OMFG WTF IS That Thing?
People bitch that RP is too hard to find. Then why do you create characters with so many unusual traits and/or are on the fringe of society that they **gasp** can't actually be easily played to any but a handful of anyone else's Cs?
Come ON people. Don't bitch about not having play when you make a half-breed from two societies who is shunned by both sides. Don't make a C who is so unable to deal with people they can't be around them at all. Even if a Character isn't social, don't be a dumb ass and let them be holed up in a room or stay in a house away from everyone. If your C lives in a closet, don't expect a lot of other Cs to play to them. And don't claim your C is so all-powerful they can't be beaten when their dice stats are pretty much normal. No one will take you seriously, and you won't get play, either.
And get rid of the heavy-drama worthy of a Russian opera. RUN when you see this in RP, even if you're the one who is playing that character. Don't create a character that always has trouble no matter the situation. Hijacking people's story lines is not only rude, it doesn't get you play.
You know what does? A heroic C. A hero is C who comes through the worst stuff imaginable and is able to cope with it. They don't fall apart and shatter to a million pieces because they haven't seen a boyfriend or girlfriend for a week or a month. They don't take a potion and then have a five week recuperative period. They don't get frightened and back down from a challenge, and they don't have panic attacks, at least not that debilitate them when they have to face the music. They muddle through and try to make it, in spite of their fears and flaws. They rise above. They meet things head on. That's the kind of Character written in books and in movies. That's what we're trying to emulate here. And guess what? That kind of C can be plopped into any RP and be played opposite most any other Character made.
Ashe's acting coach said, "Dare to be dull." He didn't mean to play the more boring ass character out there! He meant that to make the character's adventures extraordinary, make the character ordinary. Daring to be dull means this: make them a person. You've got to have known real people who were just people but were interesting. That's how a C in the room should be. Give them some quirks. Not major traits that require back story for 20 years with so much detail Chaucer and Anne Rice barf--quirks. Little oddities that make them who they are and make them unique. This will give you the ability to play them in just about any environment. This, in turn, will help them become a more interesting character as they grow through game play. And if you can get them into several different kinds of RPs, so much the better.
Lastly, don't import ideas from other media. I know, I know, we all get ideas in other RP rooms, while watching Adult Swim, or from other forms of entertainment. But OMFG tweak them--working with Ashe or myself or someone in the room--to make them just for our room and to fit into the Rowling-verse.
posted by Sandra Richards @ 1:00 AM
25 comments
25 Comments:
Exactly. And let me expand a bit on the Dare to be Dull thing. Dare to be dull holds so many very important meanings to an actor and therefore to a role player(since both types of people basically do the same thing, they play characters, not write them, a whole post can be done on that subject).
Dare to be Dull means to be brave enough to just be you. Be brave enough to go out there and be boring because the biggest fear any actor has is that they'll go out on stage or on camera and be boring or they'll suck. So they try to go too far to make sure they'll be entertaining. And for some people it works. A little. Take Steve Martin. Here's an actor who, besides sharing a birthday with me, was known for being the wild comedian. He was out there and weird and crazy. And people liked it. He never had a movie gross more than 60 million. Yes, that's a hit. But a true blockbuster hit? Bare minimum of 80. 100 is preferred. You know what his biggest film is? Bringing down the house. A film where he basically plays the straight man to Queen Latifah and Eugene Levy. He dared to be dull and he became a legend for it.
Jim Carrey? He had tons of hits sure. Several 100mil+ films. When did he top 200 and officially become one of the biggest movie stars out there? When he sought out the people who felt he was too wild and did smaller more subdued roles then did a comedy that wasn't a wild and crazy role. Liar Liar. Then he scored bigger with Grinch, a family film that, while he was wild in it, he sold it by appreciating the subtle ending for his character. And finally he scored biggest with Bruce Almighty, again while a bit crazy, it's no Ace Ventura. He dared to be dull and he's become one of the best at his job.
I think you get my point. Dare to be Dull is my motto in rp, in acting, in storytelling, and in life. It means be yourself. Don't fear what people will think. Dare to be boring. Anyone can dare to be exciting. Anyone can dare to be successful. Few dare to fail.
