Is forum Roleplaying beginning to slow down?

[mickilennial]

We had blogging sites in the early 2000s (Livejournal, Xanga, etc.) but it is true that blogging is more commonplace now.

Moving on from that point, obviously I agree with Ammo's sentiment overall because they are unequivocally correct. Role-playing has always been a hobby permeated by fickle interest and other factors. It hasn't changed in this regard, people just like imagining it has.

[Carlyle]

Hey, I don't mean to derail the topic, but all this talk about chat rooms and other forums of RP has got me thinking. There's this one online chat room service I remember using years ago, but it's like a fever dream to me since I don't remember much about it off the top of my head. All I really can remember is that the emojis looked like they were ripped from skype, it was browser-based and you were given stupid ass names like "Pink Butterfly Muffin" until you made an account or something. If anyone knows what I'm referring to please help a guildie out because this is honestly bugging me now

[mickilennial]

Hey, I don't mean to derail the topic, but all this talk about chat rooms and other forums of RP has got me thinking. There's this one online chat room service I remember using years ago, but it's like a fever dream to me since I don't remember much about it off the top of my head. All I really can remember is that the emojis looked like they were ripped from skype, it was browser-based and you were given stupid ass names like "Pink Butterfly Muffin" until you made an account or something. If anyone knows what I'm referring to please help a guildie out because this is honestly bugging me now

@Kuro

Might've been chatzy?

[Carlyle]

<Snipped quote by Kuro>
Might've been chatzy?

@Inkarnate

No, it's not Chatzy as far as I can tell. Could've sworn it started with a X, but the only chat program I can find starting with a X is Xfire and it isn't that. That said, I could be wrong about the X part anyway.

[mickilennial]

No, it's not Chatzy as far as I can tell. Could've sworn it started with a X, but the only chat program I can find starting with a X is Xfire and it isn't that. That said, I could be wrong about the X part anyway.

@Kuro

Maybe one of the dead pads? Etherpad or something or another? I do remember what you're talking about, though.

[Hedgehawk]

I think the issue is more of a supply vs demand issue. I don't think that the number of RPers have dropped over the years, I just think things have become more centralised. Rather than the load of small sites that we had in the late 2000's instead we have ended up with as all trio or so of larger communities.

The biggest thing is that we have ended up having too many GMs. I.E we are creating more RPs than there is demand for them. That means GMs have to market themselves rathe than focus on building a decent RP. That puts them under immense pressure etc and I could go really and write an article on the whole thing. I miss the old days where there were few GMs and RPs were fewer. You had to really commit to it to get in and as a result everyone was invested and you got like 100 posts out of it before it died. Now, getting past page one is seen as a crowing success it seems.

[mickilennial]

Yeah, I don't agree with that from what I know of RPing communities as a whole. I don't think there's data to back that up.

[Chuuya]

No, it's not Chatzy as far as I can tell. Could've sworn it started with a X, but the only chat program I can find starting with a X is Xfire and it isn't that. That said, I could be wrong about the X part anyway.

@Kuro

Are you referring to Xat or Chatango, maybe?

[SleepingSilence]

Beyond a doubt, having been in forum roleplaying. The medium has slowed down increasingly. While I too agree with the sentiment it will never truly die, it will likely never be as populous and widespread as it once was or even nearly as intense as it had been. It is more than just say, the issues of community or other, and rather it is just an overall trend. People have become more flighty, less committed, less active, and that is not just here in the medium but as a whole.

It is my expectation it will slow more and more, becoming increasingly a bygone relic, and that interest will only continue to expand elsewhere especially with Discord.

@The Harbinger of Ferocity

Horse. Shit.

People aren't RPing any less than before, they're just doing it in other places and in other ways.

@Ammokkx

Perhaps, I'm mistaken. But from the looks of it, neither of you actually disagree. The topic at hand was about forum roleplaying specifically. So when someone says "as a whole", they're more than likely describing 'the forum medium as a whole' versus one particular site. Otherwise, I don't know why "and the interest will expand/grow elsewhere" would be included. If it was meant to be a universal sentiment on the decline of roleplaying.

[Ammokkx]

<Snipped quote by The Harbinger of Ferocity>

<Snipped quote by Ammokkx>

Perhaps, I'm mistaken. But from the looks of it, neither of you actually disagree. The topic at hand was about forum roleplaying specifically. So when someone says "as a whole", they're more than likely describing 'the forum medium as a whole' versus one particular site. Otherwise, I don't know why "and the interest will expand/grow elsewhere" would be included. If it was meant to be a universal sentiment on the decline of roleplaying.

@SleepingSilence

Take note of the part I highlighted. "People have become more flighty."

No, they haven't. The nature of man doesn't change that easily, and it just reads like a big 'ol "Back in MY day" statement.

People were always shit. There's just less of us now.

[Carlyle]

<Snipped quote by Kuro>
Are you referring to Xat or Chatango, maybe?

@Hyde

Ah, it was Xat. Still feels like a fever dream now that I've remembered, though.

[Chuuya]

Ah, it was Xat. Still feels like a fever dream now that I've remembered, though.

@Kuro

To be fair, Xat was a fever dream.

