What happened to RP Realm Rules?

Yes, I'm aware that this is an old post that's been necro'd quite a bit. However, given the amount of misinformation in this thread, I felt it needed to be addressed.

03/12/2011 9:24 PMPosted by Bearbottom

I feel like I'm not being cared for by our servers Game Masters,

First point of business - Game Masters are not server specific. Game Masters take tickets from a pool that is compiled across all realms in their jurisdiction. For the North American client, this means the regions that apply are Oceana, North America, and Latin America.

The only petitions a Game Master cannot take are those from realms they personally play on.

03/12/2011 9:24 PMPosted by Bearbottom

Are these rules not being enforced anymore?

These rules are enforced, but our Game Masters are a reactive service. If a violation is not reported to them, then they will not be able to take action. Proactive policing is simply not within the realm of practicality for the services we provide, given the staff that would be required and the limitations of our tools.

03/12/2011 9:24 PMPosted by Bearbottom

Is rolling on one of the few RP Realms no different than all the Normal and PvP servers?

Yes, and no. The only major difference between Role Playing realms and others is that they are subject to a larger number of policies. However, everything else is the same, including the reactive nature of our Game Masters. Petitions are addressed the same way, there are simply larger considerations when taking action on an account, per our Role Playing realm specific policies.

03/12/2011 9:24 PMPosted by Bearbottom

RP Realms should stay RP Realms. I want our Game Masters treating our servers with the respect of enforcing our rules, not ignoring reports and letting guilds and players roam around with names unchecked. I want our Game Masters to care just as much about RP Realms as I do, and I'm a player. It makes me feel that I could do the job better than they do, which disappoints me.

Reports are not ignored. Each and every report is taken and addressed. If a name was not changed, it may not have been found in violation, or perhaps it was and the individual punished renamed their character or guild to the same or something similar.

Many of our Game Masters play on the same realms you guys do - I know quite a handful personally that play on RP realms. They care about the game as a fellow player, not just a Game Master. It's one of the best things about being a part of Blizzard - we're all extremely passionate people here.

If you do feel that your issue was not addressed to the best of a Game Master's ability, please sent that feedback to [email protected]. We all want to improve, and if you have constructive criticism to provide, it would be most appreciated.

03/12/2011 11:34 PMPosted by Choonster

Where can one go to read up on these rules?

Rain linked it earlier on in the thread, but here:

http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&articleId=20458

03/12/2011 11:52 PMPosted by Edification

Important bit to point out: Not a single thing mentioned in that entire document about guild names. Blizzard does not have an official published policy regarding guild names on RP realms.

Guild names are included in all our harassment policies. If a name falls under the same jurisdiction as one of the other harassment offenses, it's treated as an inappropriate name. Whether it belongs to a character or a guild is largely irrelevant. This is mostly splitting straws.

I do think it could be more clear though. I'll see if we can get something done about the wording.

03/13/2011 3:15 AMPosted by Edification

Find me a blue post saying it does and I'll give you 5k.

Can I haz my gold nao?

Don't like it? Tough, you have an option available to you; you chose not to use that option, YOU deal with the results.

Just because there's a means to ignore it does not mean it should be tolerated. If the name was horribly racially offensive, would you tell someone to deal with it because they can turn off the display?

If it violates our policies, it violates our policies. End of story - sticking your fingers in your ears and going "LALALALALA" doesn't make it any less of a violation, just like turning on the profanity filter does not justify others acting inappropriately in chat.

03/13/2011 7:00 AMPosted by Areh

In other words, the players are expected to self-regulate by making tickets of each infraction. Some RP servers have a community that does this. Others do not.

This is a very succinct summary. >^.^<

03/13/2011 8:41 AMPosted by Monìca

Yeah, this is pointless. Stop wasting the time of the moderators so that they can actually enforce REAL rules.

It's not a waste of time if it's a violation. Otherwise, the rules serve no purpose. Why would we have them there if we did not expect players to report offenses?

03/15/2011 6:55 PMPosted by Erixi

RP doesn't or never has mattered in the eyes of Blizzard. They just label realms that way to shut up most of the masses. Heck, any real RPer knows that don't play this game for the RP.

Attention, people with this misconception: I wrote stuff. You should read it.

03/17/2011 7:15 PMPosted by Antonsiys

What I'm sick of is the people dissing roleplaying, on a roleplaying server.

This is actually a violation as well. Check out the link above, particularly Harassment Targeting Roleplayers:

03/21/2011 10:39 AMPosted by Vircomore

All character names are to be "First Names" - and most Lore characters only had 2-word Last Names.

This isn't a rule, nor should people be forced to follow it, for variation's sake. What about players that want the same first name? Should they all have to use ascii to do so? Same could be said for people who have the same last name by marriage or family - What your in-game name is won't be fully representative of what your role playing character's true name is. Does it matter which of your names (be it first, last, middle or nick) is floating over your head because of a necessary game mechanic? No, but it does matter that whatever name it ends up being complies with our policies.

To summarize:

• We enforce Role Playing Policies.


• Like any other violation, they must be reported to our Game Masters for action to take place.


• Like any other action, we cannot inform you of the results of our investigation.


• The enforcement of any realm, Role Playing or otherwise, is largely dependent on the diligence its community takes in reporting offenses.


• Roleplayers are people too, and we love them as much as we do all our other players.

Be respectful, have fun. Just because you play the game a different way does not make you any less of a gamer, or an awesome person.

I hope that I've addressed most concerns on this issue. If anyone has questions regarding this topic or the related policies, please refrain from recreating this thread directly.

This topic will be staying locked as it's gotten a bit far out of hand with derailment, and I do not wish to see it continue down that path.

Additional concerns regarding any of our policies are best discussed here in the Customer Support Forums.