When you miss the good old days

I really miss the good old days, where people connived and crafted an interesting storyline.

As a webmaster and watcher of the game that goes on on our website, people just play house now.

Why is that? What is with the younger generation of role-players? ;( It makes me very sad that people AVOID that kind of roleplay.

 

Through the years I've been role-playing I've found it changes often. Just seems to be the interest right now. It's like when Twilight first became popular, all you ever saw sites for it. Before that, it was HP, and Dragons of Pern? I can't remember now. But there are still the odd sites out there that craft an interesting storyline. Just got to be willing to do the extra work to find it.

 

I almost wonder if because of the socioeconomic hardships most younger people face, they're doing it because they don't feel like they'll ever really have it? I know here in the sf bay area, if you don't have a tech job, you're almost guaranteed to be fighting to make ends meet. Which gets in the way of starting your own family unit even if you want it.

 

I think that is an entirely plausible theory. It still makes it hard for me to want to play most days, it's the same old 'tea and crumpets' lay around the manor and do nothing but pursue romantic interests and thats just about it. From my observations and ear to the ground the kids are bored, but also avoid any remotely interesting plots. I am not sure what else I can do to foster a more interesting environment. /sighs

Edit: expanding further I think you're on to something. We all roleplay to escape something about our lives, or to live in a moment where we have a perfect vision of ourselves.. Hmm.

 

I certainly enjoy my game because I feel like my characters actually have a say in their fate, something I'm feeling like less and less that I have for my own life.

But I definitely crave the interesting plots, and try to offer up good ones to my crew. And being an Intel ship, we're not exactly family friendly either, so people can't get away with just playing house.

 

For us older RPers who have been around the RP scene a decade or more, when we look back, a lot of us were probably a lot more willing to take risks than we are now.

When you're a teenager you're going to seek out pure pleasure, whether that's erotic RP, fighting other people's characters, action adventure, etc. But you're always looking for the next thrill and thus RPs burn bright and then after a bit, the people move on. As I look back on my own early RP, I was spending a lot of time in chat RP, just RPing with whatever random other people came along. Things were jumbled and there was no long-term story.

When you get older, RP is more about the craft of writing and you understand a lot more about how stories work and enjoyment comes from creating a solid experience and developing a character. RP is much more stable and long term. We understand the commitment to an ongoing thing. But we tend to stick with what we know and not randomly smash into RPs or characters we have no info about.

Additionally, when I was young, the Internet was young too and people felt like they could express themselves on it freely. But these days, we are highly aware that our families and coworkers are on the same internet, and that everything we put on the web is getting archived by someone, indexed for everyone, and that it could be there forever. So perhaps that adds a sense that you can't go wild like the "good old days."

 

What I wouldn't give to find a well-crafted Harry Potter RP or be able to get one going again. Good solid writing, believable characters, plot and development. The good old days. How I miss them!

 

This is why I tend to stick with roleplayers who are closer to my own age. I don't mind the way the younger generation roleplays now, if it makes them happy then that is all that matters, it's just not my cup of tea. It can be frustrating though, because there are so many young people that storm onto the scene, while not everyone continues to roleplay into their 30s like myself which makes it a little bit harder to find partners that you can fully relate with.

 

I'm so new, I have no idea <3

 

I'd have to agree. With each generation of roleplayers comes a new interest. On the site I represent, we have a lot of roleplayers creating families, or very dark backgrounds for their characters. I've got to say, it does add a bit more flavor to the mix.

 

You also have to realize that the newest generation of rpers was raised on reality television. The writer's strike was a huge influence on the type of media they're used to consuming, so that's what they replicate. Look at media and see what's popular now: suburban drama. We're slowly getting back to quality writing in television that leads us into more exciting and interesting plots, so in a few years we should be seeing more of that.

 

I certainly miss the old days. There were more roleplayers and more diversity around the sites.

 

video games- I blame video games- most of the kids I see today are absorbed in them. Suire, there's been a measure of them through the decades but not as immersive as they are today. The put their headsets on, tune out the world and become absorbed in video games Play thugs, mercenaries, drug dealer, and smugglers. It leaves me asking- whatever happened to Area 51 and Quake- oh yeah- those players are now absorbed in HALO.

 

I feel this in my soul.

Does anyone here remember the days of AvidGamers? It makes me so nostalgic sometimes to think back to times where there felt like there were actual communities and we didn't need quite so many rules and people really did focus on the stories.

 

I think it really just depends on what site you're on. On most of the ones I've been on, there's been a good mix of people playing "House" and people who want hard, complicated plots with twists and turns and wins and losses. (Then again, that may be because me and most of my rp buddies were around for the "good old days" I suppose?)

 

since 2004 I've role played in Star trek RPGS , in a group called UCIP, but ive grown out of it and now simming/rpg in a group called
Mystic fans.

 

It's not exactly the genres or sites I miss, rather the people. I've had some amazing RP partners in the past, some of whom I've lost touch with and probably didn't appreciate as much as I should have at the time.

Ah, nostalgia.

 

See though, I really don't enjoy how much people connive and plot OOC, to the detriment of the story unfolding organically IC. I do love a good, intriguing plot, don't get me wrong, but why does it always have to happen in chats instead of on the forum? Why can't more roleplayers dare to mix things up in a thread without any warning, vs. plotting the details of how threads will unfold before doing it? There is this huge culture of "you have to ask first" in the RP world that I resent. That's not how it works anywhere else.

 

Hmm, I dont actually look back and miss the players, I miss the actual moments. The IC Glory Days? Like, you're sitting there, and you are looking at a character you used to play. That character used to be awesome, people loved that character, and they seemed to literally be the perfect bit of writing. You remember the feelings you had playing that character, how everything just unfolded, there was no drama, no overshadowing, no resentment from the other players in the plot.

You look at that character, and you realize that character will never be that ever again. There is no way for you to rewrite that characters story. It will never be like the first time you did it. You'll always feel like you are behind, you're not as good. You look at them, and you realize you need to put them away.

I suppose that's why I keep writing. To catch that perfect writing high again.

 

I relate to the above so much, and it depresses the snot out of me.

Back to chasing.