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+--- Thread: Age Thread! (/showthread.php?tid=2416)
Age Thread! - Savarah - 06-25-2013
One of the most beautiful things about RP is that it bridges the age gap if done well enough. You could be a 12 year old who writes beautifully with impeccable grammar and mesh perfectly with someone who is, say, 35 and been around the RP block a few times. And never be the wiser, for that matter.
That being said (so as not to sound like a complete creeper), how old are the members of our community? Getting the early RP start as middle schoolers or high schoolers, maybe college aged, maybe much older than that with lives and children of your own who've been RPing longer than these silly kids have been alive? And have any of you taken any formal writing classes or have you just grown and developed on the fly?
Personally, I'm 21 and entering my last year of college (yay!) and I wrote for fun with a close friend or two through most of my teens. Learned what was good, what was cheesy, and what was downright awful. I've never taken any formal creative writing classes because I'm afraid of people judging me (hence why I'm terrified of the mentor program as awesome as it is
). One of the most awesome things in my RP past is that I got into extensive arcs with young teens and adults who had kids my age, and it was really awesome. 
RE: Age Thread! - Varus - 06-25-2013
I'm a recent college graduate, haha! Good luck with your last year!
I've never taken any creative writing classes, but I had friends who did, so they gave me a few writing tips here and there.
One of the things they absolutely hated was my verbosity, so I've been trying to cut down on my writing length.
RE: Age Thread! - Asyria - 06-26-2013
I'm 31 and English my second language! So while my vocabulary is pretty decent and my grammar is okay, I sometimes have trouble expressing myself as clearly as I'd like and people often misinterpret what I'm trying to say (and they usually misinterpret it in the worst possible way, which inevitably causes drama >.<).
If you're curious, French is my first.
I live in the land of weremoose, poutine and pâté chinois.
I never took any class related to RP in any way except some drama in elementary school because we had to pick 2 out of 3 of music, drama and whatever it is when you glue stuff and make "art" and I REALLY didn't want music so I picked the other two.
I ended up in the most advanced English classes though cause I turned out to be pretty bilingual (I suspect most of my motivation came from wanting to know wtf was going on in Final Fantasy 2(US) at the time). This kept on until college so by the time I dropped out, I was comfortable enough watching movies, playing games and reading books in English, if that was their original language (I feel there's always a loss in translating something).
Now as far as actual RP goes... if we skip endless games of make believe and solo adventure books (Fighting Fantasy, Lone Wolf, Way of the Tiger... good times), I guess it started around 12 or 13 years old, when I laid my eyes on some D&D books and from there I started RPing whenever I could.
Before RPing in mmorpg's was a thing, though (and that started about 6 years ago for me, I think) I would write extensive backgrounds for NPC's and PC's alike, stories for my friends to enjoy (fantasy/comedy starring them and myself in an alternate universe) and even once, a journal for an NPC, that I intended for players to find and then I'd hand it over for them to actually read (and of course that never happened, but I still had one friend read it).
Of course, most of that was in French. o_o
RE: Age Thread! - Ryanti - 06-26-2013
(06-25-2013, 09:25 PM)Tyonis Wrote: One of the things they absolutely hated was my verbosity, so I've been trying to cut down on my writing length.
You better not cut it down with me.
Three/four semesters left in college. I remember when I was the 12 year old keeping up with the 35 year olds. I was able to type like this while very young because my pride wouldn't let me be worse then the others were.
I was a second-in-command of a RP guild in SWG at 12. Though I told no one my age until after it disbanded.
RE: Age Thread! - Viper - 06-26-2013
I'm 34 years old, a proud father of two and happily married. Â I have no formal or informal schooling when it comes to literature and writing. Â I like to think that I can RP sensibly enough with few spelling errors, but trust me I abuse the crap out of the comma. Â I put that little baby in places it just has no right being in...
I've RP'd a lot in heavy heavy RP environments (text based mucks primarily) where the only game mechanic is how to enter your text for the RP at hand. Â I've played as villainous sorcerer types, benevolant priestess queens, insane underage psyhopaths, conflicted robot-humanoid hybrids, and pretty much anything else you can put in there. Â Some of the better known characters I've RP'd as over the years (I'll only list the ones I got complimented on for playing...hehe)
Marcy from Chrono Cross
Magus / Janus Zeal from Chrono Trigger
Phacia from Lunar Silver Star Story
Gambit from the X-men
Naomi Armitage from Armitage III
Lupin from Lupin the 3rd
Largo from Bubblegum Crisis
Those were my faves of course. Â My point being you're quite right about the skill of a role player being able to fuzz up age gaps. Â A 30 year old father playing as a 9 year old semi-psycho military general in combat boots, blue ribbons and a pink dress would've been a hard one to call I think.
