Viewpoint do y'all ever notice that we go through role-play trends?

elderflower

a dreamer, that's what she was
Just a little shower thought but I've started to notice that this site goes through role play trends (mainly groups). Like a few years ago it was Fantasy Arranged marriages that were really popular (hmu if you ever wanna co-gm one because I miss them) but now it's currently gangster role-plays!

What do you think the next trend will be?
 
Just a little shower thought but I've started to notice that this site goes through role play trends (mainly groups). Like a few years ago it was Fantasy Arranged marriages that were really popular (hmu if you ever wanna co-gm one because I miss them) but now it's currently gangster role-plays!

What do you think the next trend will be?
I would say superheroes cause of spiderman movie but i dont really see that happening…..

i think it will be wolves or fantasy, ive seen a few of them around…theres a few supernatural series rpers too
 
Heh.

Yeah the hobby goes through its fair share of trends. I don't know about on here specifically, but I've been at it longer than I'd care to admit and I've noticed people have their preferred "flavor of the month". Whether it's RWBY, Naruto, a general slice of life, or even superheroes, it seems to be the nature of a writer to write their own version of an established work if said established work was being written poorly.

Hell, I'm guilty of doing this myself. I once had a rather length 1x1 with a friend where we retold a story set in the world of Final Fantasy XII with original characters. It kind of lost itself near the end and we lost sight of original plans, but it kind of held true to the essence of the fandom in a way.

People like to write what they recently watch or read or play. It's one of the beautiful things about this hobby. But maybe it will be Spider-Man. Or maybe someone will want a Wheel of Time story. I've even seen some Arcadia 1x1 requests pop up, so maybe that'll be it. Tbh, an original roleplay set in a League setting wouldn't be too shabby. Everyone loves a little fantasy-scifi mashup.
 
Just a little shower thought but I've started to notice that this site goes through role play trends (mainly groups). Like a few years ago it was Fantasy Arranged marriages that were really popular (hmu if you ever wanna co-gm one because I miss them) but now it's currently gangster role-plays!

Well, yeah, naturally. If I were to name the causes, I'd say there's two main ones:

1. The hype train (particular media - tv shows, books, anime, etc... - will have ups and downs in interest/popularity, and during those times its only natural more people will be interested in that particular thing)
2. Opportunism (People want their RPs to be popular. For some people, this means they will try to copy whatever is popular to a greater or a lesser extent.)

What do you think the next trend will be?

Not a clue.
 
Yeah, Arranged Marriage was the rage. I was there on that other Forum.

If you ask me, we're in a perpetual purgatory of Macademia RPs. Personally I find the setting too limited and would rather an original heroics setting to Macademia's, but eh. It's what the crowd wants.

The 'Opportunism' mentioned above is also why some people change their standard non-franchise-tied superhero RPs into Macademia RPs, some even saying they had 'no choice' but to do it. Which I say - no one's really forcing you to go with the tide. Be a trendsetter!

Also multifandom. Permanent RPN fixture right there.
 
Yeah, Arranged Marriage was the rage. I was there on that other Forum.

If you ask me, we're in a perpetual purgatory of Macademia RPs. Personally I find the setting too limited and would rather an original heroics setting to Macademia's, but eh. It's what the crowd wants.

The 'Opportunism' mentioned above is also why some people change their standard non-franchise-tied superhero RPs into Macademia RPs, some even saying they had 'no choice' but to do it. Which I say - no one's really forcing you to go with the tide. Be a trendsetter!

Also multifandom. Permanent RPN fixture right there.
What is "Macademia"? Do you mean dark academia?

If you ask me, the predominant trends here have been perpetual.
And very few of them are things I'm genuinely interested in. *sigh*
 
I like to role-play sometimes but jeez is it sometimes toxic. People have strange fetishes that often will get put on the 1X1 request forum but I would agree with the My hero trend.
 
