Still wondering what to do since the
disappearance of the RPG Blog Alliance. There are alternatives, of course, but
with some strings attached, it seems. Tiny strings – but strings nonetheless.
The “Bloggers Association” seems to have vanished too, but they expected
members to post at least once a week, which was a total turn off for lazy
bastards such as yours truly. “Roleplaying Games” (Google+) frowns upon what
they call “dump-and-drop”, which is basically the writing and posting of an
article or update, with not much follow-up. Let’s talk some more about this
one.
Roleplaying Games, along with Pen &
Paper RPG Bloggers, encourages you to participate. I’m okay with that,
even though I’m not quite sure what it means. Participate in what? Write your
articles with other bloggers? Anyone can chip in, is that it? I have
tried HitRECord for a year, posting bits of dialogue, and other members picked
them up / added to them / modified them / reposted them. Most of the time, the
end result wasn’t that impressive. It’s a very nice writing workshop, sure –
but the next Mother Night is not going to suddenly erupt out of a 5-person
collaboration.
I think this phenomenon is due to the
subconscious Facebookisation of society. Facebook is a comment-based platform.
If you post a picture and nobody comments on it, it’s a miss. A flop. Facebook
is like, 25% original content / 75% feedback. But the blogs are something else
entirely – let’s say, 90% original content / 10% feedback. Since I joined the
RPGBA fifteen short months ago, I visited almost half the blogs registered, but only
left 3 comments. Even the OSR big dogs sometimes get fewer than 10 comments for
one of their articles. That is how the blogosphere works, especially in a
tight-knit community such as tabletop RPGs: we read, we agree, we bookmark, and
move on. We won’t write a page-long commentary every time we agree (or even
disagree).
The Google+ interface I saw had an avalanche
of boxes and rectangles, each with snippets of text or memes. What is all that?
Each of these rectangles is a blog post, a tweet, or a quote from a blog post? It
kinda looks like that infamous Windows 8 home screen – some people love it, some don’t. I
don’t.
Guess I’m a grognard in everything,
right? I prefer old school blogging, too. “Grogner” means “to grumble”. The
original grognards, Napoleon’s guys, were really, really grumpy. It’s a
200-year-old legacy.
Dear social media, I’m truly sorry to disappoint,
but not everything can be done “together”. Look at your favorite TV shows. The
writers and producers sit down together, discuss the story arcs – but then,
when they’re all on the same page, they go their separate ways, and each writer
writes one, or two, or three episodes. Alone. Check the episode guide: each is
written by one guy or gal, and directed by another one guy or gal.
Twenty-year-old Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein
all by herself, sitting at a small desk in her bedroom, and Beethoven composed
his symphonies alone in his study. Before social media and that global
Facebookisation, dump-and-drop was basically called “journalism” or “literature”.
The times they are a-changin’.
When I started working on this blog, I
didn’t think it would last an entire year – but it did. Still, I’m bound to run
out of topics eventually. So I’m just gonna keep writing my little texts – some
of them serious, some of them absolutely ridiculous, like the Blibdoolpoolp
RealDoll thing – and to hell if my Blogger numbers dwindle. I do this shit for
fun. It’s not a job. This is why I can go for three weeks without posting
anything (and it’s why I couldn’t join the former RPG Bloggers Association).
Another blogger over at hillcantons invented
the psychonaut class. Psionics experts. Check it out, it’s awesome! I’ve
bookmarked it, and I’m probably going to introduce a psychonaut or two in my
own AD&D campaign. That’s my participation to that other blogger’s
outstanding work, and it’s just one example. Someone creates something. Someone
else uses that thing. What more participation do you need? That’s why we blog
in the first place: because we couldn’t share with hundreds of other gamers on
a personal level – that would take way too long. Now, are you telling me that’s
what I should do?
My social RPG activities take place in
meatspace, and require lots of energy: all that game prepping, all that trying
to get 7 guys in the same room at the same time, even though they’ve got wives
+ kids + all-inclusive trips to Cabo San Lucas. I actively participate in that,
and it’s draining a full tank of juice. Just look at my previous post: a game
like that doesn’t happen out of the blue – it’s maybe 40 hours of volunteer
work! After that, I may not have anything left to venture into the chatrooms
and review / debate some new Pathfinder supplement or a toned-down
Romulan F.A.T.A.L. reboot or whatever.
So, Pen & Paper RPG Bloggers, if you want
me to join... drop me a comment.
Pun intended.