I’ve heard quite a few, and I’ve found quite a few others that I hadn’t heard myself. Strange ideas about what RP is, and about the people that engage in RP, are rampant.

We’ll tackle false impressions of RP first, and then move on to misconceptions about RPers. Some of the most well-known wrong ideas about RP are these:

-RP means talking in Ye Olde English (fake old English). This is nonsense. For one, it would only be suitable in an Old England setting, or one that is a lot like it. And secondly, what most people spew when they do this, is not old English at all. It is some kind of semi-old-English monstrosity that was most likely picked up in films or certain books, and consists mostly of saying ‘Thy’ and ‘Thou’ a lot (often used wrongly too), and adding ‘-eth’ to verbs. This would not be suitable even in an actual Old England setting. It’s better to use just plain English than this, in any setting.  

-People also often say that in RP, you have to use long, complicated words and sentences, by default, or else it’s not RP. This is also nonsense. It’s perfectly fine to use simple language in RP. Some people will adjust the type of language they use to the character they play, but not everyone is good at this, nor is it a requirement.       

-There is also a strange notion that RP means calling everyone you meet ‘friend,’ or something like it. ‘Sister’ and ‘brother’ are also often used, depending on the gender of the character being addressed. People that use these terms also often have the nasty habit of adding them to every other sentence they speak to you.
There is no reason to call a complete stranger your friend or your sibling, err… except for those cases where there is a reason, but my point is that it’s so often done when there isn’t one. It’s certainly not some kind of set aspect of RP. Some examples where it actually would be appropriate: When someone is actually related to you IC, it is fine to call them your sister or brother. When you belong to a certain group, IC, of which the members happen to address each other with ‘sister’ or ‘brother,’ it’s fine to call other members of that group ‘sister’ or ‘brother.’ When someone is actually your friend, it’s fine to call them your friend, although it would still be odd of you to keep emphasising that to them. When you mean it sarcastically, implying that the one you’re addressing really isn’t your friend at all, it can also be good to call them ‘friend.’

-Some people think that RP means you can play any role you want, and do anything you want. This is generally not true. There is such a thing as freeform RP, but most RP campaigns or games have a setting, that comes with certain rules. We’ll take the well-known MMO World of Warcraft as an example, because it’s just so well-known. In World of Warcraft, you have a certain set of races. And of those, only a few are playable races. It’s generally not accepted to suddenly pick a whole new race that does not exist in the world, and start playing that. Your character will also still look like the race that it actually is, since WoW is an MMO with graphics. It’s also generally not accepted to pick a race that is not playable and start pretending that you are of that race. Again, your character will not look like the new race you picked, although some players find excuses for this (they are generally rather lame). It’s also not a good idea to start doing things like saying you have a television set in your house. The WoW universe doesn’t include televisions. It also doesn’t have airplanes, although it does have some flying devices made by goblins.
The message, which may have gotten lost somewhere in the maze of the example: unless you know that the RP you are participating in is totally freeform, stick to the lore. You usually only have to look around a bit to get a general idea of what is possible within a certain setting.

***

So, on to the misconceptions about RPers:

There are a few of the ones you’d expect, because they are also the ones generally used against all gamers: freaks, losers, geeks, nerds, with no social life and no RL friends.
For RPers, you can also add the nifty little: “they have no life of their own so they need to play at having a life in a game.”
Funny that other gamers now use it against a subset of gamers. You’d think that people who are used to having others say and think quite ridiculous things about them, would not make the same mistake towards others.
Of course, even a casual glance at the actual lives of people who also RP would debunk this one.
Besides, to take these things as insults, you’d have to presuppose that there’s anything wrong with all the above-mentioned things that RPers are accused of being.

Another one like the above is that there are no female RPers. Whenever you see a female char, it is definitely played by a RL male. Although there are still more male gamers than female gamers, and since the proportion of gamers that are also RPers is the same for females and males (according to “the Daedalus Project” by Nick Yee), that means also more male RPers than female ones, there are certainly female RPers. Sure, a lot of the female chars you meet may be RL males, but definitely not all of them. There is no reason to assume at all, that women and girls are less interested than men and boys in pretending to be someone else in a different world than the daily reality we live in. It’s actually more often girls than boys who are interested in the pretend play that is so like RP for adults: playing ‘father and mother’ or ‘doctor,’ and other such games.

Then there is a very old and unfortunately pervasive one: RPers worship Satan, and RP will lure you into sin and depravity. This one may have something to do with the demons that you often find in RP campaigns and that were often depicted on the covers of RP books (no matter that the aim is usually to defeat those things). Playing an RP campaign or an MMO that has demons in it doesn’t make you a Satan-worshipper any more than reading Harry Potter makes you a wizard. It’s just make-belief.  Of course, this will not ease the mind of those who would be concerned about Satan-worship in the first place (because you have to believe he is real to even care about that).

Last but not least (or maybe it is, but hey), one that’s not widespread, but that was so mind-boggling (and quite hilarious) that I just had to include it here. It’s an opinion about RPers that I only heard this week. It was made clear in two posts, found on the forums of a particular MMO which I will not name. By now, on these forums, the second post has been deleted in its entirety, and the first one has been heavily edited. I have erased all the names in my citations, to preserve the anonymity of the people involved and the game itself:

IC play is evidence of a personality disorder. Something is wrong with RPers. They’re insecure; they must be missing something inside of them, a hole they’re trying to fill up by playing someone that is not themselves; they’re trying to impress people because they’re so insecure..

The first post goes like this:

“It took me a few minutes to understand what <name erased> was telling us.

I beleive he is saying that he was able to play six <game areas> at every sessions.

His <game area> plus five more because he had received five invitations to be able to use other members's <game area>.

If you add to this a possibility to be able to use the computer date/time trick, it says a lot about the need from many users to be/become IC heroes.

I am not too impressed.

I did fill in <name erased>'s survey and my answer to one of the question about IC role playing was that for me, it was an indication of a personnality disorder.

Do we have a psy visiting our forums ? It would be very interresting to know his views about the need to play IC.”

And to top it all off, this was then accompanied by ‘evidence’ from gossip magazines in a later post. As evidence of RPers having a personality disorder, this person says (in reply to someone saying RPers do not necessarily have personality disorders) that you only need to read about all those Hollywood actors and about politicians to see the truth:

"One, only has to read about hollywood actors, actresses and specially about politicians to have "doubts" about your statement.

Why do they enjoy playing somebody else and what do they feel is missing inside them ???? Inferioty/superiority complex ??? Something they need to prove to themselves and/or to others ????
Why do you think the psys are making so much money with them ?”

Oh, the overwhelming facts taken from the latest MSN news, and maybe a few gossip magazines. We simply cannot argue with material like this, let’s roll over and die.

And after writing all these nasty things about actors, the statement ended with some semi-deep, semi-psychological ramblings, with citations from Hamlet…. a play (oh, the sweet, sweet irony):

“Do the words "image makers" ring a bell ? An image will always be an image and will never be "reality".

To be or "not to be"
There is a well hidden secret here and you have to open your eyes to see it.

Ask yourselves this question: What is the meaning of "not to be" ?”

I’m sorry, forum-poster. Psychologists and psychiatrists hang more towards the vision that RP is a very healthy practise, and encourage it. It is, for instance, often used to improve teamwork and reduce conflicts in the workplace. It is said to increase people’s understanding of both themselves, and others. In short, it may broaden people’s horizons, and open their minds.

With thanks to Darkhawk and Kryigerofe.