Experiences Biggest RP "Culture Shocks?"

[gingerwayne]

So this isn't like...important...but I was wondering if anyone else has ever experienced a roleplay "culture shock" when switching between different platforms. Some of my biggest ones coming to this site are:

-Canon x oc roleplay being the norm for fandom rps. I'm used to canon x canon or maybe oc x oc rarely

-KRP. Didn't know that was a whole genre before I came here.

-So. Many. Anime. Fandoms. Like seriously. Where are all the rest of the fandoms?

-Age. This site draws a much older crowd than I'm used to.

-People actually commit to being literate instead of letting the responses gradually degrade in quality. Fantastic, but I've never seen that before.

Anyone else switch platforms and find that things are really different from what you're used to? I'm curious to hear your stories.

 

[Chordling]

One thing that I notice change over time, but seems universal for most forum platforms, is the explicit preference to rp in DMs vs threads. I find it interesting!

 

[Merciless Medic]

For me, I was RPing on Facebook messenger with a close friend and on a private message on a "story" site when I was a teenager. When I wanted to branch out, I found an RP site I wanted to join, but I was so used to script format that I was shocked that people write like authors or novellists and all in 3rd person. I wasn't experienced enough to commit to this kind of degree of RPing. So I waited for 3 years before I tried again when I was making essays in high school, and it was easier to get used to it. While my posts were lackluster and small at first, I grew to RP with larger and more detailed post. I still remember my roots like it was yesterday though, but it was still an interesting shock I went through. I was surprised with mixed emotions when I first saw the writing style I use now. I was both happy that people were that good, but sad because I knew they would make amazing RP partners and we can RP wonderful settings and plots and I was also jealous because I wanted to RP like them yet didn't have the skills for that yet.

 

[Jannah]

One thing that shocked me is RPing as Youtubers and other celebrities. I can understand RPing as canon characters in a fandom since they're still fictional, but to RP as real people? Yea, seems kind of creepy. I'm also shocked by how young members of this site are. There's a lot of teenagers and I'm so accustomed to playing on 18+ sites now. On a similar note I'm also accustomed to people wanting smut RP and it actually being allowed (even though I never really actively participated in it). This site, of course, bans such content.

 

[nerdy tangents]

I think the biggest shock to me was the way mods handled disputes. My other sites were much more clique-y so it was kinda nice to see a professional staff. Also the variety of BBC code was way more advanced than my previous sites.

 

[Jannah]

I think the biggest shock to me was the way mods handled disputes. My other sites were much more clique-y so it was kinda nice to see a professional staff. Also the variety of BBC code was way more advanced than my previous sites.

Omg yes. I came over here from a site that was actually becoming extremely toxic in how clique-y it was. Even the staff were in on it.

 

[Astraea]

Omg yes. I came over here from a site that was actually becoming extremely toxic in how clique-y it was. Even the staff were in on it.

My last roleplay website was just like this! The owner of the site itself even encouraged it - I was explained there was an unspoken ""hierarchy"" within the site.

 

[Redfork2000]

So this isn't like...important...but I was wondering if anyone else has ever experienced a roleplay "culture shock" when switching between different platforms. Some of my biggest ones coming to this site are:

-Canon x oc roleplay being the norm for fandom rps. I'm used to canon x canon or maybe oc x oc rarely

-KRP. Didn't know that was a whole genre before I came here.

-So. Many. Anime. Fandoms. Like seriously. Where are all the rest of the fandoms?

-Age. This site draws a much older crowd than I'm used to.

-People actually commit to being literate instead of letting the responses gradually degrade in quality. Fantastic, but I've never seen that before.

Anyone else switch platforms and find that things are really different from what you're used to? I'm curious to hear your stories.

Interestingly, I noticed several of the same things you did.

-Anime Fandoms: These take up a large portion of all fandoms that are mentioned in fandom RP interest checks. It's so frequent that I've even learned the names of animes I never saw or heard of before arriving at this site. I also found that Harry Potter and Marvel seem to be very popular here as well.

