Interview: Varoneth #10

 
Today we bring you a interview with Varoneth. Enjoy!

Thundercable: I start my interviews with three personal questions, you don't need to answer at all. But I find it interessting to see the persons behind the avatars for a bit at least. I would be interessted to know your age, gender and home country.

Varoneth: I am a nineteen year old male from Sweden.

Thundercable: Coming to your avatar's background. Is there a story behind your name?

Varoneth: Not really, no. When I come up with names for my characters I go to the wowwiki pages to the according race and I read through the name list, I was however very surprised that Varoneth was not taken already.

Thundercable: How long have you been playing WoW and how did you get into RP?

Varoneth: I have been playing WoW since the release of TBC which is uh ... A few years, I have no clue how long it's been to be honest but it has been quite a while, loved every second. -- And RP would uh ... Since late last year? I remember attending the Lunar Festival event on my alt where I got into (and fell in love with) Kaldorei RP.

Thundercable: Can you tell me a little bit about that festival and what was so special about it?

Varoneth: Well, we walked from Ashenvale, Astranaar through a few places on the way, up through Felwood and through the furbolg tunnel and into Moonglade where we celebrated through the evening and night. Was lovely seeing the more happy and mortal sides of characters where they honored their lost ones and celebrated the goddess. I also remember a bonding celebration in Moonglade which was kind of fun too.

Thundercable: What is the story of Varoneth?

Varoneth: She is the child of a druid father and a huntress mother, both very old members of the Kaldorei society. Her father tried to train her into a druidess but that didn't work out too well so her mother shaped her into a very talented sentinel to continue the mother's legacy (who had become too old to continue fighting). She was trained through many sentinel academies like the Silverwing Sentinels and Feathermoon. Being called to duty many times through the recent history like the cultist invasion on Hyjal where she lost her father and the Siege of Orgrimmar.

Thundercable: What are the goals she wants to achieve?

Varoneth: Safekeeping her people and the forest, combating the worst foe of the world, the Legion.

Thundercable: Can you tell me a little bit about the people she is with or better about the guild you are currently with. What is their story?

Varoneth: Keep in mind that these are the opinions of me and not the overall consensus of my guild or its members.
She is in the guild Shadowleaf Watchers who are a collection of brave Kaldorei men and women who, rather than protect certain towns/settlements/lands like the sentinels do, primarily hunt criminals or enemies who threaten innocent people, mostly being Kaldorei, however sometimes it's also people who threaten the safety of any. Sometimes on the orders of the (priestesses of the moon) temple.
And the Watchers were those who followed Maiev way back as jailors of the Kaldorei race.
I can imagine my guild leader will smack me if I get anything wrong here.

Thundercable: Then let's not lose any more words about it. Is there any other event or story that is one of your favorites you have encountered the past year?

Varoneth: Any event involving Acrona's hosting, simple as that. Nisharil as well, the Astranaar city hours and the Moonrise events are just lovely to attend and meet others, and the festival of the twin bears was -amazing-, I am glad Acrona is a part of this community.

Thundercable: How do you think about the RP scene on AD in general?
And have you ever played on other RP servers?

Varoneth: Both good and bad, everything has both good and bad sides and AD isn't an exception. I think that it mostly depends on with what kind of role-play you surround yourself. I have been on the server for a while so I know where you find better and where you find worse role-play. It is however the best role-play scene I have ever come across. -- And no, I have not. I wouldn't dare betray my friends I have made here ... Alsothey'renotasgood. :x

Thundercable: Could you tell us where to find the better side of RP on AD and why it is the better side?

Varoneth: The better side is IMHO anywhere a little bit away from human lands, humans being the most popular race most people would logically pick one of those when trying Argent Dawn. And they either go to Goldshire or Stormwind, the latter one becoming a hub for all kinds of RP, lowering the general quality of it all when Stormwind gives every role-play at least one or two people to RP with even if they tend to break lore or powergame. Giving them approval and they sort of get into this idea of continuing to role-play their more disliked RP ideas in Stormwind, thus many of the very serious role-players go elsewhere, some travelling around a lot like mercenary bands or sellswords. However I'm not gonna lump everyone together into one, I know there's a very good RP guild in Darkshire and the Crimson Insurrection looks very promising so far.

Thundercable: What are some criteria that make for a good RP experience? Think of things that in your opinion are important for RP to be become fun for you. What do you need for a RP session to be a good one?

Varoneth: Well, I don't want to seem like an elitist or a jerk here but ... Good grammar, quite quick response with emotes and enough text in the emotes to emote back against. Otherwise I feel it becomes awkward when me and the other person don't understand each other.

Thundercable: Playing WoW I very often run into guys playing girls (including myself). What do you think is a reason why people play opposite gender characters?

Varoneth: I heard a fairly fun statement a while ago in a discussion about this: "If you're going to stare at a persons behind for hours on end, then I'm not surprised many guys play female characters". And I actually don't know why that is, I do it too and I can only assume that they prefer the model or they prefer the role-play coming from playing a female character. I'm not going to go into the whole ERP part of reasons but that can play a part too ... I assume.

Thundercable: People that don't play WoW or videogames talk about the terms Real Life and Game. How do you think about that? Would you say playing WoW had something to do with your real life or not at all?

Varoneth: Not personally, no. However, I know that many, many people have met life-long friends, lost friends and found mates for life due to World of Warcraft. Being a very social-demanding game that's been around for so long it's inevitable that many people have had World of Warcraft involved in their lives, both major and minor. And I don't think that's really possible anymore with games nowadays, the social aspect has gone away and replaced with much more single-player aimed games that have hit the mainstream. But I do truly think World of Warcraft is really one of its kind, of course along with Everquest and older MMOs.

Thundercable: If you could change game mechanics within WoW to improve RP what would that be?

Varoneth: Cross-faction communication, the ability to get instanced versions of zones without NPCs that walk around everywhere and ruin immersion.

Thundercable: Three short questions: What is your favorite place to be in WoW, what's your favorite tavern and who is your favorite NPC?

Varoneth: My favorite place to be in would probably happend to be ... Kun-lai, I love the sight of the mountains to the north with the snow-caps and the grass and such down to the bottom, very beautiful.
My favorite tavern is the one in Booty Bay, I just love the design of it with the bridge at the top and the two rooms and the upstairs, downstairs.
My absolute favorite NPC is Blingtron, I can't say no to free stuff. ;)

Thundercable: Is there someone you would like to see interviewed next and is there a question you would like to see answered by this person?

Varoneth: Perhaps Thornroot or Didonius? A question for them ... Hm. Maybe their best memory of Argent Dawn?

Thundercable: Anything else you would like to share or add? Any shout outs?

Varoneth: A shout out to you, you deserve it for taking the time in your day to do this. It's very interesting to see what different role-players think of each other and how they are behind the character.

Thundercable: That's very kind of you. Thank you, and thank you so much for your time and your interview.