What is Powerplay?

[The Joker]

Powerplaying:
What it is, and why we hate it!

Powerplaying, we all have little ideas behind what it is, but do you really know what most role playing sites consider Powerplaying? Powerplaying is the act of controlling another person’s character. A Powerplayer, in role playing, is someone who Powerplays by controlling another person’s character. Powerplaying includes EVERYTHING that you could possibly control about another person. If you decide what they say, you’re powerplaying. If you decide how they feel, you’re power playing. If you decide how they react to something, you’re powerplaying. I’ll give you an example of a post that Powerplays, and one that doesn’t.

Johnny and Markus are two characters on a role playing site that are played by two different people. Johnny is making the first post in a thread.


Quote:
("A smile came across Johnny’s face as he spotted his friend Markus from across the room. As Johnny approached his good friend, Markus called out “Hey!.”

Being a good friend to the man, Johnny of course returned his comment by calling out, “What’s up?” Both men grinned and laughed while rolling around on the floor.")


As you can tell, Johnny wrote a poor post, and controlled Markus before Markus could have a choice in anything he wanted to do. Markus never replied, nor role played with Johnny, because he was a horrible Powerplayer. This is how it should have gone.


Quote:
(Today had been an absolute hell so far. The annoying little alarm clock that was supposed to go off didn’t go off due to the power outage last night, so Johnny was extremely late to work and got a new asshole torn for him by his boss. During work, Johnny’s girlfriend Pam called and told him that she took all her stuff from his apartment and wasn’t coming back. To top it all off, Johnny returned home to find that she had taken his things too. When he called the police to report it, they were all off early, doing something for Easter. Why in the world was the whole station out celebrating Easter in the middle of August?

Regardless of the reasoning behind the annoying slackers, Johnny decided he would keep his plans with his close friend Markus. The two were supposed to meet at a local club and hang out and have a guy’s night out. Upon arriving the busy club Johnny stood on his tiptoes, searching for the body of his good friend. Biting his lip out of slight annoyance at his inability to find his friend, Johnny let out an annoyed sigh and lowered himself back down the two inches his toes provided, and merged back into the crowd, hoping to find an open table. Though unable to find one wide open, he did manage to find one with his good friend at it. “Hey Mark!”)


That post doesn’t Powerplay at all. Though Johnny states he found his friend already sitting at a table this isn’t powerplaying in the fact that Johnny made the thread. Unlike the first time though, Johnny didn’t control any of Markus’s reactions or actions. If Markus felt it was unlike his character to be early, which would have been established in a well written bio, Johnny, who is no longer a Powerplayer, would have known and posted so that Markus wasn’t there yet. That’s basic powerplaying gals and guys, so learn it, love it, and deal with it.





Quote:
If you wish to use this on your own site, please email [e-mail] and let the original writer know that you plan on using this. Thanks