Does Blah put you off?

[Corpean 183]

Old blah where they didn't sound brain dead was better imo. In Aegis they were one of the best nations/races due to a number of things, but actually being able to understand them. Plus the whole nazi stuff previously and extreme racism on the private discord may just be enough to turn people away.

[the 1 bow 1112]

Blah really isn’t as hard to understand as people think and if you honestly can’t deduce what we’re saying given that it’s spelt phonetically, albeit a little bit more cooked, you may be a simpleton. Not hard to learn either - fcken when I was at the peak of my activity there were times where I would genuinely have thoughts in blah or almost knee jerk respond to someone IRL in blah if I was coming off of a long session. Talk about being in too deep. Point is, blahs not hard, get over it.

 

That being said, orcs being a meme race has been an issue post Asulon and it’s predominantly due to how the playerbase typically favours clicking over RP. Many orcs will complain that there’s no rp but they do nothing to help their case. Orcs have some of the most well fleshed out and interesting lore on the server but anytime anyone tries to do use it they get a “yeah nah let’s go sh*t on the dominion”. Until the attitude of the playerbase changes orcs will be stuck in purgatory. Our current Rex dragonslayerelf I’ve seen is doing his best at stopping the memey bullshit.

 

also I’ll say it here as a cheeky warning let’s say hypothetically we decide to stop using blah or at the least not make it mandatory if it is again, have fun when all the old orcs come out of the wood work and power grab, reverse all the progress then **** off because that happens literally. every. time.

[Dromui 755]

Tbh ^

 

Anytime something happens among any playerbase, veteran players come out of the woodwork, reverse all the efforts made, and tend to just leave said playerbase in a steaming pile of ****.

[Dragonslayerelf 654]

5 hours ago, Skale said:

 

You really shouldn't be playing the race... It's unfortunate for the most part because those same players you'd ask, as mentioned above, are troll/memery bullshit that don't add anything to this server.

 

..., it was done as anything more than a meme or a way to yeet leadership from one another to attack the Dominion.

 

5 hours ago, Eranikus said:

I would absolutely make an orc if it weren't for the playerbase... But when the vast majority of your playerbase is nothing short of memelords and pvp goons, its hard for players that just want RP to get really into it.

 

37 minutes ago, Corpean said:

Old blah where they didn't sound brain dead was better imo. In Aegis they were one of the best nations/races due to a number of things, but actually being able to understand them. Plus the whole nazi stuff previously and extreme racism on the private discord may just be enough to turn people away.

 

I’d just like to say a few words to these lads n lasses and all the other people who dismiss all orcs as “‘memelords and pvp goons.” I’d like you all to actually sit down in yer chair or yer couch and have a moment to sit down n watch orcish RP. I’ll even stream it on my channel if you like - something I haven’t done before but I’d be open to. But I can say without fear of contradiction that this base, rude generalization of ‘all orcs’ is completely false. Do we have some orcs who meme? Yes, we do. Every fuckin playerbase has those lads. Rimlav the Noseless, Constantine, some of the Canon Church, etc, the list goes on. Do we have some PvP goons? Yes we do. So do your ‘RPier than Thou’ groups, namely the contracts with the Reiters, some extraneous virarim, most of the Renatian guard, etc. However, saying all orcs are memey buggers and all orcs are PvP goons is simply and flatly false. There are many orcs I hold in high regard who do good RP as an orc who are a part of the group of ‘memey pvp goons’ I lead. I can procure an entire list about a page long, if you fancy, of orcs who have been none of these things. I viscerally cringe every time I have a group of orcs that goes somewhere with peaceful intents and the people go ((we’re on cd you know, right? or *gets bird *writes bird *sends bird (20 men appear across the horizon and I now have to explain to all 20 of them that we come in peace!) That being said, I won’t lie, we’ve had problem people that were left to be a problem and nothing was done about it. But problem people are not representative of the entire playerbase. Your logic literally operates on the same logical path racism runs on (My friend got robbed by a black person - I see other people got robbed by a black person - all black people are thieves.)

 

Also, one of you mentioned how the discord was terribly toxic. One of my goals as Rex was to fix that, which I did to beneficial effect. We have a functioning system that punishes racism and overt toxicity with stints with the inability to talk in any chat but a monkey box chat. I discourage people from meming in RP if I catch it happening and my voice is heard. But after like the first week of having this system in place, it was basically no longer necessary. The discord is, atm, not something even relativistically similar to anything you are talking abt. 

 

So, with all that said, next time you’re about to say ((lol all orcs r toxic n memey remember that there’s a good long list of those that aren’t. Until that point whence any of you understand what you’re talking about - maybe if you underwent a brief stint as a snaga to experience the RP and then ran off after? - I’d prefer that my community isn’t generalized to the point of ingrainment and beaten down and harassed by those who claim to be better than them because of a false perspective propogated by a few salt-suffused individuals.

