How Socially Acceptable is Roleplaying Online?

Guys,

Here’s a quick couple of questions which popped into my head:

Do you admit to and are you comfortable with talking outside of the gaming community about the fact that you roleplay on-line?

I ask this because I am a mature *cough* PnP roleplayer, as are the people I play with, but outside our group we very rarely mention it (work, parties etc.). This is mainly because PnP roleplaying, for most people, is associated with Dungeons and Dragons and that seems to still have a rather geeky reputation (not the right sort of hobby for accountants, lawyers and the like).

Is this the same with roleplaying online? I have a feeling it isn’t, partly because there isn’t the tie to D&D and partly because MMOGs are more socially acceptable, but I was just curious on what people’s experiences were.

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Depends on the company I keep and the mood I'm in.

"Plays World of Warcraft" is on my CV, at the end, under hobbies. (My CV is slightly out of date, but then, people know what WoW is...) I think it mentions roleplaying there to. Mind you, I'm out of work...

Generally, I gave up caring what most people think about me years ago. And anyway, I've got much worse hobbies to admit to than MMO roleplaying.

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Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.

CoX

To be fair 99% of the time, most people in CoX will leave RPers alone to do their thing but there is that 1% who just like to be idiots and try to ruin it, these are the same people who give PvPers a bad name by acting immaturely and generally being douchebags in PvP zones (though the EU PvP community is so small that it's pretty rare indeed to see it).

Though on Virtue apparently a vastly bigger number of people RP since it is thier unofficial RP server.

WoW

In WoW which I tend to do 'MMO for Counterstrike kiddies' (doesn't mean I don't enjoy playing it but I avoid the official forums like the plague and teaming is more a matter of 'we have to' rather than CoX which seems far more solo friendly) it seems that more people will go out of their way to roll on RP servers, ignore the RP policy and go about making RPers lives hell but then that MMO has 11 million subscribers, you're going to get a higher idiot>RPer ratio anyway.

Oddly I never RPed in WoW though have been on two non-rp servers (Khadgar and then Hellscream) but I do have a lowbie on an RP server to see what it was like. Most of the RP on specific servers is kept private and within guilds, no open RP exists (or it's very rare to see) because it's just not worth the hastle.

WAR
The situation was different, considering Games Workshop table-top miniatures game is already inherently geeky most people on the RP servers;

a) Don't mind people RPing even if they're not into it (Though quite why the rolled on an RP server even if that's not they're thing eludes me).

b) Play a greenskin and it just seems to become a second nature to switch to orkish mode.

c) Are actively into RP anyway.

As a Bright Wizard on one of the RP servers even had a party of people RPing while we were retake battlefield objectives.

Age of Conan:

Rolled on an RP server and experienced exactly one instance of open RP but then I didn't stick around long enough to really explore it (AoC really just didn't click with me and at launch it was a really bloody awful game, bugs everywhere and such).

Anyway...that's my views on the socially acceptable state of RP across several MMOs.

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Badge Earned: Wing Clipper

A real showstopper!

I can't talk about RP-ing (or gaming for that matter) to people who don't know what it's about, without getting looks saying: "OMG.. I really don't have a clue what she's talking about!"

I'm glad I have friends I 'can' talk to about it .

...it's on my CV too hehe...Mind I 'do' have a job.

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to be fair there are a fair share of RP based stories that me and a few friends have (such as a thief forgetting to buy their thieves tools at the start thus having to break into a house by having him scale the side of the building with climbing claws, remove tiles from the roof, me throw up a can of spam (meat rations really) with a rope wrapped around it, him fasten me off then me Adam West batman it up the side of the building. All this could have been circumvented if he'd remembered to buy the tools and just lockpicked the front door.)

Plus several jokes that don't make sense unless you know the story behind them.

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Badge Earned: Wing Clipper

A real showstopper!

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Anyway...that's my views on the socially acceptable state of RP across several MMOs.

