Contrary to popular belief, this will not be a video gaming-related post, at least not directly. This one’s a bit more personal, and directed not to my normal crowd, but to my otome crowd. So, my fellow gamers, stay along for the ride if you want. It might be a bit rambly as I try to get my thoughts under order.
The written word is a powerful tool. I mean, I’m a blogger. I know full well that my incoherent ramblings can make you hate a game just because I won’t shut up about it. But there are some people who mistake great writing for translating a simple message through a thesaurus, hoping to hide the insult hidden within.
Two months ago, almost to the day, a roleplayer in my Twitter community, where I play @DoctorDouzan, decided to leave a strongly-worded post as her farewell words. Passive aggressive didn’t even come close. The entire post was a pat on the back about how great her skills were, and how she was leaving the community because they didn’t match up to her skills. Oh, and the entire post was shredded through a thesaurus and pieced back together with enough pretentious airs that Seifer Almasy seemed like a humble lad by comparison.
Although it’s been two months, that post has never left my head, nor the anger that it inspired. I was tagged in it, and to the best of my knowledge, it was because she thought I would agree with the message.
I don’t. I disagree with it more than Albert Wesker disagrees with rockets and volcanoes.
It has always been a pet peeve of mine when ‘good writing’, whether in novel form or in roleplayers- or hell, even casual conversation– is mistaken for lumping in a bunch of big words and run-on sentences. (Heaven knows I’ve had my own run-on sentences, but never enough to make up an entire block of text!) Make no mistake, having a wide vocabulary is crucial as a writer, in any form. But some of the best writing I have ever read didn’t have to litter every single sentence with as many four-syllable-or-higher words as possible. Having a large vocabulary means you know that your character isn’t just mad, your character can be furious, angry, frustrated, disillusioned, inflamed, incensed, infuriated, annoyed, bothered. You aren’t describing a blue dress, you’re describing a gown, qipao, kimono, sundress, tunic, frock, jumper, shift, ao dai that is cerulean, azure, sky blue, cobalt, navy, aquamarine, lavender-blue, robin’s egg, midnight, violet.
The point of using synonyms and adjectives isn’t to pick the one with the biggest syllables possible, but to choose the one that fits the image you’re trying to describe. Saying a character is frustrated over a low-cut, navy sundress is far different than saying a character is furious over an azure ball gown. In both of those scenarios, it is an entirely different image, despite the words being synonyms of each other, and synonyms of the phrase ‘mad over a blue dress’. Large, over-the-top words aren’t necessary. Not to say that big words are bad, but if your opinion of a piece is formed by how many times you had to look up a word in the dictionary, then you’ve missed out on the content, and the writer is either a great troll, or a great fool.
I know this type of post is unnecessary. The entire piece that got me so incensed was nothing more than a written equivalent of a child throwing a fit because the other kids at recess weren’t playing the game her way. The words written on that blog belonged to the child that climbed to the top of the slide and shouted for all the world to hear that she was the best, and that everyone had to listen to her.
But damn it all, this is my blog, and when things bother me, I’m gonna use it. (Whether or not I use it consistently is another matter!)
Let me impart a message: If your idea of good roleplaying can only be achieved with large words, paragraphs of text, and everyone playing the game your way, then it is your fault when people no longer wish to interact with you. If your idea of writing is to ensure that your readers will have to have a dictionary handy to look up a word every couple of pages, then you are either a great fool, or in one hell of a fantastic partnership with Webster to push sales on dictionaries.
The mark of a great roleplayer is the ability to portray a character to the point where they seem real. Not that you expect them to walk out of the local Starbucks- which would be awkward for a bunch of samurai characters- but that you can read what they say, and believe that the character would truly say something. You sell the personality, both the good and the bad. The amount of words they use to convey it is irrelevant. It’s how they choose to deliver the message, and the image. When a Twitter RPer is called out on the developer blogs for her accurate portrayal of a side character and applauded for her spin on said character, she’s succeeded, despite only having 140 or less characters to work with. (Shout out to you, Fuma, you glorious bastard.)
The person who wrote the blog in question mocked those who use asterisks, who stated an action instead of describing it with paragraphs, in an environment where the ability to describe said actions was limited to the aforementioned 140 characters or less. That person was so caught up in their glorious vision of how the community should be behaving that they dismissed nearly all but a select few as amateurs and pathetic writers. The fact that they believed me to be a decent roleplayer isn’t a compliment, but a moment of shame. I don’t take that as positive feedback to my character portrayals, or my ability to write. I take that as an insult that my skills aligned with their twisted notion of what ‘good roleplayers’ really were.
In the end, however, there is nothing much you can do. You move on, and try to forget. If you’ve read this far, thanks for putting up with me. And in no way do I consider myself an excellent writer, so hopefully I didn’t come across as pretentious myself. What I consider myself is someone who has a passion for writing and is constantly looking for ways to improve. I also consider myself a friend who gets pretty damn pissed off when her friends get dumped on and insulted.
This post is useless, it has no video game connection, and is empty of substance. It’s only purpose was for me to finally get these thoughts out of my head, and express my own frustrations at how someone so rudely dismissed and mocked a group of women who have become wonderful friends of mine.
And for those of you who clicked on this from @DoctorDouzan’s Twitter, let me say this: You are, without a doubt, some of the most talented women I have ever met. (With the rare man here or there that I know is lurking!) Through careful word choice, you’ve managed to portray your characters with amazing accuracy with a very limited platform. You’ve proven that great roleplaying isn’t about how much you write, but how you write. I want to thank all of you for being my friends, and for expanding my own horizons as a writer.
