It’s All In Your Head

“Where’s good RP?”

I’ve been pondering on what to write for my next post.  It has been a while since I wrote one, a long while, and I just guessed that I had exhausted my reasons to rant during my rant fest last summer/fall.  I’d discussed and gone over every single one of the things that pissed me off in RP.  I know I’d say I’d go over all of my ‘pet-peeves’, and I haven’t gotten to them, so maybe this will be my ice breaker.

I am also going to try to write a more mature, less-ranty piece, as I really want to make my point here, and I do have a few things to say on this topic.

And well, who the fuck am I kidding?  It won’t be intentional, but I’ll probably be as acidic, sarcastic and jaded as ever.  So here goes nothing.

For as long as I’ve been roleplaying, and in as many places that I’ve roleplayed, one of the questions I get asked the most is “how’s roleplay there?”  or “RP any good there?”

I also want to note before I continue that neither Grammarly nor Word 2013 like the words roleplay, roleplayed, roleplayer, etc.  It keeps wanting me to say “role-played”, not to mention that it keeps trying to correct “RP” to “rape”, and considering it’s SL, it may not be too far off.  But they just don’t know us ar-pee-ing peoples.  By the way, “Grammarly”, that’s not a real word either, so fuck you.

Okay, so on topic.

I’ve been roleplaying in a sim for the past four months (if you know me you know which one).   Like a lot of sims, it opened with a big bang, floods of people, then went through a strained lull, and now it’s picking up again.

I stayed through the lull.  Other friends were saying “it’s dead” and trying to coax me to leave.  But I didn’t.  I tend to “marry” a sim.  Put in my prim roots, and hang on until the bitter end when my prims are returned and SL tells me the place is no longer available when I try to tp in.

Maybe when you are done reading this post you’ll understand why.

Today a friend asked me again how was the RP there, asked me to be honest, and I had to think a moment about my answer.

If you’ve read my stuff, you might have read a piece where I rained hell on someone for criticizing RP sims.  This person took it upon themselves to rate sims on a 1-5 scale on various subjects.  Build, Backstory, RP Style, etc.  Whatever.

So really, ask yourselves this first.  What is a SIM?

A SIM is no more than a backdrop, the setting.  You review everything about this place before you decide to join.  You walk around, see the build, you read the rules, the backstory, etc.  Right?  You have to have a feel for it, that much is true.  If the place is not appealing to YOU, you won’t want to RP there.   You look to the environment for inspiration.

So then the real question isn’t if the sim looks good.  It can look painfully horrid to some, and fantastic to others—the question is can YOU write a story for a character in this place?

That is how I explained it.  I want a story about my character, in this PLACE.  The story isn’t ABOUT the place, gentle reader-rp-friend.  The story is about my character.  That is RP, right?  You write for YOUR character.  So, whether the Sim is full or not, I still have a story.  My character lives there.

“What’s the book about?”

“Oh, it’s about a woman who lives… “

“It’s about a guy who goes to this…”

Sound familiar?

Now, now, before you start ranting, it is true that the happenings on a Sim (or lack thereof) would affect my character and yes, we do depend on the sim’s administration to provide them, and of course, no one was to RP alone… like…  monologs and shit.  That would suck really bad.  That would suck like… like… like notecarding chores on a Gorean sim when no one is around.  That would suck ass.

Yet when I was asked if the RP in this place was “good RP” and was asked for an “honest answer” I said:

“Well, “good” is relative.  Honest answer.  I’ve had good rp with just two people in a nearly empty sim (not this one, btw).   It has potential.  In any sim people will come and go.  I got a whole blog full of shitty rp.  There will be shitty rp and good rp, and honestly, all of us that claim to be good rp’rs wander about SL, sim after sim, LOOKING for good RP.  Sometimes we find it, and its good for a bit, and then we, myself very much included, start finding fault.  “Good” rpr’s are spread out.  So… I like the theme, I like the environment.  There are no perfect sims and rp out there… so you MAKE rp good and you fuck the rest.  My RP, my story, is about MY CHARACTER… and it spreads outwards yes…  but it’s about my character.”

As an admin in a few sims, I also witnessed this phenomenon of roleplayers seemingly needing to be hand-held through plots.  I don’t know about you, but I roleplay because I like reading AND writing.  Even when I’m not roleplaying I’m either reading a book or writing– whether it be a blog post or other stories that may never make it to print, I write.

Maybe for some it is necessary to be a star on SIM, not just their character’s story.  Maybe some seek recognition and validation through RP.  Maybe some have the need to be the hottest, the most badass, and the most renowned name on sim.  Maybe some have a need to infiltrate other people’s stories and take them over—which only reminds me of She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Mentioned (if I’m gonna keep this blog post sane).

