Thread Closed
Not sure we've talked about this enough! Â Only 14 pages?! Â Not nearly enough Lalafell-centric talk for me!
Let me have a say on this:
Lala can -in the game- do what they want. Â They can be heavily armored soldiers, they can be swift ninjas, they can be heavy handed monks, and so far, none of these options have been strictly prohibited by SE in any way. Â In the RP community, sure, we have all these opinions of what one race can and can't do over another: we have some making Roe physically stronger than others, we have some saying that there shouldn't be as many Miqos as there are statistically because of lore, we have some saying clearly that Lalafell, because of our size, cannot possibly be as strong or sturdy as other races because of physics. Â So I am going to give a little background on who is affected by this kind of discussion and what one could think after reading it.
Momo, formerly a Tarutaru from XI, which was created at that game's opening, is now over 10-11 years later, a Lalafell. Â I (the long time RPer of Momo) pick up my copy of FFXIV 1.0, get home, set everything up, and join the game and the RPC basically simultaneously, back when there were not more than a few hundred at most on this forum. Â I am excited! Â I played a Tarutaru for years, now I get to basically adopt a really similar race, and with FFXIV I get to have a rich and better RP experience because of our quickly growing community. Â So Momo is born again, and I start 1.0, quickly we all realize, okay, maybe 1.0 isn't really what we may hoped it would be, it does dismally in ratings, people get fed up with it quickly, so I am a little disappointed and stop playing for a bit.
Next time I get a chance to play, I have heard that there will be a Beta for a new FFXIV and that we can play 1.0 until that happens, so I think why not, I miss my Momo and his RP. Â I do so for a while, I get into beta, I do that for a bit, then finally, Realm Reborn comes, and it isn't at the best time, but I strive to play as much as I can, and I do so without RP for a little while simply because I want to be able to build Momo up to be what I want before I start him again. Â I choose to make him a PLD, lvl him up, work hard at it, as it wasn't quite as easy then to lvl as it is now. Â I am further excited because wow, I managed to get something into my plot that I had planned all along, and I have some lvl to back it up, not 50 mind you, because I didn't want him to be the best, just to have been a PLD at some point. Â I think, okay, time to come back now to RPC! Â More excitement comes, because our community in the past has always been pretty great, lots of nice people willing to RP and be good with each other as much as an RP community can (I've RPed elsewhere, not the same I will tell you).
Here I am! Â I have returned! Â Momo lives once again! Â I continue Momo's plot, and he is now let PLD go, and decided to go onto more academic routes and become a SMN/SCH! Â I RP for a bit, build up friends and things, and have a generally good time. Â Then I start to realize. Â I may have made a mistake without knowing it all those years ago when I decided to be Tarutaru, then brought Momo to FFXIV as their correlative race, the Lalafell, because apparently the FFXIV RP community has a need to treat Lalafells with less respect than the other races. Â I didn't really think about it before, but then when I went back and started to, I realized that was correct. Â "Lore support" apparently means that, because Lalafells are small and cute, that we are maybe: kids, little pets, generally unfit to other races in the fields of romance and lo' and behold, physical endurance and strength. Â My stomach sinks a little when I think about it each time because I didn't really choose to be a Lalafell, that is the character, and Momo has a mind of his own, as you would agree most of your characters do, and he doesn't really make sense as anything else. Â So I should throw him out, or face the literal disrespect of my character because, "lore supports it" or "that is just how this world works"?
