02 15th, 2008| 
“Here, come here! Look! No, no, you twit, not at the bush, but between the branches. There! No, dolt, look at where I’m pointing! The finger, man, follow the Illidan-be-damned finger! There - do you see it now?“Isn’t he beautiful? So graceful, so lissome - never mind the fact that he’s wandering around Stormwind proper in an alcohol-induced stupor. Without pants. You’ve been given a rare opportunity, friend, to see one of these in its natural environment. It’s rare to see them out in the open, especially given the harsh conditions in which they reside. Some people consider them a rare and endangered breed, but I! - I know otherwise; they’re out there, but you just need to know how to locate them.
“What is he, you ask? That, my good fellow, is a member of the enigmatic World of Warcraft species known as Performinous Azerotherus. More commonly known as the roleplayer, this oft-misunderstood creature resides predominately on roleplaying servers. A common misconception typically places roleplayers in remote locations such as the Deeprun Tram or Goldshire where they supposedly perform a number of, well, inappropriate actions (not that I would know anything about them, of course, thank-you-very-much!), but he and his ilk can be found all over Azeroth and in many places in the Outland.”
Poor attempts of humor aside, I am - as I have previously mentioned - an avid roleplayer and the guild master of a medium-sized roleplaying guild on the Feathermoon US roleplaying server. As a part of providing more information on the joys and tribulations of leading a roleplaying guild in the upcoming weeks, I thought that I’d give some small insight into some commonly-held beliefs of the roleplaying community and what being a roleplayer personally means to me.
The term roleplayer refers to an individual who assumes the role of his or her character in-game and conducts himself or herself in an in-character manner. Roleplayers typically follow the rules established by Blizzard for their RP and RP-PVP servers, including following the naming conventions, limiting or readily identifying the use of out-of-character chat, and avoiding discussion of subjects not pertaining to the game in public channels. They act out their characters through the use of emotes, /say, /yell, and sometimes other channels.
While in-character, a roleplayer assumes the role of his or her character and will converse with other characters as his or her character would. However a roleplayer may not always be in-character; the amount of time that a person spends in-character may be denoted through the use of terms such as casual roleplayer, medium roleplayer, and heavy roleplayer.
Personally, I disdain the use of titles to characterize what kind of roleplayer that I am; however, if pressed I would admit that many people would consider me a heavy roleplayer. I tend to conduct myself in an in-character fashion at almost all times when I venture into Azeroth, with the largest exception being when I raid; the way my main raiding character butchers Common would leave my fellow raiders in a state of utter confusion. I roleplay in-group in the face of frequent opposition from players who, for some odd reason, disdain roleplay and yet play on a roleplaying server. To be honest, this is a state of affairs that still perplexes me, two years after having actively joined a roleplaying server.
Roleplay is just another aspect of the game to enjoy, along with end-game content, PvP, and just socializing with friends. Despite the stigma associated with many roleplayers by non-roleplayers, I’m almost gleeful when I inform people that I actively engage in frequent PvP (both in the Battlegrounds and world PvP) and raid on two characters up to both Tempest Keep and Serpentshrine Cavern. There are many of us that combine multiple aspects of the game; there are many, too, that languish in the lower levels, weaving intricate stories and adventures with friends and foes alike - having never stepped foot into a single end-game instance, much less a full 25-man raid. In fact, one of the members of the roleplaying community that I respect most reached 60 on her very first toon mere weeks before the first expansion, despite having played the game since its public release. As with many other aspects of the game, World of Warcraft is capable of catering to a wide variety of playstyles and this is no different when applied to roleplaying.