-Age: I used to RP in fandom wikis, and in the ones I've been in, the average age is much lower than here. Most users in the fandom wikis I was in are mostly teenagers, with only a small number of young adults, usually no older than 20. Here, while there are teenagers, a large portion of the people here are adults. Encountering people in their twenties is the norm, and even thirties isn't too uncommon, and I've even seen people here that are older than that, something that was not the case back where I RPed before.

-Literacy by far. In the wikis I used to RP in, we weren't even used to using the typical paragraph format that we use here. Back there we wrote in what I would call "script format", where we wrote dialogue lines separately from narration, as if we were writing a script. Something like this:

[Insert paragraph of narration]
-Character A: [Dialogue]
-Character B: [Dialogue]
[Insert paragraph of narration]

Like that. Also most roleplayers back where I'm from wrote a lot less per post than is usual here. So of course, when I first arrived, I was surprised with the level of quality the posts here have compared to where I used to roleplay. The traditional paragraph we use to RP is something I used only when writing my own projects, such as the story series I've been working on lately. Using it for RPs is something I hadn't ever done before coming here.

There were also a few other things I noticed.

-Character sheets. Back where I RPed, character sheets were unheard of. Since it was technically a wiki, whoever had the time to do so would just create a wiki article for their character, but in many cases there were RPers who didn't add any information about who their character was or what they were like. It was just a matter of the mods to make sure no one made a Mary Sue or any overpowered character that could break the game for everyone. However, despite never having used character sheets for RPs, I easily adapted because of how much I enjoyed making character profiles even before I started out as a roleplayer. Character creation has always been one of my favorite parts of writing, and when I wrote solo stories I would usually keep a separate document where I would write the character profiles for each character, so in a way I was used to the idea of character profiles or sheets.

-Post frequency. Back where I RPed, even though several of us were from drastically different timezones (I'm talking at least 3 users from America, 2 from Europe, 2 in Asia, and at least 1 in Australia), we somehow managed to find a golden time when most or all of us could be active at the same time, and then we all RPed at once. And since our posts weren't exactly high quality, we basically spent up to two or three hours doing dozens of rapid-fire posts. As a result, RPing was much faster. Here, while some RP partners I've had can do the rapid fire posting, most RP partners I've had can't do that, and instead post once, and then only reply in a few hours or a couple of days.

At first I was impatient, and couldn't wait to continue RPing. So after posting in one RP, I would start another with someone else, then another, and by the time I knew it, I had 6-8 ongoing RPs with different users all at once, and even then, once I had replied to them all, I still got impatient waiting for any one of them to reply. It was crazy for sure. But I eventually learned to adapt to the post speed, and now I actually love the system of posting once a day or so. It makes the mornings so much more exciting. When I log into the site in the morning, I'm already excited, anticipating the posts that are waiting for me to read and reply to. It's almost like that excitement people get when they're going to watch a new episode of their favorite series. So I've learned to adapt to this system, and now even if I only had one ongoing RP with someone, it would still be completely fine with me. I've learned to be more patient, and enjoy the excitement of looking forward to a new post from an RP I'm really engaged in.

 

[Redfork2000]

For me, I was RPing on Facebook messenger with a close friend and on a private message on a "story" site when I was a teenager. When I wanted to branch out, I found an RP site I wanted to join, but I was so used to script format that I was shocked that people write like authors or novellists and all in 3rd person. I wasn't experienced enough to commit to this kind of degree of RPing. So I waited for 3 years before I tried again when I was making essays in high school, and it was easier to get used to it. While my posts were lackluster and small at first, I grew to RP with larger and more detailed post. I still remember my roots like it was yesterday though, but it was still an interesting shock I went through. I was surprised with mixed emotions when I first saw the writing style I use now. I was both happy that people were that good, but sad because I knew they would make amazing RP partners and we can RP wonderful settings and plots and I was also jealous because I wanted to RP like them yet didn't have the skills for that yet.

I was used to RPing in script format as well! Back in the fandom wikis I used to write in, we always used script format, so that's what I was used to. It actually shocked me when I came here and saw everyone roleplaying with the format and quality as if they were writing a novel. It's something I wasn't used to. I remember at first I felt intimidated by any posts that were longer than 2 or 3 paragraphs. But I grew as a roleplayer, and now I'm able to keep up with even more detailed writers who write 8-10 paragraphs per post. My preference is still 3-6 paragraphs though. But seriously, this site inspired me to become a better writer and improve as a roleplayer. Had I never arrived, I might've never known there was more than the simplistic script format posts we were used to back at those fandom wikis.

