RolePlayGateway™

So I came back today, just for a visit, to see how things were going... and to my dismay, GWing Chat is still home to some of the rudest, most idiotic, non-playing gamers I've ever seen... I've been away for quite some time now, so you can hardly put the blame on me... Today there was a young female in GWing Chat complaining about how nobody ever roleplays any more, while a group of older individuals reassured her that GWing Chat is just a drama factory, and that roleplaying is an extinct past-time that no longer exists except in PMs... Do you see where this is going?

I think it's time for people to wake up and smell the coffee... Roleplaying has been around since before the computer age, and it's pretty ignorant & arrogant for GWing Chat regulars to think that they are the centre of the universe, and that RPG does not exist without them... Just be honest... Since I've been gone, I've had the pleasure of visiting a number of less popular, but entertaining roleplaying communities around the internet. I discovered a few good roleplaying chats & forums, that are quite different from our washed up GWing Chat regulars who claim to be RPG veterans and know-it-alls... My advice to that young female is to keep searching for roleplayers. Instead of sitting around listening to assholes who are just gonna drag you down and make you complain, try doing something else perhaps a little more constructive... Start an adventure, and explore new realms.

GWing Chat isn't dead, it's just polluted... it's infected with all these egotistical piss-ons who are envious because they never made a big impression outside of their little faggoty circles... GWing Chat does have potential still, there are still many roleplayers who frequent the room, it's just that nobody is putting forth the effort... You can't tell me it's hopeless, when I myself have been able to start large RPG gatherings in GWing Chat just by putting forth the effort. How? You have to set an example... Forget about those people who want to complain and degrade others, you yourself should step forward and set an example. The best way to do that is by roleplaying, even if you start off roleplaying by yourself at first. Trust me, eventually others will get tired of the drama and they will see you roleplaying, which will cause them to follow in suit... I proved it can be done, so don't give me this bullshit about how GWing Chat is hopeless... if that's your attitude, then you're hopeless.

Any ways, I just wanted to get that off my chest, and say a few words concerning this matter... Notice I called it a matter, not a problem... It's only a problem if you make it one, so let's be hopeful and inspiring to our fellow roleplayers right now by joining togather and out-numbering the has-beens and non-gamers who try to degrade us and pollute GWing Chat's wonderful atmosphere... Trust me, there is power in numbers, and if you stand up and lead right now, then others are sure to follow in your footsteps... Come on crew, let's clean this mess and get rid of all the grime. GWing Chat, it's time for a makeover. You can either get off your ass and do something, or you can ignore my advice and watch a potentially good RPG chat go to shit... it's on you.

I partially agree with you that the chat is polluted, but this chat has been on a downward slope straight to hell for quite some time. Here comes the kicker: I don't blame the narcissistic elitists in the chat at all. I blame the change in moderation. When Gwing was a free-form free-spirited chat where you could do whatever you want (where being an ass wasn't so much of a crime as just being plain out stupid was), I saw an abundance of multiverse roleplay, there was daily roleplay of a continuous and open-ended storyline that anyone could hop in on. Where it wasn't flooded with Twilight Naruto Bleach conglomerate fangirl rps, but it had some actual intelligence, structure and originality to it.

Since the moderators who used to run the room have left, I have yet to see it ever return to it's former glory - which is why I don't look at the down-players in disdain, but almost accredit them. Roleplay isn't dead, no, but it's taken a nosedive in quality indefinitely.

Arrogance wrote:I partially agree with you that the chat is polluted, but this chat has been on a downward slope straight to hell for quite some time. Here comes the kicker: I don't blame the narcissistic elitists in the chat at all. I blame the change in moderation.

I've heard people say that, but unfortunately, I haven't been around long enough to understand yet... What change in moderation? Who were the moderators then, and who are they now? Why, and what happened? I really wish I knew more, so I could at least "try" and help.

Arrogance wrote:When Gwing was a free-form free-spirited chat where you could do whatever you want (where being an ass wasn't so much of a crime as just being plain out stupid was), I saw an abundance of multiverse roleplay, there was daily roleplay of a continuous and open-ended storyline that anyone could hop in on. Where it wasn't flooded with Twilight Naruto Bleach conglomerate fangirl rps, but it had some actual intelligence, structure and originality to it.

