(09-01-2013, 01:18 PM)Velkyron Wrote: While some of the conjecture is interesting, I really don't see the point of it.
 From playing WoW, I found two things kind of annoying about Elves and lifespans. Gestational periods and the rate of growth. I mean, Elfquest bothered to mention that their elves had 'lovemates' and 'lifemates' and that played a fairly large role in their mentality towards their own people as well as non-Elves.Â
In Warcraft Kaldorei (Night Elves) and Quel'dorei have two very different lifespans which is usually just connected to the end of their immortality with the death of the original World Tree. But there -are- new Kaldorei being born, you see the little babies around the World, so just how long do they remain babies? Do they age rapidly, like a human, to around twenty or twenty-five and start slowing down for a couple hundred years? Do they age slowly, taking until their hundred and forty-fifth years (for Nelfs, 110 for Helfs/Belfs, I think) to reach physical maturity as well as some 'coming of age' ceremony?Â
How long are they pregnant? I mean, plenty of roleplayers love to have their characters have babies and as it's usually a natural part of any living species' lifelong aspiration to at some point reproduce and propagate their species. Are you going to be pregnant for decades or years or months or weeks? Who knows? Blizzard doesn't. So yes, technically, it's open to interpretation, but when you have five pregnant Belfs and they're all having babies at remarkably different paces, you sort of long for something a bit more substantial to go off of so that it feels more like a fantasy world and less like a bunch of inconsistent fanfictions written all in the same setting. Biological and cultural situations for races should have 'norms' in a series and they can't all be taken from human physiology because it doesn't always make a lot of sense. Writers for games don't always take the time to write it all up, likely because 80% of their player base just doesn't care about anything other than the mechanics and their personal storyline in the game.
Individuals are influenced by culture, whether they are 'stereotypical' or 'standard' or they're an exception to the rule of their people. Culture, in turn, is heavily influenced by social/sexual standpoints; a Miqo'te who is used to sharing their men or seeing their mothers or sisters sharing men with other females might approach a relationship differently than a Hyur or a Roegadyn, or anyone else for that matter, expecting it to be something open. Especially with inter-species relationships.
Singular romance, in cultures that include polygamy or open-relationships, seems to tend to not be quite as important in the relationship depending on the arrangement, whether it's a social status need or a need to have more behbies thing. This information might not effect everyone, it might only be a theory, but if one Seeker of the Sun Miqo'te thinks having one male and sharing him with a bunch of females is normal and another one doesn't but they're the same basic race, perhaps even from the same area, how does that make any realistic sense?
Immersion is disrupted when inconsistencies like that arise. Isn't roleplay about immersion as much as creativity these days? We like our lore and we like to feel involved in it even if we have no way to change or influence what's there. If they didn't want us thinking silly things about Miqo'tes and their breeding habits, they never should've given us a little taste of how different they could be between their two 'factions' as well as how they could be from Hyur.
So, in short, in my opinion, the point of it is not only to express some deep thinking, linking what -has- been given together in a way that does appear to make sense like sticking fossilized bones together to figure out how a dinosaur was built, but also to give a potential of what PCs of the race might be used to. Miqo'tes were the only race that were only female, we had both male Highlanders and male Roegadyns before, which would've denoted that females were more numerous. That must have -some- impact on the males as well as females of the species, their culture, and their individual personalities in regards to other PCs they'll meet, even if it's something small like seeing men as being inferior or superior depending on how they were raised to see them until such a time that they realized that other races had their own different cultures to come to terms with. Whether or not any given roleplayer wants or needs that information is superfluous; it might just add a little more 'realism' to someone's play.
Many RPers tend to get really antsy and defensive over ERP and so when one thinks about going into detail about breeding habits and 'revolving around sex', ERP seems like it must be the primary motivation behind it. But romances are okay, they're going to happen, and many of us can be as aloof and mature as we want to be about 'not getting involved in romance because it just causes a ton of drama', but we'll probably still do it if only because -not- doing it isn't always in line with the characters we create and drama can start over anything in any environment because... well... people. Taking all that aside, you could still use a theory like this to formulate a previously unexplored or refined detail to your character's potential personality, assuming you played a Miqo, and the way they handle individuals of other races.Â
Also, even if there was no point to it, why would that matter? It's interesting and this person obviously put a lot of thought into it. Isn't that enough reason to share it?
Appending this-- @ Velkyron, I'll be playing a Roegadyn as well and if there was a single tidbit of information to go off of to formulate some aspect to my Roe's personality that regards a matter such as this, I'd take it and I'd probably want to take into consideration how it might affect my character's views on the world. Having a limited view from the start allows for expanding horizons. So far I know only that Male Roes were playable before and women weren't which means either 1. Females were rare or 2. Females weren't considered warriors or travelers or 3. Females looked virtually indistinguishable from males which is apparently not the case. There are probably more reasons than those three (having male Roes opposite female Miqos for non-lore reasons not withstanding), but with every extra one I get a little bit more confused. Male-dominated societies, however, are more prominent amongst humans and so there's more to relate to. Women-dominant societies aren't quite as numerous + Miqos are the super race of FFXIV that tons of people want to play, so it's understandable that they went into a teensy bit more depth about them.
Personally, I'd prefer for them to flesh it all out so I could treat a race like a living cultural race with their likes, dislikes, and general views instead of basing it so much off of my own knowledge. I don't want to be super emotionally-connected to my character and putting even more of my mind into her mind makes that difficult.
@ Uther, Jules, We realize, of course, that SE is a video game company not a table-top roleplaying game writer. This is a game, with mechanics, it has aspects FOR RPers and it's a roleplaying game but it's not 100 percent dedicated to the RP community. In fact, not very much of it is. Yes, it's pretty, yes it's got good races to play, but that's more of the individuals who'll be running the gauntlet for the long-term gameplay than anyone wanting to come in and write stories about it. SEX is normal for species that reproduce and I'd love to know if any of these races are asexual, it's probably important to note if they are. Others might be treating this race obsessively, but I don't think this person's theory is obsessive by any means just because it's depthy.
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