Role Play 101: The Difference Between “Looking For Contact” And “Waiting For Contact”
Posted by: Nauloera in Role PlayThe single most common complaint I hear from role players is either “nobody RPs anymore!” or “I can’t find anyone to RP with!” My first instict is to ask, “Does that include you?” You see, there are lots of RSPs running around out there that say “In Character, Looking For Contact” but are you *looking* for contact, or *waiting* for contact. There is a distinct difference.
Looking for contact is the act of putting out effort to find, create, or otherwise engage others in RP. Waiting for contact is sitting on a bridge, saying nothing, waiting for others to engage you. Do you see the difference here?
In a perfect world, we would all have RP dropped into our lap whenever we wanted. This is far from a perfect world, however, and in order to find RP, you also have to be willing to put out some effort. If everyone just sits around waiting for RP, when is it ever going to happen? Someone has to take the initiative.
How can you tell if you are looking or waiting? Through a simple analysis of your own in-game behaviors. Do you approach others with their looking for contact tag up? If someone you don’t know comes up while you are engaged in conversation do you try to include them? Do you walk while in town instead of run? Do you put on RP clothes? If you answered no to these questions, you are waiting.
Looking for contact does involve some effort but is not as difficult or scary as you might believe. I’ll try to provide some tips and hints to set you on the right path to finding the RP you crave.
Clues To Finding The Role Players
Before we get into the actual contact tips, lets go over a few of the simplest clues as to who is going to be a role player and who is likely not. If you don’t use one of the RP mods that lets you see if they are or not, or if they don’t use it, you have to use other clues to pick out who might be open to RP.
The first and easiest is going to be the name. Is the name a role play name (or could it be viewed as one). For example if you see two people, one with the name Lorina and the other with the name Pwntyu, likely Pwntyu is not going to be a role player. Also, is the name one you recognize from the forums or elsewhere as a role player?
Now just a name is not always enough to pick out who role plays and who does not. Watch behaviors too. Walking in town is always a good indicator. Wearing “street clothes” rather than armor is one too. Are they a member of a well known RP guild? If you see them talk in /say, is it IC? There are lots of subtle indicators, and some not-so-subtle, that can lead you closer to someone who would be more receptive to role play.
Making IC Contact
Lots of people have difficulty making first contact IC. Called “first contact fear”, hopefully I will be able to provide some tips here that will help others to overcome this. Don’t worry! You are not alone. Everyone has felt that first contact anxiety at some point. It can be overcome.
The most common question is “Why would my character talk to that person?” Why indeed? This is where you have to be creative! It doesn’t have to be something profound. Find an excuse. If you wanted to strike up a conversation with someone in real life, what would you do? It could be as simple as complimenting their clothing or if they have a pet, comment on that. Comment on the weather or ask for directions. Use your imagination. All it has to be is something to get the conversation started.
Making OOC Contact
When you simply cannot come up with an idea to start a conversation IC, resort to OOC. Send the person a whisper OOC. Something along the lines of /w Person (( Hey! I notice you have your looking for cotact tag up. Would you like to RP? )) If you can’t see a looking for contact tag, but they appear to be looking for role play, tailor your message to indicate what leads you to believe they are looking for RP. Don’t let fear keep you from at least trying. Most people are either going to be receptive or tell you if they are about to log or leave to go to a raid or whatever.
Sometimes you may not get a response at all. Don’t assume this is a snub. The person may be on a stealth afk. Or they may be wrapped up in drama over other channels. Or they may simply miss it in the spam. Because this is a typed medium, be sure you give plenty of time to respond before you move on. But don’t let one failed attempt keep you from trying again. It is only through trying that we ever succeed.
Events
Another way to find RP is to attend events. Small weekly gatherings or larger events thrown open to the public are a great way to make contact with others. Yes, this may mean giving up an evening of daily quests, but if you want to find RP, you have to make the effort.
Check your realm forum for events. Also check any guild forums you frequent or other forums tied to your realm. Ask around among people who are well known on the server. Likely they will know of any upcoming events or where to find information on them.
When you attend events, be sure you don’t just sit on the side and wait for others to talk to you. RP is a two-way street. It takes effort from both sides to make it happen. If you attend a ball, mingle! Talk with others, compliment their clothes, comment on something you hear in passing. Once again, be creative. You are looking, not waiting, remember?
If there are no events coming up, consider organizing one. That isn’t as complicated as it may seem either. See my previous article on Hosting A Role Play Event for ideas and information on this fun and rewarding process.
Don’t Be A Wallflower
Apathy kills RP. I cannot say that enough. If we all sit around and wait for RP to happen then who is going to initiate it? We must all put forth effort to make it happen and keep it alive. Don’t expect others to bring RP to you. Step out of the safety of silence and look for it. Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t work out every time. That’s normal! The more you try, the more success you will have! If you sit around like the wallflower at the prom, don’t be upset if nobody asks you to dance.
The next time you find yourself complaining about there not being any role play, ask yourself what are you doing to get some going. With a little bit of effort, we can make more RP happen for everyone!
Entries (RSS)
“Making IC Contact” – Another tip, and one that I’ve used to some success in my new (undocumented >_< – stupid work crunch) foray on a roleplay server, is that you don’t necessarily always ‘interact’ with your world through dialogue. That is, to start a roleplay with Laliadora, over there, you don’t necessarily have to speak at all. Sometimes, all you need to do is create an opening for them to take by interacting in some obvious roleplay manner with the world around you.