 

tl;dr stop talking out of your arses pls thx. All of this is outdated and frankly irrelevant.

 

P.S. I’m sorry about that pisspoor muted reaction of a post to this. It doesn’t serve the community justice and I’m going back and snipping that because yall should just read this one here.

[Wrynn 1349]

When I played an orc I actually really enjoyed giving my orc a broken accent. It let me sink a bit deeper into the character I was playing and I felt more like the brutish humanoid I looked like. The main thing that stopped me from playing an orc (at the time) was simply because some places were more active where I could be roleplaying. Often the Goi would be empty and I'd simply be jumping around. - I'm not sure if this is still the same now as I don't play an orc anymore, but that was the main reason.

[Medvekoma 2073]

Blah was hard to understand at first, but easy to get later on. I do not think it's a major deterrant, to me it was the heavy PvP focus that did't have me stick around on my orc (too many things were decided via 1-1 pvp honour duels).

[Novastral 582]

Blah is cool and all to write out but it makes no ******* sense to have it forced on all orcs because of a bullshit excuse about tusks which make no sense. If orcs were able to speak Old Blah and use Common at their own discretion I feel like it would make for a more refined culture. As of right now, Old blah is cuced to about 3 or 5 orcs in total which is dumb Imo.

[Wrynn 1349]

4 minutes ago, Novastral said:

 

Old Blah isn't really spoken among orcs unless they're Shamans - it's a language that's used to communicate with the spirits.

[Yen 25]

Blah indeed filters some players from RPing as Orcs, but without it Orc RP itself becomes somewhat more bland, as the accent truly does flavor it. I believe that over butchering words isn't required, just using the vocabulary ones from the wikia page, changing some letters (like s to z) and mostly just butchering simple words (like the -> dah / like - layk) so it's somewhat more comprehensible than what some people tend to do.

Truly tho it sucks to be RPing with people speaking in Blah and having them OOCly call you retarded or such things, as it has happened to me, but not being throughout understood stems some roleplay.

In regards to memers, indeed some groups of people have flocked up to RP as Orcs, as they the most obnoxious, most powerful race, and also more prone to memery due to their exaggerated and warmongering overall nature , yet lately there's been considerable efforts to change that behaviour, as some of these memers actually even fall to inactivity.

 

@EagleEyeKK Promotional material aside, Clan Axan can help with some of the points you brought up ?

[Bloody_Russian 131]

Personally, I really like the idea of an Orcish language. However, if that language is a bastardized form of English/Common....it tends to encourage memery and foolish phrasing. I believe a full Orcish language should be developed and utilized by the Orcs, as it would 1. Add to the culture and depth of the Orcish Race 2. Differentiate them from the Dwed's peculiar brand of Common further 3. Discourage meta as very few non-orcs would bother to learn such a language and 4. Be VERY fun to develop. I've been developing a fictional language of my own for one of my writings for quite some time, and I can certainly say that it truly does grant a true appreciation for the structures and nuances of dialects, as well as more fully immerse one into a story, as Elvish in the Tolkien universe does.

[Pond 1069]

15 hours ago, Corpean said:

Plus the whole nazi stuff previously and extreme racism on the private discord may just be enough to turn people away.

private discord btw, not a discord owned by lotc in any way. and ive seen gms say the n word and other **** they wouldnt say on the server in private discords/pms/groups as well, whats the difference?

[NotEvilAtAll 10906]

5 hours ago, Pond said:

private discord btw, not a discord owned by lotc in any way. and ive seen gms say the n word and other **** they wouldnt say on the server in private discords/pms/groups as well, whats the difference?

The difference is that the GMs aren't trying to attract and hold on to new Orc players in their Discord PMs and Discord groups.

[BritBritt 190]

So just from personal experience I had a really hard time reading Blah when I first joined. This was in Athera where road side and tavern RP with passing by Orcs was more common for myself to run into. I am dyslexic so that is something that made it incredibly difficult for me to understand and affected my experience (not their fault my own personal fault) with orc roleplay which often led to several messages of /looc what did he say? /looc can you uh translate? /looc what did he ask her to do? And depending on the other roleplayer it was met with someone who was happy to explain or someone who was very unhappy about needing to explain or translate. However I feel like when I see Blah used now, it is often well "dumbed down" versions of words we use daily which made it easier for myself to understand now as well as many others but often is where a lot of arguments come in to how Blah should and should not be spoken. Especially if you are starting out as an Orc. 

 

I put my thoughts outside of Blah in a spoiler, I had hoped it make it shorter but unfortunately it ended longer than I wanted it to. You had directed this at Blah but you had said "I want to know what prevents people from making Orcs."so I wanted to explain why this may be for new players or others perhaps.

