Roleplaying is Fun

What is the purpose of roleplay, anyway? This seems like the most obvious thing to address first, I guess. It seems like a pretty basic question, but I've never really thought about it, much less tried to answer it, until now, so I'm going to give it a shot.

The purpose of roleplay is, primarily, to have fun. I've seen it become a chore for people, something they do because they've been doing it for so long, and if that is the stage you've reached then it's time to stop. This is a really, really simple question that isn't asked often enough. When you're playing a game, reading a book (for pleasure), playing a sport, or roleplaying, and you find yourself frustrated with it, you have to ask yourself: am I having fun, still? If the answer is No, then it may very well be time to stop. Stopping isn't always what you need, but considering it is a good place to start.

Well, if the purpose is to have fun, then I guess it would be prudent to understand why or why not it's fun. Roleplaying is a free domain for you and those who you bring along with you. Unlike standard fiction, roleplaying allows you to enter a universe alongside another human being. A friend of mine used to say that people who were under the age of 12 or so weren't actually roleplaying; at that age it was just called pretend. While that's true, isn't it really, still, roleplay? From the little girl playing dress-up or house to the boy who's outside waving sticks around and fighting the invisible bad guys, this is the first encounter most everyone has with roleplay. When they hit that age of 8-12, then they tend to either go further from it, or further toward it. People have their own interests, but for almost everything, at one point in time, there was that spark of creativity that was truly enjoyable. To be able to create a world and immerse yourself into it, be a different person for a few hours in a world of your own making, where there were no consequences or reward.

As much as I disliked the film Inception for the fact that it was intellectual candy for so many people, it did provide one of the rawest examples of this idea. The ability to create worlds with your mind, to raise castles from the dust, and to fully surpass the limits of one reality with your own new one has always been a source of great excitement for those with even a trickle of creative tendencies (more or less everyone, in my opinion). Whether it's movies like Tron or the Matrix, or anime like .hack, or even games from Minecraft to Battlefield, where one can change the world at a touch, this idea that we can create another reality sub-rooted in our current one is dazzling to say the least.

Roleplaying is our attempt to go further. How many times, when playing a game, did you wonder what was behind that door that was only an image in game? Why that building was on fire in the background? With television shows or anime, how many times did you wonder what a character's history was like when no one told you? What would have happened if Y had taken place instead of X? We have summoned roleplay as our medium to descend further. Much of roleplay is done through characters we use to interface with these artificial worlds, and truly immersive roleplay creates a genuine excitement that writing fiction cannot, because we long to know the next step of the journey.

This is why roleplay works as entertainment for many - there is another link besides just yourself. There's a variable we're not in control of, directly, and that's another person. Whether it's a chatroom roleplay, in a game, or on a forum, there is another person present providing a true randomness that even games cannot compete with. We can expect and anticipate, but when push comes to shove, if the roleplay is done properly then we are not completely in control. In a game you interface with an engine and sometimes other players bound to that engine. In a visual novel you interface with options you are given, and you see the effects of your choices on the world you've touched. In roleplay, you are purely synergizing with another person, creating either the most dull or most unique sense of enjoyment in the fields of creativity. You can plan, you can direct, but when it comes down to it you are still only one part of two or more.

Here you hit a problem, though. Why is it fun, sometimes, and why is it painful other times? People talk a lot about "Bad RP" and "Good RP" as they go about doing it, but what they seem to be getting at is what is enjoyable and what isn't. For many, if a roleplay cannot have proper grammar and a certain set of rules, then it won't be fun. I've had fun roleplaying with single lines of text in first person shooters, butchering words and creating poor, convoluted, thoughtless stories with other people. Silly, god-moding roleplay in a chat room is still roleplay, even if its nonsensical and it doesn't agree with a set of rules most people are used to. Remember, the purpose of roleplay is to have fun, so do it! Some people like the challenge of creating deep characters and intriguing plotlines - other people would rather pretend to blow things up by writing it out or recreate Pokémon battles they saw in a show in the same way. People seem to get really caught up in rating roleplay that they miss the point - it's still about having fun. It's not about everyone adhering to the same style or rules, and it's not about everyone progressing in tastes the way you have. It's about writing something and enjoying it while you do it.

Now, I've just made a pretty big blanket statement, and I'm going to go back and make some clarifications. Rules can be very important. When the difference in taste is small or simple, then a set of guidelines to say what is permissible and what is not in a certain place (server, forum, chat room, etc.) can help keep the flow much stronger. After all, you're relying on other people to make your roleplay work in the end. Clarify you would not like god-moding. Clarify you would like to adhere (or not adhere) to the canon/lore of the topic at hand. If someone disagrees with these things, especially the larger ones, both parties are obligated towards an action. The person rejecting the rules should understand that it's not the place for them to roleplay, and should search for a more suitable location, and the person in charge of the rules should understand that people have different tastes. It can, of course, get nasty and complicated, but this is still a really strong base to grow off of. Find places that suit you and work with them. If they stop working for you, move on.

There is, I think, one other thing that should also be disclaimed. Roleplay CAN be unhealthy. This is crossing into the realm of personal lives and such, which is weird territory, so I'll hopefully talk about this in its own post. However, it should be of note, at least, that roleplay can be un-enjoyable for either you or the person you're roleplaying with because it's unhealthy. The best roleplay will come when it's healthy, and that means sacrificing things to get it. I'll go into this another time, but roleplay should not be a substitute for your own, crappy life. Escapism is a nasty hole to get into, and it will detract from the RP for you and everyone else.

Anyway, roleplay is fun. It can be used as a method to get better at writing or other things, but primarily it comes back to being a means of enjoyment. Be elitist in your communities if you want, because you have things to uphold. In terms of roleplay in general, though? Have fun.