Kami Harbinger

A piece of paper and a pencil are not a role-playing game.

They can be used to play a role-playing game, along with some kind of randomizer and rules.

They can also be used to perform many other activities.

You don't have to use the pencil; maybe you just want to make origami. That does not make paper and pencil an origami set. You don't have to use the paper; maybe you just want to stab someone in the eye. That does not make paper and pencil an assassination toolkit.

If you express the notion "I am convinced that pencils and paper exist for the purpose of playing RPGs", you will be considered eccentric, at best. Have fun with that, but don't expect anyone else to agree with your argument.

I design pencil-and-paper and computer RPGs semi-professionally. I've thought and written longer and harder about RPG theory than most people ever should. Playing an RPG doesn't expose you much to theory. Designing them does.

SL doesn't even come equipped with the most basic tools you would need to do any serious roleplaying. You can't change your name; without that, you cannot change your identity when your current character dies or you join another game. There's no easy way to store stats and adjust them; without that, you have only the abilities your body actually has. Action LARPs have much the same problem, which is why most LARPs are now the Camarilla-type where you just say what you're doing while standing up instead of sitting down. There's no public randomizer in the chat system. SL has no objective. Just like life, you do what you want to make you happy for yourself.

You can build all these things, and play an RPG with them. I'm working on that, myself. But unless you seek out those tools and activities, what you're doing is not a role-playing game.

What people do most of the time in SL is play-acting. It's the thing you do when you're making stuff with Lego(tm) blocks, or terrorizing the citizens of your nightmarish cyclopean SimCity, or putting on a mask for a masquerade party, or dressing up to go out clubbing.

Darren Zenko writes:

" Yeah, the American Dream dies hard, even in the limitless realms of the fantasynet. Check out any neighbourhood in SL; beyond the lingerie malls, porno shops, casinos and cheesy streaming-audio discotheques populated by animatronic dance-campers, there lies hillside after crammed-up hillside of participants' personal palaces, vast favelas of countless bleak McMansions furnished with virtual Nice Things and idle cyber-sextoys.

All the power of completely flexible VR with no pesky laws of physics, and all most folks can dream up is a neo-Tudor split-level with a baby grand in the foyer and a couple of DOGGYSTYLE M/F fuck-simulators in front of the fireplace."

I don't think that that's so bad, myself. What people want is to live the millionaire lifestyle. Gambling, drinking (bring your own booze--I sure do!), clubbing, fucking, and owning a nice mansion. No responsibilities, no chores, and the taxes are reasonable.

The only thing missing is fast cars, yachts, and private aircraft; you can buy those, but vehicles mostly suck in SL. My Cubey Terra Ornithopter is fun to fly because it's slow and low-prim enough that it runs okay even crossing sim borders, but it doesn't really satisfy my urges for fast cars zooming down the interstate.

Admittedly, I'm abnormal. The "dream houses" I've built so far are a recreation of KUOI-FM, the college radio station I used to DJ at, a giant hollow tree, and a dungeon (which will be the site of a game I'm building). I'm not the mansion type... But most people are, and I don't knock 'em for it.