Die Feuerbringer von Scagnar – ein Abgesang

Bartholomew Gallacher 29. Juni 2010 1 Kommentare

Es gibt seit über zwei Jahren die goreanische Rollenspielgruppe namens „Der Clan der Feuerbringer.“ Diese Gruppe hatte anfangs regen Zulauf und vereinte in ihren Reihen eine gesunde Mischung an Rollenspielern und Kämpfern. Man schaffte es, das fragile Gleichgewicht zwischen Rollenspielern und Kämpfern einer heiklen Metalllegierung gleich zu einem schlagkräftigen Schwert zu schmieden, so dass keine der beiden Fraktionen in ihren Wünschen zu kurz kam. Anfangs jedenfalls. Die Gruppe wuchs und gedieh so sehr, dass man sogar irgendwann einen Aufnahmestopp für Neumitglieder verhängen musste, da die Kapazitätsgrenzen erreicht waren.

Das Wachstum war so groß, dass man einige Monate nach Gründung der Gruppe bereits eine eigene Sim namens Scagnar mietete und dort fortan für sich alleine lebte. Dieser Umstand ist etwas, auf dass die Gruppe im Laufe ihrer späteren Geschichte immer stolz hingewiesen hat, obwohl es zeitweilig auch mal andere Gruppen auf der Sim wie die Red Savages gegeben hat und man danach suchte, als die Mieteinnahmen drastisch einbrachen. Odin schien der Gruppe gewogen. Man lebte sich auf der neuen Sim ein, wuchs und gedieh auch dort prächtig und fand zu einer nie geahnten Stärke.

Die Feuerbringer selber verstanden sich nie als Gruppe, die sklavisch buchnah spielen will, sondern der Spaß am Spiel stand viel mehr immer im Vordergrund. Wenn es um gute Kompromisse ging, die die Spielbarkeit und den Spielspaß erhöhten, dann war man denen grundsätzlich gegenüber aufgeschlossen und auch ansonsten versuchte man, das leidige OOC-Debakel auf ein Minimum zu beschränken. Wenn jemand Fehler macht, was soll’s – erst einmal das Spiel laufen lassen und dann spricht man danach in aller Ruhe darüber, so war die Devise und, hey, zur Not wiederholt man eben den Kampf. Fertig.

Die Gruppe selber hatte auch einige, sehr gute bis exzellente Rollenspieler in ihren Reihen gehabt und zog weitere Spieler an wie Motten das Licht. Irgendwann aber entstand in der Gruppe eine Dynamik, die wohl selbst die Gruppengründer überraschte – und die Revolution, pardon Gruppe, fraß ihre Gründer.

So kam es zu der ersten Spaltung der Gruppe. Die Gründer verließen die Sim Scagnar und nahmen einige, sehr gute Rollenspieler im Laufe der Zeit noch mit und verwirklichten ihre eigene Vision dessen, wie ein authentisches und vor allem, darauf legte man nun besonderen Wert, buchnahes Spiel im Thorvaldsland aussehen könnte. Der Axtfjord ward so geboren. Die alte Gruppe auf Scagnar blieb dort zurück,  leckte erst einmal ihre Wunden und restrukturierte sich. Schließlich waren einige, wichtige Sponsoren der Sim weggefallen (grob geschätzt fiel auf einen Schlag mindestens 1/3 der Tier so weg) und so galt es, die Finanzierung der Sim auf mehr Schultern als bisher zu verteilen. Also wurde die Sim kräftig umgebaut mit dem Ziel, mehr Mieteinnahmen zu ermöglichen und der Wohnraum drastisch erhöht.

Diese Maßnahmen trugen schon bald Früchte. Die finanzielle Lage stabilisierte sich, der Ruf der Gruppe festigte sich auch wieder und es kam letztendlich irgendwann erneut zu einem weiteren Aufnahmestopp. Odin lächelte wieder über der Gruppe, und es hätte alles so schön sein können, wenn sich nicht schon einige Monate später darauf unter maximalen OOC-Drama ein Teil der Gruppe abgespalten hätte, um dann das damalige Dorf Runar auf Skjern zu gründen. Dieser erneute Schlag war nicht ohne, aber auch den überstanden die Feuerbringer.

Nun waren die Feuerbringer schon immer eine Gruppe gewesen, die in der Öffentlichkeit extrem polarisierte. Entweder wurde sie von Anderen als sehr gute Gruppe angesehen oder aber als eine Gruppe ballernder Honks – dazwischen gab es nie besonders viel Raum für Zwischentöne. Die Feuerbringer waren immer eine sehr große Gruppe gewesen, und da ist es normal, dass es in einer solchen eine große Bandbreite an Mitspielern gibt – man kann eben nicht nur ständig rollenspielerische Highlights bieten, dazwischen gibt es auch die normalen Mitspieler sowie fast immer ein oder zwei Vollidioten. Man kann es sich nicht aussuchen, an wen man im Rollenspiel zuerst gerät, damit muss man leben – nur macht häufig der Erstkontakt eben sehr viel bei der Meinungsbildung aus. Meiner Meinung nach waren sie zu dem Zeitpunkt immer noch eine der konstant besten Gruppen, die es seinerzeit im deutschsprachigen Gor gegeben hatte.

Die Abspaltung Runars jedenfalls ging nicht ohne besondere Wehen ab, man teilte sich damals im Zorn. Auch OOC stand man sich unversöhnlich gegenüber und es gab wegen diverser Gründe die Empfehlung, mit Runar überhaupt kein Rollenspiel zu betreiben. Runar ging nach einigen Monaten des üblichen Hype-Zyklus den Bach runter und verschwand im Orkus der gescheiterten Gorgruppenexistenzen, die Feuerbringer aber blieben weiterhin standhaft und bestehen.

