Subject: One Oldbie Opinion
Author:
Posted on: 2022-05-09 05:28:33 UTC

So, my reaction to this when I first saw it can be summed up as "Why?", but I figure most of that is due to personal taste and lack of energy, and I don't want to step on other people's fun.

I also have some misgivings about good taste, but TBH I'm less worried about offending authors who are mostly trolls and will probably never see this, more worried about repeating and indeed exaggerating trollish depictions of sensitive issues such as race and self-harm, which I notice have come up in the RP already. Playing Suvians and being silly is probably fine; devolving into a competition of who can be the most insensitive or offensive is definitely not fine.

My advice: Linstar, as the Original Poster, you have some responsibility to ensure your game runs smoothly. Do be careful to keep a lid on that stuff and let people know if they're close to crossing the line. Other Boarders (such as doctorlit, I've seen) will step in if necessary, but try not to let it get that far.

Also, remember that the most successful parodies start from a deep understanding of their subject. If you're going to deconstruct something, you have to know how all the pieces work; otherwise it's not a deconstruction, it's just a mess. In the case of "My Immortal," for instance, we know it's a trollfic, so why do you think the author made the decisions they made? Why do you think they were so successful that the fic became so widely known? How can you emulate their thought process to portray Ebony as faithfully as possible to the real thing while still poking fun at it?

^ Those are rhetorical questions for you and other people to think about; please do not reply with essays on the subject. I will not read them.

TL;DR: Have fun, but do no harm and don't lose your head.

~Neshomeh

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