It also means dare to be simple. To touch the smaller things the simple moments. A simple gesture means the biggest thing. Think back to the academy award winning performance of Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man. At the end, he and L Tom Cruise Hubbard, have a scene where it seems that finally, finally Dustin's character has reached out to his brother, and could connect to him. How is it done? With a long drawn out speech? A fierce series of actions that keep us moving at break neck speed? No. Dustin, as Tom leaned foreward to hug him, did one small thing. He leaned his head against Tom's. And in that moment we understood. We got it. And where is the genius? Was it scripted that way? Did the writer, who had written a masterpiece, come up with it? No. Dustin, undirected and unscripted, thought that the best way to touch our hearts, was with a short, soft, simple gesture.
I saw that movie with 15 teenage boys who all were athletes and thought they had to be macho. They made crude jokes about "the retard" and they laughed at the jokes because they thought they had to. In the end though, 15 big tough macho athletes cried because one man leaned his head against another.
Dustin dared to be dull. Ask me about the night Bodhi was disowned by his father some night and I'll tell you a tale of a roomfull of chatters who were balling their eyes out over simple one line posts. Over me and the other chatters, playing simple wizards who didn't have special powers outside that which any other wizard has, having a dramatic play that was set up by small, subtle plays that took place once every few weeks to months, over a year's time. We dared to be dull and it paid off.
Your turn bitch.
Holee Shit.
Ashe bsically said everything that I could have said an alot more elequant then I could have.
I don't really have anything to add to this really. All I can add is that this is something that I hold to heart. The Dare to be dull thing is something that when I started in the room, Sandra told me that's what would be best to get play. And it worked. The simple times with Ty and Erik. Or the times that I played Conner talking about his family.
All low key. All simple. All fairly moving, at least to me.
And even though I have these deamons with great power. They still struggle with the simple things. Grief of loss. Fear of failure. They live like any normal human.
Just understant that you can still be interesting with a normal person.
Viva la Dull.
I'll admit I have a few rather power C's. Though I try (yes, try) to go to great lengths to not have them be all "I'm the greatest there is, all bow down to me!". Infact, where possible I have them just be normal and not wanting to use these abilities they have unless it's absolutely necessary. I probably fail at this, but then again... who can say they're perfect?
Though I do agree with the dare to be dull. Sometimes the mundane plays can be the most enjoyable... even if they do seem like they're going nowhere sometimes.
Anyhoo... once again, there's my half a cent.
Thank you, drive through. ^_^
I'll be the first to admit that I like drama, I try to tone it down, though it doesn't always seem to work. I've tried to get into all of the wider story arcs, though I suppose I should have waited for invitation or something, but most of what I do is ignored, which frustrates me sometimes. I don't know, just frustrated in general.
Amen. Thats all I can say. I've made a few powerful characters for different rooms but most of my characters for this room have been so bloody boring. But I love the plays they get in. So much better than saying I am god because i'm 1/8 demon, 1/8 vampire, 1/8 kitty, 1/8 dolphin (cause who the fuck knows how that one happened..)) sort of thing. Everytime you try and make a character that has a part of some other race, its power is diluded. It becomes a weaker person in general, and a lot harder to play. So rule of thumb, if it takes you forever to explain the characters lineage... maybe you should check it. Narrow it down a bit. Hand of god while shiney.. sucks to play with.
This reminds me of the very first online RP character I ever made. Her name's Zisa and I played her in The Star Wars Cantina on the original WBS. She was a grey jedi--something that hadn't been written up in the books before I did it--and her powers balanced the Force. That was before we knew that's what was supposed to happen with Anakin, too. She had dice stats off the scale, but she couldn't use her powers except to put things back -into- balance. So, she consequently never used them except in very rare instances.
I, THE DEMONIC OVERLORD POOH, strike down all drama with great vengeance and you shall know that I am the great wormy armour! No wait...
