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Actually, I'm afraid you've reversed the intention of my analogy...
What I mean when I say people put on and take off masks is that most people play as themselves with different masks on. Bob the human warrior. Bob the lizardman politician. Bob the dwarven bartender. It's all Bob, and Bob only takes the barest of measures to disguise that fact. Perhaps he occasionally throws in a "ye" or a "thou" or when he's playing as Bob the dwarven bartender he throws out a reference to his beard every now and then, but it rarely goes beyond that. It's like going to a costume party. You're not generally roleplaying at a costume party, but you're still semi-pretending that you're someone else. That's not going to stop you from talking about last night's Seinfeld rerun while you're that character though because you're not really trying to be someone else. You just want to put on a mask or two and have a bit of escapist fun.
On the other hand, strict roleplaying types are aiming at a puppeteer type model where the character is as separated from their normal personality as possible. Of course, it's still them as everything a puppet does is performed by the puppeteer, but there is a conscious attempt at some sort of consistent separation between player and character.
I don't view either as inherently better or worse than the other. They're just different playing styles. Unfortunately though, they interfere with each other. The puppeteers irritate some of the mask types with their unwillingness to have an honest conversation, person to person. The mask types irritate the puppeteers with theihr unwillingness to have an in-role conversation, character to character.
--matt
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