What is Roleplaying like to you?

[DragonLancer]

I voted for Social Event and Other.

Gaming is a chance for me to meet up with my friends every week and do something cool together.

I also voted for Other, because to me its also about telling a story, and for me its more than a game. Roleplaying is probably the only real hobby I have (I'm not into sports or painting or cars, or any of that), and so it consumes a lot of my waking thoughts.

 

[Piratecat]

Sir Elton, I didn't even know that you could hide poll results -- but we'd prefer to have poll results visible for everything that isn't a contest of some sort. As a result, I've unhidden the poll.

Sorry for any confusion.

 

[Sir Elton]

Now you know.

 

[Talon5]

To much reality is bad- reality sucks.

 

[hero4hire]

Well its definitely social as it is a chance for me and my friends to get together, etc..

But I also voted other...I've been Roleplaying since I was 7. That was 28 years ago. By now its a lifestyle.

 

[Corinth]

Other: Role-Playing is a dynamic problem-solving exercise where the participants work under the constraints of limited resources, limited information and limited behavioral options vs. the Opposition Force controlled by the Game Master to achieve a set of objectives- some or all which may conflict with others, and some or all of which may be set by the participants instead of the Game Master. While it may appear to resemble a novel, a social event, a motion picture, a board game or a video game is it none of these things because it transcends limitations inherent to those media. Thus it most closely resembles a simulation of real life.

 

[Acid_crash]

I didn't try selecting more than one option, or else I would have selected movie, social event and other. My vote went to other.

I see these games more as a interactive storytelling game than a role-playing game, and I think that they should be advertised as such. Try explaining to somebody who has no clue what a role-playing game is, and many times you get a blank stare, or a stare that says you are just nuts. Then explain it that the game is an interactive storytelling game where you sit with your friends, using your imagination and interact with each other to tell a great story in a world of make believe and visualize how the story will turn out by pretending to be a fictional character in the world.

 

[Big Jake]

A social event/Reading a good book

I agree with the sentiment that D&D is about a group of friends getting together to play. So, like almost everyone else, I selected A social event.

As for how I feel after (or during) a game, I feel like I do after reading a couple of chapters of a good book... I can't wait to get to the next chapter to see what happens next.

I don't equate my D&D experience to movie watching... I don't feel involved while watching most movies. But I almost always feel involved in a story that I'm reading.

 

[T. Foster]

Other: Playing a game.

I play RPGs for the same reasons I play Chess, Poker or Scrabble, namely competition, challenge, fun. Socializing plays a part, but I will gladly play a game with someone I don't know and who I'll never see again after the game if we can have fun while playing.

I voted Other, and I agree with every word of the above. I didn't know any of the other guys in my current game group before we started playing, and while I've come to enjoy their company and like socializing with them, that still comes second to the competition, challenge, and fun of playing the game with them.

 

[Seravin]

I voted Social Event and Other.
Other: Playing a game and creating a story.

When it's all done there's a tale to be told around the fire...