What stops you from RPing?

[Slate]

My reason for not roleplaying is the same as Yuriohs' - I have little idea what the roleplay climate is actually like so I'm hesitant to get myself involved because it's quite likely I've interpreted some things about the past plots and whatnot incorrectly. I don't wanna embarass myself by jumping in with the wrong ideas.

As for Azurerogue's comments, I'm also a long-time roleplayer, having been a part of roleplaying forums and DnD for quite a while, but I don't quite agree with the stance presented.

There's no reason to think that stats should affect the attributes of the character; it's entirely possible to seperate the mechanics from the character's personality. In real life, having a lot of intelligence would not limit one's ability to swing a sword, nor would being particularly agile or strong be a detriment to casting a spell. In RO, however, this -is- the case. Characters only have a certain amount of stat points to go around and their effectiveness is decreased violently if they splash into something they have no use for. It's rather arbitrary to say that one should build a character stat-wise to reflect their actual ability. There are plenty of flavorful reasons that someone roleplayed as unintelligent would be able to cast spells, or why someone roleplayed as weak would be able to deal considerable damage with a weapon. Yet if you did so stat-wise, your character would be virtually unplayable. Let the stats do what they're supposed to; they're there to make your character competent, not to define him or her.

Azurerogue's other point, I think, is more valid. In a server in which roleplay is optional, especially when it is displayed primarily in events and whatnot, the only side of roleplaying the players see is the epic scale. Since roleplay is not encouraged at all times, the more personal aspects of roleplaying dealing with character depth and relationships are ignored because when people are roleplaying, it's usually in a competitive environment: they're on a side that is competing against the other side. Real stories aren't as cut-and-dry, and the major conflict is rarely the entire plot.

That ties into why people paint themselves in the colors they do on heRO roleplaying. People roleplay because they want to do something. Nobody wants to play a character who has no effect on the plot, and the heRO roleplay is about plot - one epic-scale plot in which people are either important or nameless. In a server where roleplay takes place at all times, it takes a different dimension. People are willing to do things with their characters that on a server like this they wouldn't otherwise do, because the grandiose chronicle is only part of the roleplay experience. Here, since roleplay is based first and foremost on the conflict between the light and dark factions, people design their characters so that they can have some effect on that plotline. That is not, of course, a bad thing. Everyone likes to think of themselves as important; character should not be an exception. It is somewhat depressing however that only some of these characters get to fulfill the potential they were made to.

I'm not, of course, saying that the way heRO handles roleplaying is bad. Not a lot of people are willing to remain in character all the time, as it removes the important community aspect from the MMO experience. But not all those people wish to avoid roleplay entirely, so having it be a world-affecting investment is a good incentive to get those people in on something they like to do. The problem is that the number of people who want to participate is always increasing and the plot doesn't have room for them all.