Sunday, February 23, 2014

Consequences

    Consequences. Life has them, yes? They word mostly has the connotation of being associated with bad happenings, but there can be good ones as well. Not the first thing to appear in most people's minds, perhaps, but they can be good at times. But I'm not so much wanting to write about the difference between the connotation and denotation of the word so much as various uses of this word.
    When it comes to the SL roleplay, dare I say, multiverse one of the main rules that's written basically everywhere is: IC actions, IC consequences. Or something similar to that if not that exactly. Now, of course OOC can get entangled at times, sometimes that can be good if it provides for a greater intensity, other times it leads to drama and people getting overly upset for your char insulting them or so. I'm talking about this because being someone who hates upsetting people I care about in RL, the possibility of ill consequences in roleplay leaves me at a sort of cliffhanger. At least it leaves me wondering and feeling kind of mopey for an hour or more, depending on the situation, afterward when it comes to roleplay with people who I connect with on an OOC level. If I don't know who you are, chances are I won't care that much and any of the IC feelings my character has will not translate to me for however temporary a time period. Usually, when something happens in RL/OOC with someone I care for, I can get rather stressed, probably the only thing that actually holds the potential to stress me out. So, as a result, i try to fix it however I can. i try to talk it out, try to get things smoothed enough that whatever guilt I have can be muffled, since it will never fully go away as I know I have upset someone I care for. I'm good with pretending things didn't happen, so that helps, too. And this one trait of mine, not the pretending things did not happen, seems to cross over to my main character; Armalla.
    The fact that follows her as well as myself, makes things...interesting and more like a book that just stops and you have to wait for some months for the next one to come out. (*waits impatiently for Silver Shadows to come out*) But, while I may only have to wait a day, it is different in the fact that there is a sort of connection there, to my character and the one who is usually involved in such situations. I am impatient and basically run thousands of scenarios through my head, wondering just which one will happen. I do that for a lot of things, but this is definitely one of those because it is a story, a cliffhanger, something that's just...having me bounce in place for the energy inside of me while I wait. And i know before anything even happens, Armalla will be thinking of hundreds upon hundreds of ways to fix whatever, even if not her fault directly.
     When it comes to consequences in roleplay, I don't like the bad ones. I don't like them because they make me feel bad for my character, the other character (which is really only ever the same one, he knows who he is,and I know he'll likely read this, too), and the other person. The other person because I know, at least when it comes to one person in particular, they have a certain connection to their character, too. So I just sit there like 'well, damn.' The current consequence that happened today has Malla stressing, and me wondering and feeling a bit bad. See, when it comes to these things, I know I'm like a little puppet master of sorts, but that I'm also only reacting, too. The current situation has to do with something that happened a while back and, while I didn't have to have any sort of consequence come from it, I did because it made sense. I didn't want to, because I knew that it could lead to two rather upset characters. And soon as I more or less made it official, sooner than I had originally planned to since I was still going back and forth on it, I felt bad. I wanted to hug Malla and, preemptively, hug Taeem, the other involved in this situation. I couldn't, but I wanted to. Of course I could have made it ten times worse, but I can't do that. Nope, I have to just do the bit that makes sense because of how long certain things went on and how often, too. I don't like it, but I had to go with what would probably happen if in RL. I feel awful for it, but it was a consequence that, to keep with sense and logic, more or less 'had' to happen.
    There are roleplayers who will not do anything whatsoever that could be thought of as 'bad'. They hate to 'lose'. They hate the possibility of their character not being all happy and peppy or however else they have planned. I'm not saying i try to play the victim, since people who want to always 'lose' are as bad as the ones who always want to 'win', but I don't care if Malla falls a few times. Okay, a lot if I'm honest with myself. A bunch of stuff has happened that has her so far from how she started that I sit and look back and am like 'well...that happened.' And it's not a bad thing, it's development. It seems to happen much quicker in roleplay than in RL, of course, but it still happens in RL none the less. I don't think it actually happens quicker in certain aspects, just it may be more noticeable. But if you look back tow or three years, are you truly the exact same person then as you are now? People seem to forget half the time that people change, and the things that make them fall can make them stronger in the long run. Maybe not always, but it holds potential.
    So I had to make a choice I did not like to make yesterday. I did it, because it was what I basically had 'planned' already. I knew there had to be some consequence because of something else that I didn't decide on so much as the roleplay decided for me, but I kept from the extreme because...well, because I couldn't do that. I couldn't do the extreme. While it isn't really known IC that the extreme didn't happen, I know and that assuages my guilt a little. I hate to do 'bad' things to my characters, whether in roleplay or my books, but sometimes the bad has to happen. It's like when people say 'it hurts me as much as you', the only difference being is that I mean it. I mean, it may not hurt to the same degree or for the same amount of time, but while I'm making whatever split second decision, it does. I'm strange like that, I guess, but I like to think it helps with my writing. I'm an emotional person, I'll admit that, so I think with them more than with logic.
    For any and all of the roleplayers who may read this, remember: always having things go how you plan, doesn't make for the better. Sometimes it's good to cry with your character as you breathe life into their words and actions. Sometimes the 'bad', can make the good seem so much better. I know that something else I have in mind will seem a whole lot brighter now that this 'bad' thing has happened. It would seem good enough without it, yes, but it'll mean more to the characters I do think.

