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by Nannyhap on Tue Feb 28, 2012 6:20 pm
This is something I've been thinking about lately, and struggling with to some extent (as Wudgeous may well know.) I think it depends greatly on the roleplay being run, and my investment in it, as I often have vastly different reasons for roleplaying in one thread (well, here they aren't really threads so much, are they?) than another.
For example, when I'm roleplaying something for gits and shiggles, I don't really mind the skill level of the roleplayers I'm working with, especially when I'm in an extremely large group and the focus of the roleplay is to have fun. As long as they're decent at what they do and can bring about some interesting conflicts, I'm fine with the flat characters, syntax errors, and inevitable misunderstandings that come with writers at a lower skill level than myself.
But if it's something I'm roleplaying because I really want to roleplay, because I want to make an emotional and psychological investment in the world (especially, although not limited to, one of my own creation), then I'm much more comfortable roleplaying with individuals around my own skill level and above. I know I need to brush up on my roleplay abilities because I've been out of the loop for such a very long time, but I'm confident enough in my skills to know that I can at least interpret the information being presented to me, and can respond to it in a reasonable way.
In my opinion, a great deal of roleplay skill (at least, the bit that goes on before the writing) comes down to reading comprehension, something I've noticed a lot of newer, younger roleplayers have a great deal of trouble with when they're first starting out. A fantastic roleplayer doesn't have to have a fantastic writing style, as long as it's competent--s/he just has to be able to read and understand enough of the posts before his/hers to be interesting, which is something that even people who label themselves as "advanced" sometimes have trouble with.
Just my two cents on this matter. I've only been back on the RP-scene for a few weeks, though, so I might be coming right out of left field with this.
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