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Self Insert into RP - Screening Question


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*Please note this is a screening question suggestion rather than a rule suggestion!*

 

Hello staff team! I apologize if this isn't the best category to post this suggestion, but it seemed like a good fit.

 

One of the most common phrases a good  RPer knows is "your character is not you." This sentiment of IC and OOC separation is important to maintaining a healthy roleplaying community. Sometimes self inspiration and bleed happens, but complete self inserts, or egregious violations of IC and OOC boundaries can be concerning.

 

Self insertion into roleplay may present multiple concerns, including:

 

  1. Blurring the lines (for everyone) between what is in character versus out of character (fantasy vs reality)
  2. Over protection/attachment with a character
  3. May increase the desire to make a "mary sue" type character
  4. It can make things much too personal for the person OOC
  5. Can make losing more difficult, leading to rule breaking
  6. May spark emotional OOC interaction for IC situations

 

I'm sure the team is busy, so I don't necessarily think this it needs to be hunted to the ends of the Earth, but maybe we can help mitigate this behavior with a screening question for new players? I think this will help out weed out individuals that do not respect IC and OOC boundaries. The intent for me presenting this is to make sure that we recruit high quality RPers while also proactively reducing staff workload. Here is the screening question I propose:

 

Quote

A GTAW player uses his real life first name “Dale” for character creation. This player makes an attempt to mirror his real life personality, physical attributes and backstory to his character. Based on your observations, the player also seems to “act” identically, both IC and OOC; it seems as though he shares the exact same ideals both in real life and on his character and even uses the same phrases. When speaking OOCly on the forums or in Discord, he uses “I” and “me” when referencing his character.  What could the player do better to separate separate himself from his character? Why is this separation so important? Please use multiple paragraphs to explain your answer.

 

If the team likes this question and feels that it necessitates the need for a rule to go along with it, I would be happy to write something up outlining this topic. I'm just not sure if all your screening questions have to be 1:1 with what is written the rules.

 

Thank you in advance for your consideration 😀

Edited by oliviarav3n
Added a disclaimer about screening vs rule.
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6 minutes ago, ScarletRose said:


Is this really considered self insertion behavior? :3

I do this literally all the time and honestly not even on purpose. 

 

Thank you for bringing this up! In and of itself? No, absolutely not! I mean I slip and do it too, a lot of people do it. But when you couple it with all the other things I listed, it means something completely different than when you or I use "I" or "me." 😀 Sorry if I wasn't clear on that.

Edited by oliviarav3n
typo
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Im gonna be honest if you dont feel attached to a character, you shouldn't play them.

 

But you should be adult enough to know that you may lose that character and that in roleplay, you are writing a story that is influenced by hundreds of roleplayers. Every good story comes to an end, and that in itself is what makes everything so fun about the character.

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18 minutes ago, moulton said:

Im gonna be honest if you dont feel attached to a character, you shouldn't play them.

I think everyone is somewhat attached to their character, I know I am! But some people become so attached that they literally feel it's an extension of themselves. That can be a problem. What I'm proposing it really to make sure that people understand the sentiment that "you are not your character." This can be lost on very new RPers!

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3 hours ago, ScarletRose said:

Is this really considered self insertion behavior? :3

I do this literally all the time and honestly not even on purpose. 

 

Sometimes I catch myself doing this and try to correct it in a forum post or something, but most of the time this is just done out of convenience and time saving. Typing "I" is a lot shorter than "my character".

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I think it's fun to make fun of self-inserts, but I really don't support any rule against them existing.

 

The self-insert culture on GTAW, as lame as it may be, enables a much larger concentration of "average joes" or "civilians" then I think I've ever seen on a GTA RP server before, which is great.

 

That being said; I'd consider it a necessary evil, as self-insert RP'ers are, in my opinion, not good RP'ers. But as long as they're not terrible, I'm happy to let them fill my businesses and sit in the background during much more interesting scenarios.

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8 hours ago, NickyW said:

That being said; I'd consider it a necessary evil, as self-insert RP'ers are, in my opinion, not good RP'ers. But as long as they're not terrible, I'm happy to let them fill my businesses and sit in the background during much more interesting scenarios.

I'm just a bit surprised. Every other RP community I've ever been apart of always pushed the mantra of "you are not your character;" with good reason too.

 

I'm not proposing a rule per se. I don't want the team to boil the ocean hunting self-inserts down. I'm proposing we screen upfront and then more or less let the chips fall where they may. I think a screening question like the one I proposed goes after exactly what you're concerned with: inappropriate (or terrible as you phrased it) roleplayers. That's why I used a pretty extreme example.

 

Isn't part of the purpose of the screening process  to weed unsatisfactory roleplayers who cannot adhere to a heavy RP environment? The better we can weed them out, the more issues we'll be able to avoid. A 1:1 mirror of someone from real life into the game world just isn't appropriate.

 

 

Edited by oliviarav3n
typos
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