Posted by Prairie on Jul 21, 2025
This week in our interview series, we've again reached out to one of our early playtesters. Elissa not only played in our early playtests but also facilitated the game at a national theatre festival! Read this interview about their time with Strangers on the 'Net.
Be sure to follow our Gamefound Page so you can back to get your very own copy of Strangers on the ‘Net when our campaign goes live!
Allison: So to start this will all be via text
Allison: use as many emoticons, typos, and as much cringe as you want ; )
Elissa: Ohhh just like strangers on the net
Allison: just like strangers on the 'net ^_^*
Elissa: ヽ(°〇°)ﾉ
Allison: yyesssss
Allison: So my first question: could you introduce yourself, and how you first got involved with playing Strangers on the 'Net
Elissa: My name is Elissa Park (online I am Adoxographist or AdoxTalks, depending on which usernames are taken certain places).
Elissa: And I actually... can't quite remember exactly how I got involved with playing Strangers on the Net?
Elissa: I THINK I maybe playtested it? And then at one point you were running it for a festival and I volunteered to help out? (Foggy memoriez...)
Allison: So I actually do have the server of your original playtest game open right now
Elissa: WOAH!
Allison: I'll share some wonderful gossipy moment over the course of the interview
Elissa: I never left it either haha. I have to leave a lot of servers cause I don't pay for Discord, and I work on a lot of different projects, but I always keep the Strangers ones cause they warm my heart...
Elissa: ⸜(⸝⸝⸝´꒳`⸝⸝⸝)⸝
Allison: Awww!!! <3<3<3<3
Allison: I have loved reading through them recently for these interviews.
Allison: You were not only one of our earliest playtesters, but also one of our first paid facilitators when we got to do a festival run!
Allison: Do you remember what the games you played in and ran were?
Elissa: WOOOWWW! I guess my memory is not as foggy as I thought!
Elissa: It's the vitamins I'm eating these days... #MyVitamins
Elissa: I think the first one was... Sailor Moon?
Elissa: And then I think I facilitated a Pokemon one... Maybe even another Sailor Moon one?
Allison: So I only have access to the servers I facilitated-- which was indeed a Sailor Moon server in our playtest
Allison: This moment came up in an earlier interview
Elissa: LOL I REMEMBER THAT CHARACTER
Elissa: I was like... a teen aspiring writer or something? So I typed in an overly wordy way.
It's inspired by some of my memories being on forums when I was 11 haha
Elissa: (Not roleplay forums, I was on a fan forum for a webcomic called Charby the Vampirate, where most of the fans were gothy college kids, and me and one other person there were 11. So I wanted to seem MATURE)
Allison: You were also so good at being a petty teenager when you were jealous
Elissa: Hahaha NICE
Elissa: I think I was also a petty teenager too, but I think everyone was.
Allison: So in Strangers on the 'Net you played a teenager pretending to be someone online RPing in a fan forums. Do you have a favourite moment from any of your games of the teenager you were playing? Or any RP moments that stick out?
Elissa: Oh boy.... It's been a while so I gotta really think about it.
Elissa: As an immediate thought, not so much a like moment but more just the feeling of getting to be a teenager RPing online again haha
Elissa: This is the in character stuff but in the Pokemon one I was Meowth and I liked typing in a fake accent?
Allison: AHAHAHAH
Allison: That is both awful and amazing
Elissa: I feel like I have too much shame to do that... unless I was me as a teenager...
Allison: "teenage me didn't know the meaning of the word shame"
Allison: I mentioned this to Willa, who I interviewed earlier. But it was so much fun to facilitate a love triangle between you, her, and Varsha.
Elissa: oh my god i forgot about that...
Allison:I was going through the old chats and was like "Oh yeah! This is why I thought they would be great together!"
Elissa: I do think conceptually its funny to think about flirting as a teen though
Elissa: When I was in high school, I was really into like. LONERS? I GUESS?
Elissa: So my conception of flirting was making them join my friend group.
Elissa: Like I would just sit next to them at lunch and so my other friends would come, and then
they'd become my friend.
