Yes, on both accounts. My friends are a mix of role-players and regular gamers who just like to blow stuff up in various games. The girlfriend has numerous interests; her fascination with role-playing is understandable, because she's currently studying anthropology.

Role-playing isn't that weird. You're just trying to tell a story within the game, that's all. Nobody thinks machinima are weird, yet those are almost exactly the same as what role-playing is (generally) attempting to accomplish: a story that uses the game engine as the medium, much like film or printed text are used to convey other stories.

It does create problems, of course. Just as certain actors tend towards self-centered behavior, some role-players can be a bit... elitist (and that's putting it mildly). It's mostly an argument about the story, what fits in the game setting and what doesn't, what is plausible, etc. Most of our debates orient around psychology, sociology, and anthropology, sometimes veering off into metaphysics and cosmology.

The only delusion most of us suffer from is that we think we are good writers.

But hell, you can see the results of that delusion outside of gaming all the time. Some of the Star Trek fanfic out there is... bleh.

You people? What's that supposed to mean?

I kinda think the machinima is weird, too.

(not trolling here. I just don't understand.)

Do you think movies and television are weird? Because that is essentially no different from RP. Roleplayers are actors in a play, portraying characters in a story. The only difference is that roleplayers freeform, while many actors have a script.

There shouldn't be anything 'weird' about it. It isn't about pretending that you're living in a make-believe universe and actually believing it. It's acting out the life of some character in that universe as a means of a fun creative pastime. And just like actors in a play, once you've had enough acting for the day, you can then head out and enjoy a perfectly normal life.

@tyler
matthewgrammer's comment initially reads like a barely-veiled version of the usual "LOLRP you guys are all basement dwelling losers" that the sloped-forehead section of the WoW community often decends into. I suspect that's why the voting-down is occuring... it looks just like a troll attempt.

Then how about my other comment that's voted down, despite me stating I'm not trolling?

Basically, RP is creepy. The day my gf asks me to dress up in a fireman's suit and "save" her from a "fire" because it'll be new and exciting is the day I hit the bars again.

@matthewggrammer:

RP is NOT creepy.. YOU think it is, because as you said, you don't understand it. Much like you are judging RP'ers as "those people who doesn't have friends or significant others", the rest of "those people" can judge your other comments as a trolling attempt.

If you started your first comment as "I think this RP thing is weird and I don't understand it.. can you guys explain it to me?", it would have be very much different.

I bet you would love to see your GF dressed as a sexy mistress or some other sexy character...

P.D.: I'm not a RP'er, I don't even play in a RP server. But I find it very interesting. And though I've tried it and it felt strange to me, I respect people with enough imagination to develop a character and follow a story.