I love taking the time for self-reflection. It is the first step in growing and becoming better at something, right? How can we ever improve if we don't take a moment for self-examination?
The flip side of that same coin is also the fact that we all need to give ourselves proper credit. It's easy to get lost in the quagmire of seeing everything as needing improvement, but that is often not the truth. We're all skilled at different things!
So let's bring that discussion to our RP. My fellow Moon Guardians, what do you feel are your strengths as a roleplayer? And what could you improve on?
For me, I feel like my RP strengths are that I don't take long to think of a response - under most circumstances. I try to keep my RP quick and easy to read, and luckily, since I've been playing Dloin since early TBC, that has been relatively easy for me to do. I also like to think that I get people to think about their characters beyond the terms of "I am a hero in the World of Warcraft." Dloin often mocks people who enter taverns while wearing full armor, or with their pets at their side, or reacts to folk sitting on counter tops. Finally, I'd like to think that RPing with Dloin is just plain fun. He isn't all doom and gloom (mostly), and he's a performer and a people-pleaser at heart, so he's always telling jokes and sharing stories and laughing. I've definitely tried to get that across with him, at least.
As for things I could improve upon, well, it's difficult for me to initiate RP. I tend to just sort of wander around until someone I know notices and calls out to Dloin, or until I FINALLY get up the nerve to start something. I know, that's more a failing of me rather than my RP, but that failing means I generally see less RP than I'd like. I also sort of feel like Dloin is a one-note-wonder. The first few times you RP with him, he's great fun, but after that, it becomes clear he just sort of does the same things over and over again, lacking any real substance.
But that's just me! What about the rest of you?
I too have issues starting up RP.. especially when I see others actively engaged in RP already and really don't want to just hop in and stomp all over what is already going on.
On that note, I'm also pretty picky when it comes to picking people to RP with which limits my RP options. It's a good and bad thing I suppose...
On that note, I'm also pretty picky when it comes to picking people to RP with which limits my RP options. It's a good and bad thing I suppose...
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Great topic, Dloin.
I think my roleplay succeeds at being quite versatile; situationally and from character-to-character. This might be a reflection of me as a person, since I'm largely the "go with the flow" type, so it translates on MG this way.
I've also had a lot of very nice comments specifically about having interesting but realistic characters. I don't like to rely on the fantasy setting to set my character up for an equally (or more) fantastical background/history/skillset etc, although that's not to say it can't be done well. I like to relate to my characters as much as I can, so I work hard at maintaining a consistent flow. It helps me feel connected to them, and I think it helps RP with other people for the same reason. My personal rule is probably something like: "The more fantastic the character, the more grounded in realism they should be in everyday interaction."
As far as improvements - there are probably many. Some of these less RP related and more technical things (keeping track of details in conversation/storylines etc). I do get stuck on personal storylines, i.e. "What should my character do next, on a longterm scale?" Or if I have an idea about something, how to best execute it. I'm not great at initiating walkups or even planned situations, so these are probably the things I could work on most.
I think my roleplay succeeds at being quite versatile; situationally and from character-to-character. This might be a reflection of me as a person, since I'm largely the "go with the flow" type, so it translates on MG this way.
I've also had a lot of very nice comments specifically about having interesting but realistic characters. I don't like to rely on the fantasy setting to set my character up for an equally (or more) fantastical background/history/skillset etc, although that's not to say it can't be done well. I like to relate to my characters as much as I can, so I work hard at maintaining a consistent flow. It helps me feel connected to them, and I think it helps RP with other people for the same reason. My personal rule is probably something like: "The more fantastic the character, the more grounded in realism they should be in everyday interaction."
As far as improvements - there are probably many. Some of these less RP related and more technical things (keeping track of details in conversation/storylines etc). I do get stuck on personal storylines, i.e. "What should my character do next, on a longterm scale?" Or if I have an idea about something, how to best execute it. I'm not great at initiating walkups or even planned situations, so these are probably the things I could work on most.
