True Blood on Twitter Writer’s Contest Results (via BloodBites)

So the witch won. How nice for her. Even if she didn’t write about me.  -smirks-

I admit, I’m interested to see how this plays out on Twitter. Time moves funny here but a night to day to night story? That will put the acting talents of the True Blood on Twitter cast to the test. And without any vampires to rely on…who knows how this little play will work out. Oh, well, it won’t affect me, either way, just those humans and shifters in that backwater Bon Temps.

Seriously though, everyone who entered deserves a huge round of applause. It takes courage to put your creative work out there where the world can see it. And knowing it’s going to be judged -shakes head- that’s even tougher. So congratulations to all the winners and honorable mentions. You have my admiration for having the courage of your creativity. Keep it up!

On behalf of all of us at True Blood on Twitter, we would like to say how impressed we were by the great submissions we received for this contest. True Blood™ has the most imaginative and creative fans. We are proud to announce and post the winning stories for your enjoyment. True Blood on Twitter will be performing “The Writing on the Wall” by Mena Grazie, live on Twitter, Friday, July 8th at 8 pm central. Don’t miss this ground-breaking perform … Read More

via BloodBites 

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Twe-Guide to TBRP

Interested in role-playing on Twitter? Our very own @TB_PamR helps you get started with her FREE Twe-Guide to TBRP  designed specifically to be read on mobile devices. 

“It’s Awesome!” @BecomingTruebie

“This is great, I wish I’d had it when I started” @Kenya_JonesBT

“An informative, must read guide for anyone considering jumping into Twitter RP. Read it. Your Sheriff commands you.” @Eric_NorthmanTB

‘True Blood’ season 4 sneak peek: Watch the first six minutes here! (via Inside TV)

…and the books have left the building.

Entertainment Weekly’s Inside TV blog may think this is the best tease yet for the fourth season of HBO’s original series True Blood, but fans of the books by Charlaine Harris on which the series is ostensibly based are probably not going to agree. Certainly faeries play an important role in the novels, but Sookie never actually visits Faerie (at least she hasn’t by the end of Dead Reckoning). Further, Adele’s husband was named Mitchell Stackhouse, not Earl. (To be fair, Gary Cole, who portrays Earl has some superb credits among the preternatural film crowd including appearances in the Twilight Zone, American Gothic, the Outer Limits and the Babylon 5 spinoff, Crusade.)

True Blood role players may be a little more charitable, since the storyline being hinted at opens things up for more characters and locations. The challenge, of course will be keeping all those worlds cohesive, particularly if characters (original or canon) are going to be moving between them. Mixing mythos is always a challenge and it’s unclear from the brief clip whether Alan Ball and the True Blood screenwriters are well-versed enough in faerie lore to be up to the task. What do you think?

In its best tease yet, HBO has released the first six minutes of True Blood’s June 26 season 4 premiere on HBO.com and YouTube. Watch it below. We won’t ruin it for you. We’ll only say that the fairy storyline just became 10 times cooler. And yes, that’s Gary Cole as Sookie’s granddaddy Earl. Read more: Important PopWatch poll: Who should Sookie sleep with first in s … Read More

via Inside TV

Pam on Pam: Confessions of a fan-girl

Please excuse me, I’m having an OOC moment…ok, week…maybe month….

Capt. Jack Sparrow poses at PHXCC 2011

Captain Jack Sparrow smells like rum extract. Not rum. Rum Extract. The non-alcoholic stuff you bake with. I know this because I’m old enough to recall baking cakes without mixes and as line moderator got close enough to Jack as he waited to ask Kristin Bauer van Straten, also known as Pam from the original HBO series True Blood, a question to smell it. In fact, I think he was using me as a security blanket. Or maybe he just liked hanging on me. It’s hard to tell with pirates.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Last Friday dawned like any other Friday. Except it wasn’t. Not only was it the Friday before Memorial Day, it was the first full day of the 2011 Phoenix Comic Con!!!

