01-04-2011, 06:32 AM
So, I was just kinda letting my mind wander tonight, those of you who know me, know I have a bit more time on my hands than normal, and so I was just zoning out on a long flight across Liberty. My mind wandered back to a museum that I went to when I was a kid. One of the great things about Philadelphia is all the awesome museums around, and for kids in the area, every year probably included a trip to the "Please Touch Museum." Now, before all you pervs start making jokes, the point of the Please Touch Museum is for kids to a museum where, instead of not being able to touch anything, they can touch everything.
So, anyways, I went to this museum frequently enough that I had favorite exhibits, places I made sure I went every time I went there. There was a big Septa bus, Septa being the public transit in the Philadelphia area. There was a miniature grocery store, complete with all sorts of little fake products. Anyways, my favorite was always the costume room. Imagine a big room, (big being subjective being that these memories are from when I was a young kid. I went back a few years ago with my niece and nephew, and I was amazed at how small it was.) with cubbies around the walls with all sorts of costumes hung up in them. From firemen to astronaut, doctors to delivery men, it had probably a hundred different costumes.
So just imagine, a bunch of elementary school kids, all dressing up in different outfits, pretending to be this person or that. In the course of an hour, I wore maybe ten different costumes. At the same time, all the other kids were changing costumes as well. Everyone interacted with others, no matter how odd the pairings would be. One of the funniest I remember was myself as a mechanic and my friend as a cowboy. Anyways, I think the thing that I liked so much about that section of the museum was that I got to put on as many different costumes as I wanted, to try out as many different persona's as time would allow, and then take those persona's I created in my head and see of other people, in other persona's reacted to them. It was my first role play game, and obviously I was hooked.
For those of you who haven't made the connection to our game yet, here goes. The most wonderful thing about a role play game, at least in my opinion is the ability to try out different costumes and different persona's. There are very few roles in Disco I haven't tried out yet. Most people know me as Zelot the IND guy, or the Phantom or Corsair guy or the Kusari guy. People haven't referred to me as the AFA guy in a while. Possibly you see me as the moderator guy, or the faction leader guy. Most probably don't remember me as the Liberty Rogue guy, when I was Del's number 2, or the RM guy, when I was in high command. I am also a Zoner guy, and a Junker guy, (surprising I know) a BMM guy and a Samura guy. I keep a lot of ships around, because I am never sure what costume I am going to want to put on that day. One of the best things about Discovery as a role play game is that there is such a wide variety of roles to play, so many different costumes to put on.
So let me take this opportunity to support an idea that guys like Dieter, Lotek and others have put forward. Some people, especially people who come from other gaming communities think multi-factioning is a bad thing. Some factions think that players who belong to factions that oppose theirs in game somehow can't be trusted or shouldn't be welcomed as members. This is dead wrong, the more we identify with one particular role, the more we play that role exclusively, the more we miss the point of role playing games, and the freedom it gives us. Not only that, but the more we play both sides of in-game conflicts, the more whether we "win" or "lose" in a pvp sense becomes unimportant. Yep the pvp is part of the role play, and we can "win" and "lose" in pvp, or in my case you can "lose" in pvp, but you can't ever "win" or "lose" in role play. There is no win and lose, role play doesn't work that way. In that museum, the kids weren't competing with each other, they weren't trying to beat each other, they were letting their imaginations collaborate, creating new situations to explore. The more people understand that there is not winning and losing, the more fun the game becomes. If you can't lose, how can you go wrong?
So, my advice for Discovery players, go out and explore Sirius from every possible view you can imagine. Examine it from every possible view point. Endeavor to try out a different costume every day, and try to always remember that there are no winners or losers in a role playing game.
So, anyways, I went to this museum frequently enough that I had favorite exhibits, places I made sure I went every time I went there. There was a big Septa bus, Septa being the public transit in the Philadelphia area. There was a miniature grocery store, complete with all sorts of little fake products. Anyways, my favorite was always the costume room. Imagine a big room, (big being subjective being that these memories are from when I was a young kid. I went back a few years ago with my niece and nephew, and I was amazed at how small it was.) with cubbies around the walls with all sorts of costumes hung up in them. From firemen to astronaut, doctors to delivery men, it had probably a hundred different costumes.
So just imagine, a bunch of elementary school kids, all dressing up in different outfits, pretending to be this person or that. In the course of an hour, I wore maybe ten different costumes. At the same time, all the other kids were changing costumes as well. Everyone interacted with others, no matter how odd the pairings would be. One of the funniest I remember was myself as a mechanic and my friend as a cowboy. Anyways, I think the thing that I liked so much about that section of the museum was that I got to put on as many different costumes as I wanted, to try out as many different persona's as time would allow, and then take those persona's I created in my head and see of other people, in other persona's reacted to them. It was my first role play game, and obviously I was hooked.
For those of you who haven't made the connection to our game yet, here goes. The most wonderful thing about a role play game, at least in my opinion is the ability to try out different costumes and different persona's. There are very few roles in Disco I haven't tried out yet. Most people know me as Zelot the IND guy, or the Phantom or Corsair guy or the Kusari guy. People haven't referred to me as the AFA guy in a while. Possibly you see me as the moderator guy, or the faction leader guy. Most probably don't remember me as the Liberty Rogue guy, when I was Del's number 2, or the RM guy, when I was in high command. I am also a Zoner guy, and a Junker guy, (surprising I know) a BMM guy and a Samura guy. I keep a lot of ships around, because I am never sure what costume I am going to want to put on that day. One of the best things about Discovery as a role play game is that there is such a wide variety of roles to play, so many different costumes to put on.
So let me take this opportunity to support an idea that guys like Dieter, Lotek and others have put forward. Some people, especially people who come from other gaming communities think multi-factioning is a bad thing. Some factions think that players who belong to factions that oppose theirs in game somehow can't be trusted or shouldn't be welcomed as members. This is dead wrong, the more we identify with one particular role, the more we play that role exclusively, the more we miss the point of role playing games, and the freedom it gives us. Not only that, but the more we play both sides of in-game conflicts, the more whether we "win" or "lose" in a pvp sense becomes unimportant. Yep the pvp is part of the role play, and we can "win" and "lose" in pvp, or in my case you can "lose" in pvp, but you can't ever "win" or "lose" in role play. There is no win and lose, role play doesn't work that way. In that museum, the kids weren't competing with each other, they weren't trying to beat each other, they were letting their imaginations collaborate, creating new situations to explore. The more people understand that there is not winning and losing, the more fun the game becomes. If you can't lose, how can you go wrong?
So, my advice for Discovery players, go out and explore Sirius from every possible view you can imagine. Examine it from every possible view point. Endeavor to try out a different costume every day, and try to always remember that there are no winners or losers in a role playing game.