Role Play? What's that?

[Mumon]

So I saw SaintBoo's posting about Role playing, and I was thinking of replying to that directly, but what I have to say about roleplaying is realy it's own point.

Lets say DJ Bob comes on air and starts throwing a party at Reets on the glass dance floor. DJ Bob isn't commoning on at his regular time though and for a time he's the only one present. After a few songs people start to notice it's a live DJ on instead of a play list and start to head on over to Reets. The party is slow to pick up though because people aren't expecting there to be a party at this point in time.

The NT Ty happens to see the MP Omg and starts to roleplay with him saying that MP's realy don't understand the power that they are playing with because of all the religious whoya that the MP's put into it. Omg having roleplayed with Ty before knows that it's all IC and responds it's because of his religious beliefs that he understand his power so well. They start to get into an arguement at the party and they are having a great time.

Meanwhile Fixer Plz sees this argument and doesn't realize it's RPing so tries to stop the fight between Ty and Omg. And while Plz doesn't know it he is RPing. His character is now astablished as the kind of guy that doesn't like to see people argue at parties.

Now Omg does a quick message to Plz over tell saying "((We are just RPing we actualy like each other))" because Omg wants to make sure Plz understands that their isn't anything personal between Omg and Ty. Plz might then send a reply back to Omg saying "Well roleplay somewhere else I'm tring to have fun here."

Who's in the right? Who is in the wrong? Should Omg and Ty tone it back a bit because Plz wants them to? Should they ignore Plz? Should Plz ignore them?

Well my own person opinion is that if I was at this party, I might try to get Omg and Ty to take the fight outside (RP with them as someone that just wants this to be a fun party). As for Plz, if he got so fed up with the RPing that he left the GSP party sent a tell the DJ with the message that the DJ should do a better job at keeping the peace in his parties and that he was now tuning out of GSP, I would not likely feel bad.

In this game of AO you need to make a consious desision on if you are going to RP or not. If you decide to RP, I suggest you try to always RP (and let people know that you are RPing if they think you are just being a goof). If you decide not to RP and attend any kind of non-leveling event (GSP parties, poetry readings, Truth or Dare or Open Invite Guild meeting) you should expect RPing to happen.

But what does this all mean? Do I think RPers have more rights than non RPers in AO? Not at all.

A RPers rights:
They can Roleplay anywhere they want other than OOC channels. (An org's channel might be OOC or it might be IC, best to find a RPing org if you want to RP though)
A RPer can play any roll they want. (Though mind you some things are restricted by AO's TOS, so RPing some things might be best done in private)

A RPer's restrictions:
RPers can but shouldn't RP when they join a team that would rather they not. (They should not be surprised if they try to RP and the team leader kicks them out of the team)
RPers can not force others to RP with them should they not wish to.

It should be noted at this point that Vecinty is IC/OOC, and obviously not private, RPing here should be kept at a PG-13 level (or a level that all those present are comfortable with, but never should it go up to NC-17 if there is any chance that someone that might be insulted by such behavior might walk in. IE: no NC-17 actions at GSP parties)

A non-RP's rights:
They can choose to not RP anytime they want except in areas that are solely IC (Such as a RP Org chat).
They can choose to ignore all RPing, or even be insulted by any Roll they are forced to endure (IE: Two people RPing making out and fondling each other at a GSP party)

A non-RP's restrictions:
Some areas are more conductive to RPing (Such as Reets) and by entering you are accepting that you might see people RPing with each other and you should try to keep this in mind.
If you are insulted by someone's RPing you should first try to /ignore the person, or if their actions are causing other people that you would rather not /ignore to respond, then you should inform the person to tone it down. If they still don't tone it down you have two options, get an Ark and let them know you are getting an Ark, or ask one of the people RPing with him if they might get them to tone it down. (IE if GSP is having a party, and they have happened to hire the Mockers as bouncers perhaps you should talk to one of the bouncers about the person that is bothering you)

We all know there are different levels of RPing. I'm sure some of you have seen it on the forums here where someone tries to distroy one of my bases that I have RPed into existance with RPing. And we see the bouncing back and forth of a fairly goofy RPing session. (One of these times I would just love to see someone lament about the fact that their pet cat was on Morning Star when it got shot down for the umpteenth time... ah well). And we have seen the reverse extreme where people are fully wraped up in their roll, such as Omni-pol coming to a GSP party and arresting someone. My suggestion for all RPing, is think of it as a TV show. Do you want to be one of the characters on the show, or are you a watcher. If you are a watcher what would you do if you didn't like the show? Just change the channel, don't yell at the TV (Ok so I know this guy that yells the answers at the TV for Quiz shows... and if you realy want to yell at the TV about it's shows don't be surprised if the TV ignores you).