A7.1: In the Moonshadow of a Giant

Each online community has a function, such forum communities meant for socializing or gaming communities that meet for a common activity, but Castle Moonshadow combines the purposes of both. A group of people from Canada and the United States created Castle Moonshadow on MSN Groups for the purpose of role-playing, role-playing in anything from medieval fantasy to tech-punk post apocalyptic worlds. My newfound friends and I created characters to live in each of these worlds, drawing from our background of Robert Heinlein and J. R. R. Tolkien, our Wheels of Time and Hitchhiker’s Guides. Castle Moonshadow was not only a community in it of itself, but a community created by a community.

Many of the core members from Toronto knew each other from school, and recognizing their coinciding interests, decided to form MS (Moonshadow) online. Slowly, the group drew others, others who loved to read and write, who didn’t necessarily have the advantage of nearby like-minded people and would jump at the opportunity to live out a world pieced together by the pens of others, others such as myself. Occasionally, we would also discuss ideas that we had or books that we read that would be excellent for a roleplay. Soon enough, everyone knew each other, either in person, in the MS discussion board, or in the role-playing chat.

Although it paid to work out the general gist prior to a roleplay with someone you knew, it was common for people to wing it and to have their characters act on and react to others. Attention was in short supply; one could only control their character so much. Thus, many of the veteran role players would greet newbies (in character, of course)…or fall on them, or attack them, and so on. In time, the newcomers would understand that they were expected to respond in kind, and interact with everyone else. Often times, I would be role-playing with someone I only knew of, but our characters would have a very engaging conversation with each other. This reciprocity became the norm, and eventually extended past the boundaries of the game.

As we became more and more familiar with each other, we began to talk to each other outside of MS. Sometimes, we would help each other with proofreading essays (a tremendous advantage when your editor is also a good writer) or suggest movies and books that we read recently. Another example of community reciprocity arose when one of the founders of MS became suicidally depressed. Her friends from Moonshadow and I often tried to keep her spirits up, offering help whenever we could. All of these characteristics, the interpersonal interactions, the common creative and literary background, the purpose of role-playing, and the reciprocity in and outside of role-playing are all indicative of community as described by Hawthornwaite. Sadly, in recent years, MS has been disbanded, but the community still remains between its members.

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