Blog, blog, where the role players are
Originally published at The Preternatural Post. Please leave any comments there.
The role play universe is huge. There are many places and ways to explore it. For instance, I began my existence on Twitter with TBRP then moved to LiveJournal, then switched to WordPress, then added Tumblr. Along the way I tested the waters on MySpace, Posterous, TypePad and Blogger/Blogspot. I’ve also created, and lost, a couple of Facebook profiles. I ventured onto roleplayer.me and some of the dedicated RP boards and forums and sought to add different facets to my character through Polyvore, Formspring and Blip, among others. Now I’ve returned to LiveJournal and Twitter.
My travels are not unusual. The online world is littered with abandoned blogs and profiles or role play characters. By the same token, however there are places where role players thrive and have created enduring and vibrant communities. The trick is finding what works for you. Below are the pros and cons of each of the platforms I’ve tried as I see them.
The big bird of the microblogging world is an amazing place to rp. The best thing about Twitter is the instantaneous interaction. If you’re online and the person(s) you are rping with are online it’s almost like having an actual conversation…just typed rather that spoken and heard. You can also share images and to some degree audio. Of all the platforms, Twitter also seems to provide the largest “audience” that is people who actually “watch” or rather read other peoples storylines and interactions.
Twitter isn’t perfect, however. One of the biggest drawbacks is the 140 character limit per tweet. There are ways around this, Twitlonger and Posterous are two that come to mind, but at its core, Twitter is essentially a place of one-liners and short phrases, not to mention short attention spans and tempers.
Twitter is, and probably always will be my home. Like most RPers however, I go through periods when I am barely visible, interacting only with select people and periods when I am, in essence, all over the place. It just depends on my mood, who’s online and what’s going on.
Tumblr
Tumblr is a logical companion to Twitter RP particularly for those who are part of an active fandom like truebies and Twihards. Of all the platforms, Tumblr is the most user friendly, easiest to customize and interactive. It’s also incredibly easy to share images, audio and video as well as text. Reblogging takes a single mouseclick. Best of all, from a roleplayer’s perspective is the fact that you can have multiple blogs for multiple characters.
The drawbacks for Tumblr take a little while to manifest. The first one most people notice is how challenging it can be to find things, whether on your own blog or someone else’s and the difficulty grows as the amount of content does. Another problem is that you can only “love” and follow people from you initial account. Each character blog can be followed individually, but all your characters follow the same people as your primary account and…everyone knows what your primary account is.
Tumblr is a lot of fun and pretty addicting. It’s a great companion to Twitter but not, necessarily a great place for collaborative story telling or role play because of the challenges of finding content. If you’re a fan, however, it’s almost a must have.
WordPress
The world’s largest blogging platform has a lot to recommend it. It’s easy to use, verstile and has a built-in audience of millions. It is also designed to help you organize and keep track of content, whether it’s text, images, audio or video. In addition, WordPress allows multiple users to access and contribute to the same blog, which is great for collaborative storytelling.
WordPress, like other platform developed primarily for blogging, lacks interactivity. Even if multiple people are contributing to a site or a blog, they can do so without ever actually interacting and what’s the point of role playing if you aren’t interacting?
I love WordPress as a content managemetn system and for blogging. In fact, The Preternatural Post is built on WordPress (not WordPress.com although it began there, it’s now a self-hosted site) and I have nothing but good things to say about it. If, however, you are looking for a trully interactive rp experience, it probably isn’t the platform for you, though it can be a great companion to more interactive forums.
Facebook works as well for role players as it does for real people. It’s a fantastic way to share news and information and connect with friends, even make new ones.
The central problem with rp on Facebook is that the Facebook powers that be don’t want want us. The regularly scour their database of users deleting and disabling the profiles of role play characters. Further, if you use Facebook Pages for your character you will find that the lack some of the functionality and personality of regular Facebook profiles significantly dilutes the rp experience and makes it less enjoyable.
Once upon a time, role players were a significant community on Facebook. Not anymore. Though some may stubbornly cling to there profiles and pages (because there was a time when NOT having a Facebook presence marked you as some kind of social pariah or rp neophyte) it isn’t really the best or most friendly place for role players.
LiveJournal
LiveJournal is a tough nut for newcomers to crack however, for those who are serious and creative about their rp it is a wonderful haven. Like WordPress, LiveJournal is an excellent manager of all types of content. Although each journal belongs solely to one account, the ability to quickly change userpics allows a single user to have multiple characters active. Just make sure you pick a fairly generic username initially rather than having one dedicated exclusively to one character.Unlike other platforms, LiveJournal also supports the creation of communities which provide many opportunities to interact with other RPers in the same fandoms.
Customizing LiveJournal is not as easy as customizing Tumblr or Twitter. In addition some features are only available to those with paid subscriptions. As an established platform, there are plenty of role players and RP communities available however these may or may not be friendly towards newcomers. Personally, I have found it rather difficult to break in although it is happening slowly and after a couple of false starts. I also get the impression there are more “rules” both written and unwritten for LiveJournal RP than there are for other platforms.
The role players most likely to enjoy and benefit from LiveJournal are those with a network of friends who are already active there and who play at least one original character (OC). Yes there are canon characters from a variety of fandoms on LiveJournal, but the real strengths of this platform, from controlling access to content and strict rules regarding crediting creators and copyrights really stand out for OCs. This is definitely a space to consider if you are creative and interested in taking your rp to the next level perhaps even creating your own rp-verse.
Which One?
I can’t and won’t tell you which platforms are right for you. The only way to really find out is by trying them and seeing what works for the kind of role play you want to do and the time you can put into it. As I mentioned, I primarily use Twitter and LiveJournal because I am something of an exhibitionist and like the interactivity of Twitter but am also a creative writer who likes the added security and screening options of LiveJournal. I do use Tumblr for fluffy fangirl stuff and reblogging the content other I RP on Twitter with post. It’s a balance that works for me, but I’m not arrogant enough to think it will work for everyone. If you have a balance that works for you, wonderful! Please share it with us, after all, you can’t make new friends and discover new worlds if you don’t know what out there waiting for you!