Within a very short period of time, however, the channel took on a new role. People who didn't know Gor discovered the the channel and its atmosphere, and fell in love with the feelings they felt there. The channel quickly became a place to learn how to be Gorean. This shift drastically impacted the nature of the role play within the channel. Because people were learning from the role play, because they were forming their perceptions of what was acceptable and what was not from the activities in the channel, because they were treating it as if it were real, those who ran the channel could no longer pretend to be on Gor. The interaction, while it was still in the cyber realm, stopped being fantasy and became real. If it wasn't acceptable offline, it wasn't acceptable online.
With that change, the swashbuckling swordfights stopped. For a few reasons. On one hand, the men wouldn't kill for a trivial reason offline, so they stopped doing it online. On the other, a cyber kill on IRC could never be the same as a real killing. There's no real way to really make an unwilling person dead on IRC. All they have to do is ignore you, and all of your efforts turn into blatant failures to get someone else to do what you want. You turn into an incompetent, impotent fool. You lose. What Gorean, a man who breathes power and strength, would even contemplate doing something like that?
"You're dead!"
"No I'm not."
"Yes you are. I killed you!"
"Then why am I still here?"
"You're an asshole."
"Granted. You're a fool."
"ARRRGGGHHH!!!"For the same reasons, these men wouldn't engage in forced collarings. First, they wouldn't do it offline, and second, there's no way to enforce an unwilling slave into a collar online. They didn't engage in "online only" collars, because they chose to be real, to be the same online and off. A collar was no trivial thing to them. A man's collar on a woman meant that she was his property, online and off, and he and other men respected that as a very real thing. They collared women online like they did it offline. A man developed a relationship with a woman, training her, disciplining her, taking care of her, taking pleasure from her, and that relationship deepened it until the woman knew she was owned, knew that this man was one she could be fulfilled by serving. The woman then begged the collar because she belonged in his collar for as long as he wanted her, and she knew it. And the man owned the woman completely; there was no change in ownership when she turned her computer off.
Despite it's abandonment by those of the #Silk&Steel, the practice of fantasy role-playing a life on Gor has continued, and has spread to other IRC servers, to other forms of text-based interaction, and to places like Second Life, where it has flourished, and where the game (for that's what fantasy role-playing is) has changed to suit the whim and will of those building the playground. It has provided millions of hours of entertainment to hundreds of thousands of people. That's not a bad thing. People are just as welcome to role-play at Gorean life as they are to role play at being a knight under King Arthur, or a cowboy or an indian in the Old West. It's pure fun.
The bad thing comes when the line between fantasy role-play and reality becomes blurred. And unfortunately that happens quite a bit. As I understand it, the reality of the Gorean master/slave relationship is that the man takes complete ownership of the woman, with all of the responsibility and pleasure that comes with owning a woman. The woman surrenders all of the masculine cares of life and picks up the sole feminine burden of pleasing the man. The man is responsible for keeping the slave physically, emotionally, and mentally healthy, and everything that comes with that, like keeping her well fed and sheltered and providing her ample opportunity to use and develop her belly.
While not all Goreans are honorable, an honorable Gorean accepts that responsibility is an integral part of any ownership and the pleasure it brings. When a man demands the pleasure, the complete obedience and surrender, without providing the responsibility (whether in whole or in part), either he is less than an honorable man, or the lines between fantasy role-play and reality have become blurred. If the man thinks he can "turn off" the relationship in any way and leave it behind with the computer and the internet, he has allowed the practices of fantasy role-play into his relationship.
For the Gorean man, The Buck Stops Here. He shoulders the complete responsibility for every aspect of the slave's life. He may delegate a portion of that responsibility to the slave, as far as it is healthy to do so, but ultimately the fulfillment of that responsibility is his burden. If a man chooses to disown any portion of that responsibility, then he is disowning the slave to that degree. The ownership and the responsibility are one and the same thing.
Here are some symptoms of slaves owned by men who have "turned off" their ownership in some way:
- A slave has a huge decision to make in life. She feels like she is making the decision alone, that the burden of that decision is hers alone to bear. Examples would be decisions about life and death. Education. Family relationships. Employment. All decisions and choices decidedly lie in the realm of the Master. Petty ones may be delegated to the slave. But when a slave is burdened with larger decisions and choices, especially those of this magnitude, she takes on the role of the man and her belly suffers.
- A slave is really struggling with some issue that is essential to her well-being, and she is left to fend for herself. This would include things like physical, emotional, and mental health. Financial balance. Her belly and her nature as a slave and a sexual woman. Social interaction. One of the reasons a strong man is so desirable, so fulfilling to a woman is that she can lean on his strength. He can be strong for her. If a man does not use his strength, what is left for the woman? Certainly not the thrill that comes with being collared.
- A slave can disobey or "opt out" of rules or boundaries at her whim. Structure is a key component of the security that comes from being a slave, an integral part of the reward that comes from being pleasing. When the structure is optional, then it is enforced by the slave, not the master. In effect, the slave becomes the master. This certainly does not lead to the fulfillment that comes from being a slave.
- A slave does not regularly have enough opportunity to please, or to learn to be more pleasing. Being pleasing and desired is THE core element of the fulfillment of being a slave. Without it, the belly of the slave dies. She loses her femininity and becomes masculine. A man who kills the belly of a slave and makes her less of a woman, what is he?
In my experience with IRC Gor, I have come across more problems like these in channel slaves than in any other type of slave I know of. More than personally owned slaves, more than uncollared slaves. Men seem to be more aware of their responsibility with personally owned slaves. And uncollared slaves have the opportunity to seek out and serve men who are strong, who do recognize their responsibility and glory in it. Uncollared slaves can seek to earn the collars of these men by starting the relationship of surrender and ownership. They can prove their value, their ability to please.
Often channel slaves have the worst of both worlds. They don't get the fulfillment that comes from surrendering their burdens of life to their owners, and they are restricted to some degree or another from fully serving and pleasing men who can and will take those burdens.
