[Discuss] Role Play Island.

[Anthony Anderson]

I'm not going to bother quoting anyone, as there are many thoughts I could
reply to.  So, this will probably have quite a shotgun effect.  Hopefully it
hits something.

-To the comment regarding those who have been on the island "from the
beginning of time".  I can think of maybe 5 characters left who were around
in the early stages.  I'm talking about when the history was being created
and the whole island had but 2 realms.  Even at the point of the realm
breakups, we're still talking less than 10 characters still on the island.
Don't let people fool you about history and what happened in the past.  The
vast majority doesn't know themselves.  Most of those who do know, have
torqued it to their own devices anyway.

-Powergaming has long been a problem on FEI.  It's one thing to play like
Tom did with Daran, and have most communications be in private.  At least he
always had people stepping up and saying "yes, it might have seemed random,
but we talked about it".  For far too many, the act of roleplaying amongst
those in your realm appears to qualify as "acceptable RP", and a defense
against the powergaming accusations.  Let me simply say that it's not an
excuse.  Why?  Read on...

-Every single island has quite a bit of roleplay going on.  Thought I went
through a spell of accusing entire islands of not having solid RP, I have to
admit, I was wrong.  But here's the big difference between how FEI was
built, and how it and all the other islands now operate.  I would estimate
that about 85% of all roleplay on all the islands currently are intra-realm
RP.  It's sent to, and ultimately only affects those in that character's
realm.  Most interactions with those outside the realm are dealt with solely
by game mechanics.  I've come to realize that the beauty of FEI when it was
being established was the inter-realm RP.  Letters that travelled across the
island, interactions between cross-realm rivals, or separated best friends.
Sure, there was roleplay inside the realms, but you can find that anywhere.
FEI began to steer wrong when the RP-list lost its draw as the perfect way
to communicate with anyone on the realm, in any way that you wished.  It
continued down the wrong path when the ruler forum became the place where
only politics and propaganda was discussed- even simple interactive RP there
was trashed and turned into bait for the propaganda machines.  And the nail
in the coffin was when the people who truly knew what FEI was really all
about became jaded and left, or bitter and sabotaged entire realms/plots.

-I wholeheartedly support the idea of improv.  It's one thing to have an
idea in mind.  It's another thing entirely to force that idea through, or to
present an entire concept in one sitting.  That leaves no room for
interaction and the exchanging of ideas.  However, those who have tried this
can likely attest that people don't respond well to that sort of thing.  In
my experience with throwing something new and different out [simply because
it fit my character and popped into my head as a good idea] is that 1) it's
somehow flatly rejected, 2) people attempt to adapt, but because they
weren't given "ample warning" to plan ahead, the idea falls by the wayside,
or 3) it's completely ignored altogether.  Sadly, I had #3 happen to me a
number of times.  It really is a killer on the creative spirit.

-Finally, I think the description of "Roleplay Island" should be removed
from FEI.  There is no more RP there than anywhere else at this point.
Furthermore, the style of play that once made FEI unique is all but
non-existant now.  There's no point in trying to get a dead man to talk, so
to speak.  We learn, and we move on.
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