Me?  I want to be the star of my own story.  My character is the protagonist.  Coming from chat-room RP, where there was no visual backdrop, maybe I’m a bit more forgiving when a sim is a little slow.  But this type of storytelling is like a circle to me, with me in the center.  As I move around, my circle overlaps someone else’s circle, but it’s still their circle, their story, and mine is mine.  I’m only an extra in their story.  The chick crossing the street in the background or the girl at the donut shop with five minutes of screentime.  And I’m good with that because I rock my story.  Do you really need 30 people around you to tell a story?  Maybe… maybe you don’t have a story at all and just leech off of others.   Are you so unfulfilled in your RP needs?  Is it because your RP is reactive as opposed to proactive?  Does your story suck without a bunch of people for you to feed off of?

Maybe you don’t have a story at all.

Think of when a sim goes through one of these lulls.  Almost all at once 10-15 people will leave, sometimes more.  All claiming to be bored.  “RP sucked there.”  Serioulsy?  You all couldn’t find RP with each other?  There was no way to make your stories overlap each others like those chain reaction TV ads or something?

Roleplaying is interactive writing, is it not?  The difference between me writing out this book on my own and controlling all the characters is that in roleplay I get the surprise and ‘adlib’ improvisation of having others to interact with and this is stimulating and fun and I love it.   But you know what?  Even if I didn’t have that, I’d still have a story to write.  But, I want to share it with you.  I want you in it, I want to see what you can bring to it–but please read all my other blog posts firsts so you don’t annoy me–Just Kidding… sorta…   I’m rocking my story, even if in your story I’m nothing but the chick crossing the street in the background, or the girl at the donut shop that spills your coffee as she serves it to you.

Now the question still is, “where is good RP?”

My answer?

In your head.

Is that even possible?

What the hell is that?

So here’s another draft that may or may not make it to publishing, but recently I’ve done a little roaming through a few RP Sims and people just like to point things out to me.  Often times there is a little scoffing involved, ’cause c’mon… ya know?  So it brings me to this post.

First I want to mention that I did cover “Plausibility” in one of my workshop pages here:  “Plausibility”

But this might point out other angles.  And while I don’t wish to scoff at my scoffing friends, this time my rant is towards the nay-sayers.

So there we are walking around an RP sim and some dude is dragging a chick around by a leash.  She’s wearing nothing but a leather harness, a ball gag, and a collar.  Almost immediately the IM’s start, and I can’t even imagine how they were flying amongst other friends at the place–because yes, the place was full of good RP’rs, and Mary Sues and their Marty Stu boyfriends (or the other way around).  “OMG, you see that?  Why do that here?”

You could argue that it was neither the time nor place.  No, this was NOT a BDSM sex sim.  This was not some BDSM embellished RP sim.  BDSM was NOT part of the storyline in this sim–but it was a somewhat dystopian environment–and face it, BDSM exists in the real world.  I HAVE seen RL people on a leash walking down Duval Street in Key West.  I haven’t seen it in San Francisco yet (would help if I got out there), but I’m told it’s not unusual.

Does not happen IRL at all! Right?

 

What these RP’rs are completely missing is that, instead of OOC whispering in IM’s about this, they could be whispering IC’ly about this and completely missed the opportunity to add color to their RP and environment.

Was this scenario “plausible” (worthy of belief)?

Yes.  Inappropriate perhaps, inciting, conversation worthy.  But do we not have those incidents in real life?  Because folks are ALWAYS well-behaved and appropriate in real life, right?  I don’t even know where we get such ideas for RP, I mean we are all just…

Perfect!

 

I’ll tell you what isn’t plausible.  What isn’t believable is that everyone would ignore it.  I mean sure, in real life, presented with such a situation many would try to pretend it wasn’t happening, but they would not be able to NOT sneak a peek.  There is always an ass that would say something snide, or perhaps someone who was involved in the “lifestyle” that would approach and say something.  Someone might say something about indecency, someone might cover their child’s eyes and run away, someone might scream about morality and call the cops.  And of course, authorities might come by and issue warnings/arrests for public indecency or whatever.  After that, folks could have gone home and whispered about it to their friends and family members.  “You’ll never guess what we saw today”  Not to mention the whole mess of legalities and crap that would come after if the cops were involved.

