP at the same time" - Feathermoon is rather unique in that regard, at least form what I've seen on plusheal and other places. Even the hardcore RP folks raid entirely OOC. Living "double lives" as it were. Sure it's possible, but not a lot of people have bothered to try.

Fuck 'em, they're morons.

People following her around and insulting her makes me think it's a jealousy thing. Though, like Bricu, I'd be curious to know if there's anything more to the situation. As in, how does she handle her progression ICly around people who don't raid?

The question of how much your character has seen/done ICly vs. how much others have seen or done can be kind of tough to wrangle. I'd never suggest that defeating end-game stuff shouldn't be part of her RP -- if her story is about taking down the black dragonflight and she goes in and kills Nefarian, then why would she leave something like that out? But, if her response to, say, someone else's character going into UBRS and seeing Victor Nefarius is to commandeer the conversation and suggest that the poor naive soul can't begin to comprehend what's going on there... Well.

To use an example of a raider/RPer doing it right, look at Yva. Killing Illidan, if I remember correctly, was a pretty big deal for Indarra. It came up a couple of times during RP, but she didn't present it as a thing that made Indi, I dunno, superior to the other RPers. Plus, TRI was still gunning for him, so she didn't invalidate their IC attempts in the meantime ("You can't go kill him. He's already dead in my RP.") Not sure I'm articulating that well. Need more caffeine.

Also, when she did keep Indi in her tier gear for RP, it was because it looked cool, and was ICly appropriate for the character, not as a way of showing off the shiny purples. I can't remember who that white hood drops off of from one of the BC raids, but her comment in OOC when she got it wasn't OMG LOOK AT THE STATS but OMG THIS IS SO AWESOME FOR INDI'S RP OUTFIT.

Not knowing how the person asking treats these things when he or she RPs, it can be harder to diagnose the problem. If they're doing it in a similar way to Yva, then unfortunately "fuck 'em, they're morons" is probably the tl;dr version of any solution I'd have. Polite requests to stop are the first thing, definitely. I'm not sure if an OOC whisper asking why they're treating her that way would lead to a productive discussion or not, but if she feels comfortable doing so, it might be worth a try. Has she approached their guildmasters, if it's gotten really bad? Or are the guildmasters participating in the rudeness, too?

If it turns out it's the mentality that RPers can't raid, well, I'd have to agree with Bricu that it's time for her to find new people to RP with -- not that that's always an easy thing to do. Maybe she could start an open RP thread on her realm forums and see what new faces participate. Or attend an open RP event and meet new people that way.

I smell a guild slogan. Or maybe TRI could adopt it.

Totally Raiding Inc. Motto: "We raid, we RP. If you don't like it, fuck you, you're a moron."

Indi still wears tier 6 rp'ly. >.>

I dealt with the same thing when I was a member of White Tower from a good chunk of the members- in fact it was that that drove me to /gquit after my first few months with TRI during BC raiding. It was very much a jealousy thing, and I can tell you, it's amazingly annoying. It's sadly not as odd and unusual as we might think- we're just lucky to be part of a larger group of people / social network that doesn't shun the idea.

To kind of give other people a perspective, here's an example. You all have a basic idea of Bell's RP by now. Raiding has never exactly been a key point to her development. Possibly the most ICly thing I gained out of raiding would be my Amani War Bear, which at the time was the only bear mount in the game. I got it on the weekend of Feathermeet, actually at Tarquin's house on his computer, with Dravir hanging over my shoulder being distracting. :p

In the 'greater community' we have here, I got a lot of happy reactions. People were congratulating me for finally getting my bear, people in RP reacting as their character's would, without any clear OOC bias or bull.

In the greater community I escaped from? OOC comments of 'Guess you're only a hardcore raider now.' , 'That mount fits my character so much better, but I'm not like you so I'll never get one.' , or even more passive aggressive insults such as 'I guess you're never going to RP again'. IC reactions were generally insulting, finding ways to twist whatever they could to play up that Bell abused the bear or something else that I rolled my eyes at. By that point, it had become clear to me that they just weren't worth my time, so I typed /leave 3 and /leave 2 to remove myself from the OOC and IC channels. I got a few more harassing whispers, but those dwindled off when people lost interest.

Threnn lists a lot of things I would normally say in stuff like this. But having been there, I can say your best bet is to detach yourself from people who cause drama and complain. The irony is the same people are sometimes prone to complaining that you aren't RPing with them anymore, but harassment is harassment. Ask them politely to stop, screenshot it, report it, move on with your life.

Ok - yeah both Bell and Threnn have some really good things, and are (as expected) way more lucid than I manage to be on the subject.

http://toomanyannas.com/blog/raiding/re ... r-raiding/ this is what I posted, and hopefully I touched on both sides of the issue without being too into detail. if I hear from him/her again, I may see about sending what you guys have said.

There's an oddity to what's happening, especially after looking up the character names, the character this person raids with is unguilded. I'm not really sure what's up.