Antiitari: What's It All For Anyway..?

Presented by the Antiitari: For All Your Depressing Needs


What's it all for?
Roleplaying I mean.
It's better than video games in a way because you have absolute control over what you do and what your characters do and all that. So I understand the appeal.
But what's it all for?
I put a lot of effort into my sites, the ones I really love anyway. I throw a lot of thought and time and creation and editing and re-evaluation and deleting and reconstructing and planning and plotting into the whole thing. I try to find good graphics, I try to think of cool powers or abilities or races. I delve into the history (and sometimes religion for fantasy worlds) and all the little details that make it great. Mania knows about my site Infinite Sorrow and that exhaustive guide I am nowhere near completing. Or Downfall Zeus with all the details on wars and demigods and how battles will be played out.
But no one really joins my sites. No one really cares.
Yes, one can argue that "Oh, Downfall Zeus isn't finished" or "You're not really on Evanescent Penumbra that much anyway". But that's not the point. I'm also talking about my other sites. Ones that I built and had to watch die in a matter of weeks. Ones that I built years ago or months ago. Sites that I had such high hopes and dreams for. Hopes and dreams that were never realized.

What is it? What's the secret to making a site a success? Back then, you just had to breathe the word "new website" and people would flood towards it. The average lifespan of a site back then was two years. These days, it's more like five or six months.

Is it just me? I don't think so. I have a huge list of sites on my characters page and in my bookmarks folder that started up and shut down before anything could happen.

But even if it was just me, why is it just me then? What is the secret? What am I doing wrong?

I think it's the roleplayers themselves.

There's Old Generation roleplayers and New Generation roleplayers. I won't really get into the details because there is a lot when it comes to why and how I separate them into these categories, but for simplicity sake, I'll just say this.

Old Gen are the roleplayers like Mania and Filigree and Dawny (to name a few). They join a site and stick with it, seeing it through its worst pitfalls, its slow crawls, and its dullest dregs. They will try and give it some boosts to see if it will get going. They come up with cool plots and intriguing, three dimensional characters with vivid personalities and amazing backgrounds. They take the information they're given and weave it into something new, exciting, and personal. They take risks for the sake of roleplay because they love the adventure, and they aren't afraid to step outside the box.

New Gen are the roleplayers we a lot of these days. I'm not naming names because they might take this offensively. New Gens are the kind that are opposite of Old Gens. They join a site going "OMG this place is awesome!" They make a character or two and make one liner posts. They immediately want their characters in love triangles or just plain old love. Their scrippies are short, their characters are 1-dimensional. When things get tough, they bail out. Then they join a whole new site and the same repeats, a vicious repetitive cycle that is slowly causing the downfall of roleplay. They won't take risks, they won't develop their characters, they won't step outside the box.

We helped create this new generation by not stopping them where we should have. Granted, not all of us know any sites with these kinds of people, but still. We let it get out of hand.

My sites have faced toughed times, and you guys have seen them through. Especially Aisthesis. So far, that one is about to hit it's one year anniversary, which, considering what I've just said, that's a big moment.

I'm happy with the people who are sticking by me and my sites, I really am, but we need more minds, new minds, fresh ones if we're going to keep our sites afloat.

And I think it's stupid.

Why do people avoid great sites? Are they that terrified of depth and complexity? Why do they crave simple? Yes, I enjoy simple easy-peasy sites now and then. I've taken off to play on warriors rps and crappy newbie rp sites. I do. But that doesn't mean that everyone should just go on those all the time. Those sites have a purpose: to just be there for random entertainment. But we need to support all the big, complex sites that come our way. We need to raise them up and spread the word like wildfire, and get people to commit to them.

NEVER use homework or life as an excuse. Teens have no lives. That's why they roleplay. If you have enough time to get online in the first place and join a site, then keep getting on.

AND STOP relying on your site owners to make stuff happen for you. This is not a movie or a book. You want something to happen, make it happen!

We are not a taxi service. We do not drive you. You drive us.

Drive in, minions, and make the worthwhile sites worthwhile to their owners too.