This comment by dgg in an rpg forum gave me a good chuckle.

"Look at your character. Now look at mine. Now look at your character. Now back to mine!

Is your character as splendid as mine? No? Well it looks like you need to spray your character with Godmod!

Yes. When you Godmod, your character will be better than everyone else's!

Look at your character! Godmod him? Where is he? He is on a beach! Now look at him again. He is now a ninja! With lasers! Nothing beats a ninja with lasers!

Yes! When you Godmod, anything is possible! Look at your character now and spray some more Godmod! He is now the best, richest and most dashing character in all the world (with lasers!).

Remember folks! Godmoding works! Do it often and repeatedly, and everyone will see how brilliant you really are.

I am on a dragon..."

I've got the itch again, but I'm concerned about the activity level. :3

I have to share this Bad RPGer's example. It's written by a sockpuppet account, allowed in this community to avoid drama, in a third person style for fun. Be sure to read to the very end of "gay bear's" post.

Your application said: (unedited for grammar, spelling or stupid)

Im not letting my character be slashed up. I hate that kind of sic rp, when men in canon are made gay by pervents and have sex in anises. My character is good and hes strait in love with his wife.

Now, Gay bear not mock the bad spelling or grammar. Gay bear sense that mun is not 18 as they claim. Gay bear not even mock obvious homophobia. No, Gay bear be nice.

But Gay bear wish to say that when applying to play a canon character, one might want to consider something about the CHARACTER, not just that he is adorably cute. Some characters, in canon, are a bit more leaning towards teh gay than others, especially in a pan-fandom game.

After all, you are applying for Captain Jack Harkness.

Gay bear just saying...[1]

You can read all 100+ comments in the original thread, but here are a few choice remarks:

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I don’t roleplay anymore though I feel the pangs now and then; finding a good group to RP with though is difficult. I owe a lot to my RP days however; I made friends, improved my writing skills, and increased my confidence. I still keep up on the “bad RPer” talk, something I think any writer can appreciate.

First we have an accusation that playing straight characters making one homophobic. It gets even better when the offender accuses the gay admin of being homophobic for not making other players turn their characters gay.

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Next is a girl who creates abused and angst-ridden character then screams foul when her brilliant plans fall apart. In my RP days there was one girl who always made sexy femme fatales. It was fun the first few times, but when you realize that’s all she does it gets tiring. At one point she made a little girl seductress and tried to tempt my immature little boy character, except he found girls “weird” and “icky”. I think they were both supposed to be around ten years old.

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My last example is another familiar situation, one where the roleplayer ditches her friends, people who listened to her during hard times and helped her out. Back in the day, I knew a gal like that, one who was constantly emotionally and financially in distress, so her online and real life friends came to her aid. She’d thank them and “cry” and “hug” everyone but then move on a couple months later to a new game and journal. I wondered how those forgotten friends felt afterward.

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Some people think you're immature because you're a fangirl, and they say the word "fangirl" with that tone -- chats may not have “tone” but you know what I mean -- that tells me they think I'm over the top. But, as I told a friend, at least we're not writing out incoherent roleplaying sessions of our favorite television shows with the caps locks on.

( actual excerpts of a roleplay chatCollapse )

We decided to try it ourselves.

[06:09] Kayay: Okay you be.. um.. Seve. I'll be Bill.
[06:10] Kayay: Bill: ... (I have no idea what Bill would say)
[06:10] headlesspuppet: Steve: one more thing...
[06:10] Kayay: Bill: I like Guitar Hero.
[06:10] Kayay: Bill: Can I be in your band? I got the high score on Guitar Hero.
[06:11] Kayay: Bill: What ‘red ring of doom’?
[06:11] headlesspuppet: XD
[06:11] Kayay: Wait wait, it should be:
[06:11] Kayay: Bill: WHAT RED RING OF DOOM?

And failed.

