In Defense of Role-Playing
Elaine of the Snowy Forest
Hello to my friends and enemies,
Today I wish to present a handful of different perspectives on what roleplaying is, or can be. I want to do this because I have repeatedly seen contempt for roleplaying expressed by some players of this game, especially in the eUSA Discord but also elsewhere. In this article I will try to make the following points:
1. This is a roleplaying game that lends itself to roleplaying innately
2. The act of roleplaying isn't always as explicit as you think
3. Roleplaying allows self-exploration and expression through various characters and personas, and is never wholly separate from the self.
This is a roleplaying game. Very few of us are soldiers in real life, and even fewer of us politicians. By playing this game, we are assuming the role of citizens in a virtual country. We forge alliances and try to protect the interests of this fictionalized version of America. There are arguments, speeches, elections. We assume these roles and take up the needful tasks of running the eUSA. To publicly speak out against roleplaying has become a political act in this game, and by engaging in the political you are playing the role of a politician in this game - or at least that of a political pundit.
All of us a playing roles all the time. When I am in a leadership position in real life, I simultaneously am myself and am also playing the role of my idea of what a leader should be. When I am teaching, I assume the role of an educator and mold my behavior in accordance with what I think teachers ought to be. There's not some innate quality to our souls that marks us as these roles - rather, roles, like games, are mediums through which we exist as people. One more example: when I worked at a restaurant, I pretended to be a different version of myself. A happier, friendlier version of myself that was never inconvenienced by a customer. Someone who existed to serve and clean up after others. You can't take all of yourself to a job like that - you have to pretend to be someone a little different. You have to play a role and engage in the characterization of the self.
Lastly, even when you are role-playing, whether overtly or covertly, you can never wholly remove yourself from the what you are presenting to the world. There are parts of yourself that leak out into the characters you play - even if that character is as simple as your own idea of how you should act in a given position. However you are expressing yourself, that expression is a transmutation of your beliefs, knowledge, and personality through a given medium of a character/video game/concept. So when someone is producing something with artistic value, perhaps by playing a character/role, they must act within the bounds of their own personhood. Their very understanding of the world, what is valuable, and what it means to do various things bleeds into that character. As observers, it is often incredibly challenging to discern these qualities from the character, but they are always there.
Now, as a form of self-indulgence I will try to anticipate a reasonable objection. You may make a distinction between the roles we play in our own lives, and even the roles we inevitably play by participating in this game, with the roleplaying other people participate in on Erepublik. You might argue that there is a difference between engaging in the minimum amount of roleplaying required to play this game (political discussions relating to game mechanics, for example), and the roleplaying that I do on occasion (creating stories about a character that lives in this world). And certainly, there are differences between the two. But I would implore readers to see the latter as an extension to the former, and something that is for many people its natural conclusion. This game gives us roles to play, and it seems awfully strange for people to be upset when people play those roles.
All of that having been said, roleplaying should never be an excuse for violence - verbal or otherwise - against people. I think that it has become something of a partisan issue lately, and I have already made my opinions on that issue clear - but roleplaying shouldn't be a partisan issue.
All in all, I want to ask people to think about the roles they play in their own lives, and more specifically the kinds of roles they're being asked to play by IRL politicians, bosses, artists, and their own society.
I wish you well,
Elaine of the Snowy Forest
Comments
the game is what we make it
at the same time
"we are who we pretend to be so we must be careful what we pretend to be"
voted
BRAVO
I love how much you are using the media lately. Keep it up!
Beautifully put. Thanks.
Elaine. I have been RPGing since '79. Yes, that long. I would never disparage role playing. My only issue is when people use it as an excuse to be a jerk. Then say, "I'm just role playing ". That I can't stand. I have spent countless hours pretending I was someone or something else. From a hairy hobbit to a evil overlord. I don't like seeing people take something I love and abuse it.
Absolutely Thee Dude, and this article wasn't actually written in response to you - although I understand why it may come off that way. I thought about messaging you privately to make sure I avoided a misunderstanding, but ended up hoping that emphasizing the fact that the majority of my motivation to write this article came from the eUSA Discord would suffice. In full disclosure, this article is 90% in response to comments made by Groot and some of his supporters - and the small part of your article simply made me think the sentiment was broader than I previously thought and warranted a response.
