The bar doesn't exist, the patrons aren't real, but somebody has to keep this place running. Just imagine the problems a virtual barfly could face on a given night. Your rugged archeologist boyfriend with the stately name has been captured by orange-faced and candy-fueled custodians. What do you do? A wise-cracking donkey is hitting on your pink-haired girlfriend and the luggage is making passes at the bar. Who do you call? Never fear, my little imaginary friend, because the moderators of Milliways have everything under control. Mostly.
Nny, Sophie, Meg and Josie are the benevolent mods of Milliways Bar. If you've ever imagined what it would be like to herd unruly cats on the open prairie, then you have some clue as to the kind of work these women do on a daily basis -- in addition to their day-to-day real lives. Last month, JIVE Magazine stole an afternoon from the busy schedules of these mighty mods to discuss the whats, wheres, whens and whys of the LJ Role Playing Community known as Milliways Bar.
(This is the second of a series of JIVE articles that delve into the fascinating world of fandom and fan fiction. If you've not read the first Milliways article, now's your chance. When you're ready, scroll on down and try to keep up with this incredibly entertaining four-sided conversation.)
JIVE: What do each of you do for a day-to-day living? Meg: Who first? Josie: Mooch off my parents. Nny: I'm a student. Or, in other words, nothing. Josie: I'm a grad student. Sophie: Well, for a given definition of "day," I'm a student as well. Nny: I have a job, but it's for books, not money. So I'm a poor student. Meg: I'm a grad student, and have an internship and an additional job. Josie: Meg, you're so driven. Sophie: (Meg's the Focused One) Josie: *laughs* Meg: Meg Never Sleeps.
JIVE: What is Milliway's Bar? Sophie: Where to begin? Josie: Golly. Nny: Chaos. Josie: It's a community, first ... I think. Nny: Milliways is a roleplaying game co-ordinated through a diary-based site called LiveJournal. Josie: There you go. Meg: Yay, Nny. Sophie: *applauds* Nny: *bows* Meg: On the more abstract side of things.... Nny: It's chaos. Like I said. Meg: It's a place where any character you've ever wanted to talk to, essentially, is available for interaction.
JIVE: Did the Bar exist in some other form before it was an LJ community? Meg: Nope. Josie: Well ... I mean ... Douglas Adams. Sophie: Well, the name existed in Adams's Hitchhiker's Trilogy. Nny: Yeah, I nicked the name. I was drunk. Meg: But no ... not beyond that.
JIVE: Is Milliways one of a kind, or are there other LJ-based RPGs? Josie: Oh God, there are thousands. Nny: There are TONS ... but ours is particularly large. Sophie: And I'd be surprised if someone, somewhere, hadn't come up with the idea for a pan-fandom RPG as well.
JIVE: Milliway's is made up of pre-existing/pre-established characters. Why? Nny: Because there is potential for so much God-moding, otherwise. Like making perfect characters. Sophie: It is kind of the same concept as fanfiction. Josie: I think the worry is that someone will bring in a bunch of characters like Princess Sparklypoo who rules the world. JIVE: A flock of Mary Sues? Meg: Exactly. Josie: Exactly. Nny: Exactly. Meg: *laughs* *brainshare* Sophie: People have characters that they love and want to explore further, outside of canon. We give them that opportunity.
JIVE: Do new characters tend to come in packs? Groups of Potter-ites and Buffy-ites? Meg: It happens, yes. Sophie: Occasionally, yes. Josie:Firefly was like that. Meg: Right now there's a lot of Dark Tower and 24. Nny: Sometimes, groups of LJ friends apply at around the same time. Josie: Yes, that happens a lot. Sophie: Generally because people persuade friends to bring in characters from their own character's canon for plot purposes. Josie: I remember when I first joined ... I talked about it so much, I praised the Bar so much that I got a lot of people interested on my Friend's List.
