And again
When doing field research there are so many things to consider before you even start writing. How are you going to go about writing the essay? How involved are you going to become with what you are observing? And, not to mention, how are you going to look at everything that happens? This last one is the biggest factor. Personal bias or priviledge, it doesn’t mater what you call it, will always be apparent in your writing, whether you like it or not. How you were raised, or even certain events in your life, it could be a whole range of things, will always affect how you look at things. Are you sympathetic? Are you an insider? Are you aggressive? All of these are contolled by your personal background.
As I start my research, I am beginning to realize that I have more privileges than I thought. I never realized just how much it affects everything I personally do until I did the excersize on Privilege. There are several things that will affecct my resaerch on this topic, including: The fact that I act and am involved with theatre, my age, my family, and my education. Each privilege brings a new something to the table, affecting how each role player not only plays their own character, but how they interact with other role players.
The theatre is my favorite thing on the planet. I love it. Period. So, I guess it’s only natural that I would like role playing of this sort. It’s almost like writing a play to me, even though, in reality, it’s more of a novel. Something I noticed about my theatre friends who role played, including myself, was that we tended to be the ones who moved the plot along. We caused all of the drama (Pardon the pun) and almost always are the ones establishing a plot. I believe because of our extensive studying of through lines, climaxs, and keeping the energy going, even if the scene is a throw away, causes this. It’s actually a good thing. Some of the best role plays I have been involved with have been theatre students. The bad part about this is, I hate it when people who don’t understand through lines and energy try and plot. It never works out. Never. The plots are usually half developed, open ended, and usually pretty stupis. I hate to say that, but it’s true. If I even decide to join, I never stay long, usually getting bored with it before the day is even done.
That’s another thing, how long the role play stays alive. Most role plays will never even make it to day two without a good plot to play off of. Theatre kids are dedicated little things. We love getting into a character, manipulating them, seeing what happens, making them interact, giving them, life. It’s no different than acting, it’s just without bright lights and a stage. Now, of course, this non-theatre kid thing isn’t true for all role plays. there are plents of role plays that are concieved by non-theatre students that are perfectly fine, but, even so, I shy away from them from prior experience. I guess it also has to do with comradeship as well. Different groups and cliques all tend to role play together. You get the occasional drifter, but usually threatre kids stay to the theatre kids and the rest to themselves. We theatre kids take our role playing seriously; we don’t want anyone who isn’t dedicated as we are to even join.
Another big privilege is my age. I’m not quite a child, but not quite an adult either. The other day while chatting with another role player waiting for someone to post, I had called us all adult kids, and it’s stuck. My age group will be forever dubbed ‘adult kids’. I am still young enough to join in younger role plays and old enough to join in more adult ones as well. I am respected by both the younger and older community, as I have been role playing for several years. It’s been one of my biggest hobbies, aside from theatre since seventh grade. So, many of the players I play with have known me for long periods of time. This gives me a big hand up in the roleplaying world. By playing with various different people, you get a reputation. Some are good, some are bad. Mine happens to be really good. I post decent sized posts, I am on at least once a day, unless something unforseen happens, and I have very developed interesting characters. Because of this, I’m also very picky when it comes to choosing a role playing partner, or group. I tend to be very unsympathetic to older role players who can’t quite make a post, or if their character is just all over the place, it’s annoying, and I don’t want to deal with it.
I have a very big, very loud, very open family, and I was raised this way. I tend to be very chatty with other role players, not only as my character, but mostly, out of character (OOC). I love getting to know and befriending my fellow role players, perhaps it’s again the theatre kid in me believing in ensemble, but I think it also has to do with the fact that I like being fairly close to the people I interact with. many of the people (Recent and old) are used to me talking and asking questions, and are very open with me. We consider each other friends, which we really are. If we are going to talk to each other everyday, why not be friends? A few days ago I started a new board and role play, mainly for my field research and partly for fun. When I told them last night about the fact that I was going to be observing them and asking questions, they were all really cool with it. Jamy, one of my closer friends and a very old role playing companion said, “Ask away, Beth, we’re all here at your disposal. But don’t you dare put words in my mouth, or I swear lorelai is going to get it!” (Lorelai is my character in a particular Role play, and my online name is Beth).
Last, but certainly not least, is my education. I believe that I am fairly well educated, and I am. I always use proper grammar (or at least, try to), I spell things correctly, and I am fairly intelligent. As I stated before, even my knowledge of theatre comes from this one as well. It’s fun to write, and I love the fact that you can’t really control what comes next. If you have a good partner, his/her post is always a surprise. This is what keeps people interested.
