(07-02-2015, 10:33 AM)Glioca Sargonnai Wrote:Seems a fair enough argument. I would like to clarify that when I argued for using game mechanics as a part of RP, I didn't mean that you should use elements of the game's story as that would be unreasonable (since then everyone would have the same story and be the savior of Eorzea). Â Also, no one really likes the person who RPs the savior of the world, going around imposing that hefty title and background on everyone else.(07-02-2015, 10:22 AM)Sylentmana Wrote:(07-02-2015, 09:16 AM)Gegenji Wrote:Its no problem. I had a feeling after I posted it, that this phrase would cause some confusion. I should have better clarified what I meant. Â First of all, you're right. Â We the players are ultimately engaged in a game of pretend, whether RPing or not. The phrase "let's pretend" was used for lack of a better phrase, but I really meant it within the context of being IC. Â When performing a wholly text-based RP, it seems to me as if the characters themselves are playing a game of "let's pretend." Like they came up to each other and one said, "Pretend I'm swinging my sword at you" or something similar. Â(07-02-2015, 09:03 AM)Sylentmana Wrote: -snip-
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It just makes me think of the characters themselves as if they are engaged in a child's game of pretend, chasing each other around, swinging invisible swords, and making swooshing and clanging noises. Â It all just seems a bit silly to me.
I hope this helps clarify what I meant. Also, your reaction pics made me laugh.
The thing is, that MMO RP isn't all that much different from Tabletop RP. Â You pretend to be something you aren't, and represent it in type because the MSQ/assigned story doesn't fit anything outside a particular niche (Warrior of Light from a far-away land not anywhere in the current city-states, like Gegenji pointed out).
There are currently a lot of character concepts seen in RP that aren't really represented in the game. Â Doman's, for example, would have to just be Ninja's, and would be pidgeonholed into that class because as far as we know, only Ninja/Shinobi come from Doma. Â I haven't seen much representation of other classes from Doma. Â But I've seen other Doman RPer's who are other classes, and use those classes as a representation of that other class (Gladiator for a swordsman, or Dark Knight come to mind). Â
You'd also have to dismiss a character who is void-touched or voidsent, because those aren't things we can technically represent through our characters and levels.  There are a lot of character concepts that you'd end up having to handwave away using this mindset, because either the players behind the screen just don't have time to level, or, like it was said way earlier in the thread, their main PvE character is on another server, and they primarily come to Balmung for the RP, not the PvE.  Viewing OOC character strength (and note that they call this OOC achivement in the thread title for a reason) as an indicator of IC power level has always seemed rather..Â
Well.. let's just call a spade a spade. Â Using OOC achivement to determine IC power level is technically what you'd call metagaming, because metagaming is using out of character knowledge in an in-character context.
While I do agree that using such knowledge as character and weapon stats while IC is considered metagaming, I do think that your character can look at another character and, through visual cues, get a basic of how powerful/skilled that character is. Â High-quality armor and weapons are a good indicator that a character has had a lot of experience fighting and has conquered some tough opponents. Â While this is not universally true, my characters would often think twice before engaging in combat with opponents that sport such visual cues.
As far as Domans being pigeon holed into just Ninja, I have to disagree. Â While I do think the Ninja is a profession that originated in Doma/Othard, I see all the basic classes/jobs that you choose in Character Creation to be common throughout the world. Â Just because they haven't been represented by NPCs yet, that doesn't mean they don't exist. Â As for RPing a voidsent, its true that those aren't represented by playable stats, but they aren't playable at all and it seems like it would be a bit lore-breaking to RP one.
I would like to point out, though, that everything that I've said in my posts are my personal opinions  and are how I prefer to play, nothing more. I don't refuse to RP with others just because they don't share these opinions and I don't think less of others just because they choose to play differently than I (though I don't engage in fights with other players either through RP text of PvP as I don't particularly enjoy either).  I just thought I should throw that out lest anyone think I'm some sort of metagaming, godmodding, RP elitist as that is not how I try to play. It's all just personal preference.