Instead we focus on the fact that this person is “looking for attention” and how adamant we are in not giving it to them.  We are just going to RP drinking another cup of coffee because we don’t like it when someone draws attention to themselves and away from us, huh?  I’ve heard that complaint many times.  Anytime someone tried to make a big ongoing scene in which they were center/victim/star it was allegedly all for attention–even if this person was doing it as a way to provide RP for a larger group of people.  Chief of Police gets kidnapped by Mafia.  Police involved, bounty hunters involved, criminals involved, a house gets blow up, firemen involved.  She gets beat up, doctors and nurses and hospital involved.  But… nupe.  So many would still whine about how she did it for attention.

Whatever!

So what if we rp’d this out?  Whispered IC’ly amongst ourselves?  “What the hell is wrong with these people?”  Added one more thing to our character’s experiences “I once saw a girl on a leash…”  Tried to interfere and caused a commotion?  Face it, not all RP scenarios have to be about you (they are about ME dammit!).  What would be the harm and playing along?

Yes, this character scenario was most definitely “plausible”.

 

Okay, so maybe that song is not the same, but the post reminded me of the title and I wanted to hear it.

Another sim I was in allowed furries… in a totally non-plausible way.  Plausible would have been that we were in an alternate universe and furries were a part of our lives.  But in this sim they tried to appease furries and furry-sympathizers by letting them in provided it was understood they were humans wearing a costume.  So in essence, we had a city that had college football mascots running around in costume 24-7.  Some were cops.  So we had a few guys, in furry costumes, with their police uniform over that.

 

Totally plausible to have this walk up to your door when you call the cops over a break-in.

 

Look, all I’m saying is before you write it off, work it out in your head.  Could this have happened?  What would my character do?  How should we react?  How involved do I want to get?

Just quit it and flippin’ RP already.

 

Tell Me A Story

So I haven’t posted anything in months.   I have about 7 drafts here waiting for me to finish up, and about 12 pet peeves to work through, and I have been uninspired.  I started this post WEEKS ago and I am only now finishing it, at least I think I am.  If I post it you’ll know I did.  If I don’t…

I also no longer wear Lolas.  Maybe that’s it…

…or maybe “uninspired” is the wrong term. I’ve stayed away from RP sims in the past few months and no one has managed to piss me off.   Yeah… I’ve been HAPPY.  Go figure.  The Queen of Snark is HAPPY.  I’ve been making clothes again (inserts shameless plug for her store here) and RP’ing with a select group of… well, just one other person, so yeah, no one has managed to piss me off in months.

Still, now and then I get the itch to go SEE rp sims, to entertain the notion of joining in and be part of something bigger.  To be a character in a bigger story made up of intertwined stories that evolve into MORE story arcs.  I’ve remained in a few RP groups, and a few groups that promote RP, so I see sims coming and going, and people advertising and such.  So… what can I say? I’m curious.  I look.  I click on the links, check out their websites, I perv the profiles of those posting, and I’ll visit the sims.

Then, with my curiosity well sated, I remind myself of just how happy I am and close it all up and go home.

A couple of years ago there was a blog that was dedicated to reviewing RP Sims.  The idea was a good one, if the writer hadn’t been biased (I’m not the only one who thought so, BTW), and considering how the reviews went, I wouldn’t doubt that she was in a few sim owner’s pockets.  Nevermind that I couldn’t keep my mouth shut and added a comment, which led to me being publicly fried by one of her supporters (benefactors?)… but it’s not the reason why I hated the blog in the first place.  I hated it before I was fried on it.  I digress and I’m getting pissed off.

Anyway, as snarky as I’ve been known to be, I have never publicly shamed anyone (well, except in this post).  I’ve mentioned no true avatar names, I’ve not mentioned a specific Sim, at least that I can recall (crap now I’m gonna have to go back and re-read my stuff just in case),  and anyone who has “figured out” who I spoke of, or “figured out” what sim I meant, has done so on their own assumptions.  Maybe they witnessed an incident I discussed, or they brought the topic to my attention so that I may blog it.  Though yes, this is MY OPINION, my critiques have been limited to certain topics that MANY find annoying or in bad RP form.

And not that this makes me a better person than anyone (okay, who am I trying to kid?  I’m fabulous), but I would never think that I had the ability to walk around RP Sims and “review” them.  I have learned that what works for some, doesn’t for others.  Yet the writer of that blog fashioned herself some RP Sim connoisseur.  She would name the sim, add photos and critique the build (sometimes she had ways of sneaking in and taking photos before it was finished).  Then she’d do some contumelious running commentary on her opinions–all based on her presumed expertise, of course–and in the end would give it a 1-5 rank based on several factors, from curb appeal to RP level–’cause of course, she knew her shit.