Roleplaying is a very complicated, extremely fun way to spend your time. I guess that’s why so many people do it. It’s different from your run of the mill, shoot and slaughter everything at sight games, which they also call role plays. I love role playing, and i’m sure you, my readers, will find it fascinating as I first did. I can’t wait to tell you all about the role playing community.
As I start my research, I am beginning to realize that I have more privileges than I thought. I never realized just how much it affects everything I personally do until I did the excersize on Privilege. There are several things that will affecct my resaerch on this topic, including: The fact that I act and am involved with theatre, my age, my family, and my education. Each privilege brings a new something to the table, affecting how each role player not only plays their own character, but how they interact with other role players.
The theatre is my favorite thing on the planet. I love it. Period. So, I guess it’s only natural that I would like role playing of this sort. It’s almost like writing a play to me, even though, in reality, it’s more of a novel. Something I noticed about my theatre friends who role played, including myself, was that we tended to be the ones who moved the plot along. We caused all of the drama (Pardon the pun) and almost always are the ones establishing a plot. I believe because of our extensive studying of through lines, climaxs, and keeping the energy going, even if the scene is a throw away, causes this. It’s actually a good thing. Some of the best role plays I have been involved with have been theatre students. The bad part about this is, I hate it when people who don’t understand through lines and energy try and plot. It never works out. Never. The plots are usually half developed, open ended, and usually pretty stupis. I hate to say that, but it’s true. If I even decide to join, I never stay long, usually getting bored with it before the day is even done.
That’s another thing, how long the role play stays alive. Most role plays will never even make it to day two without a good plot to play off of. Theatre kids are dedicated little things. We love getting into a character, manipulating them, seeing what happens, making them interact, giving them, life. It’s no different than acting, it’s just without bright lights and a stage. Now, of course, this non-theatre kid thing isn’t true for all role plays. there are plents of role plays that are concieved by non-theatre students that are perfectly fine, but, even so, I shy away from them from prior experience. I guess it also has to do with comradeship as well. Different groups and cliques all tend to role play together. You get the occasional drifter, but usually threatre kids stay to the theatre kids and the rest to themselves. We theatre kids take our role playing seriously; we don’t want anyone who isn’t dedicated as we are to even join.
Another big privilege is my age. I’m not quite a child, but not quite an adult either. The other day while chatting with another role player waiting for someone to post, I had called us all adult kids, and it’s stuck. My age group will be forever dubbed ‘adult kids’. I am still young enough to join in younger role plays and old enough to join in more adult ones as well. I am respected by both the younger and older community, as I have been role playing for several years. It’s been one of my biggest hobbies, aside from theatre since seventh grade. So, many of the players I play with have known me for long periods of time. This gives me a big hand up in the roleplaying world. By playing with various different people, you get a reputation. Some are good, some are bad. Mine happens to be really good. I post decent sized posts, I am on at least once a day, unless something unforseen happens, and I have very developed interesting characters. Because of this, I’m also very picky when it comes to choosing a role playing partner, or group. I tend to be very unsympathetic to older role players who can’t quite make a post, or if their character is just all over the place, it’s annoying, and I don’t want to deal with it.
I have a very big, very loud, very open family, and I was raised this way. I tend to be very chatty with other role players, not only as my character, but mostly, out of character (OOC). I love getting to know and befriending my fellow role players, perhaps it’s again the theatre kid in me believing in ensemble, but I think it also has to do with the fact that I like being fairly close to the people I interact with. many of the people (Recent and old) are used to me talking and asking questions, and are very open with me. We consider each other friends, which we really are. If we are going to talk to each other everyday, why not be friends? A few days ago I started a new board and role play, mainly for my field research and partly for fun. When I told them last night about the fact that I was going to be observing them and asking questions, they were all really cool with it. Jamy, one of my closer friends and a very old role playing companion said, “Ask away, Beth, we’re all here at your disposal. But don’t you dare put words in my mouth, or I swear lorelai is going to get it!” (Lorelai is my character in a particular Role play, and my online name is Beth).
Last, but certainly not least, is my education. I believe that I am fairly well educated, and I am. I always use proper grammar (or at least, try to), I spell things correctly, and I am fairly intelligent. As I stated before, even my knowledge of theatre comes from this one as well. It’s fun to write, and I love the fact that you can’t really control what comes next. If you have a good partner, his/her post is always a surprise. This is what keeps people interested.
Roleplaying is a very complicated, extremely fun way to spend your time. I guess that’s why so many people do it. It’s different from your run of the mill, shoot and slaughter everything at sight games, which they also call role plays. I love role playing, and i’m sure you, my readers, will find it fascinating as I first did. I can’t wait to tell you all about the role playing community.