Madness

Hey Corim, I fully get what you mean about the public roleplaying spaces, so many non roleplayers that random roleplay is drowned out somewhat. I started roleplaying on Balmung about 2 years ago and in that time I have seen a decrease in the number of EU timezone friendly events, FC's and players. I know that some have headed over to Omega where there is a vibrant EU roleplay community(it's presence is just basically non existent on this site). But there is still some out there. On the FC front the only one I can recommend first hand is Winter's Wake(I'm a member, though have recently returned from a hiatus so am not roleplaying myself atm), mostly EU based roleplayers though it does have some NA and events are based at EU friendly times. The FC concept is essentially a mercenary guild but one with a conscience. The number of events and amount of roleplay is a bit less than usual atm I believe because of the place in the expansion cycle. Feel free to DM me and I can put you in touch with the leadership etc. I wish you luck in your search!

Thanks Faye! I thought that would be the case but I just wanted to check as it is going to be a while longer before I can get in game to check myself.

Due to RL constraints I've been unable to play FFXIV since the base Shadowbringers patch, but when I am able to return(hopefully prior to Endwalker) I intend to start making preparations for making my main into a Sage for roleplay going forward as I very much like the concept of the Noulith Weilding barrier healer that controls the flow of their own Aether for their magic. I'm currently brainstorming ideas for character background and I think I have a decent basic concept but obviously can't flesh it out until I know more about Sages. I was wondering is there any Sage lore being shown in game yet with the latest Shadowbringers patches that hasn't yet appeared on internet searches? I know from past experience that not all lore from the game makes it's way successfully onto the internet, or can take a long time to do so. Cheers!

Hello there and welcome! Good to see another roleplayer on Omega. I fully understand the shyness, I've been roleplaying for over 20 years and I still get nervous about approaching strangers. Omega has quite a vibrant roleplay community and the Chaos(formally Omega only but it expanded) discord is a great resource for finding and connecting with people; you and your partner may already be aware of it but here is a link just incase https://discord.gg/kRUcnGcj7e. I've been away from the game for a little while myself thanks to issues in the real world so I'm not sure on the roleplay linkshells atm but I recall some do exist(folks on the discord should hopefully be able to help with that). Try not to be too worried by the lore, it can be a bit daunting, but applying a bit of sense and restraint to your character to begin with can help you to get through until you either learn more or find people you can ask. I find this Wiki is also really useful for looking things up, there may be better sources of lore but it's the best one I've found so far outside of the game. Feel free to drop me a DM if you want to ask me anything or exchange discords, as I said I'm not able to play at the moment but do hope to return soon and I'm always very happy to make more friends.

I completely accept that your experience is different Kira, I don't really see us as being on opposite sides of the fence we just have different experiences giving us different perspectives; both of us can be right at the same time in this kind of thing. RP communities in mmo's are large and spread across different timezones whilst individual players might only see a relatively small corner of it, so it's entirely possible for us to have totally different perceptions and both be 100% accurate. I did say in my original post that I find the variety of different orientations and relationships etc to be an awesome thing, so I 100% agree with you saying it's beautiful. I did not in any way say that this diversity was disappointing, so please don't think that I did. What I said was disappointing was that for the last couple of years I have only felt like RP'ing a hetrosexual relationship and yet have been unable to find any interested parties with compatible characters, I have encountered three possibilites, one female and two male; I have both male and female characters but our characters whilst they could be friends just didn't mesh romantically. If I had wanted lesbian or homosexual relationships, I have met nearly a dozen different compatible options that in that same time frame. I was speaking only for my limited experience in my tiny corner of the RP world, for example at this moment in time spread across 4 different mmo's, besides my own characters after a quick count. I know 2 straight male characters, 1 bi-sexual and 5 homosexual; 1 straight female character, 3 bi-sexual and 12 lesbian characters. Most of whom aren't interested in relationship RP regardless of their characters sexual orientation, but that's a different matter entirely.

Speaking personally I couldn't care what gender other players are OOC, shouldn't make the slightest scrap of difference imo hence why I didn't mention it in my post. Was just adding my agreement that hetrosexual relationships in RP are much more difficult to come by compared to what they once were, even just 5 years ago it was noticibly easier.

On the original topic, I too have found that straight orientation RP relationships, whether your character is male or female are much more difficult to come by than they used to be. When I started roleplaying in video games, in the late 90's the balance between hetrosexual and homosexual relationships was roughly equal with hetrosexual ones being slightly more common; though the prevelence of She-male, Futa and Transgender characters was a great deal lower than it is now. Whilst I feel the variety of different gender characters and orientations in relationships is an awesome thing, the decline in the number of people interested in male-female pairings is something I personally have found disappointing. Over the years I've played characters of different genders and sexual orientations and relationships but in the last few years have prefered the RP dynamic of a male-female pairing but have struggled to find anybody interested in anything more than one off encounters.