I consider roleplay to be a cooperative effort like anyone else does, but I try to weigh a lot of my posts with "how does this move forward the scene." Failing that, a simpler "does this give my partner(s) anything to respond to?" Roleplay is like tennis in my opinion: If the ball never gets to the other side of the court, it's not much of a game.
To that end, I find 99% of internal emoting and dialogue worthless. As an audience, sure. Seeing other people RP that way, it gives me insight I wouldn't otherwise have. The thing is, not everyone is your audience. Some people are your co-stars. Anyone interacting with you might find it wonderfully interesting that your character thinks back to something, but if you don't put anything out there to earn a response? I think that's sort of inadvertently downplaying the give-and-take of a scene. It's somewhat similar to the wallflower discussions that pop up every now and then: Without a hook or something to draw other people to you, it means everyone has to work harder to get anything worth a damn out of someone else.
It makes roleplay a one-sided game of pursuit. When people actively resist becoming engaged or deviate from an encounter (in walk-up, anyway, formal groups tend to ignore most of the rando-RP "norms") it becomes a chore for some.
I also tend to do most of my roleplay in just dialogue. I'm atrociously bad at emoting anything in expressive detail beyond general actions or movements and to some degree I blame MMO roleplay being a visual medium, but that's covering my own ass and excusing it.
Thoughtful edit: I am a fan of one-sentence offshoots that give players more depth of someone's character. I am bored to tears by the paragraphs-long waxing and navel-gazing that is just IC-blogposting in an MMO format.
To that end, I find 99% of internal emoting and dialogue worthless. As an audience, sure. Seeing other people RP that way, it gives me insight I wouldn't otherwise have. The thing is, not everyone is your audience. Some people are your co-stars. Anyone interacting with you might find it wonderfully interesting that your character thinks back to something, but if you don't put anything out there to earn a response? I think that's sort of inadvertently downplaying the give-and-take of a scene. It's somewhat similar to the wallflower discussions that pop up every now and then: Without a hook or something to draw other people to you, it means everyone has to work harder to get anything worth a damn out of someone else.
It makes roleplay a one-sided game of pursuit. When people actively resist becoming engaged or deviate from an encounter (in walk-up, anyway, formal groups tend to ignore most of the rando-RP "norms") it becomes a chore for some.
I also tend to do most of my roleplay in just dialogue. I'm atrociously bad at emoting anything in expressive detail beyond general actions or movements and to some degree I blame MMO roleplay being a visual medium, but that's covering my own ass and excusing it.
Thoughtful edit: I am a fan of one-sentence offshoots that give players more depth of someone's character. I am bored to tears by the paragraphs-long waxing and navel-gazing that is just IC-blogposting in an MMO format.
![[Image: yEROfKO.png]](http://i.imgur.com/yEROfKO.png)
