I've Been Roleplaying In Mmorpgs Like Wow For 16 Years, It's The...

Go be cringe in World of Warcraft, it's good for the soul.

This is Terminally Online: PC Gamer's very own MMO column. Every other week, I'll be sharing my thoughts on the genre, interviewing fellow MMO-heads like me, taking a deep-dive into mechanics we've all taken for granted, and, occasionally, bringing in guest writers to talk about their MMO of choice.

It's bloody cold, grey, and miserable outside right now and, at risk of getting too personal with you lot: I'm not having the best time. The SAD lamp I've currently got blasting fake sunlight and the extra Vitamin D I've got flitting about my veins is only doing so much. I am, however, deeply thankful for one thing: Roleplaying.

Now before you point at me, laugh, and go "cringe!" (you can and probably should do this to me, just after reading this article) I'd like to explain what roleplaying actually is: No, it isn't going to Goldshire and /dancing for someone to get their jollies off, and no—it isn't RP walking everywhere with one hand on the keyboard and the other on your unmentionables.

Well, for some people it is those things—and more power to them, they're adults and they can do whatever they want—but that's never been it for me. Roleplaying changed my life, set me on the path I'm currently on, and has helped countless friends become happier, more developed people. It's literal magic, and I'm going to try and convince you to do it yourself while the weather's awful.

If you've played D&D before, you have a good frame of reference: Roleplaying in an MMO is basically just a collective writing exercise. Just like D&D, you choose a name for a character, decide on a backstory, and use the chatbox to express what they're saying and doing "in character". The only real difference is that it's text-based, and there are fewer rules.

There's etiquette, mind—generally, you can't say you chop someone's head off without asking them first—but it's otherwise all improv. Roleplayers unofficially agree which hubs on which servers they'll congregate on, go there, and riff until they're three months deep into a plotline and weeping at their monitor.

Roleplayers don't just sit around in taverns, either—they create adventures, host markets, form guilds of travelling merchants, zealous paladins, militaries, wizard cabals, and cults. Do you miss the days of Star Wars Galaxies where you could interact with players as an Artisan or an Entertainer? The spirit's kept alive and well in roleplay.

I've roleplayed in World

Source: PC Gamer