On a server (Earthern Ring) a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long time ago I started up a small series of reocurring mini-events, which whirled up a storm of contesting views. To set the scene, I was playing an immoral crook who would sell his mother if offered a bundle of coin! He was also a bully and cared little for those around him. Anyway, this character made a gambling scheme to make money (and of course, to promote criminal roleplay). One of these schemes was, to describe in in the simplest of forms: ‘underground dog-fighting.’ It was based on bloodsports found throughout the history of the real world. But once I made the event post, I realised that there were very conflicting views of whether or not this event was necessary. On one side of this OOC debate, some argued that cruelty to animals is vile (which it is) and should not be reenacted in a game or through roleplay; while others argued that this was just another, if extreme, way of storytelling or roleplaying, reflecting that the ‘hero’ of Warcraft often commits mass genocide through Blizzard’s many quests. Each side gave some substantial evidence to why the event should be praised or demonised…
…And it made me think: What is everyone’s taboo when it comes to the World of Warcraft world? I wanted to see if I could identify a running trend of that which was generally unaccepted by the community of roleplayers. My quest to identify the Top 3 Taboos began!
Firstly, I made my own predictions of what I thought would appear (these are not what I find taboo, I’d like to add):
Lore-bending – Nobody likes it when you stand up and announce that you’re the younger brother or bastard child of Thrall. Bending the lore to your will and making it suit your conditions is something that I figured would be the top taboo for roleplayers alike!
Erotic Roleplay – We’ve all been to, passed through or heard of Goldshire. What happens in Goldshire, stays in Goldshire. Sure, whatever you say! The crusade against erotic roleplay has been wages for as long as I can remember. In the early days, screenshots of prominent roleplayers were leaked on forums, but with more and more admitting they take part, that trend has died down. Regardless, I believe that many see erotic roleplay as a taboo.
Demonic Roleplay – Run! Quickly! Grab your pitchfork! There’s a demon just over by the mill! Demonic roleplay has always, in my eyes, been a bit of a gray area. There are those who can superbly play a conniving and manipulative demon-in-disguise… then there others who parade around Stormwind as Abakazzar, the mightiest of all Dreadlords! See the difference?
Upon making my predictions, I took to the streets of Orgrimmar and Stormwind, tracking down any Horde and Alliance roleplayer I could find to pose the question: What do you find to be the top 3 taboos in the roleplay world?
Disclaimer: I tried to make sure that responses could fit into certain categories, and if they didn’t, they became their own. Below you can see the spread of responses (surprisingly, animal cruelty didn’t appear):
To my surprise, erotic roleplay didn’t appear as high on the list as I expected it to. My predictions for the other two responses were accurate… well, I suppose they don’t call me the Courteous Charlatan for nothing!
Below are the top three taboo responses:
The blurring of the lines between IC and OOC is the taboo that respondents replied with the most; thinking about it now, I can see why. I (and probably you too!) have experienced when things stop being IC and turn OOC; when this happens, relationships sour and fights occur. Most respondents said that breaking the OOC and IC lines are both bad etiquette and a form of ‘cheating.’ Some respondents believe that, when roleplaying, we must detach ourselves from the person playing and instead focus on the character itself. The breaking between OOC and IC causes a huge amount of conflict… so justifiable that most people rate it pretty high!
Sorry Robin, you’re not needed for this… ‘blurred lines!’
Lore contesting/bending roleplay and the roleplaying of unique races (not solely limited to demons) were the second and third highest taboos. Given my early and brief analysis, we might understand why these things are detrimental to the sanctity of roleplay:
By bending lore we force players to see Blizzard’s world in their way, when really it should be about us seeing Blizzard’s world in… Blizzard’s way!
Roleplaying unique races, if done correctly, can be rewarding… however, respondents stated that, most of the time, they have had bad experiences with those roleplaying unique, villainous or custom races. Druid cats are on the prowl, be warned respondents!
