The 'Shroom:Issue LXIX/MarioWiki - A Huge Roleplaying Session
You may be mentioned in this section. If you are, remember that I am not out to hurt you in any way or otherwise make you look worse in any way possible.
Before we begin, I should also like to utter a slight Dangan Ronpa-related SPOILER WARNING.
Hello here, RandomYoshi here, a seemingly random steed. For this guest section, I'll be analysing the community from a rather different perspective than usual, which is to say not different at all because everyone has to be different these days, right? But little did you know, I actually view this community as a huge roleplaying session. For those of you not in the know, a roleplaying session is a session in which the participating players try to play as somebody they aren't, essentially testing their creative abilities and whatnot.
As I see this community like a giant roleplaying session, this raises the totally legitimate question of why, the equally totally legitimate question of how and the equally legitimate question of when. As it turns out, I have answers to everyone of those questions, even to the degree that I can pinpoint the question of when to specific dates.
Now, why do I see this community as a huge roleplaying session? Well, if there's something that's true, then that is that certain users are "meant" to act in a certain way. This shows itself if we look at individual users and their behaviour. For example, Lily is the "Insane Fangirl of Many Things", Count Bonsula is the "Stupid person", Anton is the "Hypnotiser" (and he's rather good at it, too @_@), I am the "Grammar Hitler", Dippy is the "Audiophile", Mason is the "Toucan Lover" (granted, that still applies to him IRL, but it still applies here), etcetera, etcetera. Sure, there are some exceptions to this. The users who fall under that category have yet to find their place in the community, but they too will find their place in the community, accompanied with an appropriate title and such. How we as individuals are looked upon is always strengthened by a rather popular site called Userpedia. The users who have an article about their "User form" — basically their appeareance on the community, in rare cases, their abilities as a User, and sometimes personality — and while reading those articles, I concluded that Userpedia essentially is a way for everyone who is new in the session to read up on how specific users act and whatnot. While this may seem like a surprising way of viewing the community, so is also viewing the community as a whole as a huge roleplaying session, so that really shouldn't come off as that surprising.
With that being said, look at the basic structure I've laid now; we have users acting in ways that may or may not be natural for them if it wouldn't be for the fact that they were in this community. (And because it's all in good fun, there's nothing inherently wrong with that in my eyes.) But for a roleplaying session to be really interesting, it has to have more than that, hasn't it? But it has got more than that! Even though I wasn't even aware of that the MarioWiki existed back then, the primary example of when a major element was added to the community was during the Homestuck fad. What exactly did the Homestuck fad contribute to the session? A lot of elements. The two main elements that the Homestuck fad contributed to was Homestuck shipping, i.e. applying the concept of troll romance on users, and the titles. For example, my title is Heir of Maths, Edofenrir's title is Seer of Heart, 2257's title is Prince of Life, etcetera, etcetera. And for specific users, namely the ones who are shipped, the Homestuck shipping makes them able to safely confine in a role and just stick that, creating a comforting situation for those involved. Sure, not everybody wants to be involved, which is respected to some degree, which in turn is great. Sure, around Valentine's Day, everyone ends up getting shipped anway, but that shipping isn't the Homestuck shipping. That shipping is the "normal" kind of shipping. In conclusion, for this community, Homestuck isn't just a comic — it shapes the way they can roleplay in this community that is, and I say it again, a huge roleplaying session.
There was also a Dangan Ronpa fad. That fad contributed to the community in the sense that it made despair a normal thing to induce to someone who also liked it at the time. There was even made a Mindless Junk-thread in which you could request an ironical execution, an element which I'd say is a key part of Dangan Ronpa. There was also a name-change fad related to Dangan Ronpa. Because nearly everyone who was part of the fad changed names, everyone started acting like they were the person who they had changed their name to. For instance, when one character in the game was revealed to be in love with another, those two users who had changed their named to the relevant characters had a "quarrel", all based off how the game's events had enrolled at the time. Dangan Ronpa also contributed the "Super High-school Level"-prefix into our daily vocabulary and such.
In conclusion, when a fad becomes large enough, some elements from the fad's "original content" (in Homestuck's case, the shipping and the titles, and in Dangan Ronpa's case, the executions and the "Super High-school Level"-prefix) are implemented into the session for some arbitrary amount of time. Sometimes, it might even be permanent, which is the case with Homestuck. I've also come to the conclusion that this is just for fun, making this community one of the more enjoyable communities to be part of at times.
I'm sure that answers the answers of how and why, and additionally when.
This has been RandomYoshi, the Heir of Math, Packy's wife/husband (nobody is certain about this. For all we know, I may be the wife or I may be the husband), Grammar Hitler, Maths Nerd, and eventually more titles to come.
By the way, Merry Christmas, everyone!