I guess what this whole story was about, is that until I recently came back to RPC, before I started posting again, more when I started reading through threads. Â I realized that something about my character which I didn't like, was apparently forced on to him, and that many RPers supported it because they just don't feel like it hurts anyone and they have "reasons" to back it up. Â It doesn't seem astounding to you probably if you aren't Lalafell, or don't have a Lalafell character, because, well honestly, Lalafell are unique characters who are often played by pretty unique people. Â If that weren't the case, we probably would be a much bigger category in the RPC Race pole of which we are last or nearly last place. Â We feel like we fit in as Lalas in this community, or that we are at least supposed to. Â We are entirely different than other races, but we don't feel like that makes us deserve a less fair treatment for our characters. Â So, when another RPer does not play a Lalafell main character, decides it would be relevant to post a thread trying to discredit yet another of our race's abilities or treatments in the world, it kind of gets to us. Â I think that is probably the case of some of the Lala's in this thread who have posted and then had to come back and say we are sorry for not giving merit to a thread that discredits us and how we handle our characters.
I guess the above paragraph can be written off by just saying, "Ah well, don't play Momo as a Lalafell, or just don't play Momo at all if it is that hard on you?", but then I will pose whether Momo just isn't as important to me, as all the characters I see around, with a thousand pics with friends and selifes, and hard earned money spent to have specific art done for them, or done for your character out of the love of an artist who enjoys him/her? Am I not allowed to have the love for my character that others have for theirs because I "chose" to be a Lalafell or because Momo did?
From another view, there are many different cases in which the general populace of Ala Mhigo (predominantly of Highlander race) seem to be unintelligent, but I, as a Lalafell RPer, have yet to post a thread using lore or dismissing cases to the opposite, that reads: "Ala Mhigans, Should They Treated as Intelligent People?". Â Because guess what, on a case by case basis, sure an Ala Mhigan Highlander could be dumb, but there are also cases of the opposite, and it would be up to each individual RPer to decide that, particularly when it is a race that I do not play, and wouldn't understand how to handle personally. Â I would also feel as if I meant to insult that race or peoples otherwise, because I have no standing with them for the most part.
One last thing. Â When a fighting event is hosted on the grounds and by the rules of rolling randoms, do you include Lalafells because by random roll we could win a battle even bare-handed, or because, for all intents and purposes within the game and shown by lore, we can fight at just the same skill level and strength of races 2-3 times our size, and we deserve just the same treatment as other races? Â Or does that last option seem somehow "unfair" to you?
Let me have a say on this:
Lala can -in the game- do what they want. Â They can be heavily armored soldiers, they can be swift ninjas, they can be heavy handed monks, and so far, none of these options have been strictly prohibited by SE in any way. Â In the RP community, sure, we have all these opinions of what one race can and can't do over another: we have some making Roe physically stronger than others, we have some saying that there shouldn't be as many Miqos as there are statistically because of lore, we have some saying clearly that Lalafell, because of our size, cannot possibly be as strong or sturdy as other races because of physics. Â So I am going to give a little background on who is affected by this kind of discussion and what one could think after reading it.
Momo, formerly a Tarutaru from XI, which was created at that game's opening, is now over 10-11 years later, a Lalafell. Â I (the long time RPer of Momo) pick up my copy of FFXIV 1.0, get home, set everything up, and join the game and the RPC basically simultaneously, back when there were not more than a few hundred at most on this forum. Â I am excited! Â I played a Tarutaru for years, now I get to basically adopt a really similar race, and with FFXIV I get to have a rich and better RP experience because of our quickly growing community. Â So Momo is born again, and I start 1.0, quickly we all realize, okay, maybe 1.0 isn't really what we may hoped it would be, it does dismally in ratings, people get fed up with it quickly, so I am a little disappointed and stop playing for a bit.
Next time I get a chance to play, I have heard that there will be a Beta for a new FFXIV and that we can play 1.0 until that happens, so I think why not, I miss my Momo and his RP. Â I do so for a while, I get into beta, I do that for a bit, then finally, Realm Reborn comes, and it isn't at the best time, but I strive to play as much as I can, and I do so without RP for a little while simply because I want to be able to build Momo up to be what I want before I start him again. Â I choose to make him a PLD, lvl him up, work hard at it, as it wasn't quite as easy then to lvl as it is now. Â I am further excited because wow, I managed to get something into my plot that I had planned all along, and I have some lvl to back it up, not 50 mind you, because I didn't want him to be the best, just to have been a PLD at some point. Â I think, okay, time to come back now to RPC! Â More excitement comes, because our community in the past has always been pretty great, lots of nice people willing to RP and be good with each other as much as an RP community can (I've RPed elsewhere, not the same I will tell you).