 

[Astraea]

Interestingly, I noticed several of the same things you did.

-Anime Fandoms: These take up a large portion of all fandoms that are mentioned in fandom RP interest checks. It's so frequent that I've even learned the names of animes I never saw or heard of before arriving at this site. I also found that Harry Potter and Marvel seem to be very popular here as well.

-Age: I used to RP in fandom wikis, and in the ones I've been in, the average age is much lower than here. Most users in the fandom wikis I was in are mostly teenagers, with only a small number of young adults, usually no older than 20. Here, while there are teenagers, a large portion of the people here are adults. Encountering people in their twenties is the norm, and even thirties isn't too uncommon, and I've even seen people here that are older than that, something that was not the case back where I RPed before.

-Literacy by far. In the wikis I used to RP in, we weren't even used to using the typical paragraph format that we use here. Back there we wrote in what I would call "script format", where we wrote dialogue lines separately from narration, as if we were writing a script. Something like this:

[Insert paragraph of narration]
-Character A: [Dialogue]
-Character B: [Dialogue]
[Insert paragraph of narration]

Like that. Also most roleplayers back where I'm from wrote a lot less per post than is usual here. So of course, when I first arrived, I was surprised with the level of quality the posts here have compared to where I used to roleplay. The traditional paragraph we use to RP is something I used only when writing my own projects, such as the story series I've been working on lately. Using it for RPs is something I hadn't ever done before coming here.

There were also a few other things I noticed.

-Character sheets. Back where I RPed, character sheets were unheard of. Since it was technically a wiki, whoever had the time to do so would just create a wiki article for their character, but in many cases there were RPers who didn't add any information about who their character was or what they were like. It was just a matter of the mods to make sure no one made a Mary Sue or any overpowered character that could break the game for everyone. However, despite never having used character sheets for RPs, I easily adapted because of how much I enjoyed making character profiles even before I started out as a roleplayer. Character creation has always been one of my favorite parts of writing, and when I wrote solo stories I would usually keep a separate document where I would write the character profiles for each character, so in a way I was used to the idea of character profiles or sheets.

-Post frequency. Back where I RPed, even though several of us were from drastically different timezones (I'm talking at least 3 users from America, 2 from Europe, 2 in Asia, and at least 1 in Australia), we somehow managed to find a golden time when most or all of us could be active at the same time, and then we all RPed at once. And since our posts weren't exactly high quality, we basically spent up to two or three hours doing dozens of rapid-fire posts. As a result, RPing was much faster. Here, while some RP partners I've had can do the rapid fire posting, most RP partners I've had can't do that, and instead post once, and then only reply in a few hours or a couple of days.

At first I was impatient, and couldn't wait to continue RPing. So after posting in one RP, I would start another with someone else, then another, and by the time I knew it, I had 6-8 ongoing RPs with different users all at once, and even then, once I had replied to them all, I still got impatient waiting for any one of them to reply. It was crazy for sure. But I eventually learned to adapt to the post speed, and now I actually love the system of posting once a day or so. It makes the mornings so much more exciting. When I log into the site in the morning, I'm already excited, anticipating the posts that are waiting for me to read and reply to. It's almost like that excitement people get when they're going to watch a new episode of their favorite series. So I've learned to adapt to this system, and now even if I only had one ongoing RP with someone, it would still be completely fine with me. I've learned to be more patient, and enjoy the excitement of looking forward to a new post from an RP I'm really engaged in.

The website was one of those sites that used html/css/java coding system for their profiles and the roleplaying was done in a multi-room system. It was mostly a rep website but I would occasionally find some really good writers on there. I could tell a lot of stories about 'wars' between different rooms, or times someone in one room would get banned for some reason or another and the owners of the said room would side with them.

The website itself was pretty cool, Users could open rooms based on what they were looking for in terms of roleplay. A lot of smut rooms, anime rooms, video game rooms, etc etc etc. The owner and mod (I think there was one? At one point?) could be dm'd or you could message them by mail. Sometimes they were useful and sometimes they weren't. They ended up banning discords for the rooms in any way and will result in a ban. His rules are a bit odd and he's lenient with the higher donors and those he has made friends with. I could pick out about 10 people I know personally who quit that site because of everything combined.

