tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5922857679980740630.post6658593474148245134..comments2024-03-27T10:35:46.596+01:00Comments on Ravalation: Writing about game charactersRavanelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03447777640056476366noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5922857679980740630.post-71912139407066160172016-05-07T15:04:44.885+02:002016-05-07T15:04:44.885+02:00I did like your first post (even went back to chec...I did like your first post (even went back to check, but the cringe-meter didn't ring), but I agree that the writing of the second is just that tad bit more engaging. I really hadn't noticed that without reading it here, though. Sounds like you even learned a thing or two from the event. I for one am glad you participated!Ravanelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03447777640056476366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5922857679980740630.post-21310671313220545632016-05-07T14:51:14.944+02:002016-05-07T14:51:14.944+02:00The many thoughts running inside your brain were r...The many thoughts running inside your brain were right. No thanks are needed.Ravanelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03447777640056476366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5922857679980740630.post-85802928584403642492016-05-06T23:18:17.992+02:002016-05-06T23:18:17.992+02:00What you say about your characters' background...What you say about your characters' background sounds familiar to me. I start out with having a vague idea about who they are and then, if I play them long enough, they'll develop traits as things happen to them - which can be anything, like: a new outfit that gives them a different air, places they travel, a significant boss they defeat, another special achievement, or a special group of persons or specific person I play them with. Like people, who they are changes through time; it's not a static thing. Some of them stay strangers to me because I play them very irregularly, or for short periods of time (for instance, only to craft stuff).<br /><br />Writing/reading about characters seems to share some parallels with RP. I find RPing while gaming (which I only do spontaneously and casually, when the opportunity arises) to be super much fun, but when I walk into an area where people are RPing and read the /say I'm guaranteed to cringe. I don't have any delusions that I'm any better at RP, it's just the perspective.Ravanelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03447777640056476366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5922857679980740630.post-73436182320301441002016-05-04T04:55:44.485+02:002016-05-04T04:55:44.485+02:00I know where you're coming from. I'm not e...I know where you're coming from. I'm not exactly seeking out people's blogs about their game characters, but I've come across them and I've never been very compelled to keep reading. It feels like someone describing a person I'll never meet. Why is the information relevant? Though I do dream of massive backstories for my video game characters, especially some of my WoW toons, I've never actually committed anything to paper. I just felt like it was something that didn't need to be said out loud or written. It was an internal monologue that served only to deepen my own gameplay experience, and I don't see how that would be entertaining to someone else. Though I do know people who enjoy reading these works, I also know people *cough*my husband*cough* that will sit down and read a book of maps like I read novels. So to each his own, of course.Corihttp://geeky-mama.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5922857679980740630.post-45022665794912508262016-05-03T22:55:08.576+02:002016-05-03T22:55:08.576+02:00Like Jeromai, any character writing I do usually c...Like Jeromai, any character writing I do usually comes out in scene-size bursts that I do feel good about, but I am notoriously bad at pushing anything close to a short story, much less a novel. Maybe notorious isn't the right word, since none of you have seen the fitful bits of story I have saved through Scrivener. However, I am guilty of writing boring life summaries, as well.rowanblazehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06820814610269599162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5922857679980740630.post-3891867008416008162016-05-03T18:51:22.332+02:002016-05-03T18:51:22.332+02:00Thank you for your kind words, everyone. I have no...Thank you for your kind words, everyone. I have no notion of writing mechanics or technique, so I can't really join the conversation about motivations and such. My stories wrote themselves as they came out of my fingertips as a way of connecting with my character and developing her existence organically using a predominant experiential mode that must be the counterpart to Bhagpuss's. Different folks, different strokes, as it should be. I would agree that reading - and writing - mechanical exegeses of character canon is rather dull; likewise with straightforward recounting of events. I don't read EVE blogs for that reason: I find descriptions of unexploded spaceships moving about systems with robot-generated names and waiting for something (or nothing) to happen to be tedious and dull. No offense taken by such authors, I would imagine. I mean, think of a game you've played that wasn't very fun for the players but looked beautiful and must have been all sorts of fun for the designers to create. It's like that with character fiction if you don't make it humorous or compelling or otherwise relatable to people who aren't you.