Is Roleplaying cringeworthy?

lardvader

No

I don't mind as long as people are not RP'ing ***

I RP as well but it's more of a "soap-backgroundstory" to my characters - who slept with who and "I'm your father" etc...

[edit for profanity evasion]

CherryCake

No

No, I dont find roleplaying cringe-worthy. However rp CAN get cringeworthy but that depends on what people roleplay, for example once I saw a video of a vegan that pretended to be a cow and another vegan was milking her and...it was definitely one of the cringiest things I have seen, however when it comes to gaming, I dont find it cringeworthy, heck even I do it on PS4 (without talking to people I am too shy for that), because I am playing a character so I try to get as much as I can in the role, with emotes etc.

Genomic

Missing a third option: sometimes.

NativeJoe

Yes

Do what you want, on your time, with your people.

Just not when you join my dungeon group, ask for my help, or role play at the most ridicules times. x.x

Yes I understand your a theif... but we're on a speed run sir...we don't have time for you to check that corner our minimap clearly tells us has NEVER spawned a chest or heavy sack.

Or that time before the trial where you took an extra 20 minutes to tell us a story... and we all failed miserably...because unannounced to me you where all in different ***pretty*** gear...

I've played mmo's for over a decade, and I know it's fun to hang out with your guildmates, and infact it may be only reason to play these games at all. But when you waste other peoples times and out of politeness they're trying not to infringe as you burn up the rest of their friday night with endless and meaningless monologue... it's what I'd call "cringe-worthy"

Not so sound to aggressive or bashing here.. but ya know?

If it's sexting, cybering, dancing naked or pvping naked... go have fun. just Stay away from me cuz I don't need the vicious death procing off your naked butt and killing me!

Rune_Relic

Depends on the person I guess.

Do I build a character with a specific imaginary persona and build accordingly and try to make it work...or not as the case may be ?
Yes.

Do I myself engage in a full blown 'live' acting role to backup the persona I created ?
No. Because being the center of attention and drama actually makes me cringe.
But many people love that and revel in it.
And I get a great kick out of watching many of them.
They add spice to the mundane
That 'variety' of 'invidual role play' is what defines an MMO for me.
It is a book where the characters (us) are ever changing and evolving.

Its the RPG part of MMORPG at the end of the day.
And role playing exists from subtle to extreme.

Rylana

No

Roleplaying is standard fare in a MMORPG, i mean Role Playing is one third of that acronym. While I dont personally role play my toons (though in TS I occasionally make goblin noises and yell about how electrogoblin is the strongest there is), the playerbase has whole guilds dedicated to it, and live and let live.

The only RP that genuinely bugs me is ERP, and only if its public or right in your face. Otherwise its just another day in Cyrodiil.

That being said, bad roleplay is definitely annoying. Especially when someone clearly breaks character when they should be in character, god mods, metagames, and all those sorts of gaffes youre not supposed to make. Then I guess it does make me cringe, but only because I know what good RP looks like, having seen it for 20 odd years in gaming.

Farorin

Sometimes it can be. But each to their own I guess.

Rapthorne

No

It's not something I participate in, but I enjoy observing roleplayers at times. I don't find it cringe worthy at all. We all role play when we play ESO. RPers just take it a few steps further, and some creative, interesting and fun dialogue and stories can be born from it. I see RPers as people who want to create their own stories, rather than following the rails of the story made for us by Zenimax.

SahrotRein

We've gotten to the part, where even role-playing in an RPG game is questioned.

To say the truth, I cringe when I see other people role-play. Using /emote chat, talking as if they were NPCs and discussing strange topics, making them up on spot - especially when they either type too slow to keep up the conversation to NPC-like pace or can't think of anything to say at the moment. But not every case is like that, but generally, I would never commit myself to this, it's awkward for me to do that.

One day a friend of mine asked me to join their role-playing guild event in Nimalten in Rift. I said I'll check it out and once I arrived, it seemed like a cult, all those fanatics walking around, doing emotes and that cringy chat, god damn. My friend on the balcony yelled something like: "Welcome our newest recruit, fellow citizens!", well did I bolt the flick out of that place, what a panic attack, lol.

