Hydaelyn Role-Players

Found this and thought it'd make a good read since it deals with the RP community. It's a blog post from Massively on the RP community in FFXIV.

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[offtopic]http://massively.joy...ommunity-drama/

Well, the show's over, everyone. Nothing you do in Final Fantasy XIV matters any longer, in both the cosmic sense and the more immediate one. I hope you got what you wanted to get finished all done!

This does not mean that what we do as a community doesn't matter; it always matters. It matters whether the servers are on or off. And that segues nicely into the latest community brouhaha that I've been witnessing, which is essentially a roleplaying schism handled in the way that only roleplaying schisms can happen. Roleplayers are one of the only groups that can still be just as active regarding a game we're not currently playing, odd though it might seem.

I've touched on the Final Fantasy XIV roleplaying community more than once in the past. For some of you, I'm sure this is more or less irrelevant. But seeing as how the game's last save has taken place and there are no more relevant discussions to be had regarding drop rates, quest difficulty, or anything else, would it really be so bad to take a step over and look at how the character-building half lives?

A distorted and inaccurate history lesson

Before I explain the situation, I'd like to make it clear that I've been an outlier and general supporter for most of the events I'm discussing here. I like roleplaying, and I encourage it, but I'm not going to try to manage a roleplaying community in any way because I don't have a pressing urge to incite suicidal thoughts. If you're reading this and protesting that this is not the way something happened, you may be right; this is secondhand. If you're reading this and taking it as a gospel recounting of what took place, stop that. Moving along.

When FFXIV was on the horizon, a gentleman by the name of Kylin decided that it would be a good idea to have a single focused community for roleplayers. This is kind of a big deal, seeing as how <a href="http://www.playonline.com">Final Fantasy XI's insane server selection (or lack thereof) made forming a single roleplaying community nigh impossible. Thus was formed the Roleplaying Coalition, or RPC as it has been known forever after. (I had to think for a minute about what the acronym stood for, to belabor the point.)

Now, Kylin figured that as long as a community was being formed, this would be a fine time for everyone to start working together toward a single standard of roleplaying. This is also a laudable goal. Even disregarding the usual spate of secret magical vampire roleplaying you find everywhere, having a single standard for events, timelines, and so forth would be a useful tool for roleplayers in general. So Kylin proceded to outline his views of the RPC's overall role, which included basically serving as the roleplaying police.

Some members objected to this, among them a gentleman by the name of Lior. As Lior saw it, the community's role should be to encourage roleplaying, not to create an environment where you either adhered to certain rules or you weren't welcome. Thus began roleplaying drama in earnest before the game had even reached a testing stage, which would be a new record with any other sort of community. (I'm pretty sure there's already roleplaying drama in the WildStar roleplaying community.)

After extensive debating/arguing/catfighting, Kylin backed off and left the RPC as a neutral force. This still clearly rankled him and the people who agreed with him, and his designs on being a community administrator cleary rankled Lior and the people who agreed with him. But seeing as how the entire community imploded shortly after launch, this sort of fell by the wayside.

Not very long ago, Lior opened up his own community site for roleplaying, dedicated to providing a roleplaying community that both met his personal standard for what the community ought to be like and was an alternative for those not terribly happy with the RPC as it stood. Cue an explosion of drama visible from orbit.

My bias, if it matters

I know both Kylin and Lior, albeit the latter better than the former. Both of them have been supremely cool people in every interaction between them and me, and both of them have their own version of how events went down.

While I've been involved with the RPC and the roleplaying community as a whole, it's been from the knee-deep level, not from the top. I've led one linkshell, briefly, and that's not what this was about. I was not involved in any of the discussions about how the roleplaying community should or shouldn't be handled aside from serving as an observer and providing intermittent color commentary when the drama spilled out from private discussion. While I've got some issues with the RP community in the game, they aren't relevant to this discussion.

If it needs to be said, after countless articles from me about how important roleplaying is, I don't have a side in this. The side I support -- and will always support -- is the side of "roleplaying is cool." Anything that encourages people to roleplay is aces in my book. Creating an environment that's RP-positive is a big personal wish. My bias with these sorts of arguments is for people to not be arguing over how we have fun and just have fun.

So where are we?

Right now, we've got two roleplaying communities being formed. The problem is that the game doesn't need two communities; it needs one unified community, and splitting the community will kill roleplaying and so forth.

The obvious answer? No, it won't. Fighting amongst ourselves will kill roleplaying. Creating rules about whether or not Jets can roleplay alongside Sharks is far more dangerous than the existence of the Jets and the Sharks. Division isn't only a natural part of roleplaying communities; it's an entirely healthy one.

Not everyone enjoys the same sort of roleplaying. Not everyone enjoys the same intensity level, not everyone enjoys the same subject matter, and not everyone is keen on the same amount of raw game time. Roleplaying is like any other in-game activity, with a lot of different permutations based in individual preference and schedule. Trying to form one standard that applies to all roleplayers everywhere is a process that's doomed to wind up being exclusionary and fail because there will be people who look at that standard, decide that it doesn't fit them, and walk away.

That's the real potential tragedy -- not seeing that there are so many different communities, but getting the sense that you're not welcome in any of them. The game can support two different communities. It can support people who are part of both communities, or people who are part of only one, or people who choose to be part of neither but still enjoy roleplaying. Providing more spaces for people to come together is a good thing for all involved.

And let's be honest -- the community is already divided. It's divided so many times by now that it could have produced an entirely new species of single-celled life. Trying to prevent divisions from forming in the community is like trying to prevent the breakup of Pangaea. We're long past the point when this could be prevented.

So embrace it. Let people do their own thing. Let us build many houses for people to move between, and above all else, let's remember that while we might differ on the how, we agree on the what. And with this, I hope to fix all drama ever forever.

