RolePlayGateway: WeBlog!

What I’ve Learned From GWing

With the creation of this blog came the merger of Hilde’s RPGateway and my GWing. The merger has allowed me the unique opportunity of re-capping my positive termination of the “GWing” legacy, a roleplaying community to which I approached with the goal of teaching, only to learn much more about myself and the community.

The most immediate realization is that roleplayers will be roleplayers, and that consists of every type of person imaginable. We’ve had drama queens, and we’ve had egocentric nomads. You see, the term “roleplayer” is only a descriptor defining an action or an activity that a person participates. Any person. My experience with people from all roads of life has shattered my “geeks only” mentality, and has truly become more of a full view of the world.

In segue, I find that it is much easier to market a community of roleplayers to people who already play rather than pitching the idea to newcomers. There is and always will be a large community of people who enjoy to roleplay, and there will always be people who are drawn to it, just as there will be people who will be driven away from it.

We ran a small campaign in the middle of 2006 in which we pushed text-based roleplaying as “the ultimate gaming machine”, claiming that the human mind was the most powerful gaming machine that could ever be devised. This still holds true, and intrinsically, that’s why it is such a great hobby, and it is why people enjoy it. But we learned that there is futility in pitching it to those of other mindsets, people who aren’t interested in that value.

I guess I’ll get to bed in a few - but that thought only brings another lesson. If you’re passionate about something, expect to spend not only time and money, but also sleep.

So what has everyone else learned from GWing?