Predator and Prey in the Kingdom of Sand
by Alphaville Herald on 10/02/10 at 7:25 am
by Meleth Oakleaf
For the first in a series of articles about the role playing Sims in the Second Life community, I set out to explore the Kingdom of Sand. Immediately after teleporting to a sandy archway, I was directed to acquire an Explorer Tag and provided with the information I needed to fulfill that request. In addition I was given a link that contained information about the Kingdom of Sand. A free environment appropriate clothing was provided near the title and a bazaar provided me the option to purchase a more customized outfit in exchange before journeying into the sim.
In acquiring my Explorer Tag, I learned that Kingdom of Sand is set in a fantasized version of Middle Eastern culture. Players are allowed to join groups and clans, though the distinction between these two was not immediately apparent. I explored a few clan leader's profiles and decided that I had gained as much knowledge as I could before exploring the sim. As I made my way back to the door, I encountered Pinto Quissentell a “Knight Predator * Ben kouraish * Law and Order” of Kingdom of Sands, though I was completely unsure what that meant. Pinto agreed to speak with me for a while and I found him to be an amiable companion.
In our conversation I learned that Knight is his class; this determines the combat abilities each player has. Ben kouraish is his group, or organization of people who have similar goals within KoS. Finally Law and Order was his job, giving him the ability to fine people within KoS. Pinto is aged 51, indicating he has played within KoS for 51 days. As our conversation continued I learned that KoS is an intricate world, encompassing the capturing of others, auctions, mental and physical health, morals. Though I have not actively participated in SL sims, Pinto says that KoS is more complex than the handful of sims he has role-played within and that the SGS combat system employed here is more advanced than DCS or CCS.
As we spoke a young woman called Amina knelt on the carpet beside us and announced she'd been sent for a registry of the knights by Mache. Her demeanor made it clear that she was a slave and her SGS display listed her at only 5 days played within KoS. She was largely ignored and as I had no way to assist her quest I was not able to do much more than acknowledge her existence. When Pinto made his leave she decided to pursue her quest elsewhere. On Pinto's advice I sought out Kora Zenovka, the administrator of KoS for an interview and decided to further explore KoS while I awaited her response.
I left the knight's encampment where Pinto had taken me for our conversation and wandered down a steep hill to a sandy valley. As I wandered through this less populated part of KoS, I saw a couple holding hands in ruins upon a hill, passed by a few lonely wanderers who offered, what appears to be the standard greeting for this land, “Salaam.” In the non-pixelated world, salaam is Arabic for “peace.” For a little while I wandered KoS, struck by the beauty that surrounded me. Then I saw Raiden standing over the body of an unconscious woman. I was hesitant to approach but he offered me “Salaam” greeting and I only hope he understood and respected it's meaning.
Raiden is a Pirate Slaver Predator, of the Scorpion Slavers group and a blacksmith by trade (See how quickly I learn?) and though he spoke to me kindly and was quite generous with his time, poor Oro (the previously unconscious woman) was not given the same treatment. It seems she was asked to obtain a specific candle but had chosen to offer Raiden a counterfeit candle rather than the one he had requested. Raiden played in KoS before the recent revamp of the KoS. KoS first appeared in Second Life in February of 2008, but was rebuilt at the end of September of 2009 and the SGS combat system used there was released in October of the same year. Raiden explains that this change brought about expanded meters and daily needs for things like food, drink and spirituality. In Raiden's opinion the revamped sim is really starting to grow and as players are growing more familiar with their meters and what is now possible, better role-play is emerging and that in turn is drawing better role players to the sim. I also learn that the number following the <3 on his information bar indicates the number of role-playing compliments he has received. In the old version Raiden was the leader of the slavers and while he no longer holds that position he strives to bring unity to the fractured slaver group through strong roleplay and organized roleplay events.
