I am curious if anyone can convince me to RP. I frankly don't see the fun of it, so if anyone would like to enlighten me... Danke Schoen.
I've never really understood the appeal myself. I was a bit tempted when I began to see them more as collaborative stories than some kind of game, but I feel like I would be a bit of a control freak with it (xD) and have difficulties keeping up with one.
Go play outside with a wooden sword and pretend you're fighting off a horde of demons in order to save the castle you've lived in since you were three years old.
Is an exact representative of how cool it is to RP. Really they're intended for people who are so out of touch with reality they can't watch t.v without smashing it open trying to save the tiny people trapped inside.
B| I've only smashed two TVs. ONLY TWO DAMMIT. RPing is fun though. To be honest, I usually have more enjoyment creating RPs rather than participating. ; ;
I used to RP, back in the day-- is this a real shocker? I understand the appeal, but I don't believe I've the creativity for it. Perhaps all I'd need to do was give myself a kick in the rear, sputter, allow the gears to turn... it's been too long. Imaginations should not be left to rot. If you cannot understand the appeal, then I believe you have even less of an imagination than me. That is like not knowing why kids pretend, why reality is boring. I guess RPers are just that, people tired of reality. I cannot say with confidence that this applies to all, but it did apply to me. Reality is, like, sooo outdated.
I've created a number of rps back in the day, some were fun and imaginative while others were dull. Although that was 5 years ago...wow that was a while ago... Edit: I was actually a tad active back in 07. XD Spoiler
Rping requires your direct interference, attention. Is that why there is no appeal? Books require less of your attention span, less effort...
Personally, I can't see how people don't like RPing, how can you not like writing a story with other people? That's pretty much what it is, and on the plus, you get to make your own character however you want. It's great fun, RPing.
RPs are silly. If you want to write a creative work, write a poem or a short story. Don't write a silly RP. If you want to make it a collaborative effort, find somebody to do it with. It's not that hard. At least then it will have personal and cultural value rather than some silly little thing where you're pretending to be Johnny Depp pretending to be a pirate. And you might get published in a magazine or something.
It's only fun for certain people. It's not for everyone and if you don't want to RP, you don't have to. I like it because like Misty stated, I end up treating it more like a collaboration. I like to write. It's entertaining for me to write a story with multiple people, (depending on who they are), honestly. The appeal drops for me when it stops feeling like a collaboration and becomes less organized or if the story line is all over the place (or there is no actual goal, so you're just there), or when the overall level of effort is unequal. I also don't like role playing existing characters ... I actually sort of hate it. To be trapped in an already existing world with certain limitations, playing an already existing character with a specific personality, is just ... Not for me. I only do it if I'm forced asked to. I have the most fun role playing original stories with original characters, and that's honestly all I'm genuinely interested in. Playing other characters or worlds/stories doesn't interest me. It's not really an escape from reality for me. It's just my equivalent to writing, which is a fairly common hobby. I take a break or stop when I need to and write when I feel like it. I enjoy setting it up, and organizing it, and I enjoy reading what other people come up with. When (if) the role play is finished, it's fun to go back and read how things went and how it got to a certain point, etc. But like I said, it's not for everyone so no sweat. I don't see why we have to call people silly for their hobbies or interests, considering we're all on the Internet, on a forum ... for Kingdom Hearts.
I don't see the point of text based most of the time, because I'm a tabletopper. It's fun if done right like so many things.
Welp, i guess i don't like writing very much. That may have an affect on this. I was just curious to see what all of you thought.
To write for the sake of personal or cultural value, to write with hopes of attaining glory: now that is what is stupid. You also seem to be under the impression that all rps necessarily branch off of another work. This is not the case, there are plenty of originals out there. If I am correct, role-plays tend to be enacted in script format. That is not necessarily a waste of time, plenty of stories begin fleshless. Scripts may be fleshed out later for public viewing. It seems stupid, to rule out role-plays as a "waste of time". To rule out anything as a waste of time is stupid, faulty logic. Who are you to choose what or what not anyone's spent time is?
I wouldn't say RP writing is silly. Writing styles are subjective just like a majority of things. Some people prefer to write alone, and others would like to write with a group and become immersed in it. Personally, I don't really participate or make any RPs much at all because I am OCD about having autonomy on writing my own things, but for others it's a fun way to write something creative if you don't want to or can't do something as big on your own. Really, all Roleplays are is just a giant group collab, except focusing more on the characters rather than establishing everything at once alone.