RP outside the Twitter box

One hundred and forty characters (of which I just used 32) isn’t always enough.

Yes, I know, it’s shocking that there are times when what I want or need to say can’t be winnowed down to just 140 characters. I’m sure @EricNorthman_ and @JstackhouseTB often wish I could. Well, perhaps not @Eric_NorthmanTBEric, he uses Tweetdeck’s long post feature frequently. And @Scarlett_Area5 would be pleased as punch if I moved over into the longer forms of role play and writing competitions she favors. Still I am a “one-liner” at heart, though that doesn’t mean I have not and do not  express myself elsewhere.

Here are a few of my favorite outlets as well as some insight into what I like about them.

WordPress

Probably my favorite all around blogging platform. In addition to my sporadic contributions to The Preternatural Post, my alter-ego co-writes Reflections of the Night with @VampireSheriff and if I were in the market for some more personal space, WordPress would be the platform I would choose. It’s a very robust system that unifies most of my other interests, from graphics to video, with ease and flexibility. It’s the flexibility that really wins me over, hands down. If you are serious about blogging, WordPress is where I would start, grow and finish. And did I mention: it’s free? At least a WordPress.com site is.

Ode to Navel Gazing

Some days I look at my Twitter timeline and just wonder. What the heck is so entertaining out RP on Twitter, or “one hitter” RP as my erudite Child @Scarlett_Area5 would say?

Today, I’ve been treated to such scintillating conversations as:

• “Online”
• “Sitting in the company truck my cap over my eyes dozing off at a site we are digging at and I’m supervising”
• “-jumps on your bed- I’m so happppy!”

Now, I accept that a certain portion of role-play involves establishing a setting and not everyone is doing something exciting or even interesting all the time. I’ve even been known to announce my presence online with a simple “rises” but…there is a limit to the navel gazing characters should do. Because that’s what this sort of tweeting is, the public and social media version of reclining in the barco-lounger and picking lint out of your belly button.

So how do we, as role-players combat the insidious urge to document the minutiae of daily or nightly existence for fictional characters?

The truth is we probably don’t. Unlike real-life tweeters who could, possibly benefit from social media moderation, role-players probably would not. Who’s to say that falling asleep on the job or doing laundry after the Goodwill guys leave or polishing a piano bench until it gleams isn’t a significant detail in some well-planned and plotted SL? “Online” probably isn’t a red herring but perhaps announcing a character’s presence is the norm or even a requirement among the people who the character interacts with.

20th Century RPers

Navel gazing is not only inherent to role play on Twitter, it may also be vital. Think of Twitter RPers as a 21st century take on the silent movie stars of a century ago. Instead of exaggerated expressions, gestures and movements, however, Twitter role-players have exaggerated subtitles. Some might argue this makes RPers writers not actors. Yes and no. Certainly, Twitter RPers are writers to a degree. But unlike writers who have hundreds and thousands of words or even entire books, Twitter micro-bloggers have less than 140 characters. Further, role-players in general, and RPers on Twitter especially, write only from their own point of view because as it’s heart role-play is about interacting with other people. It’s a conversation.

Conversations usually include visual clues. At least face-to-face one do. Most Twitter RPers however will never meet even once in real life let alone spend the hours, days, weeks, months and even years that storyline performances can last together. All we have are those 140 characters to convey the same level of communications conveyed across pages in a book or through non-verbal communications on film or in real life.

It’s quite the challenge.

So we indulge in some navel gazing to help sent the scene or establish state of mind. We smirk, smile, growl and frown more often than our physical selves are ever aware that they do. Good role-players take it a step beyond  that. They, like writers, describe actions or emotions with a grace and detail that truly allows their RP partners and fans to share the experience. They, like actors, distill and internalize action and emotion and represent it in an entertaining and meaningful way for their audience. Is it navel gazing? Yes. But with a purpose.