In the Neverwhere RPG I mad a special item granted to a player called the Silence Knife. Inspired by the case of Kitty Genovese and the crimes of Jack the Ripper, it was a weapon formed by the fears, outrage, and shame of the city. A wickedly sharp blade, those in its circle of influence cannot raise a finger to intervene, and afterwards they're unable to communicate to others what they saw; only a strong will can overcome the Silence Knife. Worse yet, it's rumored to have a spirit and will of its own that will take over a weak "master". Unfortunately, the game didn't get much farther after this particular artifact made it's initial appearance, and its full capabilities were never explored. *frown*

Remembering that unfinished game led to some investigation into psychological studies of bystander apathy to the distress of others. The following is one such case.

At the time this study was conducted (1972), there was a great deal of media coverage of Kitty Genovese; a woman viciously murdered outside her apartment in Queens, New York City. Although the victim screamed for help, not one of the thirty-eight neighbors who watched the attack from their windows came to her assistance or even called the police. Researchers Bibb Latane and John Darley proposed that the presence of other bystanders inhibits observers from helping, because they feel a "diffusion of responsibility." Piliavin and Piliavin disagreed with this explanation and proposed that people are less likely to help a victim if they feel helping may place them in danger.

The researchers observed the helping behaviors of subway passengers in response to a series of "staged crises" in which a confederate acting as a "victim" with a cane feigned a collapse on a crowded train and did not appear to bleed (indicating a nondangerous situation) or appeared to bleed from the mouth (indicating a potentially dangerous situation). During the experiment some of the passengers panicked when they saw the "bleeding victim" and some attempted to pull the emergency cord to stop the train. As predicted, bystanders exposed to the "bloody" victim were less likely to offer direct help and more likely to offer indirect help or no help at all when compared to those exposed to the bloodless victim. The researchers also found that contrary to the diffusion of responsibility hypothesis, the number of bystanders present did not significantly inhibit helping behavior. Overall, males were more likely to offer direct help than females. Bloody "victims" were more likely to be helped by bystanders of their own race, while race had no effect on helping behavior for bloodless "victims."

I think there's also the fear of legal repercussions. It's like the doctor uncertain if he should stop at the scene of an accident out of concern of being sued. Sometimes being a good Samaritan can bit you in the butt.

I miss the old days when the game was new and fresh and we were young and naïve. Then the serpent came.

Since I'm on the topic, here are a few more MMO links, most still in Korean closed beta, but the videos are pretty things. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of details, other than short articles. Reign of Revolution looks pretty, but what information I found says it's a PvP focused game. Moreover, it may be free to play but allow purchasing in game items for real currency, which isn't so bad -- what could be an issue is that one site claimed all your items drop in PvP. Ouch! A pixelated video can be viewed on YouTube.

Lazeska's cinematic is pretty, featuring pretty boys with guns and fruity genie/pirate outfits.

friend: why is that dude wearing such gay pirate clothes O_o
kayay: XD
kayay:I like gay pirate clothes
friend: you're a girl. you like anything that's gay

The actual screencaps though aren't as impressive. But it'll be a long time until (if ever) it's in English, so for now I'll just watch the cinematic and giggle. *giggle*

I mentioned Priston's Tale 2 before, so I'll toss in this last link to Kaos War.

Before I ever messageboard role-played I didn’t "get it". I didn’t understand how one played when you had so many people doing more or less their own thing, but then I played and it all made sense in a nonsensical way. Now the great mysteries are tabletop role-playing games, the concept of which I understand but the mechanics of which I don't -- too many stats and dice and an awkwardness I'd probably feel verbalizing pretend actions in front of other people -- and MMO role-playing. The latter I can imagine RPing in a chat or board setting by using the setting of the game, but to maintain that illusion inside the game I might find hard to do primarily because of the limitations of the game where often the "grind" is the main focus, especially on retail servers. Stop too often to play out little RP scenarios and you fall behind. Besides, the limited movements, emotes, and environment just isn't quite made for RP, but that's not to say it can't be done or shouldn't. However, for some people this is apparently a touchy subject as this chat I found illustrates.