6 comments:

  1. as you probably know I´m a big fan of the ic-actions-ic-consequences line. I never needed/wanted anyone to void anything I played (excepted things like misreading something for language or sleep deficits obviously, those small 'on-the-spot-voids' the 'sorry, sorry, read that wrong, my english sucks'-kind of voids. maybe as well excepted things that kind of auto-void themselves, like when I -think- we had made one of the cats male while it was female or the other way around... -_- ). but as you should know that already, I better add something new so the post makes sense ;) : I on my part actually -do- like bad consequences, too, even though feeling with my character. I guess for the same reason I do like books that have a more open end, the happy endings are nice, sure, but leave me thinking "And then...?" a state of perpetual happy end seems too unrealistic, too boring, maybe. I wouldn´t be happy to lose my character(s) to some unhappy consequence, but I take it into account, and it can happen. not because of some dude comes by who has in their profile that you´re a jerk if you exclude death in your rp-limits and wants to prove they are the better mage, fighter, whatever (and depending on my mood I let them prove themselves or make them happy by going away and leave them to their belief they won something, and Taeem has a lot of bits broken from his crown already and there may well be more to break) but because something can happen that makes sense in my character´s story so much or seems so appealing or interesting in a more 'negative' way to me that I´ll go for the consequences. letting my character be hit by dire consequences, up to being killed for some random dude´s fun, no way, of course, but if it makes sense 'internally', if it is part of my characters bigger story and involves characters he cares for, it can happen.

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  2. I take the good and the bad, it´s the mix that keeps things interesting, the walking on a thin line. While we probably all work up some thing or other in rp, I can´t see any appeal at all in the kind of rp that happens in sl too, the rp where people play normal lives, pretty much like they could have irl, maybe they do because they -don´t- have them irl, I don´t know, but I know that holds no appeal at all for me. being a mage in a medieval fantastic world with strange creatures, being something else than a human myself, great! being a human in a modern world, but on the run and equipped with cat dna and biotech implants, cool! but playing someone normal, living in a normal town with a normal family and a normal work...that´s just not for me. maybe the possible consequences don´t have a high enough intensity level of good and bad. which might be the reason too that I prefer to spend my time in sl most of the time than on console games. roleplay in 'immersive-intense mode' does promise and offer a very high level of good and bad consequences and feelings, beyond any amount of keys you can collect in assassin´s creed or any number of times you fall down while jumping from roof to roof as a console jedi and die, or the number of additional boards you unlock as a console snowboard pro, or the number of golden lego stones you collect etc :D All those games are fun, great fun even if there´s coop mode, but those pixels you steer are not your own char, it´s not 'you enough' who kills Vader in the console game, not 'you enough' who succeeds in the end of his mission in the carribean sea to reach the high intensity and 'level' of game that sl roleplay can provide. the characters you create and breathe life into are 'you enough' to make it a totally different level of play. incl. the bad consequences. if you hesitate with bad consequences or the 'how bad' they will be, tune the degree for Malla or whatever char and yourself, don´t think of how it may affect my chars too much, I´ll get even with whatever consequences, it´s a game, a very good one, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it hurts to lose, sometimes not at all, and sometime you don´t even know if you won or lost (yet), and to what new and interesting shores it will lead. if you still feel bad for Taeem...I don´t even feel I should hug him, I just let him sit there and be blue or black ;) and feel with him, yes, and of course I have to ponder reactions and scenarios for him too, maybe not hundreds lol but as many as my time allows. but that´s ok. really.

