Flickering Ember

Duskwight elezen are not treated well at all in Gridania, something scene in both the lancer quest and in idle NPC interaction in the city. That said, I agree that if someone doesn't want to RP a racist... okay? It's not like every Wildwood character has to be derisive of Duskwights. I'm not entirely sure why people are getting so up in arms against people who don't feel like RPing a character that utilizes a completely optional aspect of the world. Oh, I wasn't doubting that there were examples I missed. And in hindsight, I am sad I forgot about the Duskwights. (Though I still don't even know why they are persecuted against to begin with?) What I mean is that it should be absolutely clear and not hidden in any way that there is racism in Eorzea. (But it seems they do this for most of their lore too, meh) As a player, I find this extremely irritating. The fact that I completely forgot about Duskwights to begin with shows there is a problem with SE's world building. It's the equivalent of....if Harry Potter were to "establish there is prejudice against muggles" and then never go into further detail or show it being an issue.

Oh, I absolutely do use roleplay as a form of escapism. That's not to say that I don't also do it for fun and it's not a 100% conscious decision anyway. I will shamelessly admit, though, that I do happily get escapism from roleplaying. Though, it's really a lot more complex than not wanting to deal with certain themes. RP-wise, I am actually pretty open about what or who I RP with. It's my outlook on the RP and settings that change, especially since lore is mostly interpretative and not as objective as folks think it is. I would not use FFXIV as a comparison though, to things like Game of Thrones and The Witcher. FFXIV is pretty clean, like Guild Wars 2 level of clean. Mind you, I haven't beaten HW content yet, but the story hasn't seemed as dark as folks have been claiming it to be? I love gritty stuff like Game of Thrones though because it does not attempt to excuse or glorify these themes. It outright villainizes them. If a fantasy introduces racist/sexist elements and then sweeps them under the rug where they don't hold much importance to the story or world, other than to just exist--that is when I get disgruntled. I definitely understand the call to arms for more people to RP as racists. I understand the want to have RP match more closely to the lore. I was actually going to respond to your post in the previous thread about mixed fantasy races. It's just...for me personally...the game lore does a pretty poor job of giving good reasons to be a IC racist. (See my previous post in this thread for a fantasy world that does quite well in excelling at this--Warcraft)

It may just be me, but I find that these type of posts indicate what I was pointing out before; the good old IC is not OOC confusion. I ask you, if you do not feel comfortable with these themes in the setting, why does one roleplay in FFXIV and not jump to another game, setting or anything, where these topics do not come up? It just seems strange to me to stay willingly in a setting if you can not set apart IC and OOC if these topics get onto your nerves. I am going to have to agree with tortles on this. Plus, wanting to avoid certain themes and styles of RP is very different from mixing IC and OOC. I have roleplayed as a racist/prejudiced jerk before so I totally know how it is when people get mad at you for RPing that. However, getting messaged from a friend that "X is upset that you don't like him because you were mean to his character" is much different from "I am sorry, but I am going to bow out of this RP." I can completely understand why some folks really don't want racism in their RP or fantasy entertainment. I often feel the same way about sexism. "Oh look, another medieval fantasy where women are bargaining chips and breeders. How....original?" So just because it's a fantasy you have to shoehorn sexism in somewhere to a magical place that isn't earth nor has any of earth's history? Well, okay then. So I can empathize with tortles on this. Plus, it's actually really refreshing to not have to deal with these themes in RP as they are certainly much overused. Aside from that though, I think folks are really reaching for how much racism there is in this game. There are certainly prejudices, but not really that much in the form of racism. There is a little bit of racism and sexism on a subtle level that is similar to what we experience irl. (All of the Syndicate in a melting pot city being lalafell, most races/clans practicing patriarchal lineages) The two areas being mentioned are Gridania and Ishgard. Gridania has really been toned down since 1.0, I hear. Ishgard is not necessarily racist but classist and xenophobic. (Note, there is a difference between racism and xenophobia.) If Gridania and Ishgard are meant to be racist, or any other city-states for that matter, then I am going to just have to flat out say that Square Enix does not do a good job of it showing it. I've seen a lot of other former WoW-players around here so I am going to use a WoW example. In WoW, there was racism all the time due to many of the playable races not getting along. The lore of the game gave you lots of fodder if you wanted to play a racist jerk. Orcs and goblins destroying your forest? Weird, reclusive aliens bringing a race of demons to your planet that inevitably corrupts and destroys it? Attempted genocide? Multiple wars? A vast array of races that both look different but have extremely varying customs as well? Outside of WoW, I've also been in TOR and GW2, both of which show racism more effectively than FFXIV does. (Twi'leks, charr) I have been roleplaying in this game working on 2 years now and I couldn't tell you a specific example of how Gridania is racist outside of the Elementals not healing a group of Ala Mhigans. I know there must be more to it than that but the fact I have been in this game for that long and still don't know a single example, says something. All of the playable races look very similar with most blending together in cities and sharing the same customs. (IMO, city miqo'te are the norm, not the exception) No recent wars aside from with Garlemald that I am aware of. This is where I go back to "there is not much fodder to play a racist jerk" with. "Show, don't tell." Until then, I'm of the mindset that racism in Eorzea is subdued at best.

