Roleplay

Roleplaying is essentially the practice of two or more individuals telling a story together, with themselves (or characters created by them) as the protagonists.

Extremely common on Gaia, countless threads, forums, and guilds are dedicated exclusively thereto.

Example
Here is an example of what part of a roleplay might look like between two hypothetical Gaians:

User 1 Says: "Stay back, I'm warning you!" cried User 1 as he threw himself between the snarling ogre and the unconscious body of his companion. Drawing his sword, he stood confidently before the beast as it attempted to rush him. Then, a flash of steel, a spurt of blood, and his opponent's arm was severed at the elbow.

Here is User 2's Reply:

User 2 drifted back to consciousness just in time to feel the warm blood of the ogre splatter across his face. Forcing himself back into action, he shakily stood; the ogre, in pain and frightened by the new combatant, fled back between the rocks. User 2 sighed with relief. "Good work..." he said to User 1.

Types of Roleplays
As roleplaying is an activity enjoyed by many Gaians, different genres such as action/adventure, technopunk, sci-fi/fantasy, and romance are commonly used in roleplays by people of varying tastes. Often, roleplays will be based off of different anime or video games.

Erotic roleplay between users is commonly known as cybering, and is prohibited by Gaia. However, this rule is difficult to enforce because of the vast number of users who may be engaging in the practice.