Role-Games or Role Playing Games as they are popularly known, is one in which the player assumes the role of a character, usually fictitious, and plays the part of the character assumed, either verbally alone or with actions included.
The earliest of the role playing games, is the play-acting of the mother's or the father's role by a small child. As the child grows older, other characters are gradually added – the doctor, postman, milkman, school teacher and so on. As far as psychologists are concerned, this role playing goes on throughout the life of the person.
In the role-games, there could be one or more players. When played singly, the game is usually a soliloquy and the player derives pleasure from his own performance. In a group, either one player enacts a role and others judge him, or the whole group is involved in individual role-playing to mutual satisfaction. Usually, the group performance is played out in front of an audience. Theatrical performance on the stage falls into this category.
Strategy based role-games
Other role-games are strategy based. Simplest of them being the game of Money, also known as Business, in which players play the role of businessmen with make-believe currency, winning or losing as they progress. Others may be more complex, like SimCity, where the player is required to be in-charge of a huge city, tackling various problems like traffic snarls to water supply breakdowns, and solving them. Other more recent and more complex role-games are online and Second Life at secondlife.com deserves a special mention. The player can assume any role here, socialize, shop and even buy property. This is called a virtual life and players can continue to enact their chosen second life, as long as they wish, making their life as simple or as complex as they chose.