It was also in this conversation that I learned what Predator means in his and Pinto's title. It appears that in KoS people may chose to be predator or prey, determining their role in the ever present game of cat and mouse that persists in this world. This aspect of the game does tend to draw a crowd that enjoyed power exchange, though it's not a requirement to enjoy your stay in KoS, one can easily lead a full life within KoS without participating in this exchange. Our conversation drew to a close as Carita an Undead Predator approached us to deliver a threat, regarding Raiden's pursuit of what turned out to be the candle associated with the life of the leader of the “Forsaken.” Raiden later warned me that he is a bit of a trouble-maker, but this on the ball journalist had already figured that one out.
Much later I was able to get in touch with Kora, the admin and co-creator of KoS and though she was busily making a new role-play sim and unable to provide comment she was able to confirm the information I had received in my interviews with Pinto and Raiden. Those who wish to join KoS should be prepared to purchase the SGS meter for 500L this will provide you with a weapon, though prey don't use weapons. Though you are free to pick up the Explorer Tag that I did to explore the sim before you join. As I mentioned earlier, acceptable dress is available for free in the starting area of the KoS sim, though in my journeys I did not see anyone wearing the provided garb who was not also wearing the Explorer Tag. Finally, you should be aware that while KoS draws influence from the Arab language, this is a fantasy world and is not meant to reflect on nor create debate about the real life Middle Eastern culture. If you need further proof of this, look no further than the role of“Knights” who protect the city rather than attack and pillage it. KoS has it's own religious system and commentary regarding real life religion is not permitted there.
I fully enjoyed my visit to KoS and encourage all of you who are inspired by the drama, beauty, and mystery of the Middle East to enjoy the fantasy. Put on an Explorer Tag, tip your hat to Pinto and steer clear of Raiden, he's trouble. Unless you like trouble, then thumb your nose at Pinto and tell Raiden that Mel sent you.
Until next time, this is Mel the roving reporter, over and out.
Mary Elizabeth
Feb 10th, 2010
Women do seem to end up as slaves quite frequently in SL roleplaying, don’t they? Not all roleplaying scenarios, but a whoooooole bunch of them.
Scylla Rhiadra
Feb 10th, 2010
“Women do seem to end up as slaves quite frequently in SL roleplaying, don’t they?”
Aaaaaaaand, yes! Yet another SL Herald story on capture / rape / forced sex RP!
In point of fact, there is a great deal of RP out there that DOESN’T involve capturing, enslaving, or otherwise abusing women. It’s just that the SL Herald seems to be utterly unaware, or completely uninterested in it.
KoS isn’t Gorean, and that much can be said in its favour. Otherwise, however, this is the same-old same-old, isn’t it?
You’re in rut, Herald. Time to demonstrate that your reporters occasionally leave Zindra or other Adult-designated sims.
Meleth Oakleaf
Feb 10th, 2010
Scylla,
I picked KoS by opening up search typing in “roleplay” and selecting the highest traffic English speaking Sim that turned up in the list. I’m always up for reader based suggestions for the next article though.
Cheers,
Mel
Tuomy Boa
Feb 10th, 2010
KoS isnt medieval world in outer space where people worship little green men when not busy beating their wifes.
It’s just Harem rp where they worship scimitars when not busy beating their cohorts.
Jessica Holyoke
Feb 10th, 2010
See, if all the Gorean sections were one sim, then Gor would have been the feature, because the traffic would have been astronomical.
And anyone, name a popular, no sex, no slavery, roleplay sim.
We
Feb 10th, 2010
“It’s just Harem rp where they worship scimitars when not busy beating their cohorts.”
I don’t see any scimitars in these pictures, just giant over-compensating distinctly un-arabic broad-swords that’d make a JRPG character blush.
Orion
Feb 10th, 2010
Newsflash – roleplay on Second Life died long ago! The only ones left are sex sims, gorean sims, combat sims, and a few traditional roleplays filled with a bunch of idiots trying to compensate for lack of a decent penis size by writing book long posts that quite frankly lack even the most remote resemblance of a story.
