Role Playing Games ...

[Anguille]

I think for some, this whole internet message board thing is a role playing game. Reminds me of a Brad Paisley song ... "I'm So Much Cooler Online."

I must have lost part of my imagination somewhere along the line. Pretending to be something or someone I'm not has ZERO appeal to me. It's hard enough just being me.

Being you is a tough job. But somebody has to do it.

It's interesting to try and figure out the different reasons people post the way they do. As for trying to be cooler online, I think about 30% are here for that as one of their main reasons. But they usually get caught up in some argument and blow that image fairly fast.

Gunny, you probably would not have much enjoyed my last board, in spite of the very creative people who frequented it. Care was on a similar board and she loved it. It was anarchic and required some readjusting the way you think about interacting with people. At times it was a big masquerade ball, a game of guess who. It could be loads of fun and then it could get very frustrating to. You had to focus on content and not authorship if things got too hectic. It all worked out surprisingly well. A new software format made it barely usable, but some still inhabit it's ruins.

 

[Anguille]

Meh ... it depends. I don't see it as a game, I see message boards as places people can let go and be themselves more. Many let their guards down because they feel safe with all the bits between them. Role playing games are not really pretending to be someone else either though, it's more like you take control of a character in a story, the GM/DM/Whatever (different for each game) controls the opposition and lesser characters as well as provides an outline for the story. But yeah, RPG's require a LOT of imagination (the pen and paper ones not the v-game ones). But you have imagination, or you wouldn't be able to come up with such whit.

I think what you say is true about most people feeling it's a place they can be more open, express a few more opinions they wouldn't in real life. Also, you find you can bear more abuse than you would accept in real life, because the option to just walk away without having to quit a job or find a new local hangout is always there. I also think message boards are one of the few places you can find a community that is not work, real life friend or family related. Plus you don't have to dress up for it. Your words are what you are on a board.

On another board, a very dramatic and narcissistic woman once said to me she was never more herself on the board. She even aknowledged she was a narcissist. I think there is far less lying and pretense (or intentional lying and pretense) on message boards than people assume, at least among long term posters. The one dimensional sock puppets and spoofers are easy to pick out over time. It end up not too much different than real life, only no eye contact and more time allowed so you can say something witty and properly edited without saying to yourself, "Oh if only I had said that!".

I've never played online games except when my nephew tried to get me to join one he was on. But what you said rings true with me.

 

[Shogun]

What I don't understand is why it carries into your 30's, 40's, 50's, etc. I actually completely lost interest in it between the ages of 17-18, and never looked back.. yet I know people that do this every week.. *shakes head*

Oh, wait.. I actually played a computer game once since then.. Diablo. That was only amusing because I got so powerful that I could strip nude outside the building, walk through the entire game (and all the monsters), flick Diablo with my finger, and watch him drop dead.

I guess it's like suggesting that someone "grow out of" music they liked while in their teens. Sure, they may not wear the tshirts and ripped jeans but chances are they still love the South Of Heaven album.

Besides, it's just a cultural facet that is no different than remaining a car loving motorhead or a guitar playing geezer. Are value judgments based only the hobbies of other people? If so, it's time to round up every 40+ year old glory days loving weekend band playing at podunct bars throughout the country and every greasy fingernailed wrench monkey still trying to turn a rusted junker into his high school fantasy car.

 

[Anguille]

The role I've decided to play in real life is much more exciting than a pretend one where you can just quit, change rules, or call for a time out. Psychodrama is good therapy tho for those who feel a need to learn about themselves.

Good points about the psychodrama. People probably actually do learn about themselves in ways that carry over into real life.

And who knew dillo was James Bond!

 

[Anguille]

that is true... a fellowship of the nerd posse.

I wonder if people with mild Asperger's, the one's with difficulty reading facial expressions, do better reading verbal cues in online conversations? I guess I should ask Sheila.

 

[Dis]

What I don't understand is why it carries into your 30's, 40's, 50's, etc. I actually completely lost interest in it between the ages of 17-18, and never looked back.. yet I know people that do this every week.. *shakes head*

Oh, wait.. I actually played a computer game once since then.. Diablo. That was only amusing because I got so powerful that I could strip nude outside the building, walk through the entire game (and all the monsters), flick Diablo with my finger, and watch him drop dead.

I guess it's like suggesting that someone "grow out of" music they liked while in their teens. Sure, they may not wear the tshirts and ripped jeans but chances are they still love the South Of Heaven album.

