Serishen, Out!
I have a confession. I think that for all my protesting, I am an elitist.
Hello. My name is Serishen Cagney, and I’m an elitist roleplayer.
It hurts to admit it, because by my perceptions an elitist is nothing something to be proud of at all. For all my efforts to try and help/guide, entertain/promote … I’ve basically become that which I don’t approve. Elitist. Though, on the other hand, its refreshing to finally know where it is I stand with Second Life and roleplay. I am not being vile or mean-spirited when I say there are no roleplayers in Second Life. At least not by my standards, and we’re all entitled to standards and opinions, right? Hrm, let me amend that, as I do know a very small handful of people who are true roleplayers.
What’s a true roleplayer, Ms. Elitist? Well, its an individual who seeks to entertain others by guiding and joining them in an immersive and intriguing scenario, a scenario founded solely to incorporate and entertain ALL who are involved.
There are no Mary Sues. Nor Marty Stus. These omnipotent characters I see ‘running’ roleplay sims are just …. Laughable, really. What better way to scream ‘Beware: There Be Attention Whores Here’, than to constantly subject potential roleplayers to your superiority complex? Yes, you paid $2000.00 UDS for a sim. It’s a pity no one will tolerate your utter incompetence and airs of self-importance long enough to say … run a competent storyline? Don’t worry, mes amis, I’m not projecting. If I wanted a sim, I’d buy one. I’m one of the few who actually knows of the time, money, mental anguish, and responsibility needed to run a worthwhile roleplay sim. I bide my time when it comes to big projects, and that’s all I got to say about that there.
Anyway, back to my awesomeness. Last night, was my breaking point. I know a few months back I said ‘No More Roleplay!’. I did quit, only to be coaxed into a NEWERBETTER sim. It wasn’t. SSDS. Same Shit, Different Sim. And how! I’m excluding all derogatory statements for now. To make a long story short, I am gone from there. I put a lot of time and work in, but as always if you’re aren’t also blowing some player who is a ‘someone’ in their ranking, your shit don’t matter, man. And for once, I’m fine with that situation. That alone shows me that I have come to simply detest Second Life roleplay.
I am one jaded mother too, because I can say I’ve done everything in that virtual world. Everything. Well, I haven’t opened a furniture/clothing store, so I’ll redact the former. I’ve done a lot. How’s that? But, I always find myself surprised by the lack of effort put into roleplaying in Second Life.
I particularly loved my journey into ‘human trafficking’ last night where a gentleman was nice enough to roleplay with me. I soon found out why he was so accommodating. It was not entertaining at all. In fact, he insisted we go back midway into the scene. You see, he wanted to explain to me that not everything was reality and this wasn’t a ‘monster movie’. Whatever the hell that meant went right over my head, truly. For every one, descriptive post I provided, he bombarded my screen with six, one-sentence parodies towards ‘dialogue’. Its was very difficult to say the least, to continue with the scene. I don’t mind constructive criticism, I welcome it in fact. What I do mind is someone trying to play my character within a scene. If all he wanted was a female avatar to smack and force into sexual positions I could have made an alt and sat her on the poseball. Speaking of poseballs/animations … he stopped the scene once more because the animation wasn’t working on his screen. To say the least, I got a i/m full of complaints when I suggested he just post and we continue to play the scene and sort out the animation glitch afterwards. Not having animations ‘ruined’ it for him. Okay.
I don’t even want to recant the rest of this drivel, basically I asked to politely end the roleplay when his posts lessened to ‘MMmmMPh’. All the effort I’d tried to put in to make the scene believable and scary was thwarted by some old man’s attempt to get off online. What’s the point? In fact the only stellar part of the evening was his response to my request to stop. He never had a problem with any of the other girls. He still wanted roleplay, he could do other scenes if I was scared … etc. etc. This never happened before …. Yadda, yadda.
It sounded less a ruined roleplay scene, and more like a Cialis commercial. >.>
I put up with things like this every time I log on. Because I have this tiny, whimpering voice in the back of my head that pleads for roleplay. I’ve even resorted to blaming myself. Maybe my roleplay expectations are too high? May I should lessen my standards? May I just can’t be pleased?
Maybe. Nothing above would be wrong.
But .. maybe, it isn’t just me? Maybe too many players are settling for this half-assed roleplay just for the sake of roleplaying? Why else would we tolerate the idiotic drama queens, wannabe Casanovas, Johnny McBass feat. The Circle-Jerkers, and heart-wrenching lag? For five years I roleplayed with a troupe and we NEVER had drama. Never. Is suspect because we were all adult. Adults who loved to test their imagination. We did every and anything as far as roleplay goes. And we loved it. We didn’t have fancy avatars and our ‘world’ was an early-version of ‘3d’, but man … we were so happy with ourselves, with our stories, with the prospect of having others join with us. Pardon my arrogance, but we were 500 times better than your best here in Second Life. Why? We were dramatic. We were tolerate. We were supportive. We left our egos in the real world. We may not have particularly liked other members, but we respected them, and in turn we were respected. We just basically kicked ass, people. For the five years we were together (and by ‘we’ I mean up to twenty-two people) and for five years we set our little map on fire. Our campaigns were imaginative and dangerous. We didn’t make ourselves the center of freakin’ attention on EVERY SINGLE STORYLINE that ran within the group. Hell, for the most part we kept to this rule ‘Make It Good. Make It Open. Make My Imagination Soar.’ So simple and so demanding all at once. But hell, it was always a blast.
In Second Life … not so much. You have too much jealousy and pettiness. I have joined roleplay sims only to be blacklisted by the ‘Queen’ or whatever the hell they decided to be, simply because her IC boytoy/Prince/Master what the hell ever made IC bedroom eyes at my character. Me, the player, was treated disrespectfully because of an IC action towards my character. I’m sorry, do you all know the difference between IC/OOC? Everyone seems to be on this utterly retarded kick that others are after their partner. What the hell folks? If I want some real and emotional/physical interaction … I hit that little red ‘X’ and go find myself some lovin’. I don’t want or need your man … heh, or woman.
Yet, these are the issues for roleplayers. ‘Real’ roleplayers. You can’t enjoy roleplay for all the OOC drama. Its thick and stagnant on EVERY sim I’ve set foot on. It ruins the roleplay environment. It soils whatever amount of creativity you put into building that sim up, because despite the pretty textures, no one wants to be there. It ruins interaction with the ‘He said, She said’ crap.
People. Grow up. Please. I don’t mean that to be spiteful or malicious, or to even assume that I am superior to you all in the way of maturity. Its just an observation of two years and some odd months now. Grow. Up. If you’re lonely (I mean this truly, it isn’t a jab) log off and go find friends. Go find someone you can relate to spiritually or intimately. Do not get online and morph into one of these rampaging asshats who just ruin things for others, simply because they’re unhappy with their real life.
You won’t just ruin roleplay, you’ll ruin yourself. Nothing kills self-confidence more than resorting to becoming a cyberslut or chronic Second Life partner-er. Sure, you make us laugh, but not for the right reasons.
That’s about all for now. This probably read as a mess, but I was rushed.
Have a good weekend!!
Wait .. you know what I hate? I started blogging now, during the worst period of my Second Life. Makes me seem like a downer, when really I’m pretty damned fun! I should have started this back in ’06, the moment I flew off of Orientation Isle. Ah … memories … ahem, and snapshots.
