History
From DirtyWiki
It's difficult for new players to fully understand the history and dynamics of the game on their own. We feel that, as a lot of the events are quite relevant today, they need to know--plus it's quite fun to read through. More RPGs should be blunt and honest about their history and include the damn wank!
The history is easily sliced into sections by various player-related events--usually adding a whole bunch or losing a few key ones.
Take a walk with us down memory hell lane!
Contents |
Pre-Dirty Life
Dirty Life was created on 18 August, 2004, at 8:55PM, according to LiveJournal. That was not, however, the creation of the universe. The universe Dirty Life continued from was the LiveJournal, all Eton all the time, slashy drama RPG, A Field Sable. This, too, was created by Scout, and was co-modded and co-created by her good RL friend, Ashley. Ashley played Clydai Morgan, who lives on in eternal character heaven, and Scout played Avery Driscoll. (Their original journals were tehfamousclydai and small_nobility, respectively.)
The game itself originated from a now apparently quite lost MSN conversation between Ashley and Scout (then still just Sarah), in which one of the two, possibly Ashley, suggested that they make a roleplaying game purely about Eton and have it be filled with boysex.
Thinking this was not exactly inaccurate (read, Etonians: JOKE!), we went digging around and Scout found the school's arms, and named the community after the description:"On a field sable three lily-flowers argent, intending that Our newly-founded College, lasting for ages to come, whose perpetuity We wish to be signified by the stability of the sable colour, shall bring forth the brightest flowers redolent of every kind of knowledge, to which also that We may impart something of royal nobility, which may declare the work truly royal and illustrious, We have resolved that that portion of the arms, which by royal right belong to Us in the kingdoms of France and England, be placed on the chief of the shield, per pale azure with a flower of the French, and gules with a leopard passant or"Bloody fascinating so far, isn't it?
In any case, the community was created on the 30th of May, 2004, at 7:18PM. Shortly after, meaning the next day, Scout put up a post on her LiveJournal with game information and received a flood of applicants.
Our most notable players out of this batch are Juliette, who applied with Jack Dickon here, and Lora, who applied with Jake Griffith here. Their original journals were be_nimble and to_think_so, respectively.
The game began play on 1 June, 2004, with most of the characters in action right from the start. AFS didn't receive many new applicants over the course of its very short initial lifespan, and players didn't usually take on another character (I can't recall that anyone did). The game was very dense and very dramatic. It had one devoted fan who created a fan community, which unearthed a few other devoted fans, but the community ended up doing more harm than good, thanks to the fact that AFS was, well, quite amateur.
In the game, drama was so high that it was impossible for certain players to separate OOC and IC. One player went to so far as to tell the mods that they could not tell her what to do with her character, when her character was divulging improbable information on a horrible IC misunderstanding that needed to die out (this was a unanimous modly decision, as well as a decision backed by a few other players--the situation had gone way out of hand). We told her to please stop posting about it, player started to harass on IM, refusing to listen, and had her character bash a few other characters, and yes, specifically Avery (who was quite angsty, yes, who would deny it?). The only problem was that it was clearly not just IC, but an OOC sentiment, and, well, that is a no no.
Character/pairing bashing outside of the game, in the fan comm, ran as rampant as in the forums of FictionAlley. In a fan community, generally outright bashing of plot and characters isn't condoned. You're there to praise, squee, explode, question decisions, critique character actions, yes, but not to insult. And insulting is what often happened. There was also extreme favoritism in the newsletter and, generally, a few players felt ostracized by the rest of the game, as their plots were swept over or otherwise ignored. (At one point, an AIM chatroom was created and the not-favored people were not invited.) Sometimes, players did fight back against what they didn't like, however subtle or obvious it was.
OOC drama is quite bad. It made Scout angry. Ashley disagreed with the character bashing policy. Scout argued with her. Ashley got angry and left the game and the modship and defriended Scout. (She did friend her back, I mean, they were friends in RL.) Scout admits that she took her no-bashing-characters fanaticism right out of a prominant HP RPG tyrant's regime, though said tyrant never had many reasons to actually get angry.
