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.

Even game bugs can be used as RP tools. The key is to be creative.

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