Spoiler

The wikipedia, as most of us know is outdated and not the best area for gathering information, is a mass library all new players are directed to. I will try to keep this area shorter and simpler since you directed this at Blah but I feel this may be a bit helpful to understand what turns off new players from joining Orcs, if not serious roleplayers. One of the first areas you see of orcs if not on the server when doing /places and finding Krugmar often times empty and devoid of orcs, is https://wikia.lordofthecraft.net/index.php?title=Orcs. Now everyone thinks differently but a common theme we hear from new players or souls is "the wikipedia is so big I am not sure how I will learn this all" and it is true, we do have a large Wikipedia that intimidates even the oldest of players at times. The first thing I see on this page is ooh a video. Anything that will help make my journey shorter because this is just too much. If you would like a link to the video just itself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnStbTBnZg4  here that is. If you are curious for it I would like to break this video down into just some key point areas. First the video is 4 mins long and the average you will get out of a player who is not already interested is about 30 seconds to a minute I would suspect. While the beginning intro is cool the actual speaking does not begin until 17 seconds in which if you only have 30 seconds that takes up half of your time. At 0:25 you learn that other races have learned to fear orcs not just recently but for a long time, but then goes on to saying "AVOIDING even the smallest of orc" within the same sentence. It is clear to new players and souls activity is just not there for some areas and I believe this keyword may create a fear of anti-socialization or not being able to gain roleplay and may instantly scare them away within those few seconds. Now this is an older video, and something you may not have the ability to change or wish to change but something to think about for attraction on players when it is one the first things noticeable and mentioned to players. This may not only scare off new players but older players, since with older players the debates often start with inactivity and difficulty finding roleplay. You learn a lot about the culture first hand which is great but you don't really learn about what an orc should look like until about 2 mins into the video. While that is not necessarily a bad thing, even for interested people sometimes 2 mins is too much to ask for, you begin to have people creating orcs without knowing what orcs really appear as, which in turn may make other players turned off because now you have incorrect or improper orcs running around. As for the Blah part of the video I moved that below this spoiler so that you are able to view that separately. 

 

 

 

 

In the video detailing orcs on the Wikipedia you do not get into the language of Blah until 3 minutes into the video. It gives a brief view of a few words as well as audio speaking of  few words, and a bit of the culture on Blah. But that is the only real audio learning experience that is showcased you can get. 

 

On the Orc Wikipedia page the first reference you get to the language is actually not even Blah but rather elven language. Seen here "Name The name 'orc' derived from the Ancient Elven ork (orq-) 'monster', 'ogre', 'demon'. This was largely a result of the strength, cruelty and bloodlust of the orcish race. It can be spelled (in order of popularity) either Orc, Ork, or Orq. The pronunciation of which is all the same." The next closest reference you receive is within explanation excerpt on Ologs which states "Ologs are incapable of thinking without speaking their thoughts, possess very limited vocabularies" while this is not language itself, may very well be where you are receiving most of your moronic and meme complaints. 

 

Your next area where you really see the language is well in the language tab itself https://wikia.lordofthecraft.net/index.php?title=Orcs#Language

Which refers you to Blah after some information is given https://wikia.lordofthecraft.net/index.php?title=Blah

 

The page is short, gives you simple statement words, but ends about there. Now I hate to compare things and correct me if I am wrong, I do not play an Orc so I do not know much of Orcs and their information on the forums but one of the only posts I could find was https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/82925-speaking-the-blah/  and https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/166741-old-blah-~-the-tongue-of-the-spirits/ these were both found with a simple google search "lotc blah" which is how most find their information. Now for the comparison part, which I am aware may cause some controversy, if I am to search "lotc elven language" one of the first forum posts that I am directed to is https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/19254-recovering-the-ancient-tongue-of-the-elves/ this gives many words as well as a lesson on how to use them in a sentence correctly. This is odd to me because Blah is something that is spoken in more than just a few words but rather the entirety of their speech but there is not much direction on how to use it correctly. There is fluency tips but those are rather off putting due to the fact that they really just tell you to use Z instead of S and replace letters with the incorrect letter that just sounds like the right one. To New Players this is not a lot of information but even to old players this is not a lot of information. It even says "I wouldn't worry too much" and that is really great to be able to be so laid back and have a character you don't have to put too much mind into the speech of. But perhaps this is too much freedom, especially when you have people now running with the race and being meme-y or not serious. It is off putting to be expected to use this within your daily life style as this race and not have as much information provided to you. 

 

I am not sure if this really helped, but I would have hoped some of this information can be taken. I would like to see Orc roleplay pick up for new players who are interested in orc roleplay. Thanks for reading, I hope no hard feelings for the comparison I made. 

 

 

[Burnsy 437]

Moved to The Great Library. It shall be sorted into the appropriate category shortly.

 

If you feel this is a mistake, please contact myself or any FM and we'll restore it.