I'm requesting that the mods do not lock this thread. The previous comments made by others in the other thread can be moved here since they apply to the topic at hand. This is meant to be a simple thread for open and civil discussion between mature players to understand stances as well as discuss alternatives and different options.Â
(Now...let me try to remember everything I had typed out before I found out the thread got locked... :p )
I never thought that the whole Legacy vs Non-Legacy debacle would ever pop up here on the RPC. I can only speak for myself, but as a player who does have Legacy, I never really felt it did much for me as a roleplayer other than let me pay a bit less on my monthly subscriptions...
Before I get into the meat of things, let me state something: I play two characters. "So what?", right? Well the thing is, my first character, Mtoto, has been around since 1.0 and I suppose is what is considered a "Legacy Character" (I hate this term...). My second character, Athumani, is not. He is coming into A Realm Reborn as a fresh new face within the landscape of the community. More over, I am just as much of a gamer as I am a role player. I try to keep a pretty strict balance between the two. I'll touch more on these two facts a bit later and why I feel they are relevant to the situation...
To begin, as a gamer I completely understand the standpoint of someone new coming into an already established world/server. It's a daunting feeling seeing other players run around in their high tier/end game gear or feeling like there is no one around your level to help you with quests, jobs, and other things. Trust me when I say I can empathize. The truest and closest example I can give is when I first started playing FFXI. I got into the game late in its life cycle. Treasures of Aht Urhgan had just come out I just picked up the game. Going in, I quickly realized that I was at the bottom of a huge hill. In order for me to enjoy the new content with people, I had to get my job, my subjobs, complete certain quest lines, reach a certain level, etc. etc. With the little help I received, it made it all the more difficult and I felt that had I just picked up the game when it first came out, I would have been better off. I ended up leaving XI once I hit 40, and suffice it to say, it wasn't a pleasant experience.Â
As a role player, my stance is a bit different. I've always been of the opinion that one's character is not necessarily bound to the mechanics of the game, but rather the lore set and the realm of possibility presented within it. For example, as someone who has played the game for a long period of time, my main character is level 50 across all jobs. Does this mean that Mtoto is skilled and proficient in all weapon classes? Not at all. My character's growth has for the most part been separate from my growth as a player. In other words, the levels I gained do not translate to her acquired skill, knowledge, and experience she has gathered throughout her life. To this end, I feel that a new player who is interested in RP, shouldn't feel that just because they aren't level 50, they aren't an "established" character or hold the same skills as someone who is. A character is only as established and fleshed out as their story warrants, not by their stats or gear. A thing to keep in mind is that RPing is a form of creative interpretation and suspension of belief. We already RP out things like climbing and swimming, two things you can't do in game. So who's to say that we can't suspend our belief for new characters who are wearing not so fancy gear and instead only see the RP at hand where the character is wearing something more fitting to them or that the character is not a level 1 gladiator, but rather just an adventurer who is skilled with a sword? When RPing, don't stress out so much about the mechanics, just make sure your character is grounded to the world they live in and is believable. People tend to RP just fine in these situations from my experience...
Now the question might arise, "If mechanics aren't that important in an RP setting to you, why don't you just move to a new RP server with your current character?" I admit, this is a bit harder to answer. There are a few different reasons why people don't want to do that if they have to start over.Â
A.) This server, this world, it is a living, breathing setting. Both our characters and us as player have experienced a lot over the past 3 years. The fall of Dalamud, the Garlean invasion, the Grand Companies being reformed, Beastmen summoning Primals, the Archons, etc. There are so many things we've experienced, here, on this world, that it would be hard for myself and many others to just up and leave. This is our home and we are proud of it.
B.) Not only has lore been established from 1.0, the community has established quite an extensive lore in itself. You have hundreds of characters who have interacted with one another in some way, shape, or form. Relationships have been forged, friendships have been made. This isn't even limited to only a RP thing. Balmung is home to many friendly non-Rpers as well who many of us have grown close to over the years. We also don't want to lose the ability to play with friends here.