Fact is the SL world has been taken over by the World of Warcraft MMORPG smash-em-up MySpace types. A bunch of illiterate non-intelligent idiots that when combined with the outright censorship of anything considered “offensive” by Linden have quite frankly driven all the real role players out.
Scylla Rhiadra
Feb 11th, 2010
“And anyone, name a popular, no sex, no slavery, roleplay sim. ”
Well . . . i’m not sure what you mean by “popular.” Or by “no sex.” But there are, as it happens, some pretty big RP sims and groups that don’t engage in CaRP, or rape, or slavery.
I’m not a role player myself, so I probably couldn’t have come up with more than a handful of examples by myself. So, I went to the shiny new forums, and asked there for some examples. You can check out the thread yourself at:
https://blogs.secondlife.com/thread/9255?tstart=0
Here is a select list of some of the suggestions:
Tombstone (Western)
Deadwood 1876 (Western)
Camp Hardknock (Child/Family)
The Shire (Hobbits)
The Wastelands (Post Apocalypse)
Old Willowdale (Child/Family)
Seven Isles (Narnian)
Eternity (Medieval)
Incorrigible (Medieval)
Avalion (Medieval)
Usk (Medieval)
Ambrea (Medieval-Fantasy)
Hogwarts United (Harry Potter)
Hogwarts Prevails (Harry Potter)
Imrath Tir (Medieval)
Steelhead (Steampunk)
Some of these are quite popular: Hogwarts United has almost 700 members, for instance. In addition to these, there are a lot of Star Wars and Star Trek RPers, and, the newest thing, those who are doing Pandora / Avatar / Na’vi RP. All of the latter are apparently PG. There are also various historical sims and RP groups, some of which may indeed have sex and historically-constituted slavery (as for instance an Ancient Rome sim), but neither of these are at the heart of the “game” in quite the way that they are for places like KoS. There are also the pure combat sims, which feature a lot of violence, but little or no sex at all.
In other words, there are a great many RPers out there are who are engaging in some rather different kinds of RP than are being featured in the Herald nowadays.
Of course, the question might also be asked: why the focus upon RP in the first place, in Post 6, or in these kinds of feature stories? There is so much else going on out there . . . why not just leave RP alone for a bit? But if not, the Herald might at least feature something that doesn’t involve barely-clad women being dragged about at the end of chains.
Jessica Holyoke
Feb 11th, 2010
@Scylla,
Part of the reason, at least from my point of view, that the Herald features this type of material is that if you depended on New World Notes, Massively or other corporate news sites, like the defunct Reuters, you might not know about these roleplay sims. There would be no record of them existing.
And while we hear about Linden Lab pushing corporate use of the Grid over the past 3 years, we haven’t really seen it in action. People aren’t talking about taking another meeting in SL. Based on the traffic, it appears that Role Play, in one form or another, is very popular. What’s more surprising to me is that Male dominant female submissive roleplay is as popular as it is. A generation or two of 2nd wave feminism you would have thought would done away with that. More surprisingly, I have this feeling that if we controlled for alts, there would still be more women who are long term users of such role play sims than there are men, turning the dynamic further on its head.
While I reference Gor a fair amount, its only because I’m there a fair amount. Looking at my stories, I have covered protests, many economic and legal issues, and charitable events. But there are only so many ways you can say Relay for Life is back.
Senban Babii
Feb 11th, 2010
“”Women do seem to end up as slaves quite frequently in SL roleplaying, don’t they?”"
I read this earlier while I was in work. As it happens, tonight was the weekly RPG night for the gaming group I’m part of. We’re all long term players of traditional RPGs and I mentioned this point in passing.
Why is it that women actually end up in this submissive niche in fantasy roleplaying games? It’s kind of a tricky one really.