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This Loopy fellow is a wee bit defensive methinks.

• An IKEA add advising you to tidy up. If not for you, then for them.
  
• Grandma needs a new mixer.
  
• Along the same lines, careful what you pull out of your purse.
  
• Now for something different. This is what happens when you mix a man withsports on the brain and one hamster.
  
• Parkour or street tricking -- I'm not sure if they're different or not -- is sometimes referred to as 'urban obstacle-coursing' or 'free-running'. Even hammies do it.
  
• Lastly, naughty plushies.

This part will only interest a few, but I was googling RPGs when I found and old old site a former animeboard members made. But the bestest discovery was this. Read the signature then go back and the "Mood Music" comment is strikingly familiar, similar to something I read in a Cowboy Bebop game once. Hmmmm... *cackle* The internet never forgets. Oh yeah, Aloria also had one of those evil Xanga accounts. Be ashamed. Be very ashamed.

Try though I might I can’t come up with anything worthwhile. Every post I start is too irrelevant, too dull, or just plain pointless and ends up in the recycle bin after a few lines. I’ve tried the tried and true introspective post, but one can only do so many times before it gets boring; at times like these joint posts usually help stir up some enthusiasm and drive, but there’s rarely anyone around to joint post with, so I’m back to square one, plan one: dull, reflective, and stand around and do nothing post.

If inspiration doesn’t strike before lunch is over I’m going to do one of two things: settle for a short “blah” filler post, or procrastinate another day and work instead on the Manor Manager or Daydream ficlets I started a while back. That might help.

Gah, this is bad; I’m tempted to skip even trying a post and going right to the ficlets. >_<;;

Sunday I spent a lot of time zoning out, thinking about people and friendship and life and love and death and anything else that would flit into and out of my mind.

Tomorrow is the day, and for that I'm rather excited, because closure is good, not that I expect many to actually care. If they did, well, never mind. People’s actions and words don’t mesh a great deal of the time, and that’s all I’ll say for now. I'll save my snarkiness for later.

I know there's at least one person on my friendslist who likes the Teen Titans, so I present a link to several sound clips, including the Japanese theme song and the version Larry sang. Browse and enjoy.

To any anime fans Arizona and the surrounding area, you might want to consider attending this year's AniZona. It's their first year, but, impressively, they managed to arrange Yoshitaka Amano as Guest of Honor. Unfortunately, not everyone took the news well, particularly those who are fans but unable to attend, calling the con "ghetto", whining about how such a fledgling con won't be able to handle it, how the organizers said before they didn't have money for big guest, why such a big name would go to such con instead of a big well established on like Anime Expo. Maybe Amano like small cons. Maybe he likes the way they asked. Maybe his horoscope told him it to. Who knows? And as for the allegations that they lied about not having money, maybe they didn't want to make any promises they couldn't keep. Personally, to me it sounds like a case of sour grapes.

It's later; thus, it’s time to be a snarky.

I read not too long ago a comment in a community that began, "I hate to be bitchy, but..." after which the commenter immediately did get "bitchy". Personally, I believe it's too often become way to excuse rude or crude or nasty behavior or words, because if they truly hate to be or don't mean to be a certain way, then they wouldn't do it. They’d think and reword your statement.

Also, ever notice how some people spend so much time trying to find out what's wrong with what you say that they don't actually hear what it is you're actually saying. There seems to be a certain perverse pleasure in trying to contradict your words, find the loopholes, or twist things around. For instance -- and this isn't the best example -- if I were to say, "Eating doughnuts to excess is a bad thing," such a person would reply, "It's okay to eat doughnuts." But you see, I never said there was anything wrong with doughnuts; I'm quite fond of their fried goodness, yet along the way the key word "excess" was overlooked, intentionally perhaps?