I use the role before I play to set up the character instead of making it all up on the fly. What people did before, maybe was not the gratest system and why it was created before.
The whole point of a role should be to get you to think about the char before you play and to show, holy shit what a novel concept, character development as you play. So you take note of major events in your character's life and how it shapes them. Yeah, that's just friggin awful.
And god forbid there be some record of something about your character that Imm could use to hold you accountable when you shift RP to suit whatever you want to do at the time. Which given how many power gamer gear hungry people there are out there, you'll never convince me that it's not a widespread thing.
I dislike most CFers that want less accountability for the actions they take with their characters, that think everything was better ten years ago, and have no desire to ever compromise or understand anything that doesn't agree with what they want.
If you can't bother to form a role, why should an Imm not just arbitrarily bitch slap your ass on a whim for going on what he perceives to be OOC crap?
And then that player rants and raves about the Imm because it was his RP. Yeah, cause Imms all have 50 hours to spend watching every character in the MUD.
But no, keep ignoring all the potential benefit of roles and what it was intended to be used for, and instead bitch how it is nothing more than a grind geared towards getting perks and say how anyone who uses it you dislike.
You're right, maybe it a cheat sheet for a character. In a game where everyone says they have less time available, what the hell is wrong with that? The FSV crowd all want cheat sheets for quests, wands, and area explores to mitigate having to spend time on it, but a cheat sheet for a role to allow Imms to be able to interact more broadly with a larger range of players without having to watch them for fifty hours.
OH HELL NO, ROLES ARE EVIL AND THE CAUSE OF CF's DECLINE!
Yeah.
Makes a shit load of sense to me.