Role playing in Second Life
Shipyard citizen puddle Soup, one of the few from the Ionian race, appearing disinterested at an event at Rader Records.
The Shipyard Roleplay Community, showcased by Linden Labs in December 2009, introduced me to an unexpected learning experience by way of roleplay. This Bladerunner reminiscent cyberpunk sim, owned by Nadir Taov and partner BeBe Pink, takes place in future San Franscisco – a world structured by Game Master (GM) Geoffrey Welders and written collectively by its citizens.
The showcase brought in a massive wave of new citizens – many inexperienced with roleplay like myself. It was a bit intimidating at first navigating the sim “in character” (IC), which means to use the emote command (/me) to essentially distance yourself from your avatar and write their story within the community in the third-person.
Nadir Taov, who also runs two other urban noir roleplay sims, recalls similar sentiments from his first time. “I was definitely intimidated because everyone seemed to have their own stories and plots going with everyone else. However, if you stick around, observe, and be proactive, you’ll get into it. One of the things I highly recommend newcomers is to get an IC job at one of the local places. You’re bound to interact and just see how things go from there.”
The Shipyard website provides a universe guide for welcoming new citizens, which lays out basic elements of their society like descriptions of present races and political affilations. The message boards contain further information by its citizens about plot developments. (Most serious plot development depends on the interaction of the roleplayers during events Welders plans called “Sagas”.) The apparent involvement of individuals in the community can be seen by their documentation of it on their website with the boards, character blogs, flickr group, etc. – which further perpetuates the motivation of new citizens to get involved.
I began at Shipyard working at a local coffee shop to help get used to roleplaying. Soon I was campaigning for Prime Minister of Tokyo (quite the promotion!) and discussing health care with the local hospital. In reality, I was simultaneously browsing multiple tabs doing political research for party platform inspiration, and instant messaging with a friend about learning how to create clothing in SL so that I could make a t-shirt to share with others promoting my campaign.
Warrant dressed to impress for her campaign next to a poster I made.
The educational aspect of roleplay is quite intriguing, as it seems to present itself in many forms. As I became part of the community I wanted to contribute more to push the story along, which for me meant learning new skills and researching to assist in political delegation. Fellow Shipyard citizen Lyrique India has recently begun learning Japanese on another roleplay sim. India says, “It sticks more when everyone else you are roleplaying with is using the same language.”
by Teresa Shoffner, VLCI undergraduate.
Tags: role playing