I’m really interested to know what you think about the results, how you might agree or disagree and your own reasoning as to why certain responses were more popular than others.
The Hozen Throne 
Many of what’s stated goes for every sort of roleplay available. Not just in WoW. But it’s interesting to read nonetheless. A good way for people to get a grip on what’s right and what isn’t right.. 🙂
You’re right! It’d be interesting to see what kind of taboos exist in other MMORPGs. Everquest 2, anyone?
Not from me, I’m still stuck roleplaying in NWN2. 🙂
Quite frankly I have found arather juvenile (IMO) trend really. I wouldn’t per say, call them Taboos as they are too hard to categorize, atleast for me, considering I’m enjoying a Saturday evening with a few beers. I will permit myself to have this mini-rant on the comments.
In my humble opinion there are WAY too many people (Mainly on alliance from what I had gathered) that use RP as a masturbatory power fantasy. A lot of them specifically worgen. They roleplay ‘strong’ and ’emotionless/jaded’ characters that none the less need the warm touch of a woman and whatnot, whilst they remain practically unapproachable to most RP’ers, due to their hostility and dead set intent on looking ‘cool’. Basically a 14 year old’s idea of maturity materialized through the lens of RP. And in a small way it hinders my personal enjoyment of RP rather greatly. Of course we are all prone to occasionally -really- not wanting to lose, but some of these characters are rather absurd. The highest concentration seemingly GIlneas, which from the whispers I hear is becoming a Goldshire for furries and a haven for such inconsiderate RP.
And do not get me wrong, I do not mind hrash, rugged or evil characters, but I believe those with similar experience understand my point.
Like I said, not a taboo per say, but something similar. I apologize, for going somewhat off topic.
Quite frankly I do thourulyl agree with the top three. Especially with having encountered teh #1 spot a few times in personal experience, and it may make things uncomfortable, weird and well, filled with the bad kind of drama.
Lastly, as much as I personally partake in ERP when it’s appropriate for character relationships (And no, I am not RP’ing a hooker in Goldshire. :D) and prefer to keep it that way, I do not per say understand the judgement over it. It is certainly not hurting anyone as long as it’s in private, which most people do keep to themselves. Wether it’d be OOC pleasure or for the sake of the thrill there really isn’t anything wrong with it. Yes, it’s a little bit weird if you think of it, but it’s not really different from erotic novels, fan-fics or pornography. As long as everyone is of age and no one is hurt – not an issue, let the people explore their sexuality in whatever ways they see fit, nothing wrong with that. Personally I’ve met a gentleman that RP’ed a female and per say ‘vicariously’ enjoyed his RP (Not nescisserily erotic) as a form of exploration, because of identifying himself via disposition as a very feminine man or even a woman, which he could not bring out IRL.
But this is just my humble opinion and despite the first rather ironic in hindsight paragraph of this comment, I do try and live/preach the virtues of tolerance or understanding. Even for the creepy Goldshire folk to some extent.
Hope you enjoyed my mini rant, and I apologize for any botched spelling, grammar or terms.
I actually take offence at “Scarlet Crusade” RP being on that list XD while I have sadly been involved with far too many guilds who did terrible things with the concept, I had the good fortune of being involved in two that did it extremely well – A morally grey, fallen organisation can add some real tension and dramatic content to Roleplaying, creating a sort of survival element as [you] and the other survivors of the Crusade’s fall struggle to find a place in the world.
I find it slightly baffling that godmoding/metagaming and non-consensual roleplay fall below e.g. ERP and the lack of “realism”/sense. What does lack of realism even really mean in a fantasy world where wizards can make portals between two worlds (Azeroth/Draenor!), dragons can take a humanoid disguise and gnomes and goblins build the most amazing (and unreliable) machines? Sense =/= realism.
Then again, I admit that I like silly roleplay at times and might have an usual aversion towards power-emotes. *Shrugs*
An interesting article, nevertheless, and the number one “taboo” quite certainly deserves its place.