Is RP dying?

[Muhammad Ali]

I started on roleplaying for Twitter, so excuse me for my ignorance when it comes to traditional forum roleplaying, but it seems to me like RP is dead. On Twitter, a lot of people got hit with psycho a**holes and bad writers, and that caused a lot of good people to leave, including me. I recently came back to Twitter RP after about a 6 month hiatus in January, and it's just not the same. Especially since I changed my character of choice to Muhammad Ali.


There also seems to be no outlet for roleplayers who are casual/simple writers and just want to chill. A lot of the forum RPs I was thinking about applying to seem to really hate these types of writers and put a strong emphasis on being supernatural and writing in the 3rd person, which I dislike doing.


What is your take on this? Is RP dying? Any negative experiences you've had that have taken a tole on your RP?

 

[White Masquerade]

I won't say dying, but it is falling off. Not in how many people want to do it; in purpose and soul.


RP is the fulfillment of a passionate desire for total immersion. All too often, other unnecessary things get in the way of that. A lot of the problems are because of that.


If fun is being had by all, with their wish of becoming part of their chosen world fulfilled, bad writing wouldn't matter. They'd be trying to improve to pull more enjoyment from the interactions. You'd be too busy appreciating the wonderful experience to care. The psychos would even be kept in line not wanting to mess things up. It'd be good vibes all around. I've seen it. It was brief, but something I'll never forget.


Now comes the passion. It's just not there. A creator should love an RP so much that it'd be a major disappointment if they weren't able to play in it themselves. Passion leads to creating novel experiences and pushing limits; not being content to settle for an everyday role-play.


So yes, I get what you're saying. It's not in the best of shape. Though I do believe if things got back to the core, being why people even role play in the first place, the condition of RP would quickly recover and be filled with great excitement once more.


Also, lots of casual role-plays on our site. =p. We got you covered.

 

[Mordecai]

See, I disagree and would even dare to say there are more people roleplaying than I ever remember before; however, I feel the passion and interests of today's roleplayers have shifted. I don't want to say they have gotten better or worse, but they have definitely changed from how I remember forum roleplay being ten years ago. Now, I'm not at all familiar with twitter roleplaying as I've always been part of forums similar to RPNation, but I have come to find people have less time to invest in roleplaying. Unfortunately, a truly delightful roleplay, especially group, takes a huge, huge, huge time commitment.


Roleplays these days seem more revolved around romance, having a "cool" character, and fandoms rather than plots, character development, and scores of meaningful interactions. This has been my biggest disappointment as of late, but I don't think it necessarily spells the death of roleplaying. Roleplaying will continue whether you and I like or dislike the writing climate.


I also believe that @White Masquerade is intrinsically very wise and hit the nail straight on the head.


That said, I understand what you're saying about some bits and pieces. As for Muhammad Ali, I understand why you might be struggling to find roleplays for his character. Unfortunately, many players (speaking from my experience only!) are young and unlearned to that part of history. They may simply not understand the character or understand him well enough to feel comfortable in a period roleplay. Additionally, I've been roleplaying for ten years and third person was always the most common by a landslide. Again, this is from my experience only, but first persons were always a rarity to see.


Anyways, I totally just woke-up, so I'm not even sure how much sense this post made. So, eeeeeh~.

 

[cam]

When I first saw the subject line, I was all, "heck no, it's waaay more popular than I remember".

[QUOTE="Muhammad Ali]There also seems to be no outlet for roleplayers who are casual/simple writers and just want to chill. A lot of the forum RPs I was thinking about applying to seem to really hate these types of writers and put a strong emphasis on being supernatural and writing in the 3rd person, which I dislike doing.

[/QUOTE]
But at the same time, I sympathize a lot with this. RP has certainly changed forms. When I started, it was all done on chatrooms, in first person, with actions denoted in asterisks. "Posts" were much shorter, and overall, the pacing was a lot quicker and felt more realtime.


Nowadays it's much more like writing a novel in tandem with somebody else. There's certainly some benefits to this - you can get a lot more into the details of how a setting appears, for example. But in terms of simply playing a role, it's a lot harder to focus on that aspect.

 

[ayzrules]

where I first started rp'ing, most people wrote less than 1,000 characters per post (one-liners were common) and many of them were simply cliche high school drama slice-of-life type roleplays. However, as I explored other sites, I realized that high fantasy and really really futuristic rps were very common and I wasn't sure if I liked those as much. I'd say it definitely depends on the site if you're talking about rp 'dying', where I started roleplay it certainly has died

 

[Grey]

Being part of an RP scene which has only gotten stronger since the 80s, the idea of this sentiment is utterly laughable to me.


