And thirdly, I'm going to assume that you have never played Planeshift before.  There are a number of ways that you can get to know the players, but normally not until after you get to know the characters.  Back to assumption number 2, you are not a creative writer: characters do become 'real' after awhile.  They start to take on their own personality and quite frankly, that's why people keep coming back. For the community (read: real people).

It may be awkward for you to act as someone else...but that's probably because you're not even comfortable acting as yourself.  The players of PS? We have great self-esteem. If you can pretend to be someone else and have fun while doing it, you learn more about yourself too...and about how humans interact.

Give it try...you never know until you do!

If your character is supposed to be shy, mean, and lazy when you yourself are really an outgoing, friendly, active person interacting with the real world, then I'd say it's pretty hard to make yourself known and seen through your character. While masking yourself seems to work here it also really screws things up; I'm not saying anything is really wrong with the community: they're certainly way better than in any other MMORPG I've played. But that's not really the point---if you aren't acting like yourself, then you aren't yourself. You're not real. I know it's fine with some people, but it really doesn't appeal to me---talking about in-game experiences are fun for awhile, but I really think its hard to truly bond with and make friends with someone without even mentioning your outgame experiences---which should be (i hope) the majority of your daily life.

I've played Planeshift plenty. I have gotten to know some people really well in the game---mainly the ones that actually share what happens outside of their PS life. I generally ignore most of the hardcore RPer's. I have nothing against them, but having a conversation with one is uncomfortable and akward...

Uncomfortable acting as myself? Ridiculous. I act like myself through the game at all times and thoroughly enjoy it. No matter what my character's personality, I try to be polite and helpful. And frankly, I think it works just fine.