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Kinono · **01-28-2015, 08:47 PM**

(01-28-2015, 07:54 PM)Ha'uruh Nunh Wrote: My female Lala is a stone-cold killer.

There's no reason to pigeonhole RPers or RP into racial stereotypes

These two sentences directly contradict each other.

Xenedra · **01-28-2015, 09:27 PM**

Kinono's secrets come out...

Amelia · **01-28-2015, 09:43 PM**

(01-28-2015, 07:30 PM)Harmonixer Wrote: I shouldn't have to feel guilty for wanting something because I'm worried that I might not be exactly to someone else's liking or set up rules. I should however be respectful and understanding of others on their decisions when it comes to RP.

This! I agree with this!

This is the precise reason why I am more of a lurker than forum poster these days. I've been burnt back in WoW where there is more solid lore than (personally) I find FFXIV to even have. I find the lore battles exhausting- particularly the Miqo'te ones. I guess I've been looking in all the wrong places for FFXIV lore, but I've found much of it aside from the main storyline from 1.0 to 2.0 to be vague and oft times contradicting.

Others and myself certainly shouldn't feel guilty or afraid to create a character because they're worried that they won't meet someone's skewed standard.

To say that you are playing a character that happens to be X race and therefore expected to act a certain way is enough to ruffle my feathers. That's like saying: "Amelia. You're from Northern Minnesota, so that means that you're going to sound like you came out of the movie 'Fargo' and be overly polite, reserved and mild-mannered." (ie: "Minnesota Nice.")

There are threads of lore that say Seekers don't really do much of the tribal life anymore and many have moved into the larger cities. Other threads of lore will inform you that tribal culture is still very much a major and relevant part of what a Miqo'te even is.

To say that most Miqo'te characters that one may run into are simply 'Hyur in cat ears and a tail' hardly seems fair. I agree where others have stated that such things can be said about each and every race in this game. Why push players and their characters into stereotypes?

And how much about that character do you REALLY know about? Did you just RP with them for two minutes and call it a day? Are YOU really just taking them at some face value so you can smugly categorize them into some pile of unworthy RPers?

Reading over this now, I notice that this sounds pretty... irritable. I guess it probably is mainly because this sort of thing gets under my skin in FFXIV.

I swear. Whenever it comes to lore in this game, I'm constantly getting that over-anxious feeling that I didn't finish my homework or study as much as the next person for the big exam coming up.

Starting to have college finals flashback... -shudders- All those long nights...

FreelanceWizard · **01-28-2015, 09:58 PM**

(01-28-2015, 09:43 PM)Amelia Wrote: I swear. Whenever it comes to lore in this game, I'm constantly getting that over-anxious feeling that I didn't finish my homework or study as much as the next person for the big exam coming up.

To be honest, I think some people (and I know I sure can at times) come off as a lot more confrontational than desired when lore comes up. However, I've rarely if ever seen this come through in game. It's a bit of a difference between theory (discussions on the forum) and practice (actual RP). In theory, everyone would know every bit of lore and apply it to their characters. In practice, there's significant gaps in the lore and enormous grey spaces, and honestly, I think people are largely more interested in the stories and the RP than everything being exactingly correct.

So, I view the forum discussions as attempts to talk out our ideals, but we all have a lot of give and take in our actual RP. I've commented about rules of thumb like the Three Thing Rule before, some have railed against Fantasia, and the battles over Jobs are legendary -- but in reality, I think it's very rare that there's an instance where someone simply Will Not RP over a dispute regarding lore, most people are willing to help out when there are questions, and almost everyone is willing to say, "no biggie" when there's a reasonable deviation from lore (i.e., no X-Men crossover mutant long lost siblings of Hildibrand who are possessed by 9 voidsent who are actually the souls of Allagans who were originally faeries from the World of Darkness but sucked here through the Dark Magic of Heavy Metal Rolleyes

).

In short: it's not as bad as it sometimes seems! Smile

Desu Nee · **01-28-2015, 10:21 PM**

(01-28-2015, 09:58 PM)FreelanceWizard Wrote:
(01-28-2015, 09:43 PM)Amelia Wrote: I swear. Whenever it comes to lore in this game, I'm constantly getting that over-anxious feeling that I didn't finish my homework or study as much as the next person for the big exam coming up.
Â (i.e., no X-Men crossover mutant long lost siblings of Hildibrand who are possessed by 9 voidsent who are actually the souls of Allagans who were originally faeries from the World of Darkness but sucked here through the Dark Magic of Heavy Metal ).

In short: it's not as bad as it sometimes seems!

Can't really say anything besides the fact that is the most metal thing I heard today. Please ignore.

Harmonixer · **01-28-2015, 10:22 PM**

@FreelanceWizard: "that's fuckin' BRUTAL"

Echoing Amelia's sentiments, actually. You aren't the only one! Really!

I do feel a lot of anxiety coming over me when it comes to RP on this game. I've only had one particular incident back when I first played where someone was outwardly correcting me and quite rudely mind you. What's great about that is they don't play anymore to my knowledge and they themselves were wrong, come to find out.

