Postby Tantus » Mon Dec 04, 2017 7:49 pm
Perma-Death Limits
The Perma-Death movement likely began with good intentions, when a person would state their character could not be killed without several days of roleplaying and a solid IC reason. Because they were a Perma-Death character.
This was in contrast to the tradition of people being killed/mutilated, and recovering 24 hours later. The only real rule was, after being killed you couldn't take part in the follow-up raids or roleplay relating to your death. And once you were avenged, that chapter was closed. The following week, the cycle of murder and vengeance began anew, as your group killed someone, or a rival group killed one of yours. Etc.
It sounds ridiculous, right? But it delivered the thrill pre-BTB Gor thrived on. The themes of murder, torture, mutilation, rape and planning revenge must have filled around 80% of my roleplay. The other 20% was downtime roleplay.
I would even be content to say my recent forays into Gor, were 80% downtime and 20% of the rest. But the danger of being killed isn't there any longer. I can't recall that I've been killed since 2008, but roleplaying out deaths and torture before then was just a routine part of Gorean living.
A large part of the change was the Perma-Death movement, which a whole lot of people jumped on to, saying "I'm a serious roleplayer, I won't be killed unless you roleplay with me for 7 days straight".
The other consequence was, once the cycle of violence came to an end, people didn't know how to die any longer. In the rare instance someone is now killed, they don't know if it should be a perma-death, or a 24 Hour death. Because the latter feels like an easy way out, even cheating, they take Perma-Death. Then they realize the impracticalities of ending their character, so we've seen instances of beheaded characters having their heads surgically attached and surviving. Others have been mysteriously revived by the Priest Kings, there was even a heart transplant after one was ripped out. And so these ridiculous scenarios come about, because the Perma-Death is seen as the superior route.
The historical fact is, the 24 Hour death timer gave a better experience and the deceased generally handled their deaths without much of a fuss.
Storyline Roleplay
Just as above, it probably started with good intentions, of a person conveying they're open to longer-term interaction. But it became a buzzword and suddenly everyone was a 'Paragraph, Storyline Roleplayer'. To myself, it translates as the person expecting a commitment, it's a red flag.
There was a larger shift occurring too, away from roleplaying an experience and towards roleplaying a relationship. Everything that you would never do in RL(Because you are sane and sensible!), were the experiences you could roleplay in SL. Then there was a transition towards /storyline/ roleplay, until the main theme of today is the relationship. Gor wasn't alone in this, I've browsed other genres where a partnership/marriage is the End Game, for a character.
There's an Earth sim, where the theme revolves around abducted women forced into prostitution. At the modern incarnations of these sims, I've seen IC relationships forming, until being partnered up seems to have become the theme. That's in contrast to the original sim I roleplayed on back in 2007, when there wasn't even a question of one of the 'prostitutes' falling in love with a client. No one questions it now as this is what SL has become.
Gor has suffered the worst. It's mostly relationship and family roleplay now. A decade ago, men typically owned slaves, and free women were few, fewer of them were companioned. Now you're looking at a reverse, with family-roleplay forming the foundation of any city. It's shifted away from roleplaying a character you wouldn't be in RL(Because, laws), to roleplaying everything you want to be in RL.
