Fozzharn, if you do not agree with the rules Socia made for roleplaying with her, just avoid RPing with her instead of critizing those rules. Personally, I think some kind of rules are needed, as too many persons that are unfamiliar with RPing try to be "cool" and just want to kill Socia's character for the bounty, not caring for roleplay at all.
Oh, that's good roleplay alright! I have to not play with characters X, T, F and Q, and I can only RP with Z, B,G and K per the rules they have posted some not ingame, and S,Y and R only RP on tuesdays and saturdays, I must ignore C,E and M, but not V, while B,W and P ignore me but not U. Sounds like not only do you need some rules, you also need to define "roleplay". While obviously, godmodders and those who simply ignore any pretense of RP are a problem, I cannot understand the "I will ignore any who don't play by my rules" attitude that I see here frequently.
I will RP with anyone, anytime. But that said, don't expect me to be up to date with "your rules", or some story that you wrote up in a forum or on your website, and get all huffy because I don't say or do what you expect. If the plot isn't readily available (or at least discoverable) ingame, to any and all who may be around, then either you failed to develop it properly, or you are godmodding. I've seen comments here in the forums to the effect of "I don't train X because it takes too long, but I RP X because it suits my character". I've also seen long (and well developed) stories posted here that are supposed to be RPed in the game, yet there is nothing ingame to support it.
Its an RPG. Many, it seems, prefer to forget the RP. But just as many others seem to forget the G. For an example of both, read the older thread about fighting on the plaza. Half the comment were "if its not built in the game it doesn't exist", the other half were "fighting isn't RP, stop it". As someone who was present at that incident, and who talked to characters involved, I say both are wrong. From talking to the characters, there clearly was *some* RP involved, but most agree it wasn't well developed, so not apparent to onlookers. But on the other hand, I saw no effort from onlookers to RP in or around the incident, although there was plenty of opportunity.
If in a real life scenario a fight breaks out in the plaza, what do you do? Ignore it? Hardly! In that incident, most of bystanders either went on with their auctions/training/smithing/whatever and pretended nothing was happening, or immediately started complaining and crying for GM intervention. No attempt to run for cover, or call the guards, or anything resembling a real response. (Particularly odd, since in the discussion, the so called RPers keep quoting the guards as why fighting in the plaza wasn't RP. If that's so, then I'd think yelling "GUARDS" would be the first thing to do...)
So since I've already typed more than I normally do in a week, I'll just condense it to: RP is not about "your" story or rules. And the game is not about killing and power leveling. That's not to say you can't develop your story, or train and level your character, but your story should be developed in game, and if the game throws you a curve, you should have enough imagination to adjust, not say "I'm ignoring that". And your leveling should be in accordance with the character you are RPing, not just maxing out because you can (but if you are RPing a great swordmaster don't let me find out your SWD level is 3). RP should be all inclusive of other players and the game (and yes there are ways to deal with ooc players that are still IC and RP). Its a game, and your RP should not ignore or exclude the other players and events going on in the game any more than the game should exclude RP. It really is more fun when it all works together.
