Flickering Ember

I think it is a bit assumptive to say that I care more for appearance than actions. If anything, I am trying to say that one's appearance often showcases aspects of a person's identity. We can't affect the traits we are born with but we can choose our appearance to a degree that matches our own personality. In real life, you can tell that I am shy because I often hide behind my hair or look down. There is a lot more to me than just that but people can see parts of my personality leak into my appearance. Female characters that are both feminine and tough are not anywhere near extinction. You'd be hard-pressed to find an action heroine who doesn't also look pretty. I bet it would be a lot harder to find a big boned, square jawed woman who loves dresses and shoes (and is actually portrayed as sympathetic than as just straight comedy relief). Usually you can tell if a character is sporty and athletic, bookish and shy, confident and happy, bubbly and cheerful, beautiful and elegant, lazy and sloppy, strong and muscular, fierce and intimidating, or quiet and depressed by how they look. However, that isn't a necessity nor should it be. There can be a lot of fun in characters that are ironic or unexpecting. Looks can be deceiving, as you have noted, and that can be quite a lot of fun. But wouldn't it be sad if we only were able to rely hundred percent on how the character is portrayed? I think the original poster that you were responding to was simply pointing out that, possibly in general across all fiction, that she would like more female characters that didn't look dainty. I don't think anyone has ever said that a female character that looks dainty can't also be secretly badass. (Or maybe even not so secretly badass!) Just that it would be nice to see more badass females that weren't dainty. If you use the same or similar kind appearance for all personality types and characters then you really aren't exploring the complete spectrum of possible identities. How does this all tie into Au Ra? Variety, and whether or not you feel the Au Ra are providing FFXIV with more variety or just more of the same.

People tend to be far less critical of what Male characters look like in video games because it's incredibly difficult to go wrong with them. If male characters almost all look the same, or fit into certain stereotypes or follow certain societal standards nobody really gives a shit. If the same thing happens with Female character models people lose their freaking minds over it. Off topic, but I wanted to throw this in here: As for the rest of your post, while I know SE is trying to be conscious about what each region likes gameplay wise, I don't know if we can say the same visual wise. I have no evidence either way. That is something I will have to find out with time. I figure it is easy to not change the aesthetics much though. As Berrod pointed out, fans of the game know the art style and the Au Ra conform to the art style. I'm not expecting them to act on feedback in this area. I am not good at wording this so I'm only going to try so much. There is a big difference in how female characters are represented in not only Japanese art but also the story. I attribute these to cultural differences. A good chunk of the folks that play Final Fantasy XIV are likely to be anime fans, and thus, more attuned to the cultural differences. Because Final Fantasy XIV attracts a niche of people already into Japanese media, I think it is more likely for those people to get behind the Au Ra concept. Who's forcing you into that role other than yourself? It's about how a character acts, not how they appear that defines them in that way. Looks can be incredibly deceiving, or so the cliche goes. Oh come on, you can't really think that this: ...gives you the same perception of the character as... ...this. Same character, modeled differently. You can have a waifu girl who can slay bad guys in one hit or defeat men 10 times her size in an arm wrestling match. But it's not nearly as convincing as watching a muscled woman do those things.Who do you think looks more battle hardened? It's not just personality, appearance says a whole lot about a person and how that person is perceived. For example, like it or not, historically role-play characters from small races, such as a lalafell, are not taken as seriously as the taller characters. You can have a perfectly pretty female character kick a lot of ass (Asami from Legend of Korra) but how they do their ass kicking and how convincing or intimidating that person is comes down to appearance. We can tell, by appearance alone, that Korra from the same franchise fights and behaves a lot differently from Asami. Differences in art style change how we perceive the character. Like so: In this comparison, we can tell that the first depiction is harsh and intimidating while the second depiction is cute and peaceful. Can you really fault someone for wanting their characters to look as badass as they portray them? Your character's appearance: It does affect your roleplay, what other characters think of your character, and what other players think of your character.

But this is a fallacy. Puppies and cats are universally loved and adored for their cuteness. They are not even remotely human. For an actually extant race example, Asura are also super-cute and very obviously not human: Argonians can be made very cute as well: Attractiveness does not require humanity whatsoever. We find pleeenty of things attractive that have only the barest similarities to humanity (as in bilateral symmetry, eyes, nose, mouth, etc.). This is why I am utterly convinced that just throwing on a couple of non-human features on top of a human template is laziness. While I agree, they are cute, I don't know if a lot of other people would find them cute. Neither of those races were made for Japanese audiences in mind. The Japanese concept of cuteness is different. I don't want to generalize too much because I don't live in their culture. But going off of all their forms of entertainment that I have gotten to interact with, beauty plays a very important role. The Western idea of beauty can often times be much more rugged, even for females.

For all we know though, Final Fantasy XIV's target audience, Japan, could think it is amazing. I mean, I am disappointed but I was expecting for them to be pretty. My honest impression is that the Japanese players probably wouldn't like any race that wasn't pretty. Judging from anime and Japanese RPG's, they don't really do sympathetic non-pretty characters. Attractiveness goes a long way towards a character's popularity.

Eh, I find questioning why someone is not making their own games to be like questioning why someone is roleplaying [insert the most popular fantasy race in a MMO here]. A person roleplays a miqo'te, or a human, or a blood elf because they want to and shouldn't have to be drilled for doing so. At the same time, those of us who chose different career paths shouldn't need to be told that if we want to see change then we have to make a career change. It's an issue that needs to be met halfway on. Better representation of minorities is a hot topic in gaming right now. On one hand, developers should try to be inclusive. (Despite my complaints against Au Ra, SE has so far been inclusive with the inclusion of female highlanders and roegadyn + gay marriage) On the other hand, it is also true that we need to be the change we want to see and part of that is getting more minorities into career fields where they might be low. If you're my age, late 20's, then it's probably too late to say "hey, go be a game developer if you want to see change". A lot of us at this age have already gone to school and chosen our career paths. In a country where college can put you into a debt comparable to a house mortgage, it's not very practical. I see it as kind of a lost cause for the 20-something gamer. But for the young kid/high schooler, encouraging them to become game developers is a lot more practical. In the end, we need a more diverse pool of game developers, but for those of us who missed the chance or like our current career fields, we got to support what we want to see in gaming in different ways.

I was planning on giving a Fantasia to an alt. I would have role-played that as the character being transformed by magic. Don't think I will be going that route, though. I will be sticking with my current race. However, I look forward to role-playing with all the new characters that will be Au Ra.

I HAD AN EXTREMELY VIVID AND MIND-BREAKING MENTAL PICTURE OF THAT -- and then I realized human women squeeze out kids. Suddenly an egg don't seem so bad... Except, y'know...maybe it was a clutch of eggs.... O_O ...oh gods, why am I doing this to my brains? It would explain why there are suddenly so many Au Ra coming from the same parents…

I have role-played with a few different mute characters. One is no longer mute, and the two others were alts that I haven't gotten to role-play with in a long time. My character is blind so I think it is fun and challenging to try and role-play with a mute character. I like thinking that there is a possibility for some unspoken connection between the two.

I prefer the aesthetics of Western games but I find both Western and Eastern games are problematic. I like how Western games design their races and their female characters, but they also have very little fan service for female fans and very few prominent female characters. On the other hand, I don't like how pretty and fanservicey the female characters are in Eastern games, but female characters get to play more prominent roles. I am definitely the type who appreciates the GW2 races. However, the problem is that I have played GW2 and I just didn't like it. I didn't like the game. I don't really like the races of this game, but I love the actual gameplay of it. Just giving you some insight on why someone who is not really a fan of the Eastern aesthetic is playing a game with it. I had more fun in the first few months of playing this game than I did the entire year+ I was in GW2. (And I am still having a lot of fun) Fortunately, I was at least able to get into roegadyns. But I had been holding onto a hope that they would introduce a race that I could really, genuinely like. The problem I have with their large male, small female design is that I have seen it in so many of other fantasy games and animation. Roegadyns have some pretty unfortunate sexual dimorphism too, but at least the women have some musculature and stature to them. I would never fault another woman for preferring to be represented by prettier avatars. The problem I face is that as a woman who prefers female avatars to be more unconventional is that I am often felt left out. It's not even that I want to always have a badass, muscular female to play. It's that I would like for the males and females of fantasy races to look like they are from the same species. It always feels like the male characters have all the identifying features of the fantasy race while the female is more of an offshoot. She doesn't get to have the same features that the males do. The problem with that is that these features the male characters get are what make that particular fantasy race iconic. At the end of the day, pretty much every fantasy race that can be can played across all games resemble humans. However, the more a race is defined by typically masculine attributes, the less identity the female has of that race. I am speaking in a broad sense here because as you pointed out, the races in this game don't have that degree of sexual dimorphism. And even Au Ra are not as bad as some other fantasy races out there. What I am saying though, is that the reason why I don't want to see it in this game, is that I am already tired of this trope that I have seen from the majority of other games. TL;DR large males and small females is a tired trope. And I would like to have more female options than "pretty girl, hooker girl, cute girl, petite girl, fragile-wallflower girl, elf girl" etc. in my games. I wasn't expecting for SE to make anything ground breaking, but I was at least hoping for the females to look just as iconic as the males.

