I couldn't do it. At least with fan fiction you use prose, dialogue and characterization to let me believe the story you create.
If I played a MUSH and someone was like "I'm King Aegon!" I'd laugh and roll my eyes. It really is like tea parties.
"And then BALERION drops out of the fucking sky and eats half of Kings Landing. Go!"

....so what are you doing in busan? are you korean? my uncle used to own a hwae-jjib (korean sashimi) there.

I mean, there are obviously limits on the characters you can play. Nobody's going around as Bloodraven or a Targ or something

But you *can* apply to play a named character, according to the FAQs. The whole thing is just silly, and it's not exactly an open community either. They request that you have *some* MUSH experience prior to joining theirs...I did have a look at it, thought oh maybe I'll give it a go for a laugh, but the barriers to entry seem a little high for your average new user. Places like this, or even fanfiction, are much friendlier to new and experienced users alike.

As someone who has not played a MUSH but is familiar with that type of interaction, as well as having played pen and paper RPG, I have to say if I ran a MUSH community, I probably wouldn't make it completely open either. It depends whether you want to spend the time to bother educating every single person who wants to try it out for a laugh, possibly detracting from the playing experience of more serious players. Their policy seems to be more open than that, it is either you have read the books or have previous MUSH experience to make up for that.

The same thing could be said of a forum, but it depends on the purpose of the forum. I don't think Westeros is meant to be an exclusive or restricted forum, so if it is giving up that vibe to people, then that could be a problem as it would be going against its intended purpose.

I personally browse the Westeros forum a lot, but don't actually bother posting on topics for the most part because they are so many posts and it is hard to track, let alone continue individual discussions.

This.

There may be some room to criticize the westeros boards, I don't really know because I don't hang out there much, but I don't think the fact that they run a MUSH or that they have some rules for entry is worthy of criticism.

Oh I'm not criticizing them - just the idea of a MUSH. I'm sure it works for some, but it isn't for everyone.

hmm, I don't think it's a lack of intelligence on my part that made me dislike westeros.org. I understood the discussions and jazz just fine! it wasn't being over my head that drove me away. what did, like I stated, was the hostility, kind of a sense of elitism. now, if that elitism was warranted....then hey, who am I to complain? but the westeros forum ain't no university. it's of free quality.

yeah, I think MUSHes are just one of those things, for some, not all. hey....what if Balerion and Bloodraven wanted to have a teaparty?

I teach English. I'm not Korean. I'm American, but I've been traveling and teaching for the last five years or so. Korea's sort of my home base at the moment. I used to live in Seoul, but Busan is a little more laid back and not so cold in the winter. Also, the hwae is delicious.

I don't think anyone was trying to say that! I think they were saying that there's so much shit going on it's harder to maintain the personal interactions that make a forum like this so lovely! A sentiment i agree with. And I've been on Westeros a fair bit as well, for me it seemed less like elitism and more just a different tone. Their is a nasty underside sometimes, but most forums have some of that (this one is uniquely blessed!) I generally enjoy the first page or two of their discussions, it's just the inevitable descension into people refusing to concede anything and getting all grumpy that bothers me. Basically the size grants people more anonymity which discourages some of the more congenial atmosphere that I prefer! Or at least, that's how I always felt