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

[Christopher Allen]

Matt Mihaly wrote:

> I maintain that roleplaying, by necessity, involves disconnecting
> your actions from your emotions to some extent. That's not to say
> that roleplayers feel no emotion. I have certainly gotten caught
> up in the emotional rush of roleplaying before. But to say that it
> can achieve the same intensity is beyond my ability to believe, at
> least.

> (Incidentally, I don't think this is off-topic, because it drives
> to the core of one of the complaints about roleplaying: It cuts
> people off from themselves, and dampens emotional connection to
> events.)

"Tamzen Cannoy" <tamzen at worldbenders.com> wrote:

> I very seldom make conscious choices about what my characters do,
> they just do what is the thing they would do. Lots of times when I
> am typing, it's almost like automatic writing, in that I am
> surprised to see what comes up on the screen.

> Now I know even on the Mushes I play on, that this is not the case
> for lots of people, but it is for a surprising number of the ones
> I've talked to. For us good Roleplaying is Being the person you
> are playing so well that no one at all can tell, sometimes not
> even you. :)

Jeff Freeman wrote:

>> 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.

> Also agree with this: And perhaps this hits on the primary reason
> why I prefer to play with people who are not roleplaying (or, as I
> said in a previous email, are so good at it that I can't tell they
> are doing it).

I play table RPGs with a group of about 30 very heavy-duty Call of
Cthulhu roleplayers who have been playing as a group for about 20
years -- the game mistress runs different groups of about 5-7 people
almost every weekend, all revolving around a shared timeline and
events.  We sometimes get all the players together and LARP our own
characters in the same world. I used to consider myself a good
roleplayer until I joined this group, where now I'm a bit below the
group average.

I have also produced a social-dominant online game called Castle
Marrach where the only 'fun' in the game is through roleplaying --
there are no monsters, there is little to explore, no achiever style
quests, only roleplay. Thus as a consequence has become one of the
top commercial pure roleplaying spots online.

>From my experience with both groups there are 3 kinds of 'good'
roleplayers -- there are those that play themselves, those who can
professionally act a part, and those that 'are' the part when they
are playing it.

I think in this it is very similar to acting. Some actors and
actressess can only play a single type of character -- to me Julia
Roberts is that kind. Some can professionally play almost any role,
with the accents, quirks, etc. of a character, but are not actually
that character -- this is sometimes known as a Brechtian actor --
many classical stage actors like Alec Guiness are of this
type. Finally, there are those actors who become the role, who snap
at collegues off-stage like their characters would on-stage -- these
are the method actors. Marlon Brando comes to mind.

I enjoy playing with all three types of good roleplayers, they each
have their advantages and disadvantages.

I tend to fall into the first group -- I mainly play myself, or some
facet of myself, and can't truely either play a part or be a
part. But I can be interesting, and careful not to let the 'me' be
too obvious. John Wayne, Carol Channing, etc. always played
themselves, but you can't say they made bad movies, thus you can't
say they are bad actors either.  Same is true of roleplayers of this
type.

The brechtian style roleplayers have more skills -- they can mimic,
do accents, and even have a physical presence that fit the
part. These roleplayers tend to make better GMs, and as players seem
to be willing to 'loose' or do things that serve the group or the
plot the best, not just themselves -- they also make good group
leaders. However, I think that these are the type that Mihaly refers
to as 'faked' or ultimately 'emotionally cold'. This type of
roleplayer, BTW, is the type that we value and like to recruit in
the Skotos game Castle Marrach to be StoryPlotters -- people who can
run a character to serve a goal of the game, rather then their own
personal goals. So they too are 'good roleplayers'.

The last type, the method roleplayers, are very interesting and
unpredictable -- they will do what their characters want them to do,
even if it is in detriment to the plot, or to themselves. They can
sometimes have a more powerful effect as actors even if they don't
have the skills of the brechtian roleplayer -- there is one gal that
can't do the accents, can't mimic or do very different voices, and
she doesn't have that acting physicality ability, however, when she
slips into a role everyone instantly knows who she is as it is so
different. One problem with those who roleplay this way is that they
can get "too into" their roles. We have had a few of them 'retire'
their characters because they got too emotionally involved in the
issues of their character and it was affecting real life. There are
some Marrach players that have quit our game for the same reason.

It is these 'method' roleplayers that I think some people on this
list here call the 'true' or 'real' roleplayer, though I'd disagree
-- there are times when playing with a cast of mainly brechtian
roleplayers that can be much more fun. There are also those who fall
into the "play oneself" camp who think that the method roleplayers
are just going deeper and are still playing themself. I, on the
other hand, feel that this class of roleplayers (and actors) are
doing more then that -- they truely are channeling another character
in a way that the other two styles do not. That it is a talent, not
a skill.

Thus one can be a 'good' roleplayer three different ways.

Of course there are people that fall in some measure between all of
three of these types, but as a broad definition of three important
types of "good roleplayers" serves our discussions here.

-- Christopher Allen

------------------------------------------------------------------------
.. Christopher Allen                                 Skotos Tech Inc. ..
..                           1512 Walnut St., Berkeley, CA 94709-1513 ..
.. <http://www.Skotos.net>               o510/647-2760  f510/647-2761 ..



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