Personally, After I quit I was in a slump. I've only recently gotten back into roleplaying myself and this site has been really great so far, I'm really enjoying meeting some of the people. Like you, I've been very excited to log into the app when I've got the time. It's been a while since I haven't been at least somewhat overwhelmed by roleplaying.

 

[Onmyoji]

- Faceclaims. Where I used to rp it wasn't common, people used text descriptions more often and if they used images they were not called "faceclaims" and certainly were not a requirement. Although right now I can observe this being more and more mandatory there as well (while still not called "faceclaims")

- Multiple unrelated roleplays. I was used to either the whole forums dedicated to one or two roleplays, or rp sections within a bigger forums which still were dedicated to specific roleplays (something similar to Hosted Projects here). So it was cool to see that you can host multiple roleplays that don't have to be related to a specific theme!

- Related to the point above, but still a different thing. Public 1x1. I was absolutely not used to 1x1 in public threads. Previously it was either PM only or entire private dedicated forum or blog just for two people. I must admit, I'm still not used to this and prefer to roleplay in PM because rp in public threads makes me uncomfortable, knowing that other people may read what I wrote.

- BBCode. Here it's a lot more extensive and complex than where I roleplayed before. To be honest, I have love-hate relationship with it. It can look incredible but people seem to disregard readability as if they don't want their posts to be actually read, only intending to be looked at.

- No smut rule. Most places allowed it even if not in public. Here it's not allowed even in PMs. It was definitely a surprise, but a good one.

- Not for this place, but Tumblr platform was a huge culture shock to me. I still don't understand how roleplays work there.

 

[Jannah]

- No smut rule. Most places allowed it even if not in public. Here it's not allowed even in PMs. It was definitely a surprise, but a good one.

Not that I actually intend to break that rule since I have no interest in writing smut, but out of curiosity can staff actually read what is in members' PMs?

 

[Onmyoji]

Not that I actually intend to break that rule since I have no interest in writing smut, but out of curiosity can staff actually read what is in members' PMs?

Yes, so smut in PM is as much bannable rule violation as smut in public threads. Obviously Staff is not sitting here reading PMs all day but PMs can be reported too if something happens there.

 

[Jannah]

Yes, so smut in PM is as much bannable rule violation as smut in public threads. Obviously Staff is not sitting here reading PMs all day but PMs can be reported too if something happens there.

Ah okay. That's what I assumed the case was. I wouldn't think staff just sit there reading PM's all day, lmao. I mean you guys have lives too xD

 

[Onmyoji]

Ah okay. That's what I assumed the case was. I wouldn't think staff just sit there reading PM's all day, lmao. I mean you guys have lives too xD

We respect user privacy too, they're called PMs for a reason XD But yes, if something gets reported as inappropriate behavior in PM we react to that as well.

 

[Cealen]

ohhh boy i have seen a lot of different things ever since i came back to rping.

- lgbt+ pairings are treated SO MUCH better. the fact that i don’t have to see the words “seme” and “uke” associated with every single lgbt+ rp now is such a good thing. it used to be lgbt+ rps = smut, sadly, on other sites... i’m obviously happy this has changed overall, not only rpnation, and i see these relationships getting treated like m/f. MOST of the time.

- so much more fandom rps. over on the sites i was on, people preferred originals over fandoms most of the time. it definitely is different over here! i think this is more because fanfic has become way less “”cringey”” (i hate that word, but it fits here) to write about so that its actually more common for people to start with fandom rp when starting to roleplay. i even brought this up on my twitter and people had no idea you could rp in original settings/that was a thing...??!?? definitely different.

- people actually listing their triggers/limits and getting that respected. you used to get hit with the “well it’s just FICTION!!” argument if you ever said you were uncomfortable with something. or you’d get called a prude. apparently me not wanting to rp smut when i was a minor made me a prude who shouldn’t ever be rped with on other sites. it sucked!!

