Hi! I'm doing a case study on roleplaying in forum communities, and I'd like to ask anyone who can to take a survey to find out who exactly is roleplaying and what they think about some of the issue that arise in roleplaying. Most of these questions are fairly nonspecific, and you don't have to answer any question you are not comfortable with answering. I will use this information only in this paper I'm working on and not for anything else. If you're more comfortable PMing the answers to these questions to me, that's okay, too.

Thanks to everyone who helps and feel free to discuss any of the issues that come up!

Age
7-11
12-15
16-21
21-27
28+

Job/Major
Student (middle or high school)
English or English-related
Medical or Medical-related
Web/Computer or Web/Computer-related
Art or Art-related
Teaching or Teaching-related
History or History-related

How many years have you been roleplaying?

What are your major concerns for roleplaying (including forum organization/management) and why do you consider them major concerns?

What made you decide to roleplay on this particular forum?

What do you consider to have in common with fellow roleplayers?

Do you prefer a more open storyline that is driven by everyone involved or a structured storyline defined early on by the GM? Why? And why is important to you that the storyline is either player-driven or structured?

Age: 19
Student Major: English with a focus on Creative Writing.

How many years have you been roleplaying?

Three.

What are your major concerns for roleplaying (including forum organization/management) and why do you consider them major concerns?

Literacy, creativity (ambiguous though it may be), and a sense that can be correlated with reading a novel.

What made you decide to roleplay on this particular forum?

I discovered roleplaying on this forum.

What do you consider to have in common with fellow roleplayers?

Though there is a certain crowd that lacks very obvious skills in terms of writing (grammatically speaking), I feel there is a very certain drive between myself and others, and others with others, to create something fantastic together, a story that conjures images that are enjoyable and compelling to the individuals. Also, developing your character and shaping him however you want, whether it be a reflection of yourself in some other form or simply for the fun of creating someone outlandish from yourself for the sake of storytelling, is a very important aspect that is shared by many.

Do you prefer a more open storyline that is driven by everyone involved or a structured storyline defined early on by the GM?

Player-driven plots are preferable to me.

Why? And why is important to you that the storyline is either player-driven or structured?

A structured storyline tends to lose vitality very early on; though the general setting is important, describing each and every thing that WILL happen is nothing short of irritating and boring - as if the entire story has been summarized before it's even had a chance to be sewn together by the people involved.

Q - Age
A - 16-21

Q - Job/Major
A - Student (university, computer science) and parttime software tester

Q - How many years have you been roleplaying?
A - 4

Q - What are your major concerns for roleplaying (including forum organization/management) and why do you consider them major concerns?
A - It's a good practice to improve my English and most of all fun to do.

Q - What made you decide to roleplay on this particular forum?
A - I just happened to end up here in the beginning, right now it's because I like the community

Q - What do you consider to have in common with fellow roleplayers?
A - we want to write a story and enjoy ourselves at the same time

Q - Do you prefer a more open storyline that is driven by everyone involved or a structured storyline defined early on by the GM? Why? And why is important to you that the storyline is either player-driven or structured?
A - both have their pro's and cons. Structured storylines are somewhat guaranteed to get somewhere and advance the storyline while open RP's might end up in completely unpredictable scenes. I'd say I like the latter one best.

Quoted^(ref) Lark (on 13 April, 2008, 02:10 PM PDT) —

Age
21-27

Job/Major
High School Graduate
Insurance Claims Specialist

How many years have you been roleplaying?

3 or 4

What are your major concerns for roleplaying (including forum organization/management) and why do you consider them major concerns?

My biggest concern with roleplaying is participation. A lot of the time, roleplays die out due to inactivity, usually within the first 10 pages.

What made you decide to roleplay on this particular forum?

I've been here for a long time, and I really don't go anywhere else.

What do you consider to have in common with fellow roleplayers?

A love for anime, of course.

Do you prefer a more open storyline that is driven by everyone involved or a structured storyline defined early on by the GM? Why? And why is important to you that the storyline is either player-driven or structured?

I've always been a fan of open storylines with a slight bit of guidance in the beginning. It gives people an idea of where to start, and then lets them do what they feel is right with their character. Story's really aren't that interesting if only one person is deciding the outcome. Well, at least for RP's.

Answers are in bold.

I can definately appreciate gathering data for a case study, I hope it turns out well.

Quoted^(ref) Lark (on 13 April, 2008, 02:10 PM PDT) —

Age
16-21


Job/Major
Medical or Medical-related

How many years have you been roleplaying?

About three

What are your major concerns for roleplaying (including forum organization/management) and why do you consider them major concerns?

Definetley participation, not just that people keep up with it but that they are passionate about it, I don't want to RP with someone who is mildly interested in a story line.

What made you decide to roleplay on this particular forum?

I was shown the site by a real world friend and met a few people here who I like.

What do you consider to have in common with fellow roleplayers?

Probably a love of anime/manga but I'd also hope that my fellow RPers like RPing iteself and enjoy making charecters and etc.

Do you prefer a more open storyline that is driven by everyone involved or a structured storyline defined early on by the GM? Why? And why is important to you that the storyline is either player-driven or structured?

I prefer RP's with a solid storyline, Having been in my share of "open" or "player run RPs" I find that they tend to die out much faster because most players (myself included) want their own charecter in the spotlight, a GM run RP tends to keep more people involved in a main story line. Though that is not to say that I don't appreciate sub plots as long as they don't dominate the larger story.

Age
16-21

Job/Major
Student, high school. We have no majors in my country.

How many years have you been roleplaying?
Six.