JIVE: What kinds of characters just don't fit/work? Meg: Hmmm, interesting question. Sophie: Hm. There aren't many that don't work at all. Josie: Well, animals are difficult. Nny: Um, people often choose cool characters that don't interact well. I mean, there are people that just come in and sit down ... because the character would do that ... and they get little interaction. Meg: There's not a lot of characters that don't work though ... Nny: You have to make a name for yourself, talk to people, and that can be difficult if your character's an arsehole. Meg: Sometimes it takes a bit of nudging for players to break out of their shells and talk to others. Sophie: But, really, the Bar being what it is, most characters will find someone they get on with ... Josie: It's not so much the character as the player, I think. Meg: True, all around.
JIVE: Are there characters that are just too obscure? Meg: Nah. Josie: No. Meg: Bernard Mickey Wrangle from Tom Robbin's Still Life With Woodpecker was waaaaaay obscure. Josie: I was afraid Bernard was too obscure. Meg: See, the beauty is ... that even if players have never heard of your character, their characters haven't either, and you learn along with your character. Josie: I got half the players to read Bernard's canon.
JIVE: Is the action in Milliway's scripted or all improvised? Nny: Improvised. Josie: Most of the time. Meg: A lot of it is spontaneous, yes Sophie: It really depends on the players. Nny: Although some plots are planned. Sophie: Some prefer to plan things meticulously, while others just go where the caffeine takes them. Josie: I like to plot out in sort of grand gestures. But everyday action, for me at least, is on the fly.
JIVE: Are there events in the history of Milliways that you stick out more than others? Meg: Where do we start? Spiked absinthe? Nny: Lake Parties! Sophie: Sirius and Kassandra leaving Josie: When Aziraphael and Crowley got recalled. Sophie: There are bar-wide incidents, like Hallowe'en and the Lake Parties, though. Nny: Hallowe'en was cool. The Bar changed everyone's characters around. It was great.
JIVE: I have heard rumours of Milliways events that "broke" LiveJournal. Any truth to that? Nny: Ha! Sophie: Well. Nny: We claimed it, but I don't reckon we did it ... Sophie: We like to think so. Josie: Both Lake Parties. Meg: The Lake Party, the first one ... no one received comments until a month later. Sophie: The sheer amount of people focused around a couple of posts. Josie: It was just bad timing. Meg: We think we might have had something to do with it, but we can't be sure. Josie: I was surprised that the second Lake Party didn't make it all come to a grinding halt ... over 6000 posts in two days.
JIVE: Characters hook up with other characters from other genres. What are some of the stranger pairings you've seen? Nny: Donkey from Shrek was coming onto Tonks... Meg: ACK, yes he was! Josie: Mina Harker (the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen variety)/ Joe from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is an interesting pairing. Nny: Death (from Sandman)/Raphael (from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -- in human form) Meg: (Shakespeare's) Ophelia/Blaise Zabini (from Harry Potter) Sophie: Tonks/Bernard Wrangle, for that matter. Nny: How about Bar/Luggage (from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series)? Josie: Bar/Broom Sophie: The sentient female Bar and one of the sentient brooms from Fantasia? Nny: No, the Broom is from a They Might Be Giants song. Josie: HE GAVE HER A GOLD COASTER AS AN ENGAGEMENT RING! Nny: The Luggage was SO THERE FIRST! Josie: Yes! But he left her! Meg: He left, dude! Josie: High and dry! Meg: She was bereft!
JIVE: How common is it for one player to have several characters? How many is too many? Meg: Very. Sophie: Exceedingly. Nny: Yes. Very. Meg: *points at Nny* Josie: I'd say over 10 is an awful lot. Nny: HA! Twenty one is too many. Sophie: Until not long ago, I only had one, and I was a freak. Meg: I have...three? Four? Josie: I have...six? Nny: I now have about... fifteen. Sophie: I have one major one, and two or three others that I only bring in very rarely. Meg: When you can't really flesh out characterization, because you're stretched so thin ... Sophie: I suppose it depends on how capable a player is of sustaining the different character voices ... Josie: And how devoted they are to their schoolwork.