Perhaps it has its origins in the early artwork that developed around fantasy roleplaying? When you look at the influences of artists like Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta on early roleplaying material, you often see women in either a submissive position (wrapped around the legs of a Conan-type hero for example as here http://img139.imageshack.us/i/conanearlnoremjr1.jpg/ and here http://frankfrazetta.org/images/frank_frazetta_thebarbarian.jpg) or in a beauty-and-the-beast relationship (http://tronche.com/graphical-art/boris-vallejo/misc/minotaur.gif)
It’s curious though because in the actual rulebooks of the period, women were granted an equal role and not denied access to character classes/skills etc. It seems to be mostly something derived from the artwork that inspired roleplaying or at least came along during the period it was developing. And yet an obvious example to refute this is Red Sonja of course. It’s also true that the artwork/imagery of characters like Conan are almost always nothing like the actual literature.
I’ve seen a lot of changes in roleplaying games over the years but I noticed that compared to the earlier images defining women’s positions in fantasy roleplay, women these days seem to be shown more as “sexy and powerful and equal” rather than “dominated by men/power”. I think that, if anything, roleplaying sims like this one owe more to that early artwork and possibly literature than to actual fantasy roleplaying games. In a way, there’s nothing particularly wrong with it in the sense that it is simply continuing a tradition loosely associated with roleplaying but in truth, it has little to do with actual roleplaying, at least as I’ve experienced it over more years than I care to admit
Just a few passing thoughts anyway.
Scylla Rhiadra
Feb 12th, 2010
@Jessica
It’s true, frankly, that New World Notes has become rather pablum-like of late, and seem to be working very hard to function as a kind of “offical SL Newsletter,” rather than a real news source. Their coverage of gender issues or anything vaguely political is not quite nil, but pretty close. And yes, they certainly don’t do an awful lot on RP of any sort, yet alone Gor, CaRP, etc.
That said, I’m not sure that the best response to NWN’s lack of coverage of RP is to swing wildly in the other direction, and become (as it almost seems the Herald has of late) the sort of designated newsource for “Adult” RP. If it’s true that NWN is not doing a great job of covering this subject, it is certainly fairly well explored elsewhere on the net. And, despite the fact that non-Adult RP isn’t covered by NWN either, I’m not seeing a lot of stories on that here either. The fact that NWN doesn’t diversity its news coverage is surely not an argument in favour of the Herald choosing not to do so either?
I’m actually not trying to suggest that the Herald should stop covering this kind of thing, just that it should diversify. (Yes, this is an extension of my criticisms of Post 6.) I would also like to see more critical commentary and thoughtful analysis in such stories as are produced, rather than the straight-forward and rather bland narratives that are mostly offered up. The Wanderer’s stories occasionally touched on some of these issues, to his credit.
So, I’m not suggesting that you stop writing about Gor. And I appreciate that you have also, in several of your stories (and not just the one on the Hard Alley protest) explored some of these issues yourself.
@Senban
Interesting analysis. One thought that occurs to me is that your point about early graphic images sort of begs the question: why is it that such images reproduce this kind of misogyny, sometimes in defiance of the actual texts being putatively represented? What does this say about the culture from which they sprung, and about the roots of fantasy role play?
It’s good to hear that, in your experience, women are being accorded more powerful roles in RP these days; it would be nice to hear about places where this is happening (other than the inevitable Panther sims, which are still really subsets of Gor).
Interestingly, my only exposure to D&D, years ago through a group of women I knew at university, was of a group that consciously created feminist scenarios to play out. It was quite a contrast to the stereotype of the geeky guy D&D player.
Senban Babii
Feb 12th, 2010
@Scylla Rhiadra
“One thought that occurs to me is that your point about early graphic images sort of begs the question: why is it that such images reproduce this kind of misogyny, sometimes in defiance of the actual texts being putatively represented? What does this say about the culture from which they sprung, and about the roots of fantasy role play?”
It’s an interesting point. I’m no art historian so I couldn’t begin to speculate about how far back such imagery goes and its effect on contemporary literature.
I think one aspect to consider may be the primary demographics involved in traditional roleplaying games in each period.
