Real Life #Godmodding?

Hey Everyone! :-)

Today I'd like to talk about something that a friend of mine got me thinking about.  My friend likes to roleplay online, and she told me about something called, "Godmodding."  Now, Godmodding, as she explained to me, is when a person in a roleplay describes not only their actions and feelings, but also the actions and feelings of another roleplayer in reaction to their actions and feelings.  For instance, "Person A walks into a room and smiles at Person B.  Person B smiles back and gives Person A a kiss."

I'm not much of a roleplayer, but my friend informed me that this kind of behavior is frowned upon in the roleplaying world because it takes the agency away from other players and defeats the purpose of roleplaying, which is to create a story from multiple perspectives and using multiple personalities. That makes sense to me. My friend also pointed out to me that many people often do something similar in real life, and I think she's right about that as well.

I mean, have you ever said, or had the urge to say, to someone else that you don't think their reaction to something is correct?  I know I have. But is it really anyone's place to dictate to someone else what their reaction to something should or shouldn't be?  I don't mean saying that you disagree with someone else's conclusion or that you have a different take on a given situation, I mean telling someone else they should or shouldn't feel something.  Pretty absurd, when you think about it, but also pretty common. At least, in my experience it is.

Wouldn't it be more productive to listen to each other and try to find common ground, than try to dictate to each other what should be felt or thought?  I don't know about you, but I don't tend to listen to someone when they tell me what I'm feeling is wrong. In fact, if anything, I tend to feel even more negatively towards them.  But if someone asks me why I feel the way I feel and then offers an explanation of their own thoughts and feelings, generally we can end up with some kind of agreement that works for both of us.

Anyway, I don't want this to be as long-winded a post as some of my other posts, I just wanted to give you a little something to think about.  And if you have an experience where this was done to you or you think you might have done it to someone else and you'd like to share, I'd love to hear from you in the comments.  In the meantime, peace my friends! :-)