Role-playing is, at its core, a story in which a number of people contribute through interactions with one another as custom characters. As a frequent RPer (read: role-play addict), I find myself faced with a dilemma that others I've encountered also deal with: the community.
The community is what makes the RP, they can make or break a setting here in Second Life. Take Star Wars, for example. A popular setting with a number of books, movies and even comics. It has a good population with 642 people in SWRP United alone. Numbers aren't enough, though, and they certainly don't account for how well everyone within it gets along
It's common for us, as humans, to find a group of like-minded people. Often, most are mature enough to handle and address this nature, but some just aren't. That's when you have the SWRP community, a high school in futuristic sheep’s clothing. Minus the lunch room drama. All the drama is in a convenient message box, brought to you by Linden Labs.
The most common complaint is and has been the lack of any true unity within the community. During the time of the Galactic Unity, the first quarter of 2008, there has been a division with something as seemingly simple as the timeline and a set of rules as well as a combat meter. People would argue in the group chat, originally meant for general news, over things like this.
The Galactic Unity eventually disbanded during November 2009, but this still didn't solve the problem with unity or lack thereof.
Many people blame the Jedi players while others blame the Sith. What many don't realize---and I say this as a very irritated third party---is that there are, in fact, only two groups to blame. In the SWRP community, you have two extremes, a classic case of order versus chaos.
There are the newer generations that wander into the RP with no direction and no desire to learn the courtesies of RP. They will not ask the questions necessary to advance and better themselves as writers. Most that fall under this substitute role-play for a set of colorful numbers a meter provides along with the standard click-and-move combat. This is often the most obvious problem and, while I did say they are the newer generation, many of them also fall under the older generation and have been in the community for a long time. Some might have even developed a sense of elitism because of skill in metered combat or because of the time they've "served" (read: taken up space) within the community.
Then there are those that are "too smart." As the one above is chaos, this one is order. Members that fall under this category can be blamed for chasing off potential new members of the community with their over-zealous attitudes and their own sense of elitism. These people tend to be belittle others and push their thoughts, opinions, etc., without much concern for others. While they do focus on RP more often than not, it also means their RP is what matters to them. They often believe their way IS the right way and, like their counter-part, are close minded to any outside input. You'll find these in a good number of sim owners who have the mind to establish a timeline (other than the default Post-Legacy era, which is after all the SW media) and who seek to do their own thing rather than cooperate with others to form a long-lasting story. They’re the ones that should be teaching, but aren’t.
What should be a community has borderlines on tribal warfare with people divided into smaller groups, effectively closing off RP and interaction with new faces, and also putting OOC drama toward the top of SWRP's hobbies. Sadly, there is no "true" solution to problems like this, especially with the state of mind of those responsible being the way they are. It's why people need to read the Ten Commandments of RP and exactly why there needs to be an unbiased checks-and-balances to the administrative (sim owners, group officers, etc.) powers that be.
Without it, SWRP is just like high school all over again, except with slander instead of food being launched at each other