Early roleplayers were primarily tabletop wargamers and so maybe female stereotypes were warrior queens like Boudica and Joan of Arc?
The next generation of roleplayers were perhaps more teenaged and everyone knows that teenaged boys have some pretty odd ideas when it comes to sex powered by raging hormones 8P
Later roleplayers settled down to a degree and the culture was also surrounded by a more balanced society. So the games literature and artwork would reflect that.
In short, I don’t think the artwork itself was indicative of roleplaying games. I think that in certain periods, the type of people playing will appropriate artwork from the wider world to illustrate their roleplaying. Which may explain why artwork by Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta became so ingrained in the culture? But then you could also look at the early work done by the artist Simon Bisley on Slaine and ABC Warriors. Again we see dominant males with submissive females draped around their feet.
Like I said before though, this type of imagery just doesn’t seem to appear in actual roleplaying games. It seems to be more artwork from the wider cultures being appropriated. It may also be that the primary demographic of early roleplayers was male (and fairly young). These days, the balance seems to be more evenly split and the associated artwork seems to be more balanced. As an example consider the cover of Dragon Warriors: Friends Or Foes which shows a female knight dressed in full armour rather than a chainmail bikini (http://www.magnumopuspress.com/?page_id=304). Even the covers of the D&D 4th edition rulebooks show women as being powerful and capable and yet still sexy without being naked and submissive.
I think the roleplaying sims found in Second Life hark back to the earlier times of roleplaying, even if they don’t realise it. The association of sexual power with roleplaying games is nothing particularly new but it isn’t representative of traditional roleplaying games by a long shot. Perhaps Second Life roleplayers have appropriated it simply because primarily the demographic is male and also because the general Second Life culture is so sexually oriented?
Again, just some rambling thoughts
Dinah
Feb 12th, 2010
Orientalism anyone?
Scylla Rhiadra
Feb 12th, 2010
Senban:
I’m tempted to suggest that the possibility that “the roleplaying sims found in Second Life hark back to the earlier times of roleplaying” is a reflection of the somewhat older demographic of SL, which has a median of something like 35 or so. The problem with this is that many of the roleplayers here are probably also roleplaying on MMOGs, such as WoW, that feature a much younger demographic. But perhaps there is a divide within such games between the ways in which younger and older players represent women?
In passing, I wonder . . . IS SL really so sexually-oriented as we all seem to think? I think it will appear much less so if we make a distinction between those who become involved in sexual relationships in the course of their social lives within SL (who certainly are numerous), and those who come here primarily for the sex (who, I suspect, are much less so, but are higher profile). The distinction might be similar to that which we could make between people who become involved in a cyber relationship through Facebook, MSN, or any number of social networking applications, and those who specifically seek out sex-oriented networking sites online.
Dinah:
Brilliant! If ever there was a cultural phenomenon susceptible to an analysis in the light of Edward Said’s theories, this is it . . .
How long before you’ve finished writing it??? I look forward to reading it.
Senban Babii
Feb 12th, 2010
@Scylla Rhiadra
“In passing, I wonder . . . IS SL really so sexually-oriented as we all seem to think? I think it will appear much less so if we make a distinction between those who become involved in sexual relationships in the course of their social lives within SL (who certainly are numerous), and those who come here primarily for the sex (who, I suspect, are much less so, but are higher profile). The distinction might be similar to that which we could make between people who become involved in a cyber relationship through Facebook, MSN, or any number of social networking applications, and those who specifically seek out sex-oriented networking sites online.”
That’s a fair point that makes me realise that perhaps my earlier point should have been clearer. When I said this:-
“Perhaps Second Life roleplayers have appropriated it simply because primarily the demographic is male and also because the general Second Life culture is so sexually oriented?”