Okay I am throwing in my Two cents here on this issue. This Dare to Be Dull thing...it is a good idea but is something that is not overly practiced by any of us...When we come in here and when we either see something from another area we try and bring it in to the world. Problem is most of the time what is brought it by most people coming from Anime, Books, Video Games. It tends to reflect a lot more of that then anything close to HP....despite this being a HP world it is not...half of the rules that we have in here for certain creatures are clear violations of some of the rules established by JK already. The room has evolved to a point now where almost anything is allowed in, We have Deamons, Werewolves. Dragons that can turn Humans, Gryphons that can become Humans. Necormancy to bring back the dead. Airships, Guns, Battle Mages.
As far as making uber powerful C's we all have at least one...some have more then one. When it comes down to it we all want to have people generally respect our C's. A lot of time that does not happen. Any time a new bad guy comes on to the scene or a old one. He or she is generally mocked and ridculed by the player base as a whole. Now I can understand this as IC/OOC now and again..but constantly having it done to you..espically when you feel like in Play that your C's is not respected. Or your C can't be more powerful then the creator of the unique area or creature because he or she doesn't want to feel like they are getting displaced. Or they have all the uber powerful creatures for that creature and anything you create has to be lower then them. That is more ego then anything else.
All I am saying is that people complaining about Rp is also to do the fact that alot of people only like to play with one person or just one or two people. They have a majority if not all there C's tied up with that person's C's and there by don't want to play with anyone else. Even if it is just to continue a story. If people start trying to open more and play with everyone and get out of there little comfort zone then maybe the problems that have seemed to be coming from this issue would end and the drama as a whole would end. My self included in all this.
Okay, this is just for you, Ironfist:
"A sort of metal wand muggles use to kill each other" is from a description in The Daily Prophet about Sirius Black being dangerous. She puts no guns in her wizards hands, but she does admit they exist.
J.K. Rowling has specifically said she will not fill out the rest of the wizarding world on purpose; It's not needed. So adding the Daemons from other areas, adding things she didn't conceive of, may not be in her book story line, but they are allowed if you look at how she's built her universe, which is this: Very carefully on known mythology.
Werewolves are canon. Remember Remus Lupin? HEL-LOOOOOO!
Dragons and Griffins shaping into humans was also from an Eastern mythology, but we've adapted it to be a Western phenomena. This in no way negates what J.K. Rowling said, however it does point out something about how we've adapted to Players and their wishes.
We -are- an alternate universe. There are changes here. We are also not literature, but an RP room, which means a little leeway can be given.
I actually don't give as much leeway as you might think.
Power Cs happen, and they are not to be discouraged. I play one. The best one I've ever created. Britta Othilia Pennick Saffron. She started as just this little thing, this potions student trying to make her way. She now can sass back quite a bit with her magic. That's from just about four years of playing her now.
That's from Daring To Be Dull.
As for opening up storylines and people getting respect, yeah, it does take respect from others, but here's what I've discovered over the years: If the people respect the Player, they respect the Characters that they are playing. Period. End Of Sentence.
But I could write a whole long post about Player credibility.
But in the end, Alot of my even more powerful C's have every day struggles. Koryu is dying because he's fucking old. Tsukasa is going to die. Sotomae is trying to repent for his past crimes against his people and suffering because his father will soon pass on. Senryu isn't that strong as he's only 120... Charles Valeria is dead. Peter Valeria is gripping with the reality of his father being dead and learning how to run the clan with his sister.
And actually I think that's about it for my power C's. Not that I feel like I have to justify myself and my C's. But they all have very human struggles and very human ways of dealing with those struggles and they don't let their struggles debilitate them or destroy them.
It's not about power. It's about how you handle and use that power, and for what purpous.
Ok IF, here it is. My response to your post. *slaps* Get over your damn self. You feel like your characters are not respected? Well of course they're not IF. You don't show a bit of respect to anyone else's big powerful c's. You are, by my count, and I'll admit I'm wrong if people can show me otherwise, the worst offender of the Disrespect Voldemort club. And I'll go ahead and name names because this blog is called STFU & RP, I take it to mean this is a place to open the lines of communication and to be brutally honest. Here it is, the top three offenders in the disrespect villians , especially the biggest in the room, club(this club needs a better name): Ironfist, DJ, and Meg.