Here I am! Â I have returned! Â Momo lives once again! Â I continue Momo's plot, and he is now let PLD go, and decided to go onto more academic routes and become a SMN/SCH! Â I RP for a bit, build up friends and things, and have a generally good time. Â Then I start to realize. Â I may have made a mistake without knowing it all those years ago when I decided to be Tarutaru, then brought Momo to FFXIV as their correlative race, the Lalafell, because apparently the FFXIV RP community has a need to treat Lalafells with less respect than the other races. Â I didn't really think about it before, but then when I went back and started to, I realized that was correct. Â "Lore support" apparently means that, because Lalafells are small and cute, that we are maybe: kids, little pets, generally unfit to other races in the fields of romance and lo' and behold, physical endurance and strength. Â My stomach sinks a little when I think about it each time because I didn't really choose to be a Lalafell, that is the character, and Momo has a mind of his own, as you would agree most of your characters do, and he doesn't really make sense as anything else. Â So I should throw him out, or face the literal disrespect of my character because, "lore supports it" or "that is just how this world works"?
I guess what this whole story was about, is that until I recently came back to RPC, before I started posting again, more when I started reading through threads. Â I realized that something about my character which I didn't like, was apparently forced on to him, and that many RPers supported it because they just don't feel like it hurts anyone and they have "reasons" to back it up. Â It doesn't seem astounding to you probably if you aren't Lalafell, or don't have a Lalafell character, because, well honestly, Lalafell are unique characters who are often played by pretty unique people. Â If that weren't the case, we probably would be a much bigger category in the RPC Race pole of which we are last or nearly last place. Â We feel like we fit in as Lalas in this community, or that we are at least supposed to. Â We are entirely different than other races, but we don't feel like that makes us deserve a less fair treatment for our characters. Â So, when another RPer does not play a Lalafell main character, decides it would be relevant to post a thread trying to discredit yet another of our race's abilities or treatments in the world, it kind of gets to us. Â I think that is probably the case of some of the Lala's in this thread who have posted and then had to come back and say we are sorry for not giving merit to a thread that discredits us and how we handle our characters.
I guess the above paragraph can be written off by just saying, "Ah well, don't play Momo as a Lalafell, or just don't play Momo at all if it is that hard on you?", but then I will pose whether Momo just isn't as important to me, as all the characters I see around, with a thousand pics with friends and selifes, and hard earned money spent to have specific art done for them, or done for your character out of the love of an artist who enjoys him/her? Am I not allowed to have the love for my character that others have for theirs because I "chose" to be a Lalafell or because Momo did?
From another view, there are many different cases in which the general populace of Ala Mhigo (predominantly of Highlander race) seem to be unintelligent, but I, as a Lalafell RPer, have yet to post a thread using lore or dismissing cases to the opposite, that reads: "Ala Mhigans, Should They Treated as Intelligent People?". Â Because guess what, on a case by case basis, sure an Ala Mhigan Highlander could be dumb, but there are also cases of the opposite, and it would be up to each individual RPer to decide that, particularly when it is a race that I do not play, and wouldn't understand how to handle personally. Â I would also feel as if I meant to insult that race or peoples otherwise, because I have no standing with them for the most part.
One last thing. Â When a fighting event is hosted on the grounds and by the rules of rolling randoms, do you include Lalafells because by random roll we could win a battle even bare-handed, or because, for all intents and purposes within the game and shown by lore, we can fight at just the same skill level and strength of races 2-3 times our size, and we deserve just the same treatment as other races? Â Or does that last option seem somehow "unfair" to you?