I was always a fan of free-form free-spirited chats where players could do whatever they wanted, so long as they stayed in-character, kept the OOC to a minimum, and practiced what I call "netiquette". I am a proud sponser of free-form multiverse RPG chats, since it was creativity like that which spawned "freestyle" combat back in the day. To me though, being an asshole to someone is worse than being stupid because stupid people can't help it, assholes can. Stupid people also don't know any better, assholes do. And I'm not a huge Anime fan, but I could care less who is in chat so long as they are there to roleplay and have fun. ^_^

Arrogance wrote:Since the moderators who used to run the room have left, I have yet to see it ever return to it's former glory - which is why I don't look at the down-players in disdain, but almost accredit them. Roleplay isn't dead, no, but it's taken a nosedive in quality indefinitely.

I don't understand why someone doesn't just take the incentive to step up ahead of everyone and moderate themselves. Whatever happened in GWing's past is history. Technically, it doesn't really have anything to do with RPGateway (or at least it wouldn't if GWing & RPGateway weren't affiliated). RPGateway doesn't even really have its own chat, Mibbit goes straight to GWing so GWing "is" its chat. I don't understand why nobody ever created a free-form multiverse IC chat specifically for RPGateway (one that would have just as much freedom as its forums, involving all genres, including but not limited to GWing). Trust me, if I could, I would have created a chat personally and set the example by moderating it myself. Unfortunately, I'm text-codes illiterate so I can't do all that stuff (or at least I don't know how yet, but I'm willing to learn). I just don't see why someone else hasn't done it yet, or if they have, why their attempts were not as successful as with the last group of moderators.

Another thing I don't understand is why roleplaying quality took such a nose-dive. People have just gotten lazy to me it seems. Everyone's tired of the bullshit, nobody wants to make an effort any more. I don't think it's an indefinite thing, because surely if we work on it we can fix it togather right now. I'm just trying to understand why nobody is willing to try any more, it doesn't make sense to me why people would just give up, after all that they've been through. I know what it's like to lose a good free-chat service, and watch everyone split up over it. I know what it's like to watch a perfectly good RPG chat go from over-populated to dead-empty within a year. In my ten years of on-line roleplaying experience, hell, I can understand a lot of things with it. But as hard as I try, I can't imagine why people now would just be like "fuck it" and watch it all go down the drain. For some of us, this is all we had back in the day as kids. Now everyone just wants to forget it ever existed. You don't lose until you giveup, which is why I never gave up hope on this place. GWing chat still stands a fighting chance. It's wobbly, but it hasn't fallen over yet. It just needs an attitude adjustment, and some more motivation to lift its head up.

A man chooses, a slave obeys. - Andrew Ryan

Like I said before, it's not my chat. RPGateway isn't really my home, it's yours. My home was already destroyed a long time ago when most of you were still learning how to read. I'm just trying to give yall a little inspiration, and maybe help you avoid doing to yourselves what my home chat did to us. You can either learn from our mistakes, or learn from your own. Either way, it's not too late for people to step up.

#Gwing was created as the 'official' chat of gwing.net, which of course later became RoleplayGateway.com, and the chat channel was there for roleplaying. I remember when I first joined this community back in 2006, there was near constant chat RP, set in a persistent multiverse where any player could jump in with whatever character they wished. Any OOC discussion during RP would respectfully be taken to #OOC, with RP pertinent stuff kept to within parentheses and at a minimum inside the main #GWing channel.

Now, however, and I speak of my observations during the first half of this year and the month since my return, the chat doesn't have RP, and any attempts of roleplaying within the #GWing channel are quickly squashed by the inane and sex-filled conversations of the majority of chat members, or by trolling of the older (age-wise) members of the chat. Generally, the conversations are silly, pointless and immature.

The trolls, however, simply take every opportunity to 'flame' upon the new members, causing riotous arguments that are just as pointless as the rest of the chat's content.

The question isn't so much of the how, but of the why. Why did this transition take place? Anyone who has been around for a long time will be able to see that the degradation of the chat started with the community and website's name change. Of course, though, the name change itself wasn't the why. The name change and merger with the original roleplaygateway.com website allowed for a massive growth in the community as a result of some pretty epic SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) on the part of Eric [Martindale, the owner of the site (for any reading this who don't know who he is)] that puts Gateway on the top of most, if not all, roleplay related searches on Google.