No worries. We're on the same page.
Come on lets have some fun! This is a game after all not a business.
I am all for role playing, but I think you are missing the real point of why some of us complain.
When I complain it has nothing to do with the role the player chooses to play. I complain when the player cheats by creating multiple accounts or purchases their account to use different personas to fool other players in to thinking they are someone new.
It's a game we all want to have fun, but you will learn certain players take this game too seriously mainly those who have spent soo much money on it they feel they own the game or the right to tell others how the nation/game should be ran/played. Once you disagree with certain players you become a black sheep. 😛
I think this is unfair. That you have a different idea of how this game should be played than me, for example (role of the meta per se) is an actual disagreement, not as simple as me telling you how to play. By the same logic you are telling me how to play. Reducing disagreements which can have compromises into narratives of grievance, which can only have righteous underdogs, does our community no favors imo
I use myself as an example as I have spent $0 on this game so I am wrong all the time for my own reasons 😉
I am not forcing you to play the game you signed up to play which is erepublik you choose to sign in each time. Yet when a player becomes a congressmen in eUSA in erepublik they are forced to join the eUS forums in order to be considered an "actual" congressmen to certain players/most parties. This is what I mean by trying to tell/force other players how to play this game.
Sad thing is I tried many times to do things the way some of you would like and in the end my party was still sh*t on. The day the eUS forums are only an option for a congressmen to use if they wish in eUS I will continue to say certain players and parties are pushing their way of playing on others.
You are not forced to do anything *shrug* It's a game, play the parts you want to.
I will just say, the game on eRepublik.com is a very small and narrow one, and not one I find very fun. The game including, our histories on irc, discord, various forums, and all the relationships I have made that would not have been possible purely on site, however, is one I enjoy quite a bit.
So you don't like the game you signed up to play and want to create a better experience?
If that is the case I do understand. You should create your own game and quit this 1 if you don't really enjoy it instead of trying to push made up rules on forums created by players of this game that don't actually like the game. Remember we are playing erepbulik not eUS forums. Many players such like Pigzen which is a dead citizen only really care about the meta yet think they have the right to dictate how players who are actually playing the game in-game can/should play.
I do enjoy the game I signed up to play
At the time it included IRC and an eSwiss forum. It was a blast.
The game is what we make it. For you that can be this url, to me it's the community.
I promise you this game would never have had the money to last as long as it did if it was restricted to only activity occurring on site.
That is what was wrong with my meta experience. I seen all the back alley deals being made and all the lust to keep/gain power, abuse to anyone that disagreed with certain players even better in the end all they had to do was join Black Sheep. It was sad and discouraging until I realized I didn't have to play the game that way with those players if I didn't want to hence why I left the eUS forums long ago. 😛
I enjoyed my IRC days very much. That is where I made any real friends in this game. eUS forums was only ever a tool for certain players to keep/abuse power.
Don't mistake my dislike for the eUS forums for me saying players shouldn't use outside apps/tools such as IRC, discord, telegraph. Those are all great ways to better communicate with other players. The eUS forums with all the made up rules by players and ran by players who really don't like to play in-game just want to keep power or remain relevant in a game they don't like is where my issues remain.
It kind of feels like that *is* what you are saying when you look at your previous comments in this discussion!
Maybe you weren't listening or taking my words out of context. I have never said anything against any other outside form of communication other than the eUS forums. I was even cool with the discord discussions for congress. If you forgot when I mention in-game voting discord was also mention and I was on board with that as well as in-game voting. I have only ever spoke out against the abuse of the eUS forums as a tool to keep power and abuse others over the years.
As matter of a fact. Black Sheep mu had the best IRC channel ever! We created our own game on there that was designed by eShades. We use to play it while waiting for our energy to restore in this game lol. Was a great way to communicate and get to know other players.
I miss those day very much and wish we could get back to those roots. Last time I was on IRC it was dead silent sadly but, Roper still remained which made me smile. 🙂
Speaking of which I think I will hop on our old channel now #blacksheep to say hello to my old friend. Anyone that would like may join me!
The sand is what you make out of it.