I should have explained my point better. By “sexually oriented”, I don’t necessarily mean that people visit Second Life to have relationships or to have sex (although you can’t deny that experience says that sex is a major component of the Second Life culture. What I was actually more referring to is the prevailing culture and fashion. You can visit pretty much anywhere and you’ll see muscle-bound, shaven-headed males, stripped to the waist, exuding masculinity. By the same token, female fashions are often heavily derived from fetish wear and even those fashions that aren’t are rarely representative of the fashions that you’d see walking down the street in your local town. There is a definitive bias towards sexy clothing with lots of bare flesh. I really have to add that I see no problem with this, it’s harmless. So now do you see a little more about what I was trying to explain when I was talking about sexual orientation? It’s not just about relationships, sex sims and clubs – it’s about general fashions. Even if people aren’t specifically involved in sexual activity, they often wear clothing and using animation overriders which add an element of sexuality (overt and covert) to their avatars.
Hopefully that helps flesh out my point a little more
Damien
Feb 12th, 2010
@Scylla:
You forgot to mention my place in your list.
Sweet Alabama
Feb 12th, 2010
I played in the 2 Tombstone sims back in 2007 and recently came back and found they had many many more. If you’re wanting to do another article on a RP, I can think of no other historically based RP than Tombstone Arizona.
Scylla Rhiadra
Feb 12th, 2010
@Senban
Yep. Your point is well taken, particularly with reference to the prevalence of “sexy” fashion. I mean, why CAN’T I buy a blouse or sweater that doesn’t have a neckline dipping somewhere below the navel????
But, ahem, maybe that’s a discussion for another day . . .
@Damien
Fear not. I’ve been passing around the LM and SLURL to ALL of my friends, and sent it out in notices to the 900 or so women enrolled in my various feminist groups . . .
Profoutlandish.blogspot.com
Feb 13th, 2010
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that a couple of factors contribute to the content of SL more than any other. All of this applies at the recreational level, of course. Serious business and/or academic use has both a different user base and a different economic model.
The first is wish fulfillment. I’d say at first glance that 90% of SL avatars come in as the user’s definition of physically perfect. That’s probably the precise inverse of real life. Sims with strong sexual content will, likewise, cater most visibly to those things you can’t get in real life. Even the bike designers featured elsewhere on Alphaville Herald are providing a wish fullfillment fantasy with their virtual replicas of massively expensive motorcycles. SL is seen as a safe, anonymous place to do things you couldn’t do in real life. You can be a slave, hooker etc. without any of the real world fears of abuse, STD’s etc.
The second is the monetary incentive. Every sim, RP or otherwise has to generate its $300 a month just to stay open. That can come from sales in stores, rental of land, user donations or (and this is a big one) paid out of pocket by a person or group. So sims that focus on fantasy fulfillment have to cater to those fantasies that are worth actual money to people in order to generate their teir. Basic supply and demand dictates that the harder to find a given niche product is, the more a sim owner can charge for it. Similarly, more users support more sims of the same type of content at the same price. Also, the more hardcore a given interest, ie the more of one’s life and identity definition it encompasses, the more willing a player will be to spend money on it.
So taken as an average, Second Life looks a lot like people would imagine Hollywood to be. Everyone looks beautiful, has neat stuff, can have casual sex with two or three partners a day and generally live a simulated high life. Go to a big club any day of the week and you can see people trying to live up to their media defined idea of cool. Again at a first glance, places and items catering to that breed of cool probably occupy about as much in the way of SL resources as shows and movies selling the image do of mass media resources.
Individually, sims tend to rise and fall with the fantasy they fulfill. There are fewer Femdom type places than male dominant/femals slave type places because the latter fantasy is more popular with people who log on. When it comes to Gor, don’t discount the fact that this is a huge, largely underground niche community that has made SL its home. In the same way porn made the VHS work, Gor (and Steampunk) is probably responsible for keeping SL alive in its early days. It gave people an experience they couldn’t get elsewhere and they were willing to invest their energy (money) to have it. I can see where, after years of being told women are supposed to be treated as both equal AND objects of sexual desire, a segment of the male population would be willing to pay for the ego boost of being the “stronger sex” again. Let’s make no mistake here, at 300+ sims, Gor, not 70′s fantasy artwork, does a lot to define the sexual mores of the SL RP community at large.
