How do you define role play?
Let me explain why I am asking. Do you guys remember back when I was a Gorean slave girl? Oh. Well, no worries, because if I didn’t currently own 10,582 silks, I wouldn't remember all that much either. Anyhoo....my BF-at-the-time/Master and I were together officially for all of two-weeks, during which time we broke up and then got back together every 18 hours or so.
Why did we break up? Largely because he wanted to own roughly 100 slave girls at a time, including me. He also wanted to have SLex with many, many other women and call it Gorean role play - even if it took place in his condo in a modern beach front community on the Mainland, while wearing regular street clothes, with Rihanna and/or Justin Timberlake music playing in the background.
Now, when I first became a slave girl, I was prepared to look the other way when it came to any SLex that was necessary for the official role play activity – that is: activity that took place while attired in Gorean costumes, as part of a story line of some sort and which took place on a Gorean sim. (I know, I know... /me looks down in shame.)
Han Solo and R2D2 make me feel better about things. (OK, OK, I admit that R2D2 only happened because I couldn't figure out how to do a cut on the page. C3PO is a better match with my jewelry, but he wouldn't cover my nipples well enough. I *hate* mixing metals.)
Well, when he decided to bring a slave home for recreational activities in his scripted bathtub, I LOL'd and broke up with him. He got very angry in response. He told me that I didn't understand the difference between role play and cheating. So, I decided to let him have a taste of his own medicine: I told him that I wanted to be an ‘unrestricted’ slave - meaning that I would get to role play with other men in the same way he was role playing with women.
I was thinking about this the other day when I looked up his profile so that I could tell him about the new Gorean Free Men's collection at Analise. (We remain friends, but I took him off my friends list. Doing that helped the last break-up stick.) And checking to see if he had corrected his misspellings.
So, Dear Readers, tell me please: how do you define role play (any - not just Gorean)? When does it cross the line from role play to cheating? Please leave me comments with your thoughts.
By the way, I am not worried about him reading this because he never read my blog – not even when he was trying to get into my "attachments", if you know what I mean. Now do you see why the relationship didn't work out? Who doesn't know that if you want to boink a blogger, the first step is to read their blog??
ETA: To clarify I DO NOT think that everyone who read this blog is doing so because they want to boink me (although that is a nice thought). I just think that, for example, if you wanted to date a chef, you might want to eat at their restaurant - if only to show that you are interested in things they do, who they are, and, yes, maybe flatter them a little, you know? :-P
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I don't know anything about role play, as I am no part of it, and for the time being, not looking for role play either.
ReplyDeleteI frequently read you blog, does this then mean that I want to "boink" you?;)
Okay, I must watch out then for Jerremy.....;)))I suppose....and Freg....;)
Or, is it so, that while we are in SL, we are already role playing? Interesting question though, don't you think?
Looker - Nah, it doesn't necessarily mean you want to boink me. :-P
ReplyDeleteI am flattered when someone reads my blog, though - so much so that my R2D2's sometimes fall off. So it does give people a leg up, so to speak. Maybe this is just a personal issue...hmmmmmmm.
The guy who didn't read my blog and I dated him anyway? That took some serious effort on his part. That effort included SL 'roofies' (SLoofies?), hypnosis and many, many Justine Timberlake ballads.
I thought about your second question- asking if we are already RPing just by playing SL. I don't think so - at least not for me. My RL friends and family would be able to recognize me just reading my blog or talking to me in-world. My avatar is very much an extension of my true self (even if she has better clothes, hair and gets more sleep). This is why I would have an impossible time making an alt - what "self" would I have left to give her?
Let's say SL is not roleplaying in itself, and that it is, in fact, a "reality" and our avatars are just like any individuals with personalities, roles, styles, etc. Basically, pretend SL is real for a sec.
ReplyDeleteRoleplaying within SL to me is when an avatar plays out a theatrical situation in a character or persona that is not naturally his or her own. Thema, for instance, is a 'normal' woman who wears western style clothes, has a job, etc. If I were to roleplay in SL, I would make Thema pretend to be someone else entirely... like a superhero or villain in the Gotham City sim for example. thema is not a superhero, but she plays one. that is roleplaying to me.
this guy you speak of... when he is acting out sexual situations in his avatar's identity (using his avatar's real home, talking as his avatar normally would, etc.) he is not roleplaying. His human might think he's roleplaying since it's happening in SL, but his avatar is not.
