Blue Sky: Argent Dawn Transfer

[Sadok]

Disclaimer: This is not something that is being seriously considered right now, it’s more of a pie-in-the-sky proposal than anything that represents official guild policy in the short-term. Nor is this something that will happen anytime soon.

Disclaimer 2: This thread is housed in a private part of the OotRB forum that only registered users can view. While inevitably a discussion like this will end up being ‘leaked’ to the wider community, I would appreciate some degree of discretion as this is a discussion within the guild.

Orcs of the Red Blade are coming up on ten years on the Defias Brotherhood server, and there are both good and bad things about the current state of the RP-PvP server. The possibility of a move to the Argent Dawn RP server was last raised in Summer 2012, in this thread, with distinctly mixed viewpoints:
http://orcsoftheredblade.com/forum/index.php?topic=3037.0

Very recently, certain members have once again raised this notion, and in light of the arguments raised in the 2012 thread, the situation in 2015 has changed to this extent:

1- The state of the Horde RP community -- currently healthy, arguably smaller than in 2012, hardly dead though. AD offers a wider array of RP guilds and crucially, significantly higher random RP for members, along with a wider pool of recruitment to draw new members.

2- The state of the Alliance RP community -- it has undergone heavy migration to AD, the remnant of the community are largely Cogshield plus one or two small guilds (Azure Flame, Band of the Brave), with little left in Stormwind. This has left us with very few viable RP-PvP opponents.

3- Level of RP disruption by PvP griefers -- Mithridatism were worse at their height in 2012 than we have been experiencing of late, but this is undoubtedly an issue, not necessarily during RP events (due to higher numbers and moving around), but later at night and on non-event nights where attendance is ligher. Flying mounts pre-WoD were a poisoned chalice, but they did help us escape and regroup easier. We have Garrisons now as a last-resourt, but the range of WPvP items with the feather make it irritating to deal with griefers, much less wipe them.

4- An undercurrent of opinion in 2012 was valuing DB’s PvP ruleset. In the current day, OotRB's core are arguably less PvP active than before, with worse PvP gear on average and less interested in WPvP, as opposed to BGs, Arenas or RBGs, which are available on any server. Arguably, one could do RP-PvP better on AD than on actual RP-PvP realms. Selective blueshielding in the safety of camp, then battles in the field, and no dedicated WPvP guilds to contend with. While AD has an established tradition of more limiting RP-PvP, with set health-pools, gear, and abilities per moment, there’s nothing to stop us from organising ‘traditional’ DB RP-PvP on other servers with all gear and abilities permitted, and it’s less susceptible from gate-crashing by others.

5- Friends elsewhere on the realm. OotRB members may have friends outside of the guild they enjoy playing with, who do not have characters on Argent Dawn. While an increasing number of DB RPers do have AD alts, this is a problem that we must contend with, if we were to transfer off the server.

The biggest issue and a dealbreaker for many, however, is funding. Outside of occasional sales (be they 50% or 25% off), character transfers are £17.00 GBP each, which is no small sum for a number of people -- especially when some play multiple alts. I would personally have little issue with paying for just one transfer for Sadok, but I know others for whom server transfer would entail numerous characters, or who simply can’t afford even one character.

As part of this brainstorming, we are open to alternate ideas of securing funding, be it a collective PayPal account to raise funds, or crowdfunding via Kickstarter or GoFundMe. The idea would be to raise a sum of money for those who -cannot- afford server transfers, rather than for those that simply don’t want to pay. Dependent on the amount raised and the conditions attached, subsidising transfer fees for core members of the guild (a number in excess of 30) is a possibility, but priority may be given to main characters above all.

Note that above all, there will never be a move off DB if any significant number of our core membership are against it. The officer team have several priorities, but the most important one is to ensure the survival of Orcs of the Red Blade -- splitting the guild by stranding half of its core memberbase on another server is not something we will ever do, and so we would only entertain moving if a vast majority of our members were for the idea.

As such, I would be keen to hear feedback on the following questions:

1- Your feelings on a possible move to Argent Dawn, at an unspecified point in the future;
2- If you are against this, why -- is it about the cost of server transfers, or would you stay on DB even if a crowdfunded free transfer were available?
3- If you are for this, why; and would you be willing to contribute any sum, small or large, to a crowdfunding pool to help others secure their character transfers?

In addition, please vote on the poll to best describe your attitude towards a realm transfer.

Poll: Please describe your attitude towards an OotRB transfer from DB to AD.
1- In favor of a move to AD, would pay a server transfer fee;
2- In favor of a move to AD, if a server transfer was free or subsidised;
3- No strong feelings either way;
4- Against a move to AD even if offered a free or subsidised transfer;

[Okiba]

1) first of all I personally feel in the long run it would be better for the guild. DB is shrinking and will inevitably be devoid of other RP'ers. Random RP is near impossible to find now and i feel thats a quality we sorely lack on defias. furthermore, with the absence of alliance guilds to fight in RP-PvP the server type is somewhat defunct, we could do RP-pvp on AD by removing blue-shield then re-activate it after to avoid griefers and other nonsense. We'd also have a wider range of prospective applicants.

