Other What makes roleplay, roleplay?

[Faricarnon]

What makes roleplay, roleplay? I’ve been discussing with other individuals about the question and points they raised. About roleplay in general and, what exactly is it that roleplay is made up of. Elements of writing, acting, are often tied to it, but I'd like to know what roleplay is to you. What is it about roleplay in general that causes you to roleplay with other individuals for hours at a time? What is roleplay and why do we do it? I'd appreciate any thoughts on the matter or any experiences you might have.


As for myself, roleplay is a collaborative contribution. What I mean by that is, roleplay consists of curators all pitching in into the roleplay as a group rather specific individuals. It's people, writers as a group, plotting to found, to build and to act. A friend of mine even said roleplay is "player and world interaction." I feel it’s necessary to include excerpts from a discussion we had to understand what he really meant.


"Sure thing. To put it more straight forward, let's look at Life. There's you, other people, and the world around you, such as weather or animals. From your point of view, you are the main character and others are side characters, now in respect everyone views themselves that way. Except your friends and family, do you really give anyone a lasting thought or know in depth details about them? Then there is the world around you, events and happenstance happens all around you that shape your view of the world and shape your outlook and others as well. All these things are factions in your life, both good and bad, and they're amazing when they all come together. Now of course, you can disregard all of that and just focus on yourself and your other main characters, but in doing so, are you not taking for granted the world around that shapes your life? If all side characters and other details of the world just disappeared, what's really left?


It's impossible to know everything and everyone, but it can be said that everyone is their own protagonist in their life and an npc in other people's, including you.


But I guess my main point is that, you don't have to be a rper to make an impact on someone else's story."


The points he made can be tied into what I initially said. In order to achieve that level of interaction where elements of roleplay that roleplayers could revolve around like the time of day, weather, and other things that aren't necessarily controlled by roleplayers, contribution by everyone involved is necessary. I think of roleplay as a creative writing outlet for people to partake in and meet new people and form friendships through it.

 

[Nana_MelaNinja]

Hm, I would include a lot of what was already mentioned to describe what roleplaying is, but with additional emphasis on communication. Communication between OCs, naturally, but also between the people behind the characters. One of my favorite aspects of roleplaying is planning and plotting with other people, bouncing ideas off my partners and receiving feedback. It's fun, for me, at least.

Roleplaying is also a way for me to develop my writing, especially when it comes to character development and dialogue. This has evolved from when I initially stated nearly a decade ago on Neopets and Nick forums. Back then, I roleplayed mostly for the escapism factor and basically treated it as an literary version of playing pretend. That still happens from time to time, but nowadays I focus more on developing my characters for the sake of a project I'm working on. Roleplaying as them provides the perfect avenue in which to do so.

So yeah, that's what roleplay means to me. (I hope I answered your question!)

 

[Ranix Aurus]

Roleplay is an act to act out a role.

More precisely, role-playing game means we play as a character, a role inside the game world, although these days RPG is more associated with numerical status growth.

We can extend the meaning to say that everything existing in life is roleplaying to some extent, but most of the time, roleplaying is mostly concerned with game, or having fun in general. If you're talking about your life where you act as different role depending on the situation, it's up to you to consider it roleplaying or not. For me personally, I call things as roleplaying when I actively consider it as a deliberate act for having fun instead of a necessity.

For example, I act appropriately for my job different from how I act back at home. Both are roles that I change to in regular basis, but it's not roleplaying, because it's a necessity for social life instead of for having fun. When I roleplay in this forum, I actively do this for fun, and so I consider it roleplaying.

 

[Genjiomnom]

I think good points all around. With Faricarnon talking about the collaboration between people. Nana_MelaNinja Communication, and even further, what it means to them as a means of escapism, and Ranix Aurus about how it's a game for fun.

For me, what roleplaying is, is people playing out roles. To put a simple definition to it, it's a literal meaning of its own name.

Obviously you're asking more of what it means to different people. For me, it's not too different from Nana. I have an unhealthy habit of daydreaming. I don't really know what's going on most of the time, but man, that's one sexy guy I'm about to kiss in my head!

Roleplaying is an extension of that for me. It's a chance to take these fantastical characters, and no, they aren't all sex crazed, that I created, and to put them in various situations to see how they react. So for me, it's a way to see how characters I've developed act in different situations, and that's why I choose to roleplay, instead of just constantly daydreaming XD

 

[Windsock]

I think you're obligated to like or reference anime.

 

[Genjiomnom]

I don't think anime is even required. I've RPd before I even knew what anime really was. I didn't even understand the slang of RP, still don't really In my mind, unless someone is specifying anime appearances for characters, I'm thinking and describing things in a real world fashion. Anime doesn't ever pop into my head until it's an anime fandom, or some obscure fantasy that may fit better with anime characters, or of course if the OP requests anime depicted characters. Windsock

 

[Idea]

From my understanding, "what is roleplay" is a poor question. A lot of the answers given, as one would expect, are the answer to "what do you want out of roleplay?" and I can assure it will continue to be like that.

