Roleplayers – Anybody out there?
When I game I take great joy in creating a character. And I’m not just talking about Stats and how much my character will PWN enemies. I like to create a character’s personality and play it through the game and with other characters.
When I play a character, I’m not just playing a Mage. I’m playing a woman with a passion for ancient text, artifacts, history, culture, is a neat freak, and just so happens to know how to cast spells. I find it so much more pleasurable when I say “Holding her book of magic, she confidently raises her wand to attack the beast – to only be distracted by a smear of dirt on her sleeve” rather than just saying “I rolled a 1″.
Roleplaying for the past few years has been looked down on as being childlike and only what socially inadequate people would do. I personally tend to get the avoided glance and “Oh, you’re one of those” when I say that I’m an RPer on a game like World of Warcraft after being asked by fellow WoW players how I play. I still do Raids and Dungeon Runs, but on some nights I like to put my RP hat on and interact with other RP players.
Before MMORPGs, we use to have MUSHs and Online Chat groups. In a text based environment, Roleplay was king (or Queen if you prefer). You logged in as a character and then just started playing. Of course this was also the breeding ground for Mary Sues.
Mary Sue
-noun
Mary-Sues are characters who are usually extraordinarily gorgeous, amazingly talented, unusually powerful, and exceedingly attractive to whoever the author has a crush on. They often possess ridiculously fancy and pretentious first names — Angel, Raven, Jewel, Lorelei Bianca Julia Marizza Snape — and are very, very annoying.
(The male equivelant is either Marty-Stu or Gary-Stu)
Test to see if you have a Mary Sue character here: http://www.ponylandpress.com/ms-test.html
I always was annoyed by the Mary Sue/Gary Stu characters and would joke about how they brooded in the 14 corners of the tavern when I was in an RP chat room. To counter all the gloomy samurai and sexy priests, I always tended to make a character that was not glamorous or perfect. My favorite was Disara; a short, scrawny, unkempt, alcoholic that was terrible at her job (which was being a theif/spy).
Though armed with an unattractive filthy woman reeking of ale, I still had male/female callers. This caused many private tells with requests to do some cybering with me and were quickly set on ignore.
Cybering
-Verb
: The act of cyber sex or any other lewd/perverse gestures such as flirting done over the internet. Usually on forums and chatboards.
So causing one of the many stereotypes of Roleplayers and how all RPers do nothing but cyber all day on World of Warcraft and online chats. I wish that I could say this was false, but I’ve encountered it enough to where I know that it is a bit of a reality. Though most don’t know much of the art of story telling and playing a character when all their character development is in their pants.
But these days I tend not to encounter either. I wander around World of Warcraft’s RP servers with Disara’s best eye patch in hopes of encountering a fellow roleplayer or striking up an RP conversation. But this is a very rare occasion since many in the game have made it a goal to disrupt any RP activity on WoW (aka Griefers). Because of this, many are too scared to post on forums special RP events or gatherings, because they just might be the target of some immature player that takes joy in mocking those that enjoy the art of creative character play.
So is Roleplaying dead? It’s not quiet dead just yet. We still have Dungeons & Dragons and L.A.R.P.s (Live Action Role Play) for now.
Thank you, and well said!
Well said indeed! LARP, online rp, tabletop, and all the rest – may we be delivered from the Mary and Gary, and instead be immersed in a world of our own creation poulated by actual people!