Get On, Clip In, Fall Off

Role-playing versus reality

Re-reading my rant from a couple of days ago, I found myself feeling slightly guilty for having thrown such a temper tantrum at other players of DAoC in-game just because I'd had a bad day out in the real world. Roleplaying games are supposed to be about getting out of reality for a bit and enjoying yourself pretending to be somebody else, not about projecting your minor grumbles with the real world into some fictional fantasy universe as well. Happy Thorsson the dwarf shouldn't suddenly become uncharacteristically moody because he had a bad day in the real world. Maybe he's entitled to be grumpy if the beer in the local tavern runs out or something, but late trains and stress at work should not be things that happen to him.

But are there really people out there who can roleplay a character so comprehensively that they can not project at least some of their real-world mood swings onto the behaviour of their characters in MMORPGs? It would be an impressive exercise in almost Zen-like detachment and self-control to be able to roleplay a character who's happy and cheerful even when under intense emotional pressure in real life. Posted by mpk at February 18, 2004 11:55 PM | TrackBack