(06-17-2014, 02:08 PM)JFrombaugh Wrote: Actually, I am well aware that many alcoholics are actually very intelligent people. In fact, one of the biggest reasons people become alcoholics is depression, which many intellectual people do in fact suffer from!
However, there have been many scientific studies that show that binge drinking does in fact damage the brain, namely the pre-frontal cortex, which is responsible for things like planning and deciding. I'm not kidding, I saw this in a serious program, it was more about how potentially harmful various drugs are than alcohol abuse specifically. (I remember they said alcohol actually is far more dangerous than many illegal drugs like Ecstasy)
And in a way, I'm kind of referring more to the "social" aspect of it in this case. I think that as a class, Mages would be more likely to make the decision to try to avoid alcohol after seeing what drinking does to their friends (bar fights, impaired judgement, etc.). If they did end up alcoholics, it would probably be more due to something like trying to escape depression, rather than getting drunk "just for the sake of it" the way pirates do.
That's just my 2 Gil anyway.
And also just to clarify, alcoholism isn't something people develop immediately. It takes time. Lots of people can have one or two drinks socially and be perfectly content.
My point was not: "Alcoholics can be smart."
My point was actually on topic! "The real-world equivalents to in-game arcanists are more than capable of being heavy drinkers or binge drinkers", and when young and in training are even more likely to be! Certainly such an analogy has its weak points, but I think the case for Limsan Arcanists being teetotalers is even weaker than the case for real world intellectuals, since a) they lack the science you are citing b) they are surrounded by a hard-drinking culture c) they have even less to do for fun in their free time!
Just my two cents on the likelihood of it all, though I am still rather convinced that the main point here is that there is room for any sort of drinking habits for an arcanist character. If yours refuses to drink because he doesn't like its affects on his studies, then that makes sense. If another likes to study hard and then party hard, that makes sense too
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