Nach dieser Sache ging es wieder bergauf zu neuen Höhen, man zerstörte in einem von allen Seiten hochgelobten Spiel das alte Lydius, der gewählte High Jarl Torvaldslands zog nach Scagnar und es war eine weitere, schöne und zarte Blüte, die das Potential der Gruppe erneut in beeindruckender Weise zeigte.

Aber auch diese hielt nicht zu lange an; leider wohnt in jeder Gruppe, und wirkt sie noch so gut, auch immer der Wurm der Zerstörung, der im Verborgenen sein unheilvolles Werk tut. Bis man die Auswirkungen dann an der Oberfläche sieht, ist es oft leider schon zu spät. Bei den Feuerbringern gewann schließlich die Fraktion der Ballerspieler die Oberhand. Das bisherige Gruppenoberhaupt verließ erst einmal die Insel, teilweise wurden OOC-Admins auf interessante Weise rausgekantet und man verlor erneut sofort etliche, gute Rollenspieler. Einige schauten sich das noch eine Zeit lang an, aber auch diese tauchen aktuell gerade überall auf den Sims, wo man irgendwie ein wenig gutes Rollenspiel erwarten kann, nach und nach als Neubürger auf und kehren so nach und nach Scagnar den Rücken. Das ungeschriebene Motto dabei scheint „Alles, bloß nicht Scagnar!“ zu sein und sie ergehen sich in bedeutungsschwangeren Reden darüber, wie sehr es sich doch verändert habe, seitdem der bisherige Jarl verschollen ist. Merke: Rollenspieler gehen fast immer zuerst und lassen die Ballerfraktion hinter sich zurück!

Und verändert hat es sich in der Tat. Der ehemals gute Ruf, den die Gruppe besaß, ist aktuell extrem schnell am sinken. Das ist auch kein Wunder; es dauert sehr lange, Vertrauen und ein gutes Image einer Marke wie „die Feuerbringer von Scgnar“ aufzubauen, aber ruiniert hat man das viel, viel schneller. Fraglos wird die Sim auch weiterhin bestehen bleiben und das noch für eine lange Zeit. Den Mietboxen ist es schließlich egal, wer die Miete zahlt, Hauptsache die Einnahmen stimmen, ob nun Rollenspieler oder Kämpfer. Diese Balance aber ist nicht mehr.

Nur eines hat gerade Scagnar fast schon unwiederbringlich verloren: seine Seele. Es ist nur noch eine leere Hülle, die vom Glanz einstiger Ruhmestaten mühsam aufrecht erhalten wird, mehr aber auch nicht. Hier und da zuckt es noch ein wenig, aber auch das ist leider nur eine Frage der Zeit, bis sich da gar nichts mehr regen wird, ähnlich anderen Gruppen wie den Bakah, die auch nur noch in der kollektiven Erinnerung durch das Zelebrieren der früheren Großartigkeit auffallen, aber nicht mehr durch aktuelles Rollenspiel an sich. Sollten die Feuerbringer in dem Sinne irgendwann bei den Bakah angekommen sein, dann ist es endgültig mit ihnen vorbei.

In dem Sinne: Be well, Scagnar, es war schön, solange es gut ging.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery…

Bartholomew Gallacher 29. Dezember 2009 0 Kommentare

Es gibt im Englischen das geflügelte Wort "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" von Charles Colob Colton. Auf Deutsch übersetzt bedeutet das in etwa "Nachahmung ist die ehrlichste Form eines Kompliments." Das mag zwar sein, aber es nervt mich zusehends.

Irgendwie bin ich inzwischen auf das Abhalten von
Gefährtenschaftszeremonien abonniert. Ich habe 2009 auf Deutsch alleine
zwölf Zeremonien gehalten und zusätzlich noch für eine Freundin eine
auf Englisch. Mir sind die Texte für die deutschen Zeremonien nicht aus
dem Himmel in den Schoss gefallen, sondern ich habe diese in mühevoller
und stundenlanger Arbeit selbst erstellt und dabei auch noch einiges
selbst aus dem Englischen ins Deutsche übersetzt. Bei einigen Themen
bedurfte es auch Recherchen im Internet. Scheinbar sind meine Texte gut
oder zumindest brauchbar.

Gut genug jedenfalls, dass jemand Bekanntes in einer Sim Anfang
Herbst eine Zeremonie gleich ganz eins zu eins nach meiner Vorlage
abhielt, ohne zu Fragen. Mitte Dezember war dann eine nordische
Zeremonie gewesen, und der Ablauf war ebenfalls an meiner Zeremonie
stark angelehnt, mehr noch, viele Sätze wurden nur ein wenig
umgeschrieben oder gar direkt übernommen.

Und das nervt. Wenn die Leute sich die Mühe machen würden, vorher kurz
zu fragen… aber nein. Warum soll ich mir dann eigentlich noch in
Zukunft die Mühe machen, weitere Zeremonien zu halten, wenn das dann
auch sehr wahrscheinlich ungefragt wieder kopiert wird, ich sitze
zufällig und gut gelaunt als Gast in der Zeremonie und mir läuft
langsam, aber sicher wieder die Galle über, weil ich denke "Hoppla, das
kommt dir doch sehr bekannt vor?" und merke schließlich "Aha, wieder
kopiert worden."

Wenn die Leute wenigstens den Anstand hätten, zu fragen, dann hätte ich
ja nichts dagegen, aber so ärgert es mich nur noch maßlos.

