Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-11406405-20130718160343/@comment-5781280-20130718181905

Tis a good question, and one that was briefly discussed in a little replied forum post sometime ago:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/9344304471#4

I'll admit that the issue is marginally different then what your bringing up, which is inferring that specifically roleplaying positions of authority such as the Bishop of Stormwind is "poor form." The key to why no one really has talked about it in the past, however, (at least to my knowledge) is that those who have claimed to be Bishop of Stormwind have done a relatively good job in their RP.

Considering that virtually all RP is lorebending, such as being the Admiral of a fleet or Captain of the Stormwind Guard, most authority positions are often judged on the quality of the role player and his/her ability to perform realistically in that position. If someone claims to be the Bishop of Stormwind and does a really horrible job of it, they are chased off, when they do an exceptionally good job of acurately portraying what such a person in that position would be/do, the people are generally accepting.

A good example would be the contrast between the history of  and . In the case of the Guard, historically poor leadership and low roleplay standards have lead many people to simply disregard the appeal to authority that the guard makes. This is starkly opposed to the Clergy, whose historical reputation of good leadership and high quality role play has lead many people on the server to accept them, with only the occasional questioning coming up.