Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Enough With the Bullshit Characters

Creativity. I often wonder what it is. People say it means to be original. But originality means one of a kind, and I'm sorry to say, nobody is really that original. Carbon lifeforms being carbon copies. Nothing is ever, truly new, just remade. I've been role playing and dueling for years now. I've tried to make headway in the whole "creative" and "original" department. I use technology as my weapon, usually having some premise based on a simple layman's form of science. But usually it is steeped in some kind of a scientific fact, or at least a theory. It isn't much, but I try.

Well, there are those who don't try. I've found my fair share of sorry, sad, pathetic individuals who think their carbon copy clone of an anime or RPG game character is original. Oh, some of these well-meaning kids might take the time to change the name of the character, maybe even change the name of the flashy, fancy attacks used by the preexisting character, but its the same. These little copies are accepted, given the seal of approval and moved along as if on an assembly line pumping out mediocrity. Dark and brooding anti-heroes; the antagonistic, condescending, arrogant, nihilistic mold is used over and over again, pre-fit for todays characters. It has given me a headache that something so retarded can be given more props than something that was actually crafted or had any kind of hard work put behind it.

Much as I hate to say it, but it pains me so when I see myself barely managing to win a match against a man who used attacks taken from an RPG video game, their description, even their names, and be considering creative. No, I'm sorry, that is quite the opposite. It smacks of laziness and a lack of caring. An inability to be capable of writing anything worthwhile. They lose any kind of credibility at that point. No, you aren't a pretty, pink princess. You aren't a wonderful snowflake, a one-of-a-kind creation. Do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred dollars. These atrocities of the role playing community should be shelved. The fact that they're allowed to exist shows nothing but apathy from the community as a whole. It is as if there is no one to help a prospective writers move along and make progress to something better, or better yet, as if nobody truly cares enough. There is no proper, constructive criticism -- all the remains are flame wars where nobody listens.

It should stop now. But it won't.

Much as I want to crusade the point, I don't know whether it'll make a difference. Maybe I should use a little motivation and tenacity to make something happen. Because if no one makes an effort, we give into entropy and apathy, and then nothing happens. It is time to effect change for the better.

1 comment:

J. Durden said...

Bravo. I was probably the least creative of the Golden Age duelists or what have you, and it always bugged me that I was accepted. Lulz.