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I have no time to do what I actually want to do. Feels bad.
I feel like I am able to create characters that are very easily approachable from from an OOC and IC standpoint. They have personalities that make it easy for them to have significant conversations with a wide variety of characters, which makes them versatile for a lot of situations.
However, I can sometimes be a slow poster. I tend to over-stress and get anxious about my posts, often worrying if my post is too short or too big, or that my writing style is borish. I always get self-conscious when I see someone write out a lengthy emote, and then my follow-up emote only ends up being a fraction of that length. I also get self-conscious if I find myself using the same adjectives as the emote I am responding too. A lot of my issues tend to be anxiety related.
I also on occasion find that I don't give other characters enough opening to talk about themselves. Like, I'll have my character wibble on about themselves without inserting a 'so what about you, what's your deal?' somewhere in the conversation. I do consciously try and push myself to do that more now.
However, I can sometimes be a slow poster. I tend to over-stress and get anxious about my posts, often worrying if my post is too short or too big, or that my writing style is borish. I always get self-conscious when I see someone write out a lengthy emote, and then my follow-up emote only ends up being a fraction of that length. I also get self-conscious if I find myself using the same adjectives as the emote I am responding too. A lot of my issues tend to be anxiety related.
I also on occasion find that I don't give other characters enough opening to talk about themselves. Like, I'll have my character wibble on about themselves without inserting a 'so what about you, what's your deal?' somewhere in the conversation. I do consciously try and push myself to do that more now.
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Not sure if good or bad but my TRP is normally simple and concise compared to some people who have a long page talking about how every detail of their character's appearance.
I also tend to make things up as I go along which leads to inconsistencies or me just not making sense.
I also tend to make things up as I go along which leads to inconsistencies or me just not making sense.
I'm really bad at coming up with good character backstories. I also have a hard time RPing as, or getting into character for, any single character for an extended period of time. It just wears me out for some reason.
The one exception to this is Sunpai. I can RP as Sunpai very easily, and it's a snap to get into character. However, she comes with her own host of problems.
I slapped a lot of abilities and other attributes on her because I thought they'd be neat. After beginning to take lore-adherence into consideration, I tried to explain away where said abilities came from. I ended up with an extremely convoluted backstory that didn't really make sense. Since then I've continued to learn more and more about the lore, and I realized her backstory could have been extremely simple. I've since retconned the god-awful convoluted backstory into something better, but it's still not perfect.
As far as strengths go, uh...
In my opinion I did pretty well at giving Sunpai numerous weaknesses that can be exploited. She was pretty OP on paper, cause she's a special snowflake, and I had to balance it out. Aside from a few clever individuals, however, that hasn't really panned out as well as I thought it would. So, I guess it isn't really a strength.
Woulda been hella poetic though, having my weaknesses be my strength.
The one exception to this is Sunpai. I can RP as Sunpai very easily, and it's a snap to get into character. However, she comes with her own host of problems.
I slapped a lot of abilities and other attributes on her because I thought they'd be neat. After beginning to take lore-adherence into consideration, I tried to explain away where said abilities came from. I ended up with an extremely convoluted backstory that didn't really make sense. Since then I've continued to learn more and more about the lore, and I realized her backstory could have been extremely simple. I've since retconned the god-awful convoluted backstory into something better, but it's still not perfect.
As far as strengths go, uh...
In my opinion I did pretty well at giving Sunpai numerous weaknesses that can be exploited. She was pretty OP on paper, cause she's a special snowflake, and I had to balance it out. Aside from a few clever individuals, however, that hasn't really panned out as well as I thought it would. So, I guess it isn't really a strength.
Woulda been hella poetic though, having my weaknesses be my strength.
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Zug Zug
I am my own harshest critic...it is very easy for me to come up with a laundry list of what I do wrong and very little if any that I do well.
Either way, I'll give it a shot.
I tend to be very quick with my emotes, be it small ones or multi paragraph replies. If people are matching my speed, we can do very *very* long emotes but get a ton of detailed RPing done.
