July 24, 2012

Fableshop.net announces the Cowchip/AL Forum

Peek at the top of this site and you will note a tab called Cowchip/AL Forum. Norm has been a busy little boy. Don’t click it until you read at least the top portion of this article.

The Cowchip/AL Forum is the end result of an idea of mine that first saw the light of day in 1989 or so. Actually, it saw the light of night, because it was after 10:30 in the evening when I dreamed it up.

Not until now have all of the stars aligned so that I could bring it to life.

Before I describe the Cowchip/AL Forum, let me be tell you straight away why it is made available. It is here, on this website to help me to promote my books on Kindle.

Well, it’s also here because it is something I have been wanting to do since 1990 but the undertaking is so time consuming that there had to be some rationale to do it. Not until lately was I able to assemble all of the bits and pieces it takes to bring it to the air. This was accomplished, finally, this week, and it is now live and ready for your attention.

What the Cowchip/AL Forum is, is a multiplayer online role-playing game of sorts.

Ah ha! I know what you just thought. This is double difficult for most people because not only must I read your mind, not knowing or seeing you, but I also must do it into the unknown future. Well I just did it.

You just thought something along the lines of, “Posh! Multiplayer online role-playing games are for kids and losers. I don’t care for such!”

Well, guess what? I don’t either. I haven’t a single clue as to what is popular now. I have never played dungeons & dragons. I don’t know diddly about role playing, per se….but I do know Cowchip/AL, and I’m gonna let you in on it up close and personal, if you got the underhang or cleavage to handle it.

I suppose Cowchip/AL is what you might call a live action role-playing game. It is a forum, but it is live action because presumably you are sitting around breathing right now.

In the history of action role-playing games , there has NEVER been anything like Cowchip/AL, the forum, and here’s why…

There is a town called Cowchip/AL. It has many residents. You get to choose who you will be when you sign onto the forum. You can be anyone you want to be within reason. You may want to be a fireman, lawyer, plumber, goat herder, pianist, strumpet, politician, trolley car driver, shop owner, banker, cattle buyer, porch sitter, drum major…. In essence ANYTHING you want to be.

You will become a player character in the great and ongoing Cowchip/AL saga. You will be an actor.

However, you will not be following a script. You will write your own script as you interact with the other player characters.

As time goes by different story lines will start to take shape, and different themes will emerge. Each time you come back to the Cowchip/AL Forum there will be new, different, and exciting things to see and do. There will be ongoing challenges.

The fact is that the experience is so compelling that I have to warn at the outset that Cowchip/AL is a town of the mind. It is not a real place that you can hop into your car to come visit, ever how much you may want to. I also must caution that even as you can be whoever you want to be in Cowchip, when you log out and move on, you are you once again.

As fun as this may be for some, there are two aspects that carry it over the threshold from something simply interesting to a thing that is so fun that it is almost scary.

While there are good people in Cowchip/AL, there are also some bad ones. As a matter of fact, the bad ones outnumber the good ones quite a bit.

Don’t be a bit surprised when you come to town that you learn that there are a lot of nefarious schemes going on to fleece people of their money! It happens all the time in Cowchip/AL. Of course sometimes the “fleecer” is the one that actually gets fleeced.

Fleecing occurs when two or more people team up to run a scam on someone else. It’s wicked fun!

There is only one problem…… Often times when a couple of people get together to scam a third, they must pass private messages back and forth. Unfortunately, the private message function is broken, so everyone including the “fleece-ee” can see what’s going on in the background.

This lends untold twists and turns to the action in this massively multiplayer online role-playing Cowchip/AL scenario. Even the RYO CEO himself can’t keep a secret, because his private messaging system is broken too, so everyone gets to see ALL the way into the rabbit hole ALL the time.

But nobody mentions that they read private messages. Ever! Private messages are an unsecret secret.

Never in the history of role-playing has there been a setup like the very very simple to use Cowchip/AL forum. Ever! It is monstrous in its simplicity.

And there’s more. When you first visit the forum you can sign up using the traditional method you’ll find, or you can even use your Facebook account to login.

When you get inside, read the READ THIS FIRST posts. Then you will understand completely, more or less. Then start reading through the threads to see what’s going on. When you think you’re ready, jump into the conversations. Except for the Plotting Forum and General Questions Forum, everybody is ALWAYS in character when they post. It’s magic!

As an aside, I was reminded just the other day by real life events why Cowchip/AL is so powerful. It’s powerful, because it appeals to the masses. Cowchip/AL will never be highbrow, neither for the forum, or for the books on Kindle written by my humble self.

In other words, you don’t need to be an intellectual to interact on the forum, or appreciate what you read in the books.

I do not have a problem with real intellectuals. I do have a problem with dumb people who think they are intellectuals. Call them neuvo intellectuals. I ran into a pack of them on a forum while I was attempting to promote my books.

The neuvo intellectuals think they are the smartest cats around, when they are actually the dumbest. On the forum I’m talking about here, which I won’t mention, the pseudo intellectuals have taken over, driving out the good, regular people. What that place ended up with were a pile of ill humored, vicious, petty, smarmy smarty pants.

If this sort of behavior raises your blood pressure, then you are going to LOVE Cowchip/AL! Why not let your character BE a neuvo intellectual. Have ALL the fun making fun of them in character AS one of them. See what I mean?

Of course, were a neuvo or pseudo intellectual to visit Cowchip/AL, they would think you were one of them. They are very smart, really.

And have you had a problem with a local politician? You can be that politician on Cowchip/AL. Have all the fun acting the way you just hate in real life! (Naturally, ALL names must be fictitious!)

On Cowchip/AL you can be anyone you want to be, within reason, subject to approval. Everyone gets approved. Everything is hands on. No automatic stuff on the Cowchip/AL forum! No sir!

And all messages are moderated too. That means that if anyone gets out of line with their verbiage, it doesn’t get published.

Cowchip/AL is a grown up place. Kids not allowed. Even so, lewd, rude, or crude behavior is not permitted. It will never go past PG in content.

But, as is explained in the READ THIS FIRST post, there is all sorts of leeway available to get your point across with “innuendo.” Innuendo is the art of saying something without actually saying it. Innuendo, in fact, is the core of what makes Cowchip/AL so special. There is simply nothing else like it on the Internet!

So, I’m looking to see you there. I’m also looking to see you check out a few of my books from Kindle. After all, that’s the reason for Cowchip/AL. I want you to buy more of my books!!

Norm