I used to Roleplay back in the days when MSN chat room were free to use. You could make a room and many people had a MSN Group set out much like the forums are now and the RP was all done in the room and live.

I used to play in places like:

Atlantean Keep
Frostwind

They were two of the big hitters when it came to communties and play. Did anyone else used to play in the MSN rooms?

I am also curious as to how many people have played live chat RP as rather than post-by-post forum RP? Which did you prefer?

I used to RP in MUDs, but I was always weary of chat rooms. Now I roleplay in Second Life, which is very similar except you get the 3D element, too, and can emote physically. I prefer it VASTLY to forum roleplaying now.

someone told me the other day she roleplays on AIM with people and im like isnt that weird, the concept of roleplaying in real time seems even too surreal for most of the sites out there today

I just joined SL and I'm still getting used to it ^.^ I'm totally going to be checking out the group that's featured in your sig.

The only thing I worry about when it comes to a mass IM/chat room RPs is that I won't be able to follow. I generally got over that, however, and now it's just mainly ignorance that keeps me from chat room RPs [and SL RPs, speaking of them]. Are actions written out just like they would be in a forum? I'd assume it'd be similar to forum posting, just more fast paced and real time-like.

To answer the question of the thead: No, no chat rooms. The oldest RP I remember I was in was a Yahoo Group.

I've never done IM RPing, but I've always been interested in trying it. The problem is that I don't want to get harrassed every time I go onto MSN or AIM.

Back in the days of AOL's supremacy, I did RP some in their RP chatrooms (they were customer created, so there was a good amount of them).

Was it enjoyable? Yes. Would I return to that setting with the advent of forum RPing? No.

I used to do chat RP, and I've done some RPing by AIM/MSN in the past few years that was really fun! But despite that, I've learned that it's not really a medium I'm compatible with.

I vastly prefer forum RPing for a lot of reasons.

For one, there's less pressure. I'm a slow writer. When I write a post, it may take me a while--half an hour to a few hours, because I write in a weird way (...let's just say I can't write beginning-middle-end), I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and I like to mull over the other person's reply for a while while working out a good reply of my own. Of course, I altered my style for IM RPs since they're short and sweet, but I still felt very pressured, like I was taking too long and making the other person wait. Especially when I'd get poked and be like, "I'm still here! D8 I'm almost done!" I'd also go back and read logs and see places where I'd made epic mistakes (as in, playing my character wrong) because I'd felt rushed and hadn't had that time to properly think things over. Dx

But mostly, I just hate keeping people waiting. *twitchtwitch*

Then there's also the whole time zone issue. In a forum RP, that's never a problem. The posts are always there waiting and you can reply at your own leisure, time zones be damned! I like that. I like being able to take my time, no rush, and just go about my posting rounds. I also like that I can do other things while forum RPing. If I'm in an actual IM RP, it's kinda hard to watch youtube videos, chat with other people, do chores around the house, etc. while RPing, at least for me.

I also like that it's easier to do a group RP in forums. IM RPs always felt a bit...insular. Isolated. I like massive RPs between like...ten people! xD It's fun! I'm a "the more, the merrier!" type of person who, while I do adore one-on-one RPs, could never do them exclusively. I like my RPs to feel...connected to a much larger picture, which is what a forum game provides me with.

I also feel like my RPs actually go somewhere on a forum. I'm involved in some plots that have been running for years, with lots of dedicated people. I've had too many people vanish off the face of the Earth in IM-RP land, after only a week.

I still do MSN RPs, but they're those silly random ones that are done in script form with asterisks on the side of the main RPG, and I LOVE them. xD Those are different from the ones I'm talking about in this post.

So yeah! IM RPs were very fun for me, but they're not for me. x3 I like them as far as instant gratification goes, but...that's about it. :\

I did a few MSN roleplays, but I got kind of put off because the person I roleplayed with always god modded my characters to be a couple with her's, and she like, forced every one of my characters to turn bi, basically. :/ I didn't mind so much the first time, but after the fifteenth character or so, it just turned slightly creepy.

She kind of put me off :/

Buut, if I roleplayed with a non god moddy person, I guess it'd be cool. The first character I talked about above became one of my most long running characters, and we wrote up most of her and her partner's life before I gave up roleplaying with this girl. xD

I've never done MSN rooms, but I have done their 'forums'. I hate their forums, and was on a site that was my friend's only because he was my friend.

I have, however, Rped in an IM before. I honestly prefer forum writing as opposed to doing a whole Rp in an IM, because my posts tend to be a little on the longer side. Therefore, I end up spending my hour typing my response and it spans four or five or even six MSN boxes. It's really frustrating to read and respond to.

I started out with e-groups which yahoo groups took over in a play by post format. Then I got into Yahoo Chats. I did every genre imaginable off of those and I think they entirely improved my writing. I never participated in one line, but automatically was drawn to the multi-para setting where an average post usually took 5 word limit sized entries to get out. I found the fast pace quickness has helped me now that I'm back to play by post forums.

I can get out a good decent size post in about 10 minutes. Granted playing in such a fast environment also has made playing on forums hard because I became so used to instant replies that waiting a week for a reply makes me impatient.

I never did MSN though. I tried AIM but it wasn't my thing.

AIM roleplays are awesome. I only ever do one-on-one roleplays, though. P: I still do, too! They're great if you want to get really far really fast. I just do what I would normally do as I post on the forum, but I IM my replies instead of posting them. You respond with shorter replies, so everything goes pretty quick.

At the end, the person who started it usually copies all the replies into one post and posts them on the forum. :3

^ This is how I do it!

<3 AIM roleplays, haha.