Those three chatters, and I'd like to point out for the record that this is my experience of it and Johnny knows better than anyone on this, have c's that disrespect Voldemort in the IC/OOC world more than anyone. Here's the thing though IF. DJ and Meg they only do it with c's who have the logical reason to do so. People who don't understand Voldemort's power or have a power they understandably are arrogant about. You do it out of hand no matter what and did so when I played Voldemort and now when Johnny does it. When you start showing respect you might get a little more of it yourself. Until then, get over yourself. You've the right to complain but until you start doing something about that complaint, I've the right to tell you to get bent.
Additionally, nothing can be a clear violation of the rules when the rules themselves do not exsist. JK Rowling has said she will not flesh out those parts of the world. So there are no rules set down from her about other parts of the world. So it is up to staff to decide what the rules are for those portions of the world. This may sound arrogant and rude but quite frankly, a player telling me a cohost that something is against the rules that I myself created and know better than they do is like a Flipper fan telling a marine biologist about dolphins.
And for the record I'd like to hear your reasoning why one shapeshifting beast is ok(werewolves) but others are not(gryphons and dragons). Also why are flying carpets, brooms, a bus that makes object dart out of it's path, and other magical vehicles(such as boat/sub or a flying coach powered by flying horses that have no means of flying at all) ok but not a flying boat? Or guns? Using potions and alchemy, which are both used in the world, to create magical gun powder is a clear violation how? Why is that not ok?
Finally, I want to address your final paragraph. I appreciate that you actually put yourself in on this problem as you see it. That's commendible(and ironic that the one you're least guilty of is the one you're most willing to admit to). However, you are 100% wrong. Drama will not end because of more open plays. Drama ooc is caused by people not being mature enough, respectfull enough, or possibly even smart enough to trust staff, their choices, or trust players and their choices. People guilty of this know exactly who they are, or so I hope because I'd hate to have to spend my day listing them all. IC drama? Let's have a look at our group plays shall we? Birthday party for a character a few years back(and Miranda knows what I'm saying as Sandra has been over this with her a thousand times) what happens? What's supposed to be a group play about one c, ends up being all about Miranda's c and her personal storyline. A group play meant to socialize several characters together and celebrate one character turns out to be all about someone else entirely. Reason why? "I rolled for it."
Move on from there. Quidditch games. Staff had a saying. "It wouldn't be a quidditch game if someone didn't have their drama." You know why we had that saying? Because someone, anyone, had to make it about their c. Celebrations take place. Oh no, their character has to morph into their other form and rampage. Can't just be a game. Noooooo. A fun night of group rp made all about one person and their drama. We finally had to threaten to cancel all quiditch games and/or ban those characters from play just to get through one game with out it being about something other than just fun.
Even the death of Dumbledore had to be about other people's c's. Couldn't be about Dumbledore dying. No. Had to be about their character saving the day. And then after the play, do you know what happened? People actually got pissed at us for not letting it be about their c saving the day. Opening up play isn't enough. The trouble lies not in the play or it's style. It lies in the players themselves and how they need to learn fundamental truths of using drama. Opening up has been a nightmare for staff. And yet strangely, we're the ones who do it.
So matter what your name, the frame is still the same... If ya if ya get the pictuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure... Bitch.
Meeting adjourned.
(wow, ripping off two of my e-wrestling characters at once, damn I'm smooth)
For everyone's information and so I am not looking like I am going after the hosts here...if you notice my wording I was making BROAD generalization. If I wanted to single out anyone I would have said there name point blank. I generally do not try and play word games with anyone because I myself dislike them. I prefear things to be straight to the point.
Now as for Ashe's point about the Voldemort thing. I may say something in IC/OOC but anyone can say that...it is the damn point of the thing...but incase you missed it I have NEVER once said that any of my C's could take on Voldemort and win...I have even on numerous occasions stated when someone else was claming that there C was on a par on or above voldie that it is not how it works. Voldemort is the room baddie and always will be the room baddie. I may say something with my Character poke at Voldemort, but everyone's C that is a major bady gets poked at in IC/OOC it is the way of things. It is the one place where people can say something. If Johnny planing Voldemort was not acknowledged or respected as the top evil then you would see people not even talking about him in play or being afraid of him.