Regardless, I was even somewhat hesitant about rping on this game a lot of times simply because the lore is a bit more like how it 'used' to be. Which by no means is a bad thing, just coming from other titles is an adjustment I need to get used to again.

Normally, I say fuck all to what people think but I don't see nearly as much leeway on this game, in my own mind anyway. It's very difficult (and somewhat pointless) to deviate from a lot of the lore here. This might paint me as a bad guy to say, but I don't know how else to put it quite yet.

Chris Ganale · **01-28-2015, 10:50 PM**

Nah, you're not the only one who treats lore as a suggestion. -Looks sternly at Chao, Garon, and Yuuna-

Flashhelix · **01-29-2015, 12:23 AM**

If you're going to roleplay in a game with established lore only to take huge liberties with the lore, why roleplay in a game with established lore anyway? There are other avenues that allow far greater conceptual freedom if amending a character's concept and/or story is too great a feat.

Zyrusticae · **01-29-2015, 12:53 AM**

(01-29-2015, 12:23 AM)Flashhelix Wrote: If you're going to roleplay in a game with established lore only to take huge liberties with the lore, why roleplay in a game with established lore anyway? There are other avenues that allow far greater conceptual freedom if amending a character's concept and/or story is too great a feat.

Yeah, this is what it comes down to for me.

If you're not interested in using an established setting's framework, why even bother with it in the first place? It's rather self-defeating. There is obviously some room for messing around with all the gray areas in the lore and all, but throwing out huge portions of it instead of using what's available just strikes me as careless.

If you want to play an outrageous concept, you're much better served trying to play it in a setting that actually supports it. You certainly won't get anywhere near as many people pushing back that way.

Recoil · **01-29-2015, 01:25 AM**

(01-29-2015, 12:53 AM)Zyrusticae Wrote:
(01-29-2015, 12:23 AM)Flashhelix Wrote: If you're going to roleplay in a game with established lore only to take huge liberties with the lore, why roleplay in a game with established lore anyway? There are other avenues that allow far greater conceptual freedom if amending a character's concept and/or story is too great a feat.
Yeah, this is what it comes down to for me.

If you're not interested in using an established setting's framework, why even bother with it in the first place? It's rather self-defeating. There is obviously some room for messing around with all the gray areas in the lore and all, but throwing out huge portions of it instead of using what's available just strikes me as careless.

If you want to play an outrageous concept, you're much better served trying to play it in a setting that actually supports it. You certainly won't get anywhere near as many people pushing back that way.

You could say that for any universe.

I'm trying to digest this, because it sounds like its on its way to being a good point, but I feel like there's a genuine lack of context. Is this a response to Miqote acting like Hyur or something?

Kellach Woods · **01-29-2015, 01:30 AM**

I don't see the point in sticking only to the lore presented either.

First, there's always going to be bias towards a certain part of the lore. Either because the creators really love certain parts and care less about others, or because certain areas need lore due to a product they're about to sell (aka Ishgarde in Heavensward), etc.

In short, if you're not part of that part of the lore, you're fucked if you want good, comprehensive lore sources.

Second, because rare is the time I've seen where lore went in direct conflict with something a RPer wanted to do. What you really should be railing against is people ignoring the blatant obvious consequences of their actions due to the lore (e.g. Nunhs who get challenged not caring, Lalafells who act like children getting treated like such getting mad that you are treating them like that, etc.)

Hell, one of the funniest things I'd seen was when a Keeper male was hitting on Kell, there was another Keeper male trying to shame him for wanting to shack up with a non-Keeper, and even worse, a non-Miqo'te of the same sex. That is a genuine consequence of getting caught acting like a neko yaoi boi - and it made for interesting RP, allowing me to actually use that incident to improve my own reactions to shit happening.

Caspar · **01-29-2015, 01:32 AM**

(01-28-2015, 08:47 PM)Kinono Wrote:
(01-28-2015, 07:54 PM)Ha'uruh Nunh Wrote: My female Lala is a stone-cold killer.

There's no reason to pigeonhole RPers or RP into racial stereotypes

These two sentences directly contradict each other.

Oh, my character's kinda violent too! XD

I want to be able to play tragic, funny and cool scenes.

Some people may look down on a Lalafell character trying to be intimidating, but I think it's perfectly reasonable given the background I've established. The lore seems to support violent Lalas too.

My character is unorthodox. I often have difficulty resisting the urge to snowflake a little and Virara is no exception in how exceptional she is. One look at her background and personality will show how differently she behaves from the expected conventions of Plainsfolk and Dunesfolk behavior. In many ways, she wasn't raised as Lalafell at all. If I play the character's race, it's almost always noting the absence of stereotypical behaviors, cliche as that is. If it's physical behavior, it's mostly just noting her doing something unusual; things like her looking up at a taller person are not necessarily always worth mentioning, since they go without saying if she's meeting their gaze. I will note something unusual, such as a twitch of the ears, or trying to stand on her tiptoes to appear even taller/shrinking her shoulders to appear shorter.