This growth, which has been astounding, brought with it an influx of newer, younger, roleplayers. Those young in age, and young in experience - often this is the first roleplaying site these new kids have visited and they've never RPed before. Whilst we older, more experienced RPers have had the experience of chat-based roleplaying, the newer members likely have not. They come from a generation that uses chat systems for just that - idle chatter. Also, these younger people tend to not have the same literacy levels of the older generation of roleplayers. This is probably not because they can't write, but because they are of a generation when 'txt-spk' is the accepted method of communication and proper grammar etc is of no real concern. ((I've even been called stupid before for writing correctly on MSN - much laughter on my part ensued))

So, therein is the start of the problem... But, it is actually more neglect on the part of the senior members of the community (those in power, rather than the oldest) that has caused the downfall... Rather than educating the newer generation to the joys of chat RP, along with the need for correct usage of the English language, they allowed the inane chatter to overtake the roleplay. True, at the beginning of the transition roleplay still occurred, but as the inanity grew and these people who wanted only to 'chat,' complaints about roleplay brought a lack of motivation to those who enjoy chat RP - I for one didn't see the point of roleplaying whilst people were telling us to go elsewhere.

And so it became the norm for such pointless conversations to take place, and with no education being given to the younger people about correctly using the written medium of the English language (which in some ways goes against their online 'upbringing') this spilled into a decline in roleplay quality.

The old RolePlay Academy was a great place for helping people learn to utilise what they use in schools for essays etc on the internet, as well as teaching the basics of how to roleplay efficiently. However, the shift in the RPA's methodology has, unfortunately, left the newer RPers with no real guidance. Also, the fear of being flamed or trolled leaves them perhaps unwilling to ask for the guidance needed.

And so a cycle is formed: Person A joins, looks at the RPs already there, daren't ask for guidance, so applies his/her own 'internet literacy' rules to the RPs they make. Person B joins, sees Person A's roleplays first, as they are the newest, and emulates them - utilising the same 'internet literacy' rules also. Person C joins, sees Person A and Person B's posts, and emulates them. And so on and so forth. We older Rpers say nothing, for a multitude of different reasons, so Persons A, B and C assume that how they are RPing is correct. Someone decides to say "Hey, guys, perhaps you should try RPing more like this" and the newer people reply with, "No. I am doing it right, if I wasn't someone would have said something already."

And there is the why. The how is really unimportant.

But, I am not one to simply point out problems, so let's look for a solution. It can be summed up in a single word: Guidance. As older, more experienced RPers we almost have a responsibility to offer the guidance we doubtlessly received back in the day, and we need to do it in a way that isn't offensive. With the proper guidance, these kids will be able to learn about the joys of chat-based RP, and so also learn to utilise correct English more naturally, which will consequently improve the quality of RP on the forums.

Though, the question is, how many people of the older RP generation is willing to help? From my experience of running the RPA and observing the chat, sadly I'd have to guess not many.

Dude...


No comment, really...


Those were some of the most well-spoken words I've heard out of you so far, and some of the most intelligent answers I've gotten concerning this subject matter, period. I agree with you on everything. That all makes sense to me.

^_^

And just for the record, I don't know how many regular RPveterans are still active, but any time you guys wanna get togather and attempt to fix this mess, you already know from the posts in this thread that you have at least one older person who is willing to try.

-_- I personally hate role playing in the chat BUT I do shut up if the others are doing it... Okay, I whine in the OOC. XD My reasoning was since GWing was the main chat, it was annoying to have people pop in and out going, "HAI GUYS!" and get yelled at by the members currently RP'ing because he/she does not understand how to join the OOC.

But I can't complain about that. I like idle chit chat. Why? Because even when I first joined, there was nothing but silence. God... I recall a person spending hours trying to get at least two people to RP. When that happened there was like one post and it stopped.

Truth is not many people care for chat role play or our chatroom.

Crescendo just modified the chat layout, so Roleplay Gateway finally has its very own chat. There is a place for IC roleplaying, and a place for OOC conversations. So far it looks very rough cut, but, it's better than what we had before. I think it looks great so far, and with a little bit of help, we might all finally get this show back on the road again. Just keep trying... ^_^

That's why I said I can't complain anymore. =p