Not a Hero (in the traditional sense)

Not a Hero (in the traditional sense) first made its debut in 2007 as part of a talk presented by Joel Slayton at the Visual Computation Conference, at the College of Charleston, in Charleston, South Carolina. In March of 2012 it will be exhibited as part of an upcoming show at 319 Scholes Gallery in Brooklyn New York, curated by Brian Droitcour

About Dave

Not a Hero (in the traditional sense) is an experiment in roleplaying. Dave, is the character I become. For me, Dave embodies the fantasy of the banal. He lives in a world of paperwork and office politics not demon slaying and magic. I perceive Dave as the fantasy character's fantasy. He doesn't have to worry about warring factions or situations of life or death. Like many Americans, his life is simple and his big problems are trivial in the grand scheme of things. Dave isn't unaware of the violence and war going on in the world in which he lives, it simply doesn't directly affect him. To Dave the undead are mythical but deadlines are all to real.

When I play as Dave, I play strictly in character. I must treat the World of Warcraft as the only world I know. I must acknowledge conversation with all other characters, regardless of how they role. A common challenge when rolplaying in MMORPGS like Warcraft is reconciling those users playing out of character. Dave lives in Twisting Nethers, a detected role playing server, however, the amount of actual roleplay on the server is still collectively up to the users. Even playing on a dedicated server, those playing in character inevitably end up in the minority. Thus, in playing Dave, I not only have the challenge of reconciling those chatting out of character but I also have to reconcile those characters playing traditional fantasy roles. Dave must take in the world around him as any one of us would, and thus he assumes those around him share his context. If questioned, Dave does know a lot about dragons, because he wastes a lot of time at work on Wikipedia.

Dispatches from Dave: Day One

Day 1: Chatlog Transcript

Sponsors

Not a Hero (in the traditional sense) was initially conceived in the midst of Ars Virtua’s transition into World of Warcraft. It was part of early forays of the Ars Virtua Guild that later set the stage for what is now the The Faction Collective. The project was made possible by equipment and resources provided by the Cadre Laboratory for New Media.