But, on the other hand, truth is that I do role-play my character, so to speak. I try to give my current main (AD Altmer Sorcerer) a personality during quest decisions. I use Mind-Shriven Skin costume, Mind-Shriven Mount and Stonefire Scamp, all in Daedric theme, alright. I have a little backstory to this too to make up for these almost dreadful looks.

tl;dr
That being said, I decided to not vote as I find it cringeworthy when I look at "some" people doing it out in the public (that came out weird), while others are acceptable at it. I also role-play my character but not to the extend that I would engage myself in an actual role-playing event.

phreatophile

No

Troll poll. Surprised it's lasted 2 pages without moderation.

MornaBaine

No

As the leader of an active RP guild going strong since launch...I have some opinions. LOL You want to see some of the worst catfights ever? Peek in on some discussions with those of us to whom the lore of ES is deeply important and craft our roleplay around it....and those who don't know a darned thing about ES lore and think it's perfectly fine to...

Play a vampire that publicly declares, "I'm a vampire! Gonna drink this girl dry right here at the bar in plain view of everyone!"
When we all know darned well vampires are seen as abominations and anyone KNOWN to be one would logically be set upon by the guards and killed on the spot.

Plays their character as having Daedric parentage.
When we all know Daedra do not reproduce sexually.

Plays their character as some sort of god.
Enough said.

Plays their character as being from an alternate reality.
You know, Sith Lord.

Plays their character declaring they are the one true Emperor of Cyrodiil.
Insert painfully hard eyerolling here.

Yep, seen all of this and could actually make this list several pages long. So though I voted "No," the sad fact is that roleplay CAN BE horrifically cringeworthy. Like, really, really, REALLY bad. And I'm the first one to admit it.

But as a general concept? MMORPG's are potentially incredibly rich venues for RP, ESO especially. Yet I've long suspected that the developers don't have the first clue about what roleplaying is or how to properly support it in an MMORPG. Or possibly they just don't care.

TheDarkShadow

EstelioVeleth wrote: »

once I saw a video of a vegan that pretended to be a cow and another vegan was milking her

Dafug I just read?

MornaBaine

No

TheDarkShadow wrote: »

EstelioVeleth wrote: »

once I saw a video of a vegan that pretended to be a cow and another vegan was milking her

Dafug I just read?

The dark side of the internet. Do NOT look into that abyss. Do NOT!

Ser Lobo

No

The moment every single player finishes character customization and enter's the game, they are roleplaying.

They may be roleplaying Plays-With-***, the khajit *** who likes to jump up and down, but the rest of us can pretend he's just a meth-head ... 'scuse me, hist-head ... and go about our worlds. Just another young Argonian who doesn't realize how emberassing he is to his species and who probably will disappear off the face of the world sooner rather than later due to some poor decision or another.

We're all roleplayers, most of us even do it every single day in real life. Just how the world works.

RDMyers65b14_ESO

No

Actually, what I find cringe worthy is the lack of lore friendly names that non RPers sometimes have. Do you really think that parents are going to name their child, l33t haxor? You are playing a fantasy game, not trying to compensate for your inadequacy. Get into the theme.

Browiseth

Yes

Depends on the roleplayers honestly. In my experience many of them I bump into play their characters in a brooding, edgy way, so I'm going to have to go with yes.

Samphaa

Yes

Can someone enlighten me on RPing? What do you do?

Kendaric

No

Samphaa wrote: »

Can someone enlighten me on RPing? What do you do?

Basically it's acting out your character.

At the most basic level this includes not doing certain quests because they don't fit your character and making dialog choices in quests based on your character.
Those of us who take it a step further, act like the character would at all times, i.e. talking in character (contrary to common belief this doesn't necessarily involve Shakespeare's English ), using emotes at appropriate times (both actual emotes and typed out stuff).

TheShadowScout

No

Roleplaying is like acting.

The story roleplayed/acted out can be cringeworthy.
The quality of the roleplaying/acting can be crigeworthy.

