Yeah I've felt apathy in roleplaying including one rp I am now because my character is so ill fit he may as well not be in there. I made him with the assumption the rp would have progressed faster and allowed him to get in faster. But besides the point roleplays tend to fit better with real life people than online. Online roleplaying lacks a personal element. I've only had two DnD RP groups i've been with for only a couple sessions each and I had generally MUCH more fun with the groups than the various people online. However online you can do anything without the need for equipment and find people are interested easier. For example if I wanted to set up a gundam group do you have any idea how hard that would be in the US? Or any other anime related rp? Super hero rp's maybe but for the most part it is much harder to set things up in real life.

But that's just me the apathy in online roleplays come from how impersonal they are at times and how you can't have person to person jokes unless they really get involved with the story. In real life it's less of an issue and the games are generally more fun.