Tag Archives: roleplaying

Pet Peeve #6

6.  People that think that the word “Master” and submissive gestures and postures were invented by John Norman.

Before I get started on this one, and before you start bitching at me about morals and right and wrong, I do want to note that I do not condone slavery nor human trafficking in real life.  I also want to note that BDSM and/or D/s relationships have nothing to do with force, kidnapping, rape, abuse or slavery in it’s true form.  That my posts here are about ROLEPLAY, about FANTASY, about letting go of reality for a little while and submersing yourself into a different world, a PRETEND world, make-believe.  GET IT?  I’ve already covered the type of sick fuckers that abound in Second Life in another post and I’m not gonna go over all that again, we all know it’s all for shits and giggles anyway.  Okay?

The other thing I want to clarify–and yes, I’ve mentioned in the past that I’m not gonna apologize for my rants, but you must know that they are that… RANTS.  Shit to get off my mesh body boobies, and that though the situations I’ve explained in my RANTS really happened, they might be extreme examples of an issue–much like runway models wear 5-foot shoulder pads to let us know that shoulder pads are coming back in vogue (please gods, no!).

Shoulder Pads

Shoulder Pads

So now, back to Pet Peeve #6

A few years ago I was checking out this medieval sim and one of the first rules was that slavery was prohibited, with a little added remark that it was not a Gorean sim.  Now I do enjoy playing “small folk” – servant, slave, serf, etc.  Second Life is FULL of princesses, and it’s not a role that is appealing to me. The whole thing also kinda tickled my spine, and not in a good way.  See, contrary to the belief of those that like to stick to pageantry and brocade gowns, slavery was alive and well during the middle ages in various forms.  In fact, that rich, fine embroidery on Lady Mary Sue’s gown was probably SLAVED over, night and day, by some serf or slave, who was paid with a meal of whatever was left over in the pot after Lord Marty Stu fed his knights in shining armor.  And, by the way, that armor was probably crafted and polished by… nevermind.

In any case, the rule just led me to believe that the sim owner and his or her administrators didn’t know history, and should probably just stick to something they fucking knew like tringo or gesturbating at some pixel stripper club.  It was probably harsh judgment on my part, but whatever.

But the sim was beautiful, as many of these medieval sims tend to be.  And though I am a stickler for a bit of realism, I can follow rules and I can RP in a sanitized “historical” environment, so I decided to give it a shot.  I created a peasant character, not too clean, uneducated as most people in medieval times would be, a little rough around the edges.  And there I go, la la la rp’ing, having fun.  Shit happens, as it happens in RP (if you wanna have any fun, shit’s gotta happen), and my character gets captured by some Evil Chick.  Evil Chick binds my character’s wrists behind her back and dragged her to the woods where she proceeded to give her a shove from behind.  Off-balance, my character landed on her knees with her hands bound behind her.  So yeah, there’s a pose that is commonly used in Gor or other BDSM themes called “bracelets” that is exactly like that.  I happened to have it, so I used it.

Next thing you know I have an admin in my IM’s reminding me that it was not a Gorean sim and that Gorean poses and the like were not allowed.

So I’m just gonna say this:

asdlfjajfas;jfa;fjas;dlj

or this:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then I want to note that I was not within chat range of anybody.  In fact, the admin that IM’d me, wasn’t even on sim.  So some little shit cammed in on me, saw me, and reported that I was using a ‘Gorean’ pose.  I politely explained to the admin that it was NOT a Gorean or slave themed scene, but that this Evil Chick was probably going to try to kill me and I sent a snapshot.  The admin INSISTED that it was a Gorean slave pose and I should use something else, and even passed over some poses for me to use–poses in which I was only on one knee, like I was fucking proposing to Evil Chick or something.

Right.

I have visited other “medieval” sims, many with similar Anti-Gor rules, and one of them went as far as stating in their rules that people could be slaves, but collars or the use of GOREAN WORDS like “master” were not allowed.

So…(I kinda like that word, ‘so’), just to let folks know slavery predates John Norman by a few thousand years.  For those that don’t know (if you do, don’t get your mesh panties in a wad, I’m clearly stating that it’s for those that DON’T KNOW), even that really Old Bestseller that has been around for EVER has instructions on slave behavior and how a MASTER (OMG SRSLY? That word?) should treat his or her SLAVES.

