I honestly don't understand. I play the game to play it, and acting "in character" or setting limits on myself seems boring and unnecessary. Do you roleplay, and if you do, can you explain the appeal of it?

obvious troll is obvious. just wants to make ppl rage.

To each his own. If you "don't get" RPing, no amount of trying to explain it is going to help you.

Regardless of RPing, if you play a completely "boundaryless" character, you get one playthrough before everything is old hat.

Personally, I'd rather play different characters through multiple playthroughs rather than the same PC over and over again who just looks a bit different.

You are roleplaying as soon as you make a character. So you dont exactly get out of it. To answer your Q - you just get mor out of the game.

1) For the challenge, games are too easy other wise.

2) Playing a character is fun and creating your own story is fun.

3) Emergent gameplay placing limits on yourself forces you to approach situations differently revealing ways of playing the game that you might not of thought of otherwise.

Because it makes the game more enjoyable. I'll do a character that does every quest just so I can experience them but it isn't as fun as RPing. Why? Because characters like Aragorn and Ned Stark are badass. Way more badass than someone in full Daedric using OP setups that look extremely lame.

As my name suggests my RP character is a Nord Ranger. He looks awesome in his stormcloak and Nordic equipment and does quests and actions based on what I perceive someone like a Ranger to do.

When I RP, I'm still playing the game, I'm just playing it my way. Everyone plays the game in their own way, if people want to roleplay then it's up to them, you don't need someone to tell you why.

Immersion.

Oh snap, somebody doesn't have an imagination

No troll. What part of my post is inflammatory? Everything I said is in my opinion.



So, basically, it helps people enjoy the game more?

^^^^ This.

I also find that playing as different characters with different skills and backgrounds will change how I approach the game; combat-style, quests and choices can be very different and gives me a chance to see and experience Skyrim from a variety of angles. After all, there's a world of difference between "what would I do" and "what would this character do".

When you specialize and role play a certain class, you experience the game in a far more entertaining way than being good at everything. Because when your good at everything, your good at nothing. It feels hollow and boring to be a super awesome Mary Sue/Gary Stu. Playing as normal individuals can help blend them into the world. Of course, their background can be exciting, but it should be reasonable.

We play the game to live it. That is the big difference. We become immersed in a fantastic new world, such that it no longer feels like we're even playing a game.

Exactly.

Realism.
Better Story.
Personal Connection.
Immersion.

Well, to each his own. If that's what helps you enjoy the game more, go on ahead.

I don't think he's trolling and it seems like a fair statement, I only ever play as myself & make the decisions based on what i would do in real life, Roleplaying as such but not in any way similar to how a lot of people on here roleplay.
Filling in a backstory while creating and believing in a character is too much like hard work for people like me, It takes patience & dedication to do it but sometimes roleplaying to wallpaper over the cracks or fill in the blanks left by the developer has a negative effect.

Maybe it's my lack of imagination or laziness, Either way i have a great time in all of Bethesda's titles just being little old me and i'm sure the roleplayers have a great time too.

Edit, I only play as myself & manage to immerse myself into the world of the game i'm playing, My lack of imagination does not stop me from the glorious escapism of a game like Skyrim/Fallout etc

Limitations can be boring if you make it boring. If you make these limitations fun or otherwise interesting, then it's worth the try.

Roleplaying is and always will be tiresome at times. But that doesn't mean you should just give up. A lot of it can make you look at things differently.
Can make you *think* about your actions and that of your character's. It's fun and engaging because it makes you use your mind in depth, to feel.
To be immersed in your new universe, to otherwise escape your current life or troubles for a short time to start anew, to adventure when it's impossible.

Why do I roleplay? because The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim is a roleplaying game and because I find it a good break from just plainly mindless shooters.

You've played Skyrim, no? Then you have RP'd

Two reasons...
1. Adds more playability to the game.

2.It makes it more of a challenge

It's fun.

The better question would be, why do you care?

I play for fun the first time through, but after that I create special characters with specific beliefs, strengths and weaknesses and then play by those rules. It makes me as a player pick different choices for my avatar that I normally wouldn't do and I end up seeing a whole different side of the game and uncovering stuff I didn't even know existed.

Say for example my character can't read for whatever reason. That means I don't buy spell books or open any books because I can't read them anyway. It changes the game considerably. Or lets say your character has a thing for mead and has to drink 20 a day. If he can't buy 20 he's going to steal it or whatever it takes. Forcing these rules upon your character makes the game interesting and challenging because then you have to deal with jail or paying fines, etc.

perfectly valid....

I have a half dozen (or more) characters though... so I can't just "play me" or they'd all end up the same.

That said, I don't bother with backstory or anything... I just invent a mindset appropriate for the characters build and keep to it.

My Assassin, for example, has no problem slaying anyone in his way especially if it means silencing any witnesses...

so 1 mission I did with him, and also with another character, played out differently, as the other character did everything to avoid attracting guard attention on the mission and ended up fleeing at the end of the mission from a pack of guards and made my daring escape only having to kill a couple guards (and using environment instead of personal weapons to do so) to complete the mission.

My Assassin character on the other hand just assassinated (sneak killed) every single person there without ever raising an alarm... and at the end of the mission I just waltzed out cause there was no one left lol

It affects what missions I choose to do as well as how I go about them.

I usually use some fictional character from some book I read as the basis for each "personality" which makes it easy to come up with the "what would you do" answers without writing out any kind of backstory or anything.

Oh, wait, it just hit me! The question is:

Why do people ROLE PLAY in a ROLE PLAYING GAME?

Whoa.