I believe new media has allowed for platforms that encourage and enable people all over the globe to interact and create communities or you could even refer to them as "clubs," that allow people space to produce and bring to life their ideas and imagination.
The same way Second Life allows a literal virtual world for users to step on and interact, roleplay groups allow for a similar experience. Generally speaking, roleplay groups have the following formula: a setting, characters, and a plot (be it casual or heavy). And unlike Second Life, roleplay groups provide a lot more liberties but require a lot more investment.
Roleplay groups often rely heavily on imagination or, if you have a handful of artists willing to put some work into it, some self-made maps or background art for specific places in their imaginary world. These roleplay groups can be based off on the creator's original world or an existing world derived from an existing franchise. For instance, there are many roleplay groups based off of Harry Potter, animes, cartoons, and so forth.
In the art community, one of the most exciting parts of participating in a roleplay group is character creation. Much like in an MMORPG, there may be restrictions -- such as species restrictions, age restrictions, job restrictions, and so forth. Depending on the setting of the roleplay group, there are lots of variations and possibilities of these combinations.
Often times, the design of a character will communicate certain traits or interests about said character. (Similar to how marketers think about how they want to market a product or service to a group of individuals, a character's design works similar to that of a product's label or packaging). Using Taffy as an example here, the design suggests he's fond of clowns, bowling, but seems to be restrained in some form (given the heavy bowling ball chained to his ankle). You can sit there and spend the whole day guessing the character's backstory, but the creator of the character has the final say.
Many characters in successful roleplay groups (because there ARE unsuccessful, shabby ones) require some kind of biography for the character. For instance, the type of environment they were raised in, how they received education, how they developed certain hobbies or mannerisms and so forth. What makes a character appealing is a combination of all the design and their individual story. (And usually, the backstory is at least 2-3 pages long, 1.5 spaced).
Just by the character creation process alone, it's evident how much energy and creativity is put into roleplay groups. But these roleplay groups wouldn't be as popular and as functional as they are today without new media. It's possible they can exist in different settings, but they wouldn't be as large-scale and as easy to organize and establish if not for new media.
Roleplay groups, as silly as they may sound, encourage and entice users to create characters and stories of their own, which I believe is the most obvious examples of creativity. With these simple ideas, users can branch out and create animations for their own stories and even games they can enjoy in their small community by using tools like art programs, art websites that allow for creation of groups, communication technologies, and so forth.
The same way Second Life allows a literal virtual world for users to step on and interact, roleplay groups allow for a similar experience. Generally speaking, roleplay groups have the following formula: a setting, characters, and a plot (be it casual or heavy). And unlike Second Life, roleplay groups provide a lot more liberties but require a lot more investment.
Roleplay groups often rely heavily on imagination or, if you have a handful of artists willing to put some work into it, some self-made maps or background art for specific places in their imaginary world. These roleplay groups can be based off on the creator's original world or an existing world derived from an existing franchise. For instance, there are many roleplay groups based off of Harry Potter, animes, cartoons, and so forth.
In the art community, one of the most exciting parts of participating in a roleplay group is character creation. Much like in an MMORPG, there may be restrictions -- such as species restrictions, age restrictions, job restrictions, and so forth. Depending on the setting of the roleplay group, there are lots of variations and possibilities of these combinations.
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| Very rough draft of a sample design, drawn in ProCreate. |
Often times, the design of a character will communicate certain traits or interests about said character. (Similar to how marketers think about how they want to market a product or service to a group of individuals, a character's design works similar to that of a product's label or packaging). Using Taffy as an example here, the design suggests he's fond of clowns, bowling, but seems to be restrained in some form (given the heavy bowling ball chained to his ankle). You can sit there and spend the whole day guessing the character's backstory, but the creator of the character has the final say.
Many characters in successful roleplay groups (because there ARE unsuccessful, shabby ones) require some kind of biography for the character. For instance, the type of environment they were raised in, how they received education, how they developed certain hobbies or mannerisms and so forth. What makes a character appealing is a combination of all the design and their individual story. (And usually, the backstory is at least 2-3 pages long, 1.5 spaced).
Just by the character creation process alone, it's evident how much energy and creativity is put into roleplay groups. But these roleplay groups wouldn't be as popular and as functional as they are today without new media. It's possible they can exist in different settings, but they wouldn't be as large-scale and as easy to organize and establish if not for new media.
Roleplay groups, as silly as they may sound, encourage and entice users to create characters and stories of their own, which I believe is the most obvious examples of creativity. With these simple ideas, users can branch out and create animations for their own stories and even games they can enjoy in their small community by using tools like art programs, art websites that allow for creation of groups, communication technologies, and so forth.
Omg have you every played Dark Cloud 2 for PS2? Your character reminds me of the main character from there! What do you use to share your work? My guess is Deviantart but interested to see if the art community has moved or changed in recent years.
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