MOVING!

Blogger hates me, and I've grown to hate blogger. We're breaking up.

Okay, that's not true, but I want to transition to Wordpress completely since I might have a job that involves administrating a wordpress blog.

sinborn.wordpress.com - Go there. Forsake this wretched place.

Alright. I'm back (In GE, of course.)

With the Zeia coming out and Ania completely consuming my futa-licious fantasies, I've returned to Granado Espada, and by association, returned to blogging as well.

Unfortunately, after 6 months of stagnating, I'm well behind the curve. The only thing that's going for me is 70,000 G-points, 9,000,000 vis and a semi-active faction with 4 other awesome members. It's like being a n00b all over again, except I'm a n00b that maintains protection fields.

Also, a nod to Ninemoons, the most successful GE blogger in the history of GE. She's throwing in the towel, which is completely understandible. She'll be missed by all the sensible people in GE, that's for sure.

In any case, I made some promises on this blog. Hah, yeah, they're dead. No sexy-sidewinder analysis. But I'll try, to the best of my ability, to get more than one reader per month on this blog.

Pioneering Your Imagination #2 - "Why?"

Role-playing is a mind-boggling activity. Spending time in a game, but not actually playing it? Why would anyone one do it?

It's quite simple. To role-play is to descend deeper into immersion. You're investing the time to communicate with your peers in a fresh, unpredictable way and you're taking active steps to appreciate the world you're surrounded by. Granted, Granado Espada might not have the richest back-story, but it is nonetheless unique to the retail role-playing scene. There's plenty of interesting ideas and concepts embedded within the New World, bits of yummy intrigue and depth scattered throughout this relatively small MMO.

There is also incentive besides being a cognitive conquistador. On occasion, IAH hosts the "Dark Lord" events, which are basically RP events with a small judging staff. From what I could gather, what deters most people from participating in the contest is simply being unaccustomed to thinking, acting and ultimately being a roleplayer. If greed motivates you, the Dark Lord event prizes should encourage you to at least attempt at understanding roleplay. The competition isn't particularly fierce, and as long as you command the English language with reasonable proficiency, you can entertain the thoughts of winning.

But really, RPing is rarely about winning. Competition can be healthy or monstrously destructive to role-playing in general simply because it's a pastime that promotes group harmony. In-character conflict is good, but in all honesty, evaluation of style and form isn't necessary. As long as you're fleshing out your characters and contributing to the flavor and feel of a session, you're role-playing correctly. Still, putting up prizes for play is an acceptable practice in GE simply because the RP-community has no motivation to engage except for some form of reward.

Pioneering Your Imagination #1 - GE RP Explorations.

As my other factionmates will tell you, I leave games because of a lack of role-play. I would go as far to say that computer games that have no role-play or immersive potential are the easiest to abandon. Granado Espada was no exception. During my spring break, I opted to check out Second Life and effectively "played" a game that had zero combat substance. The interaction wasn't exceptional either, save for a few folk, but it was there and I thoughoughly enjoyed it.

I was recently roped back into Granado Espada because of a role-play contest, the third part of the Return of the Dark Lord. However, I expect to lose this time around. Polarbearz is a better writer than myself, and I couldn't survive the arduous trek to Deprimav to display any worthwhile character development inside of the game.

sGE has near-zero RP. This is partly because GE is a Korean-style MMO, which does not encourage interaction nor does it cater to individuals that nitpick about plot details. Role-playing is primarily an American and European activity from my experience, mainly due to having a larger-than-necessary English vocabulary as a general prerequisite.

Anyhow, let's skip to the basis of this posting-sequence: "What is Role-Play?"

The basic definition of pole-play is better described in a list, so here goes!

• Role-playing is like acting without a script. You play your character's personality as if you were that character. Putting your feet in another's shoes is the essence of Role-Play.
• Role-Playing is forgetting the interface even exists. The only additional medium you should be concerned with is the text-box. When acting out your character, you don't see people's names floating above their head or their health-bars.
• Role-playing is describing what the game cannot display or represent with its given models. For example, a gash on the face or a bird-plop on your shield.
• Role-playing is subjecting yourself to issues that the game doesn't force you to consider, such as needing to eat or, heaven-forbid, having a bowel movement.
• Role-playing is involving yourself with more than one individual, whether just for a chat or engaging in long-term relationships. Although the definition can be interpreted to be an activity for a single individual, the term generally implies it as a group activity. Role-play that concerns only its writer might be considered fan-fiction by extension.

Next up, I'll embelish on the reasons why someone would waste their time doing the above!

Drinking Lukewarm Cider

No bold titles today, I'm tired and lusting after my covers.

I've been drawing more. It's weird. It's not to say I dislike art, but when I start gettin' on the doodle-train, I tend to lock myself in a private cabin. Writing is a good escape, that it is. I am currently working on Granado Espada fan-art to catch myself some elusive Divine Angel Wings, seeing that writing nor luck in random draftings will bring me their +5% Movespeed +5% Attack goodness. My chances of winning are extraordinarily slim, seeing that other more worthy entries have shown their faces. Just go and see for yourself, then look at my age-old art posts.

However, I am looking to petition that some of the writers start getting some recognition on the weekly spotlight. Blogging doesn't count as writing and having a role-play event once in a blue moon doesn't do justice to the people posting stories in the fan-fiction thread. At the moment, there is absolutely no incentive to write literary pieces of art. That should change.

My girlfriend's friend is an extension of my girlfriend's will, so I've decided to refer to both of them as a single individual. Of course, they also live together, leaving me to wonder what the hell is goin' on. Wink wink. I've been happier because of her, but also a bit more serious toward marketable skills such as graphic design or plain doodlin' to pay for dinner one romantic night.

Boggled about the title? It has some relevance. I am indeed drinking lukewarm cider as I write this, or rather, looking at my cup and wishing there was more liquid in it. I will read more and work on my sidewinder analysis once I get out of this. . . weird drawing phase.