Today we bring you a interview with Amerane, who had a lot of exciting things to say. Enjoy! Firewire: Three personal questions in the beginning. Would you tell us your AFK age, gender and home country?
Amerane: I am twenty one years old, I'm actually a woman, which I'm told is rare in WoW, and I'm from East Sussex in England!
Firewire: Which you are told? Do you have a different point of view to that topic?
Amerane: Well, through playing I've had quite a few female friends. Though I see where the joke comes from with how many guys like to play female characters and vice versa.
Firewire: How do you know for sure that they were female and could you tell such a joke? Or, what do you think about the guys that play girls in WoW, especially those that make such jokes?
Amerane: Ah well, I'm open enough to speak to people over Skype, which usually confirms their gender. I think there is nothing better than talking to people who you enjoy playing the game with. And I think the joke is just that - a joke - that's been about in gaming for sometime. Though certainly, there has been a "gamer girls and proud" influx over the years of the internet becoming bigger. I've no issues with guys who want to play girls, each to their own.
Firewire: Did you ever play a male character in WoW, and did you also RP him?
Amerane: I have indeed played a guy in World of Warcraft, I believe at least four to date, each I have role played. One of them being created for the pure purpose of my guild's in-character progression. I believe there are people out there with really great imagination. And I personally have always found that I do not mind the gender of the character I play. As long as you've got the imagination to enjoy your character, why would you have to stick with one? I like to think more than just gender roles and about the character, all those things you should think about when making a character to role play.
Firewire: Is gender switching something you do afk too (in any way?) OR: Do you think that gender switching in WoW affects your life away from the game in anyway? If I talk about real life I use "away from keyboard", because I refuse to believe that WoW is not real life. (A philosophy I learned from the pirate bay founders.)
Amerane: No, it has no effect over me as a person in my real life. It's more like reading a book, just because it has a male lead does not make me feel (personally) like questioning who I am. I am quite solid in who I am and gender switching, when it comes to myself, is not part of that.
Firewire: I try to switch over to my RP questions now. Let's start with: You told me that you use Skype with people you know from WoW. Did you ever role play with friends over Skype?
Amerane: I have not taken part in Skype role play beyond using it as a platform to talk to Alliance guilds (such as the Eye of Dalaran) to help with communication. Which hopefully they'd agree helps the general process of running events in WoW to go smoother than without. The only kind of RP I suppose I've done in Skype is pen and paper RP, such as Pathfinder - a group one of my friends in a raiding guild invited me into. I've not done it for too long, but the group I do Pathfinder sessions with are lovely, and it's a different kind of RP than what you find in WoW that I've come to enjoy. We're even trying out the "Fate System" (a different kind of pen and paper rule system).
Firewire: When and why did you start playing WoW? And how did you get into role playing?
Amerane: I started playing World of Warcraft back at the end of vanilla around two months prior to the release of The Burning Crusade expansion. Back then I shared a computer with my family and my brother originally installed the game. Being the curious girl I was I went to play the game. He allowed me to use his account and set me up with the basics of the game. I created a mage with my afk name on the PVE realm, Ghostlands, firstly a human. I was trying to make it look like me. But when the expansion came out I was given my own account, re-made my mage on Ghostlands and embarrassingly, got my mum into playing the game at the time as well. I was hooked from the start, especially with the release of Blood Elves.
I did the grind to 70, with a very minimized view on my options that were available for me in the game. I met a load of contrasting characters who were all great. But I didn't actually RP at this point. It wasn't until Wrath of the Lich King that I moved realm onto The Sha'tar. The famously dead realm used to be thriving at that point. I moved realm with the encouragement of my friend at the time where we started our hands at raiding. And between raids I would portal into Silvermoon City where I'd see very odd people emoting and walking around. It was like stumbling into a community-created story book. I, bashfully, on my main paladin tried out RPing as well. Anyone who's role played in Silvermoon will likely know the story. You start in the Bazaar, stand at some stairs outside the inn and for some reason stare at a fountain and bashfully wait for anyone to come say hello. Exchanging the odd '/eye' emote, hoping they won't ignore you. As a fanatic reader afk, I couldn't get enough of it, and I guess I never have. But my gods, I wasn't half a wide-eyed, freshly changed 'noob' back then.
