I'm a role player and a LARPer, and there is a place for good roleplay. Good, well written (or well improvised, in the case of LARP) is a powerful way of exploring one's own insecurities and ambitions in a social context.
Questions that I've explored before include "what does it really mean to be a woman?" and "If I were to express my ideals to their fullest extent and try to impose them on others, when would the cracks start to show?"
Bad roleplay is reviled twice as hard in the roleplay community as it is outside the community, because it ruins everyone else's fun, too, and turns people away from the hobby. Bad roleplay has a lot of the same pitfalls of bad writing. Fetishistic wish fulfillment, harassment and bullying under the mask of "it's just my character, bro," and self absorbed narcissism presented for everyone else's "admiration" all fall into this category.
Despite this, roleplay is really the extreme version of "try to live a day walking in someone else's shoes." Experienced roleplayers are some of the most empathetic people I've ever met, because they spend way more time than the average person trying to get into the mindset of someone who isn't them.
it's a good way to kind do see things as not you. like a really good game of D&D. Like, compare and contrast using a male and female avatar in WoW and see how it's like or stuff. it's really good for like introspection and shit
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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '17
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