(04-14-2014, 11:54 AM)Ignacius Wrote: It's just one of those things where sometimes people make their characters very similar to themselves, living vicariously through them. Â It's probably not a good idea in a setting where we can all influence the story; it's probably better for just pure storytelling on your own time. Â If you're feeling too attached to your character, try developing parts of their personalities to be unlike you. Â Otherwise, every insult, failure, and relationship breakup that happens in-character is going to feel like it happened to you personally.
Which, if that's your thing, that's fine. Â It just makes OOC relationships with people a little strained when they're constantly having to alter character angles to account for your personal feelings.
^^^ THIS. All of this.
I have to be honest in that this thread kind of scares me. While I can understand being deeply moved by RP and empathising with how your character feels in the drama of the moment, it's downright problematic if you are feeling EXACTLY what your character is feeling. Ember is right in that you have to reign in what you feel and have at least some disconnect between you and your character because things I do and say to your character should only truly impact your character and not be something you take to heart as a person.
The other reason there 100000% NEEDS to be some kind of IC/OOC separation from what your character is feeling and what you are feeling is because, you run the strong risk of feeling IC feelings towards the OOC players behind the characters you are RPing with.
This is especially true with feelings of romance or hate that your character my have to other people's characters.
I had once had villainous character try to kill Tiergan. Tiergan hated that person with the passion of a thousand suns and wanted to slit that man's throat. That doesn't mean I as a player hated the villain-character and wanted to slit the his throat. Hell, the villainous player and I became friends. As a player, I was excited to see the dynamic unfold between his and my own. RPing together was essentially like impromptu story-writing with each other.
I've also RPed romances in past MMOs. My character may have been in love with another character, but that NEVER meant that I as a person was in love with the other player. I am actually extremely wary of RP romances these days, because it became a problem several times in the past when the other person often tried to live vicariously through their character and decided that because their character loved mine - they were also in love with me as a person in real life. It just gets really messy and awful so quickly.
