Post by Zazu on Oct 17, 2006 7:30:55 GMT -5
CONCLUSION
When I first discovered online role-play, it felt comparable to being allowed to step into a favorite book or television show. When I discovered Lion King MUCKing in particular, it was amazing to me how much breadth and depth there was to the world I’d found. I could create a traveling character with many homes, friend to many peoples, and I’d always have something to do. MUCKing gives the writers among us, whether casual, aspiring or professional, a guaranteed audience. It has the capacity to entertain us more than film or even theater, because we’re part of it. Like all role-playing, it allows us to be people and things we can never be in reality, and when we can do this together, and it works well, we can weave for ourselves the illusion that it’s real, and it’s not true after all that we can never be hyenas or civets or lions or zebras, secret agents or traitors, warriors, kings or queens, lovers to dozens, naïve searchers for truth, professionals of a dozen different kinds, wizened old sages, or children again and again. Whatever gave us that idea in the first place must simply not have been telling the full story.
To make it happen you have to care, you have to have drive and initiative, and you have to be understanding and courteous to the people building stories alongside you. I’m amazed by how quickly friendships, even close friendships, can form when people role-play together—it has the capacity to bring people closer together more quickly than almost any other activity. It’s a kind of magic, but it takes work. And playfulness. And perspective. And an open mind.
Make the most of the imagination you have.
—Zazu, Endless Round MUCK
July 31st, 2006
When I first discovered online role-play, it felt comparable to being allowed to step into a favorite book or television show. When I discovered Lion King MUCKing in particular, it was amazing to me how much breadth and depth there was to the world I’d found. I could create a traveling character with many homes, friend to many peoples, and I’d always have something to do. MUCKing gives the writers among us, whether casual, aspiring or professional, a guaranteed audience. It has the capacity to entertain us more than film or even theater, because we’re part of it. Like all role-playing, it allows us to be people and things we can never be in reality, and when we can do this together, and it works well, we can weave for ourselves the illusion that it’s real, and it’s not true after all that we can never be hyenas or civets or lions or zebras, secret agents or traitors, warriors, kings or queens, lovers to dozens, naïve searchers for truth, professionals of a dozen different kinds, wizened old sages, or children again and again. Whatever gave us that idea in the first place must simply not have been telling the full story.
To make it happen you have to care, you have to have drive and initiative, and you have to be understanding and courteous to the people building stories alongside you. I’m amazed by how quickly friendships, even close friendships, can form when people role-play together—it has the capacity to bring people closer together more quickly than almost any other activity. It’s a kind of magic, but it takes work. And playfulness. And perspective. And an open mind.
Make the most of the imagination you have.
—Zazu, Endless Round MUCK
July 31st, 2006