Die Metalife-Verschwörung!

Bartholomew Gallacher 15. Oktober 2009 0 Kommentare

Skandal! Im deutschen Gor stellen nach und nach momentan zahlreiche Sims auf einen anderen Combat Meter, den sog. Metalife-Meter von Tala Nagy um.

Ausgelöst wurde diese Welle durch die öffentliche Ankündigung von oookusama Hirano im Gor-Unterforum auf slinfo.de, ihre eigenen Sims (Asperiche&Asperiche Harbor sowie Turian Plains) auf diesen Meter umstellen zu wollen. Der einfache Auslöser dafür ist gewesen, dass der NLSv2 keinen eingebauten Combat Meter mehr hat und man so vor der Frage stand: erlauben wir noch CM-Kampf oder konzentrieren wir uns nun vollends auf das reine RP? Für Kusa stand die Antwort fest: Metalife ist das Mittel der Wahl.

Damit löste sie eine ungeahnte Welle aus, die halb Deutschgor erschütterte, so könnte man meinen. Innerhalb einer Woche stellten noch die Sims Kargash, Collar, House of Tarn, Pariah Coast, Thentis Hills, Torcodino und das Dorf Kaiila auf den Meter um. Es folgten bald noch Landa und Lydius, im Axt Fjord läuft er testweise noch für ca. 2 Wochen, und seit gestern ist das komplette Südland mit seinen sechs Sims auf Metalife als alleinigen Combat Meter umgestellt worden. Damit ist er bisher auf ca. 20 deutschen Sims der alleinige Combat Meter geworden, die innerhalb von weniger als 14 Tage von sich aus umstellten.

Die Hauptgründe für die Umstellung waren einfach: man wollte Kampf erlauben, allerdings wurde der reine Kampf mit dem Gorean Meter als zu einfach angesehen. Mit dem GM kann sich ein Kampf sehr in die Länge ziehen, einer im Alleingang bei zehn Leuten auf dem Schlachtfeld hintereinander erste Hilfe leisten, und und und… der ML dagegen hat Maßnahmen eingebaut, die einen Kampf anspruchsvoller machen, man muß dabei taktischer agieren und vor allem gibt es schneller einen eindeutigen Sieger. Spieler, die man gerne der reinen Ballerfraktion zuordnet, scheinen zudem mit dem ML als Meter sich nicht anfreunden zu wollen. Der ML ist dabei wie der GM kostenlos verfügbar.

Nun ist es aber so, dass so etwas natürlich kritisch beäugt wird, wenn innerhalb von weniger als 14 Tagen ca. die Hälfte aller deutschen Gorsims, darunter einer der großen Verbünde, nun auf diesen Meter wechselt. Es kam dabei zu heftigen Streitereien, viele glänzten dabei auch in der Diskussion im Forum und der Gruppe "Gor auf Deutsch" durch interessantes Halbwissen, was aber im Endeffekt nichts daran geändert hat, dass der Meter sich schlagartig verbreitet hat. Es war teilweise ein unschönes Hauen und Stechen. Dabei ist vor allem die Vehemenz, mit der einige gegen diesen Meter agieren beachtlich und kaum noch nachvollziehbar.

Es wurden und werden Gerüchte in die Welt gesetzt, darunter teilweise von Stänkeralts, dass sie Schwarte kracht: der Meter würde mehr Lag machen, hinter der Einführung steckt eine Waffenlobby, die sich nun eine goldene Nase an neuen Waffen verdienen würde (dabei gibt es bestenfalls Updates der bestehenden Waffen, wie immer), und und und…

Denn letzten Endes entscheidet erst einmal der Simbesitzer, was auf seiner Sim getrieben wird – natürlich besser in Absprache mit seiner Gruppe. Aber die Mehrheit derjenigen bisher, die den Meter getestet haben, können sich sehr gut damit anfreunden. Bei Südland zum Beispiel haben alle 13 OOC-Admins, d.h. die Vertreter aller Gruppen, einstimmig dafür gestimmt. Darunter sind auch vier teilweise große Pantherstämme, die Arquanas, Pyranas, Serakas und Sekaras, die ebenfalls gut damit leben zu können scheinen. Das ist umso mehr beachtlich, da gerade ausgerechnet die Fraktion der Panther in der Diskussion um das Meter am heftigsten dagegen Sturm gelaufen ist.

So oder so aber, ob es nun den Kritikern gefällt oder nicht: auf der eigenen Sim kann jeder machen, was er persönlich will. Der Meter ist erstmal da, er hat sich stark verbreitet und dürfte so schnell auch nicht mehr aus der Landschaft verschwinden. Das bedeutet für die Kritiker/Hasser des Meters, dass sie entweder lernen, damit zurecht zu kommen, sollte sie mal auf einer ML-Sim spielen wollen/müssen, oder aber im Endeffekt diese Sims meiden. Es wird zu einer gewissen Trennung der Ballersims und gesetzteren Sims kommen, was aber keinen Beinbruch bedeuten muss.

Die Zeit der Diskussion jedenfals um den Meter ist vorbei, es ist nicht mehr die Frage, ob er kommt, sondern nur noch, wie sich nun viele Spieler mit ihm arrangieren werden, und die Fronten sind inzwischen auch klar, und auch ansonsten gilt nach wie vor: es wird nichts so heiss gegessen, wie es gekocht wird.