All the drama did nothing to cement Scout's interest in the game. One new player joined up around late July, approximately around the 27th, when Scout was out of town. She joined with Sebastian Greene (journal: sebastiangreene), a now retconned childhood friend of Avery's. This player, T, was good friends with Juliette, and joined up in the trio of Scout, Juliette and Lora. Sebastian hung out with The Boys and had moments of smut with two of them (Jack and Avery), but was never romantically involved with either.
By August, AFS was just not interesting to the four anymore. It felt dirty and too many players had already stopped posting. By August, it was basically held together by The Boys and a few others, so they left, offering another player or two the opportunity to come with if they wanted, though no one else did.
Dirty Life
This brings us up to August 18th. Dirty Life comes from the song of the same name by Ima Robot, a group introduced to the four by Juliette.
Avery and Jack changed journals, wanting to cleanse themselves of the drama that had occurred before. Their new journals were a_certain_brat and thecurveof, respectively. This did not mean that the history that had taken place in AFS was entirely rectonned. Some events were universally agreed by many players to have been out of character, stupid, or plain pointless. They were slowly smoothed over as time went on, though this retconning was not official until Avery's Eton years were novelized between November 2005 and January 2006. No characters were ever removed from canon except for Sebastian--events were simply made more realistic and less dramatic.
The disappearance of Sebastian, however, was a different thing altogether. The four players were joined by a fifth, another friend of T's. I was great fun and played a character who would eventually hook up quite romantically with Sebastian. His name was Elliot Camden Blair, a Scottish musician type (journal: afterthenovels).
Around this time, a supplemental community was created. life_alternate, the AU comm, was created on 29 September, 2004, at 5:57AM. Night owls. It was intended to play out plot bunnies that would not fit in the game itself, such as cross-pairing and storing alternate versions of canon and not-canon (and, for awhile, actual canon, some of which has now been retconned itself).
Notable roleplays during its initial inception, and ones who were important enough to gain supplemental fics, are: Avery's Death, Jake/Jack (which was still AU), the unfinished but highly anticipated Cam/Jack, Jake cheats with a GIRL (he was still bi), Avery the Angel (prelude to what became canon a year later), and the Break Up.
Alternate Universes were heavily explored during the autumn of 2004, but did not overshadow the game itself. Its first post, perhaps a great example of just what a lot of the initial content was like, was about Jake being fisted by Avery.
At first, it was Jack/Avery, Jake/Avery, with Sebastian floating between sexual exploits with Avery and OOC urgings to become a somethin' somethin' with Jack. However, Avery/Jack/Jake became canon and Cam came in for Sebastian, making this point moot. (Sebastian's nickname was Sharkbait, paying homage to his fear of sharks he picked up from his native Australia.)
But all was not well OOC. Though the game was private, though unlocked and happily read by a few non-players (most in the HP fandom) who were friends of the five players, there were tensions between T and the other three. In a miraculous display of maturity, they kept arguing with each other, overreacting splendidly to everything and most likely not appreciating each other's attitudes and feelings about whatever was going on. The original three thought that T was overly sensitive and they didn't like Sebastian much, I was never around, and T, understandably, wasn't pleased about the fact that the other three were all getting very close and pretty much leaving her on the outside (Juliette and Scout were already involved).
In late October 2004, a time not even a quote-monger would dare look through, a post was made by Scout that was rather exceedingly hypocritical--criticizing a rather overzealous new online couple on her flist, while simultaneously doing the same thing herself. This didn't cause much of a stir with anyone except T, who was bothered by it simply because she was subjected first hand to the fluffing. A fight ensued, T dragged in an unrelated third party, a prominent member of the HP fandom (no, seriously, but we ain't naming names--ask us), who had previously been in a few chats with the rest of the game and was, for all they knew him, a wonderful, kind person. Unfortunately, biased by the close friendship he had with T, he posted publicly about us telling T that she should not have involved him in the fight. This, obviously, pissed people off. The individual was on Scout's and T's friendslists, but he defriended Scout and, furious over the way the rather minor issue* had blown up, Scout did the same. It must be said that this individual did not mention names or specifics, but as his friends list was very large, everyone sided with him and, understandably, Scout, Juliette and Lora were very angry.
