Welcome to Gaia! ::

Me?
Well I left this blank for a long time, and I've decided that was because I really didn't care for the young woman I was developing into.
But guess what? This past week, I have meaning again. Goals!
It's funny how once you set yourself a goal, life becomes bareble again. Humans are certainly funny like that, getting into a slump just because at that moment in time they aren't sure.
Well what is my goal?
To change the world of course.
But seriously I mean it. Everyday I rant on to all that will hear it, the complete incompetence of current judges to allow certain laws to pass. In my eyes, they have forgotten what the law was designed for, to protect the people. Not to be a financial gain.
And for a long time I laughed and shrugged it off when people asked why I wasn't majoring in pre-law. I would jokingly say, 'I'm the type of lawyer who'd be shot.' And I still think that's true, I allow myself to be governed by what is right by the people, that when you sue someone you are suppose to be made whole again, not better off. And sadly enough, most people don't see it that way anymore, not even the men and women meant to protect that ideal.
And now that I have this goal in mind, everything seems to be picking itself back up. I might not make as much money as I had always hoped, but I am really beginning to hope that I die happy, not rich.

Oh wait here...
Objects of my Affection

The Perplexities of Human Nature

... an examination through roleplay?

I'll be honest, I don't know why I want to write this. But I do... perhaps to help me out with this other paper I have to write.

Wait... let me start over.

I've been reading quite a few philosophers, all of them trying to tackle what is the natural state of man. And you know what? I think they are trying to go about it in all the wrong ways.
I know I've only read enlightenment figures, men who searched for the natural state by reason, not emotion, but I become more and more frustrated with this unattached feeling they write with. As if they were not human, just spectators.
Can the state of man be dissected in such a gross way? Throwing away the individual in favor of just a vague definition of mankind. It's disgusting, and yet they are right in most ways. Most mind you. I am not advocating for the ability in any situation to forget what makes us human in the first place, our emotions.

And yet I have yet to read any philosopher who truly tackles this aspect of human life. Surely the natural state of man is not that of a drone. No of course not, I don't think they implied that at all, in fact I think they headed it off because they themselves had no understanding of it.

And I truly believe that discovering how logical reason in a human, (which yes essentially makes us human), goes hand in hand with illogical emotions in a human, (the second crucial identification of what is human).

What on earth does this have to do with CAS? Hahaha I ... I don't know. Yet. Kind of... thinking about it.
Here goes...

The idea of everyman, has been stretched and twisted to every sort of propaganda known to man. But recently I feel that some works of art have attempted to truly capture the life of everyman, the modern man, from the moment he is born to the moment of death.

So what is it we try to do in roleplay? Recapture those moments in time, hold it to the light, twist it around, look at it from every angle and what ever else we can think of.
But what is is we are trying to recapture?
All of the people I've rp'd with have attempted to start their character about midlife. Not too old, not too young. Why?
Perhaps because we ourselves are at this brilliant age, where tomorrow is literally our world. Not today, not yesterday, we can see it, sense it, feel it, its so close, and we've almost got it in our grasp. So so close...
And yet so far.

And I think it is at this time that we aren't quite set in stone. I myself have felt a significant change in the person I was a year ago. For good or bad? I don't know yet. In times of turmoil I despise the change, (as Azuria often does), and when things are going my way I feel enlightened, how could I have ever been so ignorant to these thoughts? (And once again may I point out Azuria's often over optimistic pleasure in the change to a peaceful creature).

Who wants to roleplay a child who has no understanding what so ever of even what is good or bad? Or even worse than that, an old human being who's at the end of their life, and no chance of change that would do anyone any good.

No it is this age that we chose to play out, and for good reasons.

So now that I've come to the conclusion that the everyman that we try to rp is one of this young adult age, what else is there?

Well of course gender, but I see more often than not that we stick to the gender that we were born with. Why? We relate to our own sex. And we find it relevant. Why on earth would I have any interest in discovering how my life would be as a man? No offense meant, but in the long run I am more interested in the intricacies of my own gender so as to better understand myself. And judging by the statistics, many consciously or subconsciously feel the same.

So everyman is a young adult with a gender depending on the creator of the character.
But all of these characteristics are rather general. On to some more interesting aspects.

Even though I'm quite sure, (as much as Alto might detest it), every person behind the character is human. And yet it is so rare to find full fledged human characters! Why is this?
I don't think it will be as easy to analyze as before. But I think there is one main point to remember, that even if Azuria is half fox demon half human, she has human emotions. The same stands for reploidian and other completely none organic self thinking characters, yes their emotions may be limited by the player who decides to rp them, but they still exhibit human emotions.
After all, if you truly stop to think about it, is it possible to display your emotion in anyway that isn't human? I contend that you can't it's mentally impossible. Yes there are abnormal human behaviors, but people with such conditions still exhibit some human emotion, just in a warped or inappropriate way.
So perhaps it doesn't matter in the long run if your character is human or not, because in the end you exhibit human emotions. Even if you do limit yourself or overplay from time to time.
But that still leaves the question of why we do it?

Humans are boring I suppose, who wants to play with the limitations that we already know all too well. No super powers means no fun in most scenarios.
We all know the classic ninja sword wielding necromancer psychic who came straight from the boils of hell and even Lucifer himself fears.
Oh yeah... we know that character.
But why? Why go overboard.... is it insecurity in the real life? We feel so hopeless that we topple more and more super powers onto our characters so that no one can ever kill them?
And this is where I can only muse over the reasons as to why. Because with my limited resources (virtually only my theories at this point), there is no positive answer.
I think the only way to answer this question is to actually preform a full fledge research project. To map out the daily activities, life style, social patterns and behaviors of a wide scale of individuals, and then dually map out the personality, biography, powers, attitude, etc. etc. etc. of their rp character(s).
How many gaians rp as an orphan who in real life has divorced parents? How many gaians rp as a loner who in real life feels socially unacceptable? How many gaians rp as a fighter who in real life is bullied by many?
So many questions that should be answered! If we can see what we'd rather be, perhaps we can better pinpoint what we feel is wrong with our own life. If we can pretend to be these better characters, why can't we attempt to be like them in real life?

What began as mindless babble is slowly turning into an idea in my head. I'll have to find out how many people have attempted to conduct any sort of research project on the implications of simple rp, and then conduct some research of my own.

Oh this is going to be fun!