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[Aria Jenneth]

So, two thoughts.

(1) It is indeed rare for people to properly play a real form of mental illness well. Our feelings about it are often informed more by media sources (mad scientists and their conceptual kin) than by any kind of serious study or understanding of the conditions portrayed, and often fit more under the heading of "this character is crazy" than "this character suffers from conditions X, Y, and Z, which I have meticulously researched and am portraying with care."

(2) I don't believe that capsuleer dementia fits in the same discussion. It's a fictitious "ailment" that causes its subjects to approach life as though they were playing a game, and it's nearly ubiquitous among capsuleers both in and outside the RP community. It can be roughly described as progressive psychopathy, but part of the fun of it is that it isn't real. "Studying" it is an IC attempt to make IC sense of actions and attitudes that largely originate OOC, and my writings on it serve OOC as a series of musings on the effects of power and perspective. The RP surrounding it is less about pretending to be crazy and more a thought experiment on what gamer behavior might be diagnosed as if it manifested IRL. It's also a discussion mirrored in a great many conversations about transhumanism and what it means to be human, or not.

From where I sit, it's a whole separate subject.

[Laria Raven]

I think part of the problem, and I do think it can be a problem, is the classic desire to make a character that's "different", and doing so with a very broad brush.

It seems to often be accompanied by an unwillingness to be collaborative in RP scenes, and so you get...

The violins continue to play softly in the background. Lord Ponsonby turns to the lady by his side. "This is most exquisite, is it not, Lady Throckmorton?"

'Crazy' McShane runs through the room. "I'VE GOT A BUNCH OF BANANAS! BANANAS!"'

'Crazy' throws bananas at everyone and shoots the guitar player with a banana gun!!

'Crazy' runs away again.

Lady Throckmorton raises an eyebrow. "Indeed," she says, deliberately not noticing any bananas that might or might not be in the process of being hastily cleaned up.

I agree about the RL problematic bit, though there are many RL problematic things that happen in RP. I just think it's... um... non-optimal RP.

ObMyCharacter bit: Laria has lots of weird issues, but the only one that could be classed as a mental illness is mild agoraphobia planet-side. But as she's only been planetside four times in her life, it's understandable.

[Seriphyn]

Seriphyn is emotionally damaged, though like most people with some sort of disorder he acts normal the majority of the time. It instead manifests itself in episodes of severe melancholy and immaturity, though men in general can suffer from the latter regardless, really. I say these things with no academic, professional, or even anecdotal knowledge of mental health. Even as an across-the-board healthy person,  I find the idea of using a psychological disorder to justify "dark" RP to be in poor taste. Especially if it is used as an excuse for bad RP.

Problem is is that because Seri is not in with the popular crowd, any disorder is not perceived as valid. This comes despite some CCP canonity behind it. If Seri was female he would receive far more sympathy.

[Shiori]

Much like Aria, I find I never mentally connected capsule dementia and the myriad of fictional psychopathies that we seem so happy to inflict on our characters to anything in the real world. Capsuleer dementia isn't supposed to be a realistic illness.  It's hopefully as offensive to people with genuine issues as the idea of vampirism would be to anemics.

[BloodBird]

Fun fact: BB is the kind of person that routinely does things one would likely describe as "evil" and "vile" for ideological reasons an treat people widely different based on them, yet he does not suffer from any kind of illness that I know of, or planned. I'm confident at some point someone will claim this is due some sort of condition - simply because of the above mentioned ideas that [insert illness] is seen as a 'common' excuse/explanation for such behavior.

I have no plan to intentionally add any kind of official illness or condition to him to explain anything, as the idea that you can be perfectly healthy and still "evil" is one of the basic ideas around my toon. Also, the idea that "evil" is a highly debatable and subjective term for a person's actions.

[Silas Vitalia]

I'd be wary of trying to place our terrestrial-bound hum drum psychological issues in the same league as immortal demigods moving through the stars and vaporizing thousands of people with their thoughts on a regular basis.

They are mostly very, very crazy by today's standards.


At least, its extremely common and easy for capsuleers to cut the terrestrial ties to morality and common experience with humanity. 

[Shintoko Akahoshi]

Problem is is that because Seri is not in with the popular crowd, any disorder is not perceived as valid. This comes despite some CCP canonity behind it. If Seri was female he would receive far more sympathy.

Actually, I don't see this as being the case. Seri doesn't get a lot of sympathy because he comes across as a rather distasteful man. Were he a distasteful female, I don't think he would garner any more sympathy.

Well, except from Anslo, perhaps. He's got a thing for crazy pants... 

[Lyn Farel]

How is he distateful ? o_O

[Creep]

How is he distateful ? o_O

Arrogant, self-centered, conceited, prone to whining, self-aggrandizing, and self-righteous.

[Lithium Flower]

Well, there should be some kind of line to distinguish craziness and real mental illness.
For example, if a character is adrenaline addict (not adrenaline as a drug, but rather prefers to put self into dangerous situations for the thrill), will be this characters actions considered as crazy? Most probably will be.

What we should remember, that a human brain is kind of sponge, it is a neurocomputer that learn itself with information it absorbs. We analyze information and act according to pattern that were set by previous experience. If someone's brain had experience much different to your and acts completely different, than you would in same situation, it doesn't mean that it is malfunctioning (as has some kind of illness), but rather was trained this way. You can consider such characters actions as crazy, because you wouldn't do this thing yourself ever. But you had different experience, right?

As for actual mental illnesses, I usually imagine mentally ill peoples as practically harmless.

Evil crazy mentally ill - this is something "comics-esque" for me.

And I will agree with Aria, that "capsuleer dementia" is a thing that makes you think you play a game.

[Morwen Lagann]

How is he distateful ? o_O

Arrogant, self-centered, conceited, prone to whining, self-aggrandizing, and self-righteous.

... frequently a dick to his girlfriend, and entirely unapologetic about all of the above.

It's less to do with being a woman or "in with the popular crowd" or not, and more to do with the way the character acts towards people who theoretically ought to be on his own side.

It's the behavior, not the person.

[Svetlana Scarlet]

How is he distateful ? o_O

Arrogant, self-centered, conceited, prone to whining, self-aggrandizing, and self-righteous.

So...he's Gallente. 

[Lyn Farel]

How is he distateful ? o_O

Arrogant, self-centered, conceited, prone to whining, self-aggrandizing, and self-righteous.

Not more than half of the capsuleers on the IGS...  We have quite good specimens embodying all of these facets.

... frequently a dick to his girlfriend, and entirely unapologetic about all of the above.

True.

[Katrina Oniseki]

Not more than half of the capsuleers on the IGS...  We have quite good specimens embodying all of these facets.

Are those examples more popular and well liked than him? I can think of several characters that share his personality traits including my own at certain points of time. None of those (including my own at those times) were very well liked at all.

Boobs don't make a difference.

[Ché Biko]

Everyone who interacts with him considers Istvaan suave, charming, powerful, and dangerous.

Really? I must have caught him on an anomalous day then.