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Way to totally miss the point of the post...

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I can't talk about RP-ing (or gaming for that matter) to people who don't know what it's about, without getting looks saying: "OMG.. I really don't have a clue what she's talking about!"

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People seem to understand Live RP better. You can compare it to re-enactment, and then point out that you're saner since you don't let people near you with 'real' metal weapons and black powder guns.

I do work in computers. I probably have geekier colleagues than some. However, it is remarkable how often you mention it and someone has played D&D, or they used to be into EQ, or whatever.

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Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.

bah yes...sorry did miss the point there.

It really does all depend on which MMO you RP in, City of Heroes it seems more acceptable simply because people can imagine it to harkening back to being a child and imaging yourself being a superhero. I'm quite comfortable telling people I RP in city of heroes because it seems a lot more socially acceptable.

World of Warcraft, Age of Conan and Warhammer online it remains inherently geeky because it's the whole sword and sorcery stuff and carries with it the hangover from peoples views of RPing with DnD, it's the same genre and thus carries with it all the stereotypes that follow.

When I tell people 'I play a mad scientist in City of Villains' most people seem to except that but if you told them 'I play an Elf in World of Warcraft' it seems to still carry that stigma with it.

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Badge Earned: Wing Clipper

A real showstopper!

Things like at work I don't discuss it, WoW, City of Heroes etcetera. With close family and friends I do, but generally only ones who I know are into gaming or similar hobbies. And even then I don't outwardly say that I Roleplay. I guess it's kind of embarrassing, I don't know why but speaking to someone who doesn't even know what Roleplay is, you feel you have to justify why you do it and why it's so fun (To the average John Doe who doesn't even know what MMO means).


If it does come to it, I just relate to something they might prefer, "You watch TV, I play PC games. I never watch TV, but instead I play games" to which, by the general populace you get the reply "Aren't games for kids?" which they clearly aren't nowadays, and I think that's starting to sink in for some people. For Godsake, my Dad is 52 and loves Splinter Cell and Tom Clancy games, the gaming cult seems to run in my family, though if i mentioned Roleplay they might think it's odd.



Though through Roleplay ive had some of the best times ever, if I never got into RP I dare say I wouldn't of went to Omega Sektor a while back to meet some fantastic people and have an ace weekend, yet alone some players who ive met at their home IRL.

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I've talked about roleplaying and MMO's to some of my dearest friends parents at said friend's wedding, to my psychologist (He told me the location of a really good comic store in London), to my beautician and with my work colleagues.

"Hey, Ellen, you got much planned for this weekend?"
"Well, hoping to get a few runs on Scarlet Monestary on WoW, do some roleplaying on City of Heroes with my friends, and catch up on some writing. You?"
"Oh, getting drunk, usual. Have fun!"

It's not something I'm ashamed of, and hey, I'm proud of it. Plus whenever someone asks how I know most of my friends? Kind of needs to be explained there. :P

It's easier on my liver too.

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Bare in mind, Z, that lawyers are supposed to have liver damage, but not an imagination.

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Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.

I tell people I play games, if they ask further I'll tell I also roleplay.
I work at IT support, so most get the gaming bit at least.

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@ShadowGhost & @Ghostie
The Grav Mistress, Mistress of Gravity

If you have nothing useful to say, you have two choices: Say something useless or stay quiet.

I use it on my hobby section for job interviews along with LARP. It's good as theyre always interested, I can talk about it without seeming TOO mad and it's a lot more interesting that putting down "Reading, socalizing and movies"

I don't really throw it out there unless people ask though. Roleplaying and LARP are very much not a spectator sport!

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hehe, a little possible scenario..

Mum asks "What did you do this weekend?"

"Oh, I put away some thugs, slayed a couple of Warwolves, had an afair and prevented a friend from getting blown up by some Freaks."



