Demographics 01: How often do you roleplay?

[Brovo]

Demowhatnow?

I'm starting a series of stat gathering threads to open healthy discussions about content related to Iwaku roleplay, which is unsurprisingly, primarily roleplay related. At present I'm making threads in GD and then likely having them moved to RP Help later. The ultimate objective of which is to gather data over time, and then dump that data into a demographics archive thread, to show what people's general attention and care for the subject material is.

In short: I'm practicing statistics, and the more of these threads go up, the more stats people can use to see the community's tastes in various areas via the demo dump thread. (Which is here.) At the very least, it'll sprout up a menagerie of threads to talk in that promote a healthy community and avoid trollbaity topics that devolve into flame wars.

I did ask @Diana 's permission and @Astaroth 's advice before committing to this project. Just to be sure that everything will be by the numbers and fun.

It is exactly as it asks on the tin. How often do you join and partake in role playing? Is your level of activity in role playing satisfactory to you? Why or why not?

 

[Windsong]

Never. I kinda quit because the spark died and it hasn't been rekindled yet.

Would like to roleplay. Each trip into partner requests or group threads always leave a sour taste in my mouth. Not sure if it's the tropes and cliches or I'm just being too critical despite the desperation.

Family drama happened. A lot of it. Kept trying to eek out replies to people even though my quality was plummeting. As one friend put it, 'like kicking a deflating ball'. That hurt, but it wasn't wrong.

 

[Sidhe]

I don't role-play nearly as much as I want to. For one, a variety of health problems make it difficult. For another, I simply cannot focus on more than one thing at a time. It's pretty dumb. Either I'm devoting all my time to creative things (writing, role-playing, world building, art) or I'm devoting all my time to something else -- usually a video game. I can't do anything in moderation. Not sure how to change that tbh. I feel like I'm too old now to really deviate from that obsessive part of my personality.

 

[ᴛᴏᴄᴋᴀ]

I roleplay all the time, but lately I've been caught in a slump. Whenever I feel limited I tend to start losing interest in it, and that's been happening a lot lately, mostly due to some unexplained increase in distraction than anything else. I can't stay focused on writing a post for more than a few minutes before I'm off doing something else. When that happens I feel like I rush the post, which ends up making me hate said post, and lose all inspiration. I took a few weeks ago, and now I'm just hoping I get my inspiration back.

 

[Weracious]

I feel like I've roleplayed more than I should. It doesn't last, and I could use the time for something more productive. It doesn't help that so many RPs die, which just adds to the feeling that it's a waste of time. I could have gotten further with other things I want to do, but at least I've changed that the last year. I've focused more on other things, and less on RPs. I want to continue doing that, but RPs are somewhat useful for testing ideas too.

 

[Moogle-Girl]

It's worth noting that these polls are only going to attract attention from people who frequent the General Chat or the section you posted the stats dump thread in. I'm guessing this will be skewed towards people who don't roleplay as often.

 

[Ailucia]

I'm trying to get back into the roleplaying business actually. Ended up burning out in another site due to reasons and left it for an MMO. Even then, I was hoping just a change from forum based to mmo-style rp would bring back the spark for me. Funny enough, the first and only time I did try something in that game almost ended up in some sorta non-consensual erp session and I just kinda ran away from regular rp. But nowadays said mmo is shooting itself in the foot with the dumbest ideas known to man, and I just so happened to want to rp again.

 

[Brovo]

It's worth noting that these polls are only going to attract attention from people who frequent the General Chat or the section you posted the stats dump thread in. I'm guessing this will be skewed towards people who don't roleplay as often.

That's the nature of any stat gathering exercise. Unless my demographics threads got automatically advertised to everyone on the site (which would be annoying) or made compulsory (which would be absurd) it will primarily only attract attention from those who browse GD and Roleplay Help. I can't really expand beyond that without direct admin support or shady tactics.

