I've always had something of an allergy to authority in role-play. Many people will claim that it can be done tastefully but in every case someone is being screwed over. In many cases the role-players dictacting what is 'good etiquette' or 'fanon and canon' are pretty popular and excellent at PR. Yet they're also rather arrogant, spiteful and stuck in their ways - sometimes going so far as to encourage their zealous followers to drive a wedge between themselves and anyone who doesn't fawn over their perceived authority or character's supposed feats of strength and heroism.
It's not just an issue with WoW, either. I've seen it happen in every MMO that I've role-played in to the point where the only authority my characters answer to is NPC's of my choosing. I'm certainly not paying to be seen as an extra in someone else's power fantasy nor would I expect anyone else to answer to my character. The exception being if people want to go down that route, of course - but they certainly shouldn't be expecting others to bow down in front of their guild leader or friends.
Another major issue is that many popular players tend to take an increasing number of liberties with the canon lore simply because they can usually get away with it. It's notoriously difficult to convince a popular role-player to tone down their chosen concept or be a team player if they have dozens of loyal friends lurking in the shadows ready to white knight them regardless of what the damage they may be inflicting.
It's not just an issue with WoW, either. I've seen it happen in every MMO that I've role-played in to the point where the only authority my characters answer to is NPC's of my choosing. I'm certainly not paying to be seen as an extra in someone else's power fantasy nor would I expect anyone else to answer to my character. The exception being if people want to go down that route, of course - but they certainly shouldn't be expecting others to bow down in front of their guild leader or friends.
Another major issue is that many popular players tend to take an increasing number of liberties with the canon lore simply because they can usually get away with it. It's notoriously difficult to convince a popular role-player to tone down their chosen concept or be a team player if they have dozens of loyal friends lurking in the shadows ready to white knight them regardless of what the damage they may be inflicting.