C.) This one is more about gameplay than RP. We've invested a lot of time into the characters we have. A lot of us just aren't willing to lose all of that  if we can't carry this version of our characters to the new server. That's the simple, cut and dry truth for many of us.
Let me touch base with what I said earlier about me having two characters. As I said earlier, my secondary character is new to ARR. As it were, he is starting off at 1.0 in many cases. However, in his character story and background leading up to ARR, he has quite a bit of experience and is a monk. Obviously as a new character, I'm not going to have access to that from the get go, so does that mean my character is unable to be a monk? Does he literally have to start at square 1? Personally, I don't RP that way as I've already stated. I would simply RP him out how he is meant to be, not what the game mechanics restrict me to. So long as he isn't a Mary Sue character and isn't breaking lore or the realm of possibility, I don't see and issue with doing this. I feel that new RPers coming in shouldn't either.
I remember talking to a few friends a little while back and the topic of "would you go stay on Balmung if another server designated for RP were created?" came up. I said yes I would stay, but I also said that if the majority of the RP community where to go to the RP server, I would simply make a character on both worlds. One to RP with on the RP server, and one to play the game with on the server I'm already on. Others also said they'd be prepared to do something like this should the need arise.
So I ask a question to new players coming into the game and are looking to move to a new server. Has creating two versions of your character been thought of? As in, have you thought of creating one on the new server to experience the game new with other new people and creating another character on the RP server strictly for RPing come up at all? In this manner you get the new game experience and also can stay in touch with the RP community that has been formed, which in my opinion, would be much easier to do than go and create an entirely new one that is isolated from this one. Many of us want to RP with new faces!
The bottom line of all this is that I think it would be sad to see new people and returning rpers have to split from other rpers because they have some stupid title like Legacy or they don't want to leave their friends. In the end, I feel that we are all roleplayers, and that should be enough to be like, "Hey! Wanna RP?" "Yeah, sure!" Â I don't think Legacy or non Legacy should divide role players.
(Now...let me try to remember everything I had typed out before I found out the thread got locked... :p )
I never thought that the whole Legacy vs Non-Legacy debacle would ever pop up here on the RPC. I can only speak for myself, but as a player who does have Legacy, I never really felt it did much for me as a roleplayer other than let me pay a bit less on my monthly subscriptions...
Before I get into the meat of things, let me state something: I play two characters. "So what?", right? Well the thing is, my first character, Mtoto, has been around since 1.0 and I suppose is what is considered a "Legacy Character" (I hate this term...). My second character, Athumani, is not. He is coming into A Realm Reborn as a fresh new face within the landscape of the community. More over, I am just as much of a gamer as I am a role player. I try to keep a pretty strict balance between the two. I'll touch more on these two facts a bit later and why I feel they are relevant to the situation...
To begin, as a gamer I completely understand the standpoint of someone new coming into an already established world/server. It's a daunting feeling seeing other players run around in their high tier/end game gear or feeling like there is no one around your level to help you with quests, jobs, and other things. Trust me when I say I can empathize. The truest and closest example I can give is when I first started playing FFXI. I got into the game late in its life cycle. Treasures of Aht Urhgan had just come out I just picked up the game. Going in, I quickly realized that I was at the bottom of a huge hill. In order for me to enjoy the new content with people, I had to get my job, my subjobs, complete certain quest lines, reach a certain level, etc. etc. With the little help I received, it made it all the more difficult and I felt that had I just picked up the game when it first came out, I would have been better off. I ended up leaving XI once I hit 40, and suffice it to say, it wasn't a pleasant experience.Â
As a role player, my stance is a bit different. I've always been of the opinion that one's character is not necessarily bound to the mechanics of the game, but rather the lore set and the realm of possibility presented within it. For example, as someone who has played the game for a long period of time, my main character is level 50 across all jobs. Does this mean that Mtoto is skilled and proficient in all weapon classes? Not at all. My character's growth has for the most part been separate from my growth as a player. In other words, the levels I gained do not translate to her acquired skill, knowledge, and experience she has gathered throughout her life. To this end, I feel that a new player who is interested in RP, shouldn't feel that just because they aren't level 50, they aren't an "established" character or hold the same skills as someone who is. A character is only as established and fleshed out as their story warrants, not by their stats or gear. A thing to keep in mind is that RPing is a form of creative interpretation and suspension of belief. We already RP out things like climbing and swimming, two things you can't do in game. So who's to say that we can't suspend our belief for new characters who are wearing not so fancy gear and instead only see the RP at hand where the character is wearing something more fitting to them or that the character is not a level 1 gladiator, but rather just an adventurer who is skilled with a sword? When RPing, don't stress out so much about the mechanics, just make sure your character is grounded to the world they live in and is believable. People tend to RP just fine in these situations from my experience...
