The Cosmos: Dear John

[Dredge]

Note: This is just a little something I think should be said, this will be the last cosmos before it turns over into a blog so carry on you guys .

THE COSMOS: Dear John

This has been inspired by
http://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&persist_app=1&v=aOfIDtvfmqg

*sigh* Okay, I'm sorry I brought you here on such short notice. But we need to talk, it's about our relationship and the fears I have for it. Now I know my heart you aren't a bad site, you have all these amazing features and additions that are just great and unlike any other website I've ever met before! And when I say I love it I really do mean that I love it! You are sick, a stunner, a real mean mugger. In other words you are the shit! But there's just a few things I need to talk to you about if we are going to continue our relationship and how we proceed from here.

When I first came to you I was a young frightened boy in a ocean of content that I didn't fully comprehend. There was just so much of you to explore and learn to love. I mean when I first learned to use the factory it was one of the happiest days I've had with you! I spent hours just making technology or building programs to create new characters! And those were the days, the days when I felt the most connected to you. I remember the day I made my first sub account, I was so excited I didn't know what to do! You were just so much fun and I just no lifed it for you. But then I joined a major faction...

Now I know what you are going to tell me, that "Aaron, you don't have to join a major faction. It's optional! Just stick to private threads." I'm sorry Chaos, I wish that was true. I really wish that was true. I want to talk about one of your flaws that just keeps bothering me. You are by nature a big game of risk between angry brooding neck beards who have hated each other with an undying passion. It's not an attractive feature but I've done my best to look past it. Let's say you have a new writer and he wants to do a thread on Naboo and kill a bunch of gungans. Now there's nothing wrong with wanting to kill gungans, but he does the thread and blows up something and kills a bunch of people. And now all of a sudden he's getting PMd by members of the faction who own the planet saying he can't do that, cause reasons. This I feel hinders others roleplays with popular planets that are owned by major factions. But in your defense, having this system of factions really brings out the WARS in Star Wars. I feel that you try to come off as this omnipotent site that can cater to all forms of Roleplaying when that's not really the case at all. I feel that you cater heavily towards factions and certain people. Which is another thing I want to talk to you about


Your obsession with people. No no no, not characters. People. I want to deny this chaos, I don't want to believe that you cater more towards other people than the average joe. But... *pauses and sighs* I know that you do. And that hurts me. Now I know I haven't had the best track record in the sanity department but I know this is true. Say if member X has been around the site for a while and has become a popular person with the community and introduces something into the factory or factions, you just immediately flock to him and coddle him throwing your undying support and metaphorical handy Js at him to feed an ego and problem that is one of your biggest ones. You don't care about the little guy who has to claw his way to get an idea noticed, you don't care about the average writer who has errors or can only stretch themselves too far. You care about those elite, that "it crowd" that has been walking around like big Ike on campus getting likes for every word and phrase they post. I hate that about you, I hate seeing good people go unnoticed or get pushed aside in a fight to stay relevant. You don't care if member Y throws out an idea for something new, but if member X throws out the same idea you throw them a god damn parade. And at times it can be really hard to watch

Don't get me wrong chaos, I could go on and on about your flaws and everything that's wrong with you. Hell I could go on about what makes you great, but sometimes I just feel that those many flaws start to damage the essence of what I think roleplay is. I think that roleplay should be telling a story, win or lose it's about the journey, not the destination. And I think somewhere along the way you forgot that. I'm not a saint Chaos, I'm not without my flaws. I've had moments where I have lost it, I've done things that I still regret to this day. And I'm sorry, I'm sorry that I wasn't as good to you as I should of been. I have admitted my faults chaos, my flaws and I'm at peace with them. I know you have all these people who fantasize over you and will defend you to all ends of the earth. But just once chaos, I want you to admit your flaws.

I think why I brought you here is to just sit you down and tell you these things. But before we finish this conversation I want to tell you one last thing. Fuck you, chaos. I love you, but fuck you

 

[The Upright Man]

TL;DR
Points out every problem with every community, ever.

This isn't a Star Wars Chaos related problem, this problem has existed on every single community I've been on. Lord of the Craft, Legend of Aelryth, Clash of Cultures, Clash of Crowns, Holloworld, Unthrandir, BattleForEarth, you get the idea. No matter how unfair it sounds to like someone who has been around longer, it's just natural for us as humans to like someone we have known longer, and better, than those we don't. And you can RP outside big factions, I don't do much around factions, and I know it is better etiquette to not blow random things up. In short;

• Favouritism is a natural human process, and unless we're monks devoted to eradicating these things from our processes, it's kind of hard to ignore.
• Roleplaying is about fun, and respecting one another, this can extend towards asking for permission before blowing something up that may be owned by a major faction, such as gungans. Those pesky slaves.

Though this is not an attack on you, but my two cents from someone who has jumped community-to-community for the past 3 years.

