A Reminder About Fun

[aya]

You are responsible for what you get out of the Games.

I get it, a lot of things that feel less-than-great can happen (and honestly, will happen) in the Games. It sucks to lose a tribute. It sucks to get hit by a nasty RE. It sucks when what everyone else is doing seems like it's cutting into your tribute's odds of survival. It sucks when your expectations for the rules don't line up with the reality of them, or you feel like you've been shafted in some way or another, or when an you and an ally have a disagreement, or when it feels like the whole arena is somehow conspiring against you.

However.

There's a goldmine of fun to be had in the Games. There are so many opportunities for rich character development that you'd have a monstrously difficult time getting anywhere else. And, this being a writing site, that's the point. The point is to write your heart out, to grow and develop and gain some good experience. To write with people you might not get the chance to outside of the Arena, or that you wouldn't immediately think to pester for a thread. This is a great opportunity to stretch your imagination to the furthest it can go, to really push yourself as a writer to justify why your sweet summer child of a tribute is now willing and ready to slaughter his peers, to come up with some reason why your badass career might be feeling insecure or why they can't seem to hit the broad side of a barn.

But ultimately, it is on you to have the fun that you want to have. The site, the GMs, the staff, your friends and writing buddies — they're all there to facilitate your fun, to make it easier to write and grow and enjoy yourself. But your fun is your own responsibility. Nobody can sit down and force you to enjoy yourself, much as we might like to try.

By the same token, nobody can really ruin it for you if you don't let them. I know it can be hard, given that everyone's super attached to their tributes, and everyone is emotional, and everyone wants to compete and do well. Look, nobody wants to die in 24th place. But it happens, and you suck it up, you appreciate the time that you had, and you move on.

(Yes, for the record, I am speaking personally here. As I've said to a handful of you before and will say again: if I can say that I've had fun and that I'm still having fun in spite of the fact that my literal favorite character in seven years of RPing here took an axe to the face four attacks into the Games, anyone can do it, and anyone should be able to do it under better circumstances than that.)

So, to reiterate: if you are not enjoying yourself, take a step back and try to figure out where you personally can improve your own situation. You are responsible for your own fun.