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enigmatic-elegance · 7 years

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Hi I'm super curious but what's the house of nobles and why did it fail? And what was the lesson to learn from that? If you don't wanna answer that's okay, I'm just super curious

Okay, let’s strap in, this is gunna be a long one. Before I begin, there are two quick disclaimers I wanna get put on the record.

1. This is in no way an attack on the members of the House of Nobles or any particular people. In fact, most of the people involved I know to be amazing people OOCly with fantastic ideas and who are genuinely stellar writers and content creators. My intent is to put light on the mistakes that were made, in efforts that they not be made again. It’s to offer perspective from someone who was by and large totally against the HoN from start to finish, and a very vocal critic of it. Understand my critique is just that, critique of the event(s) and the way it/they operated. It does not in any way reflect my personal opinions on those who were involved who for the vast part I respect immensely.

2. I never have and never will advocate or support hate. There is a vast difference between offering genuine negative feedback and simply beating someone down and making them feel like shit. While I do feel the HoN leadership ignored a lot of potentially helpful feedback, I also know they received a share of blatant hatred in tow and that is unfair to anyone.

With that out of the way, let’s begin.

So who were the House of Nobles?

I’ll directly quote from the website and the tumblr, both of which are still up and available to browse.

The Stormwind House of Nobles is a body of players on the server of Wyrmrest Accord in World of Warcraft that role play as members from the Kingdom of Stormwind and it’s allies who form the governing body under the guidance of King Anduin Wrynn.

As the website goes on to explain, it is derived in large part from the Moon Guard project of the same name, with small adjustments made in efforts to better tailor it to the needs and the layout of the WrA community. It was made up of a body of mainly noble RPers, but there were some military and legislative RPers mixed in as well, and this was served with the hope of creating a platform not only to designate more city-based RP and events but also to engage the WrA community at large with passive-centered activity on the day to day life of Stormwind.

It is a lovely idea, but like many ideas there is the plan and then there is the execution. The plan was decent, the execution fell through. But we will get there.

Mind you, the House of Nobles was not a new thing to the WrA community. In fact, it had been attempted once before lead by another guild and GM. This project ultimately fell apart, and the reasons behind that were a little more sticky then I should get into here. Suffice it to say, it left a very bad taste in the mouth of most WrA RPers in regards to any house of noble project. I am not saying the issues of the first HoN should influence the second one when they were run by nearly totally different people, but we can’t deny that the reputation inherent to the name/idea didn’t help people swallow the concept any better.

So why did it fail?

1. People were being forced out of public spaces. And not once, or twice, but many times over the course of a month. The Pig, the barracks, people were being told OOCly to actually go and RP elsewhere because the space ‘belonged to the HoN’. Do that, people will get angry. no one owns any RP spots in this game.

2. The HoN was a popularity contest. Myself and other people on the server watched as people tried to run for positions and were not simply denied..but flat out ignored. People pushed, sent messages, tried to get into the HoN RP and were just brushed off. Those that got in, I noticed, were popular guild members, or those who were in good with the primary guilds. It soured the whole image of HoN.

3. The House of nobles fell into the same trap of ‘opt-in’ events I have made like a dozen posts on. It was not opt in. It created something that was supposed to change the face of the city, placing RPers in positions of real and city-wide power. And to say 'just ignore it’ is not accepting responsibility in any adult sense. Because half the city accepted it, and the other half did not. This meant that half the city of RP was in one storyline, the other half was not. It rifted the whole server, something the HoN never acknowledged even during the whole time being told they were creating massive lore conflict.

4. They were flat out telling people how to RP at their events. This is just rude, and should never be allowed. If you open an event to public, you can ICly ask for silence and respect. But if you open an event to the public and people RP being angry and yelling, that’s discourse. It’s expected at political events. To then OOCly rudely cast said people down..I got a LOT of whispers and talked to a lot of people who totally wrote off HoN when they were OOCly told to be quiet and stop RPing.

5. And above all this, the biggest issue is they did not once take steps to improve. To this day when I hear some people speak on what happened with the HoN, it is dismissive along the lines of ‘well people just don’t like noble RPers’. There were legit and powerful critiques. I was saying ALL of this as HoN was going on. Telling them these issues that the server was VERY mad at HoN over. And nothing happened. Instead we got posts from a few HoN members and others saying 'We will keep on despite all the haters!