JIVE: So it is fair to call it a role-playing game? Meg: Sure, I think so. Josie: Well, what else would we call it? Sophie: Why not? Unless you called it a role-playing COMMUNITY. Nny: *laughs*
JIVE: Is it better to think of Milliways as collaborative fan-fiction? Josie: I mean, to me it feels like writing a play. Nny: I think we'd need to be more coherent. Sophie: Well, that's what all fandom RPGs are, essentially ... isn't it? Meg: It's improv, basically. Sophie: Improvised collaborative fanfiction. Nny: Some just choose to have more plots than others.
JIVE: Do any of you have any experience with traditional (pen & paper, dice-based) RPGs? Meg: Nope Sophie: Nope. Nny: No. Josie: No. Meg: ... Really?
JIVE: How many of you write your own fan fiction outside of Milliways? Any of you writing original works of fiction? Josie: I write some fic. Meg: I write some fic. Sophie: We all write a little fic Meg: And some original material, at times. Josie: I write poetry outside of fandom. Nny: I write fic, and I'm trying the original thing ... Sophie: Me least of all, I think. Nny: You should write more. Sophie: I have no stamina for anything longer than a drabble. Meg: You should, Soph. Josie: I haven't written fic since Christmas ... except Bernard/Tonks Nny: I've been on a roll. It's so not gonna last.
JIVE: Are you ever concerned about copyright? Is there any reason to be? Sophie: Well, most authors are quite tolerant of fanstuffs like this ... Nny: Except Certain Authors ... who we will not mention. Sophie: There are some ... *cough* Meg: Shhhhhh. Sophie: ... that we might have cause to be a bit worried about ... but in general, most authors, we find, are cool with it. Meg: See, here's the thing. Josie: We don't want to die, stabbed on The Author's pointy goth crucifix. Meg: In the beginning, we were very small ... just a blip on the radar screen.
JIVE: Are any of you or your players "addicted" to Milliways? Sophie: There's a reason we call it the 'crackbar' Nny: You have NO IDEA. Meg: Yes. I think we all are. Josie: I have been actively worried about a player or two.
JIVE: Has Milliways bled into your "real lives" -- positively or negatively? Meg: I think we all get character bleed, at times. Sophie: Both positively and negatively. Josie: Bernard has made me ... confrontational. Sophie: For example, I now find myself buying volumes of poetry that my character would read. Josie: ... I notice bomb recipes. Meg: Buy pink clothes? What do you mean? Josie: ... flip through The Anarchist's Cookbook at Borders ... Nny: I've been getting steadily more English. I mean, I always have been, but now I'm a stereotype. Sophie: And I've learned a lot about ... so many things ... just from doing research so that I could make an off-hand comment in-character. Meg: We all have a desire to play our characters the best we can.
JIVE: The characters of Aziraphael and Crowley have a relationship in Bar that they didn't necessarily have in Neil Gaiman's Good Omens. Meg: *laughs* Nny: HA! THEY SO DO! Josie: HAAAAA Meg: Well, that depends on who you ask. Nny: IT'S SUBTEXT! Sophie: Subtext, I say! Josie: I'm sorry, that is a Big Gay Book. Meg: It's very nearly canon. Sophie: There's even a joke about it in the book. Nny: Yeah, there's quite a lot of slash in the bar. Meg: Slash being a same sex pairing. Generally male. Femmeslash being female. Sophie: Well, there's a fair amount of het(ero) as well ... Meg: Oh, sure. Josie: It comes and goes. Nny: We all move in kind of slashy circles. Meg: A lot of players would argue that there's room for interpretation ... in canon. Sophie: I think slash has permeated fandom to such an extent that it's no longer really seen as 'OMG HE IS SO GAY!' Nny: So people who are in our circles tell their friends, and there tend to be subcultures that we get advertised in ... but yes, we are gifted at finding subtext. Meg: I'd love for it to be some sort of massive social statement ... but I don't think it runs quite that deep. Nny: As long as the actions are in character it's cool. Josie: Yeah, it's kind of disheartening to see it as a 180, i think, because that means it was clumsily-played.
