If I haven't explained this adequately yet, the ITG blog here acts as a sort of laboratory for the monthly PDF magazine; a place where I can post shorter versions of articles I'm working on, or versions that aren't finished, or versions with a lot less photos. I still approach the content of this blog, though, like one would a traditional magazine: that there is at least one subject each month you can expect multiple posts concerning, combined with numerous small- to medium-sized articles, reviews, interviews, sneak peeks and more.

Those who follow along regularly will obviously know that this month's cover article is on the subject of sexual edgeplay; and what I'd like next month's (or November's) cover article to be on is the subject of full-time roleplayers. These are people in the grid who voluntarily choose to play a part while there, sometimes fantastical (vampires, animals), sometimes historical (from a different time or place), and to do so as a deliberate lifestyle, 24 hours a day.

There are all kinds of RP communities in the grid, for all kinds of RPers; from cyberpunks to steampunks, Goreans to Martians, dogs and cats and stuff no one even has a name for yet. And what many of these communities do is to pool their resources, as to have joint ownership of a private island in the grid (also known as a 'sim'), a full 16,000 64,000 square meters of land to do whatever they want with, cut off from the mainland and floating on its own in the middle of nowhere. Above, for example, is a photo of one I was once at, an entire vampire island where I had been invited as a human to attend a private ball; everything you see in that photo is part of an overall scheme, and going way further than what you can see as well.

That's the main reason RP communities band together like this in the first place; so as to build a unified and consistent structure to the entire roleplaying environment, even as each part-owner still has individual control over how their estate looks. Given that time never stops in SL, and that events in the grid happen whether or not you're there, such immersive environments help profoundly with building a stable roleplaying community, one where you can port in at any time of day or night and be right in the middle of the action.

What I'd like to do then, is for my long-time friend Alexia Noir and I to become "embedded journalists," so to speak, at one of these islands; to actually play the part for seven days and nights, interact with our fellow players in the full environment, and then write a series of reports about what it was like. I don't want there to be any deception about it, which is why I'm makng the invitation public before actually doing it; I'm specifically looking for a RP community would be interested in having such a detailed examination done of their group, and with lots of photography allowed, and with a chance to interview community members about why they participate.

We're looking to do this in mid-October; so if you're a member of a private RP community, and this piques your interest, please do get ahold of me at inthegrid [at] gmail.com. Just so you know, by the way, Alexia will be filing a very different kind of report than mine; she is already a veteran of both Gorean and vampire RP communities, have found most she has joined lacking, and grows tired quickly of eleborate rules and social structures. I guess I would agree with that; while the actual genre doesn't matter much, we definitely want to "go native" with a group that's very active, and mostly into the spontaneous creativity of roleplay sessions. If that sounds like you, do please give me a ring soon.