Try your hand at the Spore Creature Creator and win free stuff from Big Download!
Posts with tag erp

WoW Insider's top ten WoW stories of 2007

We had a gigantic year at WoW Insider-- from January 1st to December 31st, we've posted over 4,500 stories here on this very site, about nearly every facet of the World of Warcraft (and you guys didn't slouch, either-- we had over 150,000 comments on the site in 2007). We've reported on everything from hearthstone soaps to Norweigan mooses, and everything from Arena PvP to Zul'Aman. We've posted guides, rumors, insights, jokes, and everything else we could find connected to this game that we all play (17 hours a week on average).

And seeing as 2007 is just about to end, we figured it would be fun to take a look at the year behind us, and list the top ten stories that we reported on during that time. From comedic to controversial, these ten stories run the gamut, and they also comprise the most important news that happened in the World of Warcraft this year. As a staff, we collected all of the biggest stories of the year, and then rated them from one to ten.

So click the link below to finish out this year, and check out WoW Insider's Top Ten WoW Stories of 2007. Before the year ends, let's take a look back at what happened in Azeroth and the culture surrounding it.

Continue reading WoW Insider's top ten WoW stories of 2007

All the World's a Stage: Drawing the line on ERP

All the World's a Stage is brought to you by David Bowers every Sunday evening, investigating the mysterious art of roleplaying in the World of Warcraft.

There are some people out there who use online games as a venue for their erotic fantasies, from husbands and wives spending some imaginative time together online, to complete strangers flush with desire and looking for some sort of satisfaction in each other. Most of these people who try out Erotic Role-Playing (or ERP) in WoW realize the need to keep it private; they do whatever they do in private chat channels, where it stays their own affair.

But there are a rare few who take ERP to an extreme: they form a guild whose whole purpose is to engage in ERP, and proceed to garner a largely negative reputation for themselves. They wear their suggestive guild name like a sign above each of their character's heads, as if to draw as much attention to themselves as possible. Their members indulge in various sexual fantasies, some of which may even be extremely distasteful and objectionable, played out in an environment where everyone is encouraged to "explore" with one another in anonymity.

Obviously, the moral danger here is that young people may be tempted to wander in, way before they are mature enough to understand or deal reasonably with what they experience there. We generally assume adults to be responsible for themselves in such matters, but children may very well be confused and curious, even willing to lie about their age in order to unravel such adult secrets. Indeed, ERP is a subject matter that the vast majority of players do not want to see -- least of all parents who like their kids to grow and learn from their interactions with others within the game, or at least have a safe and fun experience. Therefore, roleplayers of any sort have a responsibility to keep the public environment clean and safe for all who play there, and for the few involved with ERP guilds to do otherwise is dangerous and unethical.

Continue reading All the World's a Stage: Drawing the line on ERP

All the World's a Stage: Oh the drama! -- When to "/ignore"

All the World's a Stage is a weekly column by David Bowers, published on Sunday evenings, investigating the explorative performance art of roleplaying in the World of Warcraft.

We've talked before about roleplaying as an art form, whether you think about it as acting or puppeteering, fiction or improv, there's definitely something creative going on here. But like any art form, roleplaying is best when it means something; that's to say, when it expresses something ultimately "true" about human experience, and perhaps even illumines the minds and hearts of the roleplayers in some way.

Roleplayers all want to achieve that creativity, of course, but one problem often stands in our way: it's a rare work of art that really works for everyone. That's why the regular old art world is such a complete mess -- one man's fingerpainting is another man's post-modernist masterpiece. People constantly disagree about what subjects make for acceptable art, whether some art pushes extremes too far and becomes obscenity, and whether real art actually requires talent and skill. One person may curl up with their favorite Jane Austen novel and read it for the 10th time, while another may come home from the comic book store with the epic adventures of the Bone cousins. Each story conveys very different things to the reader -- but then the people who want to read these stories are looking for different things to get out them as well. Each form of storytelling speaks its own language for its own special audience.

We have the same problem in roleplaying. To illustrate, imagine there's a teenage boy going through public school and not getting along with his peers very well. When he roleplays, he plays an intimidating character who likes to try to get in your face, pick a fight with you and insult you to show how very powerful he is. That power fantasy may be very annoying for you and me, but for him it really means something. That's not to say it's high-quality art by any means, but nonetheless, his feelings are important too, and he has his right to play a character on an RP server the same way we all do. It's just that for us, the "/ignore" command starts to look really tempting every time his sort comes along.