That being said, when I am going fast...it negatively effects my proofreading. With the Misspelled addon, I don't really worry about spelling errors, but quality definitely drops when I fall into this habit. So...fast, detailed RP...lower quality.
I also tend to strictly adhere to "OOC and IC separation". Now, this is normally a very good rule to live by, but...I have been told I take it too far, if that is believable. People who are known to be OOCly very toxic and my friends will constantly tell me to sever contact with said people. And yes, I agree...I should. These people are nasty OOCly to both me and my friends, but from an IC standpoint, the characters are on good terms. Defying all logic, it is very hard for me to just slap someone on the ignore list and sever RP ties, even if they deserve it...
Its also difficult for me to initiate RP.
I guess....a strength of mine is my dedication to being IC. I spend a lot of time crafting my backstories, which I used to keep in a TRP but have since kept it off on a google doc. These backstories are pretty indepth, going back to every major event in a character's life up until I start RPing, and I use this as a personal 'wiki' of sorts. If I ever get caught off guard with a question like "What were you doing during the Second War?" I'll be able to have a wealth of information to pull from...as opposed to many hasty jumps to the lore wikis going "Oh crap. What WAS I doing then?" as well as prevent potential contradictions.
Due to the fact that the history is private, and only I am privy to it, if I do need to make an alteration here or there, there is very little to any noticeable effect on my RP.
My TRP is also pretty big and detailed about my character's appearance and the like. But, this is a more personal philosophy of mine, but a TRP is yours and yours alone. While mine might be considered "too detailed" or what have you, I use it in a similar way as my private history documents - as a reference for myself to draw on if I need to.
Either way, I'll give it a shot.
I tend to be very quick with my emotes, be it small ones or multi paragraph replies. If people are matching my speed, we can do very *very* long emotes but get a ton of detailed RPing done.
That being said, when I am going fast...it negatively effects my proofreading. With the Misspelled addon, I don't really worry about spelling errors, but quality definitely drops when I fall into this habit. So...fast, detailed RP...lower quality.
I also tend to strictly adhere to "OOC and IC separation". Now, this is normally a very good rule to live by, but...I have been told I take it too far, if that is believable. People who are known to be OOCly very toxic and my friends will constantly tell me to sever contact with said people. And yes, I agree...I should. These people are nasty OOCly to both me and my friends, but from an IC standpoint, the characters are on good terms. Defying all logic, it is very hard for me to just slap someone on the ignore list and sever RP ties, even if they deserve it...
Its also difficult for me to initiate RP.
I guess....a strength of mine is my dedication to being IC. I spend a lot of time crafting my backstories, which I used to keep in a TRP but have since kept it off on a google doc. These backstories are pretty indepth, going back to every major event in a character's life up until I start RPing, and I use this as a personal 'wiki' of sorts. If I ever get caught off guard with a question like "What were you doing during the Second War?" I'll be able to have a wealth of information to pull from...as opposed to many hasty jumps to the lore wikis going "Oh crap. What WAS I doing then?" as well as prevent potential contradictions.
Due to the fact that the history is private, and only I am privy to it, if I do need to make an alteration here or there, there is very little to any noticeable effect on my RP.
My TRP is also pretty big and detailed about my character's appearance and the like. But, this is a more personal philosophy of mine, but a TRP is yours and yours alone. While mine might be considered "too detailed" or what have you, I use it in a similar way as my private history documents - as a reference for myself to draw on if I need to.
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I'm really proud of my character arcs and their supporting stories. I tend to build characters so that they are at a starting point and let them loose on the world to see how they develop, although I'll admittedly keep an eye out for opportunities that will fit a narrative theme for them. It's a bit of a nature/nurture dichotomy in terms of character progression.
I also feel like I'm a pretty decent "improv actor", for lack of a better way to describe what I do, and my interactions with other characters tend to be naturalistic, entertaining yet not forced, true to character but not too rigid that I can't handle curveballs, development and change.
