Role playing is an act that is natural to everyone. As children we do it constantly without ever knowing it, from playing doctor, to storming an evil castle, make believe is part of the intrinsic mechanisms in our brains. By engaging in this activity you are stretching your imagination, exercising your ability to think theoretically and to envision scenarios that are beyond the ordinary. Today, one of the best places to engage in these types of role playing games is on the internet.
World of Warcraft is probably the biggest and most popular role playing game around. It is a massively multiplayer graphically based system, which is much like a video game that you would play on a home console, except that your graphical avatar exists in a perpetual world, which is shared by millions of other characters who can log on at any time of the day or night, ensuring that there is always something new to do in the game.
There are hundreds of other graphic based multiplayer RPG games including Asheron's Call, Neverwinter Nights, and Furcadia. These vary in sophistication, with some being built on advanced 3d modeling technology, while others are much simpler, resembling the 16 bit Nintendo RPG's of the early nineties.
Beyond these graphical titles, there are also a number of mixed media, and literature based role playing systems, which attempt to give you a more subtle gaming experience. Many of these are based on forum or chat software systems that allow users to interact with one another, writing parts of a story in tandem. Each player assumes the role of a character and then the story progresses by the player writing about how their character reacts to what is taking place in the virtual world.
Some advanced systems incorporate pictures, videos, and music in order to create a more immersive atmosphere. Facebook and other social networks are often used for these types of games, even though their terms of service often expressly forbid the creation of fake role playing accounts.