Because sure, why not?

Feedback, as always, is welcome in the comments below or via mail to [email protected]. Next week, as we wait for the ending, will be taken up by a look back through FFXIV's slow-moving apocalypse -- what worked and what didn't, in other words.[/offtopic]

That's interesting. I kind of disagree with the author on a couple of points, but I do agree with the "Just RP and have fun" thing, and really that's the most important thing anyway.

Keisuna/Shiro recently whipped up this, and I think it's highly appropriate!!

All publicity is good publicity I suppose. I certainly don't agree with a couple points (especially how things went down--RP "etiquette" never equated to "universal standards" to be enforced, merely guides on a variety of topics). But it is what is. It's been over 2 years after all, so most of us don't remember or don't care to remember the details of that far back since things have changed drastically over that time frame and most of us have moved on. Regardless of what happens, we'll just carry on doing what matters most: RPing. I for one have been having more fun than ever this past year or so by making that the primary focus ^^

Aside from my disagreements with a couple things, good article.

*sleepy post is sleepy*

I don't care who is in charge. I don't really agree that either Kylin or Lior is in charge of the community as a whole, really, and I don't think this is the best labeling of the community either.
*shrug*
Imma just roleplay.

I haven't done much roll playing since the game launched, in fact the most roll playing I've done in this game was in the beta. I haven't been as adamant about it as I could be, however I feel as though I'm in an awkward position. I've had troubles making characters I like that I can stick with (I'm hoping I've nailed it with Isaac this time) and I think that's mostly due to the fact that I love kitties and I only wanted to play a Miqo'te and roleplaying a female character as a guy is a little odd.

I also feel that with most of you, your linkshells and back stories and the progress you've all made in the last two years is tremendous. I feel odd just walking up and saying "hi, can I join your group?" when I've been a little part of the RPC since beta, but mostly on the forums. I dunno why I feel that way, I just do. :/

With all that being said, I didn't even know there were two roll playing communities with this game. I'm happy with this one and the way it operates, even if I've only witnessed it from the sidelines. If all else fails and we can't get along with the other community(ies) out there, well they do have a PvP option in 2.0 ;p

May I just point out that it's somewhat disheartening that on an article relating to RP drama.. We have it starting in the comments already? It's not really dissuading people who believe it all to be true.

I don't really see any drama in the comments here Sienna, if that's what you're talking about. People are expressing their disagreement with a few things in the article. Don't look too much into it.

Who is Massively, anyway? I don't even know!

I'm just gonna RP.

Sienna Wrote:May I just point out that it's somewhat disheartening that on an article relating to RP drama.. We have it starting in the comments already? It's not really dissuading people who believe it all to be true.

Actually I think she's talking about the comments on the article itself. I don't think anyone is going to be convinced that drama hasn't or isn't happening even if there wasn't any in the comments there.

Aww are there comments there over it? Sad.

Kylin Wrote:I certainly don't agree with a couple points (especially how things went down--RP "etiquette" never equated to "universal standards" to be enforced, merely guides on a variety of topics).

There was some glossing in the article, and I'll be the first to admit it. My goal was to get some of the higher-level concepts across rather than getting the details just right, because a lot of things have faded with time. I'm sure that some of the sequencing is wonky, for example.

I am sorry if any of those inaccuracies wound up coming across as offensive, but my goal there was specifically to avoid asking people about how they remember things going down. The result wouldn't be any more or less accurate, but it would involve intentionally reopening old wounds and trying to polish off memories that are now several years in the past. I went for diplomatically wrong.

Seeing as how the entire point of the article was "let's agree we're all fond of roleplaying and let it be," I think that seems to have gotten across well enough.

Yep! Hopefully it gets left at that. :3

lol...Role-Play police...nice, Rhio-- that was probably the wrong in "diplomatically wrong" =P

Well, you stated in the article you were more familiar and, if I may, acquainted better with Lior, so it only makes sense that your sectioned off opinion was Lior biased, and because it was sectioned off (well, as much as you could), I don't see too many issues at all. Half of the article was your opinion, the other half was simply a message to calm down and continue role-playing, despite any past issues.

I'm only slightly bothered that Kylin took heat from this. I mean, I read it and was immediately disappointed, because I KNEW comments were going to flow underneath that article, just of the way it was worded, sectioned off opinion or not. Hopping over there just now, I'm glad it was...sort of not focused on Kylin, but again, not surprised the same issues the article rehashed and tried to get past were being discussed. It's not too good...

But in all honesty, if there is someone who reads that and makes their decision on how/where/who to role-play with most likely won't be much of a community player, in my opinion. That's usually how it is for any community group or any real life scenario-- The people who skip doing the research and don't take the object seriously won't use it/participate sincerely.
RPC and even Lior's site need good people or else these passive-aggressive to hateful comments will keep going. Oh wait, this is the internet...well, the negative comments will keep flowing, but if there were lots more good peeps around, it wouldn't matter.

ANYWAYS, I'm sorry, I'm rambling on. I'm glad to see a lot of users here and in the comments section saying to "just RP and have fun". These users, as well as myself, are ready to move on and start planning for the bright skies of the future, it seems.

I'm glad that everyone here seems to be keeping a level head for the most part.

Let's see if that keeps through to A Realm Reborn.

I've learned my lessons from many situations in the past. All of these complicated ideals and systems and thoughts along with the hundred pound block on my shoulder has simply boiled down to my desire to RP and write.

I used to be in over my heels over politics. Now, I'm too carefree about politics. While I still do have opinions like everyone else has and will still insert my input when necessary, my primary desires are still to just roleplay and make friends.

That's why I'm here.