Post by Morreion on Mar 11, 2011 11:30:22 GMT -5
Storyboard: Importance (Massively)
Good essay by Eliot Lefebvre.
RP lets you step out of yourself in a way that very few of us get to do. With rare exceptions, I don't think most of the people reading this are professional actors, and I would bet dollars to donuts that none of us has starred in a major film. (I'd like to imagine that I'm being read by the cast of Firefly, sure, but I'm realistic.) And even in acting, you have to step into a predetermined role in which someone has written all of your lines, told you what you're going to do, and determined who you will be.But when you get home from being Steve the Dishwasher, you can be Gadran the Orc, crusher of men, a failed father seeking redemption in the eyes of his family. Or you can be Captain K'Pok, a proud Klingon whose loyalty to the Federation is greater than the loyalty he feels to his own blood. Or you could be Pyrite, a superhero afraid that he's really no better than his namesake, pushing to do more and save more people even at the cost of his sanity.
Roleplaying lets us work through things that we never would otherwise, things that are alien to our lives but still a part of our identity. It allows us a chance to explore myriad different worlds within us, the conflicting aspects of our personalities, ideas and concepts and people we want to be on an idle level no matter how much we like the people that we are.
And maybe most importantly, it's fun, and it's a sort of fun that doesn't really get replicated anywhere else. The simple loot-drop mechanics of many games can be found in many places, but roleplaying is its own creature.
Good essay by Eliot Lefebvre.
RP lets you step out of yourself in a way that very few of us get to do. With rare exceptions, I don't think most of the people reading this are professional actors, and I would bet dollars to donuts that none of us has starred in a major film. (I'd like to imagine that I'm being read by the cast of Firefly, sure, but I'm realistic.) And even in acting, you have to step into a predetermined role in which someone has written all of your lines, told you what you're going to do, and determined who you will be.But when you get home from being Steve the Dishwasher, you can be Gadran the Orc, crusher of men, a failed father seeking redemption in the eyes of his family. Or you can be Captain K'Pok, a proud Klingon whose loyalty to the Federation is greater than the loyalty he feels to his own blood. Or you could be Pyrite, a superhero afraid that he's really no better than his namesake, pushing to do more and save more people even at the cost of his sanity.
Roleplaying lets us work through things that we never would otherwise, things that are alien to our lives but still a part of our identity. It allows us a chance to explore myriad different worlds within us, the conflicting aspects of our personalities, ideas and concepts and people we want to be on an idle level no matter how much we like the people that we are.
And maybe most importantly, it's fun, and it's a sort of fun that doesn't really get replicated anywhere else. The simple loot-drop mechanics of many games can be found in many places, but roleplaying is its own creature.
