The key difference is your motivation for your IC actions, and the difference is this:
"This is what I will do." Versus, "This is what this character would do."
The latter is 'roleplay'.
The former is something else entirely; a kind of personal wish-fulfilment which, if not understood, consented to, expected and accepted by all involved parties, is dangerous and prone to create a big, ugly mess.
The role-player occupies an awkward place between writer and actor; If our characters' lives are a play, we are essentially both its playwright and its cast. But this places us on the outside looking in, as there is a degree of detachment there. While we may be fond of our characters, we never really are them, and should not strive to be.
But when you dive through that fourth wall, RPing your character becomes an exercise in ego. When we fail to maintain that separation and consider our character's actions, trials and successes to be our own, things can get horrible very quickly. Because then, of course, things are a lot more personal. 'IC' romances and conflicts turn from events happening merely in an unfolding fiction to things we have an all-too-intimate investment in, and that's when feelings get hurt.
There have been many wonderful contributions to this thread already which have said much of what I would say, so I shan't prattle on. What I will say is that if someone's using RP is wish-fulfilment (and I don't think all RP is wish fulfilment; you couldn't pay me to have Brynhilde's life), that is not in itself wrong, if all parties involved know that that's what's going on. It's when the IC/OOC bleed is either unintentional, or not consented to by the other party(ies), that it is dangerous and not okay.
"This is what I will do." Versus, "This is what this character would do."
The latter is 'roleplay'.
The former is something else entirely; a kind of personal wish-fulfilment which, if not understood, consented to, expected and accepted by all involved parties, is dangerous and prone to create a big, ugly mess.
The role-player occupies an awkward place between writer and actor; If our characters' lives are a play, we are essentially both its playwright and its cast. But this places us on the outside looking in, as there is a degree of detachment there. While we may be fond of our characters, we never really are them, and should not strive to be.
But when you dive through that fourth wall, RPing your character becomes an exercise in ego. When we fail to maintain that separation and consider our character's actions, trials and successes to be our own, things can get horrible very quickly. Because then, of course, things are a lot more personal. 'IC' romances and conflicts turn from events happening merely in an unfolding fiction to things we have an all-too-intimate investment in, and that's when feelings get hurt.
There have been many wonderful contributions to this thread already which have said much of what I would say, so I shan't prattle on. What I will say is that if someone's using RP is wish-fulfilment (and I don't think all RP is wish fulfilment; you couldn't pay me to have Brynhilde's life), that is not in itself wrong, if all parties involved know that that's what's going on. It's when the IC/OOC bleed is either unintentional, or not consented to by the other party(ies), that it is dangerous and not okay.