As for the rest of now your name dropping Ashe which this should not be about...I don't think anyone wanted to turn this comment thing into a war of words between everyone about what he said or what she did or so on. Everything I said in my first statement was a again a BROAD generalization about things. The creatures I mentioned were just the ones that came off the top of my head. I could have easily said the Elementals or what have you or anything like that.
And finally to wrap up this rant, none of us are pefect in the respect in Drama..we are all human. Hell yes I will admit I have made my fair share of mistakes reguarding the room and other players. I will stand up tall and say to anyone yes I fucked up now and again. No matter how we play none of us are pefect. And most of all we have started to forget something very important, myself included. This is a game..this is not life...things done in room. Plays...Character Creation. This is all ment for entertainment value to try and escape our normal lives. It is at least for me, yeah I am on a lot I admit that because in many respects with my current situation(not having a TV for one lol) This is a outlet for me to enjoy myself.
We all Hosts, Players, Dogs Cats have to remember that this is just a game. A game we all enjoy and a game we should all enjoy and have fun with.
Thank you
*Bows*
"If Johnny planing Voldemort was not acknowledged or respected as the top evil then you would see people not even talking about him in play or being afraid of him."
Ookay, let's back this truck up just one little second.
If they DO play to him and talk about him, how come you said in a comment on a previous post, and I quote: "Now it just seems we do it and then we go back to what we were doing."
This was in response to Johnny's post with the example of Voldemort's attack on the Ministry. So, um... yeah, people ARE ignoring it, including you, by your own admission.
Alright already, he was just stating his opinion and how he sees things. Not everyone has to jump on him and correct him at once. As for the responding to the room plays, I know that myself, I HAVE responded to the plays and my posts as a whole have been ignored except for a response by one person. That includes the staff, now I'm not entirely sure if that is because it wasn't seen, but the players aren't the only ones selectively ignoring things they don't want to happen.
Everyone is playing in their comfort zones and if some people like drama more then others, well life is drama. Personally, I know I am the worst person to advocate drama, but it has its place. Even if it's just everyday drama, like mourning a loved one that was lost or if it's something like falling down the stairs and cracking your head open. Shit happens. Granted some isn't realistic, but it's normal. It is a part of character flaws.
Not every little thing can be dull and boring, and while I'm tempted to point out some C's who are anything but ordinary, I don't want to argue with people about their Cs. People have a right to play their characters how they want, just as people have the right to decide not to play with someone. But I don't think it's right to start storylines and get snarky when people want to join them, or all together ignore their attempts to join. It's frustrating and makes for the drama out of character between players.
If everyone can be open and mature.... as it's pointed out, we're all adults here, or pretty damn close. We all learned how to play nicely in elementary school and I think most of us learned how to share and respect others opinions.
Life has (not is) drama, Yes, I'll conceed that. But not suffocating soap opera drama every single day of their lives.
And I've never barked at someone for wanting to join one of my storylines. Especially when it comes to Voldemort. People posted something that night, maybe a couple days later then it was basically forgotten. No one deals with it now except for Myself and a few others, We all have characters that are dealing with the fall out from the massacre.
Everyone else has moved on to their own stuff.
You know, 9/11? Of course you do. Because it shook the entire US to it's core. There is a film coming out about one of the planes in that disaster that people are attacking because it's too soon. What? 5 years after and it's still too soon.
What happened to the Ministry should have been the wizarding worlds 9/11. But instead we got a small handfull of posts that night and nothing.
I have encouraged people to talk about and play to what happened. It's not fucking wallpaper. It's current events.
So don't ever say that I've not tried to get people involved. Because if you do I'm going to call you a liar.
One of the things it appears(and again I could be wrong, if I am illuminate it for me) you're missing here is that I'm objecting to you saying that this is not an HP world. That we are making clear violations of rules that JK Rowling has in place. I'm taking exception to that statement. I disagree with that completely. I stated why I disagreed. I'll do it again. You can't be in violation of rules that don't exsist.
If I'm wrong on that one, I ask you explain how I am wrong.
I asked several questions about things and why they were violations of the rules. I have yet to recieve an answer to them. I recieved this instead: "The creatures I mentioned were just the ones that came off the top of my head. I could have easily said the Elementals or what have you or anything like that." this does not address my questions.
