When I Roleplay and When I Don't Roleplay
I've had this on my mind since last night, so I figure I'd better get this out of my system. I want to get my point across for people to understand. I'd rather be understood than misunderstood.
There's a chat room I once in a while visit on Kongregate.com, this very cool and fun online gaming website. There's a chat room on there when you just don't feel like playing any games on there for a time and wish to just interact with other gamers on the site.
I, from time to time in pretty much all chat rooms, choose to emphasize my thoughts through asterisks. ( * * <--these things) It's been something I've been very used to. Just because someone types an action in asterisks, it doesn't always mean that they're roleplaying. Okay? It can also be a way to express or put an emphasis on thought processes as you respond to people.
I intend to be very clear on saying that I'm just talking about role play. That doesn't mean I'm going to do roleplay. I've been currently too busy with my music and my job. I don't have any time to seriously get into RP anytime soon.
When I RP, I usually do it in paragraphs with others on the blog sites LiveJournal and Dreamwidth. I even outright admit I do just a little bit on my site's forum, towards a silly and crazy Zombie Apocalypse Game that's pretty much still in the set up process. I RP in length, not through one or a few words at a time, which is hardly RP at all in my honest opinion.
I very rarely do any roleplaying in chatrooms or instant messengers, because I like taking my time in typing part of a storyline as a character of my choice, without seeing the other person's message that reads, "((OOC: you done yet?))" as I'm doing it.
This is an example of how I usually RP. I wrote as two characters in the opening post to a RP session on a blog community of mine, and not in a chat room. It's maybe five or six paragraphs, maybe a bit more. I mention that towards whoever can't be bothered to click on a harmless link. Which, by the way, isn't quite as close to being as long as the chapters I write when it comes to any stories I focus on. (A chapter for any story of mine tends to be at least five or six pages long.)
If I mentally nod towards something someone types into a chat for example, I can type something like, "Gotcha. Just did a mental nod there too". I can do that. I've been writing for years, and I am very fluent in the English language. If that slight change and to keep in mind of it is what it's going to be necessary to avoid being harrassed on having to leave, then so be it. (I'm just not going to let that happen again. Not everybody in the Kongregate chat is like that either. Some are actually awesome.)
I'll type slightly differently in there than how I type in most chatrooms. Really, I will, since Kongregate's chat is special like that. Go me! :-P (Hey, maybe it will go down in internet history for having this asterisk usage rule. Woooow, imagine that! What next? Will it spread into other chatrooms, and make Kongregate's Cookie Room chat community feel less special? I guess we'll have to wait and see to find out.)
To be serious again, for a moment, I really have not come across this issue in other chat rooms. I'm not making this up either, for it's too early for April Fools. It's also too dumb for my liking to even want to make up...
So, as I keep the asterisk limit in mind, I'll still think it ridiculous to be reported to a chat moderator about plain typed out actions through asterisks the moment someone sees someone else doing it.
I can kind of understand why some express their heavy dislike on this, because there will always be some people who aren't able to tell the difference of what's RP and what's not. However it's not so big of a deal to have to report abuse to a mod about this when someone like me is not there to offend anybody.
I'm sure most of the moderators on Kongregate ignore the reports of, "I saw someone do RP. Ban him please." If I were a chat mod, I'd ask via PM if the other chat person sent an offensive message through RP. I'd also ask the person to put down just what the message was. It's nothing hard or really time consuming even for the pickiest chatroom people to do. If someone really wants that person to leave and if it's really not allowed for RP to happen in the chat, then I'd ask the person to leave first. If the person persists and refuses to leave, only then would I kick the person out of the chatroom.
Last and least, there's something else about the chat page I've noticed. In the tags section of Kongregate's general chat, why is "interactive fiction" in there? Isn't that what role play basically is? Why doesn't the creator just remove that tag if RP is really not allowed in there, especially when someone isn't even really doing it? Maybe the person is lazy, or just doesn't care.
This is the part where I mentally roll my eyes towards certain people who annoyed me in the chat last night.
...Forgot to mention: Typing LOL is another supposed Kongregate chat taboo according to a few people who attempt to bug you about it, since it represents an action. Whoops!
The gist is this: typed internet actions of any kind always mean RP to some certain people. This includes emoticons too.
Seriously though, that is definitely a load of crap. XD
People who send you messages over that stuff, like "RP! I reported you to a mod" are silly and arrogant Chatroom Nazis. Haha, no, I'm not going to stop with the rest. I can't take that seriously. The asterisks I can work around, so accept that--or not. I don't care haha. Kongregate chat isn't an online school or anything like that. Obviously not. You don't need to be very literate with every response. You can be lazy and type in single letters, the same way people do in most other chatrooms--and not get in trouble for that.