Firewire: How old (in play time, not in lore time) is Amerane and could you tell us a little bit about her story?
Amerane: In accordance to my /played, at the time of this interview, she's been around for 106 days, 4 hours and 22 minutes. That translates to her creation having been in 2012. Amerane A'vron has a rich background - seeing the changes of being a priestess, to a blood knight, to a commander of her own Sin'dorei relief order. It's hard to generalize a character's background really, but it's safe to say, with every Sin'dorei, she has had a fair few events thrown at her to make some stories to be told again.
Firewire: What's your favorite story you played in WoW that comes to your mind?
Amerane: I think it would have to be the most recent story line that the Blood Aegis has been through - something we, the officers, planned for six months. The story was created as a way to help guild progression and to get rid of part of the guild's story line.
The original leader of the order went on leave and so a replacement commander was put in place temporarily named Malanvai. He ended up deceiving the order and used them to help create a siege weapon he hoped would bring revenge on Jaina Proudmoore and the humans and high elves for the purge of Dalaran. A story of revenge, deceit and ultimately of forgiveness. It was a story that held so much for different members of the order everyone was able to take some progression away from it. And now the guild has been given a new direction and it has reminded them of the very nature of what their race can become. Revenge can be a hideous thing.
Firewire: What do you think about the RP scene in WoW? Is it developing in the right direction or has it seen better days?
Amerane: Now, my answer is subjective to my own opinion here, from what I have seen and what I have witnessed. I would like to make it clear that I think the RP scene in WoW is far too large to be going in just one direction. When I joined the Argent Dawn server, I joined as a blood elf that spent most of her time in Silvermoon City. So the scene that was given to me would be obscure in that fact to just this area. At this time there were only pillar guilds. By this I mean guilds that were -big-, that didn't leave room for new guilds to begin. Some of these bigger guilds had some unpleasant spearheads, others were quite lovely. But from just a perspective of a prospective guild member I didn't honestly like it. I thought the entire situation of small guilds not having room to grow and explore new RP was sad. I didn't like how there was hardly any room for people who were not blood elves to be accepted into RP around the area. Or so it had seemed. I am talking about Cataclysm time at this point.
It was bleak, and the large guilds had become so large there wasn't much room to feel involved in them. I left the scene of this following an argument with one such guild leader. But that wasn't to say there weren't beautiful, wonderful gems out there, that could provide wonderful RP. The thing about this 'community', the forums always discuss, is that it is just too obscure to assume you know it all. Or rather, too large. But, I have seen it change. I've seen these big guilds become smaller I've seen people become less happy to follow the majority and an encouragement of exploring new concepts and joining fresh guilds happen. I think getting rid of guild levels has really helped this as well. As for where we are now, I think that there is always going to be room for improvement. Just like society afk, there will always be parts we do not like. But from what I've seen there are less barriers up there. I for one have worked with my guild to explore outside of one niche. What I'd like to see change would be for people to become less bashful about approaching others with RP. To feel more confident in just approaching others and engaging them in RP. All it takes is for that one person to come up and say hello to someone sitting on their own for some fun role play to happen. In the end that's what we are all here for. I'd also like the forums to become a more accepting place. Too many people tend to care about what others think, and that's mostly seen on the forums. And then others use it as a way of trying to pride their negativity. I know what I would like to see happen is idealistic, but in the end we all came here for one thing:
To enjoy the subscription we pay, to do what we enjoy doing. And that's having fun.
Firewire: Could you tell me a little bit about the role/situation of Silvermoon as a main RP hub? (Some people tend to compare its role play to Goldshire sometimes. But that's really stuff I heard from others. I really don't know anything about the RP scene there.)