Titus 2: 9 – Slaves are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative

HAH!  Sounds like Gor, huh?  And that’s the Newer Part of The Book, you can go dig around the Old Part yourself and go back a few more thousand years.  And lets not even get into Vikings, Romans, the Barbary Coast, etc, etc, etc.

NOT as old as The Other Old Book

NOT as old as The Good Book

Now before you jump down my throat for that, I only mean to make a point, and that is that this shit was not “invented” by John Norman for his books.  That using the word “Master”, kneeling, or slavery in itself, has nothing to do with Gor orginally.  That not all low-tech-slavery-allowed-environments are Gorean.  That this man created a fictional world, a counter-culture of sorts on a different FREAKING PLANET, with elements borrowed from our real-life human, Earth HISTORY, and that a medieval sim that allows slavery is NOT necessarily GOR or Gor-Evolved (WTF-ever that means).

And before you go accusing me of boohooing because I wasn’t allowed to play a sex slave (shame on you if you already did), I would let you know that I have, on more than one occasion, played a slave with absolutely no sex or BDSM themes involved (someone had to scrub the pots and tend the garden), and that if I wanted to get my SL sex on all I have to do is go to that [secretsex society] that is not-so-fucking-secret because everyone that paid L$450 to get in it has it on their profile.

And yet, even after this ranting, I get why “medieval” sims balk away from slavery.  And that is because infinitely ignorant folks will MAKE IT GOREAN, whether it is or not.  If you allow the type of class division and lack of common modern human rights that existed in medieval times the sim will be flooded by “Goreans” who don’t want to be in Gor anymore because of drama or whatever, and we’ll have 5 girl slaves to each Lord on sim, and some idiot will walk through and say it’s “Gor Evolved” or “they wanna be Gor and just not call themselves that”

So, I get it.  But, I’m still right.

It’s All In Your Head

“Where’s good RP?”

I’ve been pondering on what to write for my next post.  It has been a while since I wrote one, a long while, and I just guessed that I had exhausted my reasons to rant during my rant fest last summer/fall.  I’d discussed and gone over every single one of the things that pissed me off in RP.  I know I’d say I’d go over all of my ‘pet-peeves’, and I haven’t gotten to them, so maybe this will be my ice breaker.

I am also going to try to write a more mature, less-ranty piece, as I really want to make my point here, and I do have a few things to say on this topic.

And well, who the fuck am I kidding?  It won’t be intentional, but I’ll probably be as acidic, sarcastic and jaded as ever.  So here goes nothing.

For as long as I’ve been roleplaying, and in as many places that I’ve roleplayed, one of the questions I get asked the most is “how’s roleplay there?”  or “RP any good there?”

I also want to note before I continue that neither Grammarly nor Word 2013 like the words roleplay, roleplayed, roleplayer, etc.  It keeps wanting me to say “role-played”, not to mention that it keeps trying to correct “RP” to “rape”, and considering it’s SL, it may not be too far off.  But they just don’t know us ar-pee-ing peoples.  By the way, “Grammarly”, that’s not a real word either, so fuck you.

Okay, so on topic.

I’ve been roleplaying in a sim for the past four months (if you know me you know which one).   Like a lot of sims, it opened with a big bang, floods of people, then went through a strained lull, and now it’s picking up again.

I stayed through the lull.  Other friends were saying “it’s dead” and trying to coax me to leave.  But I didn’t.  I tend to “marry” a sim.  Put in my prim roots, and hang on until the bitter end when my prims are returned and SL tells me the place is no longer available when I try to tp in.

Maybe when you are done reading this post you’ll understand why.

Today a friend asked me again how was the RP there, asked me to be honest, and I had to think a moment about my answer.

If you’ve read my stuff, you might have read a piece where I rained hell on someone for criticizing RP sims.  This person took it upon themselves to rate sims on a 1-5 scale on various subjects.  Build, Backstory, RP Style, etc.  Whatever.

So really, ask yourselves this first.  What is a SIM?