But the roleplaying/acting in general?
Nah!

After all, the story roleplayed/acted out can also be nifty!
And the quality of the roleplaying/acting can also be great!

It all depends... and in some cases, even on the eye of the beholder. What story one considers great, someone else considers cringeworthy... its just like in the movies, some love slapstick comedy, others find it cringeworthy, some love "artistic" movies, others find them boring, some love action spectacles, others find them mindless... each to their own.

The point about a MMORPG is that you have roleplaying elements in building your character, and guiding that avatar of yourself through the game world. With the option of having mutliple avatars, which may or may not be different - you can either play them all the same, make all the same choices for the dialouge options; or you can roleplay - make them represent different facets of your personality, have one character who is the hero, and one who is the antihero, one who is the brute and one who is the saint, - as you like.

And if you find someone to roleplay with whose wierdness is compartible to your own - all the better.

menedhyn

No

As a child, we used to play as explorers or adventurers looking for secret treasure, lost cities or fantastical creatures. One of the group would take it in turn to draw crude maps based on the fields, woodlands or river valleys that was our landscape, think up a silly background story and send 'pretend' letters to us all to meet at a certain place at a certain time... and bring a torch, a rucksack, a piece of paper and a pencil... and some sandwiches! We had the best of times, shared jokes, scared ourselves silly, occasionally argued that a 'Professor of Archaeology would never say that', but most of the time found it thoroughly absorbing. Great friendships were formed. We were role-playing, and there was nothing cringeworthy about it at all.

This is why I role-play now. I can't help it - it just seems to be the most natural thing to do when faced with a game like this. Perhaps to some it can seem a little odd, but then I can't quite understand why some other players want to rush through the content just to get endgame gear. Do I think negatively about them? Not at all - each to their own. I take my role-play seriously, but there are some players who are horrific snobs and hyper-critical of how others choose to play, which I find desperately sad.

Role-play, even with the limitations and difficulties of achieving that through my PS4, makes me happy. What more can I say?

theher0not

Some timed yes, sometimes no. It depends on what kind of roleplay.

slowpoke68

No

I don't RP myself but always have a lore appropriate name and will play along with someone if they do. I love having RPers around though because it really adds to the immersion. Keep it up RPers.

NateAssassin

Yes

LFG ERP NO STRAIGHTS ALOUD

Tandor

No

Verily nay, kind sir.

/bow

JD2013

No

Why on earth would you find someone else's play preferences cringe worthy? Get a grip. I always like seeing RP as it makes the story and world feel more alive. I RP occasionally too.

What's cringe worthy is when trolling idiots feel the need to try and troll people doing RP.

Teridaxus

*sees people doing erp in a local place, turns around and nopes out*

starkerealm

Yes

bloodenragedb14_ESO wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

Only when you walk in on ERPers.

most people i know do that in whisper chat as a courtesy to others, but there are jerks in every style pve pvp and rp, i dont call pvp or pve cringworthy because of a few bad eggs, we call those bad eggs....well any manner of expletives

...but people that ERP in say... *shudders*

dtm_samuraib16_ESO

Problem is the elitist attitude ingame here.
There is no room for 'crazy builds' (where the character is everything, negative sides and all) and the "perfect build" simply in not of consequence.
You cannot enter a dungeon with an RP build, since they kick you.
Waiting for one to open is already an issue for a "casual damage dealer", not to mention if you're an actual RP build.

The RPG in MMORPG has been destroyed badly...

Teridaxus

dtm_samuraib16_ESO wrote: »

Problem is the elitist attitude ingame here.
There is no room for 'crazy builds' (where the character is everything, negative sides and all) and the "perfect build" simply in not of consequence.
You cannot enter a dungeon with an RP build, since they kick you.
Waiting for one to open is already an issue for a "casual damage dealer", not to mention if you're an actual RP build.

The RPG in MMORPG has been destroyed badly...

Are you the guy who tries to heal people with a bow without slotting any heals?

Fat_Cat45

No

RP isn't cringeworthy, its a hobby of others by playing a video game in a different method.
[snip]

[edited for flame]