Amerane: Subjective again, but I'd say that the role play situation in Silvermoon is fine. It's honestly a place of people who are trying to find kindred spirits who'd like to try this thing called role play. You have places where some are new to role play and also want to start with something imaginative - this would be the 'Goldshire-esque' area people hint at. Likely due to the new role players who are there and are not so well informed on the lore of World of Warcraft. Or perhaps they didn't want to follow the lore of Blizzard's game as much. Either way, that's fine, because we all start somewhere. There are other places which are less crowded and more spontaneous role play can occur. You also come across places guilds hang out in. I guess what I am trying to say is: I don't see much wrong with how Silvermoon is. There is something for everyone there, role players come in every day, some new, some old. And if you want to find some people that sing the same song as you, even if it takes a few attempts, I think you'll find someone.
Firewire: Do you have any tips for people that start with RP? Places to go, people to talk to, things to do?
Amerane: If you are starting role play I know it can be hard to not take being shrugged off as a step back, or starting in a new 'hub' as being scary. But you've just got to bite the bullet and the more people you approach, the more you start saying hello to people, the more likely you are going to find friends or have a nice time. Role play isn't something that happens all of the time, so it can also take a bit of sticking around to find it. Locations I'd suggest to look at are Silvermoon, Orgrimmar, Sen'jin village and Brill. If you are brand new to role play, have a look at some people role playing, approach someone in whispers and ask them if they can help you. There are also some beautifully made guides out there for people who might want to try role play. Again, if you feel you've been shrugged off or ended up with a bad crowd, then just get back up on that horse and try again. Like afk there are different types of people. But you'll find your people in time.
Firewire: Can you think of things that you learned in WoW RP (or WoW in general) that you can use in your AFK life too?
Amerane: Yes, dear gods I have. I used to be bullied a lot when I was younger and I think World of Warcraft RP has allowed me to learn, through seeing other people's RP and my own, how to take things on the chin and stand up for myself. I've learned how to approach other people and just -go for it-. And by it, I mean the old hello, how are you. I've built up so many friendships from just feeling brave that day and saying hello. I mean, for one funny story, I met my second in command and best friend, Tyrenas, by reading his MRP (role play add-on), upon passing and thinking, damn he sounds cool! So I followed him outside of the city, he in turn was following two people outside of the city. And so in my head I was all "Why's he following them?! Maybe she's his lover and she's cheating on him! Oh Ehm. Gee." He then took a turn off into the Farstrider's Retreat and so I stumbled up to him IC ...
I said I had taken notice of him and how he was like the mist because I couldn't keep track of him that well. I then invited him to come RP with my new guild the Blood Aegis and bashfully ran away. Turned out, he was new to the realm that very day and, because my hello was so forward and out of the norm, he decided to join us. I mean, I had no idea, he'd end up my second in command and my best friend for two good years. This and acting courses IRL helped me just putting those inhibitions of "what if they won't like me" aside to give things a go. And running a guild in WoW has given me so much experience, especially in my job in retail and my other jobs I get backstage in threat, how to handle situations with people, how to deal with stress and I think most importantly: To be okay with me and to do what ever the hell I want to do with my time. Forwarding this out to everyone who has a friend afk who is struggling. WoW comes with so much drama and so much fun, send them to it! And I've no doubt, I'm going to personally keep playing and all these people I meet are going to teach me more.
Firewire: Three short questions: Your favorite place to be, your favorite tavern and your favorite NPC.
Amerane: The Ruby Dragonshrine/Sanctum, World's End Tavern (The live music is top notch), Lor'themar Theron, whose voice actor even left a message for my guild, I think I might even be a fangirl for him.
Firewire: Is there anything else you'd like to add? Any shout outs?
Amerane: Thank you very much to Firewire for going through all the effort of this interview and all the others that will or have been done. I guess, shout out to my guild of idiots - you know who you are, and shout out to Vox Turba aswell as the Dawnguard Guilds. 10/10 would recommend.
Firewire: Thank you so much for your time and this interview. It really moved me several times. I'm still stunned how many awesome people you meet in video games. I wish you all the best.
