Chitchat Have you ever been criticized for roleplaying?

[shapeshifting]

Hey guys!
I was just wondering if anyone else has been criticized, judged or told that "you shouldn't do this anymore, it's weird" when it comes to forum roleplaying. In my situation my significant other really doesn't care for me doing this. She thinks I'm roleplaying with furries and doing a bunch of weird sexual/romantic stuff I guess. While I have explained to her that stuff like that can exist... this is just a wonderful community to write and explore different writing styles and plot-lines. She never has been real inclined to write so I don't think she has any interest in RPing even tho that would be amazing. It's not a real problem in the relationship as long as I'm not on the computer for too long. Just wondering if anyone has had similar expirences and how they dealt with that. I haven't seen any threads on this topic and thought it wouldn't hurt to post. Maybe it will help someone else.

 

[Hall Kervean]

Well, let me tell ye a tale...
On the gaming website I chill at (Roblox), there's an RP forum intended for those who desire to RP.
https://forum.roblox.com/Forum/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=23
In the meantime, it's kind of been infected, as trolls post there stuff there as often as guilds do. Guilds do it because they think that since they're RPing as a military or something, they can't post it in the subforum literally labeled "Clans & Guilds."
Off topic.
Anyways, so on Roblox, there's a ton of games you can roleplay in, and I have yet to find more than like three that haven't been absolute trash in game design, community, content, etc. People tend to fit people who forum RP in with the group of people who RP ingame. Unfortunately, those who RP in the forum for the most part are far superior to those who RP ingame. So when we get shoved in with them, we're accused of doing stupid stuff, Online Dating, etc. And so, obviously, they'd like us to stop doing those cancerous activities which we haven't begun in the first place.

tl;dr, ingame RPers gave forum RPers a bad name, so when we're lumped in with them, we're asked to stop RPing with such cringey stuff.

 

[PanOtterPus]

This.

My friends always give me weird looks whenever they ask what I'm doing on my phone and I tell them I'm just on doing an RP. I've tried to explain it to them so many times, that (while you do get some pretty odd content now and again) it's not a strange community to be part of. They know I'm a strange person at the best of times anyway - why should this surprise them, everyone needs an outlet.
How can it hurt when it helps my creative writing skills, communication skills, calms down my anxiety and helps me make some friends in the process?
It's actually one of the communities I actually feel safer being a part of - in RP if you get uncomfortable you can just say and the topic can change as easy as that. If it doesn't - instablock!
Doesn't work like that with real people. Real people can be the worst. Ugh.
Anyway, I'm rambling. Yes - I have been judged.

 

[Elephantom]

When they ask, I just tell them I'm collaborating on a writing project with someone — usually, I use Wattpad as a backdrop for this con.

They never realize that they've been tightly fooled.

 

[RiversEdge]

I've never really been criticized for it. Mostly because I know who not to tell. I'm not really open with my pastimes honestly. It never occurred to me to even tell people I was writing in my spare time. It's my business not theirs.

Strangely enough I do have a couple real life friends I rp with that do understand and value the concept of rp. But uh....only one of them is really...good at it?

 

[Communist]

People who judge you for roleplaying are the same people who play CoD 24/7 all day and refuse to admit that they "think". PROBABLY

Roleplaying is a great way to improve your grammar and imagination/creativity since you're constantly trying to come up with stories, plots, settings and characters (and trust me, you'd be impressed with how many stories I came up with). It's not a stupid thing, infact, those who say roleplaying is stupid are probably ignorant themselves and will remain like that forever.

 

[PanOtterPus]

Actually, now that I think about it, I have another good thing about RP.
I have a friend with MPD, and some of her personalities scare her so much that she's afraid one day, one of them is going to do something real bad or stupid (or both).
RP is her way of safely letting them out. Kind of giving each their own character or plot and allowing them to act in whatever way satisfies them. So anyone who says RP is weird/pointless/stupid, they're just being completely ignorant.

 

[Windsock]

revealing your power level should be a bannable offense.

 

[Communist]

revealing your power level should be a bannable offense.

I would say a Dragon Ball Z meme, but it has been way too overused.

 

[Windsock]

I would say a Dragon Ball Z meme, but it has been way too overused.

nice (((meme)))

aside, why the hell would you even tell people you do 'thing', when 'thing' is something that's usually seen as socially weird? What, you think Roleplaying is going to be the next video games and it's gonna be socially kewl in like 5 years? Fuck that. I want roleplayers to be seen as weird. Fucking normies stay out.

 

[Communist]

nice (((meme)))

aside, why the hell would you even tell people you do 'thing', when 'thing' is something that's usually seen as socially weird? What, you think Roleplaying is going to be the next video games and it's gonna be socially kewl in like 5 years? Fuck that. I want roleplayers to be seen as weird. Fucking normies stay out.

I never told anyone outside of a roleplay forum about "roleplay" because I know they're not gonna like it. Most teenagers (and probably every kid nowadays) only cares about videogames and getting quicknoscopes and shiny gold skins in CS:GO or CoD.

I'm simple saying that those who find roleplaying to be a "weird" thing, that doesn't makes them seem any smarter than what they try to look like.

