» Mon Mar 08, 2010 2:50 am
Not really the way I'd like to play the game myself. The appeal of role-playing for me is in playing a character that is not me. That's not to say I never put aspects of myself into my characters, but that only makes it easier for me to role-play them, in they're still character's other than myself, and it's the ability to create a character who is different from myself and can do things I can't do in real life and to play that character that is part of the appeal of an RPG. I play my own role all the time in real life, I don't need to do it in games as well. Besides, I really can't see my real life self being an amazing hero who fights dragons and saves the world, and that's not low self-esteem talking there, it's just me being realistic, even if we were to assume a hypothetical situation where there are dragons in real life to fight, I'm simply not the sort who would be suited for the task, thus, I don't think my real life self would be a suitable character for Skyrim.
In a way, I sort of think of it as being kind of like an actor playing a character, disregarding the cases where actors essentially play themselves, the actor and the character are not meant to be the same person. Obviously, we're not meant to think of the person on the screen as whoever the actor is, but whatever the character is called in the story. The character's personality, behavior, beliefs and all that may not necessarily match those of the actor, and what he or she does in any given situation may not be what the actor would do if such an event ocurred in real life, thus, the actor is not truly the same person as the character, but he or she has the job of bringing that character to life and making the character seem like a real person, rather than a lifeless model of one, the actor is temporarily playing the role of a character, in an RPG it's similar, of course, there are still a few key differences, such as the fact that, at least in the Elder Scrolls, the character is created by me, I'm not just acting based on a script someone else wrote, and while the game's story and gameplay is likely to constrain what I can do in the game, when I do get the choice, I'm the one to decide what I do, based on what fits how I intend to play the character I created. Aside from that, an actor's job is ultimately to tell the story for the benefit of the audience, whereas I role-play for my own entertainment, but in the end, at heart, it's still a matter of inserting myself into the role of someone I am not.
Not that there's really anything wrong with role-playing as yourself, if that's a play style you feel you can enjoy, then go ahead, it's just not how I'd want to play the game, if I'm going to go out of my way to role-play, I want to do it as someone I can't be in real life.