Currently under going some recruitment updates. Check back with us!

After a guildie helped me preview the armors last night, I couldn't find any gender differences besides white mage on the armor. The men have bloomers and women have a mini skirt with super high boots that mostly cover the legs. Didn't see any other differences, previewing mostly DoW classes.

It should be noted that a couple of these sets look quite different on females than they do on males. Can someone post the female ones?

I don't think we know what lalafell children look like since there aren't any in the game. It is just like how we don't really know what roegadyn children look like since they aren't in the game either. Therefore, all the lalafells we see in game are adults, including the children of the lalafell family. Males of each race aside from lalafell have at least one face option that is at least middle age looking. Though a good way to make a male lalafell look older is their facial hair options. The female characters all look forever young, though. And I suppose trying to discern if a female lalafell is going through menopause is much like trying to make any other female character look the same. Au Ra, Miqo'te, and Midlander females all look like teenagers to me. There is no facial option that looks significantly older on any of them. To me, that is. Female highlanders look like they are in their early 20's. Female elezen look late 20's. Female roegadyn look late 20's to early 30's. (Which is being a little generous but hey) My overall point: Difficulty trying to tell adult ages in lalafells is pretty much the same as every other race: a handful of older options to make older males and everyone else looks 15-25.

Looks like hair is going to need to be at least long enough to hide the ears considering Au Ra and Mi'qote have to be able to wear it too. Which is a shame because I am on a never ending quest for corn rows. Every. Single. MMO.

Oh, wow, really? I am going to check this out. I know NPCs can be unreliable but it is the closest thing we have to an answer at this point.

What I'd really like is for SE to upgrade server sizes but I don't foresee that happening. I've seen previous MMOs do it and I think it is absolutely better than creating new servers. Though I don't recall SE expanding on their servers anyway.

Conversely, I almost never look at search info. I always forget but there's only so many ways "Walk ups, welcome" can be worded anyway. It would be kind of nice if people put a brief tidbit about their character instead of "walk ups welcome." I'm probably not going to start random RP without finding a character hook of some sort first.

I dunno. Search info is good in that you can see who is a RPer. But it's not really a flag. LFM is a flag. I've been in game for a year and a half and don't even know what it looks like. Didn't even know we had it.

Well, to be realistically blunt about it, I'd probably focus on getting any house at all considering, as has previously been stated, last time wards opened up, smalls were gone in minutes.

I don't feel it when I am DPSing. But I DO when I tank. Tanking opens you up for much more criticism since our mistakes are more noticeable. I've been working up the courage to tank in DF again after a particularly terrible run with party members so asshole-ish that I actually dropped the party and left the dungeon. (Something I NEVER do)

My interpretations for lala'qote: 1. It is a hint at the next playable race. Viera are the most requested race but are too human-like so perhaps Viera could look like a cross between lalafells and miqo'te. 2. They are simply saying they will be adding more child NPCs over time.

Good additions. Nailah and Chachanji are great. Always friendly and helpful posters. I know they will do a good job! :> Thanks for all your hard work Xenedra!

Take the dreadlocks.

