Understandable maybe, but I always thought that if you play down to the mass, you're not really helping the situation. That's why I have so much respect for people who can still keep their characters above water, like Nicoletta and Pieter. It's too easy to stop trying because the threshold is so low.
Just because the bar is set low is no reason for poor quality roleplaying out of people who are capable of better. Especially since there are quite a few people who do play interesting characters that really stick out from the background static.
When I first started with Veik as a fresh character I also started writing essay pieces on a variety of topics that are still on my hard drive, ranging from thoughts on the Federal military-industrial complex; post VH-451 Gallente-Caldari relations; Megacorporate propaganda and defining the Caldari mileu; Caldari-Khanid relations; Imperial House politics; and a few more all written from an IC perspective since Veik as a character had/has a strong corporate intelligentsia streak to her.
I also wrote a few fragmentary novella type things for her brother, since he had an IC concept of being a secretive author that published dissident type things about the Caldari State. However, the more I began being re-exposed to the roleplay community, the more my desire to actually complete those projects diminished because frankly it just felt like engaging in a whole lot of wasted time and effort given the expected audience.
If I were you, I'd go the extra mile. I actually think some of the essay writing I did when I first got onto the IGS (and had a lot more time) generated quite a bit of interesting RP. It definitely separated the wheat from the chaff. True, there are a lot of people who will toe the UAD line, but some of those discussions went on for ages, rolling over every little bit of Amarrian religion, culture, and their place in the universe.
All in all, I thought it went pretty well! People loved or hated Constantin and he caught a lot of flack, but all in all I had a lot of fun. It seemed like it blew up a sudden spike in Amarrian RP where you got to see who was there and wanted to jump in as a character. You also saw who just wanted to weigh in with a remark, then leave.
The IGS can be a kind of toxic place, but I think that's just because people have a tendency to play to the lowest common denominator of discussion rather than raising the tone. Nature of the game be damned, some people had an opportunity to characterize and they took it.
Totally worth doing!
Just because the bar is set low is no reason for poor quality roleplaying out of people who are capable of better. Especially since there are quite a few people who do play interesting characters that really stick out from the background static.
And a lot of us just don't feel the IGS is the right place to do it.
The IGS has its uses. I don't think really good character development and interaction is one of them, and while it happens sometimes, it's enough of a rarity that it's not worth actively trying to make it happen there.
I've always, always approached the IGS (and the Summit to some extent) as being a place where a specific 'mask' should be worn. If you want to actually get a good view of the person behind that mask, you need to spend time interacting with them elsewhere, face to face.
I think most people who have interacted with Morwen on the IGS or in the Summit, as well as in person, would say that she changes a lot depending on where and how people interact with her. She's far more argumentative/snarky on the IGS than she is elsewhere because that's the kind of behavior that is expected in that venue, and as a result is the behavior that keeps her head above water, so to speak.
Other characters have pretty drastic differences between how they act on the IGS and in person too. Lyn's a good example - she seems a lot like Morwen in that regard; even though their methods of arguing and snarking are different (and often incompatible), they're both much quieter and reserved in person.
If that's the case, I'd think the IGS is still a fun place to play the character. I actually keep up private RPs through mail and IMs, so I know a lot of characters are different in the crowd than in person. However, that "mask" that characters and people wear is based on a character's perception of perfection. The fact is, no two people's false personas are the same because they may have completely different ideas on the best way they'd like to be perceived by others.
If the IGS has a problem as a medium, it's that its subject matter tends to be limited. That's largely our fault. We usually only get Arista's bad TV voice from everyone because we're on those subjects.
As much flack as Isis gets, I do like that Constantin and she got to hit on each other and argue. I think that's the best way to turn face and show another angle on a character. Just flip the subjects around.
