Characters ; Then and Now

I can recall the day I first joined a roleplay server with the intention to actually roleplay ( I had popped in DSRP's server back when cRP was first released, I was confused on how to function the script and promptly left ) . That server was TnB. For some reason my beginning in Garry's Mod roleplay usually started with big events. The one I mentioned earlier, and the day I first joined TnB's server was the day Headcrab was perma'd by TylerM.

To me TnB seemed to be in it's golden age when concerned with characters. Many people had characters who were different, but not radically different. Different in the sense that they purely wanted to roleplay like that for the sake of roleplaying. Not the different that people use to make these overly strong, overly smart characters.

Characters had their usualy hangouts and habits. I recall a man who had sat on a bench reading newspapers and talking to bypassing strangers. He sat there and sat there. He didn't even have to go anywhere else for his character to develop. The roleplay atmosphere felt genuine. No overly noncanon decisions were made ( That I can recall ).

But now characters are simply meant for to be the tool to a player achieving success. This success no longer being to experience fun roleplay, but to be the best and come out on the top. There are characters being made that are seven feet tall and smash doors in randomly for the sake of it. They can break themselves out of whatever cuffs or zipties they are put in. There is no more being smally unique. Every character seems to be overly unique, but that seems to be normal now. I can't count the number of characters wearing black gloves and have red eyes. The number of slavs who have military experience. Its all the same bullshit over and over.

I have always had one wish to fullfill. To develop my favorite character : Oleksander Yatar. A simple man who was born and raised in Eastern Europe ( Ukraine in this case ). Olek wasn't physically special in any way. Only mentally. No I am not talking about his intelligence. But his connection with reality. My grandmother once had told me the story of a man she met in a restaraunt when she was young. He would talk and talk about his daughter and wife. My grandmother mentioned to someone else that he really must love the two. The someone else looked at her and said " They have been dead for twelve years now ". This man was physcotic by definition. He was no longer connceted to reality.

The same idea came about for Olek. Instead of wife and daughter it would have just been daughter. I would have him talk obsessivly about this little girl. He'd say he was so very happy when he walked her to her first day of school. When in reality children are no longer around and schools no longer exist. I have been trying to take the standard " Combine killed/took my family away " background and turn it all around and make it so much more interesting.

Olek would in all sense be physcotic. When the word "physcotic" is said people usaully think of a sadistic person. Being physcotic means in this case being detatched from reality and not considering what is really going on around you. Being stuck in the past. When all the depression and sorrow Olek had experienced when his daughter was taken away from him, he only willed to remember the good times in life. The Combine raided an apartment block and killed fifty citizens? Olek wouldn't even consider it. He would just think about his daughter.

People tend to think that their character is them. Usually these people have characters whom have weak background and a small personality. Once you start to imagine your character as a completely different person then you can start to really develop that character.

To me the best and superior characters come out of the pioneer of what HL2RP should be : DSRP.