I miss that, too. I know that in my case, a lot of it has to do with my mad schedule -- I just don't have the time or energy for structured gaming with my academic load and the obligations I have to fit into the rest of my non-academic time (even if I want -- and periodically try -- to play anyway, which seems to generally result in the way you're feeling right now, too).
But I also feel like everything's gotten way too formal and regimented. Like... most of the games now seem to have firewalls up that prevent their characters from interacting with out-of-game characters in any way that can have meaningful effects. That's way different from when I was a more active player, because back then, the players could go to DM or Sages to grab backup to augment their teams for a mission or a battle, and characters in MAHS could date people from other universes and acquire and use PINpoints. And then suddenly all of the games started adding rules about how nothing that happened outside of the comm counted, and that seemed to kill activity in the multiversal crossover comms faster than anything else.
I have a character concept I particularly love, and have really wanted to play for a while -- a girl named Bonnie who's an orphan on several levels, because not only did she lose her family but her tie to her original universe. Her only steady "companion" is an AI device that can open portals between universes, and so she's become a kind of multiversal nomad, exploring all of the infinite possibilities of creation (and secretly hoping she can find a universe where she's the one who was lost and her family will be there, alive and well, willing to welcome her back). But because she can come and go at will between universes (and she has "favorites" that she's "bookmarked" for repeat visits) there are really almost no places I can play her. Because the ground rule for most of the games out there right now would kill that fundamental aspect of her characterization and most of the multiversal comms now seem to be set up to accommodate the idea that nothing that happens in them really "counts" toward character development.
So I've been really "Blah!" too. Sometimes I feel like it's the games that changed, and sometimes I feel like I'm the one who changed, but I don't remember feeling so vexed and resentful about the "breakneck pace" of RPing back when I was just tossing characters into the multiverse. I might be old, too. But it seems like RPing has become an "uphill in the snow, both ways" prospect now. :/
no subject
But I also feel like everything's gotten way too formal and regimented. Like... most of the games now seem to have firewalls up that prevent their characters from interacting with out-of-game characters in any way that can have meaningful effects. That's way different from when I was a more active player, because back then, the players could go to DM or Sages to grab backup to augment their teams for a mission or a battle, and characters in MAHS could date people from other universes and acquire and use PINpoints. And then suddenly all of the games started adding rules about how nothing that happened outside of the comm counted, and that seemed to kill activity in the multiversal crossover comms faster than anything else.
I have a character concept I particularly love, and have really wanted to play for a while -- a girl named Bonnie who's an orphan on several levels, because not only did she lose her family but her tie to her original universe. Her only steady "companion" is an AI device that can open portals between universes, and so she's become a kind of multiversal nomad, exploring all of the infinite possibilities of creation (and secretly hoping she can find a universe where she's the one who was lost and her family will be there, alive and well, willing to welcome her back). But because she can come and go at will between universes (and she has "favorites" that she's "bookmarked" for repeat visits) there are really almost no places I can play her. Because the ground rule for most of the games out there right now would kill that fundamental aspect of her characterization and most of the multiversal comms now seem to be set up to accommodate the idea that nothing that happens in them really "counts" toward character development.
So I've been really "Blah!" too. Sometimes I feel like it's the games that changed, and sometimes I feel like I'm the one who changed, but I don't remember feeling so vexed and resentful about the "breakneck pace" of RPing back when I was just tossing characters into the multiverse. I might be old, too. But it seems like RPing has become an "uphill in the snow, both ways" prospect now. :/