2) secondly, I'd be up for contributing something in order to help others transfer. I'm usnrue how much right now, but in the sum of £100 or more, we'll see.

and lastly, yes i voted that i would be up for the move.

[Srelok]

I voted on funded transfer because, let's be honest, I can't afford it right now (or anytime soon.)
I'm actally pretty much in favor if only to escape the ganking.

[Sadok]

In terms of funding, I'd like to note that I'd personally be willing to contribute between £20 and £40 to a crowdfunding pool for others, on top of my own transfer fee.

[Vanara]

Transfer would be fine by me, the only problem will be the money for the transfer. would have to put some money aside each month.

[Grogok]

I would not see a problem with moving the tribe to AD..if only for more random rp and less gankers and griefers. And I would be happy to put some money in a shared pot for those with not enough funds to move...how much will have to decided later though

[Sadok]

As a forethought, in-case we end up doing this, I would be proactive in saving your character names on AD now. If your name isn't available, you can do one of three things:

1- Check to see who holds the name. If it's a toon at level 10 or below, or a DK below 60, you can ticket to have the name freed up, assuming it's an inactive account.
2- Use accents -- I know some people do this already. So I could be Sádok or Sadók.
3- Use a variation on your name: Saddok or Sadokk, for instance.

Better safe than sorry when it comes to these things.

[Umaua]

I voted in favor of the transfer. I am not overly tight on the money and..am a RP first person who..lets put it frankly. Hate PvP. The reason I am on this realm is this guild and two friends on it....okey...more than two now.

At anyrate, I am also ready to support at least one other person to move.

On the questions.

Upsides of AD as I see em : Possibly more random RP, can't say for sure since its been a while. More active or activish guilds. Peace for our RP, without interruptions, except from lollers. Even if not at the moment on the peak of activity, it has more potential to come more active since its...I dare say, one of the most known servers. What I consider more proper RPvP, you know, stuff with rules to make it more than a slugging fest.

Downsides of AD as I see em : Tends to have maaany elitists, lore police people and...just plainly insane RPers there. Reaching an agreement on AD is like...kinda like trying to herd cats the size of cars. Not all of the guildies making it there even if we agree to move.

Otherupside/downsides is that the guild roster gets cleaned

Edit: As an afterthought. Upsides are also areas normally veeery dangerous or even impossible to RP in, come available as getting killed is no longer as big a deal.

[Gashuk]

Whilst I thought originally that I would be completely against this, after reading the post and thinking about it, it's actually rather exciting as it would open up a lot of opportunities for us. PvP would hardly be affected as organised RP-PvP can still be done on AD infact, it's -better- and less messy with OOCers.

It would be sad to leave DB but after 10 years, I can see why OotRB would like to move on and I'd be happy to move along with it.

[Groshnok]

I'd be in favour of the move, however I do have one question.

What are we going to do with relation to the remaining Horde guilds on DB if we did move? Considering the rivalry and mistrust between Blades and Blood Wolves, are we going to pretend guilds from DB are someplace else and we don't come in contact with them again, or something different?

[Sadok]

I'd be in favour of the move, however I do have one question.

What are we going to do with relation to the remaining Horde guilds on DB if we did move? Considering the rivalry and mistrust between Blades and Blood Wolves, are we going to pretend guilds from DB are someplace else and we don't come in contact with them again, or something different?

We have discussed it amongst the officer-team already. There's two schools of thought:
- IC handwave -- Azeroth is a big place and we aren't particularly too close to any of the DB guilds as allies, so they simply fade away, sort of like all the old DB guilds that are no longer around, from Banner of the Bloodhoof to Cult of Shadow and Sin Belore. Indeed, we'll find Sin Belore still active on AD, amongst others. And maybe we encounter other DB guilds on AD in the months and years from now.
- IC reasoning -- something like going to an 'alternate dimension' through a portal fuck-up, where we RP that AD is a different version of Azeroth than DB. I'm not too keen on that.

I guess the precedent is when the Shatterskull Marauders and Vile Thorn showed up on DB from TVC in 2012. They were ICly around for years, we just never encountered them before.

[Groshnok]

I would be in favour of the first option, however there is also things like the Northern Rebellion and other Horde-wide campaigns that I guess would just have to be kept hush-hush.

[Lars]

Always have to take into account that Azeroth isn't the ~150 square miles it's represented as in game but quite a bit larger.

[Sadok]

I would be in favour of the first option, however there is also things like the Northern Rebellion and other Horde-wide campaigns that I guess would just have to be kept hush-hush.

I think the nature of the Northern Rebellion makes it easy enough to handwave -- we were on one front in a much larger civil war. At the end of the day, you can always just sort it out ICly -- be it people accusing you of making tall-tales up, or claiming it really did happen, or such. xD

[Umaua]

Horde is a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge organisation.

Not every part has heard of the other and so on. So we all exist in the same world, just don't allways happen to the same place at the same time. Or even if we do, who says we talked?