Who the hell would think so highly of themselves to give someone’s hard work and money a 1.6?  Regardless of the amount of effort, whether they used prefabs or hired a builder, a Sim Owner makes no profit.  They build the place to provide players with an environment and a playground.  A backdrop to their stories.  It may not be perfect, they might need help with a few things, but for someone to sit there and say “I don’t care if you are spending $300 a month on a sim and spent a few hundred more on things to put in the sim, you suck and I’m telling everyone you suck so they won’t come to play here…” Even as snarky as I am, I could never bring myself to do such a thing.

So what got me on that?  I’ll tell you!  Someone posted something about a sim in an RP group and I clicked to look.  I immediately felt snarky.  It washed over me like… I don’t know, the ice-bucket challenge, but it gave me pause, making me wonder where the hell did I get off critiquing a Sim I had no intention of playing in anyway and do nothing to help sustain it.

I tell you what triggered it.

 

Just ONE of the super-powers you can have in SL

 

I don’t have anything against a fantasy sim.  I don’t have anything against a Vampire sim.  I have nothing against a Werewolf sim.  I have nothing against a Vampire/Werewolf sim. I do however have something against a sim with vampires and angels and demons and shapeshifters and mermaids and dragons and elves and cyborgs and caterpillars and… yeah.  You get what I mean.  I joined one a little over a year ago.  There were two humans on the sim.   I was one of them.

I think that RP Sims, or RP’rs themselves, have lost something along the way.  And yes, this is MY OPINION.  I can give some credit to Gor (omg I can’t believe I said that), in that they’ve stuck to a story, a particular canon of sorts.  Yes, there is the Kurii, who don’t make much of an appearance, and the Priest Kings are giant alien bugs, but we don’t see them.  And yes, we’ve seen some “Gor Evolved” which I don’t mind either, but for the most part they are JUST HUMANS and they raid and war and trade and get married and have sex (and more sex), have stories and stuff.  I love that the different cities RP with EACH OTHER.  They recognize that theirs isn’t the only place in SL.   A person can take their character and story (and their slaves) and MOVE to another city without having to start a new character.  I have yet to see some half Kurii/half human player, or a half priest king bug/half human, or a part kurii/part human/part bug character.  I have other reasons for not going to Gor, which I’m not going to go into–that’s a whole other post, but mainly it’s that I hate people–or Mary Sue, and Mary Sue in silks is just that much worse–though she doesn’t compare to Free-Woman Mary Sue that hides her collar under her robes of concealment.

I’m getting off track again.

Still, after clicking on that link and viewing this sim’s website and seeing that it’s just one more fantasy sim with a two-page list of allowed races/species/whathaveyous, and all combinations thereof, what I really think is that we lost the ability to just tell a story, and even more so, just a human story.

When I think of a show like the Walking Dead, that brings it even more to light.  The show isn’t ABOUT zombies.  Zombies are these things with no thought process that made things really inconvenient.  But if you think about it, they are easy to kill, they don’t plot or plan.  Half the time people just walk up to them and stick a knife in their heads and done.  Yeah it gets hairy when there’s a lot of them, but they just walk around looking for something to eat.  Again, no thought process.  The show is really about HUMANS, with no super-powers or super natural abilities, trying to get by and survive.  They are the ones plotting AGAINST EACH OTHER, grasping for power, stealing, killing, falling in love, going crazy, beating each other, drinking, eating, sleeping, sleeping around, having babies, lying, cheating.

I’ve seen sims die because RP’rs complained they “had nothing to do”.  Seriously.  A couple I can think of, all human sims, and they had “nothing to do”.  Watched a sim with a commodity system where people had the ability to truly work to get up in rank/attain power, they had to rp it.  They had to gain these things through rp.  Players had “nothing to do”  No one wanted to start at the bottom.

Has SL has grown so much that there are so many RP Sims out there that sim owners will do whatever, and allow whatever, for traffic?

You might ask WHY be human if you can be anything else?

Why not?  Why do we have to be super-powered or ancient or magical or immortal or shapshifting (or all of the above)?  It just all seems too much for me.  Each person trying to be more powerful than the next, badder, faster, hotter.  Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t allow hybrids of different races.  I don’t know, what do I know, huh?

Maybe it’s our perception of “winning” that is skewed.  There is no true “winning” or “losing” in RP!   In RP “winning” is when you have a great story, whether your character survives it or not.  It doesn’t matter if you got your ass kicked or you kicked someone else ass, but how it was played or written.   RP is the only place I’ve seen where no one likes a sharpshooter/ace pilot/race car driver.  In RL you’d definitely kick ass and get all the chicks.

But in SL, unless you are trying to win at the “The Biggest Douchebag”  STAHP.