I actually like the Elezen the most. I don't know if it's the lighting, but in the screenshot he looks like a frost elf. It's a very thematic look. But of the Au Ra, I like the bottom one more. It looks like he has snow freckles on his cheek and I like his hair a lot more.

It is really unfortunate but I don't think that anything Square could do would help. Unless they raise server capacity, fully opening the servers will make huge queues. Opening up a new RP server could risk fracturing and splintering the community. It would be really nice if this could be an opportunity for Gilgamesh's RP community to grow but that server is also full. But don't give up! Even though the server is full, you can still transfer onto it. I definitely recommend it at this point if you can't get in. The servers were open for a little bit three or four months ago, but the unfortunate thing is that you would've had to know in advance when they opened. They use to open briefly for a few hours in the early a.m. Perhaps eventually the servers will begin to open up in the mornings again, but who knows when that will be?

Yes. This has been a bad month if you have been looking for RP. Everyone has rushed back to the game because of the new expansion being released. After that, everyone has been mostly focused on in game content, as opposed to RP. The servers in general are very busy due to Heavensward. You can get in by transferring your character here, as others have suggested. If you don't want to pay real life money, though, you will either need to wait a while for the expansion rush to die down or you will need to get lucky and wait for immediately before or after a maintenance to roll a character. But, I really recommend sticking it out! This has been my favorite MMO RP community by far! I know you will have a ton of fun with the RP here when you're able to get in.

Ember would be happy just to be his friend. That's what she does and the avatar/forum title is very reminiscent of what she is like in game. (Avatar is more of a spirit animal than what she actually looks like though. haha) I have a link to my wiki in my signature. Currently away from the game but would love to meet up when I get back.

For Hellsguard, I think it is more polite to use the full name, just like Plainsfolk. The two words in the Hellsguard name make up one name. There is no surname. So, 'Ember' is just a nickname whereas her full name is 'Flickering Ember'. I haven't done HW content yet but so far I think only one NPC has ever referred to my character as 'Ember.' 99.9% of the time it's been 'Flickering.' (She goes almost exclusively by 'Ember' in RP though so it's a bit jarring for NPCs to call her 'Flickering.')

And then you [see: not you personally] wonder why people stop talking to you. Seriously. NOT this. The attitude of "I do what I want" is one of the most selfish and off-putting ones in any role-play community. If you're not going to respect Square Enix's creation then don't expect any in return. There is a line between doing what you like, and also understanding what will be palatable in the community at large. Part of being a good community member, in my opinion, is to keep the viewpoints of others in mind, just like real life. That's how collaborative experiences work, "Fuck you I do what I want." Is not a good basis for collaboration, it's only a good basis for self absorption. If you truly wish to just not give a fuck about what other's think, then things like forum RP or writing stories are good for that. IMO RP is all about collaboration, which requires give and take. Balance, imo, is key. Don't blindly conform, especially if it would make you unhappy. Do what makes you happy but at the same time be a generous RPer who gives back to the community and maintains interest in others. It's not all about you but at the same time we're really only in charge of ourselves. Does that make any sense?

And it is adorable to RP with too! Ember just wants to be with her lalafell friends! And snuggle with them. I always imagine her looking kinda sad when she is just standing next to them but much happier when she is plopped down closer to them.

You know what? You're right. Better pack up my bags and unsubscribe folks. There's no reason for me to be here anymore. Why haven't I seen it until now? .... No, but really. I play tabletop twice a week and play this game. If anything, tabletop successfully takes level into account for its RP much more than mmo RP ever could. The rulebooks have clear definitions for what each level means and how powerful it is. In MMOs, there is no clear consensus or agreement on what level means what for your character. Why could I possibly want to RP in a mmo though? Large internet community filled with friends? A great game filled with consistent updates? RP that can be finished in a matter of hours as opposed to weeks and months? The feeling that I am literally playing in an open world thanks to immersive graphics? The ability to make and decorate my own character despite not having a pinky finger's worth of artistic ability? How about the fact that mmo RP is completely structurally different from anything that takes place in tabletop? Is it worth mentioning that in the year and a half I've RPed here that not once has this topic ever come up in my RP? No? Am I worthy enough to be able to RP in a MMO yet? Do I have your permission?