Avatar: TatianaDokuchic Varriale
VW: Second Life
Location: Ottawa, ON
Country: CA
VW: Second Life
Location: Ottawa, ON
Country: CA
Second Life Role-Play & The Queen of Everything
When graphic artist Mary Engelbreit first came out with "The Queen of Everything" I applied for the title. Turns out I wasn't the only one that feltshe was perfectly suited for the position as my older cousin (and part-time babysitter) quickly informed me. Seems she thought her credentials were a tad better than mine. She may have beenbigger but I was determined. In the end we decided that there was nothing wrong with having more than one QoE. After all, good things are often made better when they are shared and there's a lot to be said for inclusiveness and equality.
The QoE adventurehas stood me in good stead throughout my lifeincludingmy arrival in Second Life and my introduction to role-play there. Good thing I already had some life experience because otherwise it would have been a disaster. Yes, I had the misfortune in my very first month to come up against a group that had blurred the line between role-play and realityenough to think that they could actually control my actions. They proceededto tell me what I could and could not create in this (new to me)virtual world and attempted to bully me into agreeing. They were delusional; I wasgobsmacked.
Fortunately I was also the QoE and soweparted company post-haste.
Read more at Second Life Role-Play & The Queen of Everything
I was wondering if anyone got a chance to readthe SLUthread Is there something fundamentally wrong with RP in SL? (Yes) ? If it looks too daunting, I'd recommend skipping the wall of text that makes up the first post (it's summarized a bit further down). As with most SLU threads, the discussion goes off in a hundred directions (including LOLcats) but there are a lot of interesting ideas in there if you stick it out.
So what do you think? Is there a fundamental problem with SL role-play?
yes, the summary farther down helped a lot.
The fact is, everything has a life span and everything changes. As an historian irl, one of the things you learn to deal with is the idea that the one constant in life is change.
That said, we need to keep adapting to change -- including change in ourselves. Those of us who manage sims have to keep trying different things, and sometimes, as Dio used to say, "when you do experiments, sometimes you get chocolate sauce and sometimes you blow up the lab and kill all the interns..and then there's a lot of paperwork to do and that sucks...but you have to try."
Tat, isn't that what you guys essentially wee doing with your recent "disaster" in Languedoc? Reinventing the sim?
"there' a lot of paperwork" - too funny
)
I definitely agree with you about life spans, Aldo. Imight extend that to say that role-play communities have definitelife cycles. This is probably only a subtle difference (or maybe just a different wording) that takes into consideration those communities that go through highs & lows but don't die off completely.
I often think of Woody Allen in Annie Hall saying:
A relationship, I think, is like a shark, you know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies.
I think of the changes we are making in the Duch along theselines, i.e.to be more about moving forwardbytweaking the original concept. We're constantly tweaking but this "renaissance" is a bit more extreme than past changes and I have to say that it's also been a lot of fun for us.
What did you think about the OP's idea that reciprocity has recently chanced among SL role-players?
Personally I think that a change in a human characteristic like thatreally isn't plausible. If ittruly was the case, we all might as well justpack up right now!
I find a lot of encouragement in the idea that communities have some control over their own destinies.
OMG I remember that debacle! That's when I dubbed myself "Empress of Everything" and we fought side-by-side against the forces of "evil", lol. Since then I have applied it to a few real life situations to with great results!
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Yes, sim owners do have control over their own destinies -- success comes from trying different things (and "tweaking," as you say). We make a series of choices as sim managers, and blaming it on our residents and visitors "changing" or becoming more passive doesn't cut it. People have limited time and energy. If they are willing to share their limited time with you in your sim, that is something to be valued, but it is NOT something to automatically expect.
Just because you build it, does not mean they will come.
Mind you there is another side to this -- it is a two way street. You are using up your limited time and energy as a sim owner to provide a fun and entertaining (and sometimes educational) environment and activities. You can't always make everyone happy, and people who come in with a sense of entitlement or who want to bully other players --and the sim owner -- because they are such wonderful role players, or dressmakers or whatever kind of special la-dee-dah goober they might think they are, does not mean they get to have their way.
But that really isn't anything new. There have always been a**holes of epic proportions involved in rp -- we've all known them, we've all lived with them, and sooner or later we've all had to find a way to make them go someplace else.
As Dio used to say, "if you think you're God's gift to roleplay, I can pretty much guarantee that you ain't."
So it comes back to the sim owners having to make it worthwhile for people to come, and that means tweaking and improving -- the sim that never changes is certainly going to die sooner or later (probably sooner) and in addition to attracting good, decent people, we need to keep the unpleasant people under control and not give them the power to ruin things for others (including you). THAT can take a lot of energy, but it has its own rewards.
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