Being a literate roleplayer, I prefer groups that demand an RP sample. With those types of groups, I can feel assured that who I am roleplaying with have passed the set standards that have become common sense across the roleplaying community. If you must have a one or two sentence post due to a lack of inspiration, it's fine as long as you give some indication that you couldn't come up with anything more.
But what really gets me ticking are the illiterate roleplays that claim to be literate. I saw someone who never closed their dialog, and it really annoyed me. Here's an example of what their post might have been:
The male wolf laughed at the pup's actions. "Hey, get off my tail! He ordered, using his paw to push the pup away.
That really annoys me. Not to mention wolf-speakers. They make my brain bleed with their incorrectly-used anatomy and fancy words that just plain don't make sense in the context their being used. Some of the words are used correctly, but they are not commonly used in works of literature, like, hmm, novels. I see roleplaying as a collaboration to tell a story, bring different ideas to other people. Roleplayers at their very bases are writers, and seeing people write the way wolf-speakers roleplay would mean that book never got past publication. An example of a group that I've found accepts wolf-speaking is Le Mauvais. They're history page on their site uses wolf-speak. I was going to offer to join, but this entirely put me off. Here's what their history page reads as:
Fire ravaged the hills behind a silhouette of shapes; three canines panted restlessly behind a ebony pigmented damsel, saliva slithering downwards from their labrums in exhaustion. The leading mademoiselle whipped her cranium around to face the visage of the three weary wolves, "straighten up, dogs! We can't let them track us more than they already have! Follow me, and shut it!" A harsh snap of the females jaws rang between the smokey trunks between them, before dragging her articulate along the crimson liquid plastered along her mandible. Reeking of shared DNA. Hours later, after countless pounding of paws. the group behind the female collapsed to the Earth upon a new land, a cloud of dust flanking out around them. The singular standing wolf, rather lithe in size, but prominent spoke up.
"All of you, we will claim this land as our own, and slaughter anyone who thinks differently! I will place everyone in their own rank, and you will follow me, as I am your leader! Protect what's ours, and we will thrive from this day on!"
It tells something, but it's very confusing what is happening. I don't even know what's going on. I have the general idea that a forest is on fire, and three canine something's are walking away from it. From the anatomy used, I'd think they were alien mutations with ant mandibles instead of a proper jaw with teeth. Here's Wikipedia's definition of a "labrum":
The glenoid labrum (glenoid ligament) is a fibrocartilaginous rim attached around the margin of the glenoid cavity in the shoulder blade.
So, now these aliens have mandibles on their shoulders? Not to mention "cranium" means the bones that make up the skull. So they no longer have skin or fur on their heads, and mandibles. "Mademoiselle"? Really? Now they're effing French?
I could nitpick this post and show it for the illiteracy jumble of incorrectly-used words that it is, but I'm sure you get the point. Nothing gets me more fired up than wolf-speakers, for they are not a crowd that I would enjoy roleplaying with.
Back to the original question. I personally prefer fantasy to semi-fantasy/semi-real roleplays, as it gives us more freedom as roleplayers to give our characters personalities. If a roleplay were truely "real", there'd be no such thing as hostages or these silly things that we make up, as animals have no entertained thought-- they have instincts, meaning they just do. In that context, all roleplays are semi-real. But, to each their own.