Continue reading All the World's a Stage: Oh the drama! -- When to "/ignore"


RESOURCES

Blizzard Events
BlizzCon (190)
Worldwide Invitational (102)
Class Columns
(Druid) Shifting Perspectives (46)
(Hunter) Big Red Kitty (36)
(Hunter) Scattered Shots (21)
(Mage) Arcane Brilliance (42)
(Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It (51)
(Priest) Spiritual Guidance (25)
(Rogue) Encrypted Text (33)
(Shaman) Totem Talk (51)
(Warlock) Blood Pact (31)
(Warrior) The Care and Feeding of Warriors (55)
Gameplay
(Arena PvP) Blood Sport (26)
(BG PvP) The Art of War(craft) (25)
(Casual) WoW, Casually (20)
(Guild Leadership) Officers' Quarters (63)
(Professions) Insider Trader (63)
(Raid Healing) Raid Rx (20)
(Raiding) Raiding 101 (2)
(Raiding) Ready Check (25)
(Roleplaying) All the World's a Stage (43)
Hybrid Theory (19)
New Players' Guide (3)
Tank Talk (6)
AddOns and UI
AddOn Spotlight (88)
Macro Anatomy (14)
Reader UI of the Week (27)
Reader WoWspace of the week (31)
The Creamy GUI Center (13)
Lore and Stories
Around Azeroth (522)
Ask A Lore Nerd (8)
Barrens Chat (9)
Know your Lore (58)
Tales from the Lion's Pride Inn (14)
WoW Moviewatch (513)
Features
15 Minutes of Fame (25)
About the Bloggers (28)
Ask WoW Insider (62)
Azeroth Security Advisor (4)
Breakfast topics (723)
Build Shop (35)
Forum Post of the Day (20)
Gamers on the Street (24)
Guildwatch (81)
He Said She Said (4)
Illusionary Tactics (2)
It came from the Blog (29)
Phat Loot Phriday (92)
The Colosseum (0)
Two Bosses Enter (61)
Well Fed Buff (26)
World of WarCrafts (26)
WoW Insider Show (67)
WoW Rookie (40)
[1.Local] (13)
Classes
Death Knight (96)
Druid (316)
Hunter (287)
Mage (179)
Paladin (302)
Priest (254)
Rogue (180)
Shaman (284)
Warlock (196)
Warrior (217)
News
Account Security (23)
AddOns (254)
Analysis / Opinion (3142)
Blizzard (1660)
Bugs (219)
Burning Crusade (378)
Contests (232)
Economy (197)
Events (463)
Expansions (636)
Fan stuff (916)
Features (671)
Forums (282)
Guilds (504)
Hardware (41)
Humor (801)
Interviews (164)
Lore (313)
Mounts (140)
News items (1601)
NPCs (212)
Odds and ends (1712)
Patches (1153)
Podcasting (78)
Ranking (55)
Realm News (295)
Realm Status (244)
RP (176)
Rumors (67)
Virtual selves (673)
WoW Insider Business (304)
WoW Social Conventions (155)
WoW TCG (57)
Wrath of the Lich King (415)
Strategy
Alts (115)
Arena (256)
Battlegrounds (156)
Bosses (358)
Buffs (127)
Cheats (73)
Classes (324)
Enchants (36)
Factions (166)
Guides (405)
How-tos (411)
Instances (678)
Items (881)
Leveling (302)
Making money (193)
PvP (776)
Quests (381)
Raiding (768)
Talents (153)
Tips (583)
Tricks (231)
Walkthroughs (91)
Media
Comics (80)
Fan art (48)
Galleries (192)
Machinima (599)
Podcasts (52)
Polls (67)
Screenshots (672)
Races
Alliance (117)
Draenei (65)
Dwarves (21)
Gnomes (45)
Human (21)
Night Elves (48)
Horde (118)
Blood Elves (72)
Orcs (29)
Tauren (51)
Trolls (27)
Undead (26)
Professions
Alchemy (79)
Blacksmithing (63)
Cooking (75)
Enchanting (77)
Engineering (112)
First Aid (19)
Fishing (63)
Herbalism (50)
Inscription (14)
Jewelcrafting (87)
Leatherworking (66)
Mining (49)
Skinning (31)
Tailoring (71)
Retired
Pimp My Profile (1)
(Engineering) Hoof and Horn Research and Development (17)
Azeroth Interrupted (24)
Back In The Day (3)
World Wide WoW (8)
/silly (14)

RSS NEWSFEEDS

Powered by Blogsmith

    Featured Galleries

    Scarlet Crusade Tabard T-shirt
    Reader UI of the Week 6/29/08
    Worldwide Invitational goodie bag
    WWI08 Costume and Dance Contest
    Worldwide Invitational 2008
    World of WarCrafts: Midsummer magnet
    June 2008 splash screen speculation
    Blizzard splash screen speculation
    Midsummer Fire Festival

     

    Most Commented On (30 days)

    Recent Comments

    Weblogs, Inc. Network

    Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in: