What has happened?

[xinian Edring]

What has happened to SL?

Ive been away from sl for a little less than a year and it seems like its gone to *****.

I cant seem to find anyone who wants to be social-the best rp places have closed....what is going on?!?!?!?!?!

[Talligurl]

I don't RP, but I love to be social, look me up, but I must warn you right now RL issues keep me away a lot.

[Asadora Summers]

Mmm I know what you mean, Xinian and I agree with your second sentence. I'm not sure what is going on, but I can only guess it has to do with the quality of people that log on these days. More and more people are referring to SL as a 'game' and it's not. I've been in SL for 11 years and never once have I thought it a game. Older residents tend to consider SL as a virtual world, in which it is, but the younger residents reflect that SL is a game. I think that is the problem. 

 

[Nostoll]

[Rino Magic]

Totally agree with Asadora. All new users are THESIMS kind of players. Years ago there was no such fuzz about fashion blogging, pictures. It was all about RP, because, well AV were looking kind of really bad. New users, younger players, don't understand RP, they just use SL as a chat and take to pictures to put in blogs  I have also returned since one month after few years and all my RP sim are gone or empty. 

[Alwin Alcott]

On 3-5-2017 at 3:19 AM, Asadora Summers said:

 but I can only guess it has to do with the quality of people that log on these days.

so that makes the oldies better?... life evolves, so does SL... good old days are gone and never will be back.

[Madelaine McMasters]

 

[Talligurl]

6 minutes ago, Alwin Alcott said:

so that makes the oldies better?... life evolves, so does SL... good old days are gone and never will be back.

So true, nothing ever stays the same and someone always thinks the old way is better, even when the old way was crappy. SL is the way it is because people make it what they want, stop bitching and get out there and make your little corner of it what you want. If it's as great as you think, then you should have plenty of company before long.

[LittleMe Jewell]

23 minutes ago, Rino Magic said:

[...] Years ago there was no such fuzz about fashion blogging, pictures. It was all about RP, because, well AV were looking kind of really bad. [...]

Lots of years ago apparently.  I started in 2007 and while there was a lot of RP, there was also tons of fashion events, blogging, etc...

[Rino Magic]

5 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

Lots of years ago apparently.  I started in 2007 and while there was a lot of RP, there was also tons of fashion events, blogging, etc...

Yes about 8 years ago, really there were youtube videos and bloggers about the latest AV shapes? Ok, well, have sure not looked for them, so there could have been sure, but not like that. 

[Rino Magic]

14 minutes ago, Talligurl said:

So true, nothing ever stays the same and someone always thinks the old way is better, even when the old way was crappy. SL is the way it is because people make it what they want, stop bitching and get out there and make your little corner of it what you want. If it's as great as you think, then you should have plenty of company before long.

 

 

I agree with you, old ways are not better,  I LOVE the new bento AV and how it all looks more realistic now. Even I have started to make now pictures of my AV   I just feel bad about so many sims gone and SL having half of the people online. 

And about RP, in fact I did just open my place for it, after having seen that all my old places gone  

[Asadora Summers]

I'm not sure, but I could have sworn that I heard the voice of a millennial... ahh, youth... one day you'll get old and you will see the world quite differently then you do now. 

So, enjoy your youth whilst you have it - eventually you'll have to grow up like the rest of us and you'll be grumpy too! 

Life is what you make it. You have two choices: Either make it alone or try to keep adapting and keep hoping to the life that -YOU- really utterly do want. 
Besides, we all use these forums for something - I mean we are all in the same boat. Searching for something.

 

[Talligurl]

One more thing, related to the "RP isn't what it used to be" moaning I hear so much, Anything will decline if it does not constantly attract new people, and in my own personal experience with RP, it isn't very new person friendly at all. I thought about doing RP once, I found a cute little RP community and could see myself being a part of it. I went there was walking around when I saw another girl so I tried to talk to her about the town. Mind you I was talking to her about the town in SL, as if we were two people who just met on the street, and started a conversation. She told me she didn't engage in OCC, and I needed to look at the website and send and questions in a note card to an admin. I didn't know what OCC was, but I researched online, and discovered that apparently I couldn't just go up to her and ask if she lived there, I needed to write a whole paragraph and mention what the wind was doing with my hair, which leg I had most of my weight on, and what I was doing with my eyes.

