Idea
The Pun Tyrant
You made two mistakes about my position, and a third mistake that pertains not to my position, but to the overall question.I'd actually argue with this, honestly. In my opinion, rp'ing is more like a video game than it is to writing a novel (which is what I think you're comparing it to), hence my example of games that don't live up to their hype. And playing games is a hobby. While there are elements of literature present in roleplaying, and you literally are writing when you are typing up a reply, I see rp'ing being more akin to a game since you are playing a character, seeing what you can accomplish as said character, and how you can contribute to and shape the gameworld/plot as said character much like how you'd play an rpg.
"...people assume that if something is just boring them, it´s time to quit." Well that's just the thing. Since I see rps as games, I find this to be perfectly normal to think. Why put any more time into a game that is just plain boring you? And in my opinion, if you're bored of whatever it is that you're doing, you should stop and come back later when you are feeling more passionate. Especially of an rp. That way you aren't half-assing your replies that effect everyone else.
The first mistake is that, yes, I do see a connection to "writing a novel" in RPing, but more on that later, because it´s not the only thing I see it as. That mistake is that, in fact, I don´t JUST view it as pure writing. In it´s essence , roleplaying is, outside of any post-conceptual interpretation, taking the role of your character. Without that, its just not RPing. The game elements you mentioned are something I would place as more accurately depicting a form of acting or theater. You should be getting into the character´s mindset, in my view.
However, there is still room for a certain manipulation of what happens to make things interesting. This aspect is what I would consider binds RPing to writing novels. Because in a forum, unlike a game, there is one aspect that you can´t forget: regardless of what we choose to call it, it´s unquestionable that forum RPing requires WRITING. Like what I am doing right now. I cannot communicate this via a forum without writing it. All the posts are done in the form of writing. This is a fact. And also a fact is that writing itself has a certain way to be. Yes, writing can be fun immediately as you read it and occasionally maybe even as you write it. But playing a game you only consume an already made product, whereas in writing, you have to MAKE that product too. That is your second mistake in my position: the things I derived from writing, came from the very rules and facts about writing itself, about the act by which we roleplay, not about paralels of things that are also written.
You can and are supposed to enjoy roleplaying, don´t take me wrong. But you if you go and treat it like it´s supposed to be enjoyed right away, you forget that the medium lacks several things that makes others able to be enjoyed immediately. There is no light and sound. Not even straight reading about light and sound is exciting or anything else in that vein. The excitement of reading is more visceral, less impulsive. It´s something that builds up and in it´s twists and turns and ups and downs becomes interesting and pulls you in, you CAN`T make jumpscares in writing. Even if you could it would be after dozens of pages of build up to tense the reader. And that is not even accounting for the fact that things that take work are usually less than prompt to be immediately exciting, and at most feel rewarding after finishing.
THIS is the aspect I wanted to point out. You can´t expect writing to be immediately exciting just like that, like a game (taking your example), because it is writing. Because you can control it´s pace, and you can´t be affected by things before you can process them because reading takes processing the words etc...
Which leads me to your final mistake:
Even if you view roleplaying as playing a game, and therefore don´t feel like it´s nonsensical to drop something just because it isn´t immediately fun or rewarding, that doesn´t mean it´s not a problem still. That doesn´t mean that that mentality isn´t leading to a nice slice of the committment issues in a lot of roleplays. Even if you think it´s a natural problem that should be accepted as a norm, it´s still a problem, and it´s still root cause of the problem that this thread was inquiring about.