Much of the knowledge, skill, and ability to roleplay a believable character in MMORPGs comes from inspiration. Experience is perhaps the best tool to employ in order to feed inspiration. Personally, I don't think I'll ever truly experience what it's like to be a stalwart defender of Stormwind, to walk the magnificence of Thorin's Hall, or attempt a stealthy infiltration of dungeon Destard to face off against the dragon Rikktor. That's one reason I'm a gamer.
Lately, I've come upon the apparent fact that there are many MMORPG gamers, including many roleplayers, who have played very few other games, if any. I am aware of more than a few of my fellow roleplayers whose very first foray into roleplaying, and even gaming, is with their current characters in LotRO and WoW. To me, this is a very surprising find, considering I am of the first 'gaming generation', and many of my gaming friends are younger (some much more so) than me. The gaming I refer to in this article is primarily PC gaming, though I certainly don't exclude console games, board games, live-action gaming, and of course the traditional RP games l...