Renee, I find that there’s often a mixture of character and player chat when we get together. There are communities of RPers who chat only in-character, though. When I play it’s me riding along with my character just like in the single player games until a player speaks to me instead of Jerric, and then Jerric takes the back seat. I have met a few random people whose characters spoke to Jerric with no player interaction. This is always fun until inevitably he gets invited back to someone’s castle for a feast where it turns out he is supposed to be the main dish. (Lots of vampires in this game.) I cannot count how many times this has happened. Maybe he should put on a shirt.
Also, welcome to ESO!!!
Great news for Lopov, I completely understand why he’s turning off the games for a while. Very best wishes to him and his family. And like you, I’ll be waiting here to welcome him baaaack!