I’ve been doing the RP thing since 2002. I’ve been doing the science fiction thing since I was a kid. In 2004, I combined the two and ended up joining Star Trek: A Call to Duty. Games like that, especially if you’re into the whole sci-fi and/or Star Trek genre, should be a requirement for anyone with an inclination towards creative writing. They have chatroom, forum and email-based groupings, all varying in skill/detail from fairly good to downright awesome–I’ve played via all three methods since joining.
For the Trekky nuts, the game takes place post-Voyager–the alternate timeline from Enterprize and the movie hasn’t happened. Each grouping does its own thing, and occasionally will get together for game-wide plotlines to handle various situations–last one I participated in was a war on a slightly smaller scale than that with the dominion in Deep Space 9. If you have absolutely any interest in roleplaying, or creative writing in general, you are strongly encouraged to at least give it a look. You may or may not be impressed. At the very least, you won’t be bored.
This shameless plug brought to you by me. Because sometimes, reality sucks–but roleplay’s always good.