HoN could have been amazing. But like the first HoN, it fell to it’s own trap of making it’s members feel themselves above reproach, and above the server. The server didn’t tolerate it, and what people saw was the reaction.

Now all of this sounds very harsh, and again I need to restate that this is in no way an attack on any of the members who took part in the HoN or enjoyed it. By what I saw, there were a few parts that actually were enjoyable and made for good RP. But I know from experience that we grow the most from negatives then positives. When I do an event, I would rather know more of what went wrong then what went right, because those are the areas we need to improve on. I feel it is vital that we not forget what went wrong, so in the future we can strive for better and better events that serve the community rather then divide it.

So what was the lesson?

I feel there were a few standing lessons to be learned from this, and what we as a community can do across the board.

1. Don’t shun negative feedback. As much as I say I value negative feedback, I too fall into a defensive stance when I receive it. It’s only natural, if we put time and heart into something we want to defend it. But we need to remember at the basis of any anger is hurt. Someone feels slighted or wronged, and while we don’t have to condone the anger, we do ourselves a disservice to discard what could be a very real complaint. Even aggression is a chance to grow, dismissing it as ‘haters’ is only going to show you have no intent to better yourself or your events. Take the negatives, process them, grow from them.

2. Slapping ‘opt in’ before your event does not immediately make it so. If I make an opt-in that I blew up the cathedral in SW, and half the server accepts it and half does not, I’ve just split the server in two. By trying to create inclusive RP I have in fact done the exact opposite. It’s important, when making any opt in, to ask the question ‘how does this affect people who do NOT opt in?’ It’s easy to say ‘just ignore it’ but if you are RPing the major ruling body of the city then you need to understand those not opting in are totally in a different playing space then those who do. A proper opt-in does not at all affect those who do not opt in. Good examples are the Holt’s kidnapping, or even the mermaid RP. Both of these RPs did not at all impact those who did not wish to take part. In fact, most people who were on the server had no goddamn idea they were happening! This means that those who wanted in could engage them, and those that didn’t lost absolutely nothing not being a part of it. Good opt-ins, both of them.

3. Understand this is RP. We have a responsibility to this server that our events and contributions contribute to a creative environment. We need to sometimes make concessions to that endeavor, it’s a collaborative effort. I was speaking to a friend who spoke that if nobles heard you speaking ill of them in the time you’d just be executed or imprisoned. True, that is true, but is it fair to say ‘because of my RP choice, I have rule over your character’s plot, path, and story.’ See, it’s touchy. Because there is a balance to strike between realism and the fact that we are writing with other players who have equal right to their character’s story and path. This is where OOC communication comes into play, but HoN taught us not only the value of that communication but what happens when that communication severs. HoN did not have an open dialogue with the server, yet they played a massive and forceful part of it’s collective story. This was the spark that lit the powder keg and in the end, that lack of dialogue set it up to fall from early on.

4. It is not ‘hopeless’. Often I see things akin to ‘well HoN failed so we can’t do any more RP events ever!’ I think that is unfair to say. Just because one thing fell short does not mean we need to be hopeless. Indeed it’s important if not vital to the server that we learn from where we made mistakes and grow from them. It’s how we better as RPers and as writers. For all my critique, HoN had a few things they did right. I saw in that group a love and passion for what they had created. I saw real effort and genuine care. I saw a lot of people coming together to create. These are beautiful things. And if we learn from where we failed, I know for a fact the server can make things like this in the future that will soar.

Conclusion

WrA is a fickle thing sometimes but it has some amazing and brilliant writers and creators. People who put real time, love, and even tears into their projects. And I am one of them. I feel those who call out the faults of others need make statement of their own failures and I will do so. I’ve failed before, with my guild in fact. The first time I made it, I fell flat, my character was shit and I got like three members before I gave up and deleted it. But I tried again a month later with a new angle and new outlook. I learned from where I went wrong, and the things I could improve on. I even learned from the angry critique others gave me on how I was doing things. And with that feedback, I changed by angle, and now operate the guild I do which is vastly successful and grows daily.

The biggest thing I can say we all should learn from HoN is that we are never going to stop learning. We are never perfect. And all feedback, positive and negative alike, should be taken to heart and used to grow and better ourselves. In this way, we can achieve the brilliance I know everyone on this server to be capable of.

That’s all I got. I hope I helped shed a little light on it. As always, I am only one perspective and there were many. Others may have totally different accounts. I hope if nothing else, the message rings true, and I hope it serves this server as we move forward to amazing things.

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