I just want to point out that I never said that people who feel exactly what their characters do are crazy or an emotional wreck. It's completely normal and VERY easy to do when you're literally crawling into the mind of the character you're creating. I did it when I first started. A lot of my friends did it when they first started. Almost everyone does it when they first start RPing.
It's a common enough thing that (at least when I first started RPing ages ago) separating IC and OOC was one of the big RP rules all RPers back then got taught along with not godmoding or metagaming.
What I WAS saying in my previous posts however, is that IC/OOC separation is insanely important because there are a lot of inherent problems if there is not some degree of separation. Finding yourself hating/loving players OOC is one potential problem that may or may not happen. Discovering that your character's emotions are strong enough that it's actually making a negative impact on your real life is another.
Being disciplined and having self-control means that yes, even though you empathise with your character, you do have that degree of separation. You don't let it reach a point where it can negatively affect your life.
It's a common enough thing that (at least when I first started RPing ages ago) separating IC and OOC was one of the big RP rules all RPers back then got taught along with not godmoding or metagaming.
What I WAS saying in my previous posts however, is that IC/OOC separation is insanely important because there are a lot of inherent problems if there is not some degree of separation. Finding yourself hating/loving players OOC is one potential problem that may or may not happen. Discovering that your character's emotions are strong enough that it's actually making a negative impact on your real life is another.
Being disciplined and having self-control means that yes, even though you empathise with your character, you do have that degree of separation. You don't let it reach a point where it can negatively affect your life.