What Historicus Means to Participants Participation in Historicus means different things to the various portrayers. Some participants, i.e. , those who are active in portraying characters, regard their posts to the network as a significant learning opportunity. Such participants are people who take a strong personal interest in the characters they are portraying, and consider that representing those characters in the first person is an ideal educational device that compels them to understand, and feel, how aspects of characters' lives would apply to a given subject or in a given situation. The education afforded by participation need not be overly personal, of course. The fact that some portrayers are embarked on a personal growth adventure does not imply that all participants must be so.
Some people simply enjoy learning through portrayal.
Such people are probably students with a dash of actor thrown into their character. It is probably the case that students within structured institutions cannot derive much from Historicus, simply because institutions tend to confine intellectual growth to the point that becoming a character in portrayal is probably not possible. For them, perhaps it is a chance to slip into their favorite persons' skins without having to do it professionally. Perhaps Historicus helps them to explore their thinking about their characters, and by dint of that, about themselves. Historicus as Joy Some Historicus portrayers closely identify with their chosen characters, and find that portrayal gives them a chance to voice emotions and ideas which might otherwise have no venue, and yet for which they feel close affinity.