SessionZero

Can you give specific examples of cutesy language that triggers you you dislike?

I have an alt that is already level 50 that will be made into an Au Ra, but I will be splitting my time 50/50, or as 50/50 as I can, so... they're both my mains? Haha.

While Zyrus may not be the largest fan of Au Ra, I can't say that this topic really adds any fuel to... whatever fire it is that you are referencing. Every poll will have a limited scope, some more than others. It's still an interesting link in my opinion. I believe the fire she is referencing is the one that starts every time someone makes a thread about Au Ra and about halfway through it devolves into people who are unhappy with what we were given and people who like what we were given butting heads.

I think "terrifying" is a bit of a strong word. It's not like we didn't see this coming, and I hardly think seeing a sudden influx of Au Ra players is going to really ruin anything for anyone playing the game. At worst, your character will have to turn their head for five seconds going, "Where did all these dragon people come from?"

TIL Yvelont as kawaii IRL as in game.

The wording used was something more akin to "succubus", which means something far removed from bestial in my opinion.

So like, would you like the massively oversuggested series? LIKE OTSU HIYORI "Clover" or other works? Maria-sama ga miteru? Tan Jiu's "Their Story" on tumblr? You people and talking about my own guilty pleasures oh halp me. Give me ALL OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE. The lack of good, non-exploitative yuri from easily accessible channels is disheartening.

Gay girls. But like... well-done, cute, romantic gay girls, not like smutty stuff. Yuri. All day.

I will echo Zhavi's sentiments and say I would much rather have a robust array of content to do over a super complex character creation system. But, that comes with the asterisk stating that I would consider myself a medium rper. I love creating characters and designing them to look cool but I don't mind doing so within the confines of a comparably lacking creation system if it means I have tons of really fun content at my fingertips. I loved ESO's creation system but the game itself was balls so what good did the robust creation do me? I won't lie and say the creation system in FFXIV couldn't use some little tweaks here and there, especially in the minutiae of faces and body types, but I'm also not going to make it a huge sore point for myself because I can still make a roguish-looking Elezen man and a dark and feminine but still strong-looking Au Ra woman and bring them into Coil to hit things until they lie down and stop moving. Fun achieved. Here's my piles of money, SE.

And I will forgive you your assumptions, but would greatly encourage you to watch your wording and think about how you might be coming off to others, lest people start to think you are part of the problem that's been plaguing the RPC lately. Well, that's not terribly helpful. I suppose it's worth noting that ignorance itself is not necessarily a negative trait, but rather something that simply "is". However, when you make blind assertions that are so easily provably wrong, I have to wonder how much investment is even worth putting into this conversation. It doesn't help when you seem to possess so much self-righteous conviction, to the point of condescendingly putting excessive emphasis on a single phrase that doesn't even help your case. But Foxberry is right, and unfortunately my tone is also less than ideal when it comes to things I am passionate about, so for that, I do apologize. My point remains the same regardless - a huge part of the problem with the Au Ra in my mind can be traced directly to the weak character creation. I strongly suggest checking out the character creation of the games I mentioned for reference as to what good character creation actually looks like, and just how common it has become. First of all, you accusing me of condescension is laughably ironic. Second of all, despite your assumptions, I have played every game you listed save Aion and Phantasy Star 2. In fact, Dragon's Dogma is one of my favorite games. That said, a robust character creator does not a good game make. I can forgive FFXIV's comparable lack of options because the rest of the game is fantastic and there's still enough customization that relatively unique characters are a possibility. APB, EVE, Soul Calibur, and BDO can throw all the frilly customization options they want at me, it's not going to make them playable games, or make me think they're worth my time. Bottom line is, if you don't like the Au Ra, don't make one. It's a simple concept that does not require so much negativity and snark directed at the people who actually like what we were given, or, god forbid, have a favorable/neutral opinion on the whole thing.

And I will forgive you your assumptions, but would greatly encourage you to watch your wording and think about how you might be coming off to others, lest people start to think you are part of the problem that's been plaguing the RPC lately.