RPing is, as I've always understood it, done in a certain writing style. It's narrated, illustrated in writing... much like reading a novel. You are a performer and your RP partner is your audience. Just having SLex with someone on SL is not roleplaying.
my L$.02 :)
LOLing so hard at the use of R2D2 as nipple pasties - fantastic accessorizing there Tym!
ReplyDeleteAs for how I define roleplaying, for me its when you're playing a role (ha that clears that up then :P). Its when you're pretending to be someone else and playing along with others who are also pretending, with a set of rules usually.
SL is a virtual world and though some people use it as a game and to roleplay there, I do not, its not for me. I feel the same as you that SL is an extension to my real life. My avatar might look a bit different to my human form, but my personality, behaviour and attitude are the same as in the real world :o)
Oh and, I'm not surprised your ex-bf doesn't read your blog, how would he ever have time when he's busy organzing his "boinking" bathtub orgies? ;)
I don't think that just being in SL means that you're roleplaying. I think "roleplay" is something very specific. Even if we have different names in SL than our real names or our avatars look nothing like our real world selves, it's still us.
ReplyDeleteRoleplaying is acting. It's improv theater. It turns SL into an actual game. But I think roleplay should be left at the sim you're roleplaying in. If you're roleplaying with another, then you both have to be on the same page with how the stories go. In your case, I think you were completely justified in NOT wanting your boyfriend to sleep with everyone when it wasn't being done as a part of the story you were both creating. I think he knew exactly what roleplay was. He just didn't think he had to stick by the rules. Saying that he didn't know the difference was a crock.
Role play to me is any situation in which you're manifesting a persona other than your own, and I don't necessarily think it has to be scripted.
ReplyDeleteAs Roisin, I'm pretty much acting as myself, manifesting as much of my RL self as I can (albeit in a slightly younger and prettier package). As my alt, both my persona and my looks are different. I, as the typist, identify less with the alt than with Roisin; and we consider alt's relationship with her BF a combination of friendship and role play.
Heh - I'll keep my comment short and simply point you to THIS:
ReplyDeletehttp://slreview.wordpress.com/2008/01/09/sl-trysts/
Have I ever told you how much I love to read your blog? :-) To me how I act day to day is my real second life. Yes it is a bit different than my RL, but SL allows one to do so many things they could not in RL. So while I may want to build a custom garden for someone in RL, it would take months and may not get done. Whereas with SL, three days and there it is :-) But the personality and emotions are all me.
ReplyDeleteRole play is when we chose to act out in a different way for fun, and for a limited time. I make sure my lover knows what is happening, though sometimes it can be totally spontaneous (and fun as hell ;) So while I can play at being a slave master or a crazed BDSM aficionado, I know that is not me and my partner does too. One could rp in the bedroom, private skybox or a dedicated sim.
However one important thing for me personally. If I am dating someone exclusively, I do see having multiple sex partners even as “role play”. Maybe if it were the right unique situation agreed on by both. But to me, in that kind of relationship, I just want to be with that one person :-p
Thema & Roisin - Thank you for helping me see that I was not crazy!
ReplyDeleteKat - RP appeals to my theatrical tendencies. That was the fun part of Gor for me - learning all the complicated rules and playing the part. And OMG the costumes! Yea - that is much more fun to me than any bathtub orgy.
Alicia - You are so sweet and innocent. Watch out for naughty men trying to slip SLoofies into your Diet Pepsi.
Awwww, Jerremy! That is why you are my boyfriend!
So this means you figured out the real reason I read your blog? *blushes*
ReplyDeleteAll I can say about the roleplaying is that I agree with you.
And fabulous nip accessories dear, wonder if we can use that in a future fashion show somehow? I'm pretty sure if Kat reads this she just spit her tea. lol
Angel!!! LOL! To clarify: I *DO NOT* think that people who read my blog are doing it because they want to boink me.