<br /><br />When it comes to stuff that doesn't interest you terribly, there's something to be said about skimming, though: it plants seeds and generates ideas. Bennie Hill would watch television for hours every day on the off chance that he saw something he could use in one of his bits. Inspiration strikes randomly and in the least interesting of places.Karinshasthahttp://lightfallsgracefully.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5922857679980740630.post-80916556725076817842016-05-03T07:49:53.408+02:002016-05-03T07:49:53.408+02:00I find it exceptionally hard to write about my gam...I find it exceptionally hard to write about my game characters too, so you're not alone! <br /><br />I do usually have a vague inkling about their background, which usually comes at the same time that they are officially named at character creation. The problem, I find, is that those small details do not a story make.<br /><br />To be interesting and readable to others, posts have to come out as scenes, that small indivisible and really hard to formulate story part. Your character has to want something(s) badly enough, they have to face some kind of opposition (internal or external) and that conflict has to resolve or progress in some way in the course of those couple of paragraphs.<br /><br />Not only does that take up way too much time in my usual day to figure out, I have to confess that most of my game characters really aren't motivated enough to -want- something that badly. They just piddle about through their MMO life like I do in real life, and as a result, there's no story there.<br /><br />It takes a ton of effort for me to scan through a game character's life history, figure out which part of it has that interesting story tension, and come up with the supporting cast that will show it off.<br /><br />Mad props to those who can manage it.Jeromaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02206083433625986970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5922857679980740630.post-88288692383038005232016-05-03T02:22:02.164+02:002016-05-03T02:22:02.164+02:00Gah! Almost forgot (that is the problem of having ...Gah! Almost forgot (that is the problem of having too many thoughts running at the same time inside your brain) thanks for the mention and kind words. /bowRakunohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00253609981961681014noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5922857679980740630.post-39272607623612105312016-05-03T02:20:38.167+02:002016-05-03T02:20:38.167+02:00If it makes you feel better I doubt most people li...If it makes you feel better I doubt most people like reading about other people's character backgrounds. Like you said, reading descriptive text about some other person in history is pretty boring. But reading about what they did and why is a lot more entertaining.<br /><br />I must also confess I was hesitant to participate on ARPil since I was afraid my answers would be really cringeworth and I didn't want to inflict some boring info about my character on the internet. In fact, if you see my post for the first day that is pretty much what I did. Fortunately I saw the way Pizza Maid wrote her first day post, realized it was a much better format and changed my strategy. I am am still not entirely happy with every post but that is just how it is for anyone who writes. :p<br /><br />And I think Karinshastha pretty much blew everyone out of the water with her entries. They were just that good. I think I could read those little stories about her character forever. :)Rakunohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00253609981961681014noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5922857679980740630.post-21786219132739483062016-05-03T01:05:02.283+02:002016-05-03T01:05:02.283+02:00I agree. Reading descriptions and background detai...I agree. Reading descriptions and background details of people's gaming characters is never going to be any more involving or compelling than reading the dramatis personae of a play you'll never see performed. There's always the caveat that an exceptionally talented writer can make you interested in just about anything but it stretches credulity too far to imagine that such a writer would be likely to pen character profiles and leave it at that.<br /><br />I have another reason not to write about my characters, though. I don't know who they are. Oh, *they* know who they are and I know that they know, but they keep most of it to themselves. In game I can and do talk in character and I can write in a the voice of many of my characters with considerable facility, but that's very different from being able to give chapter and verse on their backstory and personality.<br /><br />All my characters develop organically, almost as if they were actual people. I don't prepare anything for them - haven't done that in decades - but they develop personalities and idiosyncrasies that expand and alter over time. They acquire numerous verbal tics, catchphrases and personal memes. They gain likes and dislikes, phobias and quirks. As a result, writing in character amuses me no end but is almost certain to annoy the hell out of anyone reading so I keep it for my own amusement. <br /><br />In the end, my blog is just that, though - my blog. I don't do it often but if the mood takes me then I'll indulge myself by writing in character. If I do, I at least attempt to keep it amusing. I really think it would be unreasonable to expect anyone to read something that was both in character and po-faced.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.com