This is factually incorrect. If this were true, games like Blade & Soul would never get the kind of creation tools they give the player base (because the grand majority of Korean players do not engage in any kind of roleplaying). The rest of your post all goes back to my point about the design of the female Au Ra simply cannibalizing players of existing races. It feels incredibly pointless. But what's done is done. Hopefully next time they won't be so bloody disappointing. >(with a few exceptions) >a few exceptions >few exceptions >exceptions Also, for something to be factually incorrect, it requires a fact to prove it is, in fact, incorrect. Citing one game with a robust character creation system is not a fact.

I'm not defending anything. I'm providing a realist's opinion on what we've been given. I'm not going to pretend that Square-Enix is some altruistic corporation out to provide us our every whim on a silver platter, as some people seem to expect from them. They want to make huge piles of money while providing an engaging, entertaining experience so we will continue to furnish them with huge piles of money. I find FFXIV - and by extension, the Au Ra - to be an engaging, entertaining experience. So I will continue to furnish them with huge piles of money.

I disagree with the notion that wanting SE to provide some variety in character models is asking them to design for RPers. That's not what I was saying. What I was saying is that it's not designed just for RPers. I went on in that post to mention that they must design for a wide variety of play styles, which means budgeting and time and resource and staffing allocation to a variety of different content. They had to build an entirely new city-state, new instances, new open-world areas, new enemies, new ability animations, etc, etc. I'm not an animator or an expert but I would think that building new models from the ground up is expensive and time-consuming and SE was just trying to maintain that balance that I also mentioned later on. There's a clear preference for model types among the entirety of FFXIV's playerbase. Do I like the fact that pretty much no one plays FemRoes or FemHighlanders? No, because I think they're great. I'm just saying I understand SE's perspective.

I, for one, am very pleased with what we got. Perhaps my only gripe would be the height of female Au Ra but overall I'm happy. One thing that I think it's important to remember, is that this is not a game designed with just RPers in mind. Sure, we get a lot of love in the form of emotes and interactivity with our environment and housing and so on and so forth, but this is a game designed for several different play styles and SE must allocate resources and dev time accordingly. By and large (with a few exceptions), RPers are the only ones who care about a superbly robust creation system. What we have been given is better than some MMOs, pales in comparison to others, and, in my opinion, is fairly balanced between giving us RPers some options while simultaneously not bogging down non-RPers in an overly complex creation system. Likewise, the Au Ra strike a good balance between filling a niche (dragon people, yay!) and still catering to the type of people who will glamour their WAR to wear the Coliseum loincloth (scantily clad catgirls, yay!), who are, we must remember, people who have just as much right to be catered to as we do. They also pay 15 bucks a month. They also buy stuff from the Mog Station. We are not better than them because we play the game "right". SE must cater to a wide range. We are but a piece of the pie and they give us what attention they can.

Here's my Au Ra (IC) samurai cutie patoot. Sorry for potato quality screenshot, had to use the Snipping tool to get it.

Reilan is an Ishgardian knight who isn't a dragoon. He is trained with the lance but prefers his sword and shield.

If I'm going to be fighting with someone who I am not familiar with on an OOC level, I insist on using rolls to determine the outcome. If the other person cannot agree to such, I do not engage them IC. I either find a way to avoid the confrontation, or I just excuse myself abruptly from the RP.

Someone is a fellow Fire Emblem fan. Great work! Very impressive.

Gift art for Katriane because she's an awesome RPer and I love her character.

Oh. My. God. How cute is the new ponytail haircut.

I think the only places we have any real lore on would be Doma and Garlemald. As for locking yourself into a specific style of RP, while some archetypes would probably be more open, every style is going to be intrinsically locked in some way. I have a Doman wandering warrior, but keep her approachable and open by having her be inexperienced and timid, which invites others to give her advice or just want to spend time with her learning her story. This still cuts me off logically from other avenues of RP (she would, for instance, never consider running with a criminal outfit) but keep enough avenues open so as to feel non-restrictive. Hope that all helps a bit.

I'm never drawing High Allagan armor ever again.

Update! First up we have a sketchy one of my character Llaine and her adorable wife Nataru: