[Discussion/LFRP]The Wrath Gate event (Probable spoilers)

[Keraph]

So, as many of us already know, there's a big event that happens up in Northrend, that to put as vaguely as possible has some serious effects for hordeside RP. The problem is, these 'major changes' don't take place at one set time in the world, but pretty much whenever someone does the quest. That is to say, to one group of people that did the chain quickly and early, the events in question have already taken place, and they will RP it as such, where as to another group that HASN'T done the chain, it will sound like the first group is completely insane. "Attack on Undercity? By demons? What in the hell are you even talking about!"

For our part, Infection is going to try to do the chain as a group, so as to take back our city as a guild, and also so we can RP the whole thing as a guild instead of trying to talk about it IC when to some guildies it hasn't even happened yet. I'm wondering though, how the rest of the server is going to deal with this. There is a possibility for gaping inconsistencies in RP if we're dealing with people that do this chain at various different times. For Cerryan, since I know I'll be doing the whole thing with him much later, I'll be treating it as someting that happened in the recent past, but lets face it: the event is DAMN cool. You may find yourself wanting to RP your reactions to it's conclusion as soon as you finish. But to some people it would have already happened a week or more ago, and to others it hasn't even happened yet. So, wierd times. I want to see what ideas other people have to handle this, or what might be some good suggestions for keeping RP consistent during this time.

[Villayna]

Best thing to do is set up a time line and if you complete it before that time, then you should RP that it's still happening when interacting with others. If it's past that time, but you haven't had a chance to do it yet, you'll just have to pretend you were out of town or whatever. Only when interacting with others. If you're writing your journal or whatever, react when it happens :)

I've been trying to stay spoiler free-ish and I didn't get in beta, so I have no idea what you're talking about. But that's what I'd do.

[Broxigan]

I think you can start doing the quest line at level 74.

So...maybe a month after release?

[Yatokth]

I vote we all set a date as to when we will set that "this event has happened" - we can post it up here and on the TN forums, and then if you complete the quest before then, stay mum about it, and if after, well tough, it already happened for TN so we can get our RP on.

The actual date will decide a good bit of it. How much time do we wanna give?

[Keraph]

I think that's fair to say, but at the same time a bit tough to set up. We'll basically need to agree on a time in which we'll say "ok, now this has officially happened", and anyone who had done it previous to that time will -then- be able to RP with the events that took place in mind. Is that what you're getting at?

Edit: Setting a date that we can consider this happening seems to be the best way to legitimitize the consistency, but at the same time it feels a bit harsh, like "If you don't complete this chain before this time, you don't get to take part in the epic arpees that go along with it!". I think it's the best idea, I can just see how it could be restrictive.

[Visca]

Perhaps we can thread it? As we are with the Final Crusade? To give everyone an equal chance to intereact with it?

Granted, we'd still need a date... but... it's a way to comprimise, isn't it?

[Taknar]

I don't think there is a super fair way to go about it. In terms of Lore it would have been best if they set it up like the AQ gates and it occurs for everyone at the same time based on server progression. On the other hand, everything about the expansion seems to assume that you are questing alone except for the instance or other few random quests that are hard enough to need other people.

Picking a date seems rough too, since pick one too soon and Death Knights feel left out. Pick one too late and people will get frustrated and start RPing it anyways. I'm fairly confident that, given the play rate of some of the people here, that this event will be witnessed by TNGers within the first week of the expansion. So even waiting 2 weeks before "writing it into Lore" so to speak seems like too long.

[Pearlle]

so. um...what about those of us that probably won't do it for eons... or for people who are strong roleplayers but aren't a part of this particular community? i guess there's nothing to be done for it really. except, when you see us in the world and we still look flabbergast after months, please be gentle *sniffles* it's my choice to move slowly, i know this is truth. i just know sometimes ppl get excited and make assumptions that 'everyone' is going to do something at the same rate, or if they aren't, they aren't cool.

just be gentle on those of us who will have to rp being clueless except for hearing mixed tales.

[Xenorin]

Maybe guilds could set a date saying what happened? But that couldn't work either I guess...

Hmmm. Kinda a stumper, no?