Der neue Meter ist weder der Untergang der Spielkultur noch eine Bereicherungsquelle für Waffenhersteller, sondern ein Werkzeug. Nicht mehr, nicht weniger, und die Leute, die so lautstark dagegen opponiert haben, haben sich entweder nicht wirklich damit auseinandergesetzt und/oder aber werden lieber beim GM bleiben. Auch das ist gut so, jeder soll schließlich damit spielen, was er haben mag und fertig. Allerdings ist auch die Energie, die einige an den Tag legen, um Leuten das Wort im Munde herumzudrehen, beachtlich.

Nachdem der entsprechende Thread allerdings nun auch geschlossen worden ist, ist es wohl langsam wieder möglich, dass alle zur Tagesordnung übergehen und sich die Aufregung etwas legt. Warten wir es ab.

Never, ever let the RP eat you up

Bartholomew Gallacher 19. November 2008 0 Kommentare

One of the things you should really be aware about role play is that it can be quite time consuming. In better sims there is always something going on, you can try hard to achieve perfection in it, you can study a lot, talk a lot and so on. This can lend to the fact that some people are just going to be in the RP sims only for most of their time, neglecting their friends and being there for months.

Then, when the RP phase is over, they need to really start again, since they neglected so many old friends and quite some of them may have removed them from their friends list. So, take the advise, while RP is fun and allright, don’t let it become your number one priority, if you haven’t started in such a sim directly. You might hurt some people in the process, badly.

One of the most askes questions: is Gor about discriminating women? (Getting to know about Gor, Part 4)

Bartholomew Gallacher 13. November 2008 0 Kommentare

One of the toughest and most asked questions around is, if Gor is quite discriminating against women or not. Many just find the whole setup and role play quite disgusting because of the use of slaves, pleasure slaves, their punishments and the role women at whole play in that kind of medieval society.

So, how to approach that? Well, first let us take a look at some facts of Gor:

• John Norman believes in a natural order and thinks that living against that causes quite some trouble. So, this includes that males are being dominant, and women, while most of them are free, either need to choose between freedom or sexual fulfillment as a woman. Some people quite like the idea of such a natural order, because they think, all have there well met place in society, then, and that living against this order is the reason for many today’s troubles in society at all.
• There are many slaves around, used for whatever kinds, but both male and female are possible.
• Although there are free women, they are highly appreciated and such, their place in society is of course more hurdlesome than that of free men. They have to wear veils and such and finding a partner is not easy, for them, while though they may use kajirii.
• There are severe punishments, of course, against all kinds bad stuff, but most times it seems that women are often being punished more severe than most men are.
• There are no female warriors on Gor according to the author himself, John Norman.
• Most gamers are going to tell you, when that topic is being raised, that all women on Gor are not stronger than a 12 years old – but of course, then again, a Panther can run around pulling a hard wagon with quite much stuff on it, go figure.

Well, there might be for sure other stuff, but it might give you an idea. The picture of the woman in Gor is quite clear, also that of the man. Gor is a man’s world.

So the question is: is Gor about discriminating women or not? Well, this goes twofold:

1. The picture of women being drawn in the Gorean novels is something that our society has been thrown away and overcome with in the last century. Women are being equal to men, more or less, and the hard decisions being showed in the book are not necessary, anymore. Also not every woman in reality would find fulfillment in the ways being shown in the books. So some may – and with reason – say, that the picture of women in the society of Gor, being compared with our own society, is something that’s quite discriminating against them. Yes. Others of course are then telling you, that they think the Gorean system fits more nicely for them and they like it more that way.
2. The other side of the coin is, that no one is being forced to play Gor. So those people playing slaves/women have a reason for being there, to play it, they are all there on their own will, they want to try out something different for a while, looking if it fits for them or not, so if you take that stance, Gor is not about discriminating women at all. All are there on their own will.

So a conclusion in that matter might be: while the picture of a woman in Gor’s society might be viewed as quite discriminating compared to the role of a woman in a modern society per se, it really isn’t about discriminating women at all, because all are there on their own will, because they want to try it out and the people, who dislike it, are going to leave it then, soon, while the rest of them is going to stay more or less long. In the end it is, again, what you make out of it.

Technorati : gor, gorean, role play, second life

Is there such a thing like just one true Gorean role play at all? (Getting to know about Gor, Part 3)

Bartholomew Gallacher 6. November 2008 0 Kommentare

One quite frequent discussion on all Gorean groups and channels in Second
Life is, if there is such a thing like one true Gorean role play or not.
Normally the people then take two main stances.

1. There are the people who want to play as according to the books in Second
   Life as possible and dislike so called onlineisms. An onlineism
   is something, that is simple not there in the books, but became quite common in
   certain sims of Second Life.
   Examples for it are: there is a common phrase in
   the book in the region of Torvaldsland called Jarl, which is
   the way to adress a leader of them instead of Ubar. Bondsmaids address all free
   men as Jarl, but in the books there is no such phrase as Jarla
   to greet free women, but this is something that is quite common on certain sims
   in Second Life, so this is a good example. The people who dislike onlineisms
   don’t ust this phrase at all.
   Another example are female warriors. There is
   no such thing in the books, even the author itself stated there is no such thing
   on Gor, but on quite some Gorean sims in Second Life there are indeed female
   warriors. So the people who really play by the books don’t acknowledge them at
   all as being valid.
2. The other party of people is the crowd, which takes the stance, that while
   the books are depicting the daily life of the planet Gor, they are only able to
   depict small aspects of the whole culture at all, and, while not really
   mentioned in the books, quite some stuff is still possible to be there in the whole setting and most likely is there, if you
   come to think about it, and therefore should be considered a possible part of
   Gorean role play even while not being mentioned in the books at all.
   Those
   are the people, who don’t bother using onlineisms then like "Jarla", perhaps also female
   warriors and such.