Maybe that’s the key. If you’re going to post mundane details of everyday life, take the time to craft them well. Try working them into an SL or make them revealing about who your character is or the world they inhabit. Give us something to hang our hat or further conversations on, as it were. Don’t just be “online”. Be:

“…I feel my muscles shift, bones crackle, fangs bare, falling to my knees…howls to the moon and the glory of it” as @MarkStoneBrook tweeted.

Don’t just “rise” instead:

“Rises to find myself in a completely dark room. Fangs extend as I struggle to make my eyes focus on where I am, and who I am with” like @Scarlett_Area5

And whatever you do, don’t be “bored” because if I see that one more time I’m going to drain someone. Wait, on second thought, go ahead. Be “bored” I’m thirsty….

To follow or not to follow? On Fridays that is the question

Who you decide to follow on says a great deal about your character and how you role-play. It’s more than just the number of people you follow. It’s who they are and how you interact with them.

It’s easy to meet people on Twitter. It’s harder to figure out who to follow. Some people follow everyone who follows them. I don’t. I follow people I know and want to interact with. That’s doesn’t mean I won’t talk to someone I don’t follow. I will. It just means that until I do talk to you, unless you’re in one of the families or groups I’m a member of, chances are I’m not going to follow you.

So who do I follow?

About 1,000 people. I’m not going to bore you by listing them all here. If you’re that curious, go look up my Twitter profile. Of those 1,000 people, there are a handful that I can unreservedly recommend everyone follow. And if you want to role-play with me, following them is almost a requirement. They are:

@JStackhouseTB – My Lunch and my love. He’s still human and still with me after more than a year. I can’t say enough nice things about him as an RPer or a person. He’s great.

@Eric_NorthmanTB – My original Maker. Married and Maker to @VampireSookieTB these two were among the first to experience me and I would not be the Pam I am without them.

@EricNorthman_ – My Maker and the person who told me I’d be a great Pam. We’ve had our ups and downs but he’s always entertaining and much more in tune with the current Century than I can ever hope to be.

@Scarlett_Area5 – My Child. Yes, I know but we were first and I don’t like the name Miriam anyway. She’s a cold-blooded killer with great closets and one of the best RPers and writers I know.

@MenaGrazie – My Editor here at the Preternatural Post and a friend. Or I thought she was until she didn’t ward my ward which allowed Lunch to get hurt…

@YvettaTB – Dancer extraordinaire and @EricNorthman_‘s squeeze. She’s just kinky enough to be fun, even if she is human.

@PamR_TB and @ENorthmanTB – My doppelgänger and her Maker. They are book and doing some very cool blogging at Reflections of the Night.

@Jezebel_Hell – The witch I love to hate. I’m going to kill her, soon, so follow her while you can.

@RoqueBlackwood and @Alecto_Punisher – The demon and the deity keep my existence interesting though I’m not entirely sure that’s a good thing.

(I should mention that the role-players behind these three “villains” are great people and good friends. Please, don’t confuse the characters with the people behind them. In these cases, they are almost polar opposites.)

There are also some folks I follow just because I like to read them or because my doppelgängers and other personalities interact with them. They include:

@SookieBonTemps – One of, if not the, original Twitter Sookies and a force in the TBRP world. I bet she’s delicious…

@VampireMagister – Speaking of delicious, I bet the Magister is as well, even if I do shiver every time I see him in my timeline. Despite all the silver between us, he still attracts me.

@BranCrisp -Bon Temps’ librarian and all around font of knowledge. Absolutely indispensable.

@Vampire_Bubba – I think it’s that crooked little boy smile, but he’s still King to me. Just don’t ever call him that or by his old name. Now, if I could just get him to sing….

@BadPam and @LeifNorthman – Another doppelgänger and her Maker. He’s super sexy, jury is still out on her. Follow his entire group @SookieSBonTemps, @TBVampire_Bill, @AppiusLOcella and @VampAlexei

@ClaudeCrane – He’d be my soul mate if he played in my sandbox. As it is, maybe Studly and I were somehow separated at birth?

