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(08-20-2015, 09:15 AM)Ignacius Wrote: FAR more common is the issue with people playing socially adept characters who aren't, due to player limitations, actually that socially adept. That's a big problem in FFXIV. At least you can mimic the effects of intelligence and handwave, but it's often very obvious who doesn't have a charming bone in their body the second they try to be slick in character.
This, so much this. There's few things more cringe worthy in RP than a self ascribed "lady killer" who is anything but.
Here's the thing about RPing labels such as "genius", "beautiful", or "popular". These labels are things that other people have the ability to bestow on you, labeling yourself such things doesn't really make it "real".
In this topic's particular focus we're talking about "genius", so the rest of my commentary will be only about that one.
Genius is not a scientific term. It's a social label that's applied to all sorts of different people for different reasons. A researcher who makes a breakthrough in his or her field can be called a genius, a football quarter back that is known for executing split second strategies that pay off might be called a genius quarter back, etc.
Point is the label genius is earned, not really announced. In fact it comes across as extremely eye-rolling when someone does declare themselves a genius - or in this case label their character one.
I'll briefly touch on the idea of "genius level IQ". These people do exist, but they are often described this way alongside being discovered as a child prodigy with precocious intelligence and learning ability. These people are exceedingly rare, so rare that most of us have never met one and never will.
A far better and much more believable way to go about role-playing a "smart" character is to label your character "gifted". A gifted person is a much more vague term, though also not really scientific, that describes a much wider range of mental acuity than the label genius. Most of us living in the west have probably met several people that are mentally gifted at some point in our lives. In fact I myself was labeled "gifted" by my school and moved up from 2nd to 3rd grade - something that turned out to be a huge mistake in the long run - but I'm a far cry from a genius.
As for role-playing gifted characters? This is entirely doable. My current main I label "gifted", and like real gifted people this doesn't mean she never makes mistakes or always has a snappy comeback the way a "genius" might. It just means that when it comes to reasoning ability she's above par, and that's something many of us are capable of at least faking reasonably well.