[SleepingSilence]

Take note of the part I highlighted. "People have become more flighty."

No, they haven't. The nature of man doesn't change that easily, and it just reads like a big 'ol "Back in MY day" statement.

People were always shit. There's just less of us now.

@Ammokkx

I mean, let's be fair here, there's a lot more to distract you nowadays.

(And I get a taste of that feeling every day, when my own roommate can't ever seem to put his phone down.)

So the idea that people's attention spans have been on the decline, doesn't seem too farfetched to me. Especially, in this particular online social climate, being at its worst in a long time. (Which mind, is in it's own little pocket of reality.) I've still seen a few people tune out/use the internet less.

So I agree that people haven't changed, per say. But technology certainly has. (And not to go too far into other topics, but IQs and attention spans have been occasionally linked. And general IQ scores have been on the decline.)

Though, when you say "less of us now", do you mean roleplaying in the forums? Or less roleplayers in general? Because I agree with what was said previously, in that, I'm sure people are still RPing. But they're simply doing it in different avenues and places. (Granted, I can't seem to *find* those places. But I'm sure they exist.)

[Carlyle]

<Snipped quote by Kuro>
To be fair, Xat was a fever dream.

@Hyde

The site is still up, apparently, but most chat rooms are only averaging like 5-10 people at most.

[Exit]

I can't speak for everyone else but as for me, I've simply grown up, found where my limits are and stuck to it. When I was younger, I could sign up for near ten games and play all of them until they died on their own. Nowadays, I'm too busy, too distracted with other things, too invested in my own life to have enough time for anything more than two.

If the golden age of forum RP was

probably 1998-2014

@Inkarnate

then many of those same players have grown as well and are doing the same. None of us have left (I started 2006). We're around.

So to answer the question, forum RP is on the decline, not because the hobby is dying but because it has expanded to include other forms of media and most of the ones who used to forum RP are probably doing other things.

But I'm no expert. I just live here sometimes.

Can I hire someone to say the word 'rural' for me?

[mickilennial]

Like I said, it's to be expected when message boards are not the focus of people's attention online anymore. They were hot when usergroups ended and lasted as the primary driving force (alongside fanfiction.net and chat rp hubs like PJJ) for over a decade. Times change. We just gotta adapt and/or make the best of it.

[Hank]

Forums in general are in decline. The flight of social media and conglomerate websites like reddit are "to blame", if you want to speak in those terms. People like having a small handful of platforms that contain all their interests. Twitter fandoms, Instagram communities, subreddits, are all more convenient than a different forum for everything, so newer generations of internet denizens don't gravitate towards forums like we did 10-15 years ago.

[Rapid Reader]

I'm just here because I'm a hipster and like old and/or niche things.

Edgy comments aside, I do think there's a generational shift in the mediums that people use and as others have mentioned there's something inherently attractive to use a single communication tool (such as Skype or Discord). I can't really say that most of my generational peers seem particularly keen on using forums overall, much less on pursuing roleplaying forums.

If I didn't enjoy occasionally writing longer posts, so essentially if I hadn't dipped my toes into the Advanced section, I'm not really sure if there would be much reason for me to use a forum to roleplay. Note, I don't mean to disparage Free or Casual, but by nature of the shorter post length, Discord is no longer as annoying to use.

[LegendBegins]

I think that Discord as a platform has a great feel to it for flash-style RPs, but I dislike the stream-of-text behavior of the application itself. I and my group switched to a forum (from ifunny, no less) almost a decade ago because we wanted to be able to reference history and events from years past, which requires some sort of page system. When posts are on Discord, they feel pretty ethereal since they're mostly gone when they leave the top of the screen. You can find them, sure, but it's usually more painful than it's worth.

[Rightful Heir]

Yes, yes it has. The site has most certainly dwindled from years prior due to an incredibly toxic group of individuals that were left completely unchecked and unstopped until most the players I RP'd with stopped entirely.

But recently? Eh, group roleplays from my knowledge have been pretty limited to certain circles and ongoing affair for a while now on this site. (For instance, well over half of the current front pages of casual and advanced have RP's at least several months old.)

@SleepingSilence

I have to agree with this entirely. 100%.

I've been involved with a few RPs in a couple different circles, and have witnessed that typically the people who didn't start out in the original circle are pushed out eventually and it just remains the same people in multiple different RPs. Whether they personally just don't fit in with the group or whatever, their characters are practically ignored (no matter how much an individual can attempt to be included) till they finally say "screw it" and just drop because who wants to be in a group RP when you're just RPing with yourself the entire time? :T I've watched quite a number of my old friends go due to this same issue.

Personally, I've never been very good at being a GM. I don't handle spotlight well, and don't enjoy telling people what they can and can't do. xP I can't keep my own RP's alive to save my life, and when so many RPs are involved with the same tight-knit circles/cliques, it's kind of hard to want to stay "in the game" anymore. I'll admit, more often than not, I'm questioning whether or not I want to stay in it.. not that my presence would be missed, cause I've been quite a hit-and-miss in the last few years (since I had my daughter). RPing got me through a lot of trouble in my past. Anymore it seems as though the nostalgia of it is the only thing keeping me here.