The downsides, though...
I feel like I've got three basic character archetypes that I repeat over and over again. Mouthy and streety lady, innocent cheery yet somewhat rebellious girl, intelligent and intensely "morally gray"/slightly evil woman. I've tried to play others, the stoic guard, the morally gray manipulative guy, the traumatized mother, the wide-eyed wanderer, but they just don't tend to interest me for long.
And within those archetypes, when I get lazy my characters tend to get Flanderized - Nili has probably dug into the bag at her hip and struck up an herbal cigarette with a well-used but high quality lighter enough times that I should just macro it. I have to remind myself that repeated mannerisms =/= personality.
I also feel like I'm a pretty decent "improv actor", for lack of a better way to describe what I do, and my interactions with other characters tend to be naturalistic, entertaining yet not forced, true to character but not too rigid that I can't handle curveballs, development and change.
The downsides, though...
I feel like I've got three basic character archetypes that I repeat over and over again. Mouthy and streety lady, innocent cheery yet somewhat rebellious girl, intelligent and intensely "morally gray"/slightly evil woman. I've tried to play others, the stoic guard, the morally gray manipulative guy, the traumatized mother, the wide-eyed wanderer, but they just don't tend to interest me for long.
And within those archetypes, when I get lazy my characters tend to get Flanderized - Nili has probably dug into the bag at her hip and struck up an herbal cigarette with a well-used but high quality lighter enough times that I should just macro it. I have to remind myself that repeated mannerisms =/= personality.
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Here goes, I am probably a complete nightmare for strict 'pro' RPers, but I will try and dissect myself !
I don't really count myself as an experienced RPG roleplayer, I just kind of immerse heavily and dynamically in my environment .. see what happens and riff with the ebb and flow ... I love spontaneity ... perhaps I will set up the beginning and the bones of an adventure, spin the wheel, then see what happens, and I like a bit of silly 'playfulness' too.
I think in bursts of actions and feelings, so I may not always produce paragraphs, as I am usually winging it in real time with my thoughts and reactions, synchronising with the environment as if I am experiencing it around me. My mind inhabits my character as if present in-world. In slower moments I will get more descriptive though.
I may be forgetful and inconsistent and not know everything that I maybe should do. I see this as okay, because here in the real world how many of us know everything perfectly? We make mistakes and forget stuff, that's life, that's real, we don't have an 'Encyclopaedia of Me, The World and Everything' to hand. It's how you recover from the 'whoops' moments that counts I think. 'Mea Culpa'. I'm a dizzy draenei !
I have written back stories at times, there's some very bare bones in my TRP, but it's mostly my awareness of my world in my own head. So I could definitely improve by solidifying my character more in that way, particularly when it comes to established world lore.
I can be rather flowery of speech, perhaps too wordy, not sure if that's always good or bad, but colourful descriptions come to me on the spur of the moment and I enjoy waxing poetically when the muse strikes !
Sometimes I have a habit of posting a line, and then another line and then yet another line etc, because I'm reacting dynamically, so... I probably frustrate para RPers where they are composing. So synching is something to work on.
My spelling is okay, but my typing can start to get messy as I get a bit excitable, especially if the RP has got brisk and intense, and I do find the WoW interface a little primitive for proofreading. My sentences also get a bit long, I suffer with the curse of too many commas !
I do not play many alts, so the "dizzy, slightly accident prone and 'cute' draenei who is neverthless fiercely self-sufficient in the wild and can range from pensive to playful", has become a little archetypal for me. Probably too close to my RL brain-nature. I should diversify more, and not just the sassy troll and fey warlock either !
Unless focussed in a 'We are now RPing' session, I can be a bit blurry on IC/OOC just because of that 'inhabiting my character' thing. It's probably a habit from Second Llfe, which is my main online background apart from WoW.
