Being an essay on Audiencing

[thesuzukimethod]

There was actually some pretty informative talk on what it meant to be Audience now as compared to the early days in that recent "Let's Talk About Stuff" post. As I still consider myself Audience in addition to now being a player (and am apparently a model Audience member?), I figured I'd write up my thoughts. Ignore or not, whichever you like; I

Comments

[laserdragon]

Aah, well, there's a bit about your tone I would disagree with as well. There is a certain tone of entitlement that I would not necessarily say I agree with in terms of audience's place. Audience heckling and playing fast and lose with the fourth wall are, to me, some very big draws of CFUD. Please don't misunderstand me there. However, I don't think its really "sharing the sandbox" so much as coming to visit our sandbox. I could be wrong here, mind you, but I don't know of a single other RP that allows people who have never aplied for playership (or have applied for playership and been rejected) still participate. And, if there are, I would say that the odds that they are doing it off of CFUD's model are pretty generous. I think some of your points up above are very excellent (such as giving unhelpful information or silly advice), but I think other parts (such as sharing your feelings about life and so forth) well, I just don't think as audience that's really necessary. To many of us, CFUD is a form of escapism. Trust me, if I were a badass demon-hunting schoolgirl in real life, I probably wouldn't be here right now.

The reason we do can do these threads and talk about our feelings is because we apped and got in. For example you said

Later, as I became more involved in developing myself as something that could almost be seen as a character in my/its own right, and as it became increasingly obvious how long I had been there as I was, I began to wonder how players and characters did feel about me.

I don't think you (as an audience) should be thought of a character. If you want to have a character in camp and form camp relationships, then app. Which you did. I know I, for one, was really, really happy to see you as a player, because you definitely have interesting things to add to the game. But, I don't think that "socchan" should be a character. I don't think that "socchan" should form relationships. I just don't think that is the role of the audience.

I agree with you that the place of audience has changed in some ways, but I think a lot of that is because CFUD has changed. Way back when, the point of CFUD seemed to be something along the lines of "get a character you love, MOCK THEM HORRIBLY" Audience heckling was heckling because everything at camp was heckling. However, I disagree with the notion that as camp becomes more serious, so should the audience.

It's not "sharing the sandbox" if we are the sandbox, I guess, is what I'm trying to say.

At least that's my two cents.

[thesuzukimethod]

I guess we're probably going to have to agree to disagree in this case. Or if we could possibly move it to e-mail or something...?

[laserdragon]

Agreeing to disagree is fine by me.

[thesuzukimethod]

Sounds good, then ¦3b

[laserdragon]

Mm, just one more thing to make sure I didn't come off as h8ing audience. I'm not saying that audience doesn't belong, I mean that they are guests. Like going over to a friend's house. Your friend likes you, and wants you to be there, but it doesn't want you to eat all of it's food and then take a shower and plug up the drain. I know, because I've done it. And I'm not allowed to use ilpacock's bathroom anymore.

I.... you know. Like that.

[thesuzukimethod]

Thanks for the re-wording; it did help, though rationally I probably shouldn't have needed it ;)