RE: Age Thread! - Asyria - 06-26-2013
(06-26-2013, 08:11 AM)Viper Wrote: but trust me I abuse the crap out of the comma. Â I put that little baby in places it just has no right being in...
I used to do that a lot!
I blame my French. Commas see a lot of use in French and I realized it wasn't quite as useful in English when someone compared reading me to hearing Captain Kirk. o_O
I'm still not entirely sure where I'm supposed to use them and where I'm not but I cut down my use of them in half after that comment.
RE: Age Thread! - Y'sehr - 06-26-2013
I'm 26, and I haven't done a lot of RP. I did some light RP with a friend, and a little on forums and what not, but most of that was a long time ago now. I haven't even taken many writing classes. I liked reading and trying and the interaction.
RE: Age Thread! - Magellan - 06-26-2013
I'm 33, and am new to RP, but have been creatively writing for fun since high school. It's fun to get to be so interactively involved with imagined characters of all makes and types ^^
RE: Age Thread! - Imsey - 06-26-2013
31 years old and married here, without a creative writing class to my name. Â X] While I'm new to mmo RP (I'm saying that way too often on these forums), I've done forum RP for... at least 7-8 years. Â I'm happy to RP with people of all ages.
I love to play any sort of character, finding fun it fitting into new roles. Â Nervous to start off here, bit I'm sure it'll be lots of fun.
RE: Age Thread! - Averis - 06-27-2013
Why do I have to be the first oldest person in this thread??? 36 -_-
But don't let that fool you, I'm still a kid at heart.
Anyway, I have never been to any writing class except what you are required to take in school. I have been writing personal stories since my early teens for my own comic books etc. So that probably helped some when I started to get into MMO role-play. I never did the whole tabletop thing. I'm still learning everyday. I probably overuse commas, but I love them. I think that role-play and posting online has forced me to improve my ability to write, but I still can't spell for beans. >.<
My MMO RP history is pretty varied. I've run the gamut of casual to fulltime IC. I started in Lineage 2 (when it came out) and have role-played many characters since then.
Outside of that, I have no family of my own. If I'm not gaming I'm working or drawing.
RE: Age Thread! - Nox - 06-27-2013
I'm 19 and a sophomore in college (or University, depending upon where you live). I'm not exactly "new" to rp, but I'm not a veteran. I have... maybe 4-5 years under my belt. Kind of fitting that I'd find rping fun considering that I want to be a writer.
Edit: Wow, I think I'm the baby
RE: Age Thread! - Ellion Goto - 06-27-2013
Ah fun thread!
I am 28 years old. I graduated from college in 2010 with an Information Technology/Software Engineer major. I have been doing the RP thing now for quite some time (since I was 15) and started out like some of you have, with DnD. Growing up in a staunch traditional home I was always told that such things like DnD was evil and encouraged violence or bad behavior. When I learned that it was just a simple pen-and-paper game, I was floored with laughter from the fears of others with the concept of such a game.
I became fascinated with the concept of this "RP" and have tried many different styles of it since then. Except LARPing, that just seems ridiculous... or maybe ridiculously fun... I have to try it to see!
ALSO: Hellloooo Asyria
RE: Age Thread! - Gimlette - 06-27-2013
33 here...
I've been RP'ing DnD since i was old enough to (sorta) understand a sheet. Â I was seven, my brother thought it would be amusing to have me play the most twisted concept he could put together. Â Over the years i've played TT and online, via digichats, IRC, forums and MMO's. Â I've played DnD, everything White Wolf (yay changeling!) Abberant, Paranoia, Cthulhu and currently Anima. Â I write (pages and pages...) and i draw (not so well but i'm practicing?)Â
Other then that i'm in culinary school currently and y'all are welcome to visit my gastro pub when (if) i ever get the silly thing open. Â Desserts and booze! Â Woot!
RE: Age Thread! - Amyr Mythweaver - 06-27-2013
Averis do not worry I can save you from the "honour" of being the oldest in the thread I am 43 and been Rping since I was a teenager in pen and paper games ( AD&D, Rolemaster, Call of Cthulu mostly) and RPing in MMO's since '99.
I have not attended any creative writing classes but often wish I had my grammar is not the best especially when RPing and feeling the need to reply in a timely fashion, beyond that the years have not eroded my enjoyment that RPing brings and although I did not play or RP in 1.0 I look forward to meeting you all when ARR goes live.
RE: Age Thread! - Kassandra Dawn - 06-27-2013
I just turned 29 this month...woohoo