Real Life Roleplaying: Not who you wish you were

Now here’s a curious trend from the depths of the internet that I’ll never really understand, pretending to be something other then you are. I realise we all can’t be models and marines, and everything everyone wants to be, but that’s just life, your dealt the hand you get and while a little bluff now and then never hurts in the game of poker, lying about your cards in life just seems kinda pointless.

However one of the most common social diseases on the internet is lying about who you are out in the world. Putting other people’s photos up on myspace or facebook and claiming that’s you, when really you look like nothing like that and don’t do any of the exciting things that they say they do.

This stuff gets even weirder though when people “rp” normality in places where rp is the norm, and the normal is pretty freaking fantastic. A great example is world of warcraft. Nalora and I run in to people all the bloody time who brag constantly about how they model, or they go out and party alot or god knows what, it’s always this that or the other thing. You get “GI Joes” wanna be soldiers who are usually Navy SEALs or Green Berets and all manner of other things and it all just begs the question, “why?”.

I mean honestly, why the fuck do you need to pretend to be someone else in the real world, in a place where the whole point is that you are someone else!? I mean the express purpose of an RPG is to play a role, something you usually aren’t. Wether that’s a super hero or villain like in City of Heros/Villains or a magic casting, sword wielding whatzit that rides out in glory and majesty to kick serious amounts of ass on the dragon/orc/whatever the hell needs to die of the day. I fully admit my day to day life can be pretty goddamn boring, and I mean really, really boring. That’s why I play games like WoW so I can go out and do cool stuff like slay dragons and call fire from the heavens on the heads of my foes. That stuff is straight up fun!

However I’ve never lied about who and what I am, sure I’ve changed some details here and there about who and what I am, but that’s a matter of safety, I’m not telling any one that I’m a male model who looks like a young brad pitt or some shit like that, or that I drive a freakin Ferrari or something… (I wish, my wife and I have an older toyota celica, it’s old, dented, and the trunk refuses to open) do I say I’ve lived a lot of places and done a lot of things? Yes, yes I do, because I have. Your life is your life and it’s what you’ve been given, why not try to make the best of it, instead of fantasizing about having someone else’s all the time? Wouldn’t that make you a happier person?

Quote of the Post:

“Men in general judge more by the eyes than by the hands, for everyone can see, but very few have to feel. Everybody sees what you appear to be, few feel what you are, and those few will not dare to oppose themselves to the many…”
-Niccoló Machiavelli. 1537.