Greener Grass

When we started casting about in search of a new server recently, one prominent criteria we immediately agreed on was that we should move to a PvE server. These mainstream servers, we reasoned, would have many advantages over the furry-infested, drama-laden, cliquish RP servers we'd been playing on all along.

Turns out, though, that I might be missing those yiffers and griefers.

Here are five reasons why, in an order both arbitrary and insignificant.

Dalaran is too crowded. For some reason, realms with not-too-disimilar populations show a marked increase in people loitering in the main hub town on the PvE side. Are there really so many people off cybering in the hills of RP realm Azeroth? I guess so. When I got my beastly new macbook and cranked the video to 11 on WrA, I had slain the Dalaran lag beast. Little did I know the creature was just pausing to tie his shoe.

Oh lord, the names. I'm not he sort of RP snob that I once was, but I simply cannot take a guy named "Lolpallylolz" seriously. Yeah, I also hate the permanently-clenched overactors who report people with such infractory monikers as "Steve" over in RP land, but I would at least appreciate a world where toons have names that toons' parents might actually have given them.

RP servers do not deserve their reputation for maturity, because most roleplayers I know are childish as a rule, but at least most roleplayers I know are old enough to shave. I don't like dealing with abusive teenagers, that's going to be my real life soon enough. It just seems like I have more people to relate to on RP servers - middle-aged geeks without any real life friends.

It's hard to become invested in my own toon on a PvE server. While I had largely stopped getting mixed up in the RP scene in general, in my own way I was still a roleplayer. My characters were characters, with backstory and motivation, even if long nights of queuing for randoms did stretch the suspension of disbelief a little thin. On a PvE server I feel completely ridiculous thinking of such things, and certainly would never share such thoughts. I miss that level and type of attachment to the avatar I spend so much time with.

Finally, I just miss roleplayers. Again, I have been estranged from the RP reindeer games for a while, but I still get a little thrill when I stumble on a group of people out roleplaying in the wild. You wonder what story they're developing, who their characters are, and if you can play some small part. Sure, odds are they're just cybering, but voyeurism is voyeurism. It's shocking what those Draenei can emote about their tails.