The Escapist on role-playing
by Jennie Lees 
Feb 2nd 2006 at 7:00PM
This week's Escapist has several
excellent pieces on roleplaying and WoW. Mark Wallace's "In Celebration of the Inner Rogue" looks at the
connection between player and avatar -- when you play, do you think of your character as "you" or
"him"? If the answer's "her", then Chris Dahlen's "I Enjoy Playing a Girl" might be up your street.
Tying in with our discussion of female avatars, it's one gender-bender's story of girl power.More on the RP side, John Tynes' "The Contrarian: Masks in the Woods" focuses on RP guilds in WoW, amongst other things. Finally, Will Hindmarch's "Roleplayer in Azeroth" talks about WoW from a D&Der's perspective -- why it's not an RPG, and yet at the same time fulfils the same "escapism amongst friends" role as tabletop D&D.
Roleplaying and gaming have a rich history together, and WoW provides a detailed framework for RP. These articles only serve to highlight the depth of role-playing one can achieve ingame. It's a shame, then, that Blizzard have so few RP servers, and that RP isn't enforced on these servers. I remember MUDs where if you spoke OOC in general chat then you were instantly kicked; is a crackdown needed, or will player policing eventually weed out the non-RP players?
Filed under: Virtual selves
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
RighteousDork Feb 3rd 2006 1:11PM
When I play WoW, I think of my character as an extension of myself. That's one of the reasons you won't find me just playing random characters. I spent a lot of time reading the manual and thinking about what kind of character I wanted before I started playing the game. I went with being a hunter and haven't looked back yet. I'm sure that some of the other classes out there are great but this class makes the most sense for me.
I wanted to create a character that loves animals as much as I do, so I went with a hunter. I know it sounds weird but I impart feelings on all of the critters in WoW. You won't find me killing deer or rabbit just because I can. You will find me killing a wolf if I'm in danger or I see it randomly attack a deer or rabbit for no reason. If that makes me a role-player then so be it.
I try to play the game like I am the character, especially if I'm talking to random people in-game. I'm also not above talking about things outside of the game. I don't think you can really police that stuff without being all Nazi about it. If it ruins the experience for people who want to hardcore RP, they should just starting using ignore or try starting a guild that only allows RPers in it. If you want to be really RP about it, just pretend those people are the mentally insane of the Azeroth world and ignore them. Treat them like they're the people on the street who talk to themselves and spout crazy nonsense. I don't know, it's just a thought.