Addressing Nazrug, Katalmach and the Warsong Blades (entirely OOC)

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Then I suggest you have a good solid look at your company policy, because it's a black tie event boys. Doesn't matter who or what you are, the dress code applies to you.

There are alternatives to tuxedoes, which some people discovered last year. The Lunar Festival outfits, especially in black, are good alternatives. But tuxes FTW. Are you really going to forgo the social event of the year simply because you refuse to dress up?

I will not be attending the event, purely because of the reaction given here. I was there last year smartly dressed in militant attire and caused no trouble or disagreements.

All nations and all cultures across the world have a variant of a dress code. To completely cut out the culture of the dominant race of the Horde because you want the perfect fairy tale ball with princesses and ball gowns in an elven fashion is not “celebrating of the unity and might of the Horde.” May I suggest changing the reasons for your celebration if you want to cast aside every other culture but the Sin'dorei.

Even when military officials visit the queen in England, they are in dress uniform. Formal social events, such as a weddings, formal garden parties, formal dinners and even Black tie events are -always- open to dress uniform to service personal.

Do you not think this would be a similar case with such a prime example of a militant faction the Horde is?

That was a -very- rude responce to Katalmach and an Apology is excpected.

For those of you who do not know what Dress uniform is...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dress_uniform

I think this is where we came in.

Okay, first up, I'm sorry if you took offence at what I said. That was not my intention.

Now there's several reasons why I said what I did. It is certainly not a simple ego trip on my part. I hope that you can understand where I'm coming from by the end of this.

First and foremost, the obvious, which I think can be easily overlooked: there is absolutely no way I can force you to wear anything you don't want to. You could turn up butt-naked jumping up and down on Lor'Themar's head screaming how it's peanut butter jelly time. What could I do to stop you? Nothing whatsoever. So please don't labour under the illusion that I am somehow "controlling" you. Remember that this is WoW after all, and the only things that can take control of your character away from you are Blizzard employees and priests with mind control. So if you want to turn up in your dress uniform, I can't stop you. I only ask that you dress in conventional attire because, as I'll discuss below, it's the theme of the event.

Second, and more importantly: this is a party. It's not a council of war, it's not Lok'Tar Ogar, and most of all it's not serious faces. I'm trying to organisation for everyone - and I do mean, everyone - to let their hair down and enjoy themselves. What this means is that this is not supposed to be a very intense RP event; it is supposed to be enjoyable, and a chance for RPers to network and meet new people. What it also means is that this isn't something to get worked up over. It's just a dress code, not the law of the jungle. Consider the way this works in real life - quite often we have to wear clothes that we wouldn't do normally. Personally, I almost never dress up in day-to-day life. I even wear jeans and a t-shirt to work. But if I was invited to a big, fancy party where all my friends and peers are going to be attending and was told I had to dress up, that wouldn't be a barrier to me. I'd dress up, because that was the done thing.

Third, and related to the above: I'm sure the Warsong Blades can appreciate that there are certain tensions between various guilds on the horde side. One of the things I am actively trying to avoid is to have this erupt into conflicts in the middle of my party. Now, if a group walked into the hall with armour and banners raised high like a big neon sign saying "WARLIKE GUILD IS HERE. WARLIKE GUILD IS HERE" that is going to cause something of a stir (I know you keep saying dress uniform... we'll come to that). I have stated over and over that this is a peaceful event, and I mean that both from an IC and an OOC point of view. It doesn't matter how well in-character an argument and a fight may have been, it will still disrupt the party, and that will have an effect on guests both as characters and real human people. This is the sort of thing I have to cater for - I'm trying to look after a lot of people all at once. I hope you can appreciate that.

Fourth: This event is not all about you. I know that sounds harsh, but let me explain. I have actually heard quite a few people say varients of "I don't think my character would suit a tuxedo". I have responded in all cases by saying I think they should dress up like that anyway. Most people have plenty of alts anyway, and if your main character isn't fully suited to this sort of event, feel free to bring a different one. At the end of it all, this is still my event and I can and will run it my own way. I am trying to run it in such a way as to bring everyone together on an equal footing, and having them all dress similarly goes a long way towards achieving that. You can fight against the way I'm running the event if you like, but ask yourself if it's worth it.

Fifth (told you there were several reasons): You may have noticed that this is a theme party. That theme is 'formal'. I know it's outside the traditional orcish/trollish/tauren comfort zone, but that's one of the reasons I think that the event works so well. It's a break from the norm, and a chance to do something slightly different for a change. If your big bad noble tauren warrior feels a little bit silly squeezed into a shirt and jacket, so what? Feel a bit silly for a change. If it was themed as a beach party, you'd want people to come along dressed in bikinis and bemuda shorts. Similarly, I'm holding a formal party, and I'd like people to come dressed formally please. That said, this IS an elven-run event. It's taking place in the elven palace, in the elven city. The guest of honour and patron is the Regent Lord of the elves. The host is an elf. What exactly were you expecting other than fancy times? And what's so wrong about fancy times? Do you get fancy times often? I don't think you do.

