"Advanced" use of virtual worlds? (Re: [MUD-Dev] MMORP Gs & MUDs)

[Travis Casey]

On Saturday 02 February 2002 7:14, J C Lawrence wrote:
> Paul Schwanz <paul.schwanz at east.sun.com> wrote:

>> Hmmm...I've never really thought about it like this before, but I
>> think it is fair to say that players who go too far with the
>> "look at me and how well I am roleplaying" approach do just as
>> much damage to my immersion as players who are talking OOC.  Both
>> are unwanted reminders that I'm playing a game.

> Perhaps a better qualifier:

>   You can't tell when a good roleplayer is roleplaying.

> It should be indistinguishable, even with considerable effort,
> from, err, reality -- which seems the real brunt of RP in many
> ways: to realise a mental character/identity construct fully.

This seems to me to be either much too limiting, or poorly stated.
If I play an evil character, anyone who knows me will be able to
tell whether or not I'm roleplaying.  By the qualification as given,
it's impossible to be a "good roleplayer" and roleplay anything
that's very different from yourself.

A better version might be:

  You can't tell when a good roleplayer is roleplaying without
  outside information.

However, I'll note that either version is based on the idea of
roleplaying-as-acting.  By my own definition (roleplaying is making
decisions in character, rather than using your character as a
playing piece), a character can act in ways that are obviously
roleplaying, and still be doing good roleplaying.  For example, if a
player knows perfectly well that a particular decision will result
in a "loss", but makes that decision anyways because it's what the
character would do, that's obviously roleplaying -- and it's *good*
roleplaying.

--
       |\      _,,,---,,_     Travis S. Casey  <efindel at earthlink.net>
 ZZzz  /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_   No one agrees with me.  Not even me.
      |,4-  ) )-,_..;\ (  `'-' 
     '---''(_/--'  `-'\_) 
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev