The RIdPEF : an introduction
What is the RIdPEF?
The Royal IdP Essploring Fundation was created on May 7th 2006 by Neirda. At first conceived as an extension of the "Itinérants du Pestacle" (Pestacle Nomads) dedicated to the discovery of the unknown places of Azeroth, it became over time an organisation on its own. Its goal is to gather in the same manor a group of crazy people having as a common interest the love for this art that is essploration.
The RIdPEF is also a happy goup of friend, who gather from time to time to chat, drink coffee and eat pistacchios (we also accept tea drinkers). We also sometimes live adventures in the universe of Minecraft, Elite:Dangerous or other places where it looks like people "Praise the Sun".
What is essploration?
Essploration consists in reaching every zone of Azeroth and other places, hidden and supposed to be inaccessible to normal players.
The World of Warcraft is filled with invisible places for most players, sometimes beautiful, very often ugly, or maybe never officially available!
Among the most famous ones, there'sfor example the Emerald Dream or the DeadMines Secret, which are always very sought-after by the current essplorers. Our goal is to find them, if possible to find them all, to reach them, to take a souvenir picture, and to write pretty summaries for the love of science, knowledge and cartography.
There are hundreds of different essplorations, and contrary to what is commonly said, exploration is absolutely not dead during Cataclysm with the flying mounts in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. Every patch brings additional content to essplore, and discoveries are still regularly made.
Essploration is also a means to get information about the history of the development of the game by Blizzard. Some members are passionnate about the evolution of the game and the lore. They refine their impressive knowledge by observing every detail in Azeroth.
Does Blizzard allow essploration?
Officially, essploration is forbidden by the user agreement from Blizzard, but it is tolerated. Most essplorers doing this actibity for years haven't had any sanction*. Obviously, avoid bragging about your essploring achievements on the roofs of Stormwind or Ogrimmar, who knows if an angry GM comes by!
We cosider it to be a point o honour, that the techniques used in essploration never be employed to gain any advantage ingame. It's also written in the community rules.
* We are not responsible of possible bans that may incur to your account. For any complaint, please contact our goblin agency, which may answer, maybe, one day.
Are there prerequisites to essplore?
Many essploring places are accessible with a few well calibrated jumps. The main prerequisite is to observe Azeroth under a new perspective, and try to reach the horizon.
Otherwise, you can check the beginner essploring guide, which contains a survival kit for the apprentice in essploration.
Why are some essploration techniques a secret?
Good question! We indeed never disclose our techniques publicly.
The first reason for not evoking the techniques in the public part of the community is this : the RIdPEF encourages mystery, dream and tales around essploration. This is what we want to promote above all, and not technical descriptions on how to reach any place.
Another reason is that many essplorers appreciate the path searching step, in order to go astray. The feeling of accomplishment is much stronger when a way if found by oneself, or when a team finds a new method to reach a cool point of view to film or to take a picture of.
Finally, the last reason not to explain the techniques is that some of them used in a certain way may allow to gain an advantage ingame. As a result, when a technique is made public, it is always used (outside of the RIdPEF) to cheat, and Blizzard nerfs it quite logically. We talk freely about techniques in the manor's secret wings, the West Wing and the East Wing.
Can I join you?
Most of our community is French speaking. However, don't be afraid if you want to come, many of us can also speak English!
To do this, follow the path to the common hall of the manor : https://forum.ridpef.org
Everyone is accepted except for undeads because theyr're dirty, whether you're a beginner essplorer or the master of essploration.
You can also say hello on our IRC channel, where most of the chat, err, community life happens.
If you don't know where to start, you can make a list of your essplorations in the part of the manor dedicated to essplorers' findings, or you can write a little post in the coffee lounge!