Anyway I did my research and got an application to join the RP, it had lots of questions about my style of RP, which I answered the best i could based on everything I had read about it online, and sent it in. I never heard from them again. i guess they could tell I was a newbie and didn't want to deal with it. I do not know if this is typical or not, bu tI know if it happened to me it happened to others, and if you are turning off the new people in this way, your numbers are going to shrink, because in every group people leave due to life's issues, People get busy, they get new jobs, they lose their internet, they even die. You cannot survive as a group if the only recruiting that is done is an attempt to steal experienced participants from other RPs.

[JessiSweeney]

1 hour ago, Talligurl said:

...I needed to write a whole paragraph and mention what the wind was doing with my hair, which leg I had most of my weight on, and what I was doing with my eyes...

 

(emphasis mine)

I tried to rejoin a community after spending some serious time there before. I left and wanted to come back.

At first the RP was pretty much straight forward "Nice town here" "TY. If you have questions feel free to ask" kind of RP. No paraRPing required.

So I come back and, much like you, fill out an application that asked the same type of questions. I responded and was invited for an interview (or I should say "interview"). From the get go, I'm answering their questions ('member, we be RP'ing here now) and to them, I'm not answering to their liking. I'm not describing my movements or immediate area. I tell them that I'm answering the questions, that is what matters. Nope, not to them.

They want everything described (what I had for lunch was probably on the list, I dodged that bullet). I'm thinking "WTF. Are we not RP'ing NOW?" I decided that the time was being wasted and ended the "interview".

ParaRPing is fine if that's the type of role one wishes to have. But to some (like me) appreciate the give and take, Spontaneity and flow. Some don't wish to wait two minutes for a paraanswer to the question "did you feed the cat?" . Either you did or didn't. Then go from there.

RP is what you make it to be. Exciting and fun or dull and dreadful.

 

Edited May 6, 2017 by JessiSweeney

[Madelaine McMasters]

1 hour ago, Talligurl said:

I needed to write a whole paragraph and mention what the wind was doing with my hair

It was wrapping it around his throat, saving me the effort. Whoever said "an ill wind blows no good" has never stood upwind.

1 hour ago, Talligurl said:

which leg I had most of my weight on

His left, I think. I'm not sure, I was distracted by his screaming.

1 hour ago, Talligurl said:

and what I was doing with my eyes.

Squinting, they were bloodshot and the noon day sun was starting to cauterize them.

[Talligurl]

I get the whole paraRP thing if you are still back in the day when the internet was new and computers just sent back and forth text. There was no other way to set a scene back then, but today we have everything visually simulated, so why can't we just focus on interacting within the virtual environment as if it actually exists and have what seems to me a more realistic RP?

[Skell Dagger]

50 minutes ago, Talligurl said:

There was no other way to set a scene back then, but today we have everything visually simulated, so why can't we just focus on interacting within the virtual environment as if it actually exists and have what seems to me a more realistic RP?

Even with everything visually set out before me, I'll still set up a scene regardless. Several years ago in Crack Den, I stood behind a club that held a few avatars who were standing around, doing nothing. Nobody else was around. Nothing was happening. I got within chat range of those avatars, rezzed a battered old open guitar case, an amp, and a guitar. Then I typed what many of you would probably regard as a hellishly long-winded and boring wad of text, as follows:

Setting the heavy amp down on the sidewalk close to the wall, Skell unclips the guitar case and crouches down to extricate its precious cargo.

With the guitar resting across his knees he looks up and then straightens, hooking the strap around his shoulder. He drags the open guitar case closer to him and glances down at the few coins and crumpled low-denomination notes that he’s stuck to the inner lining (he’s not dumb after all). Resting one booted foot on the open lid of the case he begins to tune up.

After a few minutes he leans down to plug the guitar into the amp, confident that he’s tuned to as close to perfection as he can. The sound is louder now, sweeter; a warm reverb through the concrete and bricks around him and he closes his eyes in momentary satisfaction, drawing the pick thoughtfully across the strings.

Moments later he begins to pick out the opening notes to Metallica’s “Low Man’s Lyric”. He’s not going to sing, but he’s worked out a decent enough all-guitar version of the song, and he closes his eyes as he gets into it, forgetting the occasional passer-by as he usually ends up doing. The slow song drifts down the street: an anthem for his life since he moved here.

A few minutes later, several of those people left the club, came around the back, and started a brilliant RP session that included me. For me (and I think for them) that was a rewarding couple of hours, kicked off because I'd taken the time to set up a scene with a visual of what they couldn't see, but what they would have heard through the walls. I could have just said "Skell stands by the wall with his guitar and plays a Metallica song," but that wouldn't have done a damn thing. I'd have been another rando who was just standing around in the sim.