To the Pizza Sluts, thank you for becoming my odd, dysfunctional Twitter family. Each of us comes from a different walk in life, from all over the world, and I feel like you’re cousins that I just discovered on my family tree. Even if it’s been weeks since I popped in, you always make me feel loved, and frankly, you’re all my sweet cinnamon rolls.
Except Fuma, that dick. (Kidding. She’s my favorite.)
Casual Gaming Girls 
I wouldn’t say this post is useless at all, and this is coming from a ridiculously verbose person hehe. I’d also not say it’s irrelevant to video games since I RP a video game character on Facebook so there you go (not that it needs to be since your blog, your rules).
It seems like this person didn’t understand that RPing is supposed to be fun, and everyone does it in a different way. If she didn’t want to play well with others then you can make the announcement that you don’t, but there are ways to go about that without looking like a gigantic ass.
I commend anyone who can RP on Twitter with the 140 character limit. That’s some skillz right there.
High five to another roleplayer! Booya!
I sincerely hope that this person- who despite the queries, I’ve kept the identity secret out of some respect- gets the picture someday that the point is to have fun and not be a monumental turd. Their portrayal of some of the characters actually wasn’t that bad, and when they weren’t trying to insult most of the fanbase, they were actually rather nice.
Either way though, we’ve all moved past and we’ve become a great family without her. Needless to say more drama has sprung up since then, but none of it was quite on this level, and we’ve been exploiting 140 or less the best we way know how.
I had no idea how dramatic RPing could be until my friend pretty much pushed me into it. Holy. God. Mine was of a bit of different type. She desperately wanted me to play this character I wrote a fanfiction about pairing him with another character whom she would play. I agreed not knowing how much she would pretty much guilt me to being on/available all the time. I work a 9-5 job and only get time to write in the evenings and on weekends (aspiring author, too over here!). Then she became wishy-washy about roleplaying and would just abruptly delete her page, claiming she sucked at roleplaying, but really she was probably just bored since most of the RPers could only be on when they weren’t at work/school, but she was a stay at home mom who had time during the day. We had a falling out when the day before she declared how much she loved the RPing and pairing she deleted her page, and I then realized she was using me. I had to be at her beck and call, but if I ever did something like that oh boy. Also (and I kid you not), she got mad because she thought I was trying to do something with what was essentially the character’s brother. Um wut? I didn’t even know what to say to that. We’ve since reconciled, and I do the RPing a lot more casually now (not up til 1 in the morning every night), but yeah…quite an experience.
I fully admit that I still, to this day, will stay up til the late hours of the night/early hours of the morning roleplaying away, but it’s almost always with the people I’ve partnered with for years, and only when it doesn’t affect my job or theirs.
The drama that people bring into roleplaying is astounding. One of the bucket lists on ‘Posts I want to explore and create’ is one touching on the people who can’t seem to have roleplaying without drama. In fact, I want to touch on the people who range from ‘Panicking because a character was not partnered with theirs’ to full on FFVII House/Sarah Saga levels.
I feel like drama becomes so prevalent because there ARE roleplayers out there who can’t have a healthy relationship with their fellow writers, or even their characters. It becomes an escape, and one that they don’t want to return from.
The number of writers who use roleplaying as an avenue to explore characters, situations, and expand their skills far outnumber the troublemakers, as do the people who do it because they genuinely enjoy it and are fairly stable in their own lives. But oh man, the stories I could tell about drama over the years. I’m fine with handling people in retail. I’m so not fine with handling people for free who are going to spam hate at me for not portraying a character to their satisfaction or writing their OTP.
Oh I’ll definitely stay up of my own accord, but I can’t stand guilt trips! After our falling out, I was super paranoid that others would become like that, but everyone understood that life exists and you don’t always have time. Writing is the most important thing to me, and while I do enjoy RPing (and have gotten some more great fanfiction ideas from it), I felt I was being forced to cut into my writing time or be guilted. After we reconciled, she got what I was talking about, and it definitely got better. Now there’s some personal stuff going on with her so I just update my RP page a few times a week with a picture and situation. Even just doing that is fun even if no one answers. Lately I just get likes on the pictures and more follows for some reason I can’t fathom.
Oh God I’m sure you could…I’ve only been doing this for maybe a year? It was maybe 3-4 months before shenanigans?
Omg FFVII House…I remember reading that a few years ago if it’s what I think it is. Was it that “What Shi Said?” or am I think of something else?
It probably was the same thing. The second half to it is Sarah Saga. It was confirmed apparently that the Aerith mentioned in FFVII House that was driven away became Sarah in Sarah Saga. They’re both insane and a great read of the ‘Avoid these types of people in the RP community’ shtuffs. The creepier thing is, they’re not isolated incidents. I know someone who was in a situation very similar that wasn’t either of those.
There are times when I debate joining an RP website. Every so often an old RP contact comes around and asks me to join a site of theirs. For the most part now, I refuse. I’m happy to sit on Skype or AIM and RP with the handful of people who have been my RP partners for years. Every so often I’ll break the mold and try something new like with Twitter but honestly once you find your groove, best to stick with it. Less drama that way.
And that’s actually not bad for the RP community! There were a few times where a group couldn’t even reach 2 months before imploding. So reaching 3-4 months before it hit actually isn’t bad~
That’s pretty much how I feel. You definitely find a niche that works, and I figure if people are interested they can easily find my page. I have refused RPs before with certain characters because I hate them lol. No offense to the person who plays them, but sometimes you have no interest in interacting with a certain character
Actually, it imploded quite a few times lol, but then she’d come back and it would start over again. The 3-4 month mark was when it finally ended for good. I was just utterly baffled to see such behavior this far out of high school :p