Hi everyone, let me start by introducing myself. My name's Harry, and I'm currently undergoing a research project for University. In this research, I have to essentially look at a group of consumers of a certain product, and learn something from them. With this brief in mind, I decided I had an amazing opportunity to allow you, the online roleplayers, to have your voice heard in a broader sense outside of your forum. Essentially I want to understand what it is you love about roleplaying, what got you into it originally and also just a little bit about your interests outside of roleplaying so I can begin to flesh out some character types and personalities almost.
Who is this guy, and what sort of position is he in to do research on us? Is probably what you're all thinking right about now, so let me give you a brief background on my own experience with roleplaying. Back when I was around 11, I felt very much fringed by society. I felt as though my own imagination wasn't given enough room to breathe within the general activities we do from day to day, either at school or out with friends. Then, one day, a friend of mine introduced me to a website (sorry if this counts as advertising!) called Habbo Hotel. On this, I was introduced, by my friend again, to an incredibly primitive version of roleplaying in the Star Wars universe. Suffice to say, I lapped it all up. Here was an opportunity for me to utilize my greatest strength, my imagination, with other like-minded people to have fun. Perfect, right? So, anyway, I kept playing this for a number of years, jumping between different roleplay's ranging from classic fantasy to organised crime. Then, a number of years later, I was introduced by a friend I'd made in the organised crime element of roleplaying to Los Santos roleplay. On this, I found a much more mature player base which was great because I was feeling like the oldest guy in the room on Habbo by this point. This was awesome, and led me up to the point in which I had to pack up my character creating bags and leave for University. Although I don't have nearly enough time for me to dedicate to roleplaying anymore, It's a period of my life that I'll always cherish as it gave me a sense of worth when I felt at my lowest.
With this research, I want to give back to the community that I held so dear and allow your voices to be heard in a larger portion of society. We all know the stereotypes, we've all seen Role Models, so now I am offering you a chance to show the world that you're just like everyone else, you just happen to have an interest in creative storytelling.
The way I'm gonna do this is through a few open questions, which will give you all the chance to expand as much as you wish or as little as you like. Everyone and anyone is free to be involved, all you have to do is post your reply in this topic. I won't be revealing, nor do I expect any of you to tell me, any personal details and will only refer to any of you as your forum usernames in my research. If there's anything else you don't want to me to disclose then feel free to let me know, this is your story and you can choose how it's told.
Thanks for reading this incredibly long and boring post! If anyone is interested, I'll post below my first question.
In 100 words or less, what is it you love about Roleplaying?