I haven’t done nearly as much role-playing in my life as I’d like to have done by now. No, I’m not talking about sexy role-playing (although now that you me– huh? You’re still here? As you were.) but rather role-playing in the, you know, role-playing game sense.

I play a lot of RPGs on computer and console, of course, but those aren’t the same thing. True role-playing is the opportunity to become someone else for a while; to take on another persona and enjoy a complete escape from reality.

I’ve indulged on online role-playing a few times in an attempt to get my fix. The earliest time I tried was when I gave the original Everquest a go out of curiosity. I joined a “roleplaying” (“RP”) server, created my character and jumped in. The first person I ran into, I spoke in character, the message log at the bottom of the screen noting that I was speaking in Elvish. The response? “lol”. I was disappointed, to say the least.

Later attempts yielded somewhat better results. My fondest memories of online role-playing — and probably my fondest memories of playing any sort of game online, for that matter — come from the game Neverwinter Nights, the spiritual successor to the Baldur’s Gate series and an unusual multiplayer game. Neverwinter Nights was based on the popular pen-and-paper Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game, see, and in keeping with that, the multiplayer mode allowed one player to be the “Dungeon Master” and take control of the game world and all the characters in it. This meant you could run adventures that simply weren’t possible using pre-scripted modules; instead of being railroaded down a plotline, things could go off in unusual directions.

I had a group of people I played with semi-regularly that I met via the website Neverwinter Connections — said site still seems to be there, but it doesn’t look like it’s really very active these days, which is sad. I’m not entirely sure how I came to Neverwinter Connections in the first place, but that’s where I met StarStuff, Scorpio and several others. I’ve since lost touch with them — this wasn’t entirely my fault, as they moved on to Guild Wars, a game I didn’t really stick with, but I do regret not being able to count them among my friends any more. We had some good times.

One of my favourite games we played together was a lengthy quest that went on for several hours. I forget the exact circumstances of the quest itself, but I remember my character: Jay Wrekin the sorcerer. Jay was a middle-aged wizard with a pixie familiar named Sianie, and a quirk of the Neverwinter Nights engine allowed you to take direct control of your familiar if you saw fit — including making them speak. This led to the interesting role-playing challenge of speaking for both Jay and Sianie simultaneously, though Jay chose to keep Sianie’s existence a secret initially, with her only appearing when he sneezed (or possibly the other way around).

Later in the quest, we found ourselves in a tricky situation — again, I forget the precise circumstances, but I do remember that for whatever reason, the only option was for Jay to reveal the existence of Sianie to the rest of the party, and for Sianie to go off and complete some sort of tricky challenge on her own. It was great fun and, although I felt I was monopolising the role-playing at times, the rest of the troupe all complimented me a great deal after the adventure was over. It was a significant challenge role-playing one character, they said; to manage two and make them distinct in personality from one another was an impressive achievement.

Later, I played a bit of World of Warcraft off and on with some friends. Like my initial abortive foray into Everquest, I picked the role-playing server, only this time I found a lot more people willing to indulge in role-playing fantasies. My friend and I decided how our characters related to one another before we started, and over a long period of time we developed their relationships and personal stories, culminating in us role-playing a run on the original form of the Stratholme dungeon. This was a surprisingly dramatic experience, since we’d agreed between us that, in terms of our character backstory, we both grew up in Stratholme and were driven out during the events of Warcraft III; consequently, we were hungry for revenge, and the long time it had taken us to get up to an appropriate level to beat Stratholme comfortably meant it really felt like we’d been on an epic journey.

There’s a bit of an issue with role-playing in massively multiplayer games like World of Warcraft, however: they’re not really designed for it. Oh sure, you have emotes and can sit in chairs and whatnot, but there aren’t really the tools available to get some really good role-playing going. There’s also a constant nagging feeling of conflict — while you’re sitting around chatting in character with friends, you could be outside bashing goblin heads together for experience points. There’s no inherent rewards for role-playing in World of Warcraft, only the satisfaction of creating an immersive environment with friends.

I’m intending on playing Final Fantasy XIV when it launches later this month, but I don’t think I’m going to be role-playing — it just doesn’t seem to be the right kind of game for it, though I can probably have my arm twisted if people I play with are into it. I am not, however, ruling out the possibility of other forms of online role-play in the future — I do find myself wondering if it’ll ever match up to the adventures of Jay and Sianie, though.