 

[PanOtterPus]

nice (((meme)))

aside, why the hell would you even tell people you do 'thing', when 'thing' is something that's usually seen as socially weird? What, you think Roleplaying is going to be the next video games and it's gonna be socially kewl in like 5 years? Fuck that. I want roleplayers to be seen as weird. Fucking normies stay out.

I just tell folk because I couldn't give a flying monkeys what they think. If they choose to judge me then that's their issue. Just hate all the ignorance behind the judgement is all.

 

[shapeshifting]

People who judge you for roleplaying are the same people who play CoD 24/7 all day and refuse to admit that they "think". PROBABLY

HAH. YES! I like video games but I simply couldn't live without writing. Writing stories with other people is just downright fun and stimulates me in a way video games never could.

 

[two]

I've only been criticized by my mom but that was back when I was doing this on instagram (which is now a horrible place to roleplay, really), but now since i've shown her this once she likes that i'm doing this. But besides that I don't think anyone even knows that i'm doing this and I never really felt the urge to either. And when someone asks me what i'm all typing, what rarely happens, I just say that collaborating on a writing project (just like Elephantom )

 

[Edna]

I turn down my brightness as low as possible when I'm writing/roleplaying freely when I am near family members or friends. One of my friends once peered over my screen and caught me doing a modern roleplay. I tried to explain to them what it is, but all they did was shake their head and thought that I was doing some sort of erotic nonsense.

Writing has been given a bad reputation. I don't know how people came up with the matching writing with being antisocial and depressed, because its associated with the exact opposite.

 

[jjmags]

100% absolutely so many times. People find it weird. They judge me for communicating with others online, living in a fantasy world, and automatically assume it's for some sort of sexual motive. It's mean, and it hurts, cause I just want to write. And i love this place, and sites like this, with strong communities and people with good hearts.

 

[Imperator_tenebrae]

I've only been criticized once and suffice it to say I am no longer friends or associated with such judgemental arseholes.

 

[TheRockInception]

Now, you can't get criticized for RPing if nobody knows you RP.


Or you don't have friends, or many friends. That helps too.

 

[TheRockInception]

I turn down my brightness as low as possible when I'm writing/roleplaying freely when I am near family members or friends. One of my friends once peered over my screen and caught me doing a modern roleplay. I tried to explain to them what it is, but all they did was shake their head and thought that I was doing some sort of erotic nonsense.

Writing has been given a bad reputation. I don't know how people came up with the matching writing with being antisocial and depressed, because its associated with the exact opposite.

These are the same people that will use Snapchat like it's a cocaine addiction, I'm willing to bet any money at all.

 

[Corrosion]

Got made fun of by a friend when he caught me roleplaying. This is coming from a guy who literally drew up a timetable of when he faps during the day.

 

[Myrta]

No, actually. I'm not trying to keep it secret, either.

I think it's because roleplaying is actually one of my more normal hobbies. People kind of stopped trying to criticize me ages ago, somewhere between finding out that I visit a shooting range regularly (I'm European, so it's pretty strange by our standards) and that I keep caterpillars. When a friend saw me typing a post like three days earlier, she asked me about it, I explained and she only went: "... huh, interesting, is that like an online version of that Dungeons and Dragons thing you play?" And that's pretty much the same reaction anyone I ever describe it to has.

 

[The Gunrunner]

I like to share stories on what happens sometimes in rp, because I find it cool.

Like when I'm organizing a city-wide genocide against vampires despite most of the player-base being apathetic to their existence

Taking on the Legion legate in a fight.

Organizing assassinations.

But if I ever tell the stories to people who don't roleplay, or have an interest, it just gets you weird looks.

 

[Alexandra]

I haven't had any problems with folks being weirded out by my roleplaying since my teens, and my mother failed to understand what was going on, and why we were all yelling at each other around the kitchen table.
There is an extremely active gaming community where I live (I am super lucky), so I primarily do my rolepaying IRL. As I've gotten older, and more into the community, most of my closest friends are from there, and enjoy roleplaying; it's a thing we do together. The few friends that don't do any sort of gaming refer to my hobby affectionately as "that nerdy thing you do".
As far as significant others go, well, he's a bigger nerd than I am in some ways so we do a lot of gaming together.

 

[WordArtist]

I was when I was younger. When people who don't understand ask me about my writing, I just tell them it's cooperative writing... or co-authoring. Those are terms that people outside the community understand, and that's exactly what we're doing here. Not every written story is published, but you don't have to have a story published to be an author. You're an author if you write anything.

 

[StoneWolf18]

RANT WARNINGNow, I love sharing my writing with my friends, but I can only do that with a select few of those in real life for this reason. Very few of my real-life friends write, most not seeing any enjoyment in the task at all. Because of this I tend to just say I enjoy writing specifically because I either get one of two reactions:

"Oh, so you're having sex online with people you don't even know?"

Or the more recent "Tabletop is superior to any other forms of roleplaying, how dare you."

Those opinions are usually kept and then held against me for whatever reason, they even remembering it and bringing it up whenever I'm on my phone near that individual. So, instead of forcing myself to put up with people for already pre-made misconceptions, I avoid saying "roleplaying" unless I know somehow the person won't get all hostile about it. But with that, and the hours I spend roleplaying when I have free time, everyone thinks I'm antisocial when in reality, I know most of my online friends better than them.

So... better put a TL; DR...

Yes I have been judged for roleplaying, it fucking sucks, but there isn't anything I can do about it.