Random Thing I miss from the old days of The Internet (TM)
I miss when journal sites were the main place to RP. My version of social issues makes tumblr and board sites pretty much impossible. I’m just not that good at talking directly to people. But on journaling sites? I could get into a game, post an open RP, and be guaranteed that people in the game saw it. I could make journal posts and have long conversations ICly that lead to RP agreements! I could do so much and never, ever have to speak OOCly. Even more, I got to be part of a group. I met a lot of people that way, honestly, even if I rarely spoke to them. Some I still speak to, sometimes!
But most of all, I miss the style. I miss writing and titling journal entries, reading other journal entries, making comments all over the place that turned into long threads and then combined with other threads until everyone was shouting and turns were lost. I miss putting little private labels on posts so my characters inner thoughts could be shared with the world without... really being shared with the world.
I miss playing with dozens of people in the same exact setting, being able to easily read up on their character and have an automatically shared location that made RP easy to set up.
I miss my character, some of which I haven’t written in YEARS because they were really made for journal RPing, honestly, and I wouldn’t know how to make them work elsewhere. I miss X-men roleplays filled with OCs where I played two students, a teacher, and sometimes Professor X because why not? I miss Harry Potter RPs and my stuttering Hufflepuff who could barely cast a spell but mixed potions with a patience and expertise that annoyed Snape. I miss the fantasy boarding schools that gave me some of my favorite characters and some that I’d never write again but enjoyed at the time. And I miss some individual characters. I miss James, who I played in just about every setting imaginable and at every age between 11 and 25. James, who did everything from turn into a mouse to control lighting to run away and live on the streets. James, the boy who survived trauma and neglect and knew fear, knew hunger, who tried so hard to love people but didn’t quite really know how, who had to be taught affection, had to be taught to stand... Man, I loved writing him.
I miss writing long journal entries before bed and waking up in the morning to write some replies before heading out and coming home to more.
Honestly, I mostly just miss steady RP. But my anxiety has kind of locked me in with the new styles, leaving me kind of... stuck. Alas and alack.