As a practicing Genetics Counselor at a tertiary level regional high risk clinic/newborn intensive care unit at a regional medical center and fan of the Final Fantasy MMORPG series I enjoyed reading your obviously carefully thought out and well presented piece. I must respectfully disagree with you though on a couple points.Â
First a brief overview of my own credentials, and I assure you though it may appear to be so, I am not trying to play the old game of online one-upsmanship with you. My education consists of a combined PhD/MD in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics as well as a MS Degree in Nursing after my military service. My undergraduate degrees are a BSNursing and BSPsychology prior to my time in the military. I won't bore everyone with further details and impressive medical terminology they won't understand anyway. Suffice to say it is my background in genetics which informs my viewpoint on this issue.Â
Really anyone who cares to look up the mapping of the human genome and read about it for five minutes would come to the exact same conclusion.Â
It's not M Theory.
While I truly did enjoy your piece from a cultural/sociological perspective I found it lacking in pure science. I disagree completely and with good grounds with your assertions regarding the plausibility/possibility and results of interbreeding between species in the game. Very early miscarriage would be the only possible result IF (and that is one huge IF) any kind fertilization occurred, as implantation would quickly be rejected as an unrecognizable foreign object, to put it in simplest terms. I place most of the onus of the developers, however, for their misuse of the word "race" as opposed to "species" in the first place.Â
As your education would certainly inform you, the Miqo'te Seekers and Keepers are races within the same species, as are Highlander and Midlander Hyur and so forth. Grouping all the "humanoid" species of the rich world of FFXIV ARR under the misnomer of races simply because they walk about on two legs and have the same number of digits (actually I'm not positive they do--I've not counted Lala fingers and toes)Â eyes and other obvious organs goes far beyond poetic license and into the realm of outright sloppy error.Â
That said, inter-species coupling is without a doubt enjoyable and appealing. My own (genuinely) female Miqo'te character is coupled with a Hyur male, which is about as typical as relationships get in the game, and they are quite blissfully happy and equally childless. At least birth control in these couples is a complete non-issue, and depending upon the Miqo tribe, being mated "one-on-one" with a Hyur male certainly beats being female number X for many female players who find the whole harem system a bit ...off-putting.
That same system also leaves males with a choice between being seen as a "player" or basically a neuter if they choose that build and wish to stay lore friendly. Was that really necessary? I personally don't think so, so my cat-boy character has simply decided to F that ridiculous bit of lore, which is anyone's choice at any time IMO. What I cannot do is F science..
As for the the specifics, I won't even get into the breeding process among feline species here, but Hyur males are absolutely not built correctly to "get that process going". All humor aside, speaking strictly from a scientific standpoint, the donor-recipient genetic puzzle pieces simply would not fit, and no amount of rumored lore, wishful thinking or magic could make them.
That said, I would never presume to dictate to others what they do with their own characters or story lines.Â
I offer this only as factual information. What anyone does beyond that is most certainly their own choice, just as it is the choice of each man, woman or set of prospective parents as to whether or not they move forward with procreation after presented with the results of genetic testing. I can only offer them positive reinforcement for the often daunting decision to have the testing done, present the information as clearly and kindly as I can, offer them options within the confines of my practice and referrals beyond it, then let each person decide how they wish to proceed.
I do believe Square-Enix should have done their homework on this and other issues with a bit more diligence, not only for the sake of the RP community but in order to put forward the best game possible.
Thank you again for your nicely put together post. As for those who say disparaging or dismissive things along the lines of "It's a fantasy world so, like, science doesn't apply and stuff, so this is all, like, a bit much," I suspect they're less than mature players in the "let's make babies 'cause it sounds like fun!--makes me feel manly/womanly!--stakes my claim on you!" etc. stage of development, which is perfectly natural but no reason to deride someone for elevating the discourse beyond "let's play house" status.Â
Kudos to you for your efforts even though we don't see 100% eye to eye. Â *smiles*
First a brief overview of my own credentials, and I assure you though it may appear to be so, I am not trying to play the old game of online one-upsmanship with you. My education consists of a combined PhD/MD in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics as well as a MS Degree in Nursing after my military service. My undergraduate degrees are a BSNursing and BSPsychology prior to my time in the military. I won't bore everyone with further details and impressive medical terminology they won't understand anyway. Suffice to say it is my background in genetics which informs my viewpoint on this issue.Â
Really anyone who cares to look up the mapping of the human genome and read about it for five minutes would come to the exact same conclusion.Â
It's not M Theory.
While I truly did enjoy your piece from a cultural/sociological perspective I found it lacking in pure science. I disagree completely and with good grounds with your assertions regarding the plausibility/possibility and results of interbreeding between species in the game. Very early miscarriage would be the only possible result IF (and that is one huge IF) any kind fertilization occurred, as implantation would quickly be rejected as an unrecognizable foreign object, to put it in simplest terms. I place most of the onus of the developers, however, for their misuse of the word "race" as opposed to "species" in the first place.Â
As your education would certainly inform you, the Miqo'te Seekers and Keepers are races within the same species, as are Highlander and Midlander Hyur and so forth. Grouping all the "humanoid" species of the rich world of FFXIV ARR under the misnomer of races simply because they walk about on two legs and have the same number of digits (actually I'm not positive they do--I've not counted Lala fingers and toes)Â eyes and other obvious organs goes far beyond poetic license and into the realm of outright sloppy error.Â
That said, inter-species coupling is without a doubt enjoyable and appealing. My own (genuinely) female Miqo'te character is coupled with a Hyur male, which is about as typical as relationships get in the game, and they are quite blissfully happy and equally childless. At least birth control in these couples is a complete non-issue, and depending upon the Miqo tribe, being mated "one-on-one" with a Hyur male certainly beats being female number X for many female players who find the whole harem system a bit ...off-putting.
That same system also leaves males with a choice between being seen as a "player" or basically a neuter if they choose that build and wish to stay lore friendly. Was that really necessary? I personally don't think so, so my cat-boy character has simply decided to F that ridiculous bit of lore, which is anyone's choice at any time IMO. What I cannot do is F science..
As for the the specifics, I won't even get into the breeding process among feline species here, but Hyur males are absolutely not built correctly to "get that process going". All humor aside, speaking strictly from a scientific standpoint, the donor-recipient genetic puzzle pieces simply would not fit, and no amount of rumored lore, wishful thinking or magic could make them.
That said, I would never presume to dictate to others what they do with their own characters or story lines.Â
I offer this only as factual information. What anyone does beyond that is most certainly their own choice, just as it is the choice of each man, woman or set of prospective parents as to whether or not they move forward with procreation after presented with the results of genetic testing. I can only offer them positive reinforcement for the often daunting decision to have the testing done, present the information as clearly and kindly as I can, offer them options within the confines of my practice and referrals beyond it, then let each person decide how they wish to proceed.
I do believe Square-Enix should have done their homework on this and other issues with a bit more diligence, not only for the sake of the RP community but in order to put forward the best game possible.
Thank you again for your nicely put together post. As for those who say disparaging or dismissive things along the lines of "It's a fantasy world so, like, science doesn't apply and stuff, so this is all, like, a bit much," I suspect they're less than mature players in the "let's make babies 'cause it sounds like fun!--makes me feel manly/womanly!--stakes my claim on you!" etc. stage of development, which is perfectly natural but no reason to deride someone for elevating the discourse beyond "let's play house" status.Â
Kudos to you for your efforts even though we don't see 100% eye to eye. Â *smiles*