Like, I want to argue rationally, but you demonstrate such a critical lack of perspective I'd have to essentially educate you on the last thirty years of roleplaying before I could even address your point.

 

[cam]

Being part of an RP scene which has only gotten stronger since the 80s, the idea of this sentiment is utterly laughable to me.
Like, I want to argue rationally, but you demonstrate such a critical lack of perspective I'd have to essentially educate you on the last thirty years of roleplaying before I could even address your point.

Ha ha, holy jeez. Give the guy a break. We're talking about playing pretend on the internet, here.

 

[Law]

Is roleplay dying? That's honestly, and reasonably debatable. It has obviously involved since the times of AOL, Ayenee, Eden, etc, and even the other roleplaying communities not associated with some of the bigger locales available years ago. Now you have most roleplaying websites centered around one general idea that's usually rooted in an already developed world usually taken from video games and anime and switched to suit the fancy of the creators. There's still a few roleplaying websites with those who stick to roots of roleplay, but to say that it's dying is an overstatement.


There are still roleplaying chats and forums where casual roleplay and line for line roleplays are accepted, it's simply a matter of finding them. From my personal experience, however, yes, it has become much more difficult to find roleplays as such considering the nature of roleplays evolution.


Also, as far as I know, roleplaying online hasn't existed any longer than maybe 22 to 23 years maybe? Anyone who says they've been roleplaying on the internet for 30+ years is asinine.

 

[Mordecai]

Also, as far as I know, roleplaying online hasn't existed any longer than maybe 22 to 23 years maybe? Anyone who says they've been roleplaying on the internet for 30+ years is asinine.

Law, maybe I misread the previous posts, but no one mentioned roleplaying online for the last 30+ years. Board roleplays, like DnD, rose to popularity in the mid 70s. After the rise of internet popularity, roleplaying shifted from board to online; however, that doesn't mean roleplaying in other forms didn't exist before the internet.

 

[Law]

Law, maybe I misread the previous posts, but no one mentioned roleplaying online for the last 30+ years. Board roleplays, like DnD, rose to popularity in the mid 70s. After the rise of internet popularity, roleplaying shifted from board to online; however, that doesn't mean roleplaying simply didn't exist before the internet.

I wasn't exactly referring to anyone here, a random tidbit after reading a previous post, I wasn't accusing anyone of having said such. I know I personally never had experience with roleplaying until I came online and it was fairly foreign to me before hand. That said I am heavily aware of this fact, as many people I know take part and still have continued to take part in many table top / board roleplays for some time (since approximately the mid eighties as far as I know).

 

[Mordecai]

I wasn't exactly referring to anyone here, a random tidbit after reading a previous post, I wasn't accusing anyone of having said such. I know I personally never had experience with roleplaying until I came online and it was fairly foreign to me before hand. That said I am heavily aware of this fact, as many people I know take part and still have continued to take part in many table top / board roleplays for some time (since approximately the mid eighties as far as I know).

Ah, got it.


I wasn't even born at that point, so, I didn't have experience with roleplaying until it was relatively well established on the Internet. I do know, however, that DnD made its debut in 1974. Whether or not there were RPGs before that, I haven't a clue. That said, I believe it is reasonable for someone to claim they have been roleplaying for 30+ years; however, I'm also making the assumption that the play-by-post style is considerably younger than board RPGs.

 

[Law]

Ah, got it.
I wasn't even born at that point, so, I didn't have experience with roleplaying until it was relatively well established on the Internet. I do know, however, that DnD made its debut in 1974. Whether or not there were RPGs before that, I haven't a clue. That said, I believe it is reasonable for someone to claim they have been roleplaying for 30+ years; however, I'm also making the assumption that the play-by-post style is considerably younger than board RPGs.

Indeed, that statement merely refers to those who claim to have been roleplaying as long online, however, even then board RPG's didn't come till abit later after roleplaying started in the back alley of chatrooms internet wide.

 

[Auren]

Indeed, that statement merely refers to those who claim to have been roleplaying as long online, however, even then board RPG's didn't come till abit later after roleplaying started in the back alley of chatrooms internet wide.

