| Written by SM, on 30-11-2007 20:12 |
If documenting the wonderfully fictional world of Rhydin and all that is linked to it into one complete database were a competition, I'd have to say that one team is losing out over the other. A wiki is a good idea in theory, and if run right can be an invaluable resource. A wiki designed to catalogue Rhydin as a whole may not be quite as difficult as it seems. At least not half as difficult as some people are making it out to be.
Realm of Rhydin had the right idea, in my opinion. An open wiki with plenty of available discussion between contributors about working and potential articles certainly has its appeal. Especially when taking into account the many varied and different points of view that are brought to the virtual table in a game like FFRP. Not everybody is going to see eye to eye. But the universally understood standards of Free Form Role-Playing still agree on one thing.
Only you are in charge of your personal gaming experience. No one single person can tell you what you are allowed and not permitted to do in role-play. That's the beauty of it. We all create our own individually unique characters. We all create the histories and backgrounds, the personalities and traits, the families and worlds that make these characters who and what they are. Even if we're borrowing them from other people, such as canon and creatively new fandom characters. The point remains that we are still in charge of the characters we play. No one else is.
A lot goes into the development of a character. Some may say that they were born and raised in Rhydin, just to save themselves the headache of brain-storming creativity. Others may create or borrow brand new worlds or cities on the same planet; far, far away. There is no limit to your imagination if you set if free. And no single person has the right to limit it for you. The moment rules and regulations and restrictions are put into play is the moment when role-play just stops being fun.
We are all different. We all have different interests. We all prefer different genres. We all role-play differently, even if we do follow some of the same group standards. There has to be some small form of accepted conformity just so that we all understand each other. For instance, most of us all speak English as our native language. We wouldn't understand each other very well if we all spoke something different.
Too many restrictions can be a bad thing. Too much freedom can be a bad thing too. But I tend to believe that everyone who knows the game well, has made mistakes and learned from them, knows how to compromise and collaborate just as well. I'm seeing proof of that in the newly launched Encyclopedia Rhydnica .
Here we have evidence of a current standing 9 individual users who are all working together for the common good. All of these current 9 individuals are rightful administrators of this new wiki, and so far there have been no arguments or disputes. I think this has to do with the understanding that every role-player should be given the right to credit his or her own individual intellectual property and have it protected from vandalism.
Who created what and where? Who designed this NPC or that environmental setting that characters meet up in? What's wrong with setting up a standardized canon for those things we are responsible for creating?
An in depth Philosophy and Policy article on the Encyclopedia Rhydinica explains a mission statement as well as some basic common sense that any decent human being should already know. Especially as pertains to the constructing of a complete database of a large community built world setting. This new wiki protects those rights, and I'm pretty sure that's the reason why there's so much content there now in such a short period of time.
Today, I went through and counted them all. In comparison to the second attempt of a Rhydin Wiki , I believe we're off to a much better start with this third attempt. Especially considering the fact that I checked RW today, at about the same time, to realize that they're a good fifteen articles down from when last I looked, at least. My current count puts the Encyclopedia Rhydnica at: - 96 character pages in WHO, of which 61 are at least started. 35 are red links, or empty articles that have not been created yet.
- 47 content pages in WHAT, of which 21 are at least started. 26 are red links, or empty articles that have not been created yet.
- 26 content pages in WHERE, of which 16 are at least started. 10 are red links, or empty articles that have not been created yet.
- 16 content pages in HOW, of which 4 are at least started. 12 are red links, or empty articles that have not been created yet.
- 57 content pages in the REFERENCE LIBRARY, of which at least 54 are at least started. 3 are red links, or empty articles that have not been created yet.
- 11 red linked wanted pages and 4 green linked incomplete articles.
- In addition, there are 23 dates listed in WHEN, of which there are 17 green links to other articles and 2 red links leading to empty articles that have not been created yet.
If I'm doing my math right, all this amounts to a grand total of 240 articles, of which 170 are at least started. 70 are red links, or empty articles that have not been created yet. At the very least, this is a fairly accurate estimate. That puts the Encyclopedia Rhydnica at approximately 121 articles over the few 49 that the Rhydin Wiki has going for it right now. And that's only from 9 users. Just imagine what the future may hold. If it's true that only you are in charge of your own personal gaming experience, then it should also hold true that only you are in charge of how that experience is documented. So you decide which resource is best for you. Do you want a buttload of restrictions and regulations? Or do you want the liberty to present your intellectual property in a manner of your choosing? Or ... not at all? Role-play is all about choice. What's yours?
Last update: 30-11-2007 20:22
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