Wealth and Roleplaying

    Remæus, the head of the RoleplayGateway staff, has created an economy that can fund content creators.  It runs on a proprietary cryptocurrency known as INK, which is backed by Bitcoin.  Users gain INK through completing Achievements, through tips on their forum posts, or through selling NFT's on the Marketplace.  For example, if J.R.R. Tolkein released his intellectual property onto RoleplayGateway, any user could make INK tips on his posts, or even purchase items such as The One Ring.  This economy allows full-fledged authors or dedicated roleplayers to make a living posting.

By the same token, artists can also be paid INK (and hence, Bitcoin) for their work.  NFT's have already been proven to have value in the art world, with raw digital paintings being sold for millions of dollars.  It is not unthinkable that an illustrator could likewise make a living enhancing the stories of roleplayers.

RoleplayGateway is on the ground floor of digital publishing.  Where once it may have seemed ludicrous to be paid for doing a hobby as pleasurable as roleplaying, an increasing market has emerged from the lurker culture that prefers to read rather than participate.  "Out of Character" forums allow non-participants to engage with and offer suggestions to content creators.  Initiatives such as partially-star's "Universe of the Month" showcases interesting new developments in the community.  Roleplays have become a commodity.

There are other developments in the commodification of RPGW.  The RPG Chat is tied to the forums, allowing for a cross-platform immersion in roleplays.  Universes may consist of multiple locations, and moving from location to location is handled by movement commands that would be familiar to anyone who has played a Multi-User Dimension (MUD).  A player can hail a vehicle and move their character all across the Multiverse.  There are even hints in the air of a graphical interpretation of the game space.  Where this all fits in the growing RPGW economy is a question for the future to answer.

Role Playing in the Internet Age

    It was an era of 28.8 baud dial-up modems; TSR, Inc. game manuals and novelizations; and the early attempts at Internet roleplaying.  Decency committees worked to ban Dungeons and Dragons as a breeding ground for witchcraft and devil worship. But they only made their own religions seem regressive and uncaring, a vehicle to bring fear into this world.  We were just kids having fun, which seems far more obvious in retrospect.  

There was a website called WebRPG, at this time.  Unlike more traditional Internet media, like Play-By-Email, it hosted a variety of standing "forums", public and anonymous pages for publishing posts for or about roleplaying.  A person could take on the role of a character and insert it into the world of other players, interacting in a shared story.  It was Dungeons and Dragons without the Game Master, rules, or dice.

  I quickly flipped through my trusty AD&D 2nd edition Monster Manual and thought the Death Knight looked cool.  Within minutes, I inserted "Moneter the Death Knight" into some fellow's story about a town under siege by dark elves.  I gave Moneter enough backstory to explain why he helped the villagers fend off the dark elves.  All the men and children of the village had previously been killed, so there was only a ragtag militia of women defending their town.  When the battle was won, Moneter became the trainer of this militia as they left their ruined home to make their way in this fantasy world.  The story never concluded, but I remember it more than two decades later.  I still send birthday wishes to the player behind the characters in the so-called "Maynton Infantry''.

  Role Playing, and the cooperative storytelling and worldbuilding that this entails, brands itself onto you.  It teaches you how to empathize with other people; the successes and failures of characters teach you about consequences.  And the confidence to freely and voluntarily engage with writing is a lifelong blessing.

  Today, the website at RoleplayGateway.com is at the apex of the roleplaying forum community.  What's fascinating is that many schools block such websites from school computers.  Decency committees, who may not have much familiarity with the academic and social advantages of roleplaying, seek to snuff out anything which may have even a remote whiff of adult content.  Luckily, censored material is often more enticing than permitted literature.  Even in this age of fiber-optic cables and Netflix, I think that roleplay forums are here to stay.