The internet has only been widespread since 1990s, and even in th 90s, it was insanely difficult to want to spend much time on the internet, considering it took 10 minutes to load a very simple page with dailup. Many roleplayers who claim to roleplay for 30+ years, or 40+ years, can easily be meaning the board games as their first roleplay.


Board RPGs existed 20 years before that, and were the beginning of what we call RPGs today. Now, as time has changed, our society has adapted to the different available forms to which you can roleplay. So, there's Twitter, Tumblr, IM, Flickr, Forums like RpNation, Facebook, Kik, etc. Heck, I've also roleplayed with pen and paper with friends when I was a teenager. We would write our characters back and forth. And sometimes we didn't write things out so much as talk out situations with one another.




So, to get to the question of if RPs are dying, they're not. They may be less popular in certain forms, but roleplays are not dying. They are simply changing shape with people's preferred choices.


In it's core, roleplaying is collaborative writing. Sometimes that means writing in first person with one-liners, sometimes that means writing in third person. I've seen equal amount of both.


In my experience with roleplaying, the quality and amount written by players and required from players generally comes with growing as a roleplayer. Though, some peeps prefer to keep to simplier roleplays, and some move on to wanting lengther roleplays. When I began as a roleplayer, I wrote a paragraph if not less, and when I grew older, I wrote more.


Lastly:


RpNation has close to 20,000 members. That's a pretty large number of people to roleplay, and it's not including the amount of roleplayers on various other forum sites, or other sites like Twitter or Tumblr. So again, to say that roleplay is dying seems to be a very small way of looking at a situation. It may not be the same as from when you began, but roleplaying has transformed with it's players. While it may be different, or less popular on another site, that doesn't mean that it's going away. It's simply moving to a different form, or changing the way it's done.

 

[Wolf Rawrrr]

What Auren said *woof*


However I am somewhat concerned because the next generations of people (and thus potential roleplayers) are not growing up as they should. Imagination is not being encouraged properly, and the media are serving way too many cooled off, pre-shaped things where they should offer molten matter. I'm afraid that sometime in the future the title of this thread may ring less hollow than now. I'd like to be wrong on this, but... ( )

 

[Grey]

Since a need for clarity has presented itself; D&D was not the first roleplaying game, not quite, but it rather codified the form for years and was near enough it makes little difference.


Ergo, roleplaying has grown since the seventies. The channels through which we roleplay have expanded.


As long as I still go to three roleplaying conventions a year, weekly sessions, and RPN is still here for me, the idea of roleplaying dying counts in the same ignorant, reactionary category as the youth of today being out of control and PC gaming being over.

even then board RPG's didn't come till abit later after roleplaying started in the back alley of chatrooms internet wide.

I sincerely hope you mean online message boards as opposed to tabletop RPGs, since I noted you used the term board RPG to refer to them earlier.

 

[Law]

Since a need for clarity has presented itself; D&D was not the first roleplaying game, not quite, but it rather codified the form for years and was near enough it makes little difference.
Ergo, roleplaying has grown since the seventies. The channels through which we roleplay have expanded.


As long as I still go to three roleplaying conventions a year, weekly sessions, and RPN is still here for me, the idea of roleplaying dying counts in the same ignorant, reactionary category as the youth of today being out of control and PC gaming being over.


I sincerely hope you mean online message boards as opposed to tabletop RPGs, since I noted you used the term board RPG to refer to them earlier.

I did indeed mean online RPG Boards, as my only experience with roleplay comes from my participation of it online (and briefly offline, via writing on rule paper with other high-school/college friends).

 

[Grey]

Jolly good, appreciate the clarity. You are correct there; the forum-based stuff definitely came after the chatrooms and play by email roleplays.

 

[Mitheral]

Yep, I'm one of those veterans. 35 years with rpg's, 15 with RP's, (plus a brief PBM ... yes snail mail .. back in 1989-90).


My answer ... Yes and NO. Classic RP's ... written by people who love to write material with the quality and structure one would expect from a book ... are on the decline. They were began by a mix of old RPGers and people who just loved to write. These were very structures writers that demanded writing samples, etc.


Many of these old classic RP's were also GM driven adventures. This is also on the decline. Reasons are typically ego - either of the GM or the players or both. many writers can't accept a GM deciding the fate of their characters. Dice RP's solve this, but have the issue of requiring the players learn a game system, something many people just don't want to do .... again.


One liner posting - is on the Rise. These used to be primarily done in chat rooms. Personally I think that's where they belong.

