I got no culture.

So my obligatory first post requires that I spell out for you lay-folk a little bit more about myself and why I think my voice is important enough to be posted on the internets. For one, it's the internet, the biggest repository of mis-information and stupidity ever built into the framework of our puny human lives, and for the second, because I felt like I'd get myself a blog.

That's pretty much all there is to the reasoning behind it, but I did want to address a serious issue in all communities across the United States of America, and in truth all across the world.

Internet gaming.

Now I know what you're thinking. "We all know World of Warcaft is like crack." Yeah, for people with no real willpower, but I'm not talking about that crap. That's not internet gaming. That's not real gaming at all. It's a bunch of guys who get together on a fake world, and kill fake monsters, for fake money, to get a "real" sense of accomplishment. I put quotations because the feeling is real, though the actual achievement is far from it.

No, good sirs, the gaming to which I reference myself is the mecca that has become play-by-post. Most DM's shudder at the thought (any experienced player should at least shudder a little as well) of trying to manage a game spread out across not only the entire world at times, but spread out through the course of his day. He's forced to obsessively check their website every ten minutes just in case someone has posted.

He slaves over the game for everyone involved, and when something doesn't go perfectly right, his players selfishly whine and moan making life suck for everyone involved. If they really get going they'll actually post their complaints and start causing other people to notice the problems, thus creating a further diversion making the game worse.

This sucks. It's incredibly boring to deal with, because you forget the story altogether, time-consuming, because anyone who wishes to actually play the game must slog through the vile filth to understand and add anything pertinent, and the absolute worst part: anyone not involved has to listen to your annoying, whiny, purposeless rants.

Now, that being said, play by post can be something magical. Magnificent even.

When a play by post works properly, each player is actively contributing to the whole story in their character's unique perspective and honestly trying to create a fun, involved story it can become something wonderful. It's a chance to write and expand your writing style. This is something that every parent should want for their child, because communication in this world is key to survival. So, Dungeons and Dragons via chat rooms and forums becomes a useful tool for teaching personal development.

Take your time writing for your character. If you create a one-dimensional character, you'll get one-dimensional results, and that's boring. Think you're character through. Think about what his thoughts are, about what he believes is good and bad. How does he feel about love? Money? Power? Danger? Adventure? Think about the different aspects that make YOU a unique individual person, and put them into this person you're making, and then you can create a three-dimensional person.

Why should this be important? What do you say that no one else says? Why? What led to that? Are we so pompous to think that we are the only people in this world capable of more than one-dimension (watching our government at work I think that there are some people like that in charge) that we cannot even CONCEIVE of someone else, having similar psychological structure?

Break that mold and you will enter the mystical realm of fun that play by post can create.