Post by Ravyn Crescent on Jul 16, 2008 14:20:41 GMT -5
We won't be having them. Nor will we suggest anyone ever participate in one, even if it is just for fun. A member of the forum once suggested we do one and make a story to help spread awareness about human trafficking. This was my reply and I believe it explains things very well about why we won't be having these RPGS. We hold NO grudges against the member who suggested the idea, since they were just trying to think of things to do to help end human trafficking and they did not press the issue
My reply:
"mh......... I think it's a bad idea in that we do NOT allow slavery RPGs here. Real, false or a mix. ALERT and other such organizations has found such activities belittle the real event and it turns people off from the actual cause.
I see you have good intentions! The novel is all about Human Trafficking and we do need to do what we can to spread awareness, but we need to do it using the novel itself. It's won awards and has been approved by freetheslaves.net founder Kevin Bales and ALERT as a tool to help end Human Trafficking. Since it had been approved by such organizations, we know we can use it to help without causing any harm and, sadly, many slavery stories and most slavery RPGs only do harm...
As I said, I can see your intentions as good. If you have to pretend to be someone in these hardships, you have to feel for them. And if you play as a slave trader, you have to get into their mind set as well and that can lead to understanding your enemy.
My main fear, is one we had happen in the old forum. A real slave who was just freed visited the site and saw something like what you are describing and... it hurt them greatly. In their eyes, it was taking their horrors and making a game out of it.
One of ALERT's problems they voiced to me about the very limited books out there focusing on slavery was that the author either made it way too informative to the point of it being a text book, or the author has never truly been in a situation and doesn't understand the true emotions and issues this brings.
The reason my book is accepted is because I was a slave. My life growing up was fear and abuse strong enough to warrant the police involved to state it as slavery, and that's not something you can reproduce by thinking about a time you got beat up in elementary school (in many author conventions, when writing about abuse or horror they tell you to envision a time in elementary school when you got picked on and how much it still hurts...). I think we need to focus on ways to get Predator Turned Prey into the public eye more. As you state, if others read it they will most likely join our efforts! The story is there, it's already been created, it's ready to use!
Perhaps we can prepare sections in the forum for people to use when doing book reports, we can create fliers for people to put up around their towns, we can come up with a sales pitch and have people (with their parents or in a large group) go door to door trying to sell the novel.
All these things make a huge impact! I mean, I've been invited to schools and to conventions specifically to talk about Human Trafficking because of the book. It can be used as a tool by every single person here because it is our backing. Going off on your own can make it tough to make an impact, but as a group we are strong and with the novel we have a legitimate foundation for our efforts."
My reply:
"mh......... I think it's a bad idea in that we do NOT allow slavery RPGs here. Real, false or a mix. ALERT and other such organizations has found such activities belittle the real event and it turns people off from the actual cause.
I see you have good intentions! The novel is all about Human Trafficking and we do need to do what we can to spread awareness, but we need to do it using the novel itself. It's won awards and has been approved by freetheslaves.net founder Kevin Bales and ALERT as a tool to help end Human Trafficking. Since it had been approved by such organizations, we know we can use it to help without causing any harm and, sadly, many slavery stories and most slavery RPGs only do harm...
As I said, I can see your intentions as good. If you have to pretend to be someone in these hardships, you have to feel for them. And if you play as a slave trader, you have to get into their mind set as well and that can lead to understanding your enemy.
My main fear, is one we had happen in the old forum. A real slave who was just freed visited the site and saw something like what you are describing and... it hurt them greatly. In their eyes, it was taking their horrors and making a game out of it.
One of ALERT's problems they voiced to me about the very limited books out there focusing on slavery was that the author either made it way too informative to the point of it being a text book, or the author has never truly been in a situation and doesn't understand the true emotions and issues this brings.
The reason my book is accepted is because I was a slave. My life growing up was fear and abuse strong enough to warrant the police involved to state it as slavery, and that's not something you can reproduce by thinking about a time you got beat up in elementary school (in many author conventions, when writing about abuse or horror they tell you to envision a time in elementary school when you got picked on and how much it still hurts...). I think we need to focus on ways to get Predator Turned Prey into the public eye more. As you state, if others read it they will most likely join our efforts! The story is there, it's already been created, it's ready to use!
Perhaps we can prepare sections in the forum for people to use when doing book reports, we can create fliers for people to put up around their towns, we can come up with a sales pitch and have people (with their parents or in a large group) go door to door trying to sell the novel.
All these things make a huge impact! I mean, I've been invited to schools and to conventions specifically to talk about Human Trafficking because of the book. It can be used as a tool by every single person here because it is our backing. Going off on your own can make it tough to make an impact, but as a group we are strong and with the novel we have a legitimate foundation for our efforts."