(And no, not every roleplay session I take part in devolves into me spewing out four paragraphs for each pose! I've always tailored my roleplay to the person or people I'm playing with, unless it's social roleplay where everyone is just complimenting each other ICly on their choice of outfits...)

[Madelaine McMasters]

1 hour ago, Skell Dagger said:

Even with everything visually set out before me, I'll still set up a scene regardless.

I've very little experience with RP, and I doubt I could do something so hellishly long-winded, even for an introduction. I did find myself in the middle of a Gor para-RP group some years ago. I knew they were Gor, but I did not know they were para-RP (I just learned the term para-RP mere minutes ago, after seeing you folks use it). I at least had the good sense to dress in a fashion that might pass for Gorean, but I was wholly unprepared for their style of RP, or RP at all for that matter.

After the OOC intros, I waited. Within minutes, there were paragraphs flying at me, describing the crowd's reaction to the interloper. They were formal and exceedingly detailed. Canon was king and I was in trouble. The first IC sentence out of my mouth was...

"/me inhales deeply, knowing how much she'll be expected to say in one breath."

I waited a moment, then typed...

"/me hiccups"

I bet they regretted their LOLs.

From that point on, I spoke in single sentences, interspersed with hiccups (and attempts to stop them).

I was treated graciously for the hour I was there, but they had to be thrilled when I left.

I don't know how you people do it.

;-).

Edited May 7, 2017 by Madelaine McMasters

[Talligurl]

16 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

I don't know you you people do it.

;-).

I think it is a dying art, killed by the advance of technology, like basket weaving and spelling.  

[Madelaine McMasters]

5 minutes ago, Talligurl said:

I think it is a dying art, killed by the advance of technology, like basket weaving and spelling.  

But it was also an art brought to life by technology, yes?

[Talligurl]

5 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

But it was also an art brought to life by technology, yes?

Technically every art is brought to life by technology, as technology is really any use of material by man, basket weaving is a technology, so technologies bring everything into existence and then when those technologies become obsolete those things start to fade. And someone always laments the fading.

[Madelaine McMasters]

8 minutes ago, Talligurl said:

Technically every art is brought to life by technology, as technology is really any use of material by man, basket weaving is a technology, so technologies bring everything into existence and then when those technologies become obsolete those things start to fade. And someone always laments the fading.

Storytelling must be one of the oldest uniquely human endeavors. The technology of language certainly helped that along, or was it the other way 'round? Gotta love evolution.

I was going to say that the future of storytelling looks bright enough to keep me from lamenting the past, but the news makes me wonder.

[Chic Aeon]

6 hours ago, Rino Magic said:

Totally agree with Asadora. All new users are THESIMS kind of players. Years ago there was no such fuzz about fashion blogging, pictures. It was all about RP, because, well AV were looking kind of really bad. New users, younger players, don't understand RP, they just use SL as a chat and take to pictures to put in blogs  I have also returned since one month after few years and all my RP sim are gone or empty. 

I have been fashion and design blogging for over nine years  with over 4600 posts so that was always here and popular  -- of course you might have missed the long time trend. 

I did role play for less than two hours and hated it.

We all find what we want to find -- or we can. You guys just need to look a little harder :D.

[Skell Dagger]

@Madelaine McMasters Gor is a law unto itself when it comes to RP. I'm an inveterate para-RPer, because RP is pure storytelling for me. But even I've sat there examining my fingernails as I wait for a kajira to finish her 20-paragraph pouring of a single drink. Detailed doesn't even begin to describe some Gorean RP.

[Madelaine McMasters]

15 minutes ago, Skell Dagger said:

@Madelaine McMasters Gor is a law unto itself when it comes to RP. I'm an inveterate para-RPer, because RP is pure storytelling for me. But even I've sat there examining my fingernails as I wait for a kajira to finish her 20-paragraph pouring of a single drink. Detailed doesn't even begin to describe some Gorean RP.

I don't think para-RP would work for me. I'm never happy with what I write. Within seconds of writing anything, I see room for improvement (anything I post here that's longer than one paragraph probably shows that I've edited it.) I'd get caught up in my own undies in para-RP. It's easier to write one line, throw it into the fire and wait for a spark, then respond.

I draw a parallel with my experience engineering feedback control systems. The faster you can measure and respond, the less sophisticated your understanding of the system dynamics has to be.