If you can\'t figure out that I\'m writing this as humour, I can\'t help you....
I\'ll admit it; I\'ve probably been gaming for longer than most of you have been alive. So far, it\'s been really entertaining. I can remember when D&D was just that, without an A in front of it (the first time). I can remember the \"satan scare\" in the States concerning D&D because some kid shot his kid brother when he lost a round in gaming (for some reason, the game was at fault; NOT the fact that people have guns just lying around for kids to use). I\'ve seen the first epic rpgs come into existence (anyone remember Avatar? No, I didn\'t think so) and I remember being able to tell who the \"cool\" people were because they were probably reading something other than \"Teen Jr. High\". (Asimov, Spider Robinson, Stephen Donaldson. Yeah...people used to read back then too).
Now, looking around at the current gaming culture, I admit I\'m completely bewildered and wondering if it isn\'t time for me to put away the dice and move onto other things.
Roleplaying as I knew it, for example, is gone. When we roleplayed, we were roleplaying in actual character to try and get to the solution that the GM guided us through. Sometimes, we screwed up royally, but we stayed true to character. More often than not, when I stroll into some of these roleplays online, I feel that what I\'ve really walked into was an orgy - everyone is trying to make some sort of \"furry/demonic/winged angel/vampire love connection\". It\'s a singles bar for adolescents - in come cases, a singles bar for mid-life crises blokes looking for adolescents.
If it\'s not the romantic fantasy version of Barbie and Ken, it\'s the trouble-makers. I honestly believe that when the internet became popular, someone went through the dictionary and ripped the words \"courtesy\" and \"integrity\" out of it and threw it away. Chaotic characters take it upon themselves to come up upon an unsuspecting rp and throw a wrench into it, lying, cheating, running off with information to turn it in to someone else (ic or occ) and calling it a \"more realistic rp\". When anyone gets (understandably) irritated at this basic \"taking a bit of a poo in the sandbox\", they self-righteously proclaim such people as wusses or carebears or some other statement. Oddly enough, these are usually the very FIRST people to complain when karma comes down on them like a tonne of bricks.
Roleplaying back in the day meant you had to work with your group to survive, whether you agreed with their alignments or not. Roleplaying nowadays seems to signify that it\'s you against every other player, guild, group, race, class, gender, country, righthanded or lefthanded person that plays. There\'s no community in RPG - often, another gamer won\'t even talk to you. Instead, they\'ll inspect your gear, offer to buy it off your back if they like it, or walk away if they don\'t. Massive Multiplayer merely means there\'s a lot of people running around.
Then, there\'s the need for \"guilding\". Now, as a whole, this forms a very interesting function, but only if it\'s going to be more than just an online clique of people that chat now and again. However, that\'s exceedingly rare. I\'m often baffled at the websites I see nowadays for guilds; filled with text slang, the charter about as weak as a wet paper towel (if there even IS a charter) and usually formed on the spur of the moment (I have indeed heard in shouts now and again in various games \"Forming new guild! First people to come will be made officers!\"). That these guilds don\'t last longer than a few months shouldn\'t be surprising. That anyone actually JOINS them, is.
Then there\'s the PvP argument. It\'s not a debate. PvPer\'s don\'t debate. They kick and scream, hold their breath, call names, type in caps and threaten to boycott any game that doesn\'t include the ability to treat a complete stranger like dirt. I have yet to see a valid argument for PK that goes beyond saying \"If you don\'t like PvP and PK then you\'re a loser.\" Wow...20 years of gaming and rping and all this time I\'ve been doing it WRONG. Amazing. The fact that I actually enjoyed it without treating someone as if I was on a toddler-school playground must mean I\'m missing something. Maybe it\'s because PvPers scream louder than any other group, they manage to get some sops thrown at them to shut them up. Perhaps all us rpers and crafters need to take some notes and start throwing a tantrum every time a first person shooter comes out as it is neglecting the ONLY factors worth playing at ALL and OF COURSE NO1 ELSE WILL PLA|Y IT DUDE IF YOU DON\'T PUT THAT PH??E MEH< L??T ?!LU??<<>>//{{}} IN
Or something...
And, I\'m also noticing that there are some people who take gaming entirely too seriously. In the consortium I\'m trying to set up, it\'s becoming more and more apparent that one of the guilds has made gaming its life. They\'re already petitioning to have a website, get into gaming magazines, and do major recruiting. When I asked said guild about how they were initialising a certain class, I was told that they couldn\'t give me particular details because \"of security reasons\" *boggle* The fact that the consortium has gone oddly quiet in the face of these rather alarming enthusiasts doesn\'t bode well.
Then there\'s the \"realists\". Gaming is an escape, but people also want it to be \"real\". It must, therefore, include all the most horrible qualities of the human race (racism, bigotry, ignorance, bad-form gaming and backstabbing). If I wanted that sort of thing, I\'d go move to New York. Gone are the days where you just play because you wanted a break from real life, to get away from such sickening behavoir of the common man, which on the internet is often thrown into sharp relief.
Ironically, real life practices that aren\'t exactly distasteful are considered a waste of time (crafting, for one). Go figure.
Realists are also alarming in the fact that they really don\'t seem to be able to seperate ic from ooc. Everyone says they\'re able to do this. Don\'t believe them. They lie. Realists cry at internet weddings, weep when their online girlfriend divorces their character, and tend to make every single gamer alive look like a mentally unbalanced prat. However, everyone also denies that they feel this way, and will tell folks they need to \"get over it, it\'s just a game.\" Until of course, it\'s THEIR online girlfriend who has decided to divorce their character....
I admit, I\'ve tried to stay off gaming forums and I\'m pulling back out of various gaming postulations because 1) I get tired of listening to kids say \"it wuld be 2 coll if they add...\" and it\'s usually something that has been brought up a dozen times or 2) I get tired of listening to the PvPer\'s whinge. Maybe it\'s just 3) I just got tired.
Who knows whether I\'ll keep doing my favourite past-time. It may be necessary as time goes on to hang up my dice (anyone remember those? No, didn\'t think so...) and retire. But it was a fun ride, either way...
Oh yeah, sorry if this is \"too long\"..but we used to be able to read long pages at a time too...ah, glory days.