 

[thegreatbeyonder]

• Roleplaying is about fun, and respecting one another, this can extend towards asking for permission before blowing something up that may be owned by a major faction, such as gungans. Those pesky slaves.

I don't know what I find more frightening. The wisdom in your words or the fact it came from a Moisture Farmer.

 

[Nemesis Khurshid]

I'm admittedly pretty close to being part of that 'it crowd'. Though I was more of that before my first big leave from the site. Apparently I'm humorous. As far as I am aware, I do try to work with newer/lesser known writers. Unfortunately I do know that I prefer to write with people I know. Because, you know, I have an idea how well (or not well) it will go.

Sometimes straws don't work. They try to float up, moving to the side of the cup. And we try to use them regardless. Sometimes we're to stubborn to fix it. People look at us weird because we try so hard to use the straw without moving it back into place. We try to be so casual. It doesn't work.

Eventually we understand this. We learn that bendy straws are the best of the best. When they aren't available, what do we do?
We bend the normal straw. For once we use our hands and bend it to our will. Then it fits our needs. However, the second we can use a naturally bendy straw again, we do. Because we know it will work. Why bother with a straw you might have trouble with?

It's a human thing. Humans are weird, bendy straws are superior, and Chaos is natural.
All we can do is rebel against human nature and hope that there are enough bendy straws in the box to make up for the non-cooperative non-bendy straws.

This long, drawn-out metaphor that started out as an excuse to use the above gif is brought to you by:
Rise Above Normality.

Sincerely,
That one nerf herder who calls children spawnlings,
Chris

 

[Dredge]

[member="Corwil Branpri"]
Can't say I've been around different communities, I just came from TGC then joined this place when I got back from boot. I feel so nooby and inexperienced now. </3 T-T

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Dredge"]
I kind of expected this.

 

[Nemesis Khurshid]

[member="Dredge"]
Hey, it's all good man. We all started somewhere. Some of us have been on a dozen sites (or have been RPing for a dozen years), others of us here are just starting out. Everyone learns things as they go. Lessons are most commonly learned through experience. The problems you talked about here are universal. It's a sad thing, but it is fact. We can hold on to hope that things will change. We can do our best to make that change.

The first step?
Admitting the issue. You did that bro. And while most people are already aware of it, you have further brought it to attention. Maybe it won't last long... but people are going to notice. Hopefully they'll start to pay more attention to what they do. Change starts as a little thing. Eventually though... it turns into something far bigger.

Go say hi to a new RPer. Write with them, help them out, work with them. Pay attention to everyone. Let people know they've been heard.
You do that, and people will start doing it to.

 

[Tefka]

 

[Dredge]

[member="Tefka"]
YUS!! SPACEY IS BACK!!

[member="Valiens Nantaris"]
Don't worry I'm not freaking out lol, just a few thoughts and ramblings that my friends keep complaining to me about. I'll get to the positive stuff, eventually...

 

[Tathra Khaeus]

[member="Tefka"], you're cool and all that.
But you aren't Francis Underwood cool.
*Waits for 3rd season*

 

[thegreatbeyonder]

It's impossible to make everyone happy and truly not everyone is going to like every aspect about a community. It might not mean much but there are people out there who do try to cater to everyone but a huge problem is that a lot of roleplay is selective. As much as others might want to include everyone in some way, they can't always include them in the way those people want. A Sith faction is hardly going to include a Jedi Knight as an equal (well maybe) without you first going darkside or fighting them.

I'm not saying that RP communities develop cliques, but they develop groups. That's how it works. If you play any shooter long enough you'll invite people who you play with frequently. Goes with anything from video games to roleplay, to school, to work. It's socializing. That's how it works. And sometimes people don't include others who ideas and agendas don't match. If that's the case flexibility is not impossible, it just requires compromise.

I'm still quite new so maybe this is arrogant of my to ask: Do you actually try to compromise with others? Set up PMs? Add them to Skype? It goes a long way when you throw your OOC self out there as a friend.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

 

[Dredge]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]@

http://i.imgur.com/WeBCWYj.gif

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

 

[Nemesis Khurshid]

I feel like I'm missing something important.
...
Time to resort to what I do 'best':
Gifs.

 

[Dredge]

[member="Lesana Grexavis"]

It's just something that I've noticed and I can't say I go and blow up gungans for the fun of if without asking someone's permission. I think the most I've ever done is do a surprise terrorist attack on the protectorate during the climax of my mental instability. Though it was more of a pre planned attack for a "Surprise Surprise all in your eyes." Kind of feel. I've just seen people try to kill off their characters on a owned planet and have gotten PMs telling them to move it somewhere else even though it wasn't damaging to any of the factions properties.