What an unruly mess, perhaps, but I do my best and am willing to learn ;)
Oh yeah, I am shy and always think everyone else knows what they are doing and I will just screw it up, so I simply do not get involved enough ;)
I don't really count myself as an experienced RPG roleplayer, I just kind of immerse heavily and dynamically in my environment .. see what happens and riff with the ebb and flow ... I love spontaneity ... perhaps I will set up the beginning and the bones of an adventure, spin the wheel, then see what happens, and I like a bit of silly 'playfulness' too.
I think in bursts of actions and feelings, so I may not always produce paragraphs, as I am usually winging it in real time with my thoughts and reactions, synchronising with the environment as if I am experiencing it around me. My mind inhabits my character as if present in-world. In slower moments I will get more descriptive though.
I may be forgetful and inconsistent and not know everything that I maybe should do. I see this as okay, because here in the real world how many of us know everything perfectly? We make mistakes and forget stuff, that's life, that's real, we don't have an 'Encyclopaedia of Me, The World and Everything' to hand. It's how you recover from the 'whoops' moments that counts I think. 'Mea Culpa'. I'm a dizzy draenei !
I have written back stories at times, there's some very bare bones in my TRP, but it's mostly my awareness of my world in my own head. So I could definitely improve by solidifying my character more in that way, particularly when it comes to established world lore.
I can be rather flowery of speech, perhaps too wordy, not sure if that's always good or bad, but colourful descriptions come to me on the spur of the moment and I enjoy waxing poetically when the muse strikes !
Sometimes I have a habit of posting a line, and then another line and then yet another line etc, because I'm reacting dynamically, so... I probably frustrate para RPers where they are composing. So synching is something to work on.
My spelling is okay, but my typing can start to get messy as I get a bit excitable, especially if the RP has got brisk and intense, and I do find the WoW interface a little primitive for proofreading. My sentences also get a bit long, I suffer with the curse of too many commas !
I do not play many alts, so the "dizzy, slightly accident prone and 'cute' draenei who is neverthless fiercely self-sufficient in the wild and can range from pensive to playful", has become a little archetypal for me. Probably too close to my RL brain-nature. I should diversify more, and not just the sassy troll and fey warlock either !
Unless focussed in a 'We are now RPing' session, I can be a bit blurry on IC/OOC just because of that 'inhabiting my character' thing. It's probably a habit from Second Llfe, which is my main online background apart from WoW.
What an unruly mess, perhaps, but I do my best and am willing to learn ;)
Oh yeah, I am shy and always think everyone else knows what they are doing and I will just screw it up, so I simply do not get involved enough ;)
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What's good? I think I made the backstory interesting enough for a passing character.
What's bad? I'm actually awful at RP, and not usually one to initiate. Like many here, I just don't get involved enough.
What's bad? I'm actually awful at RP, and not usually one to initiate. Like many here, I just don't get involved enough.
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I suppose one thing I tend to do, and this can be good or bad depending on who you talk to, (though most will likely tell you it's bad), is paragraph-emote. Now that's not always a bad thing, but often times my emotes reach 6+ paragraphs in WoW consistently inside of roleplay. Especially if my RP partner(s) can match that for however long our RP takes. And a great deal of that would be my character speaking rather than acting.
And like the OP, I also often find it difficult to approach for roleplay. That is a mix of my own personal unsocial persona on an OOC level, a desire to not annoy others, and above those, a desire to maintain the persona of whom Beredric is. Unfortunately, over the years Beredric has become a well-developed and dare I say well-established character to the point where I know exactly who he is and how he would react to more or less any given situation.
He's a man of business, and doesn't really approach anyone unless he has something to discuss with them. He's not the kind of person to hold casual conversation about the weather, and he dreads speaking of current events when there's nothing to speak of but conflict and war. I've tried branching out many times, putting him in social situations and the like, but I find I pull him off to the side and stand alone rather than approach people for the reasons above.
And like the OP, that is more a failing on my part rather than a depiction of who Beredric is. And yet at the same time, I love walk-up roleplay and enjoy one-time conversations as much as I enjoy intricate, story-driven plotlines. When I get roleplay, I try to enjoy every moment of it because I never know how long it'll be until I am approached again!