@LafayetteTB – The official Lafayette, is just too witty and wonderful not to follow.

@DarlingSookie – Another great Sookie and the fearless of the Once Bitten TBRP family.

@VampHadley and @Matt_Crenshaw – A great and very sexy couple, there’s never a dull moment around them! And don’t forget their li’l darlin’ @PixietheElf!

@RomanLucious – Yeah, I know, he’s not the badass he pretends to be. Follow him anyway. While you’re at it you may as well follow his adopted Child @VampyJo and his lady, wolf, whatever @Tammyjo__

@EricNorthmanA5 – I was his for a while, but it didn’t work out. My Child, @Scarlett_Area5 still calls him her Sheriff and he replaced me with @PamR_Area5. He also has another Child, @TrinityBodare and a -snickers- grandchild @AvaDeMarco_ as well as a human publicist @Helena_Tao

Finally, every TBRP character or fan should be following @TrueBloodHBO, @EricSookieLover, @The_Vault and @NorthmanNet. Several of the cast members of HBO’s True Blood are also on Twitter including @BauervanStraten (Pam), @Ryan_Kwanten (Jason), @JoeManganiello (Alcide), @CarriePreston (Arlene) and @SamTrammell (Sam), among others.

True Blood Cast, Season 1 Promo Photo from HBO

How to be bad

It takes a special kind of person to be the villain. They don’t have to BE evil. They just have to act that way. More than that, however, they must have the mental fortitude and maturity to be actively disliked or even hated. It isn’t an easy path to walk, although great villains make it look easy.

What makes a great villain?

Some will say it is an individual’s nature that makes them a villain. In other words, I am a bad guy (or girl, rather) simply because I am a vampire and everyone knows vampires are villains. We have been for centuries.

I don’t believe it. I don’t believe that vampires or shape shifters or even monsters are all villains anymore than I believe all humans are heroes or heroines. Species does not dictate good or evil. Choices and behavior do.

We are all capable of choosing evil and playing the villain.

True villains just make that choice more frequently than the rest of us. Sometimes they choose evil out of necessity. But to truly be a villain, you choose evil not because you have to but because you want to. That’s a huge difference.

Why would anyone want to be a villain? You may as well ask why anyone would want to be a hero. Neither is likely to get what they deserve. For the most part, however, villains enjoy more of the trappings or success (wealth, beauty, power, lovers) than heroes do.  In many ways, villains are more interesting than heroes, primarily because there are so few of them, at least on Twitter.

In order to be a good, and by that I mean believable, consistent and interesting, villain, you really have to know your character. More than most RP personalities, villains have to hit the ground running with a solid back story and motivations. These don’t have to be public knowledge but the role-player behind the villain needs to know them.

Motivation is the key to every villain. A truly great villain will have several layers of motivation. The overt one everyone sees. The personal one, which is how the villain explains their actions/choices to themselves.  The subconscious one that they may not even realize themselves. in addition, most villains have triggers, or life events that may, or may not, explain why a villain acts like they do.

Knowing your character and what moves them to behave as they do is only part of the battle. You also have to know you are going to be actively disliked. “Love to hate” sounds much friendlier and easy to bear than the reality.

The reality is you are going to be attacked IC and OCC. You’re going to be called names, insulted and ostracized. People may refuse to talk to you. Some may refuse to participate in SLs with you. They may spread rumors about you or your character or both. And you’re going to have to take it. you can growl about it or snarl over it but ultimately, the abuse is part of being a villain. A great villain is prepared for this and won’t let it get to them. The truth is, the better villain you are, the more hated you will be. Think about that before creating a villain character.

