Other Roleplay : Writing or Social ?

At first it was purely a social outlet back in the day because I was quite an introvert then and even more so today, however it became mainly hobby rather than a social thing. Even more so a hobby since I've become more reclusive and more anti-social over the years.
 
If I had to choose between those two, I would go with the writing aspect. Not necessarily to improve my writing though, even if I´m no master at it, but rather because the medium involves writing. The hobby you chose by forum roleplay is one of writing and if you want simple social interaction, then you should be doing something more immediate.

However, this very same principle also kinda discards the simple writing idea. After all, you can just write short stories, no one to answer to, and maybe have a much better time, no? That is, if the point is writing. But, from my understanding, roleplaying is about something else. Roleplaying is all about what the name says, role and playing, that is, playing the role of the character. The idea of roleplaying and what you are doing when you roleplay is that you are becoming the character. That is the unique thing roleplaying has, it´s what makes roleplay roleplay and therefore it´s the main thing about it.

So, in three short questions and answers:
what is roleplay?
Becoming the character

What do I roleplay for?
To outlet my creativity, express it through a medium I enjoy and lets me convey it, while also communicating with the mind and imaginations, and criticisms of others

Why roleplay?
Because nothing else can provide this
 
I'm not very social to begin with and while I joined a great group of RPers last year, I didn't really get too far with the socializing side of things. I still tended to hang back and lurk instead of really chatting with anyone outside of the RP. So, at first, RPing was all about the story I could weave and tell about my own character while the GM directed the main plot. Ironically enough, and something I hadn't thought of until know, my first real character in a lasting RP ended up having an evil father and a loving mother. It often feels like that's a reality for me IRL lol. My dad's no where near as evil as the father in that RP, but still.

Anyways, it's become far more social for me as of late. I joined a massive RP ( welian welian , I'm looking at you >.>) and they had a strong and active Discord channel for me to join as well. Now, I tend to socialize way more than I do the RPing, but it seems a bit more balanced now. It's definitely way more fun for me to RP and socialize with a solid group of friends. I don't think RPing would be the same for me if I wasn't a part of such a great group.

I mean, I did join a small Discord channel prior to the big one and we did socialize a bit here and there, but that channel's way more chill than the big one I'm in now. XD
 
I see role play as a way of writing, in a sense, without writing by one's self. So it's social writing. The more I role play, the more I find it harder to go back to writing on my own. I tend to lean on other people like crutches when I run out of ideas, and we carve a story together. So in a way, it's a little bit of both.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top