Sixth: the reason I'm less keen on the idea of dress uniform, as well as the reasons I've already mentioned, is one of aesthetic. Historically, dress uniforms emerged from about the 1600s onwards, as the concept of professional soldiery began to emerge. WoW, on the other hand, has a very definate medieval aesthetic, and military gear leans towards plate and chain armour, rather than modern tunics. If you think you can get around this, please let me see, either in-game or via a screenie. I'm actually very interested all of a sudden in what you have in mind, and will tell you whether or not I think it suits the event.

And finally: this is just for one night per year. The other 364 the flag of the warsong blades can and should fly high and proud. But for a few hours on Saturday March 21st, I think you should all come along and let your hair down, have a drink, have a gossip with your friends and peers, and enjoy the party.

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Phew. I hope that goes some way towards addressing your concerns. The bottom line is this: I'm holding a fancy party, and I'd love for you to come. I'd much prefer to have Katalmach and Nazrug attend dressed in whatever the hell they like than not have them attend at all.

The reason I didn't post all this before was, well, a) it's very long winded and b) I didn't want to expose the inner workings of the event. Prefer a bit of mystery, you know? Ah well, guess I screwed that up. Maybe no-one will read it, eh?

If you've still got concerns, don't hesitate to bring them up.

Right, was about to hop off to see the sandman, but I'd rather respond before the peanut gallery chips in and this gets built up to be something more than it is currently.

I do stand by the general sentiment of what Nazrug said. We are an orcish guild, within the orcish Horde, and we take that very seriously. We do not compromise on certain things.

That said, the event is not about us. We may be one of the more active RP guild on the Hordeside of ssl these days, but that does not mean that we are on an OOC ego trip and demand that people cater their events to our specifications. We don't. We are happy RPing with our own, and consider any cross-guild RP to be a bonus. When invited to such, we will attend if doing so is within the realm of what suits our guild and its motivations and nature IC.

I did not want this to become a dramatic issue, and so I'm going to be as concise as I can.

Your orginional response to my question may have been a bit flippant, but it caused me no real offense. I can appreciate some well placed flippancy at times.

My initial thought seeing your event was that it would be a good platform for us to interact with people that we do not often RP with in a casual setting. My question to you regarding dress code was my own attempt to try and find a way to include my guild, because I liked the idea. The idea of us pitching up in a nice dress uniform was, at least in my mind, a thought of how we could contribute to your event, giving it more texture and perhaps making it more memorable.

However, considering how the event has been outlined, especially now that our relation to it is in the spotlight, our official attendance as a guild has been a precluded simply because the event is clearly now something which we would not particpate in IC. There are no hard feelings about that.

I have already made the following clear to my guild. Any Blade can attend if he wishes, as long as they do so in an unofficial capacity, and they follow your rules. I have told them not to go in dress uniform, and that if they are to be on their best behaviour. That is the best compromise I can offer to allow for some of us to be there. Origionally I had hoped for more, true, but this is fine, and there is no use crying over lost opportunities.

As an event organiser, it is of course not in your job description to cater to everyone on the server. We don't really fit with your aesthetic for the event, and that is that. If it were more of a universal Horde event, for sure we'd be there. But as you say, you are holding a fancy dress party, and Im not going to demand that your vision for your event changes because it doesn't suit us in its current form.

I hope that this properly conveys my thoughts on this. There's no hard feelings, and I wish you luck with the event. We won't be attending in any organised or official capacity, and the only Blades present are likely to be members of our rank and file who are more casual than Naz and I. You won't see myself or guild leadership there. But do not take that as a "denoucnement" of your event, coming from disgruntlement and a massive ego. This reality is born purely of the nature of our RP, which to be honest is neither suitable to or wanted at the Sunfury ball.

That said... I consider this matter closed from my end. Unless you have anything further you want to raise ofc. What started as a simple "aww, turns out the event doesn't suit us", has already been made more public than I'd ever intended, so I don't want it to turn into an issue or cause any bitterness.

Well,what i'm about to say probably won't change anything,but still...
Just look at the last year screenshots. People are wearing whatever suits them best,and everyone looks happy. I mean,is there really a need to enforce this "Attack of the Tuxedo Clones" dresscode for it to be a fancy event? What kind of party is it where everyone has to dress in the same fashion?
And taurens are still the main issue. They just look ugly in a tuxedo set,whatever you do. Is sacrificing the party atmosphere really worth this?

The same dress code was in force last year...and guess what? people just interpreted it to suit themselves.

There was no drama and everybody was happy....how about we all try to get back to that again hmm?

As for the Blades, shame you guys won't be coming in force...but this isn't about people showing up as a 'guild' anyway. If you feel your Orcs really can't bear to dress up so be it...just bear in mind this doesn't stop you rolling an alt that -would- attend.

As ever, its not up to the event organisers to give you a way to fit your character into the event, its up to you to decide how and if your character would be involved.

Hope to see you there in some form or other

If your "main" (RPing) character cannot or would not attend such an event: bring an alt instead. The main theme of the party is a fun, festival, loose RP event. As Adalan said, he can't control who comes, what they wear or what they do (which is why OOCers usually bounce around so much around RPers) but that's not the intention.