There are so great villains on Twitter. @WereWitchHallow, @RoqueBlackwood, @Jezebel _Hell and @Rene_LenierTB are just a few of them. They make SLs and RP more fun and engaging. And the next time you see them, take a minute to appreciate the hard work that goes into being a great villain. Don’t hate them because they are good at it.

The Dating Games or Dating Gamers

Normally, I leave the news to Mena but when she mentioned there was a dating game specifically for role-players and gamers…well, how could I resist? I snooped around a little and this is what I found:

Yeah, these two are into each other...

First, it turns out GamerDating.com isn’t exactly new. In fact, the London-based Gamer Dating Ltd. has created a social networking and gaming hybrid where gamers from 36 different countries came together to meet, blog and game together. Not bad for their first beta.

What Mena was referring to was actually a newly announced partnership between DatingGamer.com and California-based Gamania Digital Entertainment, the US subsidiary of a leading pan-Asian game developer and publisher, to deliver what they are calling a revolutionary experience for gamers everywhere. The upcoming Dating MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) will offer gamers an all around social gaming experience where they can not only meet others sharing their gaming passions (or be matched to them using Lucent Heart’s matchmaking system) and play together but also develop other aspects of their relationship.

“Never before has a MMORPG made the move to work so closely with a social network, ” said DatingGamer.com creator Jim Palmer. “We Honestly have no idea why this is the first time someone is doing this. We all use and enjoy massive social networking sites, so when it comes to dating, we believe that it should be easy to share you most time consuming interests, in our case, gaming.”

Sound interesting?

I thought so. I, however, am quite content with Lunch (@JStackhouseTB) and am really not interested in a dating or a matchmaking service no matter how intriguing it sounds. So I signed Mena up. -smirks-

If you would like to give this social experiment game a whirl you’ll want to act fast. GamerDating.com is sponsoring Lucent Heart’s upcoming “Get Lucky!” beta which offers players one last sneak peak at Lucent Heart over the weekend of St. Patrick’s Day, complete with fashionable green attire to ward off uninvited pinches.  To “Get Lucky!” role-players and gamers can simply head over to GamerDating.com and sign up for a free profile. All GamerDating.com members will get a free beta key to participate in the St. Patty’s festivities which begin March 17, 2011.  Members can also jump to link for up-to-date information on other give-away events.

“We are incredibly excited to be able to offer players a seamless transition to further legitimize the relationships they bring to Lucent Heart,” adds David Wong, COO of Gamania. “Lucent Heart offers a low-pressure outlet for couples to go on fun, light-hearted dates together and GamerDating.com offers an essential portal for them to continue interacting which includes profiles, email, blogs – things that players can’t easily and safely exchange within the game.”

Well? What are you waiting for? Go!

What's better than a leprechaun's pot of gold?

Strange Twitter Truth: Domestic Bliss Sucks

Happily ever after or...not

There is a reason all fairy tales end with “…and they lived happily every after.” It sounds so much better than saying “…they got married, knocked up and didn’t do anything interesting again for the rest of their lives.” Let’s face it, once you find and catch “The One” things get pretty boring fast unless something, other than children, intervenes.

When that something arises, as often as not it can destroy a couple. Of course, after a few weeks on months of domestic bliss on Twitter, odds are the pair will split anyway. Does that mean they weren’t “The One” for each other?

Not necessarily.

After almost a year on Twitter, I have come to realize that there is both an art and a skill to maintaining relationships here. It doesn’t matter whether you are lovers, Maker/Child, packmates, nestmates, co-workers, family or just friends. If you regularly RP with another person, you are their partner. That being said, I’ve identified a few qualities that most successful partners seem to share. In no particular order, they are:

• Secure: They don’t need to monopolize their partner’s every online moment or character.
• Dependable: They do what they say, when they say they are going to do it and don’t abandon things halfway through.
• Realistic: They understand this is RP not RL (real life or ‘real love’).
• Flexible: They understand the best laid plans can go awry and don’t panic when they do.
• Consistent: They know their character and their behavior isn’t all over the place.
• Creative: They can still surprise you.
• Fun: They add to your SLs and your character in positive ways.
• Supportive: They judge their partner on their own merits and opinions, not those of others.
• Loyal: They know and respect the boundaries of your/their SLs and would never cross them with discussing it with their partners first and off-stream.
• Considerate: They take into account your feelings as both a character and an RPer before they do something.
• Respectful: They respect you as a character and a RPer meaning they do not try to god-mod you or force you into situations where you have to behave a certain way.

