Hello everyone,
This is an open invitation to all the roleplayers out there to take part in the totally unofficial roleplayer's Festival scheduled to run from Sunday April 1st to Sunday April 15th.
“Festival?” you say. What on Ka is that? I am so glad you asked.
What is the Festival?
You can think of the Festival being a bit like “Black History Month” for Americans or Lent for Christians, but without all the guilt and preachiness. So maybe it’s more like Belgian Beer Week (if you don’t a Belgian Beer Week where you live, you might want to consider moving.)
Basically the Festival is just about promoting roleplaying through roleplaying. For the duration of the Festival, everyone is invited to focus just a little more on the roleplaying aspects of the game, either through staging events, improvised stuff on the streets or indeed in any way individuals are more comfortable with. There will be no Festival organisers or leaders, no rules, no red tape. But hopefully, if we are all more involved in roleplaying at the same time, interesting dynamics will emerge of their on accord.
If at one level it is little more than a "Hey guys, let's all a little roleplay more!" the festival structure offers a couple of useful benefits, namely:
#1 The festival is a signpost for those of us prone to procrastinating or who are readily distracted. It’s there to provide that extra bit of motivation we all need from time to time.
#2 Given that roleplaying is about interacting with others, there is a real benefit if we step up our efforts at the same time rather than in isolation.
That's pretty much it. There is no big mystery, no fancy trick.
Who is in charge?
No one is in charge. No really, there will be no one organising or supervising the festival as such. It's up to everyone to contribute in any way they see fit. The concept and the dates were agreed at the recent roleplayers meeting (commonly known as the "Greencoat meetings") but we are not claiming any exclusive ownership over it.
For overall co-ordination of events, it would make sense to use AO Universe's Event's Calendar (http://www.ao-universe.com/main.php?...endar#calendar ) and on The Buzz, but even that is up to the individual.
So how do I take part in the Festival?
That depends on you. There is no script, no overarching theme or story. Nor is there a sign-up sheet.
If you are already actively roleplaying on a day-to-day basis, you don't really need to do anything different. Hopefully, the festival will see that there are more people available for you to interact with.
If you divide your time between roleplaying and other more mainstream activities, this could be a good time to just take things a little more slowly, hang out a bit longer in known social areas or just be more active on Channel 42.
If you are the event officer in a roleplaying guild or just enjoy working on events, please consider staging an event of your own during these two weeks. It's the perfect occasion for to try that event idea that has been on the back burner for months. Talk with your org-mates, contact other roleplaying org officers and make something happen, be it a party, a PvP battle or an Atrox protest march over the price of pies. It does not have to be big, it does not have to be original or clever. It might also be a good chance to contribute to Xaun graphic novel project (http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=485945 ).
I like the idea, but I think the Festival should be more like XYZ. Who do I need to talk to?
You don't need to talk to anyone. If you feel the Festival should be about getting new players into roleplaying, then do something about during the Festival directed towards new players. If you think the Festival should end with a massive fully DJed party, go ahead and organise it. If you feel the Festival should have some sort of in-character meaning, like "The Rubi-Ka Harvest Festival" with parades and stuff, stage your parade. You don't need to ask anyone's permission.
Will Funcom and the Ark Event Team be helping?
Funcom and the Event team have not been part of the discussions leading to the Festival idea and are under no obligation to support it (though there was an Ark representative at the Greencoat meetings). Their support is of course always welcome, but it's up to them.
Final Thoughts
You can read through the last couple of Greencoat meeting logs if you want to find out more about this initiative and how it evolved (out of interest, it started off as a contest idea).
If have any questions, feel free to contact Virta or myself (Dabblez), but really it’s not about what we think the Festival should be, it what about you think it should be.
