Finding a home.

As an avid gamer going on 5 years of playing World of Warcraft, I found I was beginning to get a little bored with my multiple level 80’s on my PVP servers. I raided in all the end game content, including 10/25 man Ulduar, and completed my dailies diligently. Unfortunately, the game I so loved, was beginning to seem more like work than actual fun. Repeating the same quests and killing the same bosses over and over, just lose their luster after a while. I became so discouraged that I stopped playing for a couple months.

Of course, even though I was essentially bored with the game, I couldn’t bear to leave it behind. I resumed listening to one of my favorite podcasts, The Epic Dolls (which unfortunately is no longer being recorded, as of this week *cry*) and was inspired by the section created by Stardancer. Her portion of the podcast focuses on “sightseeing guides, unusual quests, and RP tips” within WoW. I was really intrigued by how the little things in World of Warcraft, that usually go unnoticed actually seemed so much more appealing to me than obtaining that next purple item. Every podcast, I would look forward to what she would say and found myself craving that extra aspect of WoW that was missing from my game play. Other things that interested me from the podcast, were the guild events they would talk about, such as a Summer Beach Party BBQ! or an in-game Prom! How fun does that sound?! You get to dress up your toon and talk and play with all your friends! What an insanely fun idea! I want to do that!!

As soon as I finally made up my mind, that I was going to do something a little different, (Oh! Did I mention that I used to be horde! >.< Don't murder me yet!) I went all the way, and decided to play an Alliance character. I told myself that I was going to make it a prerogative to read all the quest text, and try to level slowly instead of grind myself up to 80… like usual. I wanted to actually enjoy the content, explore the low level areas, and just take my time. I also wanted to find some place where I could enjoy in-game events!

So, now that I have a general idea of what I would like to get out of the game, I began thinking, where do I go to actually achieve this? Obviously, a PVP realm would not harbor my fantasies of having a guild Prom in a mature and supportive way. *smirks* So I went to the server selection screen, on WoW, looked for an RP realm, and joined the first one I spotted.

*sigh* Well… Since the server says it is an RP realm, you would think it would be full of Roleplayers, right?… Right?!…. wrong. Roleplaying, it seems, is a dying fashion on most RP realms, and many of the servers you will come across will merely support RP but won't participate, in some cases, you will even find an RP realm with griefers, or people who will harass you for trying to Roleplay.

So… after EPIC Failing on choosing a "Good" Roleplay server on my first try, I decided to do a little research. I went straight to the the World of Warcraft Forums, and entered in the search field “Best RP Server” where I found tons of other posts like mine, asking "Which is the best RP realm for Horde/Alliance?" After reading a few posts, I found out you really have to sift through these things, as they get really spammy with a bunch of people thinking that their realm is… "simply the best!" -.- psscht.. yea right. But as I kept searching, I began to see a trend, and noticed a couple servers that got mentioned more than others. These were: Earthen Ring, Moon Guard, Blackwater Raiders, and Wyrmrest Accord.

Also, some good advice I found while searching the forums, was to go to the different realm forums, read the posts, and see how you like the atmospheres; then, roll a low level character on your top 2-3 choices and spend a couple days playing on those servers. By doing this, you should get the feel for the community and decide which server feels more like home to you and your character.

Well, I thought this was a great idea for finding a home, and am currently trying it out. If anyone else has any other ideas please leave a comment with your suggestions! I’ll be sure to let you know where I end up!

Also, be sure to check out Stardancer’s “Off the Beaten Path” Blog. {click here}