 

[Kagayours]

Is the poll trying to ask "how often do you write IC posts?" or "how often do you have a currently-running RP that you're in?" Because those are two very different questions.

 

[Brovo]

Is the poll trying to ask "how often do you write IC posts?" or "how often do you have a currently-running RP that you're in?" Because those are two very different questions.

Whichever makes more sense to you. I won't define what counts as satisfaction in role playing.

 

[Kagayours]

Whichever makes more sense to you. I won't define what counts as satisfaction in role playing.

:/ That's the thing, though. None of the poll options really sound right to me.

"I roleplay on occasion" makes it sound like I only occasionally dapple in the realm of RP, as opposed to having RP's that I'm always a part of and that I can't remember the last time when I was in zero roleplays. Saying "I roleplay on occasion" doesn't feel right when I feel like I'm always a part of the RP's that I'm in, even when I'm not actively posting.

So if I continue with the logic of "I always have RP's running, therefore I'm always roleplaying", then that gets me the the "I always roleplay and never take breaks" option -- but that doesn't sound right, either, because that makes it sound like I'm constantly invested in my RP's and I'm always actively writing posts. And that isn't the case -- as I'm a rather slow poster, and sometimes I go weeks on end without being able to reply because I'm just too busy.

So then I would say "I roleplay often, but sometimes take breaks", but that makes it sound like I'm still usually a regular poster, except for when I "take breaks"... but, going by that interpretation, I feel like I'm "on break" almost all the time, and that I'm only ever "roleplaying" when I sit down and write a post, which is much less often. ...And that takes me back to the "I roleplay on occasion" option, which I still dislike for the reasons mentioned. >_>

Sooo... none of the options make sense to me, really. :/ No matter how I want to interpret the question, I still wind up at a poll answer that just doesn't feel right.

I would accuse you of starting another tricky mind games poll, but this whole thing seems much too formal for that... so...

 

[Rain of the Night]

:/ That's the thing, though. None of the poll options really sound right to me.

"I roleplay on occasion" makes it sound like I only occasionally dapple in the realm of RP, as opposed to having RP's that I'm always a part of and that I can't remember the last time when I was in zero roleplays. Saying "I roleplay on occasion" doesn't feel right when I feel like I'm always a part of the RP's that I'm in, even when I'm not actively posting.

So if I continue with the logic of "I always have RP's running, therefore I'm always roleplaying", then that gets me the the "I always roleplay and never take breaks" option -- but that doesn't sound right, either, because that makes it sound like I'm constantly invested in my RP's and I'm always actively writing posts. And that isn't the case -- as I'm a rather slow poster, and sometimes I go weeks on end without being able to reply because I'm just too busy.

So then I would say "I roleplay often, but sometimes take breaks", but that makes it sound like I'm still usually a regular poster, except for when I "take breaks"... but, going by that interpretation, I feel like I'm "on break" almost all the time, and that I'm only ever "roleplaying" when I sit down and write a post, which is much less often. ...And that takes me back to the "I roleplay on occasion" option, which I still dislike for the reasons mentioned. >_>

Sooo... none of the options make sense to me, really. :/ No matter how I want to interpret the question, I still wind up at a poll answer that just doesn't feel right.

I would accuse you of starting another tricky mind games poll, but this whole thing seems much too formal for that... so...

Man... You are really over-thinking this.

 

[Kagayours]

Man... You are really over-thinking this.

Sorry?? None of the poll answers seem like an obvious choice to me. I kind of have to think about it in order to figure out which one seems right for me, and then, yeah...

It might be because I don't think I've ever seen this question worded this way. I could answer the question of "how often do you write IC posts" and "how often do you have a currently-running roleplay", but this question is just... too vague. And it feels weird knowing that, depending on how I interpret the question, I wind up with completely different answers. You'd think that a demographics survey would want to avoid that kind of thing... :/

 

[Windsong]

Sorry?? None of the poll answers seem like an obvious choice to me. I kind of have to think about it in order to figure out which one seems right for me, and then, yeah...

