a difference in rps and fps posts

[lobelia321]

cathexys is sadly away on holidays because it is she who opined that there wasn't really that much of a difference between rps and fps.

Well, there certainly is a difference between your typical rps-post and your typical fps-post.

Take two recent posts: one from rps (football) and one from fps (Stargate Atlantis).



A recent rps post (football) (extract)

Henry Is Love

So I wanted to nominate Thierry Henry as slashiest player of the WC, and ended up with so many pictures I thought I might as well do a whole post.


There follow around 28 droolpics.

Sample comments on this post (extracts):
Icon!Love :D Thanks for the picspam. Henry is so under-rated as a slut! Gorgeous. Totally seconded *g*

Gotta love Henry!!! Hun I always enjoy your picspams and all the captions - rofl!- and the trivia you add just rule. That's it, I am marrying Freddie.


A recent fps post (SGA) (extract)
Nuts and Bolts 7/12, Writing Rodney McKay
Discussion spoiler level: season 9 finale of sg-1, season 2 finale of sga.

Have you written him in a story? What do you enjoy about writing him? What are the challenges?

What characteristics do you see as defining Rodney? David Hewlett has what I see as very distinctive voice inflections: how do you go about capturing that voice?

Have you ever written Rodney in a setting where he’s acting in his role as a scientist? If so, do you have tips for writing science-babble that sounds authentic? (I admit, as a non-scientist I tend to go the avoidance route..the sort of thing where he might start a sentence but then trail off as he gets absorbed into his own thoughts.)

For those non-Canadian writers, if you’re writing a story wherein Rodney’s reflecting on his childhood or going back home to visit, how do you go about researching details?

As a reader, what qualities do you look for in a good Rodney characterization? Do you have any stories to recommend?


Sample comments on this post (extracts):
I wouldn't exactly say that Rodney's a difficult character to write, but he's a character that I think takes more deliberation than most because at first glance he's a little contradictory. I agree with the above that if taken too far in either direction he becomes either a buffoon or a canonized martyr.

I have a little more tolerance for a broader range of takes on Rodney than some of the others, though martyr!Rodney gets the backbutton faster than about anything. [...] In terms of writing, I think Rodney is one who absolutely works better from his own POV. I think in a lot of important ways, Rodney's a much better man than he gives himself credit for, and that's easier to convey if you get his own thoughts on himself. He's not instinctively good with people (though I think he often stumbles on to the truth without realizing it through sheer effort), so if you're going to show him having any particular level of insight into people, I really need to see how he gets from point A to point B. Usually, especially if he's being written from John's POV, I find him borderline psychic without seeing that struggle.

You're right that Rodney is not unkind, but like most scientists, social niceties are not seen as important and may never have been learned. (My theory, based on Russian women scientists I've met, is that Siberia cured him of most of his overt chauvanism.) He's not good with people, but he's also not stupid. It's often a matter of how important it is to him to care what anyone else thinks, IMO, and he'd place less relevance on wha they felt.
Yeah, I identify with the guy a lot.



OK, I was possibly slightly unbalanced in the choosing: one of these posts is to a general slash comm, the other is to a specific writing-slash comm. However, the point is that in football fandom there isn't even such a thing as a writing comm.

Also, I know football isn't all of rps, and SGA isn't all of fps. But they stand as representatives. :-)


What do you think are the differences, if any? Discuss.