I like to role-play sometimes but jeez is it sometimes toxic. People have strange fetishes that often will get put on the 1X1 request forum but I would agree with the My hero trend.
"My Hero" is in a school setting too as far as I know and I am so over school RP's. They seem to be quite popular here too unfortunately.
 
yes. though have to say that it is more than groups, and it is more than just this site. I've had the privileged of having observed RP trends over two decades, and I can tell you with an absolute certainty that the roleplay community as a whole is very much influenced by themes in trend. One of the things that I have noticed that affects trends is when a theme in movies and television series becomes predominant. Usually this effects the ideas that people get for RPs. So the influence is obvious. Anime on THIS site in particular is a big influence. Though, I dont follow anime, so I couldn't tell you what shows are doing the influencing. Isekai themes have been a trend for a bit now. I can tell you that much. And like 10 to 15 years ago, the superhero theme wasnt nearly as prevalent as it is now.
 
yes. though have to say that it is more than groups, and it is more than just this site. I've had the privileged of having observed RP trends over two decades, and I can tell you with an absolute certainty that the roleplay community as a whole is very much influenced by themes in trend. One of the things that I have noticed that affects trends is when a theme in movies and television series becomes predominant. Usually this effects the ideas that people get for RPs. So the influence is obvious. Anime on THIS site in particular is a big influence. Though, I dont follow anime, so I couldn't tell you what shows are doing the influencing. Isekai themes have been a trend for a bit now. I can tell you that much. And like 10 to 15 years ago, the superhero theme wasnt nearly as prevalent as it is now.
I'm not that much younger than you, only by a few years or something I think, so I have noticed all sorts of trends over the years as well. Things I used to RP years ago I hardly see around anymore.
 
I'm not that much younger than you, only by a few years or something I think, so I have noticed all sorts of trends over the years as well. Things I used to RP years ago I hardly see around anymore.
yeah, tell me about it. I miss the good ol' days of sword & sorcery RPs styled in the vein of Vallejo and Frazzetta.
 
yeah, tell me about it. I miss the good ol' days of sword & sorcery RPs styled in the vein of Vallejo and Frazzetta.
Definitely harder to find RP's here that cater to my tastes. I kind of just stick to the same partner now since we have similar RP tastes. Plus I get ghosted nearly every time so have mostly given up on finding new partners.
 
Definitely harder to find RP's here that cater to my tastes. I kind of just stick to the same partner now since we have similar RP tastes. Plus I get ghosted nearly every time so have mostly given up on finding new partners.
I mean, I just write it off as a new generation with their own set of interests. It's an inevitable fate. If you join a facebook group about pulp sci-fi, you will find that the vast majority of the members will be 50+ years old. Same notion goes for online roleplaying. Eventually, you become part of the minority, and then obsolete altogether. Unless of course, someone rehashes your old fandom into a new movie or series. But even then, it isn't the same. C'est la vie.
 
If you join a facebook group about pulp sci-fi, you will find that the vast majority of the members will be 50+ years old.
I'd also pin that on Facebook's demos changing with time.
Most of my friends that are into pulps are older, yeah, but I know them other social media sites with nerdy interests in mind, like this site.
 
I'd also pin that on Facebook's demos changing with time.
Most of my friends that are into pulps are older, yeah, but I know them other social media sites with nerdy interests in mind, like this site.
From what I understand, Facebook isn't even really a thing that the younger crowd even cares about. They are into newer social media outlets. A least, that's what some of my younger family members tell me.

Despite "nerdiness" being more prevalent on sites like this. You still won't really see sci-fi pulp being brought up often in an RP req, if at all.
 
I feel like there used to be more rps based on books in the past and now it's more movies and series.
I remember when Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter were huge in roleplays at some point. You still see them from time to time but not nearly as much as before. Even with Game of Thrones I think there were more rps based on the show rather than books.

High fantasy seems less popular nowadays, I feel like there is now a trend towards dark fantasy and low fantasy.

Anime was always popular but the rp communities react on what's going on in the fandoms. 15 years ago there was Naruto everywhere, now it's My Hero Academia. There used to be a trend with SAO and isekai anime (I guess isekai was always popular to some extent).
When some other big thing comes out the trend will change to that thing.
 
High fantasy seems less popular nowadays, I feel like there is now a trend towards dark fantasy and low fantasy.
Now that you mention it, I do recall there being a phase where you saw a lot of "lovecraftian" styled RPs cropping up.
 
Yes. Besides the long term trends I also think sometimes that what happens is someone sees an RP concept that they like, but for whatever reason they can't join or it's simply not quite what they are looking for but close enough to get their own creativity ball rolling. So sometimes we get one RP about Superpowers suddenly pop up for the first time in a couple months and then three days later it's multiplied into 4 or 5 of them. They're not carbon copies of each other, but there's definitely a shared theme/desire for a particular RP showing itself.

I'm currently hoping that a trend I like will pop up again so I have more options XD
 

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