So these are the two main parties, which constantly discuss on Second Life about what real
Gorean role play should be or not, what in it might be or not, sometimes also might engagne in flame wars. And because of this fact alone already, there is not just only one true Gorean role play, but every sim or alliance of sims makes up their own rules about what they consider valid role play or not. So what you get in reality in Second Life is quite a broad range about what real Gorean role play is about and what not, and coming with that, big, different rule sets.

While there are also some, which complain that there isn’t such a thing just like one, big, unified Gorean Role Play at all, most other people tend to be at peace with that and just take it pragmatically, meaning playing at that sim which comes most near to their own ideal about what Gorean Role Play should be about and that’s it at all, then, so with those two main parties you got in the consequence the opportunity to choice. And if there’s no such thing like your ideal then, until today, you also got the opportunity to found such a sim, like all of us have. 🙂

Some common prejudices about Gor and reality (or: Getting to know Gor, Part 2)

Bartholomew Gallacher 3. November 2008 1 Kommentare

In this article I want to talk about some common prejudices the public has normally about Gorean roleplay, well the stuff I’ve encountered so far yet, and how it is for real or not.

1. Gor is for men just all about battling in shiny armour everytime while wielding big, expensive weapons and being proud of it. This is wrong. Normally real battles are mostly for members of the warrior caste, members of other castes tend either to carry weapons only for their job, like hunters, or for self defense, aside heavy armour is uncommon on Gor. Of course, the warrior caste is quite a proud caste, true. But Gorean role play is more than only battling all the time, in fact sims that tend to do only battles fast get a somewhat bad reputation in the community, because this is only one aspect of Gorean culture, an important one, that’s true, but you should not narrow it down on that only. The typical weaponry in the novels for a warrior is a sword and a spear while in SL it is a sword and a bow.
2. Being a kajira is just all about looking nice, obeying your master and having, sex, sex, sex. Wrong. Being a kajira involves quite many different stuff to do, like house hold chores and other stuff, sex is just one of the aspects about it, also not all kajiraes have a master, but are in ownership of a city. Of course, when you play a kajira, the possibility to get involved into role play featuring sex is there, especially when you are becoming a love slave. If you are playing other roles, though, it is not necessary, you can have it, but don’t need to have it.
3. All kajiraes are dumb. Wrong again. While many kajiraes tend to speak about themselves only in third person like "This girl likes to please." and such, this is not necessarily required from them at all. Also the training a kajira needs to get at the beginning is one of the most elaborate and complicated you can get in Gorean role play.
4. There are only female slaves. Wrong. There are also male slaves around, called kajirus or kajirii in plural, but they are not so common like kajiraes.
5. Gor is just there for people who want to have easy sex all around the clock. Wrong. Actually it involes much more than that, though it is part of it, it is not the main part.
6. Masters love their slaves. Wrong. While many tend to play it that way and like it like that, this is something others, who are playing more accordingly to the books, despise, because it is against the natural order, with men being dominant and women succumbing to their whim. I guess there is place for both kind of play.
7. The caste system is static. Wrong. While you can be born into a caste, according to your abilities you can either raise or lower in the system if necessary or fitting.
8. All Goreans are dumb considering how long they live on that planet and they are still in quite some medieval state compared against the state Earth is already in. Wrong. There are actually quite decent people around, also people which try to invent new stuff and such and in some cases also quite some advanced machinery, but the development of new technology is being monitored firmly by the Priest Kings, which e.g. hinder the development of more advanced armor or weaponry. If there’s someone developing too much advanced stuff, expect the blue flame death to happen soon on that item. So most Goreans don’t even try their hands on that kind of development because they know the consequences would follow quite soon and fast.
9. Gorean science lacks in all kind of fields behind Earth great lengths. Wrong, just take a look at the physicians.
10. This is all sooo bad… Well, no one is forced to play in that kind of role playing universe, or is he? So all are there voluntarily and has its own reasons for being there, trying to get some fun out of it, which is the way it should be.
11. All lifestylers are quite fanatic about Gor and intolerant. Wrong, most I’ve met so far are a bunch of really nice people and take a relaxed stance on it.

More to come later.

Technorati : gor, gorean, role play, second life

Getting to know about GOR – Part 1

Bartholomew Gallacher 30. Oktober 2008 0 Kommentare

This article has been wandering in my mind for quite some days now, since I’ve been taking recently a lightly interest in so called Gorean role play in second life. I am now over two years in Second Life, but never really paid any attention to it until now, so this is how the state of affairs is so far to me. So, without further preliminary, let’s get started where the meat is.

Why did I take an interest in Gor at all?

There are several reasons about it: first I was curious. Some friends of mine have been playing it actively for quite a while or started playing it in their Second Life some time, and most of them still do. Gor is by far the most popular kind of role play in Second Life. You just have to take a look at either the classifieds in SL only or take a look at a good running SL web forum, which has a section about role play. Expect by far the most questions there are about Gor normally. So Gor is a part of Second Life for many, which cannot denied and it is also quite popular. Then, on the other hand, Gorean role play has not the best image at all. In fact, most people consider it in reality some of the worst kind of role play available in Second Life (I guess, ranking slightly about child play), there are many common images and also prejudices around, like that in Gor all women are only slaves (kajiraes in their own language), needing to serve men at their whim and so on and on. Many consider it a nightmare for feminists, while other women are claiming that only through playing Gor they reached a level of satisfaction, which they would be unable to reach otherwise. Either way, the image the public has about Gor in mind is quite contradictionary, and if you talk with people who play Gor, most are quite fond of the role play and enjoy playing it great lengths. So, after all this time, I finally decided to investigate further and get a grip of the concept – or better underlying concepts of Gor – as a whole to be able at least to make my own opinion about the whole issue.

