Have you ever seen a word in the english language that has a letter you'd assume you'd pronounce, but you don't?
Take the word gnat, for example. You don't say guh-nat, you say nat.
That's how I feel almost every single time I log onto this server.
As of recent, I (among others) have felt personally demotivated while trying to roleplay. Forming genuine in-character relationships has grown to be increasingly difficult over the last year or two that I’ve been playing, a drastic shift from how things felt when I was first starting out. While we all know greenies can be a little bizarre to interact with, I believe we also all know that running around as a greenie was the purest form of fun you could have on this server. Discovering new things, new people, and slowly making your way up the "food chain" by joining factions and making friendships that turned into friend groups, which then grew into large-ish communities.
Sometimes, you find yourself settling into something small, and that is (quite obviously) better than nothing. The amount of authentic roleplay that I have gotten within, let's say the past year, has plummeted significantly. Maybe that's because I'm an anti-social person, but that's beyond the point I'm trying to make.
I'm quite sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. A good 70% of my time is spent running around and treating my chat as if I'm literally texting the people I'm talking to. Where is the flavor in that? Tell me how your character is feeling, what they're doing — even if they're standing as still as a plank of wood, /describe/ that to me. Let me visualize that it's your characters personality to be unusually stiff and awkwardly-stanced, not in a way that I feel like you're putting no effort in at all.
I can admit that I've been doing this myself, too. It’s easy to fall into the habit of running around and interacting simply because you’re having fun with your friends, but a lot of the time it doesn't feel like character development. It feels more like talking out of character. Though long gone now, I remember forming relationships between one character I had about a year or so ago that felt genuinely real. I had a lot of fun during that time, especially because those relationships happened by pure chance, not because I spent two weeks planning exactly what I wanted out of them and how they were supposed to go. When I approach someone with the intention to interact and feel like I need to plan a relationship from top to bottom instead of letting it develop naturally through roleplay, I lose interest entirely. That is what I've been seeing most lately, and it makes it really hard to enjoy forming connections when things feel that rigid.
Despite everything, I genuinely love this server. I’ve met some truly amazing people here, and I don't regret a single moment I’ve spent shaping my characters into who they are today. The time, care, and creativity poured into them has been worth it. My only real ask is more initiative, and less expectation that every interaction has to turn into something specific, predetermined, or "greater" according to your own vision.
Go up to someone random and start something real. Unexpected, even!
Don't expect it to go perfectly, or follow a clean set of rules you’ve already written in your head. Maybe your character makes an enemy. Maybe they find a friend. Maybe it turns into something more, or maybe it doesn't, and that's OKAY! Talk to someone you never imagined your character would interact with, because those unexpected moments are often the ones that turn into something far bigger than anything you could've planned. Speaking from personal experience, it usually goes GREAT!
That unfiltered feeling of meeting someone new and getting genuine roleplay out of it is something I’ve always loved. It’s what makes everything feel alive. So improvise. Do something uncomfortable. Put your character out there and let the story grow on its own! Less planning! IMPROVISE!
I LOVE DETAILRP!!!!!!!!!!
Take the word gnat, for example. You don't say guh-nat, you say nat.
That's how I feel almost every single time I log onto this server.
As of recent, I (among others) have felt personally demotivated while trying to roleplay. Forming genuine in-character relationships has grown to be increasingly difficult over the last year or two that I’ve been playing, a drastic shift from how things felt when I was first starting out. While we all know greenies can be a little bizarre to interact with, I believe we also all know that running around as a greenie was the purest form of fun you could have on this server. Discovering new things, new people, and slowly making your way up the "food chain" by joining factions and making friendships that turned into friend groups, which then grew into large-ish communities.
Sometimes, you find yourself settling into something small, and that is (quite obviously) better than nothing. The amount of authentic roleplay that I have gotten within, let's say the past year, has plummeted significantly. Maybe that's because I'm an anti-social person, but that's beyond the point I'm trying to make.
I'm quite sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. A good 70% of my time is spent running around and treating my chat as if I'm literally texting the people I'm talking to. Where is the flavor in that? Tell me how your character is feeling, what they're doing — even if they're standing as still as a plank of wood, /describe/ that to me. Let me visualize that it's your characters personality to be unusually stiff and awkwardly-stanced, not in a way that I feel like you're putting no effort in at all.
I can admit that I've been doing this myself, too. It’s easy to fall into the habit of running around and interacting simply because you’re having fun with your friends, but a lot of the time it doesn't feel like character development. It feels more like talking out of character. Though long gone now, I remember forming relationships between one character I had about a year or so ago that felt genuinely real. I had a lot of fun during that time, especially because those relationships happened by pure chance, not because I spent two weeks planning exactly what I wanted out of them and how they were supposed to go. When I approach someone with the intention to interact and feel like I need to plan a relationship from top to bottom instead of letting it develop naturally through roleplay, I lose interest entirely. That is what I've been seeing most lately, and it makes it really hard to enjoy forming connections when things feel that rigid.
Despite everything, I genuinely love this server. I’ve met some truly amazing people here, and I don't regret a single moment I’ve spent shaping my characters into who they are today. The time, care, and creativity poured into them has been worth it. My only real ask is more initiative, and less expectation that every interaction has to turn into something specific, predetermined, or "greater" according to your own vision.
Go up to someone random and start something real. Unexpected, even!
Don't expect it to go perfectly, or follow a clean set of rules you’ve already written in your head. Maybe your character makes an enemy. Maybe they find a friend. Maybe it turns into something more, or maybe it doesn't, and that's OKAY! Talk to someone you never imagined your character would interact with, because those unexpected moments are often the ones that turn into something far bigger than anything you could've planned. Speaking from personal experience, it usually goes GREAT!
That unfiltered feeling of meeting someone new and getting genuine roleplay out of it is something I’ve always loved. It’s what makes everything feel alive. So improvise. Do something uncomfortable. Put your character out there and let the story grow on its own! Less planning! IMPROVISE!
I LOVE DETAILRP!!!!!!!!!!
