Interesting thoughts, I have been playing games now for what ... probably 20 years now. I love roleplaying games and then sense of character growth they give me, though it is hard for me to put in the time investment these days. I have LOTRO as well, but I am lucky if I play it once per month.

Anyways to get back to the subject at hand, I always basically roleplayed this one model that is in my head (which is more your typical Conan barbarian style character), rather than adapting to the character itself. I think this what has been draining my enjoyment. Every time I want to create a stealth character or a magic character they tend to roleplay a barbarian still. I think this is precisely because of what you have said... I should be thinking of my character and their motivations before playing, rather than all just conforming to my standard model.

So basically I have been creating different characters but emotionally they were all the same and their motivations as well. Thanks for this article. I will definitely be trying this for now on, I think it will be well worth the effort and maybe pull me in enough to spend more time on my characters (and not leave them so abandoned anymore).