So I'll ask this instead. Why are Elementals a violation of the clear rules that don't exist?
This blog is for communication and honesty. I'm asking that you communicate with me by answering my questions. You make a statement like that, it's not unreasonable for me to ask you to answer questions about it. So please, answer them. Why are any of these things violations of the clear rules?
No matter what the being is that comes to your mind, tell me why they're a violation. We want your honesty and your communication.
I'm not even gonna bother with everything else you said because it goes off on another tangent that's not worth discussing in this topic because I imagine it's a topic for another post that may or may not get made someday.
So let's address the one thing that is on topic. You said certain c's are violation of the rules. Let's hear why. And hear what those rules are and your basis for saying they are the rules.
I'm as much to blame as everyone else is. I've settled into a pattern of apathy and quietness, mostly brought about by school. Having so much work has led me to have to stick to a small group of people to get anything done.
But I have to admit, the change to stick to certain players started willingly. I never meant to alienate people, and if you've ever thought so, I'm sorry. I've just always had a hard time talking to people at all-- I'm horribly insecure and I readily admit it. And I love all of you, and always have, for as long as I've known you.
TDP is my home, it's my first, and it hurts so much to see my friends and fellow players badmouthing eachother. And while I've acted as mediator in more than a few small spats, it makes me paranoid: If this is what they say about this other chatter, whom I respect and love, what are they saying about me? So anymore... I admit to having not only been apathetic about the room, but even hiding from it. It's not the happy place it used to be, when I walk in and see all these people I love, and know they don't love eachother. I can talk to each of you on messengers and feel fine and even loved as a genuine friend by a select few, and yet, put us all in a room together and we're... we're just not what we used to be. I'm saddened by this- I see such beautiful things in all of you.
In the room, I have a hard time seeing players anymore- I see stereotypes of their characters, I see the grudges and complaints I've heard the other players talk about, I remember the backstories, and I feel like a kid caught in a divorce.
So I stick to the same faces- I'm very sorry for that. I'll try to poke my head out of the lurk sand and nudge new people (not that Miranda hasn't been thrusting me into new situations and rooms on a nearly weekly basis, and for that I'm grateful and still petrified). I'm slowly widening my circle of comfort that used to include all of you again, a circle shrunk because of stress IC, OOC, and RL.
There are a few other things I'd like to improve on, too. I want to talk more- I tend to force myself to shut up, thinking no one actually cares what I have to say. (I'm still betting myself as I type no one's going to read this post- confidence is my weak area.)
Mostly, it's my low self-confidence and relative pacifism. I don't feel like I contribute anything meaningful, particularly as the time I have to devote to school grows.
I know, I have my moments of drama too. (Anyone want to calculate the percentage of pregnancies in my box?) And I didn't post durring the latest room-wide play... at all. And this is much longer than it needs to be. *L* But lovelies... I'm trying to get better.
Anything else I have to say would either be a corney plea for world peace or something with self-righteous 'I'm trying and you should be trying too' overtone that I don't intend at all, so I'll just end by saying that for better or worse, you all are my home.
Well honestly I think that's what this is all about is to try and get everything off our chests to that we can try and start fresh or at least get a deeper understanding of grivences between people and maybe even work through them enough to heal them a little.
That's really MY hope coming into this.
Yes we all have our faults. Yes, drama is a part of everyday life (though not the be all and end all... I find my life rather boring and dull most of the time... could just be the sleepy little town thing). It's something we all have to live with and deal with in our own way.
Emmy hun, like you, I'm a very shy person (you wouldn't think it looking at me online). Though if you ask Johnny. I was terrified the first time I ever spoke to him on the phone. Even now, after 3 years, I still get a nervous flutter everytime I hit the speed dial. So I can understand where you're coming from and such.
Like all families, we have our fights and such. Some members of the family have a falling out and grow apart, others find they had something in common that they didn't realise and become fast friends. Take Sandra and myself for example. The two of us weren't the closest of friends.. infact we've had a lot of fights, called each other childish and a variety of names. Now, even though we still disagree on things, we've learnt to respect each other (well I hope so) and become friends.