Sl in some ways functions as a visible Collective Unconscious of Americans who can afford a computer and high speed Internet (75%+ of the user base at an eyeball). There is no nature, everything built was designed by a human hand to fill a percieved need in SL. Every avatar is a series of deliberate choices by the user about the image they wish to convey to the SL world.
Caledon has been larger than the entire original SL grid for years now and spawned several other Steampunk communities. In some ways, this rise could be said to prefigure the growth of the Steampunk movement in the public consciousness. At the same time, most of the original cyberpunk sims have fallen by the wayside as that style has fallen from grace. Those are easier to notice because they’re the kind of things people are willing to discuss in public. How many people at your office wish they were a character from the James Spader movie “Secretary”? Well, they’re not as likely to discuss that for the asking. Do Gor, the prevalance of collars, the continued existence of brothels etc say something aobut our culture at large that people aren’t willing to admit? I don’t have the research to back it up, but the possibility is intriguing.
Live from the grid, I’m Professor Outlandish.
Senban Babii
Feb 13th, 2010
@Professor Outlandish
You make some valid observations but I’d like to pick up just one point?
“Let’s make no mistake here, at 300+ sims, Gor, not 70′s fantasy artwork, does a lot to define the sexual mores of the SL RP community at large”
I think you’re mistaking my point. I never implied that the artwork of Boris Vallejo, Frank Frazetta et al were the present influences behind attitudes found in virtual roleplaying games such as are found in Second Life. Rather I attempted to show that modern virtual roleplaying games are perhaps drawing inspirations in the same way that traditional roleplayers did in the 1970s i.e. from the artwork of the period. Whereas in the 1970s we had Vallejo and Frazetta, these days we have the internet and websites like http://www.hawtness.com and http://www.motivatedphotos.com. I’m not saying that these sites are somehow the same thing but they are certainly a source of influence to the internet generation in the same way that Vallejo/Frazetta were influencing 1970s/1980s traditional roleplayers.
As a further point, it has only just occurred to me about the Gor connection. Look at the period those early books were written in and look at the associated cover artwork such as this one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tarnsman_of_gor_vallejo_cover.jpg
Haha, I just saw that this cover artwork was drawn by Boris Vallejo. To quote Jessica Holyoke, therefore I win 8D
To reiterate, in my opinion roleplayers are often influenced by contemporary artwork/literature. I can even give an example (provided by one of my gaming group anyway, they’re reading this). There is an iconic image (http://www.hardhatdesign.co.uk/snowtrooper/matty/3D_gubbings/joe_pineapples/ssmljoe2.jpg) of Joe Pineapples from Simon Bisley’s initial run on the ABC Warriors. A few years ago, that image was recreated as a miniature by Games Workshop (http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1250134_99060108077_INQDHVindicareexitusriflemain_873x627.jpg).
Artwork indirectly inspires roleplayers, perhaps more than the actual roleplaying games themselves do. You could probably even add movies to the list of influences. It just happens that in the example of Gor, that influence has remained constant since the late 1960s to the present. As Gorean roleplay was such a large early influence in Second Life, it’s certainly plausible that it has influenced other forms of roleplay, either directly or indirectly. Whether it actually counts as valid roleplay or not is another argument of course and one that is a personal call as much as anything. In my own opinion, virtual roleplay bears almost no relation to traditional roleplay. The mileage of others may vary naturally.
Profoutlandish.blogspot.com
Feb 13th, 2010
I almost hate to waste a whole comment saying “agreed completely”. My original rant kind of got away from me when I started writing it and wound up making a rather larger point than the initial focus.
Prof. Archie Lukas
Feb 23rd, 2010
Kingdom of Sand?
Saudi Arabia, right?
Thought so.
Same old shit, new name.