When I was in High School, a small group of people played Dungeons & Dragons, a legendary roll playing game. Then it was the Sims. And Warcraft. Even Live Journal has fandom communites. And of course Second Life.
People acting realistically in imaginary circumstances, in role playing games on and off line, seemed to always exist outside of main stream culture. That’s why I was surprised to come across a role playing community in Myspace.
Today I met Deliah on Myspace. On first glance, she looks like a nice young lady. In reality, she’s not “real.” She’s a character playing in a world of other imaginary characters.
She writes in her Myspace profile:
“Delilah Anne Mc Cloud…was the typical teenage, you could say, and she fell in love. …She ran away from home and was picked up by pirates.”
I asked Deliah about roleplaying on Myspace:
“I guess it’s just another form of role play…I mean, you have your standard role play, as to where you get together with a friend or something, and create a story. Devising a plot line and things like that. With Myspace, it’s more direct. You don’t wait days at a time looking for a reply or something. It’s fast pace, and it’s better. You can create a character and things like that.”
Deliah introduced me to her entire rollplaying community ranging from Aladdin and Edward Scissorhands to Lisa Simpson and Hello Kitty.
Some things I think are cool:
- Myspace fandom profiles, like those listed above, use YouTube videos, slideshows, and friend comments to create the world in which their characters live.
- These profiles are fully committed to their characters.
- Characters of the same feather stick together. Bart Simpson fandom’s find and befriend each other.
If you’re interested in learning more about this, there’s plentity of research online for you! Also, Erica George is really in the know.
