In Kelemvor's defense, he didn't say EVERY female, he said every second female, so...
I've debated and deliberated as to putting my words into this or not, simply because I honestly question whether any of it will actually change anything in the scheme of things. I ultimately think no, but then this is just my year to wax cynical. It always happens on election year.
As far as those who would question as to whether there ARE issues in the game, where IC relationships bleed over into OOC and cause strife: I have seen the OOC interactions far more than would be thought of someone who's "outside" the network. Side effect of being social outside the game world is that people share things they see in places you don't. Evidence of the OOC/IC dynamic in the game can be reflected in IM comments read, like: "Let someone else (expletive activity deleted) <girl player B> or you can say goodbye to our friendship."
Granted, second hand passes thru filters before it makes its way to a third hand. Both sides of the discussion, the rest of the story, etc. So there's a disclaimer to go along with that. So it became more enlightening when I got to see the actions first-hand.
About three years ago, I decided to do something that I've not done within several years of online roleplay... I crossed over and made a bender character. Not just a female, but a twisted caricature of a seductress female. I saw it as a challenge to my penchant for method acting to see if I could pull it off. It became a very entertaining RP, it also became an enlightening one as to life on this other end of the interaction. Early on, I took great pains to keep our identities apart, so there was an insulation for me to see what happens on the side of a grrl player. Within just a few weeks of playing, I had my first taste of the claws as I RPed in the same room with another female character with a male PC... after a few flirts back and forth, I suddenly get besieged with one single word over a private OOC medium:
"MINE!"
That was one of several instances of either OOC communication, illogical IC hostility and etc at the hands of a select number of players during my girl's early days. And it quickly faded the more who realized that the other end of the screen had a family guy from the wrists up. So yeah, I know the grrl vs. grrl dynamic is there.
There were a few other repeating patterns I see, not just on the female alt, but my male alts as well, and as a player in general:
IC relationships wedged by assorted jealous "others" who will suddenly pop a new alt from the woodwork to become surrogate relations to supplant the current situation, with explicit instructions that things will change... or even more volatile, the pre-planned pairings of two people who create alts with the premeditation of hookup, either at the same time, or one created by request of another. More often than not, the results of such character creation resulting in the deleting or disappearance of one or both alts suddenly when inevitable random occurrence of game world life turns the relationship in directions that weren't desired, or they just get bored. Then there's the reverse, when IC interactions bleed into the OOC, and the RL of the players becomes influenced and dictated by the interactions of their characters. And in its extreme, the virtual world becomes a dating service for people in the form of their alts; this then turns in on itself and fosters even more cattiness, jealousy, and rinse repeat any of the above as we instinctively do our mating dances.
It's really no different than when I was roleplaying in the chat rooms of AOL. The only difference between FK and the Red Dragon Inn of AOLs antiquity is that we actually have dice rolls here. OOC networking, scamming, cajoling, is a given, and its plain to see; anyone who would deny it is either lying or naive. Kel is just calling a spade a spade.
It's all the same, in the end... IC interaction that is ultimately motivated by the OOC feelings, friendships, fancies, desires, et al, of the PLAYERS, not the actual situation reactions of their characters. All of it yields the same thing when things turn sour: loss of RP, illogical changes of direction in an RP, even damage in real life at the extreme... things that just end up dampening the enjoyment of something that SHOULD be virtual reality, and not taken so damned seriously or with any hint that ANY of it is actually real.
I really don't know a fix... splaying it out for the world that I'm not here to steal anyone's girlfriend (...or their boyfriend
), that I'm not here to MAKE one, either, that I'm here to escape the inescapable suck part of reality with the comfort of other people who want to do the same...? Would the disclaimer matter? Would requiring or expecting the same disclaimer of everyone else? Would anyone believe it? Would half of the people MEAN it? And would it bring an end to any of it?
I don't think so... it all comes from the primal urge to spray things and mark them, to form packs, and hedge out anyone who doesn't smell right when you sniff them. We can put people in space, but as a race, we've really done a pitiful job of evolving. *I* think all we've done in the end by discussing it is setting it out in plain view and getting it "out there". Paradigm shift is something the majority of humans just won't do... I've yet to actually see it truly happen, game, work, life or anywhere.
"There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men."
Kregor - Ranger of Tangled Trees
Rozor - Lady Luck's Duelist
Tygen - Ranger-Bard of Mielikki
And by my comments, I mean I seem to notice that a number of female players seem to be targeting one another, in the game, for OOC reasons. This hasn't been noticed with male players against other male players at the same frequency it has for female players.