I find this to be a much more valid argument than "Fuck SE because they're lazy in general." I find that I won't be losing any sleep, either. Just another change to FFXIV that for some reason, despite its utter insignificance in comparison to every other change, gets the most attention for the stupidest reasons. Au Ra will not be changing gameplay in the slightest, people. It's the 3 new classes they just announced, new flying mounts, and new mechanics centered around flying that will. Gameplay isn't the only feature people care about though, especially in a roleplaying community like this one. Character creation and customization is not only important on an OOC level where people take time and effort to make an image that either represents them or an idea, but it is also important on an IC level where the looks, lore, and bearing of a race and character place a direct impact on RP. My character, a large muscular woman who loves hugs and talks like Tarzan, would be perceived completely different if she was a hyur woman. The more unique the races are the more flexible a lot of our RP concepts can be. I didn't want a carbon copy of a roegadyn, honestly, but I was hoping for something a little more dragon-like and a little less waifish. Because I am disappointed, I won't be fantasia-ing my alt like I planned. It doesn't impact my gameplay but it does impact my RP which does impact my fun. (Because we RP for fun, right?)

Quoted for emphasis.

I don't think anyone was expecting female Au Ra to be like roegadyn women. If anything, I would say people weren't expecting male Au Ra to be so much taller and more muscular than their female counterparts. Indeed, we knew more what a female Au Ra would look like than a male one. If male Au Ra were lithe and petite like the females were, then no one would be bringing up sexual dimorphism. Instead, male Au Ra are tall and muscular, the opposite of the females. The reason why the female gender is so much more focused in discussion is because of its negative implications. Also, I think people who wanted the females to be bulkier are thinking more of female highlanders than female roegadyns. At the very least, considering the men look pretty muscular, I think people would have at least liked it if the females looked toned/physically fit.

The problem of sexual dimorphism in fiction isn't that it shouldn't exist. It does. The problem is that it is over exaggerated. Yes, there is a size difference between male and female in any given species but that difference is generally overblown. It would be like if you had a species of bear where the male was huge and towering, but the female in the species looked adolescent. Most of the time, I can't tell the difference in gender in animals. This is because what animal they are should be more obvious than what gender they are. If you were to ask me what gender a snake was I would say "Hell if I know, it just looks like a snake to me." Yes, I know we are talking about a human race here. However, I don't really consider humans as being any different from other animals in this regard. Gender is a social construct and in general humanity seems to focus much more on how the genders/sexes are different than similar. If you throw out the social construct of gender, men and women actually look really similar to each other. Though, it might be difficult to see that when society shames someone for having physical traits that are associated with one gender. (Examples include body hair/muscles on women and men with long head hair) All of this to say one thing: Female Au Ra look like children next to the males.

I came into this thread to make a post that would share my discontent on the new race but this is pretty much exactly how I feel. Sexual dimorphism makes me quite angry actually. Other people seem to really be into them though. I don't want to kill anyone's thunder but since this is a discussion thread I will say what is on my mind. Now, I knew that whatever race they would make it would be something pretty. That is just how Final Fantasy and Japanese games in general are. Even expecting that though, I figured there would be more features about this race that would set them apart from other races. My disappointment doesn't lie in the fact that they aren't beastial, but almost entirely in sexual dimorphism. The males are fine to me. They have more of a bad boy feel to them than elezen do (who are distuinguished gentlemen). They are muscular but have more of a heartthrob appearance than highlander males do. So, I believe the Au Ra males have their own identity that makes them unique from the other races. Female Au Ra not only look freakishly short next to their male counterparts, which I personally find disturbing, but the Dragon features are much less prominent on them. I believe that they could have made them a similar size with more Dragon features while still making them look beautiful, in a stereotypical fashion. That, and they just look like hyur females with tiny horns pasted on their heads. But hey, people can take what I say with a lot of salt. I never really liked this game's race selection anyway and almost passed up on it for that reason. I am glad I didn't because Final Fantasy XIV is really such an amazing game. It's just not perfect, and this, to me, is one of its blemishes.

If the female dark knight armor has a boob window, I will flip a table. While I am interested in Astrolgian, I definitely want to make a dark Knight. I already have character ideas that I want to explore. I need to have a dark mysterious lady clad entirely in intimidating armor. I wouldn't even expect for them to do that if I didn't remember that I wasn't expecting it for the dragoon armor either. The dragoon armor looks so badass and heavy. The stomach window looks so random and so much like an afterthought that I sincerely wonder why they decided to put it there to begin with.

The new classes (job) look great. All of them look interesting and I am definitely looking forward to trying out the new healer. I am disappointed with the new race, though. I am tired of huge men/tiny women fantasy races.

Holiday traffic. Even if you are a grump, there is no escaping the massive amounts of cars blocking every highway like a dangerous blood clot. Wanted to buy something you needed? Well, good luck finding a parking spot. Chances are the thing you needed is sold out anyway since just about anything can be used as a Christmas gift.

