Role-playing

I use to say that I don't role-play in Second Life because I immerse in a way that makes much of what I experience as real to me as if it happened in real-life and my responses and reactions are the same as they would be in real-life. I guess it's not really true though because there are some differences between Second Life and real-life. There are things I permit myself in Second Life that my self-preservation instinct wouldn't in real-life and responses in Second Life I'm not sure would be the same in real-life.

My impression is that many in Second Life immerse at least to some extent and that many add an element of conscious role-play to enhance their experiences. Even if I may not always feel comfortable with how they role-play it's really none of my business how they go about it as long as it doesn't affect me negatively in ways I can't escape.

Theoretically I always have the option to escape things by logging off and/or re-logging with my Linden Labs standard viewer to undo or escape things I can't using my Restrained Life viewer. But in practice that option isn't open to me because it simply doesn't exist in my world. I've been forced to do it once and it was probably my worst experience so far in Second Life. I felt humiliated like a cheat and was both devastated and furious about the situation.

I guess most of the people I meet including those I love or care about role-play to at least some extent. As long as they don't do it so badly or exaggerate it so much it's not believable any longer I really don't care or try to analyze what is "real" and what is "faked". It may be that some of my girlfriends are really "gurls" (guys playing girls) but that doesn't matter much to me as long as their personalities are genuine enough for me and still as pleasant as what made me accept them as friends in the first place.

I may sometimes also enjoy people role-playing badly or exaggerated to a certain extent because of the intentional or accidental humor they provide. But in general I prefer the people that I feel are genuine whether that feeling is right or wrong. Most of the rest are simply uninteresting to me. I respect their way of role-playing though as long as they respect that I may not want to be involved in it.