 

[Dredge]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

http://www.imgion.com/images/01/Yo-make-me-smile.gif

 

[Hailyn]

[member="Dredge"]
I joined three months and two days ago. I used to be the "average joe" that you mentioned being ignored. Now, I'm not sure if it was by sheer luck or something, but I'm still that average person, I just happen to apparently be a bit more well known now. It may seem like some people are favored just because everyone knows them, but that just puts a lot of pressure on those people to keep up an image and reach the community's expectations - even though nobody really cares and there are no expectations. I used to have to sit and talk with my younger siblings about popularity at school, and explain to them that it really wasn't anything special to be "popular". It's stressful, it's nerve-wracking, and the moment someone puts you in a position that really puts you in the spot light every so often, you freak out.

Obviously this little rant doesn't apply to everyone, but I wasn't really expecting to suddenly become member of the month (I honestly didn't even know that there was a MoTM thing here at the time) and I'm sure there are tons of people who suddenly get shoved out into the proverbial stage to look pretty and say nice things. Clearly some people handle increases in popularity well, I'm sure Cira is used to it by now, but for a majority of us it is stressful even when you aren't being seen in person.

And while I can actually say that you don't need a major faction to fit in - you really don't, you could actually be much more intimidating by standing on your own - I'll let you decide that for yourself. I joined the One Sith some weeks after I joined Chaos because I heard through the grapevine that they were an interesting group and IC history and stuff they had written down in their resources drew me in. It had nothing to do with needing a faction, I was actually going to be completely without a faction until I was invited by someone to join a minor faction that was almost as new as I was. Around the same time as that I joined the OS, ended up parting ways with my former faction, and since then I've built a character that has ambitions and goals to do with both my faction and the galaxy at large. I suppose you could say that my character would not be the same as she would have been if I was not in a faction through this entire time, yes, but that isn't to say that she couldn't have been something more.

Moving on to groups, I will completely admit that we segregate ourselves into groups. Sometimes it might be because of people, I've seen rather scathing comments of certain writers that I quietly ignored, and other times it might be because a writer has a disposition to dislike certain characters, such as Sith or Jedi. If someone told me they hated Sith characters from an OOC point of view and disliked role-playing with them, it wouldn't be the first time I've seen something like that in my inbox or skype or just in a discussion thread. I don't have any hard feelings about it, I get it. There are some people I'm not fond of, and even though I try to keep my thoughts to myself and still role-play with pretty much anyone if I have the time to do so, I still find myself avoiding replying to looking for group threads.

Now I've not been around long enough to really know what the whole portion of ideas is about, as so long as you have a solution for a proposition your idea will generally be heard, so I won't comment on that.

All in all, I believe every action has a reaction, every feeling has a flaw, and every choice has a consequence. We may be loathe to admit it, but if we find ourselves being treated in a way we don't want to be treated, perhaps we should try and take a step back to look upon our choices and try to see how we got to where we are. Nine times out of ten when I end up getting people worked up about me, and I think back to everything that has led up to that point, I find there was something I did that if I were them I would be upset about as well. Sometimes the argument of freedom of role-play needs to be considered from two perspectives, or at least objectively. It only works when you aren't stepping on someone's toes. That's how it works anywhere if you're trying to be fair. And fair is good. Fair is right. Don't try to get rid of that.

 

[Dredge]

[member="Silara Vantai"]

I agree with what you are saying, and I think that our experiences have been a lot different in life and in roleplaying. I am needless to say not the same person I was when I first came here and it's not a person I want to go back to being ever again. I think by nature I don't like to sit down and see something wrong and not point it out to people. I think that it's worth the ridicule or the gifs and memes to simply say "hey this is wrong. We should do something about this." And I know favoritism is human nature but a wink and a nod and saying.

"Oh that's just how things are everywhere." Still doesn't really make it right you know? I don't know how whiney or a Social Justice Warrior I come off as but there are problems with anything and I think that sitting back and just doing nothing is the first and last step to allowing things to carry on as they are.

About the site I think that factions are a fun cool thing but I think sometimes it gets to the point where things can just get kind of stupid. And to an extent you are right, you don't need a faction. But the existence of them can sometimes become this hindering agent when trying to tell a story with friends. It's just hard to sit there and not do something when all your life you've been told to say something or do the right thing. Not the best thing, but the right thing.

 

[Hailyn]

[member="Dredge"]
I'll give you that, I just wanted to give the insight of someone who was suddenly thrust into what felt like the center of attention and explain that being favored by the community, if you can even call it that, isn't really anything outside of a few likes here and there. I can say right now that I try very hard to maintain a favorable position, almost like a politician in office, with the community. Sometimes I wonder if some of the people I talk to even care what I have to say, and honestly that scares me much more than the prospect of becoming irrelevant - because in the end it doesn't really matter to me what happens to a character or my popularity, it matters more how people feel about me. I don't know why, maybe I'm just insecure. I just feel that while your points are completely valid, there is also another side to the story that goes unnoticed that if you had experienced it would perhaps change your view on this issue. I'm not saying we should just call it "Kids will be kids" or something like that, and just ignore it, but it certainly isn't the damaging social stigma that it is made out to be.