.. not quite what my mum would wanna hear, really *giggles*

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Well.. Generally, I don't talk about it... My wife thinks I'm "strange", although she thinks screaming obscenities at the TV whilst watching tennis to be quite normal...

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@FloatingFatMan

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

it isn't?

i generally find letting people talk about them selves is much more conducive to having a decent conversation.

But then if i'm talking to people that aren't the RP Group, it people that would consider them selves "non nerds" despite their obsession with getting all their music on vinyl or something.

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I think Elky's pretty much hit it spot on. My partner and close friends know what I get up to but it's just not worth mentioning it to people outside of that circle. Otherwise it just descends into the 'my bizarre hobby is ok but yours is just weird' conversation already mentioned.

Besides, once you've mentioned in polite company that you play online games, you've pretty much established yourself in the geek trench. Saying that I RP as well would just seem like digging a deeper hole.

Each to their own really.

EDIT: This would also go for a number of other things I do as well. Although I'm all for being open and honest with others, sometimes the brainless responses that can come from such admissions are just not worth my time fielding.

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@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk

My parents have no idea about it, I don't think they'd even understand what I was on about. I've told some of my friends about without feeling a problem about it, but I'm not sure they really got the interest.

I introduced my brother to RP and he got into it really well but to much social RP lured him off, he much prefers FPS' anyway. I also introduced my gf to it but RP in pretty much any place has a lot of ice breaking to be done and after a while she stopped as well.

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I can talk about it with my mom

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@ShadowGhost & @Ghostie
The Grav Mistress, Mistress of Gravity

If you have nothing useful to say, you have two choices: Say something useless or stay quiet.

I guess it's my age, but I used to have to go buy my own Christmas presents (usually from Games Workshop, in Hammersmith, when it actually was the only one and sold games) because my parents didn't get it. They've got to the point now where they at least grasp the concept, but I still wouldn't ask them to buy RPG books for me.

(OTOH, if I haven't picked up WotLK by Christmas (quite liely) they may be asked to get that. "Walk into GAME and ask for..." are sufficiently basic instructions. )

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Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.

I'd feel much less uncomfortable telling someone I RP a crazy scientist who turned himself into a walking compost heap with uncontrollable flatulence, than, say, a superstrong blonde pornstar with a BDSM fetish...

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I'd feel much less uncomfortable telling someone I RP a crazy scientist who turned himself into a walking compost heap with uncontrollable flatulence, than, say, a superstrong blonde pornstar with a BDSM fetish...

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You mean you've not told your missus about Libby?

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@FloatingFatMan

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I have told quite a few people to which I get different results, mostly rasied eyebrows and coughs however some I found replied with the "I never knew that, im on X but your on CoH? Is it good there and what server you on?"

It was infact my Bro (twin bro) was the one who got me into RP back when we played Ultima Online, years ago now. Since then we went onto different MMOs but not all of them have been RPed nor have I found such a open group on them like CoH.

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[ QUOTE ]
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I'd feel much less uncomfortable telling someone I RP a crazy scientist who turned himself into a walking compost heap with uncontrollable flatulence, than, say, a superstrong blonde pornstar with a BDSM fetish...

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You mean you've not told your missus about Libby?

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Wrong character. I think we can safely assume that Libby is a known, being as she's probably plastered all over the walls of his study. Bambi on the other hand...

I admit, even some of my RP friends look at me funny if I say I'm currently playing a 19 year-old sword-swinging nymphet...

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Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.

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I admit, even some of my RP friends look at me funny if I say I'm currently playing a 19 year-old sword-swinging nymphet...

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Well, imagine some of the looks I'd get if I told my non-RP friends about Ellie, then...

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@FloatingFatMan

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I admit, even some of my RP friends look at me funny if I say I'm currently playing a 19 year-old sword-swinging nymphet...

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, imagine some of the looks I'd get if I told my non-RP friends about Ellie, then...

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look at my character record. Now try explaining that one away...

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Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.