Quote:Symphony wrote stuff in the original post and I fail at quoting...
On Immersive vs Avatar vs Self RP.
Self RP is something I worry about because there's often way too much bleed over. People are reacting to an extension of yourself, and it becomes difficult to isolate your real self from the impact of this because the character is mostly you. It's a dangerous thing for self-insertion, for these reasons. I would say there is a little bit of self in every character because it's impossible not to have that happen, but playing mostly self makes it especially dangerous. (edit: Neneso covered this nicely)
Now, Immersive RP is my bread and butter. I love being able to shed myself and immerse myself in the character in the world. It's not much different from a mix of improv and method acting. Key things I like to do with this is avoid meta/OOC information. I want to know what my character knows and very little past that about other characters. Ideally, I won't even know the other players OOCly at all. That way I'm having my character react to their characters in an organic fashion.  If things go well, things go well, if things go horribly they go horribly. These are things that help develop the character and build realism and keep RP dynamic.  There is a bit more self in this, a bit more danger of bleed over (it's unavoidable) then avatar RP as you're blocking out you for the character while playing. Â
I'm not sure which of these you're referring to exactly.
It's difficult to find people who RP like either of these as both styles seem to have really fallen out of favor in the last 5-10 years due to a number of factors.  At one point the immersive style RP was the norm on most games I played on. This was over a decade ago however, and times have changed.  MMO's have become mainstream, Roleplay isn't as much a 'thing reserved for the geeks and nerds' in societies eyes but socially acceptable.
The change in major styles has also followed certain societal changes that I'm not sure if it's appropriate to get into too much depth here on, but I've seen the more controlled avatar RP pick up as society in general has become more fearful in general then open. As the base trust between people has faded, that lack of trust impacts how we play as well.