    as an afterthought on the intro - while it is true that if you think of the word 'consequences' it has negative connotation most definitely, nobody announces 'consequences' if they want to do something nice for you, but, as an adjective usually it has a positive ring to it, if people speak of someone as 'being consequent', it´s meant as a compliment, I think?

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    Replies
    1. See, I think the bad ones make it interesting, too, but I don' like characters being upset as much as I don't like actual people being upset...if that makes sense? Like with when Malla got stuck in the abyss and all that, there was an easy out, yes, but...well...the bad in this case was much more tempting and interesting :P And, see, I also find consequences not directly created by myself a bit...easier to work with, I guess? I mean, those ones I won't/can't go back and forth on as it is a split-second decision in msot cases -and- it's not like I chose for it to happen...like, as you said, I'd let Malla be killed, too, so long as not for someone's weird defianition of 'fun' nor am I going to -try- for her to end up dead...since that would not be good at all for that to ever happen.
      As for the 'normal' sorts of rp...yea, I don't' much understand the want of that either, I'd probably get bored and either make my person homeless or a mass murderer just to spice things up :P
      As for the consequences and their degree...I do think of Malla and others first, and how bad I'd feel if I did that to them (-only- when I plan certain things, of course, not the things that jsut happen) first, but I do think of Taeem and whoever else you may be, too, cause..well, it's hard not to. Though when it comes to decisions, such as the current, I make them ahead of time...-then- I sit there and try to hug all the ones involved wanting to say 'it gets better, i swear!' I know, I know, I'm silly lol but still. And how can you not want to hug him? well, fine then, I'll hug both for you instead *nods* :P But, I know, it is very good, especially with a mix of bad and good consequences, since good all the time -would- be boring lol as for the scenarios...yea...I daydream a -lot- if you couldn't tell :P
      And..I haven't heard anyone say that of someone before, but, yea, I could see that as being a compliment, but the rarity of its use, least from what i know, probably doesn't help the word elan more to neutral lol

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    2. Oh, and, in addition, like i said, I only don't the 'bad' ones because of deeply they might affect Malla or whoever lol -but- I do like them, too, because they create some tension and excitement, of sorts, for what and how the next days following will be...like that Silver Shadows book I mentioned waiting for? Fiery Heart, the one before, had just stopped. So it leaves it open and me wondering and excited in a tense way :P Just like the not so good consequences, even if I know what may or may not come further down the road, there's still that...energy.

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  3. (two comments because of maximum length per comment of 4096 letters or so ;) )

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  4. 'And, see, I also find consequences not directly created by myself a bit...easier to work with, '
    hm, yes, makes sense. at least for people who aren´t control freaks I guess lol yes it´s easier, you can concentrate more on your own char´s reactions than maybe taking into account other's too, then again not, as your reactions again cause reactions and so on, but that´s rp, generally, if one doesn´t want that, one has to write a book instead of rping :)

    'And..I haven't heard anyone say that of someone before, but, yea, I could see that as being a compliment, but the rarity of its use, least from what i know, probably doesn't help the word elan more to neutral '

    really? interesting, is a very often used word here I´d say, maybe some cultural difference thing lol oh or my bad english...let me see...looking it up
    ok, consequent is given as translation for konsequent, but there´s consistent, logical, systematical, too, maybe you´d use that more, though those have a slightly different ring to me than the german version of consequent does.
    ah and good luck with the book, I was lucky to find the library finally had a follow-up to a book series I'd started to read so long ago I don´t even remember the names of the protagonists, but it was a prequel lol and only one of the protagonists is in, as a child, so no harm done there ;)

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