Why I do this rather than play the character within the culture is because I like the idea of characters wedged between two identities; I empathize with them and can use my own experiences to inform their behavior sometimes, though Vira doesn't resemble me in any way other than that, not even in personality. I think that characters transitioning between cultures and trying to find a place for their mixed identity are very interesting, in the same way I'm often fixated on the duty/emotions conflict and the feeling of "getting left behind by the times." That conflict can create really interesting stories. One of my major goals is describing that loneliness well, in a lot of my RPs.

Hm, this thread really exploded. I'll have to read it all...

Kellach Woods · **01-29-2015, 01:33 AM**

The lore supports violent, sassy, lewd, boisterous, and outright bonkers Lalas.

They're growing (ha!) into my favorite race even if I want to punt 99% of them.

That being said, I really love my own female Lala. Goes around town implying that Franz the Fair stuffs his subligar.

Nalin · **01-29-2015, 02:14 AM**

I'll admit that when I got into FFXIV:ARR, I picked a catboy because they were cute. And I picked a Keeper because I like all things related to the moon or space. >.>;

It wasn't until after I made Nalin that I learned about the Miqo'te tribes, their way of naming and all that crazy lore. Which... Only served to excite me. As I really love working with established lore and all the research one has to do. It's really fun for me.

So while I'm still not quite set on Nalin's past(I've been retconning things since his creation), I do know for certain he has some strong Keeper roots. He wanders off for various periods of time without warning, he struggles to make friends and to keep those friends, he has some issues approaching people, he keeps all his problems and opinions mostly to himself. He's even submissive toward women when they take command or control of a situation; as his clan had established that women were the boss and the men of his clan were... More often than not, traded to other clans or were told they hold no place of power. (Just his clan, at least. I'm literally going by what little Keeper lore we have. Gotta dig hard for this stuff I swear.)

But at some point of his life, his clan was destroyed completely which flipped his world upside down, and he was taken in and raised by his dragoon mentor. Who, more-or-less, taught him how to behave more like a civilized person. Or at least, as much as a civilized person as he could get. Which is why he doesn't make weird faces at people getting married, why he kind've follows Halone and why he behaves a little more civil than a wild crazy purple lionman. Though... Those tendencies do get out from time to time.
And his name was given to him by his step-father; he had a Keeper name prior to the adoption, but he refuses to be called by it because... Well he's also a momma's boy and hearing his mother's name over and over kind've upsets him. So he just took on a new name to avoid the sad feels.

So he's a mixture of both civil cat and wild cat, I guess. And he never thinks too much about the subject because he's too busy distracting himself with other things. He doesn't like to think about his clan or ponder his place in the Miqo'te world or the Eorzean world. All he wants to think about is protecting what little he has left in his life and that works for him. I'm sure that once he's done running from his problems he'll eventually start to think about this more, but for now all he wants to do is stab dragons and keep his "new clan" safe, no matter the cost.

Basically I took what I had made(A Keeper Catboy Dragoon) and tried to make it work with the itty bit of established lore I had. It's a bit of a bend and stretch but it feels like, to me, it works. So I keep rolling with it! XD

Tiergan · **01-29-2015, 02:38 AM**

I admittedly have not read most of this thread. However my thoughts boil down to this:

"I will RP my way, other people will RP their way, and if I am comfortable RPing with them, I will. If I am not? I just leave them alone to do their thing in peace without me."

Tiergan emotes with his ears and tail, has a better sense of smell than a hyur, and other small cat quirks. He also has a bunch of admittedly cliche, dumb, bullshit quirks I should probably get rid of. If someone else wants to RP their miqo'te as being indistinguishable from a hyur with cat ears and a tail - whatever. Not a big deal for me, and even if it were, it is still not my problem because I can just turn around and find dozens of folks I do enjoy the RP of while leaving that other person alone.

By the same token, if my RP makes someone else uncomfortable, they are well within their rights not to RP with me at all and I probably wouldn't even notice unless they decided to be enough of a dick to explicitly tell me they think my RP is wrong. No one is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to RP with anyone you are uncomfortable with. So long as someone is not using their RP in a way that is literally harmful (such as using RP as a tool for various forms of harassment) - who cares what some random stranger is RPing?

In my view - when it comes to a video game where our primary goal is obviously to just have fun - "Doing it Wrong" is entirely subjective based upon your individual wants and needs as a roleplayer. If you want a casual experience that is just silly, light-hearted fun without too many meaty, more structured elements to over complicate and bog things down? Maybe 'right' for you is RPing however makes you happy regardless of lore.

If you want a heavier, more narrative experience with deep character development, overarching themes, and weighty emotion that is more firmly rooted in the setting - maybe 'right' for you is a character that is seated within the limits of the lore and the setting while building upon those limits to construct a compelling story.

There is no wrong answer in pursuit of fun in a video game. There are only your personal standards and whether or not the other person matches yours or not. It is not worth my time, effort, or the hurt feelings I would cause in another person to tell them their RP doesn't jive with what I personally view as "right." (Unless of course, they ask for my pinion or for advice.)

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Racial RP: How do YOU do it?

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes