Morbad, I think we have different definitions as to what role-playing may be. My experience with the term comes exclusively from World of Warcraft where role-playing was a very specific playstyle with long tradition. Peeps would act out different characters, genders, races, etc. going so far as to adopt different speech patterns and dialects. Your more literal definition of role-playing is equally valid.
Countless forms of role-play. The more superficial stuff hasn't really held my interests. If I'm running my Dungeons & Dragons campaign and playing a goblin, I'm less focused on talking with a speech impediment than I am on seeing existence from that goblin's perspective, on making her the main character of her own story, and examining how she'd feel and react when half a dozen 'adventurers' come bursting into her tribe's den, swords and torches in hand.
Likewise, my roleplaying in ED, while featuring a character based far more heavily on myself (it's easier to focus on a few differences and extrapolate from there than construct and keep track of an entirely distinct consciousness, especially for something I do this often and this casually), is far less about chat macros, or putting on a dime-show for other players, than it is acting on a coherent overarching motive within an organic set of constraints.
Frankly, some of the most annoying interactions I have with other players are complaints and disparagement from those who demand that I role-play my character in a way they find valid, which is almost always something more superficial and not even compatible with the character I'm trying to portray. These players can go stuff themselves; peferably with something large, sharp, and unhygienic.
I first started Elite Dangerous in VR. I was amazed and totally ecstatic; I had to examine everything. For the first month I was happy just doing the tutorials over and over again. So yes, that immersion was spectacular and would have been diminished had I not suspended disbelief. However, after 2500 hours, that elation and wonderment over the simulation has ended and I am now into PvP. And yes, ED has now become an "abstract game that simply tests my planning and reflexes", a very exceptional one. In the throes of combat I am so focussed on trajectories, reticules, pips, radar, attitude, etc., that I may as well be flying an FTL pterodactyl. Even though my perspective may have become more abstract, I still get my adrenaline rush nevertheless. I did with Tetris as well.
As long as you're enjoying the game, keep on keeping on.
Do you mean the constraints of Elite engineering and the creativity involved in building spaceships as opposed to say, making your keybinds or macros more efficient?
No, I mean the behavioral constraints that distinguish Morbad the player from CMDR Backer # the character (not either of our 'real' names). In the real world I have relatively few constraints that aren't dictated by the limits of my physical means. However, my in-game character has fewer relative hard limits, in the context of the setting, and more self-imposed ones. The adage "it's easy to be a saint in paradise" could apply. The real world is not a paradise and I've always done whatever it took to get by and get ahead, with no regrets. My CMDR, while still highly pragmatic and utilitarian, can afford an approach I personally could not risk, and has the means to work toward far more than personal safety and comfort.
In the real world, I'm simply a survivor; someone who has, with some difficulty, cobbled together just enough resources, and swept aside just enough foes, for a shot to exist vaguely on his own terms. I'm not willing to sacrifice what little I've built in pursuit of loftier goals and I am content on the path I seem to be set in (though I always adapt, should change be forced upon me). Ultimately, I'm very nearly as lazy, self-centered, cautious, and unambitious as most of humanity...I am not going to change the world.
My in-game CMDR is an activist, and can leverage an enormous arsenal to influence the world in which he exists. He can, and does, pursue those lofty goals that I dismiss as idealistic flights of fancy. Sometimes he can even win.
I'm sure both the 2019 and 3305 Morbads would approach any technical issue in the same way.
Of course. This PC and my ED configuration settings are at least as carefully min-maxed as my CMDR's ships are.
On the other hand, don't most of our decisions boil down to: "So, will this make me happier?"
Unless one's insane, or quickly wishes to become that way, yes.