The word "roleplay" is pretty clear. "Role" "play", which means to play the role, that is, to step into someone else´s shoes. The idea of roleplay, as opposed to any other medium where you have characters in a similar way, is that in roleplay you BECOME the character. All actions, descriptions, everything should be placed as the character living in the scenario they are put in and you telling or acting their side of the story. That is what roleplay IS, and I don´t think that much is really arguable. As Ranix Aurus mentioned, it is a game of sorts, I suppose, but if you take that away something can still be roleplaying. But if you take the immersion with the character away, then it´s not roleplaying. It´s playing a board game, it´s writing a collaborative story, it´s whatever, but it´s not roleplay.

Still, that makes the other answers no less important. After all, one could argue that what one wants out of roleplay is, in fact, the real important question here. My answer would be that what I want out of roleplay is to entertain myself with quality and to share my creations. Like any other, I want to have fun rolplaying, but I also want to express my creativity and I want to make something that I can feel is worthwhile rather than a pointless distraction.

 

[Faricarnon]

Thanks for responding, all of you.

Idea Sorry for that. I should have worded myself better. What I meant by the question was, what is roleplay to you and what makes it that way. I wasn't specifically asking for the definition of roleplay. I'll use two of my friends as an example, one saying he said roleplay was a form of improv due to his theatrical background. Another said roleplay was being able to fully appreciate the setting, lore, and history the world has to offer because she roleplays exclusively on mmorpgs. As Genjiomnom stated, I think definitions of roleplay tend to vary from person to person as I believe people have different perspectives in general. That's the reason why I posted the thread in the first place, to learn from the different views people have on roleplay. Had I not of met my two friends I mentioned I wouldn't have been exposed to that otherwise.

Nana_MelaNinja I'm sure I can relate to roleplaying for an escape, as a means to get away from whatever I was doing at the time. It was more of a beneficial way to spend my time. Because as you said, roleplay helps you develop your writing and in general roleplay has a lot of transferable skills that could benefit you irl. I still linger on that thought but after discussing and having the pleasure of getting to know individuals who shared their perspectives with me, I've gradually grown out of that mindset. I feel like what you said about your character's dialogue, can be related to what Genjiomnom said about roleplaying being an extension of how his characters would respond, act and be portrayed. Roleplay imo provides people with opportunities to better understand their characters and portray them. In a way, it's similar to what my friend said about roleplay being a form of improv.

 

[Idea]

Sorry for that. I should have worded myself better. What I meant by the question was, what is roleplay to you and what makes it that way. I wasn't specifically asking for the definition of roleplay. I'll use two of my friends as an example, one saying he said roleplay was a form of improv due to his theatrical background. Another said roleplay was being able to fully appreciate the setting, lore, and history the world has to offer because she roleplays exclusively on mmorpgs. As Genjiomnom stated, I think definitions of roleplay tend to vary from person to person as I believe people have different perspectives in general. That's the reason why I posted the thread in the first place, to learn from the different views people have on roleplay. Had I not of met my two friends I mentioned I wouldn't have been exposed to that otherwise.

you don´t need to apologize you didn´t do anything wrong. The question is just often put in a manner I find very wrong to be put, that is all.

 

[doneanddusted]

So I may be repeating, bu I got impatient and wanted to answer >.< I see roleplaying as just another name for playing pretend with other people dressing up as a certain character and acting them out counts as roleplaying, and writing as a different character counts as role paling too.

 

[Birdsie]

All you need to know is in the title.

>"Role" "Play"
>Play Role
>Play a role.
>As in: Pick a role and play it.
>As: Pick the role of another, probably fictional character and play as them in a probably fictional universe to create a cohesive story, with numerous other players.

 

[Bresn]

Those replies are beautiful.

To me roleplaying is the connecting of minds to create something larger than life... people of all different walks of life coming together to make true a vision far beyond what one could imagine. It's learning about the characters, the worlds, and the people behind them. To spark the start of something so aweing you want to dive into it again and again. You learn so much, writing especially, but to develop your creative muscles and various life skills even if it's not easy to describe "what "skills.

 

[Birdsie]

Those replies are beautiful.

To me roleplaying is the connecting of minds to create something larger than life... people of all different walks of life coming together to make true a vision far beyond what one could imagine. It's learning about the characters, the worlds, and the people behind them. To spark the start of something so aweing you want to dive into it again and again. You learn so much, writing especially, but to develop your creative muscles and various life skills even if it's not easy to describe "what "skills.

Or it might just be a bunch of kids writing one-liners that do not describe anything and don't push the story forward at all.

The reason I'm replying is to inform you a word like "aweing," doesn't exist. I think the term you meant to use is awe-inspiring, or anything resembling that.
And yes, I am a grammar nazi. I am proud of it because I am a guardian and maintainer of the English language.

 

[Bresn]

Or it might just be a bunch of kids writing one-liners that do not describe anything and don't push the story forward at all.

The reason I'm replying is to inform you a word like "aweing," doesn't exist. I think the term you meant to use is awe-inspiring, or anything resembling that.
And yes, I am a grammar nazi. I am proud of it because I am a guardian and maintainer of the English language.

Grammar can't stop me

And one-liners is the exact issue I'm dealing with in a forum due to veteran roleplayers retiring and the fact it's a game forum and not a roleplaying site, working on a guide as I speak so I can try to revive the spirit of things.

 

[rae2nerdy]

A way to hang out with friends and tell stories ( sometimes ) but mostly build worlds together and see how far our imagination can take us.