Blogs - Second living

So, I’m back and ready with an entirely new rant. As many have no doubt guessed, I role-play on a number of sims and I have both the pleasure (and displeasure) of seeing a number of both great and not-so-great things.

That said, the most recent (though not necessarily the newest) role-play crime I’ve witness is, to put it nicely, a lack of players taking note of their setting. In one of the sims I role-play in, Dead End, it’s snowing. You know, as in winter and a possible blizzard.

So far, I have seen a small number of players taking this into account and dressing appropriately. To date, I’ve seen ladies in short skirts, open-toed heels and a jacket, if it’s a good day. Worst case, and sadly more common, scenario is a combination of the first, but also a tank top or a sweater with swooping neckline. For the guys, jeans and a wife beater or bare chest. Seriously.

I understand that Second Life is a game where you pretty much live it up. That’s fine and all, but when you’re in a role-play you have to immerse yourself into that setting, into that world, enough that you’re playing it accurately. Even Sex and the City’s Samantha Jones has winter wear.

Urban role-play sims aren’t the only ones guilty of this. Star Wars RP has had this issue for a long time now, mainly within the Sith and even the Jedi. Now, if I myself were a Jedi, I wouldn’t exactly be using Force Jump nor Force Dash in a pair of expensive, very elaborate high heels. In fact, if I owned a pair of heels like that, I’d keep it as far away from a lightsaber as possible. I’d also avoid latex of any kind so that my skin can breathe and terrorize my enemies when my sleeves roll up.

Mystara and just about every other medieval RP that has a pretty loose dress code are also very guilty of this. You see people with their dong out sometimes and women who seem to have the inability to dress as respectable as their fantasy counterparts of that time. Even the queen dresses more like a nineties picture of a female fantasy figure. She’s not even the worst of it. There are some who dress up in lingerie or, in the case of one man, anything that shows off his “woodie.”

My point is, if you’re in a role-play, it’s best to dress FOR the setting and for your role within the setting. What may look sexy in, say, the bedroom may be absolutely ridiculous on a dirt trail in a lawless, medieval realm. There is a time for scantily clad figures and that’s if you’re a [convincing] slave or role-playing in an ancient setting, like Conan’s universe.

There is no way a warrior would be so obsessed with his wood that he has to deliberately show it off and avoid a functional outfit of any kind. I also highly doubt any member of the mercantile caste would be so keen on showing her cleavage, legs and even her liver, if you hike up the skirt enough. That, and they had a VERY different idea of lingerie back then.

Granted, people want to live out their fantasies in SL RP, which is cool, you know. To each their own, right? The problem is there is a time and a place for everything. Role-play is where you pick up a role and act out the scene accordingly. That said, if they are looking for sex appeal, what’s wrong with subtlety? There is absolutely no incentive to play a slut (male, female or in between) since most people barely cover anything to begin with. There is absolutely little to no reward in reaching that point in an in character romance since, by the time the characters even meet, you’ve already seen what they have to offer. The most I can actually suggest is going to Google, looking up images of people in a similar climate to the sim you RP in, then go back to SL and compare the two. By going in accordance with the setting, you immerse yourself more into the setting and, in turn, the story.