Needless to say, even T reaching out after the fighting calmed down didn't do anything to move them. It was done. The friendship ended. Sebastian left the game and disappeared into the ether, and I slipped into obscurity. Sort of, anyway, as she still updated and was online and other things like that. So really, she just slipped from the game.
*Of course, the three realized later that they were unfair with T, though the situation was mutually inhibiting, and Scout apologized several months later. The same kindness was returned to her, and everyone was okay again.
With T gone from the game and I inactive, the three carried on. Annabelle Camden, then Annabelle Dickon (journal: little_dickon), received her own journal, and was the only additional character added to the game until January. Because around December, ideas for opening the game up to the semi-public were in the works.
On 27 December, 2004, Scout went to see Juliette for the first time, visiting her for a week.
January 2005 - November 2005
In January 2005, Dirty Life went public.
Well, semi-public. Fearing some of the more negative former players (okay, one) from AFS, the post was filtered to a select few closer friends, people they knew wouldn't cause as much mayhem as the others. People who would hopefully listen and care about the other people in the game. And people who could write.
The game gained a handful of new people, some of whom were not active much at all before disappearing, and a handful of whom actually stayed for quite a long time. The notable players who were long term in the game were Player A, B, C, D and E.
For the second-coming of DL, a more stereotypical RPG scenario was presented as a way of getting new players active in a game that had revolved solely around four characters and their families. A fictional private school was created: Regents Park Secondary School. Here, all of the high school age characters, which was everyone save Annabelle, could attend the same school and meet the same people. It wasn't entirely successful, as The Boys still dominated and were obviously the oldest and most set in their ways. (By oldest, we mean creation time, not age.) They were also stable and not looking to change their relationship. Though the game was not supposed to have main characters, and it really never did, it was hard to avoid the fact that those three were the hardest to do anything with. Anything of substantial value.
In addition to the long term players listed above, there were a handful of others, as also mentioned. So when referring to characters, remember that we are including not just those five people, but four or more others, as well. Some joined more than once after going inactive. It's difficult to remember everyone from the first wave.
future_life, the futureverse (all canon) community was created on 27 January, 2005, at 4:03PM. Contrary to how it looks, the community is not restricted to other players outside of The Boys and their families. However, it must be mentioned that neither this community, nor the AU community had been mentioned to any of the new players. For the time being, it was kept private.
Unfortunately, activity in the actual game was low. Though everyone did interact and the boys' activity level only dwindled slightly (which was in part due to some OOC issues that prevented Juliette from actually being online for a month), it was not the upsurge that the three had been hoping for. Though AFS had been a nightmare OOC, and many times IC, it sustained itself and its players made their own plots. This element seemed to be missing and no one seemed to want to kindle it very much. Mods or players.
On March 20, the decision to formally turn Avery into an angel was canonized (no pun intended or anything) with a (locked) post to the newly created OOC community, dirty_lives (created 2 February, 2005 at 2:13PM). A day later, rage and indigantion about the wings, due to a gross and random misunderstanding, appeared in another (locked) post. The player apparently thought it was a wingfic, and was unaware of the previous post with the decision to make angels an element in the game. After clarifying the intention of the angel aspect, the player calmed.
The thread in which Avery's wings appeared is here: http://community.livejournal.com/dirty_life/29658.html
After Scout began to write the novel for NaNoWriMo on 1 November, 2005, this manifestation was worked out to be the final one, the only one which had Avery lucid enough to remember. The rules for the angels had to be worked around this little detail. Fantasy was not, however, a game-wide thing just yet.
Activity did continue, however, and continued all the way through December, when the game began to get pimped (or promoted) again. It worked quite well, as two players brought in about four of their close, mostly RL friends, and everyone was extremely excited to get started. Now it seemed that everything would be perfect.
2005 had been very calm. Apparently, it was the calm before the storm. And the storm hit in 2006.
