To answer... I hosted Warcraft 3's Vuen's D&D, SotDRP and LOAP for quite some time, and played Starcraft 2's Cortex RP for about 3 months.
In those games, we all had a spawner, we all set names, we could all build, we were all basically gods, but limited to the game's engine (and the admins rules). As such, creating cool things took an excess amount time and effort to get around and getting at, but for, say, a full house game of experienced gamers, no trolls, it was guaranteed fun. The game was secluded only to the players within the game, and that gave a feeling of cooperation rather than competition, even though most of the time there was conflict. It was all live as well, so expect to hold your bathroom break for a while if it unfortunately comes to that. Games lasted anywhere from 2-12 hours.
Right.
So this roleplaying all takes place within the mind. A good way to describe it would be maybe kind of table top Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying, or perhaps a collaborative story. Games aren't within a short amount of time, but can take weeks, months or years to complete a plot line.
So, for instance, you'd have a GM. The GM creates the roleplay, the plot and sets the guidelines. Players then sign up a character or several (using a provided template on the first post) and if they are accepted, can begin roleplaying as soon as the GM puts up the IC thread and gives the all-go.
So, the GM would post a summary post to begin with, letting players know how to write their first post. So, for instance, say you had a roleplay about a school, and you start with your character in a small meeting hall. The GM may control teh principal and teachers, and would post a post to inform you of anything your character needs to know. Then, they end their post giving you an opportunity to move. For instance...
(giant blot of text detailing setting and so forth)
"And that's the school!" the principal said proudly. "If you have any questions, please go ahead and ask. If not, you may go find your dorms!"
So this gives you the opportunity to control your own character and interact. You have a few options, such as ask a question, go back to your dorms, or do something different like if there are other players in the same place as you, talk to them.
Once the principle had finished talking, Billy turned to the girl sitting next to him and waved at her, trying to catch her attention.
"Hi," he whispered, trying not to draw the principal's attention towards himself, "I'm Billy! What's your name?"
Then, you wait for another player to post a reaction to your post. Be careful not to control them without permission. You can read the rules and such about other things you have to watch out about.
So yeah, games here are
much slower than anything you'd do on an MMO RP guild, but it's a writing game, basically.
Does that clarify much or just make things more confusing?