[quote=@Undine] For this website in particular, this is because roleplaying is a [i]social[/i] activity. You have to collaborate with others to create an interesting story. Hard work, is of course valued extremely highly, but at some point you have to consider that it's not worth it anymore. Roleplaying here is like having a conversation; there's give and take, back and forth, and you have to work with the people around you to establish it. You don't have to keep talking to someone who's being a bully. Roleplaying is first and foremost, a [i]hobby.[/i] We are under no obligation to feel bad or miserable while engaging in it. If someone is being disrespectful to me, I have the choice to cut them out of my life; and more often than not, I will because it's not worth it. I personally don't categorize what we do on this site as playing a role, I call it collaborative storytelling. If compromising and trying to get along with others is not something someone is willing to do, then writing solo is always another option. [/quote] Good point. The thing is, the only way I can really socialize with people is through the internet, and usually in the form of fiction writing and roleplaying because it's easier for people to deal with a character I write than the 'real me', because as aforementioned the real me is a jackass. I have a lot of issues in real life that make interacting with people usually end in them writing me off as a problem for my parents and psychiatrists to deal with. I get that for most people RP is a hobby, something they do alongside other social activities because they enjoy it. They probably don't have the time or energy to deal with someone who can't stop picking fights. But at least for me, this is how I learn to interact with people. The only reason I ever took up roleplaying was because I thought that the only people who would accept my company were people as nerdy and antisocial as I believed roleplayers to be. But I was pretty wrong, wasn't I? Roleplaying, at least nowadays, seems to be a hobby held by people who are highly socially advanced and are mostly into the creative writing aspect of RP. And I get that I'm just whining. You can pretty much crunch this whole giant paragraph down into "I'm bad at socializing so I do it over the internet, so just leave me alone and let me be a jackass." I know that you're not my psychiatrist and you don't need to hear my excuses for being a putz, but the reason I started this topic was to try and get some answers, because more than anything I'm just really fucking confused. Thanks for all your help, again.