The Benefits of Role Playing

  • So many newbies lately! Here is a very important PSA about one of our most vital content policies! Read it even if you are an ancient member!
Blind Hemingway

Blind Hemingway

Ancient Iwaku Scum from 2006.
Original poster
MYTHICAL MEMBER
Posting Speed
  1. Slow As Molasses
Online Availability
NEVER
Writing Levels
  1. Adept
  2. Douche
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Primarily Prefer Female
Genres
Surrealism, Surreal Horror (Think Tim Burton), Steampunk, Sci-Fi Fantasy, Spaghetti Westerns, Mercenaries, Dieselpunk, Cyberpunk, Historical fantasies
For some reason I just remembered having a conversation with Coffee-kins a few months back about when we started role playing. I think he said it best when he first started it was all crossover plots and made no sense but it was the best. Of course, he is right on the fact that as children Role Playing is the key to create an understanding of the world.

Alibbing parts of an article from a parenting site, I find some of this basic need for understanding something we still do to this day on forums like this one:

"Let's play castle! I'll be the princess—you be the knight!"
"Mommy, can I help wash the dishes?"
"When I grow up, I want to be fireman."

Sound familiar? If you have a child, you probably hear these things all the time. Children are naturally drawn to role play—the magical art of imitation and make believe.

But role play is more than fun...it's a key component of learning.

According to child development experts, role play helps people acquire all kinds of skills and knowledge,
encouraging them to:

Explore imagination

Think in the abstract

Acquire language skills

Build social skills

Problem solve

Understand someone else's perspective

Learn essential life skills from adults

Discover leadership skills

Safely explore the world beyond

Acquire confidence and a sense of self

If that isn't amazing enough, consider this: because role play engages emotion, cognition, language, and sensory motor skills, scientists theorize it actually creates synaptic connections between parts of the brain. And the more synapses, the greater a child's intelligence!

There are different types of role play, and they help serve different purposes.

Encourage them all...and nurture your natural gifts.

So just remember, every time you post you're making yourself smarter and more personable. ;)
 
YOU STOLE MY BLOG RAMBLING. D:<

But YES! Diana has always praised the benefits of roleplaying and playing pretend! As long as you understand the difference between fantasy and reality (some people take playing pretend a little too far and turn psycho. c__c; ), it is a GREAT way to relieve stress, work out your problems, or just get to DO things that you will never be able to do in real life.

Playing pretend has been a huge part of my life even before I knew what Roleplaying was. c___c I did it all through my teen years in real life, not even in organized LARPs, but just for the fun of playing pretend. Damned neighborhood kids always wanted me to come out and play cause I was one of the few supervising "adults" that'd come out and play too. Then I discovered the wonderful world of online roleplaying through chat and forum. >:D

When one of my none roleplaying friends tell me how miserable or bored they are with their life, I always want to tell them to try roleplaying a little. .___. Mind you, I know roleplaying can't solve serious problems, but it does exercise your creative muse. It helps you think in different ways and that can carry on to the rest of your life.
 
I always had Godzilla and the Power Rangers team up against the Shredder and the bad guys from Capt. Planet. I dunno why but it just worked.
 
It does tend to widen the range of my imagination. ^_^
I wish I would've found out about RPing long before I did. I think if I ever have a child, I'll encourage RPing.
 
If you ever played "pretend" that means that you were role playing. Just now as adult humans, we apply a fancy term for it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back