What is your reason for RPing?

Hi everyone、今晩は皆さん！（konbanha minnasan - Good afternoon everyone)

Woah! I joined last month. This is the first time I am doing this. I am really excited and nervous. But, you guys seem like a friendly lot so, I decided to come back and be ACTIVE!
Anyways, for introductions, I am called Bell "The Anthropologist" Jetsworth, I am currently in college, studying Anthropology. I am actually working on a project to study RP. I find it fascinating. I love ONE PIECE btw. I study Japanese in school and I even went to Japan, which was awesome. I came across lots of ONE PIECE items, chopper is the most popular character, mostly because of his cuteness and everyone knows about him, even people who don't watch OP since his face is on a lot of items.
Anyways, I came back to the US and...it occurred to me that it would be so cool to study how RP works. I would really appreciate some help from you all. I will post some questions here and there and it would be great to hear from you and your role for this Forum and maybe about your crew, some updates like that to begin with.
For today, I just have a general discussion question on why people RP?

Role playing in itself is a way of great entertainment for many people out in the world. Wither your in a Rp forum, Playing D&D, or dressing up for a school play its considered role playing.

People enjoy the fact that they can play a different person then they are in real life. They enjoy the fact that you can do anything in this make believe world. It fuels the creative juices of your mind making you more in tune to your imagination. Its almost like reading a book only you play a more active role in the hero or heroine.

Well thats the way I see it anyway lol =)

Well, I roleplay for two reasons maybe, one of them bein a rather "stupid reason" xD
So, "stupid" reason is, simply put, to kill off time when I am bored and I don't have somethin else to do to kill time.
The other reason bein that, roleplay gives you an opportunity to write down your own ideas and stories, and those stories and ideas will be seen by others, which I think it's a great feeling for anyone that makes up a story. It also allows you to interact with other people's ideas, and blend them together into making a .. Idk .. "big story" ? Can't explain it better xD but I think you have got the message.

Well I can't speak for others but the main reason I rp is because I prefer pretending to be someone else it is the same reason I studied performing arts at college and enjoy being someone else I also enjoy writing as I turn out to be good at it so this is pretty much a way to combine both of my loves in life.

So yeah I guess thats one reason why I rp also cool to hear what your doing in real life

RPing is kinda like playing with the ultimate computer game or something. It's frequently updated, completely limitless and a ton of fun if you have good people to RP with. It's like playing a game where you control everything, and not limited by the decisions of some narrator or programmer.

Thats true Sleepy ^^

Thank you for your quick responses.

I think for me it was a way of relieving myself from my own life, getting out of it and playing a role that can do everything I wish I could do, being the person I wish I could be, being the hero/heroine and being the bigger person, it feels great.
Sometimes, I feel helpless in real life, things go out of control and you have no power over them, RP gives you the power to decide, choose and built something incredible by playing off of your imagination.
It allows you to connect with people from all parts of the world who share a common interest, respect a common space and its regulations, who are in it together to create a new world, maybe even a better one, that is driven by imagination.

Yea Anthro I understand and totally agree with that thats part of the reason I act as well as write helps me do the things I wish I could. Do the things I wish I had the confidence to do and so on

For me, roleplaying is an alternative world to my life. It's something that allows me to relax, escape the business from the everyday life and routine and "live" in a different world. It's something amazing that offers me the possibility to meet people from the other side of the world, something awesome.

That's how I see rping =)

Roleplaying for me is a chance to meet many new people, make some friends, and show off my creativity.

Heh, I merely role play to have fun...It's not much, but it's all I need.

i love stories and putting it all together, its like a escape from all of lifes real shitty stuff

I'm going to say my first thought. Why do I roleplay... "because fuck you I do what I want."

boredom..

I love to act and roleplay in school or maybe sometimes even improvise just for fun. But acting alone isnt so much fun so I decided to roleplay in videogames but soon a friend told me about this site and since im a One Piece maniac I had to try this out. When I get really into character I can see whats happening. I cna imagine the things people write in a episode and I also got insipired into writing. I love the idea of escaping to a world with endless posibilitys and I think that this site is so fun because the people here are great! Every single person here has great ideas and somehow contributes to the roleplay.

And my english grades went up

Hi everyone!

Thanks for your replies. Its great to get so many insights on RP. I heard a lot of people write about a need to escape from real life and into another, full of possibilities,creativity and filled with fun. I think its really cool to write up characters and stories.

You are welcome to write down more comments on the question. I was surprised as to how welcoming everyone was in the beginning of the process of joining RP. I am curious to learn of each of the characters you all play and how you carry out your roles.

I haven't done much as of now. I am not sure if I should join a group or just hover around, looking at posts and asking questions. Suggestions for that would be helpful too. =P

Thanks again

Well Anthro as I have told you via pms I would be more than happy to have you aboard my crews and would be even happier to help you along with rping and no problem for responding on the question I like helping out where I can ^^

I dont rp here at all for the same reason I rp in other places.

Its not about escapist entertainment or an alternative to the world I live in, I dont buy that for a second. Frankly I rp because its a game, a game that tests the way I think in interesting ways. You see there are two kinds of games human beings play, anthropology guy, "in box" games and "out of box" games, an out of box game is a game with an ever increasing number of pieces and posible set ups, an in box game never changes. Out of box games test abstract reasoning, which is where all the fun is. Rping is a sort of ultimate out of box experience, not only are their endless pieces to building a character, players create the content and the plot of the adventure. Abstract reasoning applies to how the game and characters are made, and how the role-plays themselves play out, of course Id say because of that this site is a rather poor example because our desire to have a character stronger or better than everyone else has easily offset the balance of that game, but the fun can still be found in narrative.

"Express myself". I Roleplay to express myself and i really like stories. Actually Roleplaying is my favorite hobbie. It make me feel great when Roleplaying, yet i feeo great when pretending to be someone.