The Ego Archipelago

"Remember the Forge Diaspora, and how wonderful it was supposed to be? And yeah, it's wonderful now. Anything can be wonderful for a few months, on-line. Guess what - I can see where it's going, it's going straight to dogshit. ... Unless you want the Forge Diaspora to result in five or six arid little ego-based islands, then drop by the mainland regularly and post."

That was Ron Edwards, in a rare moment of testiness back in August. I don't have any particular reason to repost that. Mostly, I like his phrase for the gaming blogosphere: "arid little ego-based islands." Except that there are, by my count, now about a zillion of those islands out there, anything but arid, with volcanic activity bringing dozens more to the surface every day.

But I'm making a note to myself that January 31, 2006 is the day I gave up trying to keep up with it all. See, I've got the RSS aggregator and the del.icio.us account and the Forge and RPG.net and the number of LJ friends I feel compelled to read inches ever upwards towards triple digits and I listen to judd_sonofbert and ptevis's respective podcasts (which are great, btw, I'm not bitching about quality here, just quantity) and now people are putting actual game sessions online and I log on tonight and this Story Games forum, which twenty minutes ago I'd never heard of, is already a thriving community, like that scene in Tintin in America where they find oil, evict the Indians, and build a city before Tintin has a chance to change his chaps. It's too much!

As recently as, oh, about twenty-one minutes ago, I maintained the illusion in my mind that I might be able to keep tabs on all of it, not just reading it but posting ocassional roundups of links to good stuff at 20x20. My inspiration in that regard was Ralph Luker, a colleague at Cliopatria, whose "Things Noted" posts are nigh essential for keeping track of the equally sprawling history blogiverse. Granted, I almost never got around to actually posting any of these imagined roundups, but I've carried around the intent to do so for ages. Honestly.

Finding myself with a spare half hour and a handful of links, I thought I'd get started. See, there was this funny actual play thread at the Forge where the adorable dating rpg Breaking the Ice proved to be ideal for playing slashy fan fiction (in this case Supe/Bats), and ezrael is launching a Lexicon game with calamityjon, of all people, tentatively signed up to play (LJ worlds... colliding!), and Vincent Baker's once inexhaustible patience with newbies and naysayers finally seems to be running out, and I think it's hilarious that foreign_devilry wrote a real game in response to unrequitedthai's offhand lesbian stripper ninja rpg challenge. Plus I'm kinda curious about everyone's reaction to this little gem (via krustukles).

But it's too much! Ralph posts 3 or 4 times a day at Cliopatria. I'm never going to do that. And I guess I have to question my motives for wanting to. It would be nice if there was more traffic at 20x20. And it would be nice to be tight(er?) with some of the cool kid gaming blogger cliques. Vincent and Jonathan and Shreyas and Ben and Judd and Brand and Mo and Emily and Chad and [insert your name here, I'm just going off the top of my head, so don't feel hurt if you're left out, my whole point is there's too damn many of you to keep track of] all seem like smart, fun, cool people, and I would love to be be buddies with any of them. But it's not like the world's going to end if one gaming blog is a little less active, and if I'm just seeing Blogtown as a nicotine patch for the gaming I'm not doing, or for a social life that's taken a hit this year from work and the move... well, that way lies madness. So I guess I'm posting here to tell you that I'm not going to start doing something that you never knew I was doing or thinking of doing anyway. From your point of view: quel whoop. But from my point of view: big stupid weight off my shoulders.

That doesn't mean I don't want to talk about gaming. Geez Louise, when was the last time somebody posted a mash-up or a crazy Game I'd Like To idea around here?