Now the question might arise, "If mechanics aren't that important in an RP setting to you, why don't you just move to a new RP server with your current character?" I admit, this is a bit harder to answer. There are a few different reasons why people don't want to do that if they have to start over.Â
A.) This server, this world, it is a living, breathing setting. Both our characters and us as player have experienced a lot over the past 3 years. The fall of Dalamud, the Garlean invasion, the Grand Companies being reformed, Beastmen summoning Primals, the Archons, etc. There are so many things we've experienced, here, on this world, that it would be hard for myself and many others to just up and leave. This is our home and we are proud of it.
B.) Not only has lore been established from 1.0, the community has established quite an extensive lore in itself. You have hundreds of characters who have interacted with one another in some way, shape, or form. Relationships have been forged, friendships have been made. This isn't even limited to only a RP thing. Balmung is home to many friendly non-Rpers as well who many of us have grown close to over the years. We also don't want to lose the ability to play with friends here.
C.) This one is more about gameplay than RP. We've invested a lot of time into the characters we have. A lot of us just aren't willing to lose all of that  if we can't carry this version of our characters to the new server. That's the simple, cut and dry truth for many of us.
Let me touch base with what I said earlier about me having two characters. As I said earlier, my secondary character is new to ARR. As it were, he is starting off at 1.0 in many cases. However, in his character story and background leading up to ARR, he has quite a bit of experience and is a monk. Obviously as a new character, I'm not going to have access to that from the get go, so does that mean my character is unable to be a monk? Does he literally have to start at square 1? Personally, I don't RP that way as I've already stated. I would simply RP him out how he is meant to be, not what the game mechanics restrict me to. So long as he isn't a Mary Sue character and isn't breaking lore or the realm of possibility, I don't see and issue with doing this. I feel that new RPers coming in shouldn't either.
I remember talking to a few friends a little while back and the topic of "would you go stay on Balmung if another server designated for RP were created?" came up. I said yes I would stay, but I also said that if the majority of the RP community where to go to the RP server, I would simply make a character on both worlds. One to RP with on the RP server, and one to play the game with on the server I'm already on. Others also said they'd be prepared to do something like this should the need arise.
So I ask a question to new players coming into the game and are looking to move to a new server. Has creating two versions of your character been thought of? As in, have you thought of creating one on the new server to experience the game new with other new people and creating another character on the RP server strictly for RPing come up at all? In this manner you get the new game experience and also can stay in touch with the RP community that has been formed, which in my opinion, would be much easier to do than go and create an entirely new one that is isolated from this one. Many of us want to RP with new faces!
The bottom line of all this is that I think it would be sad to see new people and returning rpers have to split from other rpers because they have some stupid title like Legacy or they don't want to leave their friends. In the end, I feel that we are all roleplayers, and that should be enough to be like, "Hey! Wanna RP?" "Yeah, sure!" Â I don't think Legacy or non Legacy should divide role players.