Not everyone is a ….. Okay, Let me say it, I have a group I PvP with. And I tend to think that side of the coin assumes everyone knows how, at least in some small measure. All of us -do- know how to PvM, as it is built into the game mechanics, even if that means whacking the crud out of the mongbat in Haven who you didn’t expect to see at the Bard house. Not everyone roleplays though and those of us who do are excruciatingly aware of how small our communities are. Particularly as we watch them get smaller over time.

Three different styles of play but eventually one or more finds itself face to face with the other. I cannot tell you how many times I have had a PvM’er or a PvP’er ask me how they are supposed to respond to an emote of “Smiles”?

It’s a simple process, an emote. The idea is basically signifying an action between one toon and another. One character and another. And emotes are the bread and butter of rp. If you think about it, emoting a “smiles” is really not that different from saying Hi. And so the question comes up, “Well, why didn’t they just say that?” You could ask why politicians lie or why the sky is blue. The answer is that’s them.

The right response to, “smiles” is to either plant your colon and smile back: Or to be you and just say Hi. Chances are the roleplayer will follow that up with: “With her head tilted, brushes a strand of hair back.” Okay. They are giving you a clear mental image of what it is they are doing. If you take the time to open the paperdoll’s description then chances are you will have a good idea of what the character they conceived is supposed to look like. For example you may find that the strand of hair they just brushed back is dirty blond and frays at the edges as if its been sheared a few too many times.

We are trying to paint you a mental image: Roleplayer’s tend to use emotes in any and all situations. That includes everything from a dungeon crawl to an EM event. Imagination is what this game was built on no matter which template or style you gravitate towards. Rp’ers just take it one step further. As I said earlier, we understand not everyone does what we do so when you don’t emote, “takes a step to the side as if moving out of the way.” Then we get it. There is absolutely no reason why we, those with different game purposes, can’t coexist and intermingle on a regular basis. And in fact that is part of the great divide.

A conversation with a Fellow Rp’er and reporter alerted me to a fact I had not taken into consideration: “Most people don’t become an rp’er without having been introduced to someone who didn’t break character.” Non rp-er’s and rp’ers tend to stay separate partly because they aren’t aware of each other and partly because it actually takes a moment to integrate the two syles. It’s not hard, it’s not overly time consuming, but you do have to stop and think. Roleplaying is our way of telling a story. Some of us incorporate actual written pieces into this on Stratics and other forums, some don’t. Point being, once exposed to roleplay, those who haven’t done it before are sometimes known to take a step inside our world. Haven, tavern nights, and various events, work well in acting as our wading pool for rp.