The most important thing about a RP partner is that they are a PARTNER. It is a relationship of equals. Neither person, or character, is more important or “better” than the other. There are times when one partner may be more involved in an SL than the other, however, this doesn’t mean the more active partner is somehow superior to the less active one. In fact, if you role-play long enough with someone you will find that each of you will be active and more involved at different times based on your availability and the story line.

It is important to remember that online and long-distance relationships are, by their nature, idealized. This is especially true for Twitter RP relationships where those involved are performing as someone else. How close someone’s character is to the RL person is irrelevant. None of use is exactly the person we portray online or we wouldn’t be role-players. None of us is the mental picture those we play with and talk to create of us either. Even if partners become friends off-stream, and many do, it is still an idealized relationship, one in which both parties can be more honest while still maintaining a distance from each other. It is also possible for a person to carry on multiple relationships/partnerships at the same time, something that most of us would not tolerate in a face-to-face relationship. Add to the possible risk of stalking and it’s easy to see why Twitter relationships are best confined to Twitter and/or IM where the individuals involved have some level of anonymity to each other. Being a good partner takes work, whether it’s RP or RL. Intimacy, however develops much faster online. Relationships, whether existing entirely on Twitter or utilizing other forms of online communications like IM or email, are also easier to end and end faster than RL relationships.

In other words: “happily ever after” isn’t a good bet. I’m not even sure it exists.

IC ((OOC)) IC ((OOC))

Sometimes I have to wonder…just who am I talking to? Oh, I know what the bios say. But the way some people flop back and forth between this world and the mundane world called “real life” is annoying. If we wanted to be the “real” people we are, we wouldn’t be here, or pissed off at Facebook for disabling our accounts.

So why do so people insist on bringing the humdrum mundane lives on to RP Twitter? 

It’s a question I don’t really have answer to.

Certainly some events transcend both worlds –deaths, marriages, births, relocations, graduations, health, even new toys (like cell phones, computers or cars) — impact RP characters as well as “real” people. How can they not? But do we really need to dwell on them? 

Location also plays a role. We can’t all live in Shreveport or New Orleans, let alone Bon Temps, all the time. They would be over-run with dopplegangers in minutes! Besides, if you’ve noticed how difficult it is to set up meetings or determine when the sun goes down on Twitter, you know these communities, as well as Dallas, Monroe, New York, etc. span multiple time zones. Therefore some “locale news”, be it shootings in Tucson, snow storms in Oklahoma or a comic con in St. Louis, are going to creep in. 

So are details of our day/night and personal opinions. These of course, are a little easier to disguise. Or they should be.

The sad fact is, some people don’t even try to disguise them. They rip away the veil of willing suspension disbelief we all wear on Twitter and expose themselves like some drunken lech flashing their shortcomings to the world. I don’t know about you, but I don’t need, or want, to see that very often. 

So please, stop forcing your reality on others. 

If you have to discuss your life beyond Twitter, don’t do it publicly. Take it offline. Don’t think confining it to mentions (@) or parenthetical comments is ok. Take it offline. Use DMs or IMs or email or non-RP Twitter identities or personal blogs. Call or write, I don’t care. Just keep it out of my stream.

When I am online and tweeting, I am Pam. Period. That’s who I want to be. That’s all I want to be. Most people, even those I think of and who call me friend, will never know me as anyone else. That is the way I want it. Please respect that and keep your personal life just that: personal. I do.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone