Role play and World of Warcraft

I will first prefaces this with the qualifier that I do RP on WoW.  I have suffered the slings an arrows of being in raiding guilds and being mocked for all the 'ERP' that I do during my off time.  I try my best to take it with a shrug and a laugh, at the end of the day I know its bullshit, I've never participated in ERP and never intend to.  Interestingly, I have often found myself being a bit apart from many of the people I interact with.  

I enjoy taking very basic concepts and fleshing them out.  They aren't always original, but I used the parameters of the world as the limitations on what my character can be or do.  This makes me sort of the oddball in my standard trip through WoW RP.  I would like to briefly list some concepts that I have run into more than once:

1. Half Dragon/Half-Something Else

2. Dragon in disguise

3. Former Death Knight returned to life

4. Former Forsaken returned to life

5. Has bested Arthas in single combat

I would rate those as the 5 most recurring concepts.  There are many others, so many rare and special snowflakes.  It bothers me mostly because I think that those kinds of stories are rather boring.  There's no meaning beyond 'I am awesome', there's really not a story there at all.  My active character histories are as follows:

Blood Elf Death Knight - Former Hunter, something of a scoundrel, died working for the Argent Dawn defending a village being evacuated during a Scourge assault.  Raised as a Death Knight, broken free around the time of Light's Hope.  Believes that this is his chance to actually do all the good he, wrongfully, figured he'd have plenty of time for.

Blood Elf Paladin - Blood Knight, aspiring to be a hero, is slightly below average in the Intelligence department.  Not dumb or ignorant, but most complicated matters he just doesn't really understand.  Was gunned down by Alliance in retaliation for the Wrath Gate incident.  Body was not recovered/resurrected for several months and is now dealing with life after everyone else has moved on.

Undead Warrior - A minor noble of the Arathi Royal Family.  Killed during the Scourge invasion, raised as an Undead. Broke free with Lady Sylvanas and has spent most of his time away from society since then.  Something of a Doc Brown type character with even less understanding of social rules/norms.

None of these concepts is the mark of anything special, but what makes me enjoy playing them is that they are rather mundane characters that have the potential to step up and do something great.  Up against all of these incredibly epic characters that move the world with their whims, any one of these characters stepping up to take action adds drama, excitement.  Superheroes going to fight villains isn't overly interesting, unless the villains are so preposterously powerful that the heroes seem mundane by comparison.  Regular people stepping up to fight such superpowers has drama, the characters are at risk.  

I don't mind a story where my character fails, if it enhances the story.  Good triumphing over evil is tried and true, but there are other messages out there.  Sometimes its not enough, sometimes a relationship just fails, sometimes the scrappy underdog gets his head handed to him.  These aren't bad stories, if told properly.  My Blood Elf's death was one of the more interesting things to run, mostly because his death was fairly meaningless. All his dreams of being a hero, constantly trying to protect his friends and succeed ultimately brought down because the Alliance was pissed at the Horde.  Its a strong message, and not one I think should be forgotten.

To all you God-Complex RP'rs out there, don't be afraid to try playing mundane concept.  It can add a sense of drama and tension to scenes when you aren't an invincible god....dragon....thing.