(12-16-2013, 11:56 PM)Seriphyn Wrote: I'm not a fan of dark, brooding characters purely because...well, how many people in real-life do we know that go through traumatic experiences but nonetheless remain pretty normal 99% of the time?Â
People go through cancer, loss of family members, rape, and such other tragic things, and yet you can still take them to the pub or club and they'll party the night away like any other normal person would.
(Above is mixture of personal opinion and non-hostile provocation to get people's counter-thoughts to build on my own!)
This is not really the case. There may be people who can function after experiencing something traumatic, but you have to remember that the way the western society tends to work, there is an extreme pressure on these people to "walk it off", and pretend nothing had happened. Mental illnesses is a taboo, something you don't talk about to a lot of people, and families. They simply will not accept what's happened to their loved ones, because it puts them in a damaged and dysfunctional light. So maybe you can take these people to a club, and maybe they'll look like they're having fun, but what you see can be far away from the actual truth. Many feel ashamed over their experiences, or feel that they need to seem to be strong for the sake of others, and fear that if they are not then the people around you will hurt more than you are. I would encourage you to look a little closer, next time you see something like what you describe happen.
Furthermore, an anti-social character does not need to have a traumatic experience that makes them grumpy, being anti-social can just be a part of who they are as a person and how they have always been - Just like some people irl have always been introverts for as long as they can remember. However seeing as most MMORPG settings are plagued by disasters, and FFXIV ARR especially, I imagine it would be pretty common to see people who's somehow had to deal with traumatic events.
