Framing and Framed
The Princess Bride is one of my favorite movies.
In fact, I found both stories amusing. The framing story was the grandfather reading The Princess Bride by S. Morgenstern to his sick grandson; reading only the good parts. The framed story was of action, adventure, pirates, torture, and lest we forget -- true love. MUCKs work much the same way. Our OOC area is the framing story, which in our case happens to involve knowledge of the computer, current events, and reality in general. When going IC, one enters the world. And like The Princess Bride, our IC world should be only the good stuff.
Now, Princess Bride had a target audience that was larger in scope than Brian Jacques' target audience. Our material is young-adult juvenile literature. What goes in our IC world (the framed story) should be consistent with what Brian Jacques would put in his books. Not just in time-period and language, but in style, content selection, and emotional focus. That isn't puppies and kittens singing Barney songs. It's about action, adventure, pirates, slavers, wanderers, etc. And it's about Salamandastron's warrior hares, Redwall Abbey's peaceful healers, the slave pens at Ruingate, etc. In short, our good stuff.
Brian Jacques sets the stage, so what's his stage like? He prefers no uncertainty between good and evil. He doesn't focus on inner turmoil, but on heroic gusto. He prefers having his bad guys be "just plain bad" and his good beasts be certain of their goodness. The modern trend in TV seems to be "gritty" with inner turmoil and clashes between everyone. BJ follows an older trend. He doesn't go for inter-personal relationships devolving into soap-operatic sniping. He doesn't do recovering alcoholics or the inner turmoil of a parent certain they aren't living up to their role. BJ's audience isn't prime-time 8pm Wed. evening television -- so neither is ours.
Does this mean that characters in IC don't have arguments, don't feel guilt, don't wonder if they're on the right path? Are they allowed no depth? Actually, sometimes it does mean that. In the aftermath of a battle where the villains (who are "just bad") are vanquished, there should be no survivor guilt RP. Sing for fallen comrades, but don't wonder "Should we have tried to rehabilitate the beasts? Are beasts evil because of their upbringing?" This is BJ's universe. Veil was simply "born bad" in Outcast of Redwall. In the end, only one beast felt otherwise, and she didn't carry on dialogue full of angst, she simply went after him. Does this mean beasts can't change in his books? Absolutely not! Sea-rats have given up slaving. He even has vermin subordinates that disagree with what they do but do it anyway. He has characters that feel stifled and leave the Abbey, and later cease feeling stifled and return.
Why does the nature of the books matter? After all, can't people just play as they want (within the G rating)? If someone is having fun, if they aren't really going along with BJ's story, what's the harm?
No harm if the players who are going outside the bounds of BJ's thematic elements are in private. When people use the IC (inner story) area of the MU and play in ways that are outside the scope of BJ's chosen themes that causes people who like BJ's themes (and come here because of them) to seek a place where those themes are being followed. It causes guests who are fans of BJ's style to not return after a visit, and new players who had hoped to RP as BJ wrote to seek other places to play.
It is seen in the numbers by those who don't find the IC area fun. So they either leave the MU or they leave the IC area.There's evidence of this. It shows up in percent of time spent in the OOC rooms. In those rooms, they're not "on stage" and so can just play "being silly and hanging out" as one put it. Also, in the OOC area, there are far shorter idle times, since people are freely speaking and posing. Which begs the question: why not play being silly and hanging out (without huge delays between every pose) while in the IC area? Because in the IC area, there's a trend to be ordered, controlled, to make "scenes important" and to develop character through exposure of the inner challenges they face. Writing to keep the scenes important takes a lot of time to get perfect. In short, the IC world has become serious instead of fun. And that is a manifestation of play that isn't really play to many people.
When the framing story is fun and the inner story is work, something is very wrong.
How to fix it?
It's easy to fix. When you're in the IC area play it as BJ would have written it. Play for enjoyment where squirrels climb, moles are short-sighted, etc. Don't pose things into the room that would not be written in BJ's books. Yes, some of those poses are shockingly well written, and expose the inner character and struggles, but BJ doesn't write those sorts of stories. When in BJ's world, do as BJ does. The same abandon and amusement of the OOC area is what should be in the IC area. If you believe the IC area should be serious, formal, precise, and ordered, you should not be in the IC area because play should be fun.
Otter, Chief Wizard
Brian Jones