ReplyDeleteBoinking is boinking. Roleplaying as an excuse to boink is a not-so-clever excuse. No comment on the rest. *cough*
ReplyDeleteCasius - so you would come to my restaurant? :-P
ReplyDeleteLOL, SLoofies. Would they force my skirt off and have me saying things in green against my will?
ReplyDeleteslreview - interesting link.
ReplyDeleteAlicia - With Sloofies, you'll wake up in a strange sim not knowing how you got there, and your chat bar will be very sore.
Here's what I think... if you're doing something that you wouldn't do in real life - because it's not physically possible in some way - then you're role playing.
ReplyDeleteIE: Vampires - while yes, it's possible to actually bit someone and suck their blood *shudders* - you would just be weird and not actually doing it to provide sustenance to your cold, lifeless body.
IE: Gorean slaves - while yes, it's possible to have a harem of girls who kneel every time you enter a room, the rest of the Gorean lore isn't possible in real life without every women's rights group in the world picketing outside your cave waiting for your warrior self to emerge - not to mention there isn't much to warrior against unless it's traffic to Starbucks.
IE: Furry-esque activity - while yes, you could rent a smelly fur costume from the local "Halloween IS Us," you would actually just be a man in a big purple sheep suit and not really an animal of some sort.
All the above? Role Play.
BUT, if you and your SLove like to cuddle in your scripted bathtub while listening to Timberlake and waxing mushy on voice, you're doing something that would be humanly and physically possible if it weren't for 1. A real life entanglement you can't free yourself from 2. A geographic hindrance that can not be overcome.
In my opinion, that's not role play.
Whew.
Kristianne - wonderful analysis!
ReplyDeleteTraffic to Starbucks really is a b*tch though. Seriously.
Sorry Tymmerie, I've kind of been out of it and I know I haven't been blogging and hardly looking at anyone elses, so I"m late.
ReplyDelete*cough*
When I began SL, I wanted to RP Gor because I had done it in previous RP environements but SL is obviously much more immersive and visual.
(Everythign else was done in text only)
But I found that many people very much confuse the AVATAR with the role he/ or in my case she - with the role play character. This is not the case.
They are not teh same imo. And they are not in my experience. (I even had separate aol or instant message accounts for me and my character in times past)
I also found that because people confuse the AVATAR with the CHARACTER, that they then assume that anywhere their AVATAR is, is a place to RP because they are there.
This is one reason some of the gaming communities in sl use a titler that says ooc. So people do not assume the person is actively role playing at that moment. Like, while they are shopping for clothes.
There are many problems inherent with this assumption that the avatar is the character. One being, some Gorean games for example, do not want the kajirae to leave the community. (This is intended usually for the character's protection) which is inconvenient for the Avatar. And the only other choice is to have 91038590826434 alts which gets expensive very quickly.
So, it seems like to me that this former bf, assumed that his avatar was his character and therefore he could be role playing any time anywhere. Which is just an excuse to boink as many women as will let him.
/me laughs. Another problem for me and finding Gorean rp worth having was the assumption by many players that I the writer of the character should be willing to rp with anyone without any conversation at all. That wasn't happening so I gave up.
Sorry didn't meant o write a book her.
I define role-play as assuming the role of another identity, whether it is in a virtual world or in the real world. I tend to get deeply into my characters no matter the game; SL, SWG, EQ2, AoC. In my time writing for Warcry I have gotten to see many styles of roleplay and types of roleplayers. I tend to break the types of RPers I meet down into scripted and non-scripted. A scripted RPer writes out the whole story, gives people lines to say, and the story always has the same end. Non-scripted RPers tend to set a stage and see where it takes them.
ReplyDeleteAs far as your one time master, he is the one that does not understand RP. Gorean warriors don’t just time travel to a beach front condo to have master/slave relations with slaves dressed in contemporary slut wear. He was looking for something he didn’t already have and possibly OOC recruiting for his harem. I can understand the lure of Gorean as a guy but it must come with a cost. Staying in character is a must and boinking others in a OOC setting is just looking for porn not RPing