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eibbil_libbieFull marks if you get the reference in the subject
Had a lot of time to think this weekend, or really, I *made* time to think, about role playing. Why I do it, what draws me, why I'm sometimes utterly blasé about it and other times it makes me want to hurl crockery around.
Came to some pretty startling, or not so startling, conclusions.
When I first started in RP land, it was in HP themed games only. I'd take a character - usually canon characters, but sometimes OCs, sometimes ones that were mentioned once in passing or just showed up from JKR's lists of characters. I loved it...loved jumping into the HP world and really messing around with it. Some of those games had some seriously interesting premises (one - Metempsychosis - was one of the most original ever and, of course, it crashed and burned before end game.)
I told you that story to tell you this one.
Turns out, that's part of my eternal frustration with pan-fandom. Yes, it's sometimes inherently fascinating to play a thread with Bella from Twilight becoming best buddies with Eric from True Blood. Or, even better, Felicity Smoak from Arrow's friendship with Ichabod Crane from Sleepy Hollow. I truly love that shit.
What I miss, though, is that old-slipper familiarity of canon games. It's also just as fun to have interactions with characters that know yours, know the backstory of their life without having to go through long threads about "and then this happened." Yes, those can be enriching, but they can also be boring on both parts - the one explaining *and* the one having to react tag after tag. When that's all you have with a certain character, it gets boring. And then, if there's never any interaction after that, you start the whole process with another new character.
So - there's the quandary - love the pan-fandom interactions, miss the comfort and familiarity of canon mates. The fact that I have no pull towards fandoms that pull others is just bad luck on my part, I think. And, I think, it's even worse when there *are* canon mates around, but there's just no interaction to be had, for whatever reason. (no time to play, not that sort of player, etc.)
I've come to terms, mostly, with the knowledge that what I once loved will never be again. Journal-based games are on the decline. People aren't applying the way they once did; they've moved on to Twitter, Tumblr, other social sites. Gone are thethat_was_then this_is_now days. (do not get me started on my love of those games and the afternoons/evenings I would spend with my finger abusing the hell out of my F5 key waiting for the next tag, and threads that would take place in real time.) Games with heavy character interaction away from the single thread are on their way out, too.
It makes me sad, but it's also the nature of life to change and evolve. Which means I will probably have to evolve along with them. I don't see myself going to Tumblr for games because I'm pretty sure that would make my eyes and brain bleed. I will just have to change the way I look at the games I'm in, and the characters I play/app and decide what I want from them, as well as what I'm likely to get in return before I plunge in with that emotional investment.
Thus ends tonight's navel gazing.
Had a lot of time to think this weekend, or really, I *made* time to think, about role playing. Why I do it, what draws me, why I'm sometimes utterly blasé about it and other times it makes me want to hurl crockery around.
Came to some pretty startling, or not so startling, conclusions.
When I first started in RP land, it was in HP themed games only. I'd take a character - usually canon characters, but sometimes OCs, sometimes ones that were mentioned once in passing or just showed up from JKR's lists of characters. I loved it...loved jumping into the HP world and really messing around with it. Some of those games had some seriously interesting premises (one - Metempsychosis - was one of the most original ever and, of course, it crashed and burned before end game.)
I told you that story to tell you this one.
Turns out, that's part of my eternal frustration with pan-fandom. Yes, it's sometimes inherently fascinating to play a thread with Bella from Twilight becoming best buddies with Eric from True Blood. Or, even better, Felicity Smoak from Arrow's friendship with Ichabod Crane from Sleepy Hollow. I truly love that shit.
What I miss, though, is that old-slipper familiarity of canon games. It's also just as fun to have interactions with characters that know yours, know the backstory of their life without having to go through long threads about "and then this happened." Yes, those can be enriching, but they can also be boring on both parts - the one explaining *and* the one having to react tag after tag. When that's all you have with a certain character, it gets boring. And then, if there's never any interaction after that, you start the whole process with another new character.
So - there's the quandary - love the pan-fandom interactions, miss the comfort and familiarity of canon mates. The fact that I have no pull towards fandoms that pull others is just bad luck on my part, I think. And, I think, it's even worse when there *are* canon mates around, but there's just no interaction to be had, for whatever reason. (no time to play, not that sort of player, etc.)
I've come to terms, mostly, with the knowledge that what I once loved will never be again. Journal-based games are on the decline. People aren't applying the way they once did; they've moved on to Twitter, Tumblr, other social sites. Gone are the
that_was_then this_is_now days. (do not get me started on my love of those games and the afternoons/evenings I would spend with my finger abusing the hell out of my F5 key waiting for the next tag, and threads that would take place in real time.) Games with heavy character interaction away from the single thread are on their way out, too. It makes me sad, but it's also the nature of life to change and evolve. Which means I will probably have to evolve along with them. I don't see myself going to Tumblr for games because I'm pretty sure that would make my eyes and brain bleed. I will just have to change the way I look at the games I'm in, and the characters I play/app and decide what I want from them, as well as what I'm likely to get in return before I plunge in with that emotional investment.
Thus ends tonight's navel gazing.