I've thought a bit more on this, and have come to a conclusion that more accurately sums up my feelings on this:
Many people are simply RPing in different ways; I myself have been acclimating myself to RPing on a different board for a while, as well as Idran's D&D thing. I don't Chat-RP much anymore, because things tend to shift to focusing on the newer characters, who finally have their chance to shine and show off all the work that went into them. That's cool and all, but if I'm gonna feel a bit pressed to have my characters drop conversations with friends just to chat it up with some stranger, I'll feel a bit put out. Old characters and new characters don't seem to mix too well in CIs at all, unless there's an event that is the focal point.
I could make a new character, yeah, and I have groovy ideas and backburner plans, but I'm really lazy and I wouldn't want to make a new character solely to CI with them. I'm best at unveiling characters in a way that lends itself to their nature, in a situation that would really benefit from them.
Another point is that CIs are boring. AM is correct in saying that adventure is funner than not adventure, or something similar. The thing is, the whole classification of CI has caused a deep rift to form between "Character Interacting" and "GMed RPs". When I first arrived at RPGWW, there was only "ARPEES" and they took place in chat. I dove, with my horribly un-thought out character Kyle, and enjoyed things. I remember the moment pretty clearly, (As I have a log of it!) Enlil and Diran were having a word-fight, and End was up to some sort of Moogle sassery, in an alley next to the good old JD. Checking the log now, the date was October 7th, 2002. Let me post a few choice bits:
You have just entered room "Arpee."
Brodzky Zero: (hiya)
Kirbjooie: (Though it wasn't for very long. Diran was calling himself the strongest...Enlil said stuff about Creation magic and whatnot)
That Damned Elf: o_O *reigns the horse quickly**
CaptainPervy: (Nope, the Shopkeeper)
Brodzky Zero: (so...whats going on)
Kirbjooie: *walks around, quite pleased with himself*
T3chn0Namagomi: Ugh.....damnit. What the?!?!
T3chn0Namagomi: *gets up*
T3chn0Namagomi: o.o I nearly got run over....*
Brodzky Zero: (pervy, whats going on? im stupid)
That Damned Elf: o_O;; Sorry sir....
That Damned Elf: *Dismounts quickly and heads over to him*
CaptainPervy: *Enlil merges from an alley, and walks down the street. She is an average-sized woman with silver hair, Silver Eyes, and enormous feathery wings on her back. She is also a bit dirty; old half-cleaned grease strains cling to her (c)*
That Damned Elf: Are you alright?
T3chn0Namagomi: I've been through worse...
T3chn0Namagomi: (Desc?)
That Damned Elf: (heee ^_^ *prepares one*)
CaptainPervy: *feathers, her simple robes, and her hair.*
CaptainPervy: (Zero, a Street in Doma)
And that's how it started. Moreover, this is:
Brodzky Zero: *A stranger with green eyes and bronze hair, wearing a long greyish silver coat slowly walks by, and glances at the group of people arguing, then pauses...*
End790: Are you being stressed out because of these two yapping on?
;
That Damned Elf: *turns to Kamos and bows deeply* Frian Cobblebay, at your service...
T3chn0Namagomi: Ahh.
End790: <_<' ... :seems to think for a moment:
End790: .. Kamos.
Brodzky Zero: Em... Hello..
From this, a half-retarded Kyle (RPed by a half-retarded Zero) went to talk to Enlil about the nature of pacifism, chatted End up, and I generally smucked about. And from there, a few days later in another "ARPEE" End went crazy and turned into a dragon and tried to kill Kyle and almost did but Sorune saved him and thus a quest was had to try and solve all of these bad vibes and a generally awesome time was had. It was an ongoing chain of of events, like a TV series, and I was there every few days to catch up and have Kyle do stuff. It was great. Kyle and some other characters would be chillaxing at the JD, and End would enter the room, assess the situation, and start GMing things; anyone who was there was free to get involved. There were adventures and fun-times. Things blended smoothly. The thing is, that sort of stuff doesn't happen these days. People clamor for "CIs" and nothing too fun happens, and "CIs" are now boring. Chat RPing has drifted away from starting and ending in an open chatroom, and moved onto being started via IMs or Board invite threads. Somehow, this brand of GMed RPs for a select group of friends have been labled "SECRET RPS" and are apparently really bad for not happening out in the open. "CIs" are boring, and "SECRET RPS" are really bad. Though I agree with the former of these statements much more than the latter, I can very much nod my head to the brilliant idea contained within; that if things are going to return to their lovely roots of fervent action and groovy mini-adventures, we should stop labling any chat-RP for no real reason as "CIs", as this connotates boredom. Instead, we have a semi-ongoing RP room, as we did a few years back, and keep the groove flowing, instead of miserly little bursts.
Sorry if this isn't written too grandly; I did it all in one take, and now I need to shave. BE BACK LATER, DUDES.