 

[hellrazoromega]

Dying? I would say no. Changing into something you or others might not like or recognize? I'd say very likely. Ever since I picked up my first die back in 1980 RP has gone through A TON of changes. Me I'm old enough that I would call a group of people sitting around a table the 'true' classic RP. I've seen so many changes over the years and have embraced so many styles that I am not a snob against any of them really---with the exception of those that are overly strict. Just not my cup of tea. I have done tabletop, play my mail (that's snail mail for the kiddies--Google it if you've never heard of a physical mail box ( )), play by chat, by Skype (or another such service), forum RP, and a host of others. Many of those have been said to be in their death throes at one time or another, yet they survive---albeit in new forms. Heck there are still some play by snail mail games from the 80's that still mange to endure.


So I'd buy that the style you are used too is declining, but not dying. If the PbM games of the 80s and 90s can stick around then I'd call a headstone premature at this point.

 

[NoviceOfRoleplay]

When I first saw the subject line, I was all, "heck no, it's waaay more popular than I remember".
But at the same time, I sympathize a lot with this. RP has certainly changed forms. When I started, it was all done on chatrooms, in first person, with actions denoted in asterisks. "Posts" were much shorter, and overall, the pacing was a lot quicker and felt more realtime.


Nowadays it's much more like writing a novel in tandem with somebody else. There's certainly some benefits to this - you can get a lot more into the details of how a setting appears, for example. But in terms of simply playing a role, it's a lot harder to focus on that aspect.

Actually the asterisk is still common. Look on Quotev, roleplays there go the asterisk route.

 

[welian]

Roleplaying is love. Roleplaying is life. It is immortal.


Joking aside, from what I've seen, RPing as a hobby is doing just dandy, tabletop seems to even be gaining popularity in colleges. It does have trends though, and it changes based on where you started and what kinds of groups you grew up with.

 

[Elle Joyner]

My opinion? I don't like to roleplay with people who don't put effort into what they write... Just the very mention of Twitter roleplaying makes me cringey, in fact, knowing that Twitter has a very short character-limit regarding how long posts can be. So I can imagine you coming up against people who, frankly, just don't RP the way you do... But to say it's dying? That's just kind of a silly thought when you're writing on a site that has well over 10,000 members...


I think RPing, particularly forum RPing is alive and well - but I imagine the issue you might be seeing is people tend to shy away from players who seem to have an inability to adapt their writing style to what is preferential. 1st person is not at all a preferable means of RPing, because it's frankly, incredibly difficult to write again - it changes the structure of voice entirely, and can be exceptionally awkward to reply to. Also, while one-liners and simple RPers are out there, most people are, at the very least casual-medium detail oriented.


I think... and hope what's dying is short, sloppy roleplaying... But as far as RP in general? Not even close.

 

[welian]

[QUOTE="Elle Joyner]I think... and hope what's dying is short, sloppy roleplaying...

[/QUOTE]
Short sloppy roleplaying is where I started and I will defend it to the death as a perfectly natural stage of development in this hobby.

 

[Elle Joyner]

Ah - you misunderstand. Short roleplay is much different than short/sloppy. I understand everyone has to start somewhere - but if you're a writer you live to improve on your writing. But being lazy and not giving effort to your posts, particularly in a roleplay setting where response is dependent on something to react to... It's just an ugly way to write, and really, a little rude to your partners.


I'm a detailed writer - but I understand not everyone writes that way... short posts do not a poor roleplayer make... But I cannot abide lazy, sloppy writing. I just can't.

 

[hellrazoromega]

[QUOTE="Elle Joyner]Ah - you misunderstand. Short roleplay is much different than short/sloppy. I understand everyone has to start somewhere - but if you're a writer you live to improve on your writing. But being lazy and not giving effort to your posts, particularly in a roleplay setting where response is dependent on something to react to... It's just an ugly way to write, and really, a little rude to your partners.
I'm a detailed writer - but I understand not everyone writes that way... short posts do not a poor roleplayer make... But I cannot abide lazy, sloppy writing. I just can't.

[/QUOTE]
I would argue that in the beginning most every writer suffers from the Lister effect (for those that know Red Dwarf), in other words, they think they are better (sometimes far better) than they actually are. I could care less of someone is sloppy so long as they show improvement.


You ou say you can't abide sloppy RP. Would you turn away a new RPer (or even one new to this format--which is very different from table top, where a large part of the story tends to be in the GM's hands) who showed improvement, even if it was gradual ? I mean, we all progress a different paces.