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A post on bad_rpers_suck reminded me of a guy with whom I was acquainted on MSN Chat, back in the days when there actually was an MSN Chat. Gosh, that was back in 1999 and 2000, mostly. I really can't remember his name, so let's call him BraggartSmurf. BS played a swordsman of varying levels of renown; his character was the retired king of a mighty-yet-small nation, currently succeeded to the throne by his grandchildren, and now off visiting old allies and righting whatever interesting wrongs they might happen to present. Typical fantasy stuff, really, if occasionally nudging close to the "unchallengible" power levels marked Here Be Godmoders.
But then, I wasn't about to kick; another regular visitor was an "aes_sedai", who so utterly ruined the entire Wheel of Time setting for me that I've no chance I could ever read any of it. (I tried once. Two pages into the first book. All my back muscles tensed as if she'd just walked her character into the chat room again. Felt sick. Put it back on the library shelf.) We had super-powered five-year-old children wander into our woods, and their players get mad when I said they would be welcome with a more appropriate character. We had seventeen separate visitations from ascii-art versions of Drizzt, and over twenty visitations from that character's relatives. At least BS, up there, was an original character from a reasonably appropriate setting, right?
Sure, he liked to pull a fast solution for any problem out of his pocket as soon as he started to grasp the plot device, but he didn't demand to be the center of every scene. No, the real trouble with Braggart was that, when too much of the evening's story wasn't focused on him, he'd switch to OOC conversations within the room.
And, usually, they were about his military career. His "real life" military career.
(Cut him a little slack, a very good RPer asked of me; I know he's kind of stuck at a phase the rest of us have long since outgrown, roleplay-wise, but he's in a pretty demanding career that doesn't give him a lot of chances to grow out of the spotlight thing.)
One night, BS started expounding a good bit on this OOC theme: the current administration was changing the way everything was handled, and he was getting on in years, and he'd never really planned on a "life after the military". And a detail that had escaped me before, now got a specific mention in his story: he's in the Special Forces. He specifically claims to be a Green Beret.
And he uses the term inaccurately.
My hands came off the keyboard as I read those lines. I blinked, turned to my left, and said, "Dearly Beloved? BraggartSmurf is claiming to have worked for your father."*
"He wha? Ask him how to 'make a leg'," I was instructed.
Let's just say that it has nothing to do with bowing in a courtly manner. And, of course, BraggartSmurf had no idea how to deal with the question. There was a big stomping fuss, and he tried to make me back down -- eventually demanded directly, "are you calling me a liar?" Yes; yes, I was. He didn't even know the difference between a "Ranger" and a "SF", I felt rather confident that my father-in-law wouldn't recognize him as a man of his claimed age would have to be known personally to Major FiL because it's simply not that big a Group within the U.S. Army, in fact I rather doubted he'd ever served a full tour in the actual military at all. And, for Braggart's purposes in this whole pity-and-admire-me act, frankly ROTC didn't count.
He flounced out of the room in an impotent rage, of course. But what really vexed him was that the next time he showed up, we happened to have more than ten people present; and I immediately stepped OOC to tell the room, "If BraggartSmurf has claimed to you to be a serving or retired member of the Special Forces, he is lying and I have proof. Please do not give this person your OOC contact information."
What do you know? He'd gotten real-world contact info from two or three of them, right down to offers to provide no-charge room and board if he's ever in that section of the country, all based on gratitude to a member of the Armed Forces with an "amazing" record.
*(Granted, it could've been a different unit; Major Dad-in-Law ran a company, not even an entire Group.)
***
We all present a somewhat idealized version of ourselves in online communities, if only because it's a far less random sampling of our behavior than what a physical neighbor or co-worker or family member would see. Some folks deliberately skew that, presenting a fairer or uglier version of their actual selves. Heck, that's why we get involved in roleplay communities in the first place, more often than not! Still, if one is going to present an actually fictitious version of their "genuine" selves, I think it's only basic logic that one should pick something a stranger cannot disprove. Claiming to really be a member of a specific profession, when at best one's investigated the Hollywood portrayals, seems all too much like asking to be publicly shamed.
But then, I wasn't about to kick; another regular visitor was an "aes_sedai", who so utterly ruined the entire Wheel of Time setting for me that I've no chance I could ever read any of it. (I tried once. Two pages into the first book. All my back muscles tensed as if she'd just walked her character into the chat room again. Felt sick. Put it back on the library shelf.) We had super-powered five-year-old children wander into our woods, and their players get mad when I said they would be welcome with a more appropriate character. We had seventeen separate visitations from ascii-art versions of Drizzt, and over twenty visitations from that character's relatives. At least BS, up there, was an original character from a reasonably appropriate setting, right?
Sure, he liked to pull a fast solution for any problem out of his pocket as soon as he started to grasp the plot device, but he didn't demand to be the center of every scene. No, the real trouble with Braggart was that, when too much of the evening's story wasn't focused on him, he'd switch to OOC conversations within the room.
And, usually, they were about his military career. His "real life" military career.
(Cut him a little slack, a very good RPer asked of me; I know he's kind of stuck at a phase the rest of us have long since outgrown, roleplay-wise, but he's in a pretty demanding career that doesn't give him a lot of chances to grow out of the spotlight thing.)
One night, BS started expounding a good bit on this OOC theme: the current administration was changing the way everything was handled, and he was getting on in years, and he'd never really planned on a "life after the military". And a detail that had escaped me before, now got a specific mention in his story: he's in the Special Forces. He specifically claims to be a Green Beret.
And he uses the term inaccurately.
My hands came off the keyboard as I read those lines. I blinked, turned to my left, and said, "Dearly Beloved? BraggartSmurf is claiming to have worked for your father."*
"He wha? Ask him how to 'make a leg'," I was instructed.
Let's just say that it has nothing to do with bowing in a courtly manner. And, of course, BraggartSmurf had no idea how to deal with the question. There was a big stomping fuss, and he tried to make me back down -- eventually demanded directly, "are you calling me a liar?" Yes; yes, I was. He didn't even know the difference between a "Ranger" and a "SF", I felt rather confident that my father-in-law wouldn't recognize him as a man of his claimed age would have to be known personally to Major FiL because it's simply not that big a Group within the U.S. Army, in fact I rather doubted he'd ever served a full tour in the actual military at all. And, for Braggart's purposes in this whole pity-and-admire-me act, frankly ROTC didn't count.
He flounced out of the room in an impotent rage, of course. But what really vexed him was that the next time he showed up, we happened to have more than ten people present; and I immediately stepped OOC to tell the room, "If BraggartSmurf has claimed to you to be a serving or retired member of the Special Forces, he is lying and I have proof. Please do not give this person your OOC contact information."
What do you know? He'd gotten real-world contact info from two or three of them, right down to offers to provide no-charge room and board if he's ever in that section of the country, all based on gratitude to a member of the Armed Forces with an "amazing" record.
*(Granted, it could've been a different unit; Major Dad-in-Law ran a company, not even an entire Group.)
***
We all present a somewhat idealized version of ourselves in online communities, if only because it's a far less random sampling of our behavior than what a physical neighbor or co-worker or family member would see. Some folks deliberately skew that, presenting a fairer or uglier version of their actual selves. Heck, that's why we get involved in roleplay communities in the first place, more often than not! Still, if one is going to present an actually fictitious version of their "genuine" selves, I think it's only basic logic that one should pick something a stranger cannot disprove. Claiming to really be a member of a specific profession, when at best one's investigated the Hollywood portrayals, seems all too much like asking to be publicly shamed.
