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(08-19-2015, 05:29 PM)Etienne Wrote:(08-19-2015, 04:02 PM)Sin Wrote: You're not your character.I have to echo this. A major point of roleplaying for a lot of people is to be something you otherwise aren't/cannot be. It doesn't have to be limited to "geniuses" either.
I'd actually be interested to know just how many players in the RP community can, in real life, wield the weapons their characters do in roleplay to the extent that the players claim their characters can.
Same with crafting. I know several players that have characters who are talented cooks but admit openly that they'd burn water in real life. I have yet to complain about their RP in regards to their cooking.
Does being knowledgeable of whatever subject matter your character is genius in help? Absolutely. Anyone who argues differently needs to reevaluate their stance.Â
Is being knowledgeable in such a manner required to roleplay a convincing, "good" (in quotes because relative subjective-ness of the term), immersive "insert-talent here"? Absolutely not.Â
And, honestly, it's disheartening to read the responses in this thread that would say otherwise.
Book knowledge doesn't make you smart. Â My mother's a great example. Â She will tell you, straight up, that she isn't necessarily intelligent. Â Her sister was incredibly intelligent, but she isn't. Â Both she and her sister went into nursing. Â She's a better nurse, but she has to put in a ton of effort to learn new things and her knowledge base was put together over many years. Â She has a lot of other great qualities, but she isn't a genius. Â She's very aware of that.
Anyone can, if they have the drive and dedication, become knowledgeable in a subject. Â Not everyone is a genius. Â Intelligence is a measure of mental speed and acuity, not volume.
And a character being an autistic bookworm is one thing, but for someone to be a "genius", that's taking on a mental trait. Â Geniuses are people who can learn new subjects incredibly quickly, react through problem solving quickly, and are generally people who have incredible recall.
Now, I do actually know something about swordplay, and that has allowed most of my characters to seem as though they have a prodigious amount of finesse (I can apply techniques I personally know). Â But saying your character has a lot of physical power when you personally do not is relatively easy; you the person aren't physically present with your character.
But intelligence? Â You ARE mentally present, and there are quite a few mental abilities people simply cannot mimic if they don't have it. Â There is no amount of learning that can make you a genius, make you witty, make you charismatic, nothing.
I'll give you a direct example. Â Let's say someone wants his character to be a genius. Â His character seems to know everything there is to know about airships and machines, but the character is supposed to be a GENIUS, not just a well-schooled engineer. Â However, let's say the player is not very intelligent. Â That's going to come across in conversation. Â He won't be able to produce snappy comebacks, nor will he be able to quickly come up with mechanical solutions that make any story sense. Â He'll be a step behind in many conversations. Â Worse, when explanations are occurring, his "less intelligent" fellow characters will be able to follow along.
We can all try to say, "this character is intelligent" but the character can't actually BE more intelligent than the player. Â The best we can do is mimic the effects with some handwavium by artificially saying "this character is very smart".
I should point out that, again, this is by FAR the less common problem. Â Roleplayers have a tendency towards mental acuity (coming up with story responses on the fly isn't something that tends to attract doofuses, that's what Call of Duty is for). Â FAR more common is the issue with people playing socially adept characters who aren't, due to player limitations, actually that socially adept. Â That's a big problem in FFXIV. Â 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.
You can't be what you can't be, and it's extremely important that players realize this. Â Very often, they take offense when their characters don't draw the attention that they want, whether it be awe at their intelligence or fluttering hearts at their bravado. Â However, traits like intelligence, wit, charm, subterfuge, these are comparative traits that come out in play. Â And if you can't play that role IRL (not could if you wanted to, but don't, but literally cannot) then there's no way you'll be able to pull off convincingly roleplaying someone in that role.
It's not sad, it's just reality. Â If you want to play someone schooled on a subject you don't know much about, you can (and often, it does you a lot of good to read up on or extrapolate the knowledge you need, even if you don't have it). Â That's relatively easy. Â But you can't fake genius if you yourself can't think on that level. Â That requires a lot of people helping out, and in an open-forum RP the way most of these games operate, that means you're trying to engender that reaction out of complete strangers.
Unfortunately, fake genius, like fake charm, tends to come across to strangers as exactly that, fake genius or fake charm. Â There's nothing sadder than someone bombing at a supposedly genuine display of mental acuity because the player just isn't genuinely that acute.