The Decline of RPG-Text

 

In the specific esoteric circle which we cohabit one always hears talk of the decline of rpg-text style role-playing but the truth is that is very alive and well. The only difference now from the golden-age of Gygax and the present day is that many potentially great writers have been absorbed into the world of interactive video games or simply prefer to Play & Post.

Now, for those of you who are content to write and role-play within a single setting there are multitude of 'theme sites' out there for you to choose from. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a site concentrating only on one particular genre, but this article focuses on those who enjoy participating in several free-form stories at once.

It is a fact that there are actually very few writing sites that provide a haven for free-form style story writing / role-playing and even fewer that allow one to develop there own stories, encompassed within a private forum. This leads us to the four factors that work against the popularity of online group writing sites, which are: Maturity, Interface, Theme, and Style.

MATURITY

There is nothing more disheartening and uninspiring for a writer of any age to attempt to seriously write in an immature environment. It is in fact pointless. Now I am not talking about immature behaviour, those of you mature enough to comprehend what I am saying will know the difference between having some fun and acting immature and being immature.

The web's a wonderful place. Kids who are saavy (and most are) can make themselves a forum, which is great. I highly encourage it, but children often do this for one of two reasons - 1. To be in control and 2. To be in control. Yes, it's all about CONTROL for the kiddies. They want to be the boss, they want to pick and choose their members, they want to trash the place, they want to impose their will upon others, they want, they want, they want. Now, any immature individuals reading this will simply retort, 'It's my site, so it's my right.", and that's because like most of your generation you have a false sense of entitlement, and you can shove those 'rights' up your ass. If your site is accessible to the public, you better be damn well prepared to cater to the public, otherwise you're just some jerk dictator hanging out with a bunch of other jerks on your little island... but hey, 'whatever floats your boat'.

Being a pleasant, mature and catering administrator goes a long way. What helps even more is developing an administration and moderating the site as a council. We all have different talents, and while some are great at hosting they are not always the best enforcers of the rules, so its good to have someone on hand who isn't afraid to drop the hammer. All one should ever request in a good storytelling forum is proper etiquette. If a user is unable to be civil to the other members and conduct themselves in an acceptably mature manner then you don't want them around. A mature site, will offer members a comfortable haven in which to write and in turn will generate scores of new stories which is of course the ultimate goal that this article is alluding to.

INTERFACE

When I enter a role playing / rpg-text site I immediately put the brakes on when I see out of character (OOC) discussions, informative topics, and character threads in completely different area than the stories to which they are a part of. I can't get my head around sites that do not have a separate OOC discussion for each individual stories, and those that do have them in a different forum than the location of the story. I cannot stress how important organization is. Your interface should cater to all levels of users, from the newbie to the advanced, if it doesn't then you are closing the door on many potentially good writers and dooming your existing members to a future of poorly ordered archives. It is inevitable that at least a few stories will grow beyond a few episodes and when they do they will require that the past chapters and information are properly stored. New and existing writers alike will appreciate being able to apprise themselves of past posts in a quick and efficient manner and that in itself will assist to perpetuate the stories which are the life's blood of the site.

THEME

Yes, all forums should have a theme, it makes them more inviting and memorable, but that's not what I am referring to in this article. I am talking about a single theme or setting that governs the entire site which is completely counter productive to free from style writing. Why dominate the entire site with one story line? Several forums can co-exist in one site, so why would a writing community want to limit their own creativity to one genre? The reason for this honestly eludes me. It is not difficult in the least to create, a site that would feature all the information for an extensive story setting and link it back to a single forum of a writing site, then it is treated more or less like any other story. A single story dominating an entire site is stifling to a community of creative writers who enjoy developing stories as much as portraying the characters within them.

STYLE

Lastly, I will talk about style. Every, rpg-text site has its own way of conducting their story threads. At Bifrost Bridge, we enjoy very much using pictures to enhance our posts, some sites absolutely forbid this, which I find tragic. One could argue that it's all about the 'words', but I subscribe to the old saying that 'a picture is worth a thousand words' and so encourage people to provide imagery to their posts. This and other subtle differences do in fact prevent many cross over's from occurring in the overall online writing community. I am not about to say that our way is better than any other site, just different, unfortunately for many, including myself it is these small dissimilarities that make a big difference in the stories I participate in.

I am not alone in embracing the philosophy that we are all in fact part of one giant online writing community but the reality is that there are many factors that prevent 'cross overs' from occurring. Conflicting administrative views is yet another and there are several more not mentioned here. Should any other writing communities out there embrace our beliefs and share a similar style of writing to the Bifrost Bridge then we invite you to cross over and share our stories.