For example, I will bring Lushan, a beggar alt of mine, simply because he's lighthearted, fun and suits such an event. I would be unlikely or less likely to bring a psychopathic Death Knight in full plate who daintily nibbles canapés whilst chatting about city politics with a fat local councillor

Opathu wrote:

If your "main" (RPing) character cannot or would not attend such an event: bring an alt instead. The main theme of the party is a fun, festival, loose RP event. As Adalan said, he can't control who comes, what they wear or what they do (which is why OOCers usually bounce around so much around RPers) but that's not the intention.

For example, I will bring Lushan, a beggar alt of mine, simply because he's lighthearted, fun and suits such an event. I would be unlikely or less likely to bring a psychopathic Death Knight in full plate who daintily nibbles canapés whilst chatting about city politics with a fat local councillor

And so you'll bring along a rotting corpse who'll swear at the maître dee and whose wiff will put everyone off their food!

Seriously though, if it's not something to bring your guys too then, as others have suggested, create an alt and come. I won't be attending as Gurfang because he's likely to have eaten someone's relative! However my belf hunter is perfectly suited and will be attending in one of those all-in-one suits that they give you from one of the festivals (was it Valentines day?).

Gurfang wrote:

Opathu wrote:

If your "main" (RPing) character cannot or would not attend such an event: bring an alt instead. The main theme of the party is a fun, festival, loose RP event. As Adalan said, he can't control who comes, what they wear or what they do (which is why OOCers usually bounce around so much around RPers) but that's not the intention.

For example, I will bring Lushan, a beggar alt of mine, simply because he's lighthearted, fun and suits such an event. I would be unlikely or less likely to bring a psychopathic Death Knight in full plate who daintily nibbles canapés whilst chatting about city politics with a fat local councillor

And so you'll bring along a rotting corpse who'll swear at the maître dee and whose wiff will put everyone off their food!

Cheeky git!

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Seriously though, if it's not something to bring your guys too then, as others have suggested, create an alt and come. I won't be attending as Gurfang because he's likely to have eaten someone's relative! However my belf hunter is perfectly suited and will be attending in one of those all-in-one suits that they give you from one of the festivals (was it Valentines day?).

I think you mean the all-in-one jacket with the sleeves sown up mate. The one for the padded cell ...

The dancing may be a bit extraordinary from some people. Would look awful if we had undead male's raving away air guitaring.

But me, I will emote a beautiful waltz with a delicious partner.

This is a point that came up last year. Yeah, I agree that the current dances are entirely inappropriate for fancy times, but hey, it actually didn't matter much. People danced in moderation, and it looked a bit silly, but no more silly than a tauren in a ballgown. Until Blizzard hold to the original WOTLK trailer and introduce new dances, we're just going to have to deal with it.

Oh man. A proper waltz between two characters would be so awesome. But imagine the technical hurdles - a night elf and a gnome waltzing? How?

Really high heels.

Adalan wrote:

Oh man. A proper waltz between two characters would be so awesome. But imagine the technical hurdles - a night elf and a gnome waltzing? How?

That should be doable though, what about strafing in time?

That leads to the difficulty of not hearing the music at the same time as each other - audio tracks in WoW are kept very much clientside. Plus it's a lot of effort.

As an aside, I'm really sad that WoW doesn't have the musical instruments of LOTRO. Just imagining Adalan leading a band of merrie troubadours... it makes me so goddamn HAPPY. But the chances of a bard hero class being brought in after last year's April Fool are pretty goddamn slim.

Adalan wrote:

That leads to the difficulty of not hearing the music at the same time as each other - audio tracks in WoW are kept very much clientside. Plus it's a lot of effort.

As an aside, I'm really sad that WoW doesn't have the musical instruments of LOTRO. Just imagining Adalan leading a band of merrie troubadours... it makes me so goddamn HAPPY. But the chances of a bard hero class being brought in after last year's April Fool are pretty goddamn slim.

If you are relying upon the game then I'd agree, but with the use of vent (or similar technology) it is possible to talk through it. So long as you have 1 person "leading" the dance it should look fairly good (lag permitting!) and if it also hits with the music then even better!

People with GHI can all get a free gemstone which plays a variety of lovely waltz music to get them in the mood. Including, of course, the manic harpsichord theme from Karazhan.

Adalan wrote:

People with GHI can all get a free gemstone which plays a variety of lovely waltz music to get them in the mood. Including, of course, the manic harpsichord theme from Karazhan.

How've you managed to get the music to play?

MAGIC

Adalan wrote:

MAGIC

But seriously, have you actually managed to fiddle the codes so that it plays or is it just en emote-type thing and you still have the standard music playing irl?

It requires scripting. I'm going to refine the code a little tonight and sort the playlist out for reals. After that, these gems will be given out free for the ball but will break after about a day (fell off the back of a horsecart, see, totally legit I swear). "Original" gems are apparently quite valuable artifacts as it turns out.

Adalan wrote:

MAGIC

For some reason this made me think of David Bowie in Labrynth singing:

DANCE MAGIC DANCE
JUMP MAGIC JUMP