What are your major concerns for roleplaying (including forum organization/management) and why do you consider them major concerns?
I want the players to make sure that they actually read what others post. Too many times have I seen roleplays go down because half the players have misinterpreted the storyline. (Once, I was in a roleplay where the majority of characters was on a plain, while one was worried about falling out of the plane) .

What made you decide to roleplay on this particular forum?
Back when I joined, this place had oodles of interesting roleplays. That's about it.

What do you consider to have in common with fellow roleplayers?
Not much.

Do you prefer a more open storyline that is driven by everyone involved or a structured storyline defined early on by the GM? Why? And why is important to you that the storyline is either player-driven or structured?
Doesn't matter. As long as everyone plays properly, it's all good.

Age
16-21

Job/Major
Student (College)
Freelance Graphic Designer

How many years have you been roleplaying?
4 years

What are your major concerns for roleplaying (including forum organization/management) and why do you consider them major concerns?

My major concerns are rpers who have bad grammar and spelling and most of all participation. They concern me because I have rped countless times with some awesome people that have taught me to better myself grammatically so I have come to expect at least a decent understanding of writing.

What made you decide to roleplay on this particular forum?
Back when I first joined there were tons of awesome original and anime rps to join.

What do you consider to have in common with fellow roleplayers?
A love for rping and anime in general.

Do you prefer a more open storyline that is driven by everyone involved or a structured storyline defined early on by the GM? Why? And why is important to you that the storyline is either player-driven or structured?

I prefer a story that is driven by the players because it creates an interesting flow to an rp. Plus as a huge fan of RPG games I feel that the characters (or in this case us the rpers) drive a story foward.

Thanks for participating, everyone! Please feel free to continue discussing anything you find interesting, though. Thanks again.

Age :19

Job: Mechanic car builder/ urban artist and comic book enthusiast

How many years have you been role playing?
I have been role playing about two years now .

What are your major concerns for role playing (including forum organization/management) and why do you consider them major concerns?
My concerns are that of grammer but also people of great experience helping others but above all else i consider easy access rules and regulations an essential.

What made you decide to roleplay on this particular forum?
I found it through a web search about a year and a half ago but i did not join straight away.

What do you consider to have in common with fellow roleplayers?
my imagination where i could create to my heads own whims.

Do you prefer a more open storyline that is driven by everyone involved or a structured storyline defined early on by the GM? Why? And why is important to you that the storyline is either player-driven or structured?
In a Manga the story is pieced together and weaved very carefully so as a lot of rp's on this forum are manga related i believe that the structure is very important and is the one i prefer

Age: 17

Job/Major: Student: Jr. in Highschool

How many years have you been roleplaying?
1-2 cant remember exactly


What made you decide to roleplay on this particular forum?
Well I was already a member and I read alot of them and had started judging them when I decided to start RPing myself so I just did it here. No reason to go anywhere else if I'm happy where I'm at, right?

What do you consider to have in common with fellow roleplayers?
I like to RP and we all love to be smartbuts.

Do you prefer a more open storyline that is driven by everyone involved or a structured storyline defined early on by the GM? Why? And why is important to you that the storyline is either player-driven or structured?

Well I mainly battle so a story line isn't all that important but from the story ones I've seen and read a storyling driven by everyone works out better then on that is structured and defined. Not really important since I don't do that kinda RP but they are more fun to read and I would guess take part in.

Age-12-15


Job/Major- Student (middle school 8th grade soon to be high school)


How many years have you been roleplaying? About a year

What are your major concerns for roleplaying (including forum organization/management) and why do you consider them major concerns? Uh I guess people abandoning the roleplays. (To be truthful I didn't understand the question )

What made you decide to roleplay on this particular forum? One of my real life friends is on here.

What do you consider to have in common with fellow roleplayers? I like to have fun with roleplaying and battle.

Do you prefer a more open storyline that is driven by everyone involved or a structured storyline defined early on by the GM? Why? And why is important to you that the storyline is either player-driven or structured?
I perfer a structured one because if not structured there will be caous (sorry for the misspelling)

Age
17

Job/Major
Student (High School)

How many years have you been roleplaying?
I've been roleplaying since... well, forever. I started playing Dungeons and Dragons when I was five, and stopped playing when I was probably seven or eight. I started getting into writing when I was around eleven or twelve, and started getting more in-depth when I was thirteen or fourteen.

What are your major concerns for roleplaying (including forum organization/management) and why do you consider them major concerns?
Well, I feel like it's getting worse, the community, because out of the thousands of people that get into it, only a handful of them seem to be competent enough to actually develop characters and stories, and still have the ability to type in grammatically correct formats with minimal spelling errors. I don't want to see any more posts that consist of things like, "my character's gonna go to the mall to pick up chicks." Damn you, internet~!

What made you decide to roleplay on this particular forum?
I originally came to the forum just for the fun of it, why everyone else came, in general. I didn't really start roleplaying until I read what some of the other members had. A few of them, I felt like throwing up after reading; some others, I thought were okay. But, there were some that just blew me away.

What do you consider to have in common with fellow roleplayers?
Well, the first thing I'd say I have in common with the other roleplayers on here is that we all have some sort of drive, like a want, no, a thirst for expression in ways that go beyond just letting people hear or see. The artistic flow is what I crave. I like putting what I feel, what I hear, down, and reading what the other writers are putting down. Art is an extension of the soul, for me, something beyond the physical world.

Do you prefer a more open storyline that is driven by everyone involved or a structured storyline defined early on by the GM? Why? And why is important to you that the storyline is either player-driven or structured?
For me, it really depends on what form of writing it is. Personally, I think it's better if you get a group of friends and talk about what you're going to write (which we sometimes do in person) together, and then take off from there. If I don't know anybody, I feel a little more comfortable if there's less restriction placed on the other roleplayers and me.