Where did Gor originally came from?

Gor is the fictional name of a series of fantasy novels by an American author named John Norman. It consists until today of 26 volumes, each running about different kind of matters. The first novel about Gor was released back then in 1966, the last novel so far of the cycle was released about in 2005 with the next one already in writing right now. John Norman is a pseudonym by the way, the real name of the author is John Frederick Lange jr., and he was born back then in 1931 in Chicago. He was a philosophy teacher at an University in the USA and when he published the first novel, he feared that it might harm his job, so he used a pseudonym which is running until today.

If you want to take a look at a list of all released novels so far, please take a look at the accompaniying article in the Wikipedia, thank you.

What’s the main idea behind the novels?

The borderline is that about 2 million years ago a race of space faring insectoids, referring to themselves as the priest kings, have established a kind of second earth on the same track as Earth. But they managed to put this world to be always on the contrary side of the track of Earth around the sun, so that the inhabitants of Earth are unable so tee it at all, because it’s always hiding on the other side of the sun (and probably also using technical devices to hide it further). Ok, hiding might be possible that way if you got the technic to move such an asteroid, but you still cannot beat gravity with it, if there would be really such a thing in real life, the track of Earth around the Sun would be quite different. But, on with the story.

Those aliens are running more or less the whole game behind the scenes. Most inhabtitants of the Counter Earth, they named their world Gor, don’t even know about them at all. They only know that there are the so called Priest Kings, but who they are remains mysterious for all of them their whole lifes and doesn’t really matter to them, either.

The aliens started for their own reasons to capture people from planet Earth, which is called Urth in the novels, to their own planet and settled them in different places. Those people formed a somewhat medieval kind of society, which has quite some very important differences to the society on Earth. More about that later.

They not only captured people from Earth, but still do, mostly females it seems, but also males, using starships. Those people coming from Earth are first getting some crash course into the Gorean lifestyle and then need to adapt to their new roles and life their lives. The first novel actually is about an Earth male named Tarl Cabot, which is captured from Earth somewhere in the 1960s, and can be seen as a good introduction to the main aspects of the Gorean culture. Of course, being an alien world in the solar system, there are great cultural differences, and other animals and plants there like on Earth. But be warned, the novels are not really high literature. Common sense is that the first one or two volumes can be read somewhat nicely, but after this the quality of the novels runs down the hills quite fast and you should only read it if you really want to, because you’re interested into it.

It is today quite easy to get a grisp of the whole series of novels, in some countries not all very freely available all the times because of the very detailed sexual depiction in some of the novels, there’s also much violence in it like crippling slaves, rape, execution of slaves and so on.

So, what does Gor mean actually?

Gor does mean quite many things, namely:

• It’s the name the inhabitants gave the counter earth,
• it’s also the native word for the so called home stone, one of the three fundamental pillars of Gorean culture,
• it also can be used as referral to the culture on this planet and
• some use it in Second Life as label for their kind of role play.

In the context of Second Life Gor referrs normally to a certain kind of role play, which is more or less based on the fictional Gorean culture being depicted in Norman’s novels. Of course you are not able, due to technical limitations of Second Life and other things to really play it to the fullest according to the novels, but some still try.

Who is playing Gor mainly in Second Life?

There are in my humble opinion there are three main archetypes of players groups in Second Life which are playing Gor, namely:

1. Hardcore role players, which also often referr to themselves as life stylers. This is the kind of people which is not only reading Gor, but preaching it, and the most extreme of them take it up to the level of seriousness of a religion. You know them if you see them, they are often putting into their profiles stuff like "Living gorean life style since 1996 and proud of it", and most don’t mean Second Life alone with that. They’ve read every novel at least three times, they know every aspect of Gorean culture or at least think so, often mourn about the – at least in their opinion – way too cuddly Gorean sims in SL, which they like to call Disney-Gor. Those people are frequently discussing the means of real Gor, what real Gor is and what not.
   
   Typical stuff they just are able to laugh about is, for example, female fighters on Gorean sims. John Norman himself said that there are no female fighters on Gor, whatsoever, so god has spoken himself, so be it. Other stuff, about which they are able to mourn, is for example, Gorean women wearing high heels in the desert, which I do understand, but also the role play limits of various people. Most are of the opinion that Gor is a men’s world, where man are dominant and women are not, and if kajira (the Gorean word for a female slave) has e.g. as role play limits stuff like "no crippling, no forced sex or rape, no cutting of hair, only to be punished by her master" they find this somewhat ridiculous since in the books every free man is allowed to punish a kajira is he wants to, and only needs to pay a somewhat moderate compensation to her owner, if she’s permanently damaged and also only then, if her master is able to track you down.
2. Normal role players and curious people. This is a more moderate group in my opinion. They are playing Gor, too, but have a quite more relaxed stance on it, they just want to play it to have fun, like any other role play is there for, too. For them, the Gorean culture depicted in the novels, is the ground they play on, but they don’t take it up to religous levels, and are also quite tolerant to role play, that’s not being really depicted in the books, but could still happen. Keep in mind, that Gor is a whole culture and own world, so the things depicted in the books are merely the surface and a small glimpse of what’s going on in this own world. For example, most of them would tolerate female fighters and other stuff, they see Gor mainly as a kind of role play with benefits and shortcomings, they want to have fun playing it, but don’t want to be too fanatic about it.
3. People coming out of the BDSM scene or which just think they have an easy lay there. Though most Gorean role players don’t like to hear this and would surely deny it and criticize someone telling this, calling it a prejudice, this is something that cannot be denied really in my humble opinion. The Gorean lifestyle has quite many elements in common with BDSM (though some important things for BDSM like "Safe, Sane, Consensual" are missing in Gor completely, so for people who practice BDSM seriously Gor is considered to be quite a no-go), and of course this draws this type of people into Gor. Again, in my opinion, this is by far the biggest group populating Gor in Second Life, but your mileage may very, of course. I guess it also depends on which sims you are visiting and which not. Fact is, that in the Gorean novels on 40-50 women comes one kajira. Just walk around on a Gorean sim in Second Life and you will see that kajiraes seem to be everywhere while free women are somewhat less common.

