SE, please designate a Role Play friendly server!

[Rhomagus]

Now...I know what role-playing is and what it means to the community I guess. My question is arent we all role playing anyways? Maybe I am not in tune with the "RP community" enough to see a need for an "official role playing server". What really goes on in these servers that everyone is so PRO segregation. Maybe not complete segregation but like the person above me has all this PRO-RP stuff in signature, kinda makes me think I'm missing the point? Could someone attempt to enlighten me a to why RP'ers require their own server or at least why people think "RP'ers" need their own server.
Last time I checked we were all playing a Role-Playing game. Arent we all role-playing?

This...I want to know as well.

Not that I would expect you to find this as it's in the middle of the thread, but I made a post earlier dealing with this.

MMO stands for Massively Multiplayer Online, not Role Playing Game. RPG stands for Role Playing Game. You can have an MMO that is not a Role Playing Game. You can also have a Role Playing Game that is not an MMO. Role Player, as used in this thread, denotes a sub sect of gamer who actively engages with others to create their own storylines in game and "act" them out through chat and gameplay.

Role Player, as used in this thread, does not designate anyone who decides to play a game in which they control an avatar. While that may be a true statement, the specific concept being used here is much more specific than that.

Here's a link to the post so that you can discern the context, as I was informing and correcting another person's post at the time.

The current use of RPG as a genre reference has been used in several different ways that has little to do with the actual acronym itself, but since it is still referencing a genre of games there is no hindrance in communication. The idea is conveyed successfully so there is no need to further specify.

RPG as a genre

In the current gaming era reviewers will often cite that a certain game has RPG elements. This is a very broad term that sometimes has nothing to do with the actual words "Role Playing". An RPG element could be an experience points system, allocating resources to particular stats, or a behind the scenes "dice" roll that determines a successful action or not. These would be game mechanics that have been closely associated to Role Playing Games, but to say that they are Role Playing mechanics would be incorrect.

Role Playing in any game with a story

Assuming a role or controlling an avatar in a video game would also be considered role playing. When you control Mario in Super Mario Bros., you are controlling a character that plays a role (the protaganist) who is tasked with completing an objective (saving the princess). There's little interaction that you can do to actually affect the events in the story. You either have a win scenario (where you save the princess) or a lose scenario (where you fail to save the princess). There is still a background behind the characters seen on screen.

Non RPGs

Games that don't involve role play would be games like pong or tetris. Later iterations not withstanding. These games are much more abstract in concept and don't require a story as a mechanic in order to play. The player controls a bar to bounce a dot between another bar or manipulates geometric shapes to fit in a certain way. No story is needed.

Role Playing as an act

The act of Role Playing can be more of a focal point in table top RPG's like Dungeons and Dragons where a GM (Game Master) will create a scenario and the players will have to interact with the GM in order to play through the scenario. The player takes on a role and the rules could be much more open than, say, in Super Mario Bros. where there are only two outcomes (saving or not saving). Depending on the GM, the scenario may be put in complete control of the players as they develop their own stories based on the scenario given by the GM. As there are very few limits to human creativity, success and failure outcomes are significantly more numerous than they are in a tightly controlled scenario. In this type of role playing the person develops the story for their character. This focuses much more on the "Role Playing" aspect of the acronym RPG. This is how Role Playing, is being referenced in this thread.

Role Playing, in this instance, not only transcends video games but also games themselves. Thesbians would be considered role players. To an even further extent, Shakespeare turned us all into role players when he claimed "All the World's a stage". Some philosophers have run with the concept as well.