JIVE: Do Milliway players ever meet outside of the online community? Meg: Sure, all the time. Sophie: There's even a subcommunity for organising it. Nny: We have subcommunities for everything. Josie: Yeah, a lot happens on the East Coast ... I think. Nny: Should be a UK-based one soon, that'll be cool. Sophie: It's a lot easier for people in the States. Same landmass and all.
JIVE: Where are each of you? Nny: I'm in Cardiff, Wales. Meg: I'm in Indianapolis. Josie: I'm in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Sophie: I'm in Dublin. The one in Ireland, not wherever the American one is. Nny: Is there a Cardiff in America? Meg: Um. I'm sure there is. Somewhere. Josie: Most likely there's 14 of them Nny: 'cos I'm not there. I'm here. *waves from Wales* JIVE: I'm sure Wales has the Cardiff monopoly. Meg: *snickers* Josie: Well, that's sad. It's a lovely name. Sophie: Cardiff isn't cool enough to spawn clones Nny: I wonder if there is Cardiff monopoly. There's Southampton monopoly, it's cool. Sophie: Sorry, we're very tangent-y.
JIVE: Do your friends and family know about Milliways? Sophie: Sort of. Meg: Eh ... not really. Josie: My nephew reads it and is registered as a character. Nny: They kind of have to, since I spend my entire life in the computer room. Meg: I told my mom in the very beginning, but she doesn't know I still play, or that I moderate ... Sophie: My family know that I moderate an online RPG, but their concept of what that is is pretty vague. Josie: My sister's family knows i do this, but they don't read it except for my nephew. Meg: A couple of my real-life friends know. Josie: I think my parents would be really ... dismissive. Nny: My mum horrified me by not knowing who Neil Gaiman is when I explained it.
JIVE: Do you see a time where new apps will have to be more limited or even shut down for a time? Sophie: Yes. Nny: Ha! Possibly after this interview is written?
JIVE: Would you like to see the Bar go somewhere beyond LiveJournal? Josie: God, yes. Nny: I don't know that it could. Josie: My archivist's spirit cringes. Sophie: Well, it's hard to imagine another medium that'd work quite so well Josie: LJ scares me as an archivist.
JIVE: What is the future of Milliways? Nny: More role-playing. I can't see myself getting tired of it. Sophie: I think because, especially for Nny and I, our characters are linked to life outside the Bar so there'll ALWAYS be new material, you know? Nny: Plus they've lived through EVERYTHING. Meg: I can't see myself tiring of it, either. Sophie: So there's endless backstory. Meg: There's endless source material, and for Tonks, new canon imminently. Nny: Oh, Lord. New canon. Meg: Exactly. Nny: There're always new characters being created, so there are always new and interesting things to do Sophie: In conclusion, the outlook is strong. Josie: And scary.
JIVE: Will a lot ride on the content of the next Rowling book? Nny: She'd better not squish Remus. Josie: Yes. Meg: In some ways, yes ... but in other ways ... not so much. Tonks is already AU. Josie: Yeah. Sophie: (Alternate Universe.) Meg: She will not, in Book 6, have a redheaded bomber boyfriend. Josie: Shhhhh. Yes, she will ... you just won't see him ... because he's at Milliways.
(Original art by Emily Clare Friedman. Huge glomping thanks the Moderators of Milliways Bar. Invaluable editorial input by A. Nikki Thomas. Thank you.)
This is part two of two. And now that you've read all about it, see Milliways Bar with your own two eyes.