Of course, there can be also many other different forms besides those archetypes, and, also mixing forms. This is just my opinion so far I build upon my own observations, nothing more, nothing less, take it or leave it. 🙂

Some important basics about the Gorean culture

Talking about Gorean role play would not be whole without describing some of the fundamentals of this role play, because it’s the foundation of it which you should know before you start playing there at all, otherwise you’ll be looked at like a Martian on planet Earth if you start up playing there with no knowledge at all, wandering around with all your nicely bling bling, high heels and such.

Keep always in mind, that Gor is a men’s world. Men are ruling this world, the female are only playing a neglecting role on this. Also keep in mind, that it’s an alien world playing in a mostly medieval setup. While the people there are humans captured from Earth and mostly their descendants, it is a culture on its own right, there is beauty in it, but also quite some dark stuff. Whichever appeals to you is your own choice.

Gorean culture is based upon those three fundamental pillars:

1. the home stone (one of the meanings of Gor),
2. the caste system and
3. the natural order.

So this leave us some questions, first of course: what’s the home stone? According to the books in former times, each hut was built originally aorund a flat stone which was placed in the center of a circular dwelling, was carved with the family sign and called Home Stone. It was a symbol of sovereignty, or territory, and in his hut each peasant was a sovereign. Later, they were used for villages and cities after that. In a village, the home stone is places on the market, in a city on top of the highest tower. They can be of different size, colors and shapes, stealing the home stone of a city is one of the biggest crimes at all on Gor. To cite the book "Tarnsman of Gor": "Where a man sets his Home Stone, he claims, by law, that land for himself. Good land is protected only by the swords of the strongest owners in the vicinity."

This leads us to the next pillar, the caste system. There are five high castes, namely the Caste of Initiates, which are represantatives of the priest kings, the color of them is white. Then the Caste the caste of Scribes, which are the scholars, writers and historians, their color is blue. Third caste are the builders, their color is yellow, after that comes the caste of Physicians, color is green and last high caste are the Warriors, their color is red. Some castes also have subcastes, but this would also lead too far for an introductionary right now.

Aside the high castes there are many different, lower castes, all with their own colors, which are too many to list up here. Though it’s not required for caste members to wear their colors in everyday life, most do it, because they are proud of it, either wearing clothes only consisting of the caste color at all or where the color of the caste is dominant.

All Goreans belong to a caste, the only exemptions are the Priest-Kings and outlaws. Castes are hereditary, but you are able to change it if you possess an ability or aptitude that allows you to raise or lower your stand.

This gets us to the last pillar, the natural order. Part of what Norman means with that, is that males have a predisposition to be more dominant while women have a predisposition to be submissive. He thinks, that starting with the changes brought on by the industrialization, that this has caused a confusion among modern people, especially in their inter-personal relationships.

A few words upon slavery

Also, please note, that slavery is quite common in Gor. Most slaves are female, one female slave is called kajira, plural of it is kajira. There are also male slaves on Gor, but they are less common, mainly for economic reasons and normally they are not really worth anything at all. They are called kajirus for one slave or kajirii for many slaves.

Most just think that being a kajira mean just to be cherished, have sex a lots and get outfitted a lot. That’s untrue. First, there are quite many uses for kajiraes, and not all include having sex at all, also many different outfits and such. Also, of course, they need to talk and act different to free women. A slave is something that’s a thing. It doesn’t even have a name if her master decides against it. It’s something that’s there to be used as seen fitted, that can be punished in many forms, starting from mild violence up to crippling or cutting of body pieces to death, without fearing any consequences at all. Every free man is allowed, according to the books, to punish any slave seen as fit, and if he damages it, he only needs to pay small compensation to the master, and also only then, if the master is able to find the free man. Many slaves in Second Life, though, state that they should be only be punished by their masters. This is something that the lifestylers cannot agree on, and in fact, many won’t honor at all.

In the books there comes a kajira on every 40-50 free women. In Second Life there are much more around.

Is Gor right for me?

Well, this is a question everyone should answer for him- or herself. Keep in mind, that Gor is quite a complex world of role play, and it takes quite some time to get started, and it can also be quite time consuming. You’ll often hear that Gor is a men’s world, and yes, it is, and is can be quite brute on occassion.

Some people are making alts just for playing at Gorean sims at all, often neglecting in the process quite often their friendships they made with other avatars because it can be quite time consuming if you take it seriously enough. There are quite some reasons for playing Gor with an alt that no one or only few selected know, the main ones are those:

• they don’t want their friends to know that they play Gor at all, because they know about the bad reputation it has in the general public, and just want to play in peace and quiet and don’t want to defend themselves frequently for playing it,
• they don’t want to have 20 windows with IMs happening right then when a nice role play is happening. Gorean roleplay happens in open chat, and having many conversations happening at the same time in IMs can be quite distracting and can destroy the role play.
• mainly they want to keep it separate from their other characters.