Besides, it's just a cultural facet that is no different than remaining a car loving motorhead or a guitar playing geezer. Are value judgments based only the hobbies of other people? If so, it's time to round up every 40+ year old glory days loving weekend band playing at podunct bars throughout the country and every greasy fingernailed wrench monkey still trying to turn a rusted junker into his high school fantasy car.

I don't think so.. You're not doing anything to actively stay where you're at when it comes to music.. It's just there, in the background..

As for gearheads...you pretty much have either been one your entire life, or not...

But, sitting around a table, rolling a bunch of funny shaped colorful dice, and pretending to be a warrior, mage, paladin, etc, slaying dragons, setting fire to trolls, collecting imaginary magical items...for 6-8-10 hours at a crack? No, I just don't get that one.. There's no sense of accomplishment that comes with it like there might be for rebuilding a car..

 

[dilloduck]

The role I've decided to play in real life is much more exciting than a pretend one where you can just quit, change rules, or call for a time out. Psychodrama is good therapy tho for those who feel a need to learn about themselves.

Good points about the psychodrama. People probably actually do learn about themselves in ways that carry over into real life.

And who knew dillo was James Bond!

Only dead bad guys and hot women all over the world.

 

[Shogun]

are you kidding? Do adults play board games where yo come from? I realize that rolling a pair of 6 siders and playing monopoly doesn't give the same kind of accomplishment as forclosing on a fucking home but gimme a break. Hardly any garage-based greaselabs are Ford factories either. Your logic is flawed.

And I assure you, when I listen to South of Heaven it's not merely in the background.

 

[dilloduck]

Assuming a persona, nickname and avatar on a message board is some serious role playing.

 

[Dis]

are you kidding? Do adults play board games where yo come from? I realize that rolling a pair of 6 siders and playing monopoly doesn't give the same kind of accomplishment as forclosing on a fucking home but gimme a break. Hardly any garage-based greaselabs are Ford factories either. Your logic is flawed.

And I assure you, when I listen to South of Heaven it's not merely in the background.

Don't chew MY head off.. I still own all my dice, and books (first edition - I'm old).. I'm just saying nobody's made me understand it yet. Oh, and my Talisman game is worth almost $1000 now. That's the equivalent of any "board game" that I still play.

 

[Anguille]

I don't think so.. You're not doing anything to actively stay where you're at when it comes to music.. It's just there, in the background..

I don't play online games so I can't speak to the comparison but listening to music is not a totally mindless passive thing for me. I can't even have background music on most of the time. It distracts. I like music too much.

 

[Anguille]

Assuming a persona, nickname and avatar on a message board is some serious role playing.

The inter-nest is serious bidness, ducky!

 

[Dis]

I don't think so.. You're not doing anything to actively stay where you're at when it comes to music.. It's just there, in the background..

I don't play online games so I can't speak to the comparison but listening to music is not a totally mindless passive thing for me. I can't even have background music on most of the time. It distracts. I like music too much.

Music is a 24/7/365 thing for me. It's on no matter where I am, or what I'm doing, so it needs to be background noise sometimes.

I can live without a TV. I can not live without music.

Took me a good 2 months to figure out which button on the remote turns the TV on.. (universal remote).

 

[dilloduck]

Assuming a persona, nickname and avatar on a message board is some serious role playing.

The inter-nest is serious bidness, ducky!

Tell me about it, eel lady. It starts to worry me when people squabble over little green squares and medals. I even question my own addiction to this place at times.

 

[Shogun]

to each their own, I guess.

 

[Anguille]

Tell me about it, eel lady. It starts to worry me when people squabble over little green squares and medals. I even question my own addiction to this place at times.

Gunny has a new user group that is rep free. Want to join me? I think the new thank you thing is enough for me now. And it suits my ideology in that there is no, "Thanks for nuthin' " button. Withholding thanks is like with holding pos rep. It says enough. I think serious neg reppers must come from the gaming community.

 

[dilloduck]

this quote comes to mind often for me

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
e. e. cummings

 

[Anguille]

I even question my own addiction to this place at times.

At least you recognize we are addicted.

 

[Anguille]

this quote comes to mind often for me

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
e. e. cummings

I'd rep you if I could.

 

[dilloduck]

this quote comes to mind often for me

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
e. e. cummings

I'd rep you if I could.

I'm only accepting pay pal now.