(08-01-2015, 01:56 PM)tortles Wrote: The real world is full of racism, xenophobia, and all sorts of prejudice already. Many people have to deal with it on a day-to-day basis. I would really hate to be someone who has to deal with this on a regular basis, only to log on and have characters treat you poorly because of your character's citizenship or race.
Yes, it's just playing pretend, but I believe your roleplay experiences get to you somewhere in your subconscious.
It's fine if other people do it, and I wouldn't scold anyone for doing it. It's built into the lore and in most games, anyway. I find it tiring after a while, and just prefer to move on to other themes that I'm more interested in, rather than emulating something I would prefer didn't exist.
(08-01-2015, 02:05 PM)Virella Douront Wrote:(08-01-2015, 01:56 PM)tortles Wrote: The real world is full of racism, xenophobia, and all sorts of prejudice already. Many people have to deal with it on a day-to-day basis. I would really hate to be someone who has to deal with this on a regular basis, only to log on and have characters treat you poorly because of your character's citizenship or race.It may just be me, but I find that these type of posts indicate what I was pointing out before; the good old IC is not OOC confusion.
Yes, it's just playing pretend, but I believe your roleplay experiences get to you somewhere in your subconscious.
I ask you, if you do not feel comfortable with these themes in the setting, why does one roleplay in FFXIV and not jump to another game, setting or anything, where these topics do not come up?
It just seems strange to me to stay willingly in a setting if you can not set apart IC and OOC if these topics get onto your nerves.
I am going to have to agree with tortles on this. Plus, wanting to avoid certain themes and styles of RP is very different from mixing IC and OOC. I have roleplayed as a racist/prejudiced jerk before so I totally know how it is when people get mad at you for RPing that. However, getting messaged from a friend that "X is upset that you don't like him because you were mean to his character" is much different from "I am sorry, but I am going to bow out of this RP."
I can completely understand why some folks really don't want racism in their RP or fantasy entertainment. I often feel the same way about sexism. "Oh look, another medieval fantasy where women are bargaining chips and breeders. How....original?" So just because it's a fantasy you have to shoehorn sexism in somewhere to a magical place that isn't earth nor has any of earth's history? Well, okay then. So I can empathize with tortles on this.Â
Plus, it's actually really refreshing to not have to deal with these themes in RP as they are certainly much overused.Â
Aside from that though, I think folks are really reaching for how much racism there is in this game. There are certainly prejudices, but not really that much in the form of racism. There is a little bit of racism and sexism on a subtle level that is similar to what we experience irl. (All of the Syndicate in a melting pot city being lalafell, most races/clans practicing patriarchal lineages)
The two areas being mentioned are Gridania and Ishgard. Gridania has really been toned down since 1.0, I hear. Ishgard is not necessarily racist but classist and xenophobic. (Note, there is a difference between racism and xenophobia.)
If Gridania and Ishgard are meant to be racist, or any other city-states for that matter, then I am going to just have to flat out say that Square Enix does not do a good job of it showing it.Â
I've seen a lot of other former WoW-players around here so I am going to use a WoW example. In WoW, there was racism all the time due to many of the playable races not getting along. The lore of the game gave you lots of fodder if you wanted to play a racist jerk. Orcs and goblins destroying your forest? Weird, reclusive aliens bringing a race of demons to your planet that inevitably corrupts and destroys it? Attempted genocide? Multiple wars? A vast array of races that both look different but have extremely varying customs as well?Â
Outside of WoW, I've also been in TOR and GW2, both of which show racism more effectively than FFXIV does. (Twi'leks, charr)
I have been roleplaying in this game working on 2 years now and I couldn't tell you a specific example of how Gridania is racist outside of the Elementals not healing a group of Ala Mhigans. I know there must be more to it than that but the fact I have been in this game for that long and still don't know a single example, says something. All of the playable races look very similar with most blending together in cities and sharing the same customs. (IMO, city miqo'te are the norm, not the exception) No recent wars aside from with Garlemald that I am aware of. This is where I go back to "there is not much fodder to play a racist jerk" with.Â
"Show, don't tell."
Until then, I'm of the mindset that racism in Eorzea is subdued at best.
Now with a wiki! Flickering Ember's wiki