A SIM is no more than a backdrop, the setting.  You review everything about this place before you decide to join.  You walk around, see the build, you read the rules, the backstory, etc.  Right?  You have to have a feel for it, that much is true.  If the place is not appealing to YOU, you won’t want to RP there.   You look to the environment for inspiration.

So then the real question isn’t if the sim looks good.  It can look painfully horrid to some, and fantastic to others—the question is can YOU write a story for a character in this place?

That is how I explained it.  I want a story about my character, in this PLACE.  The story isn’t ABOUT the place, gentle reader-rp-friend.  The story is about my character.  That is RP, right?  You write for YOUR character.  So, whether the Sim is full or not, I still have a story.  My character lives there.

“What’s the book about?”

“Oh, it’s about a woman who lives… “

“It’s about a guy who goes to this…”

Sound familiar?

Now, now, before you start ranting, it is true that the happenings on a Sim (or lack thereof) would affect my character and yes, we do depend on the sim’s administration to provide them, and of course, no one was to RP alone… like…  monologs and shit.  That would suck really bad.  That would suck like… like… like notecarding chores on a Gorean sim when no one is around.  That would suck ass.

Yet when I was asked if the RP in this place was “good RP” and was asked for an “honest answer” I said:

“Well, “good” is relative.  Honest answer.  I’ve had good rp with just two people in a nearly empty sim (not this one, btw).   It has potential.  In any sim people will come and go.  I got a whole blog full of shitty rp.  There will be shitty rp and good rp, and honestly, all of us that claim to be good rp’rs wander about SL, sim after sim, LOOKING for good RP.  Sometimes we find it, and its good for a bit, and then we, myself very much included, start finding fault.  “Good” rpr’s are spread out.  So… I like the theme, I like the environment.  There are no perfect sims and rp out there… so you MAKE rp good and you fuck the rest.  My RP, my story, is about MY CHARACTER… and it spreads outwards yes…  but it’s about my character.”

As an admin in a few sims, I also witnessed this phenomenon of roleplayers seemingly needing to be hand-held through plots.  I don’t know about you, but I roleplay because I like reading AND writing.  Even when I’m not roleplaying I’m either reading a book or writing– whether it be a blog post or other stories that may never make it to print, I write.

Maybe for some it is necessary to be a star on SIM, not just their character’s story.  Maybe some seek recognition and validation through RP.  Maybe some have the need to be the hottest, the most badass, and the most renowned name on sim.  Maybe some have a need to infiltrate other people’s stories and take them over—which only reminds me of She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Mentioned (if I’m gonna keep this blog post sane).

Me?  I want to be the star of my own story.  My character is the protagonist.  Coming from chat-room RP, where there was no visual backdrop, maybe I’m a bit more forgiving when a sim is a little slow.  But this type of storytelling is like a circle to me, with me in the center.  As I move around, my circle overlaps someone else’s circle, but it’s still their circle, their story, and mine is mine.  I’m only an extra in their story.  The chick crossing the street in the background or the girl at the donut shop with five minutes of screentime.  And I’m good with that because I rock my story.  Do you really need 30 people around you to tell a story?  Maybe… maybe you don’t have a story at all and just leech off of others.   Are you so unfulfilled in your RP needs?  Is it because your RP is reactive as opposed to proactive?  Does your story suck without a bunch of people for you to feed off of?

Maybe you don’t have a story at all.

Think of when a sim goes through one of these lulls.  Almost all at once 10-15 people will leave, sometimes more.  All claiming to be bored.  “RP sucked there.”  Serioulsy?  You all couldn’t find RP with each other?  There was no way to make your stories overlap each others like those chain reaction TV ads or something?

Roleplaying is interactive writing, is it not?  The difference between me writing out this book on my own and controlling all the characters is that in roleplay I get the surprise and ‘adlib’ improvisation of having others to interact with and this is stimulating and fun and I love it.   But you know what?  Even if I didn’t have that, I’d still have a story to write.  But, I want to share it with you.  I want you in it, I want to see what you can bring to it–but please read all my other blog posts firsts so you don’t annoy me–Just Kidding… sorta…   I’m rocking my story, even if in your story I’m nothing but the chick crossing the street in the background, or the girl at the donut shop that spills your coffee as she serves it to you.

Now the question still is, “where is good RP?”

My answer?

In your head.