"But as long as teenage unwed lesbian aliens need a home, this catgirl will maintain her sacred duty!"
--A
City Of Heroes player after a particularly egregious guild meltdown caused by this trope.
There's a large number of people out there that like role playing. After all, as much fun as it is to write
stories with you as a main character, you can get a more direct feeling by acting it out spontaneously. As such, a large number of role-playing groups in
MMORPGs,
MUDs,
fora and other media have started to pop up. They usually offer a particular concept to get things going.
However, as a general rule, the more open the recruitment and the more specific the concept, the faster it will
mutate into something that the original members don't like. Obviously, change is a natural part of anything, but in open roleplaying, it's usually treated negatively. It will usually create a
Broken Base, with the purists claiming that the new people are ruining the group. It usually doesn't end too well.
This decay can take at least four forms:
- Any tight restrictions will eventually be broken. If it was originally exclusive to female characters, expect it to come up with a flimsy reason to include male characters. Same goes with ethnicity, concept, etc. This can be explained by the fact that once a leader wants to include a friend, he will find a reason to include said friend.
- Cerebus Syndrome applies here. Regardless how light-hearted the original concept was, expect it to be forgotten as people start role-playing Wangst. This is probably because the primary demographic, high school age teenagers that are most likely social outsiders, will start using the group as an outlet for those feelings, and because as characters and plots develop, drama becomes easier and more "natural".
- If the group was originally a parody, expect it to lose that focus as people start joining it with the misguided notion that it actually believes in what its parodying. If the group originally started out as a parody of Japanese culture and those that want to emulate it, expect people to start joining it out of the misguided notion that it actually is taking it seriously.
- In an MMORPG, if the group decides to take on another focus (e.g., endgame), expect the role-playing aspect to die off as people start joining specifically for such activities.
- Formerly group-orientated roleplaying becomes focused on a small, controlling group or even an individual; any RP not about that person or group becomes irrelivant, while that person becomes the center of all things.