No family is ever perfect in RL (no matter how much we wish it). The same thing goes for online families. The main problem with an online family is that there are some people that you will most likely never meet in the flesh, so you can never really be sure if this is the real person or what they want you to believe.
I try to be me as much as possible, except that I seem to be more confident online and find it much easier to talk to people. Meet me in real life and I'd probably hardly have anything to say. I'm that shy until I get to know them, then you just can't shut me up (bit like now, huh?)
Well anyway, families are families and we all have our problems, as I've said. We just have to try and sort through or ignore those faults and deal with fights as they come.
... Now what was the subject again? *cheesy grin*
**hugs Emmy** Don't bet this won't be read. You'd lose that bet -every- -time-, darling.
And don't ever think I don't want to hear from you, because, as I'll explain in my next blog post later today, that's what I was hoping for when I started this.
Lastly, please don't think I won't want to RP. I adored the few times you and I were able to and I really felt like I'd done something very wrong somewhere. When you disappeared after I'd killed off Voldemort and I didn't even get a word from you, I thought, "Damn. Of all the people who got offended, I didn't think Emmy would be one to just up and leave."
When a chatter leaves, my own lack of confidence surfaces. I usually think, "They're never coming back. Ah, well, nothing I can do." I figure they didn't like me because, oddly, my whole self is so wrapped up in the game I made for this room, for the feel of this room, that I do take it personally when someone chooses to leave in a huff because of my storylines, or because of something that I control.
Hell, I take it personally when someone leaves because of another chatter who's making everyone uncomfortable! And I can't control that, except to invite them to leave. Fortunately, I've only had to do that three times in 3 1/2 years.
I'm going to address the usual social interaction in my next post, later today, so I won't touch on that here.
And I do understand stress. You have no idea how I understand stress. I haven't come "out of the closet" to too many people, but I'm on a program to change my coping skills for stress because I came to a breaking point that my HMO has said is the one that indicates I need professional help. Know what that was? I turned to my loved ones in my house and said, "I can't handle this. I just can't." That's it. But I'd been thinking it for months and months and mentally kicked myself because I was a wimp.
The room had become more a source of stress for me than a playground. I'm really trying to change all that.
*loves on Emmy* Of course we're gonna read it. That's what this is all about. Communication and honesty. Where we all have an open dialouge and express our feelings, our stresses, and our need to make DP a better place. I figure what better way than to have brutally honest dialouge about what troubles us. And to discover what we agree and disagree on. And to discuss it.
I don't feel we're badmouthing each other here, rather I feel that we're going for the juggular and trying to get right down to it. Sometimes, throwing down is healthy. It's why some psychologists actually think men often have better grasp on emotions in anger based conflicts with other men(with women they're pathetic) cause they just beat each other up. *LOL*
And if we are badmouthing each other, well at least we're doing it to each other's faces. *LOL*
Sandra hit it on the head with her response so that's about all I can say. *LOL* We love you and everyone who takes part in our game because our game is really special to us.
And remember, I am a ninja juggalo. *disappears into the night to slit Johnny's throat like a ninja juggalo should*
First of all, Sandra, nothing IC led to my little "vacation". That was when the work at school started to pick up, and my time diminished. I defended the choice to kill off Dumbledore, and defended how it was done. It was just unfortunate timing that the two were at about the same time.
The only thing about that that did get me irked, though, was that that was the time when people started complaining about eachother fairly openly, not only on AIM, but in the room on occasion. It made me not want to put the effort into trying to make time to come on. The only time I ever really did come into any room, it was usually at the heavy prodding of another player.
I'm not leaving, not even close. I've said it a few times, and I mean it: I'm in for the long haul. Like it or not, y'all are stuck with me. *grins* Stress or no stress. If nothing else, I'll be one of those haunting lurker ghosts when I don't have the time to play.
YAY! **lurves Emmy and snogs her**
And Ashe, I really am glad we have this blog now. I've thought we needed a free-for-all for a while. *L* I have no problem with a throw-down, when it's head on. This is much better than whispering and passing things from Mun to Mun through AIM. He-said-she-said is never a good thing.
*loves up mah Sandra*
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