Hi! I just made my very first tumblr. It will mostly be in character. The link is: emberandfriends.tumblr.com I would love to find role-playing blogs to follow.

Can you add mine? Mine will be a mostly in character blog for Flickering Ember. emberandfriends.tumblr.com

Big congrats to the Phoenix Rose for getting your house! :3

I don't roleplay a regular class. I don't roleplay Ember as being any class, actually. Rather, I decided a while ago what her skill set was based on her life experience: -Usually depicted as a pugilist, but doesn't actually know any forms. She fights mostly bare-handed but relies more on wrestling and beating with overwhelming blunt force than making use of martial arts -Uses a dagger with poison if she needs a killing blow. But she is not a rogue or a ninja. -Knows how to and actively tracks down animals for hunts. -Knows a simple fire spell (ability to create fire/a weak fireball) and no magic beyond that after being taught by a couple of friends. She is unskilled in magic but has a strong aetheric connection. One of my only characters ever whose combat skills were built around the character, not the class. Probably for the best when any character can be every class.

Well, everything has to come to an end eventually. Though I definitely think there is merit in discussing different view points. I enjoy reading them as well. I used the word 'argue' because it is a little more intense than 'discussion' and some of the word choices from page 5 were sounding heated in comparison to the earlier posts of the thread. From my point of view, it looks like everyone is pretty much in agreement but one could get an impression that folks here disagree due to their differences in word choice and tone. That said, my original post was brief because I don't think there is much to discuss here anyway. So, actually, I suppose you are half right. This: ...could basically sum up the entire thread, including Ckayah's posts. The difference is, Ckayah is concerned about communal identity to which I have a proposal for. Which leads me to... Definitely agree and I can see why folks might be flustered about this thread, as it can be viewed as calling people out for not being charitable. I think if we focus on what nice things people are doing and not what they aren't doing then we can get some better results on improving the community. Giving a shout out to Tea? or other folks who help out the community is one of such ways. (We could make a shout out/thank you/recognition thread! )

In game economics. If players buy and sell things to NPCs, that is money leaving the game, aka a money sink. The more money sinks in the game, the less horrifying currency inflation becomes. If I had to guess, selling between players is probably disallowed due to the potential horrific levels of inflation. This thread is kinda proving that would happen anyway. Since there are very few land spaces and extremely high demand, players would be selling even small houses for outrageous prices, far more than the current 5 million standard. It's probably actually cheaper in the long run to not allow player to play house selling. ------------------------------- Alright, as someone who has mostly just been observing this thread, I would like to hop in and say that I don't understand what you guys are arguing about. I see a lot of regulars in here, pretty much all of you all typically make reasonable and level-headed posts. I guess you guys don't realize it but it sounds like you all pretty much agree with each other. Ckayah is saying that he agrees that there is nothing wrong with people following the path of economics but is expressing regret in that he wishes the community would be charitable. I think we can all agree that charity and generosity is a good thing we might like to see more of. But we also understand that it is not always practical and that choosing not to be charitable doesn't make you a bad person. Charity is never required. I certainly don't think Ckayah is saying that. There are, however, some hidden benefits to being charitable that I don't think have been brought up or considered yet in this thread. The honest truth is that every time you relinquish your property to a non-RPer, you are creating less spaces for other RPers. It is true that we are not an official RP server and we co-exist with non-RPers who may also be our friends. But I think it is worth considering that we are a niche that is dependent on others in our community to survive. The more diluted we become, the less cohesive our community becomes. To give a plot up is a charitable act, one that has strong parallels with how charity works in real life. We aren't obligated to donate to wikipedia, or red cross, or any other organization. We aren't required to recycle or use resuable bags. We aren't required to adopt children as opposed to passing down our own genetics whenever we start a family. Not doing these things doesn't make you a bad person. However, somewhere somebody is donated to wikipedia to help keep it running, someone is seriously choosing to recycle and cut down on the world's waste, someone is opting to adopt a child that needs a home instead of contributing to a now over-populated world. These organizations and people depend on others willing to donate for their survival. Every time someone holds a server event, they are contributing the community of this server, every time someone decides to RP with a stranger instead of going to their guilds or friends they are contributing to the community, and yes, every time someone relinquishes a plot for someone else, they are also contributing to that community. We're all here to have fun. You need to do what is best for you. But I think we should also stop to appreciate the people who make sacrifices for the betterment of others. No one requires you to be charitable but when you do, you are helping Balmung become a better place.

Hmm, well, I don't think it's a problem in a sense. If someone owns something, they have the right to sell it. The core of the problem comes down to how terribly implemented the housing servers are. I guess I see it as similar to selling a guild.

Final Fantasy XIV: 2.45 "Microtransaction Edition"