For example:
While you’re standing by the fire in the inn, grinding out the 60 Brilliant Smallfish that you’ve been saving for your cooking skill, write up some emotes that indicate that your character is humming to himself while he works. Maybe he sings a few bars of some bawdy tavern song or some ancient warrior’s dirge. This gives other RPers in the area something to react to, if they are also searching for some world RP.
Another example:
When your troll shaman (conveniently named Silaxa, living on Moon Guard server, and a measly level 12 at the time O:}) is standing by the flight point in Orgrimmar and gets LIGHTNING BOLTS dropping on her head from the Warchief’s Blessing, react with some emotes and exclamations about whether or not the city is under attack or … something. Then that random troll standing on the bridge is given the opening to laugh at you and set the ‘po’ young thin” straight.
… heh. Anyway, great post.
I hope roleplayers take it to heart. This is what can revive world RP. On Moon Guard. With trolls named Silaxa. O:}
Long-winded,
~Rhoelyn
Excellent ideas Rhoelyn. We had something similar at our Tuesday RP gathering this week. There was a graphic bug in the canal in Stormwind where a patch of the surface texture was not showing up so it looked like there was a gap in the water. A group of us spent a great deal of time discussing the possible causes and it gave others around a chance to jump in with their own ideas.
Even game bugs can be used as RP tools. The key is to be creative.
Great post! I’m happy to see another RP blog. My guild usually runs a few events so I usually only RP with fellow guildies. We also like to RP in instances and raids and while on quest chains. Our philosophy is that RP doesn’t have to be within city walls!
You know my one single huge largest problem with WoW RP community nowadays is the fact that it has been shoved underground by “d00dZOMGPWNZORs”, and blizz, in the name of profit, has done absolutely jack sh!t to remedy the situation.
Let me present my case with a few small examples that I recently encountered.
1. I was on one of the RP servers diddling around with a couple lowbie alts, experimenting with new, exciting classes and whatnot, and talking to a few other people there. Suddenly, the general chat channel bursts to life with “LOL RP=ghey”. This is joined in by a chorus of”LULZ” and “ZOMGs”, and followed by a discussion about how roleplaying is for fat f****t losers, chuck Norris, and so on. Now in the WoW forums, it specifically states, in a blizzard-made post, that using speech like that in general chat on a RP server is forbidden… Of course I reported it, and 24 hours later, I get a notice from bilzz that they had received my complaint and could not tell me what had happened etc etc etc, but assured me that the problem had been looked into. As a point of experimenting, I had /friended 5-6 of the people who had been ‘tarding out, and logged in with a higher alt in order to talk to them and see what had happened, pretending to be on their side and whatnot. Turns out nobody had been warned, or even knew that anybody had reported them. Blizz says you get suspended for doing what they did.
2. Names. On a RP server, I kept running into people with names like “mechachicken”, “pwngest”. “ihealsu”, “purplepeoplepwner” etc etc etc. I reported about 8 names, all in clear violation of blizz policy.
Again, 24 hours later, i get a “we cannot tell you what happened, but rest assured the problem has been looked into” message.
Again, 24 hours later, I re-added the names into my friends list. NONE of them had been changed or removed. Even the one named “mechachicken”
The exact same thing happened again on a different RP server, except this time, the GM actually messaged me and told me that they had decided to not change the names, thanks for my time, etc etc. Those names were even more offensive than others, and some were just downright obscene. Only ONCE have I ever found that reporting a name got it changed, when someone named cuuntfarce was trolling the guild.
3. I was walking up into the scarlet monastery at a leisurely pace, when a lowbie comes up and goes “hey u doin SM?”. I reply with something along the lines of “Yes, elf, I do eventually plan to go in.”
“U got ur lock pets?”
“Yes, the beings of the nether write at my command. Why do you inquire?”
“show fel gaurd?”
“I chose to follow the path of affliction, so no. I do not bother with beings as brutish as the felguard.”
After a couple more exchanges like this, the kid bascially asks me “where are you form, you talk weird.” Keep in mind, this is a RP server. I respond with “OOC, it’s called roleplaying… this is a roleplaying server”
“oh… k…..”
The kid basically puts me on ignore, and then disappears.
I’ve had the same thing happen to me 2-3 times now.
ANALYSIS:
The first two types of encounter indicate to me that Blizz employees are either underpaid or understaffed. They either don’t have the time to deal with moderating and enforcing roleplaying rules on the servers, or they just don’t give a f-ing sh*t about maintaining order, so long as people keep subscribing. In fact, it could also be based on the fact that such a large population of the WoW community is into trolling, that if they started banning or suspending people for trolling channels and so on, they’d lose in popularity due to negative publicity generated by the trolls. The blizz people, of all people, should know good and well the power of the mindless bandwagon 4channers and “anons”, and would thus rightly fear a huge drop in subscriptions should they get on their bad side.
The third type of encounter is partly a symptom of the first, and also just carelessness/noobishness on the part of new folks, who, baffled by the variety of servers available, log into a server randomly and start going at it with no idea that they are on a roleplaying server.
Anyways, this is just my opinion and 10 cents worth, so have at it if you will.