Roleplaying - What is it really?

[vestax]

Is it simply getting into character and getting the most possible fun out of a game or is it an excuse to Cyb0r?

I used to think it was ok until I found many screen shots (no names mentioned) of "roleplayers" perving with other people with really graphical detail. It seems it happens quite a lot and tbh it makes me feel sick.
Imo there should be a (15) Cert on the game.. how are you going to stop these people from "roleplaying" with your children?

 

[~Mobius~]

I define roleplaying as just not being yourself.

 

[trigali]

Roleplaying for me is all about being 'in character'.

I am a kobold shadowblade living in Midgard. If someone asks where I come from, the answer is Fort Atla, as the rest is not relevant to the game and 'out of character'. And I'm 50 seasons old. that's my age, end of discussion, these aren't wrinkles, they are combat scars <smiles>

Some people 'talk' differently ingame, I don't, but it's all about maintaining the fiction we are in a fantasy world, not in a game. For me it reinforces the feeling of immersing myself into a different kind of reality.

I see absolutely no reason, or indeed no excuse, to use 'roleplaying' as a pretext to be rude, obnoxious or even aggressive/insulting to others. But I haven't encountered the behaviour you describe in Midgard, brave country from the planet Prydwen.

 

[Coren]

90% of the roleplaying is replacing smilies with <smiles> or <grins> and 'rofl' and 'lol' with <laughs> while pretending to be either a womanizer (in case of male characters) or a lesbian (in case of female characters).

Then there's the other 10% that actually does roleplay, but better to let those explain what it is themselves.

 

[Levin the Blue]

To roleplay is like writing a story about your character.

Afterwards, when he/she retires, you can look at his/her life as if you read a book, enjoying many memories, good and bad, and realizing that you were actually there to live it. The character has his own life, i pull his strings and watch the results.

The most rewarding thing with roleplaying, i think, is all the unexpected turns things take. When you roleplay with others, you're not writing the story alone, you often have to improvise, and you won't always like the endings. And that is the difference from authoring the story on your own.

I hope that helped a little.

 

[chretien]

Being someone else for a while and maintaining the illusion for as longas you can.
Trying to act inthe way that 'your character would' rather than what would necessarily be best in game terms.
You don't need thees, thous and verilys you just need to be able to sound like a real person.

 

[vestax]

<smiles>
















<grins>





















<laughs>
















































<whips out sword and proceeds to indulge in some vigorous hand to gland combat>



That kinda thing?

 

[cHodAX]

Hmm, so me being the King of Avalon is technically roleplaying I guess, also the the time I started my own religous cult 'Way of the cHodAX' might qualify too. Either that or I was just massaging my own ego

 

[klavrynd]

i think roleplaying, especially in a "technical hack&slash" mmorpg is really really hard. Hats of to Nyd and especially Ayam, Krill and -where have you gone?- Esola.

I have never seen ayam do anything out of character!

 

[liste]

Roleplaying, is alot of things.

it can be what Levin suggested, it can be the chance for someone to write an event, and have people respond to it <as good ol' PnP Roleplay> like PARP did on a number of occations, it can simply be a way to maintain a 'proper' language in game. And for some, it can also be the means for hot cyber action

 

[old.TeaSpoon]

On the odd occasion I come accross a ropleplayer, I tend to join in. I just become quiet, but well spoken. I just use Stanislavski's principals to work out how and why I say things.

I always cyb0r as myself tho

 

[old.linnet]

For me, it's very like improv acting. You take on a role and act out some scenes and stories with other people. You never know exactly how a scene will turn out until you play through it, and that is part of the fun - when it works well, everyone 'plays' off each other, but you need a nice co-operative group to do that. Often you can add depth and detail to your role while improvising scenes, which is quite fun.

Bad roleplayers have the same traits as bad actors. They try to hog scenes, steal the limelight, ignore what other people have said or done, etc.

Other people like to try to 'become' their characters (ie. like method actors) and experience their life through their eyes.


I have no idea why people cybersex. To me, that isn't roleplaying. Romance can be, though.

 

[Kaitlyn]

Cybersex isnt roleplaying, its just a desperate persons cheap porn. I have come across many different types of roleplayers,some of which are the lovely talented people of Nyd, whose characters come effortlessly to them, the shy roleplayers that will only get into character when others around them do, and those that use the label roleplay to get away with things that usually wouldnt be accepted.You cannot be disgustingly rude to someone, slap a label of roleplaying on it and think its ok.I was personally disgusted when I came across this sort of behaviour from a few known 'roleplayers' and was quite disturbed that this was the image of roleplaying that came into the more uninformed persons view.
Oh dear , im ranting...

..anyway, for me roleplaying consists of bringing more layers into a game that deals with people closely.I find it fun to leave my real life at the door, so to speak, and take on different personalities without men in white coats knocking at my door.

 

[tris-]

roleplaying seems to mean you can call the RvR guilds sad kids with no life. or so i heard anyway.

 

[ashitaka]

I think roleplaying is good and bad.. it gets kinda silly sometimes.. but it can be fun too.. but only with alts, cause then noone can point and laugh at me

edit: alltho people tend to /point + /laugh at me anyways

 

[old.Spug]

used to be that I roleplayed a lot, but these days I dont roleplay as much as I did. Kikya will still answer in character, but once in group and fighting, its me rather than kik talking.

Generally Spug talks in darktyde-ese, but what is funniest, is that after five minutes of talking to someone in his dialect, generally you find they're starting to subconciously speak in the same way.

Most of the Darktydes have adopted the "common" language now, with just one or two hanging on to the old ways. Spug is just too stupid to pick up the correct tense and structure of the common language.

 

[Jupitus]

Originally posted by old.Spug
Spug is just too stupid to pick up the correct tense and structure of the common language.

