Sylar - Gabriel Gray

I was chatting with the LJ developers about including role-playing in the search categories for LJ. These guys are awesome, and we had a long chat on the subject. Not surprisingly they didn't realize there was RP outside of video games and paper/dice. Now they know what we do around here.

They came up with a few ideas on what to call the category, but they want our help to vote for it. So please go to this entry and vote in the poll.

VOTE HERE VOTE HERE VOTE HERE

Thanks and please spread the word in your RP journals!

I fear that I may be the bad RPer. I lashed out in earlier posts at Chickies #1, 2 and 3. By doing that I may have frightened another RP partner by making her think she couldn’t tell me what she was really feeling about our game and real life issues she is dealing with. I hope that isn’t the case, and if it is, Christ I suck ass.

I don’t rant unless you’ve got it coming, and you’re a really, really bad player. I reserve that for the stalkers, the Mary Sues and the people who can’t tell game from life.

If you’re someone I RP with and made friends with outside of game, I hope you know that you can tell me the truth about everything. I might be hurt for a little bit, but I can grow the fuck up and deal with it. I’ve looked back on a recent conversation, and I’m not happy with what I said there.

I do feel like I’ve crossed the line, and I’m sorry.

A rant about RP/Fanfic over on cult_of_rp

Over on the cult_of_rp or follow this link.

I’ve noticed a trend in a lot of on line role players, and it’s not one people should be rush out to copy. The trend is the inability to separate role playing (RP) from real life (RL). Now I’m not talking about delusional people who think there are vampires hiding in their closets, or that dragons are going to eat them in ways they don’t like. Those people are just crazy.

I’m talking about people who don’t know the difference between the emotions of their characters and their own emotions. As an experienced RPer, I have no trouble separating RP from RL. If someone tells Sylar that they hate him, I don’t assume that they hate me. I also don’t think that having someone RP that they are in love with my character means that the player is in love with me.

Because people – that is fucked up. They are characters. They are not real people, and if you’re basing your emotional state on them, you need to stop sniffing glue, and more than likely drop RP as a hobby.

If you like me as a player/person, that’s awesome, but under no circumstance should you start mirroring the emotions your character feels for me. Trust me; I am not doing that with my characters.

The difference between an OK RPer and a good one is the ability to separate RP from RL. Good players don’t take it personally if the characters don’t like each other. Good players don’t sit back and think they’re going to get some sweet loving from another player because they just RP’d some good smut.

RPing is acting. It’s make believe, and that line should never be crossed. I have some dear, dear friends that I trust, love and adore, but I would NEVER fall in love with them because of the stuff we RP together. Nor would I hate them for other activities during game.

If you can’t tell the difference, stop RPing, go out into the sunlight, and find some real people to interact with. You need it.

Game is Game. The Story is the Story, and Life is Life. They are not the same thing.

I have been RPing for a long time, a very long time. I started RPing with paper and dice before the WEB with REAL people. I was RPing before bulletin boards, PBEM, MMOs and LARPing. I've been writing stories for my characters - all original in Real RP btw - for longer than some of my friends have been able to read. Probably before some of them were born.

The reason I RP is I like getting under the skin of a character, exploring their strengths, weaknesses and everything else that makes them a person. It’s never been about their powers or skills for me. I will often RP a character that I’m going to use in one of my novels, or I will end up writing a novel using an RP character as the star.

On line RP is different. It’s easier to play make believe using characters other people have created. It’s just like being a kid and running around the neighborhood playing Star Trek, which I did when I was a kid. Boy did I play a lot of Star Trek. Getting together with a group of other kids to make believe was LARP (Live Action Role Play) at it’s birth.

RPing a canon character from a TV show or book still allows you to explore the character. That’s why I always go for the more fucked up characters to RP – Sylar, Malcolm Reynolds, Faith, Sawyer, Wesley Whyndam-Price and Krycek. Yeah I like to play with the broken people. I like to play the villains too, because being evil is fun. Also to tell a good cooperative story, someone has to be the bad guy. It’s not all puppies and unicorns in life and since RP is life taken 3 steps further into an alternate reality full of soap opera drama, you need a villain or 6.

I freely admit to being an RP snob, and one thing that pisses me off is being told how, when, why or who my character should be interacting with. In the past couple of months I’ve been asked to stop playing a character I like because it was upsetting another player. Not because I was RPing the character badly, but because I was infringing on another player’s ‘Verse. So I dropped the character. It was no big deal. He wasn’t a primary pup for me anyway.

But then I started having it dictated to me who Sylar could RP with. He was not to snark, punk or be rude to Parkman, Nathan Petrelli or any of the numerous Smurflars, Smutlars and just flat out SUCK ASS Sylars. I was told it was being mean, and I’d be hurting the player’s feelings.

Excuse me, but I’m RPing Sylar. HE IS A VILLAIN. HE HURTS PEOPLE. HE IS A SNARKY BASTARD. That’s playing him right. That’s RPing Sylar. I will not be forced into RPing him like the people he mocks.

I’ve been told I RP him too mean, too evil, too snarky…. Good. That means I’m doing it right. You’re not supposed to like him.

Sure in some ‘Verses he’s mellowing and heading towards redemption like he is on the show. You don’t RP a character for years without there being growth and development. That’s natural for a character just like it is for a human being. But primarily unless I’m involved in a long-standing RP, you’re going to get asshole Sylar.

I’ve also been told I RP Peter too smart. Once again that pissed me off, because I happen to like how I RP Peter. He’s not Sylar smart, because his heart comes first, but he’s not stupid. He’s a Petrelli. He had to survive being Nathan’s little brother in a house full of wolves.

No, Peter is not stupid. He is sweet, and he will die for a stranger. Which Sylar thinks is stupid, by the way, but it’s in character for Peter. Trust me; it is a bitch for me to RP the good guy.

What this boils down to with me is – don’t nag at me, don’t bitch at me, don’t try to force me into a little box with glitter and bows on it. I will claw my way out. My characters and I will not spend twelve years behind a wall of pretty wrapping paper because you like hearts and flowers. They’d much rather spend those twelve years wrapped in barbed wire being dangled over a tank full of sharks who are in a feeding frenzy from the blood that’s slowly dripping into the water.

When I was a kid I played Star Trek.

I did not have tea parties.

I’d rather watch a movie with explosions, death and blood, than a chick flick.

Sometimes I hate the openness of LJ and other social networks. People who haven’t got a clue get their panties in a bunch and go off about things they don’t understand. They get attention and sympathy from other people who don’t get it either. This makes the whiner feel better, because they are being told they were right, they were a victim, that they were blameless…

Well world that’s bullshit.

Friction only works if you’ve got something to rub against. Try clapping one hand. It doesn’t work.
( Read more... )

I've discovered that I just don't enjoy trying to be part of a big story on Twitter. The nature of the medium does not work for me. I prefer putting my RPing effort into LJ and writing fics. So on Twitter, I'm going to only run short scenes and acts that are one shot deals. No more ripples in a pond. I'm going to treat RP on Twitter the way I do writing a short fanfic. It's not canon. Whatever version of Sylar I decide to play in a scene, is up to me and whoever I'm RPing with.

So no more Twitter 'Verse... A 'verse is too big to be wasted there...

If you're on Twitter, and you want to RP a scene, just let me know. Anything goes.

I was going to have my own little rant on a soap box, but then I read beshter's. In true Sylar fashion, I steal her work to share with you. I have been RPing with beshter for so long - on line, PBEM and paper/dice. One of these days we might even end up LARPing if I'm bound and gagged and forced to do it.

( The best RP guide/rant of all time:  )