Comments on: Out Of My Head http://do-or-do-not.com/content/out-of-my-head Sat, 09 Jul 2011 20:09:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Allen http://do-or-do-not.com/content/out-of-my-head/comment-page-1#comment-372 Allen Sun, 21 May 2006 21:22:21 +0000 http://thunderdog.com/?p=257#comment-372 <p>Jeff: Funny that you mention that you got a love for writing from your RPG days. I don't think you're alone there. Even though I've never really been a GM (certainly not for a large group of players), I can definitely see how running a game and writing a novel or short story or comic book or what-have-you are fundamentally the same process, though with differing levels of audience participation in mind. In fact, I think this would be a good point for my good buddy Brian pipe in...</p> <p>Saundra: See, I think your approach is just fine — even if it's based on you, it's still <b>not</b> you. I tend to try to replicate Real Me as closely as I can, which seems to totally defeat the point of RPGs. If I ever get a chance to play another MMO (you'd think it'd be likely, since I work for a company what makes 'em), I might have to really try to branch out and come up with someone who is at the very least Ultimate Me if not Not At All Me.</p> Jeff: Funny that you mention that you got a love for writing from your RPG days. I don’t think you’re alone there. Even though I’ve never really been a GM (certainly not for a large group of players), I can definitely see how running a game and writing a novel or short story or comic book or what-have-you are fundamentally the same process, though with differing levels of audience participation in mind. In fact, I think this would be a good point for my good buddy Brian pipe in…

Saundra: See, I think your approach is just fine — even if it’s based on you, it’s still not you. I tend to try to replicate Real Me as closely as I can, which seems to totally defeat the point of RPGs. If I ever get a chance to play another MMO (you’d think it’d be likely, since I work for a company what makes ‘em), I might have to really try to branch out and come up with someone who is at the very least Ultimate Me if not Not At All Me.

]]> By: Saundra http://do-or-do-not.com/content/out-of-my-head/comment-page-1#comment-371 Saundra Sun, 21 May 2006 20:48:40 +0000 http://thunderdog.com/?p=257#comment-371 <p>Used to do tabletop, now I do MMO (too old and lazy to try LARPing at this late date,) and I like to play More Me when I play. The Insane Me, the Fighter Pilot Me- it's all me, just bigger and better and with a hand-cannon. When I make characters, they're Ultimate Me- what I'd look like if I had control; what I'd wear if I were a night elf, etc.. I get to exercise all three levels of my ego when I RP. it's all me- just More.</p> Used to do tabletop, now I do MMO (too old and lazy to try LARPing at this late date,) and I like to play More Me when I play. The Insane Me, the Fighter Pilot Me- it’s all me, just bigger and better and with a hand-cannon. When I make characters, they’re Ultimate Me- what I’d look like if I had control; what I’d wear if I were a night elf, etc.. I get to exercise all three levels of my ego when I RP. it’s all me- just More.

]]> By: Jeff Newberry http://do-or-do-not.com/content/out-of-my-head/comment-page-1#comment-370 Jeff Newberry Sun, 21 May 2006 19:13:32 +0000 http://thunderdog.com/?p=257#comment-370 <p>Wow. RPGs. I've not played AD&D in years. That's "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" for you neophytes.</p> <p>I played a lot during my sophomore and freshman years in college, and I played during my high school days. My experience was probably a bit different from yours: I had a big gaming group, probably six or seven of us who played on a regular basis.</p> <p>To be clear: we played AD&D in the same way that we played Axis & Allies, Risk, or any chess, for that matter--all of which we did, unashamedly. I can't tell you the number of nights we sat up, listening to <i>Master of Puppets</i> drinking Southern Comfort and Coca-Cola or Natural Light, smoking Marlboro Lights, and gleefully pretending that we were all someone else, sometimes Tojo (Axis and Allies) and sometimes Medvere, the Red Wizard (you get the picture).</p> <p>What did I get out of it is a hard queston to answer. We were all a rather strange group, wounded, outcasts, odd, quirky. Most of us had a dead parent; most of us had considered or tried suicide; most of us had either a moon-tan, the body of The Blob, or both. Believe it or not, some of us even had girlfriends. Not for long and not very often. But--we were familiar with the female sex, if only obliquely.</p> <p>I got out of my RPG experience a love of writing. I loved to make things up and to tell lies--to put it bluntly. I was a horribly liar as a child, and since I make some of my money writing poems and stories these days, I guess you could say that I'm still a horrible liar. I liked (in playing RPGs) to step out of the box I found myself in. I didn't have to be a poor fat kid from North Florida. I could be a brilliant wizard or a fast-talking elf rogue. I could be an assassin (but I wasn't very often. I liked to be good. I suppose I still do).</p> <p>Wow. That's long-winded. Hope that it makes sense.</p> <p>--J</p> Wow. RPGs. I’ve not played AD&D in years. That’s “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons” for you neophytes.

I played a lot during my sophomore and freshman years in college, and I played during my high school days. My experience was probably a bit different from yours: I had a big gaming group, probably six or seven of us who played on a regular basis.

To be clear: we played AD&D in the same way that we played Axis & Allies, Risk, or any chess, for that matter–all of which we did, unashamedly. I can’t tell you the number of nights we sat up, listening to Master of Puppets drinking Southern Comfort and Coca-Cola or Natural Light, smoking Marlboro Lights, and gleefully pretending that we were all someone else, sometimes Tojo (Axis and Allies) and sometimes Medvere, the Red Wizard (you get the picture).

What did I get out of it is a hard queston to answer. We were all a rather strange group, wounded, outcasts, odd, quirky. Most of us had a dead parent; most of us had considered or tried suicide; most of us had either a moon-tan, the body of The Blob, or both. Believe it or not, some of us even had girlfriends. Not for long and not very often. But–we were familiar with the female sex, if only obliquely.

I got out of my RPG experience a love of writing. I loved to make things up and to tell lies–to put it bluntly. I was a horribly liar as a child, and since I make some of my money writing poems and stories these days, I guess you could say that I’m still a horrible liar. I liked (in playing RPGs) to step out of the box I found myself in. I didn’t have to be a poor fat kid from North Florida. I could be a brilliant wizard or a fast-talking elf rogue. I could be an assassin (but I wasn’t very often. I liked to be good. I suppose I still do).

Wow. That’s long-winded. Hope that it makes sense.

–J

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