... a classic case of roleplay-schizo-syndrome setting in... it's not Spug who's stupid, you know

 

[old.Spug]

Spug's stupid, but not "Alb-level" stupid he doesnt pick his nose with his poisoned dagger, then try and work out why he has a new piercing, why its going green, and why he's lying in a pool of blod...

daft infiltrators...

 

[old.Spug]

Blod of course being the weaker albion version of Blood

 

[Jupitus]

 

[Urgat Rip-Eye]

Roleplaying is easy.

RPing is simply like acting.

You have to have a clear view of the character's beliefs, motivations, needs, and desires.

Then... all you do... is respond to any situation in the manner that the character would.

You just "be" the character.

Just because Spug has his 'blade speak differently, doesn't make him a roleplayer. What makes him a roleplayer is the fact that while he has Spug logged in, in any given situation, he thinks, acts, speaks, responds, and behaves the way SPUG THE CHARACTER would, not Cas the fella from Surry would.

It's that easy.

I used to RP Urg almost exclusivly... now sadly i don't so much, almost never in group or guild chat... though i can sometimes be brought back into RPing in normal /say if there are RPers around.

 

[Eir Knebitar]

Originally posted by old.Spug

Most of the Darktydes have adopted the "common" language now, with just one or two hanging on to the old ways.

The Knebitar-sisters have never been part of the Darktydes, but they hang on to the first language they learnd. And Ingegjerd still has a crush on Spug... She keeps asking every day I see her, why Spug is ignoring her.

Ingun on the other hand tries to be "grown-up" but is very jealous on all the girlies that Kernum keeps kissing.

The sisters of the Knebitar family is being roleplayed. The hard thing is to let every one of them have their own personality. Some times it is hard to roleplay - I'm not in the mood of acting. For that I have an unguilded character that I'm not roleplaying at the moment.

Roleplaying is lots of fun and it is hard work to stay in character all the time. But I would never ever stop roleplaying the Knebitar sisters - I know them too well.

 

[Aileanara]

Giving your character interesting weaknesses is also fun.

Like I have an alergy to the Void Magic I study <Achew> of which the only cure found so far is Ale Unfortuantly the more I learn, the More ale I need to control t.....A.....A....Achew. The sneezing.

This helps with my character because I can make the excuse of hunting, into a trip to find a possible cure.
To be honest one of the good things of RP'ing is that you can involve yourself in your character as much as you want, from either simple Emotes to giving your character a full history and personality.
On some of the roleplaying forums, you can read some fantastic stores that people have written. With some being so well writen that they would make a very good fantasy novel if published.

 

[Cyradix]

Ah, how I miss the RP days of UO

Now I only RP a little with my troll char.
It's not that hard to RP da dum troll

 

[Henry-Vee]

I find roleplaying quite hard on a MMORPG.

You think of something to say, and rather than just say it, which is natural enough, you then have to type it. And half the time I can't be bothered...

My only experiance of roleplaying in the past was playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, which was and still is as far as I'm aware most popular with adolescant males. So with just males to roleplay with, sex didn't really come into the game very much. At the age we were far too homophobic to roleplay relationships. ;-)

But this game, and MMORPG;s in general are different. Women do play and take a very active part in it. So I suppose that its only natural that a lot of *ahem* romantic roleplaying would go on. The amount of online marriages (and divorces) we've had is evidence of that.

I do agree with the poster however. If I had young kids, I wouldn't be happy if they were getting 'chatted up' by who knows what kind of person on the other end.

But herin lies the problem i think....In DAOC everyone is beautiful. I've yet to see a Norseman who has a pot belly and a receeding hairline. And every Norsewomen I've ever seen has a perfectly proportioned body...

And playing a computer game, what you see is what you get. Your impressions of that person are based the 'toon' you see in front of you.

This is an interesting thread, and something I hadn't really thought about before. In short however i don't see anything that could be done to police this. I suppose in the end its all about choice....


Henry-Vee

White General

 

[luktar]

about roleplaying
i laughted about this when i soloed with my warrior

look in the chat window
http://baf.mine.nu/members/luktar/hyua.gif

 

[bigchief]

Originally posted by Henry-Vee
In DAOC everyone is beautiful. I've yet to see a Norseman who has a pot belly and a receeding hairline. And every Norsewomen I've ever seen has a perfectly proportioned body...

Argh a Troll lover. Lock him up uke:

 

[Edaudric]

Me, I roleplay my characters attempting to be as similar as the characters of Baldur's Gate. I mean... who can resist saying things like

"Why don't we just lay down and die... it's what we're best at anyways..."
"To lead this part we need someone intelligent, pretty, preferably female and most likely me."

"Go for the eyes, fireball!"

Right... roleplaying is just trying to avoid talking too much of the outer world.
I try to use as less nobility and prestige when fighting.
If somebody says "You look wonderfull this evening, my Lady" to my Paladin while we're fighting something full of hate, I give them a strange look.
"Is this the time for nobility? I think not! To arms!"
She's kind of a meanie for an Avalonian... mix of Shar-Teel and Ajantis

Don't make your character. Make him like Minsc and Boo. Learn from Blizzard!
Raaaaaaaaarrsk!
:great:

 

[The Kingpin]

Some Role-Players take things way to far..

Well, some in NWN do anyway...

 

[Edaudric]

I totaly agree with that.
When I first played Neverwinter Nights, I met a party on a Roleplaying server.
All of their parents were brutaly murdered, and they all seeked revenge (If they were a family I'd understand ).
I know, in a world filled with orcs and ogres, it's not very unlikely that your parents are murdered and you want to avenge them, I just think it's been used too often.
And one sentence there requires alot of typing.
Someone asked me a question and I had problem figuring out what to answer.
Problem wasn't the answer itself, it was how I was supposed to write it.