And like the OP, I also often find it difficult to approach for roleplay. That is a mix of my own personal unsocial persona on an OOC level, a desire to not annoy others, and above those, a desire to maintain the persona of whom Beredric is. Unfortunately, over the years Beredric has become a well-developed and dare I say well-established character to the point where I know exactly who he is and how he would react to more or less any given situation.
He's a man of business, and doesn't really approach anyone unless he has something to discuss with them. He's not the kind of person to hold casual conversation about the weather, and he dreads speaking of current events when there's nothing to speak of but conflict and war. I've tried branching out many times, putting him in social situations and the like, but I find I pull him off to the side and stand alone rather than approach people for the reasons above.
And like the OP, that is more a failing on my part rather than a depiction of who Beredric is. And yet at the same time, I love walk-up roleplay and enjoy one-time conversations as much as I enjoy intricate, story-driven plotlines. When I get roleplay, I try to enjoy every moment of it because I never know how long it'll be until I am approached again!
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There's a lot that's sorta good and sorta bad, I think. I like to have Raaxi involved in a lot, and given time she can usually make a friend or ally in any group. I try to have her be diplomatic and get along with everyone - at least on the surface - and I'm pretty good at initiating. But I worry this makes her kind of an annoying, nosy tag-along who doesn't really belong where she is. I can make my posts long and detailed, usually in small groups of people, or shorter in bigger ones where I figure I don't have much time. Nothing wrong with a short post if that's all you need to convey what's going on with your toon for the moment! I love big server events but can get overwhelmed by them that way, though, to the point of just one little sentence. She does have a backstory but I've never gotten around to doing anything involving it, or much that's really a plot about her in particular, rather than just being along for a ride. I think I RP Raaxi herself pretty well overall, it's just getting her into the situations I want that is a bit awkward for me. I've tried RPing other, eviller characters, but I've never really gotten those off the ground. It's harder to interact with anyone as a bad guy. I've only really RPd with Nigel, Morwyn and a little bit with Beredric out of the people on this list (that I can remember right now) and I think you are good RPrs!
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I'll start off with the negatives.
First and foremost, is my ever-shifting mood which at the drop of a hat can tank my desire to roleplay - which hurts both myself, and or the individuals around me. Its an unfortunate reality, but I like to think in recent months its been a *little* better?
Second being the ungodly terrible stigma that seems to follow the darker characters. Vikalla has been my proverbial "baby" for most of my WoW career - I've little ability to RP more than one character at a time. It just feels weird to me, to pop into a story on monday, and pick it back up a week later, after having popped into 3 or 4 other stories in the meantime. Now the question: Wait. Darker characters? How does that tie in? Well, Vikalla's never been sunshine and butterflies. Peachy-keen attitude, but if anything she's "kinda" lawful evil. The evil community feels.. .. different.. to me, than it has in the past. The notion of roleplaying an "evil" or uh.. "morally grey" character is a challenge in most aspects.
Bad junk out of the way..
I like to think I'm friendly, and host a positive attitude as much as possible? Uh. Puppies. Kittens. Stuff.
... I'm terrible at complimenting myself. Yes, that.
First and foremost, is my ever-shifting mood which at the drop of a hat can tank my desire to roleplay - which hurts both myself, and or the individuals around me. Its an unfortunate reality, but I like to think in recent months its been a *little* better?
Second being the ungodly terrible stigma that seems to follow the darker characters. Vikalla has been my proverbial "baby" for most of my WoW career - I've little ability to RP more than one character at a time. It just feels weird to me, to pop into a story on monday, and pick it back up a week later, after having popped into 3 or 4 other stories in the meantime. Now the question: Wait. Darker characters? How does that tie in? Well, Vikalla's never been sunshine and butterflies. Peachy-keen attitude, but if anything she's "kinda" lawful evil. The evil community feels.. .. different.. to me, than it has in the past. The notion of roleplaying an "evil" or uh.. "morally grey" character is a challenge in most aspects.
