- Joined
- Dec 13, 2016
- Messages
- 108
- Reaction score
- 100
Hey all,
So @Green Ranger asked for expansion on the "PvP is good/bad" issue, so I figure maybe I can oblige? There's no doubt that PvP is a contentious topic on the site. Look at this thread and you'd be an idiot not to see it (sorry if someone didn't notice). And unfortunately enough (can't believe I'm saying this, what's wrong with me?) I agree with a lot of what @Elijah Brockway said.
The issue with PvP doesn't lie with the rules laid out for PvP it's with people's view of it. If you've been around this site for any time at all, you'll know that I like PvP and am a supporter of it overall, but even I have times when I get burned out on the arguments associated with it because it is often accompanied by rampant OOC bickering, often about petty things. So I think we have to ask what the root of that is? Well, I don't think we can blame the system for that because just as I've had horrid OOC fights, I've had extremely pleasant fights as well. If it's the system, then you wouldn't have it producing both good and bad. That means that it must be the people involved that are causing the issue.
So, then, what is the root attitude behind these divisive actions? I would contend that (there may be other reasons as well) there are two major attitudes that are the issue in PvP: 1) People cannot/will not/do not separate OOC from IC and 2) People become WAY too attached to characters that they are putting into combat.
Now I am expecting point number 2 to get some extremely resentful comments, so before you start angrily slapping your keyboards and raging about how stupid I am, hear me out.
*Insert unpopular opinion puffin* Remember guys and gals, at the end of the day these are fake characters on a Star Wars fanfiction site. The world is not going to come to an end if one of them dies. People become so overly attached to their characters they are unable to realize that it is possible to write a new character with entirely new story opportunities. And I say this as someone who is quite attached to some of the characters that I have made.
Now, obviously we don't want to recycle characters at every turn or churn out characters whose stories we have absolutely no investment or interest in, but if you have some favorite character that you absolutely can't live without, then you probably shouldn't put them in combat. I'm not saying just fill your character slots with what people would term "PvP characters" but I've seen the archive request thread be used often enough for non-death related archives to know that you don't really care that deeply about every character you make. I'm not telling you to throw your characters away, but remember that even your and my favorite characters aren't real people and life will go on. People get so absorbed with not letting a character die that they will do nearly anything (including bashing OOC on their opponent) in order to resist.
That attitude OOC also kind of leads me to my other point: separating OOC and IC. I think some of this may have been slightly improved with the crossover in main factions, but the writers of the other faction aren't actually your enemy. Again, FANFICTION website. You don't have to be enemies with the people you fight, even if you're trying to outwit them. For instance, I think that every person that either has killed or really tried (and nearly succeeded) to kill my characters on this site has been a friend of mine OOC. And we're still friends. At the end of the day, if you lose a character, yeah, it's a bummer, but there are always new stories to write.
Ok, unpopular opinion over, sorry, no TL;DR
I agree completely.
If I may, that's a bit of a re-occurring theme from what I'm seeing. By having writers project onto their characters, the writing then becomes personal. The fun of it all gets lost, and all that's left is the bickering over who's got the better action figure. This applies both to Factions and PvP, as on a faction front the Militaristic view point there-in is just giving the other guy a horrible time. This is fine in war. It's not fine in a writing forum.
In my books, anyway.
Edit: Typo.