by Fireangel
Roleplay is a Stimulant
Where do you get your roleplay fix? I personally have a long history of role play, and I have actual withdrawals. If you are a real role player, this makes sense to you. If you are not, I may be speaking a foreign language to you. I cannot really role play without other ‘actors’. Many like me are asking: where do you find roleplay online?
It’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer. There’s a reason that Dungeons and Dragons is still very popular for roleplayers– we need our fix. Single RPGs can give people like me a pacifying interim. Baldur’s Gate, all of the Ultima games, and the Dragon Age series have made me very happy for a time.
Roleplaying in real life (RL) can be hard to find. Groups scatter, and most towns don’t even have Friendly Local Game Storesanymore, so when our type needs some RP our way in a hurry, we seek others like ourselves online. Where are they?
In text, you have more of a chance to get into character and to stay in character alongside other players. That is why the MUDs and MUSHes are still so popular. Some of us even go into public IRCs for RPGs, like Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues, and role play as we go, realizing that everyone in there doesn’t even care for Public Displays of RP. Did I just coin a phrase? PDRP! haha
We know that the roleplayers are out there, but finding others like ourselves in an MMO can be a daunting task. It is extremely difficult to roleplay in an MMO for any length of time– there are many immersion breakers, and you’re always right there alongside people not roleplaying, causing us to unexpectedly drop out of the world as someone rushes into your scene to jump up and down on a table dancing as near to naked as possible using the game’s mechanics.
Roleplay is Memorable
In the days of the early Ultima Online, roleplaying online was not difficult, and was very immersive. It was a new medium, and you could find roleplayers everywhere. The numbers were high enough that interruptions from the “mundanes” didn’t happen too often– it would mildly annoy you, but you could carry on without too much trouble.
In all my years of roleplay, I have only found one person who almost never broke out of their performance. Whether you were speaking in private or in public, that person stayed in character, and kept immersion real and fun, and so rich, that I can recall almost every interaction I had with that dear, crusty old mage to this day.
I’ve never found anyone else like that personally, and I cannot express how wonderful it would be to find such role players in an adventure. What I normally find are players who only greet you or depart from you with some form of roleplay emote, and beyond that they do not make much of an effort to create an illusion of a believable character.
Roleplay is an Art
Typing one sentence while acting out your role, and then filling the next sentence with computer jargon or talking about what you are doing IRL keeps everything disrupted. It’s difficult to find anyone in an MMO who will stay in character when they are typing publicly, and limit their personal conversation to PMs.
Party talk is worse, with the group only talking to the group. It seems to be a prevalent consensus that since the public does not see what is being said, there is no reason to stay in character. This disturbs someone like me. Am I the only one?
Where are the old-school roleplayers who spoke in-party in character, and abandoned party chat when others were passing by, so that people outside our group would have some benefit from our roleplay? It was a win-win for me, speaking out loud as actors, and listening to the role play of other actors as we passed one another in the ‘world.’
One group might even join another, and abandon party chat all together for the duration of what we were all mutually engaged in. This caused a bond or renewed a bond in extended circles of role players, and gave everyone a better gaming experience. The result was that all of us had built a memory together, and had tales to tell about it.
Roleplay is a Challenge
Immersion is broken right out of the gate with most MMOs, and the roleplayer struggles in an uphill climb to have immersion. The roleplayer needs to believe in the surroundings they are in, and not to be constantly bombarded by the rules, the rails and boundaries of a video game. Add other players who constantly bounce in and out of character to the mix, and the enjoyment of roleplay can fade away.
As time goes by, I’ve noticed that more players who say they seek role play rarely actually stay in character. Labels are misleading. More groups are labeling themselves as role players, but they are hit and miss with actually acting in game. More players are joining role play groups only to pass when it comes to joining in on role play.
There seems to be an overall lack of respect for full role play, or perhaps an impatience for it. It is a constant challenge to stay in character. Players repeatedly pull the role player out of acting and into “real life” conversation. This is not being done only in private whispers or party chats, but freely in public chat right to the roleplaying character’s face.
Explaining the dilemma privately now and then to one or two other players used to be all the effort it took to get others to return to roleplay. Now I find that even those who call themselves roleplayers have no qualms about breaking the fourth wall. They brand themselves ‘casual’ roleplayers, and see no reason to stay in character unless they are actually acting out a scenario. These players otherwise spend their time in combat or questing without role playing. Staying in character while doing actual game play feels restrictive to them.
Where are the Roleplayers?
They are out there. They still play D&D. They act in the LARPs. They still play the MUDs and MUSHes. They still adventure in UO. They post on the RPG forums asking, “Where are the roleplayers? I can’t find them.”
Yes, there are RP servers, but actual roleplaying even on these is difficult to locate. RP that only happens inside a designated tavern in-game is not the mark of all it means to be in acting out a character.
Still, looking first in and around a town tavern is a good starting point. While you may only find casual role players in the common room, if you look down some of the halls and in less populated rooms, you may see immersive role play in action. If you still don’t find the characters you’re looking for, the players in the tavern are likely able to tell you where to find them.
Walk, don’t run (as running everywhere all the time breaks immersion – why would you realistically do that), around the streets of the town. Watch for other players who are not hurrying to and fro, but are using the game mechanics to slow from a run to a walk. Watch for players who have slowed their mounts down. Stand still where you see players gathered, and wait for overheard conversations that are full of cryptic story-telling, full of plans, and full of drama with friendship or enmity.
Roleplayers who truly love this particular genre of fun of in being a fictional character with a background and a story-telling group to interact with will find each other. These gamers find role play therapeutic, interesting and enjoyable. They are creative writers, actors, musicians and artists, sharing their talent with others who appreciate this type of socialization.
The popularity of role playing has not diminished. It is always changing and evolving. The draw of becoming a unique character beyond your self in a time or a place that is different from the real world is sure to remain appealing. This same idea is universal in books, movies and games; all are types of story-telling.
Roleplay is for acting and interacting. It is for both casual or more immersive enjoyment. It is a game, a drama, a type of recreation, and a creative give and take. The future of role playing may have it’s awkward technical problems to work through, but for the roleplayer who keeps looking, you will find it. Hey, if you are reading this, maybe we can find it together?