Others again are using one and the same character for playing in Gorean sims. Whichever you choose, this of course your decision.

How to make up my mind up or: How to get started in Gor?

Well, first of all, it cannot hurt if you know already someone well versed in that kind of role play, who can tell you a little about it so you can already get to know it a little bit better out of his or her tellings. Having a mentor like that can be a valuable asset.

Second, don’t start there without doing some basic research before, meaning getting to know the underlying basic principles of Gor and how to behave their. This should be your main task, reading, reading, reading and building yourself a nice fundament of knowledge upon which you can act. Do it first before starting observing, otherwise you will not be able to understand much of the role play there, trust me. Common opinion is, that you should read the first novel of the Gor cycle if you got the time, since this is basically about how the captured Earth man Tarl Cabot settles down on Gor, so all main principiles are being explained there, beside it’s quite a short novel. Also if you ask people in Second Life, many are able to provide you with further links or note cards with infos written down on them. Also get a grasp of the basic food there, animals and basic language like the word "Tal" and such to be able to follow open conversation.

Third, many sims are observer friendly. The state of an observer is somewhat that of a ghost, meaning you are wearing a tag depicting you as "OOC entity" (OOC means Out of character) or "observer". You are free to wander around there, but an observer is not part of the role play. It is normally forbidden to interact with him in terms of role play. This means, just do first that – observe – and stay out of the way of the people, seek open places, but don’t invade their homes. Roleplay always takes place by actions and in open chat. Many sims require you later to wear some kind of meter, when you start playing a role. Don’t go to empty sims. Go to populated sims, where many people hang around, to get a basic grasp about how it’s working there. For example, the sim of Port Kar would be a good start for Americans and the sim of Aretai for Germans, German spoking only there.

When you enter a Gorean sim, you normally are landing either on a sky platform with some stuff or a safe zone, like a tent, which is normally considered OOC. In most sims you are able to get the rules, there, also the meter the sim uses and perhaps some clothings. Don’t worry about harm, after all all normal SL technical stuff applies to your avatar there, too, those sims are technically not different of others.

Being an observer, it’s normally tolerated to say something little OOC in open chat, normally marking it with ((text I speak)), but it’s better to use instant messages to ask the people directly and for longer conversations, since otherwise it would be disruptive for their role play. Honor that. If they are not unfriendly, most of them are going to tell them quite much about them.

Do that for a while, observe and wander around, to make yourself a picture then and to get to know some people, this gives you a real good idea already, what Gor could be for you or not and if you like it or not at all. Also try to find the rules of the sim. Each sim has it’s own rule set, based more or less loosely on Gor. Some allow for example female warriors, other’s don’t, some allow forced capture and rape, other’s not. This is very important, because those are the boundaries you are going to play within later!

Keep in mind, as nice as the inhabitants of a sim are to you while talking with you as an observer, that this is strictly happening OOC (out of character). Getting to know them in character can be quite a different kind of matter with some unpleasant surprises if you haven’t read the rules before!

If you later want to apply for the citizenship of a city, you normally need to made your mind up on the role you want to play (most cities have way too many kajiraes and warriors, by the way, so playing another kind of role is for sure quite welcome), you normally need to be able to name two inhabitants of the city as warrantors for your application. Also better make up a little story about your character, meaning where
it comes from and so on, it is better this way. And, if you want to
play a kajira, don’t come directly from Urth and that’s it, many seem
to tend to do that and this gets kinda standard and boring. If your application is approved, it’s done, then you can really start playing in a Gorean sim which you can officially call your home then. Of course, aside that there are also other ways of playing in Gor, which can happen almost instantly.

But Gor is still bad, isn’t it?

Well, Gor is like a knife. You can use a knife to slice bread or to kill someone. Gor itself is not really bad on its own, it’s just a different culture (though some dearly argue the right of Gor being called an own culture). If it’s bad or not, depends on you and your comrades, it’s what you make out of it, just with every other kind of role play. So this is a common place.

Of course, since Gor has quite many brute elements in it and also stuff, which is highly illegal in RL if practiced, it’s never going to loose it’s bad reputation in the general public at all. But then again, there are so many ego shooters around with the main target to kill other people, which is also highly illegal in real life, so it’s all made up in your mind, of course.

One word, though: you should have a stable mindset in my opinion if you start playing some of the aspects of Gor which deal with slavery, and always don’t forget: it’s all about having fun, it’s a role playing game and not some type of religion, though some celebrate it like such. Whether you like it or not depends on you.

Also keep in mind, that good role play is always consensual, no matter what some die hard role players are telling you. If they want to rape you, and this is one of your limits stated explicitly, don’t give a care about what they want and tell – just go instantly and leave them alone, and don’t give a shit about their complaints later on.

Some don’t like it at the surface, first, but start to like or even love it one they get deeper in the matter. Other’s aren’t going to like it their whole life, some again like it from the start. All those opinions are ok.

Epilogue

Of course I still don’t know yet many things about Gor, therefore some stuff here might be seen otherwise by some people, or not. Keep in mind, that I merely scratched the surface with this article, so far, Gorean roleplay is quite more complex than what I stated in this article, I merely gave you an introductional glimpse about what it is all about and, of course, also not. For example, I didn’t cover the topic of weapons and fights in it, yet, although this also is a very important chapter of Gor. I am no expert and don’t want to pretend to be one, I am just stating my expressions and experiences until now, so it might happen in the future that some of my stances are going to change.