- ooc communication actually being a thing. you used to ONLY be able to talk to someone if you provided an ic post, or you got accused of “ignoring the rp”. people just wanted you to be a content farm, it was unheard of to be friends with your rp partners >_>.... i’m so happy this has changed, and that people almost require it on rpnation! i remember getting yelled at for saying hello to someone without a reply once o___o”

rp has definitely improved for the better overall, imo, not just on rpnation. i’m talking a bit more in general than i think some people are here ;-). it used to be so hellish to do, i feel bad for my younger self having to go through all that. :-(

 

[Daisie]

Popping in to say it makes me so happy to see that RpN seems to be a safe haven for y'all! And I'm proud that our writing is evidently of high quality XD

In our line of work, we don't generally get to see the happy folks, so it's always a relief to hear people beaming about the site. At least, I know it makes MY day. What a lovely thread!

Suppose I'll drop in a word or two.
EVERYTHING was different for me, culturally. RpN was actually the first site I decided to seriously join. Didn't have any social media, had only a sparse few video game accounts... RpN was my big introduction to the world of online socialization. I don't have much else to compare it to!

 

[shadowz1995]

I'd have to say that the biggest difference here (when I joined at least) was the "skill" system.

I actually appreciated that quite a bit because I hopped on here for the first time from an instant chat based rp or script based. The simple, casual, and detailed skill levels actually really helped me understand what category I fell into and it's actually what helped me learn to write better.

Because I would peak over the fence to the detailed rp threads and watch how they wrote and engaged in situations with their characters.

Now, I still think it's one of the best places to be because there really is a lot of freedom in what to write about and how to write about it. As other have said, it may be because the majority of the audience is late teen, early adult.

 

[ditto]

I came to this site with experience only in one-liners, first on Wattpad-esque site with a small rp forum where you could make threads for rp, then on Instagram. That being my experience, there were several things that made me all 👁 👁.

• .. The fact that people write actual posts here was wild to me. On my other site, the ONLY thing that people did was write a maximum of one paragraph for each of their posts. Here, it's the norm to write 300+ words. (Now that I'm used to it here, I could never envision myself going back to one-liners-- I just have so much to say. )

• .. The use of face claims. Seriously, all we'd do is say "Mary has blonde hair" or "Joe has blue eyes" and that would be it.

• .. The chatter OOC. I was used to talking (like this in parentheses). (Brb.) (Skip?) Things such as that.

• .. CODE! Oh my gosh, code. I had no experience with it prior to coming to this site. I love it so much, and I can't imagine doing without it.

• .. Character sheets with more than two sentences about personality.

• .. Actual plots to things. "Plotting", as many call it, was something that I had a total of ZERO experience with. I was used to being given a setting, saying "this is my character's name, here's a couple of words of history about them", and going from there with no aim whatsoever-- which was fun, but...yeah, everything felt like it had no aim. Going back to rping without some degree of plot is something that I don't think I could do again.

These are just some of the things that shocked me. Literally everything was so different when I came here. It was scary, but thanks to a few good rps that I've joined (two of which I'm still in!) and the welcoming, supportive atmosphere that those rps have had (and still have) have helped me 1) get used to this site and 2) start to call it home. Definitely a learning curve, but I'm glad I stuck through with it.

 

[Crow]

Yeah, why is multifandom so prominent here? Everyone's so quick to make one.

Well, me included, but still.

Heck, I'm more surprised that some of you came from places where you didn't use pictures for characters. Those were always a thing for me, swoop by photobucket, grab something, there we go.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Having RP'ed on fanfiction.net, Goodreads, RPNation, Reddit, and Discord, I can safely say that my biggest culture shock was the consistency of other players.

On FF, an RP could go on for months. And while post quality was questionable, no one ever ghosted on me.

Then I moved to Goodreads once I started struggling to find fun on FF, and ghosting was the norm, there. An RP group could pop up and explode in a day, and then a week later it's a ghost town. I've got a lot of regrets from Goodreads, and all of them stem from getting invested in stories when I was 80% sure the others would ghost the next day.

Reddit was... eh? I mean it wasn't like I ever had a partner shortage (quite the opposite, I was drowning in them), but I'd be lucky to find 1/20 that were literate, wrote well, and were actually interested in the RP and not just the memes I promised.