[Yatokth]

so. um...what about those of us that probably won't do it for eons... or for people who are strong roleplayers but aren't a part of this particular community? i guess there's nothing to be done for it really. except, when you see us in the world and we still look flabbergast after months, please be gentle *sniffles* it's my choice to move slowly, i know this is truth. i just know sometimes ppl get excited and make assumptions that 'everyone' is going to do something at the same rate, or if they aren't, they aren't cool.

just be gentle on those of us who will have to rp being clueless except for hearing mixed tales.

Either you answered your own question, or we'll just have to fudge it.

[Keraph]

so. um...what about those of us that probably won't do it for eons... or for people who are strong roleplayers but aren't a part of this particular community? i guess there's nothing to be done for it really. except, when you see us in the world and we still look flabbergast after months, please be gentle *sniffles* it's my choice to move slowly, i know this is truth. i just know sometimes ppl get excited and make assumptions that 'everyone' is going to do something at the same rate, or if they aren't, they aren't cool.

just be gentle on those of us who will have to rp being clueless except for hearing mixed tales.

See what I mean? It's a really akward situation to work with everyone, but at the same time it's a world-changing event that has a lot of meaning to certain people and guilds (Infection for example, is heavily affected by this). So working some sort of compromise is tough. Draco's idea of doing it up forum style is actually not a bad one, for those who like forum RP (I'm only sorta into it, myself), because even people who have NOT yet done the event can RP that they have in the thread, treat it as RP that your character WOULD do in the given situation, providing you know what happens in the event.

It's STILL not something that would make everyone happy, but as we're seeing, this is sort of a tricky situation, RP wise.

[Resinous]

so. um...what about those of us that probably won't do it for eons... or for people who are strong roleplayers but aren't a part of this particular community? i guess there's nothing to be done for it really. except, when you see us in the world and we still look flabbergast after months, please be gentle *sniffles* it's my choice to move slowly, i know this is truth. i just know sometimes ppl get excited and make assumptions that 'everyone' is going to do something at the same rate, or if they aren't, they aren't cool.

just be gentle on those of us who will have to rp being clueless except for hearing mixed tales.

Your cool Pearlle, I leveled my guy up pretty slowly myself. Spent most of my time dueling as I leveled since I like fighting games more than RPG's. I'm probably gonna keep this wrath gate stuff as in guild RP for the most part, and since I don't usually discuss things from my guild with outsiders it shouldn't affect you one bit. I love sleep and so I won't be apart of this midnight release thingy, so I'm sure when I finally do sign on there will be some lvl 80's already running around talking about eating wrath gates for breakfast.

[Swerto]

I'm up for the forum way, this way if people come in later and wish to be a part of it they could always post where they were and their perspective during the event (as long as the forum post doesn't contain all the possible perspectives and keeps some blind spots open for others to come in I can see this working).

[Visca]

As for making it happen, I just thought about this... 3.1?

[Yatokth]

As for making it happen, I just thought about this... 3.1?

Brilliant.

Next large content patch after Wrath's release, and we can RP it. Gives plenty of time for lead-up stories for certain people, plenty of time to level, and it's not like we're all just being bored waiting for the date - it'll come when it comes.

-watches as blizz releases 3.1 1 week after wrath-

[Keraph]

Brilliant.

Next large content patch after Wrath's release, and we can RP it. Gives plenty of time for lead-up stories for certain people, plenty of time to level, and it's not like we're all just being bored waiting for the date - it'll come when it comes.

-watches as blizz releases 3.1 1 week after wrath-

The only thing that worries me here (Even though I do think this may be the best solution) is the fact that the Wrath Gate questline doesn't take TOO long to get to, through, and complete. So people will be finishing it within the first say, two weeks, and might have to wait, say, three months for the next content patch in order to RP it. I know that no matter what, we're going to be looking at an issue like this, but it still just seems like a big disconnect.

As I said before, Infection will be trying to run this as a group, so a least we'll be able to RP the aftermath as a guild immediately afterwards, in the guild hall (That we wil probably have to forcibly retake, goooo RP), but then we'll just have to abstain from doing the same such RP in more public channels and locations until we're officially considering the event as "happened".

Placing the deadline as 3.1 is a good way to do it, because generally after a patch, the events previous to that patch are considered completed. And it makes it so WE don't have to pick an arbitrary date and possibly look like bad guys to some people who might not MEET that date. So I'd say 3.1 it is, another good suggestion by Draco.