((OOC - Discussion tiems!))

[sharpestscalpel]

((OOC - So, this mirror game is an off-shoot of the very first online RP in which I've been involved. I've done a lot of table-top, some LARP, and some single-player computer-based RPG but using LJ this way kind of fascinates me. And I was thinking about that and thinking about the things that I love and the things that have been driving me crazy and I started to wonder:

What does your ideal online RP look like?

I'm posting this here because I'm interested in the thoughts of other players but also, if anyone wants to speak on it, the thoughts of readers. It's such an interesting performative way of playing and I'm pondering the back-end portion of it, the meta of it, the tendency of myself to forget that other people can read any of this, that sort of thing. Let's assume that all discussion is out of character - if, you know, there actually IS discussion and not just me rambling along in my little corner here.

To me, the best RP is a form of collaborative story telling. It becomes a tapestry of lots of different stories that all touch on and influence each other. I feel like there are some barriers to that in this format (LJ) - but that in other ways this format is ideal for games that result in a collaborative narrative.

And now we've started Twittering and I'm kind of in love with the idea of a game that works across social networking platforms. But the drawback is that then you have to put in the work to make it happen across social networking platforms and readers have a hard time following everything. I used to play a table-top game that involved a lot of websites and internets research, though, and it was phenomenally fascinating. I'm not sure where the trade-off is for that.

Anybody? Bueller?))

Comments

[spikeface.livejournal.com]

My RP experience has been extremely limited, but I do enjoy reading well done RPs on LJ. I like LJ because it allows for extended, coherent interaction between players and it's easy for me to follow. I have to agree with kirktastic that the Twitter developments have made me very frustrated as a reader. Naturally it's not my place to say how people enjoy their RP, but even when taken in one lump sum (i.e. on a Twitter feed) the conversations seem disjointed and trivial.

I'm also somewhat surprised that this group of talented players doesn't have a community devoted to it. I noticed that one has been created, but it doesn't seem to function like others I've known. In the RP I played and in the others I've read, players each had a journal (or just some icons in their main journal to denote whom they were playing) but gameplay would be posted to the community rather than a personal journal, making all the various developments easy to digest in one chronological stream.

[sharpestscalpel.livejournal.com]

The conversation IS trivial. *grin* I think, for the people posting on Twitter, that's actually the appeal. You're safe skipping it, at least for nu!mirror!McCoy, because there's not going to be anything mirror!plotwise that happens there. In fact, I don't think anyone else has signed up - it's just another way for him to interact with the players from the main game. LJ is transdimensional, don't you know? ;)

As for the community thing - there were a couple of people when the main game developed out of the kink meme who were vehemently opposed to communities (citing them as sources of drama). We've got one for the mirror game but we've been using it as a spot for plotting and organizing. Since I've never played on LJ before, I actually didn't know people organized communities for posting - it seems like a good idea. We've been working on a master timeline to keep things in sort of loose chronological order but we've all been just following on our friends lists for so long that I think it's gotten to be the default way of thinking of play here. *laugh*

I kind of like that players post to their own journals - I think it opens the way for a lot of meta like journal entries and the memes that sometimes happen (there's a Secrets Monday that gets posted on a semi-regular basis, that sort of thing) in the main game.

The mirror game might function well with a community for play, though. Hrmn. Definitely something to consider.

[original-fine.livejournal.com]

I agree that the mirror game might be small enough now and streamlined enough to be folded into a community without undue disruption at this stage.

And people can always obviously post to their journals for other things.

[sharpestscalpel.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how that would work for things like the memes where we all wind up talking to each other in character but without, necessarily, significant plot development. Except sometimes plot DOES develop - like the thing with TOS Uhura and Len. I guess the question is, with that sort of set-up, what counts as game and what counts as meta and is there a way to combine them without it making things unnecessarily difficult.

[behnd-blueyes.livejournal.com]

I guess I feel that it wouldn't be much different--I mean, I'd still work off my f-list, and so stuff that came up via individual journals would still get play. I don't know. The question of what counts as game and what counts as meta is open in this context, as well. So I'm not sure the question alters significantly.

[sharpestscalpel.livejournal.com]

I guess a community would arrange things more easily for people who don't follow everyone on a friends list? I am trying to figure out the benefits of a community around which RP is organized but since I've never played that way, it's kind of like trying to figure out what elephant tastes like based on a couple of vague descriptions. I think it would be interesting? I'm just not sure why it is significantly different from play on a friends list since there would still be out of sequence entries.

[behnd-blueyes.livejournal.com]

Oh, me too. I haven't played that way either, and I'm not at all certain how it would be different, except that if you were following via a regular, non-RP journal, you could just go to the comm rather than wading through RP vs non-RP flisters.