Discord was more of the same. Or is, I should say, since I still write on there. Since I had a measure of control with what kind of person I wrote with, I had mostly good experiences with consistent and good-quality writers.

RPN is my happy middle ground. I have been ghosted a lot, and while I'm definitely not ready for another group RP just yet, 1x1 partners of good writing caliber are tricky to come by, especially with the subjects I'm interested in. But the few times I've seen an RP last more than 10 pages it's been pure awesome.

 

[Myling]

I originally used to roleplay in a way where I would just write a text, copy it and paste it to the rp thread and maybe add the character's name on top. Coming to RPN and realizing people are CODING their character sheets and posts was a real culture shock lol.

Then another culture shock in RPN was the way people accept characters in rp's. In RPN when accepting people/characters to rp, it's more application based than first come, first serve. Like many people will create a character, and then the gm picks ones they like. If there's something wrong with your character there's no way to get accepted in the rp.
I just find that odd. If there's something wrong with my character I rather discuss it with the gm, and edit my character to suit the rp more.

 

[Jannah]

I originally used to roleplay in a way where I would just write a text, copy it and paste it to the rp thread and maybe add the character's name on top. Coming to RPN and realizing people are CODING their character sheets and posts was a real culture shock lol.

Then another culture shock in RPN was the way people accept characters in rp's. In RPN when accepting people/characters to rp, it's more application based than first come, first serve. Like many people will create a character, and then the gm picks ones they like. If there's something wrong with your character there's no way to get accepted in the rp.
I just find that odd. If there's something wrong with my character I rather discuss it with the gm, and edit my character to suit the rp more.

Some RP's here are still first come first serve. In the ones that aren't rarely is rejection anything personal. The GM just wants the characters that best fit into the setiing/plot.

 

[Myling]

Some RP's here are still first come first serve. In the ones that aren't rarely is rejection anything personal. The GM just wants the characters that best fit into the setiing/plot.

I know, I probably worded out weirdly, it's just something new to me. I also think both methods have their faults and rights. I've never thought it was personal. My characters have always been accepted so far. It just hurts my heart when I see someone applying to lot of rp's and being accepted just in couple lol. If character is otherwise good, but doesn't fit the rp, I don't understand why the gm and roleplayer couldn't just discuss about it and work together. Idk maybe I just don't get it lmao

 

[Uxie]

I know, I probably worded out weirdly, it's just something new to me. I also think both methods have their faults and rights. I've never thought it was personal. My characters have always been accepted so far. It just hurts my heart when I see someone applying to lot of rp's and being accepted just in couple lol. If character is otherwise good, but doesn't fit the rp, I don't understand why the gm and roleplayer couldn't just discuss about it and work together. Idk maybe I just don't get it lmao

i believe the biggest reason why gm's might not accept characters without giving them the opportunity to edit is when there are limited slots. i see this most often (and find it the most relevant!) with roleplays that have fixed roles that characters should fall into, where the character count has already been predetermined. otherwise, gm's may just want to keep the group on a smaller scale. it's obviously not for everyone and it sucks getting rejected, but as someone who prefers this system i think the reasoning is quite sound! (＾▽＾)

of course there are always those who don't fall under these categories and inexplicably reject applications in roleplays that may not require selection, but i believe this is the thought process most gm's who run application-based roleplays have. hopefully that helps you understand it a little better! ٩(｡•́‿•̀｡)۶

and to avoid digressing completely:
funnily enough, even though i would say my first brush with roleplay was on instagram (book fandom kids,,, you know the drill), i can't recall myself having an actual one-liner phase like i see some mention, and i transitioned into ocs quite quickly despite getting into roleplay via fandoms ( ´ ω ` ) it's surprising to say, but the more i think about it the more similarities my brief time on instagram has with my current experience on rpn! Σ(°ロ°)

i also see a ton of people talking about the coding and i cannot agree enough! that was probably the biggest difference for me, though mostly because the old sites i had been on weren't forums and didn't quite allow for coding. when i was on instagram, designing cses and aesthetics was totally a thing though, so i guess i wasn't always as far off as i thought! considering i had no prior experience w/ coding and only learnt bbcode because i thought accordions were cool, i think i've come a really long way (o˘◡˘o)