Bad junk out of the way..
I like to think I'm friendly, and host a positive attitude as much as possible? Uh. Puppies. Kittens. Stuff.
... I'm terrible at complimenting myself. Yes, that.
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My writing itself is my strong suit. Grammatically, I'm near perfect, if rambling (though I'm told it's endearing and makes for good reading); I rarely make spelling errors; my use of imagery is infrequent and thus when used it has genuine impact. I write medium-long emotes, with very little fluff. My style, in short, is established and simply *works well*, so I get a lot of compliments for it from both those that want to be writing at that length and those who write like that and longer.
It took me a h*ck of a long time for me to come to that realization, though -- I've rather large self esteem issues that result, in the context of RP, in my criticizing my writing heavily. Confidence is nice to finally have built. But the problem I used to, and still somewhat do have, there, was a simple one: if my writing is awful, people who aren't at that level must be worse than dirt. And that's led to my being quite elitist about who I RP with, turning my nose up, really, at less eloquent writings, and not even enjoying RP a lot of the time.
But going back to my own RP, rather than psychoanalysis, the main problem I would highlight is my response time. It's awful, it really is. I spend far too long poring over every word, honing my responses to the point of, if not perfection, at least what I would call passability. And that's great, in any context than live chat RP, which WoW arguably is. And WoW is worse for it than, say, IRC was, because it's quite often the only thing you're doing, you're wholly engaged and immersed, it's not just the textual format. I'm far better suited for discord RP, forum RP, the like, but I've never really even RPed at all outside of WoW for some reason.
I also struggle with energy, fatigue, focus -- OOCly, I have pretty severe chronic fatigue syndrome. The vast majority of the time, I've simply not got the energy, or I'm too tired, or I'm not in the right state of mind to RP. This results in my not doing it, sometimes only for a day or two, sometimes for several weeks, even if I have the drive to. I can force myself, for example for guild events, but my quality drops hugely. I don't know how to work on that, honestly, but it's handicapped me massively, and it's the main reason I have very few RP partners, long-term storylines. Being in Australia doesn't help -- most RP is at peak times for the US, and those are first thing in the morning for me when I'm simply not awake enough!
EDIT: Oh, and I'm seemingly incapable of writing a non-edgy character.
It took me a h*ck of a long time for me to come to that realization, though -- I've rather large self esteem issues that result, in the context of RP, in my criticizing my writing heavily. Confidence is nice to finally have built. But the problem I used to, and still somewhat do have, there, was a simple one: if my writing is awful, people who aren't at that level must be worse than dirt. And that's led to my being quite elitist about who I RP with, turning my nose up, really, at less eloquent writings, and not even enjoying RP a lot of the time.
But going back to my own RP, rather than psychoanalysis, the main problem I would highlight is my response time. It's awful, it really is. I spend far too long poring over every word, honing my responses to the point of, if not perfection, at least what I would call passability. And that's great, in any context than live chat RP, which WoW arguably is. And WoW is worse for it than, say, IRC was, because it's quite often the only thing you're doing, you're wholly engaged and immersed, it's not just the textual format. I'm far better suited for discord RP, forum RP, the like, but I've never really even RPed at all outside of WoW for some reason.
I also struggle with energy, fatigue, focus -- OOCly, I have pretty severe chronic fatigue syndrome. The vast majority of the time, I've simply not got the energy, or I'm too tired, or I'm not in the right state of mind to RP. This results in my not doing it, sometimes only for a day or two, sometimes for several weeks, even if I have the drive to. I can force myself, for example for guild events, but my quality drops hugely. I don't know how to work on that, honestly, but it's handicapped me massively, and it's the main reason I have very few RP partners, long-term storylines. Being in Australia doesn't help -- most RP is at peak times for the US, and those are first thing in the morning for me when I'm simply not awake enough!
EDIT: Oh, and I'm seemingly incapable of writing a non-edgy character.
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