It might be because I don't think I've ever seen this question worded this way. I could answer the question of "how often do you write IC posts" and "how often do you have a currently-running roleplay", but this question is just... too vague. And it feels weird knowing that, depending on how I interpret the question, I wind up with completely different answers. You'd think that a demographics survey would want to avoid that kind of thing... :/

It must've taken you days to finish an online survey.

Just pick the one that you relate to closest. It's not a life changing decision. It's a fucking Brovo poll thread. Doesn't get much more straight forward than that.

 

[Kagayours]

It must've taken you days to finish an online survey.

Just pick the one that you relate to closest. It's not a life changing decision. It's a fucking Brovo poll thread. Doesn't get much more straight forward than that.

Except, I feel like I don't relate to any of them...? That's sort of my point...? That's the only reason I even tried to explain why none of the options felt right to me...? Because Brovo said "just pick whatever feels right" and none of them did...?

 

[Windsong]

Except, I feel like I don't relate to any of them...? That's sort of my point...? That's the only reason I even tried to explain why none of the options felt right to me...? Because Brovo said "just pick whatever feels right" and none of them did...?

• You don't roleplay at all.
• You roleplay lightly.
• You roleplay heavily, but take breaks from it.
• You are always active in one form of roleplay or another.

What other kind of option would you need to exist?

 

[Brovo]

Please stop. I only wanted to do a fun poll.

@Kaga-kun if none of the poll options suit you and an explanation of the options still doesn't suit you, move on. Not everyone belongs on every demographic poll. If it doesn't apply to you or doesn't represent, don't vote.

@Windsong Let's keep it chill. I don't want to see this project instant die. That would actually upset me.

 

[Kagayours]

@Kaga-kun if none of the poll options suit you and an explanation of the options still doesn't suit you, move on. Not everyone belongs on every demographic poll. If it doesn't apply to you or doesn't represent, don't vote.

And I'm fine with that. I wasn't trying to demand that the poll conform to me -- I only wanted to explain what I meant. Ordinarily, in a situation like this, I would've just not voted from the get-go if I didn't try to first ask what the poll meant -- hence why I tried to further explain myself when you said "just do whatever feels right".

• You don't roleplay at all.
• You roleplay lightly.
• You roleplay heavily, but take breaks from it.
• You are always active in one form of roleplay or another.

What other kind of option would you need to exist?

I was going to reiterate why none of these options feel right to me, but Brovov said to stop, so I'll drop it. Besides, I already explained why I don't like these poll answers, if you'd like to take a look at that post again.

@both: Sorry for sounding so argumentative. I really wasn't trying to start anything -- just explain my reasoning. :/

 

[K3l]

So now that an understanding has come about, back on topic;

Best option for me would be I roleplay on occasion. I've fallen back on play-by-post roleplaying mostly because little interests me anymore, and I don't really enjoy it as much as I used to. Growing out of a hobby. Tabletop roleplaying is what I've been doing mostly. I host a 5e D&D game and am in one hosted by @rusty4297 (I'm open to joining others). I find D&D allows much more freedom in what you can do than in a play-by-post RP, even if you're following a direct storyline you still have the chance to do something on the side or what have you without it being too big of a deal. I haven't had that chance in many play by post RPs, and admittedly haven't allowed that in mine either. Plus as an actor it's a much more enjoyable form of storytelling & playing a character.

Sorry if this post is sloppy as I'm not in the best state of mind (Seven shots of 'dat dank goose), but I hope it's good enough to contribute.

 

[redblood]

I would love to roleplay everyday like I used to do, but I'm feeling too shitty to write most of the time right now >_> So I mainly write replies once to a couple of times per month per rp o_o I'M SORRY PARTNERS! D: -Glad she has just as slow partners, so it works-