Elissa: And then I would be like... "This is really gonna go places :)"
Elissa: (Never told anyone my feelings)
Allison: I love this moment in your chats:
Allison: "TWIST, my character is actually in love with your character."
Elissa: LOOOOOOL
Elissa: I actually don't remember this, but that's really good.
Elissa: I feel like my character was VERY subtle
Elissa: maybe too subtle alas umu
Allison: LMAO I think your character FELT like they were being subtle
Allison: Don't worry, as the facilitator I got to see all the private messages and Mamoru was into you too
Elissa: Oh 100%
Elissa: I feel like if I was a teen this is something that I would have been really tortured by if i was on the receiving end
Elissa: I wouldn't have been like, "Oh this person FOR SURE likes me."
Allison: And your love triangle played it all so perfectly.
Allison: Do you remember your screen name?
Elissa: uhhh
Allison: (because if not I'm about to remind you)
Elissa: it for sure had like... xX in it
Elissa: because when I think of teen screennames thats the way to go
Allison: it 100% did
Elissa: maybe some leet?
Elissa: Oh no but i was artsy
Allison: You are putting together all of the pieces
Allison: XxM00nStarxX
Elissa: and writer interested... I wouldn't have MISSPELLED WORDS
Elissa: OOOOHHHHHHHH
Elissa: THATS GOOD
Elissa: i DID misspell word
Allison: but in a classy way
Elissa: you know whats kind of wild is... when I was a kid I was really nervous about aesthetic screennames?
Elissa: So I NEVER did any like xXxL337_UserXx~~~
Elissa: My first ever e-mail was Elissa_Park @ Domain Name, I made it when I was 6.
Allison: I am right there with you about aesthetics!
Allison: I got so upset when I had to add numbers ever
Allison: One of my first usernames was CuteLittleChansey
Elissa: Same... I HATED when my neopets names weren't just a word :(
Elissa: OMG THAT'S SO GOOD
Allison: ^_~
Elissa: My first online username was... the name of my fake Inuyasha OC
BUT alas its embarrassing to think about because I didn't understand that the names were Japanese and not a made-up language
Allison: The cringe of our youth.
Allison: My cringe admission is that I always flirted with the boy in the chatroom whose username was like AshKetchum99 or something
Elissa: Well... That was Ash Ketchum!
Allison: I wanted him to "choose me" as his pokemon
Elissa: it simply makes sense. He's the best.
Allison: And these are the moments that inspired Strangers on the 'Net
Allison: It's cathartic and embarrassing to admit them out loud o.O
Elissa: Soooooo truuuuu
Elissa: And to also get to do some of the cringe stuff you were too afraid to do as a kid haha
like have garbled aesthetic usernames
Allison: That should be our logo
Allison: "Be unabashedly as cringe as you wish you had been in the 90s"
Elissa: Yaaaaaaa!!!!
Allison: I'm going to get to my wrap up question because we're close to out of time
(time really flies!)
Allison: Is there anything else you want to say about your experience playing/facilitating the game, or about the game itself that you think people who are considering backing it might be interested in knowing?
Elissa: Ohh that is a good question...
Elissa: I think it's really nice to be able to revisit that moment in time.
Elissa: I used to do a lot of fandom RP, and a lot of my old RPs are just gone forever. I wish I could go back and read them, even if I would find them embarrassing.
There are people who when we were kids would message each other every night pretending to be different fictional characters and I just don't know where they are any more, or who they are, or how to even find them.
Elissa: So in some ways this is like getting to have a piece of that memory back. And like...
maybe even being able to explore different timelines of that sort of person I was and the people I maybe didn't value enough at the time.
Allison: <3<3<3<3<3
Allison: Thank you so much for that very lovely thought!
Allison: And thank you for your time.
Elissa: thank u for having me!!!!!!
Elissa: ☆:.｡.o(≧▽≦)o.｡.:☆
Follow to find out more on our Gamefound Page
<3 See you online <3
~*~A11i50N 0f _S0f7_Ch405_~*~