[Ranylyn]

As one of the more outspoken people against rampant meming, allow me to weigh in.


If done right, a meme can be subtle and good for a laugh without being blatantly jarring and ruining the atmosphere completely. To use a Koonie example, actually, take the Miles "Tails" Prower joke from the funny quotes thread. People were commenting on the oddities of some names, and asked "What's next, Prower?" "Miles ahead of you." While this is an obvious reference, it's referring to something IC and as such is actually quantifiable as roleplay. It doesn't bring things that don't exist in SL2's lore into it, and it's a one-and-done joke that has it's time but is moved on from quickly.

To use an example of meming done horribly wrong, look no further than what happened when Fire Emblem Fates was new. I saw more than one person saying "Nohrian Scum" ICly. Now, ask yourself, in the context of SL2, what even is Nohr? Answer: Absolutely nothing besides dragging other fictional setting into SL2. Unlike the first example, this directly TANKS roleplay; people nearby only have two options: Ignore whoever said it (and good luck, because it's not like they ever use Looc for the memes; they want their faceicons for it - meaning people who aren't familiar with the meme may try to take them at face value and RP with them like "What's that?" which further tanks RP even further)) or leave and roleplay elsewhere. Both of which are the antithesis of roleplay. Yes, the solution to this is to OOCly relocate to somewhere people are not meming, and roleplay is not about OOC. As such, this kind of meming does quite literally grief roleplayers, and SHOULD be punished. If it was up to me, it'd be 2 warnings and then a monthlong ban. But I'm not a GM, lucky for the memers, heh.

"But Rany, SL2 is just a game where people roleplay. It's not an actual roleplay game!" I've heard this too many times to count. To which I say, "Read SL2's description: "Multiplayer RPG set in a unique roleplay-mandatory setting. All legends have their truths..." Dev himself has come forth and stated that YES, SL2 IS an RP game, despite people's best efforts to make it otherwise. So don't even bother trying to retaliate with that one.


Now, back onto the topic of the "facial cut-in meme." While I do think this is definitely closer to example 1 than example 2, I also see it as wholly unneeded. I realize this is just my opinion, but I feel a full-sized icon that gets as close to the eyes as possible has more of a dramatic impact than an icon that's 1/2-2/3 black and has smaller eyes since it's not zoomed in, just cropping out the mouth and hair. I really don't see a point BESIDES the memes. Which does unfortunately drag it closer to scenario 2, since if it's being done BECAUSE of memes, then let's be honest, it really becomes blatant and out of place.

Do I begrudge people for wanting to do this? No. Have I seen evidence that people can meme responsibly enough to think Sly was out of place for issuing a warning? Oh hell no; I'm amazed it took this many days/weeks for a warning to happen at all! But personally, as was said earlier in the thread, I don't see why the more responsible RPers should suffer because of a few people who abuse it. So long as it's only used in dramatic RP moments and isn't flaunted because lolmemes, I don't personally have much of an issue with it. However, people who DO try to ruin it for everyone by abusing it for lolmemes really should be temp banned at the very least, just to get the message across that enough is enough and, to quote a meme, "It's time to stop."

EDIT: Also, forgot to say, thank you for the alternative you provided, Blues. *thumbs up*