I apologize if I may come off as rude here as it's late and I've become fed up standing on the side lines as an idle bystander while trying to remain neutral in the cases I have spoke up, but I'm seriously baffled and somewhat revolted at how everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING, on this site is slowing turning into these passive-aggressive debates based on the merits of whether or not its acceptable for a player to do this or that with their character. I understand the necessity of discussion, but the discussion that stemmed from the initial question that spawned this thread has derailed it to all hell, and quite frankly, was a discussion that shouldn't have been dragged out as long as it has. I suppose I'm being hypocritical here as I'm effectively necro-bumping the discussion with this post, but I'm sure I'm no more of a hypocrite or contrary than some of the people who have posted here already.Â
I said it once before in another thread, and I'll say it again. The most important thing that we should consider is whether or not the player is happy doing what they're doing with their character. If they want to change race/sex/name, they have every right to do so without having to consult anyone or feel like they need to receive approval from the community for their own creation. While of course, a courtesy notice to those who may possibly be affected is always nice, I don't even feel that's even a requirement. Yes, I understand the extreme situations presented where changing a character's race/sex could cause a problem along the road, but seriously, we're already playing in a world of make believe and fantasy within a game that has changed so drastically from its original inception, it should be completely understandable that people are going to have a change of heart in their character's appearance.Â
While people are going to have varying opinions on what people do with their own stories (I'm sure there are a lot of people in the community who would frown at me had they known my own character's back story for example), as a community, we should support one another in building strong characters the creator can be happy with so long as there is no detrimental effect such as, I don't know, godmoding or metagaming or breaking completely away from the established lore? Yssen summarized my stance on this quite well in his initial post here. We ought to be flexible and accepting of changes in the community and individual characters during this very turbulent time rather than being so overly opinionated and rigid.
From a personal standpoint, I do have friends who are changing races come 2.0. Will this have an impact on how my character has interacted with them in the past? Perhaps, but I feel it wouldn't be a massive change in the slightest. For me, race changing is such a minute detail in the substance and creation of the character. There are so many other facets of a character that define and build it that I feel a change of race or sex would be a small hiccup for anyone outside of the character's intimate circle, in which case would likely be discussed internally among those affected.Â
tl;dr: My stance is this - we should be as open minded and supportive as we can for the members of this community rather than the contrary in an effort to keep the RP and the game itself fun and enjoyable for everyone. As the OP of this thread has already stated, the comments and opinions reflected here have only served to discourage her and potentially others who may be in the same position. Before people get up on their high-chocobos to voice their opinions on a matter that really has little effect on them, perhaps its more prudent that they understand what the initial question being asked was along with the reasons behind the player's choice.
To answer the initial question and why I came to this thread to begin with before I got derailed myself...
I do intend to make some appearance changes to Mtoto come 2.0, though they're mainly just cosmetic. I have debated on whether or not I wanted to change her to a female Hyur (I still am actually...) as I've never RPed Mtoto as very "Miqo'te" like, whatever that means. Hell, there are many times where I sometimes forget she's a Miqo'te and I'm only reminded by that fact due to the cat ears and tail. I made Mtoto to begin with as an OOC alt from my original main character, but she slowly became my main over time. Had I known I was going to RP her from the begining, I would have likely made her a Hyur. There's also the fact that my second character is the same race and clan as Mtoto is currently, so the thought of changing her would add some nice diversity for me. :p
I think the issue for me changing really just stems from the fact that changing her race in this case would likely also change her name, as Mtoto isn't exactly the Hyurist of Hyur names.
I said it once before in another thread, and I'll say it again. The most important thing that we should consider is whether or not the player is happy doing what they're doing with their character. If they want to change race/sex/name, they have every right to do so without having to consult anyone or feel like they need to receive approval from the community for their own creation. While of course, a courtesy notice to those who may possibly be affected is always nice, I don't even feel that's even a requirement. Yes, I understand the extreme situations presented where changing a character's race/sex could cause a problem along the road, but seriously, we're already playing in a world of make believe and fantasy within a game that has changed so drastically from its original inception, it should be completely understandable that people are going to have a change of heart in their character's appearance.Â
While people are going to have varying opinions on what people do with their own stories (I'm sure there are a lot of people in the community who would frown at me had they known my own character's back story for example), as a community, we should support one another in building strong characters the creator can be happy with so long as there is no detrimental effect such as, I don't know, godmoding or metagaming or breaking completely away from the established lore? Yssen summarized my stance on this quite well in his initial post here. We ought to be flexible and accepting of changes in the community and individual characters during this very turbulent time rather than being so overly opinionated and rigid.
From a personal standpoint, I do have friends who are changing races come 2.0. Will this have an impact on how my character has interacted with them in the past? Perhaps, but I feel it wouldn't be a massive change in the slightest. For me, race changing is such a minute detail in the substance and creation of the character. There are so many other facets of a character that define and build it that I feel a change of race or sex would be a small hiccup for anyone outside of the character's intimate circle, in which case would likely be discussed internally among those affected.Â
tl;dr: My stance is this - we should be as open minded and supportive as we can for the members of this community rather than the contrary in an effort to keep the RP and the game itself fun and enjoyable for everyone. As the OP of this thread has already stated, the comments and opinions reflected here have only served to discourage her and potentially others who may be in the same position. Before people get up on their high-chocobos to voice their opinions on a matter that really has little effect on them, perhaps its more prudent that they understand what the initial question being asked was along with the reasons behind the player's choice.
To answer the initial question and why I came to this thread to begin with before I got derailed myself...
I do intend to make some appearance changes to Mtoto come 2.0, though they're mainly just cosmetic. I have debated on whether or not I wanted to change her to a female Hyur (I still am actually...) as I've never RPed Mtoto as very "Miqo'te" like, whatever that means. Hell, there are many times where I sometimes forget she's a Miqo'te and I'm only reminded by that fact due to the cat ears and tail. I made Mtoto to begin with as an OOC alt from my original main character, but she slowly became my main over time. Had I known I was going to RP her from the begining, I would have likely made her a Hyur. There's also the fact that my second character is the same race and clan as Mtoto is currently, so the thought of changing her would add some nice diversity for me. :p
I think the issue for me changing really just stems from the fact that changing her race in this case would likely also change her name, as Mtoto isn't exactly the Hyurist of Hyur names.
![[Image: tumblr_mi0y507q1p1s5o9uno1_500.gif]](https://24.media.tumblr.com/d1a6eb2e938912f11f429b824c03a0ec/tumblr_mi0y507q1p1s5o9uno1_500.gif)
Take some bacon and I put it in a pancake.
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