How i define maturity in a role-player has very little to do with spelling, punctuation used or vocabulary. It has everything, though, to do with being courteous towards your fellow rper's. It has to do with submitting posts in a timely manner, in full consideration of the pacing of the man, or woman, moderating the thread, or the individual whose pc/pc's is/are leading the action in the role-play. Maturity has to do with reporting in and letting others know, faithfully, when, for whatever reason, that one isn't going to be able to participate, if at all possible.
Maturity in role-playing is realizing, and accepting, the fact that everything isn't going to go exactly the way that one would have it be. That characters die in role-play and sometimes by their own dumb action(s).* Or for no apparent reason whatsoever. It has to do with realizing that your character's actions effect everyone and every thing around them and or their adversaries.
Maturity has to do with accepting the fact that every attack your character makes is not going to necessarily hit its mark, every spell is not going off without a hitch. And that, sometimes one's physical attacks or spells are going to do injury or even kill one or more of that pc's allies. Maturity is being able to accept the moderator as the final arbiter, provided that moderator fully understands what the pc is saying or doing and doesn't make faulty assumptions.
Maturity is realizing that not all the individuals in an adventuring party are necessarily going to start the adventure in the same locale, or possibly even share a common reason for being in that same place, or sharing that same motivation for being there. Or possibly even know the other pc's, at all. Or, possibly, not even have a passing acquaintance with the other pc's or npc's who know pc's or npc's involved in the role-play, at all. A mature role-player does not assume that his or her character(s) is not going to be seen, or heard, or recognized by another pc or npc involved in the role-play.
But; perhaps, most importantly, a mature role-play realizes and accepts the fact that not every character s/he is chosen or asked to role-play will one of his or her choosing. The role-player might not even like that character and or scarce be able to find even one redeeming quality in him or her. A mature role-player is willing, and able, to set aside every difference that he or she has with a character and just deal with it.
That, for the record, is my definition of a mature role-player. And it has but very little, if anything, to do with the age, level of education, or number or kind of RL experiences that role-player might, or might not, have actually experienced.
Lucius
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