Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

The very first time that I started role playing was about 2002—I would’ve been twelve. That was eight years ago. We had just gotten AOL for the very first time, and there was a teen’s chat-room for video games. Being the gamer that I was, naturally I jumped in, but to my surprise, the people weren’t discussing games, they were role playing (albeit, in retrospect, quite illiterately). I remember sitting there and watching them for about an hour before I decided to jump in and give it a try. I remember it well—the setting was an old tavern, and everyone was writing as their favorite character from their favorite game. I had chosen Zelda from the legend of Zelda, in disguise because she just wanted a night to herself. Quite funny to think about now.

I didn’t role play very often in middle school, at least not online. My friends and I would role play during class in wire-bound spirals, but our teachers didn’t like it and the notebooks often got taken up with a warning. Miraculously, I was still able to pay attention in class and pass with flying colors.

In high school one of my best friends joined Gaia, and he told me I should too, so he set up an account for me (I didn’t have an e-mail anymore at that point, sadly), and I got into role playing again. It was like new birth, you have no idea. I loved writing, but I didn’t really think that I was very good at it, but the people that I met and wrote with didn’t care.

“As long as you have an idea, you can write,” one of them had said. Sadly, I don’t write with him anymore, but that’s okay. I actually outgrew his talent he said—my writing made his look inferior (I used to balk at this, his posts were epic). Ha ha ha. Since then my talent has bloomed and then blossomed (and sometimes I think died, ha ha ha) into a vast talent that I use almost everyday. I thank roleplaying for that.

But, back on topic and to the question (Lol), eight years.