Flickering Ember

Probably going to make multiple posts in this thread but to start: No RSP shaming. Well RSPs don't exist in this MMO. Still, it feels so good that I can go into a ls and not have to listen to someone blab about someone's RSP like they're shooting a 'People of Walmart' video.

What you see as positives are what I see as negatives. Venting is "fine" until it becomes apparent you're the person who is being vented about. Then it becomes not so fun. Unfortunately there's no big sign that appears over your head when you activate someone's pet peeve. "WARNING, WARNING: You're a purple proser!" For those who are self-conscious, doubtful, shy, or anxious...it's easy to get the suspicion that you may be the one folks are referring to in this thread. That's not really anyone here's problem but there do seem to be a lot of such folks in this community. (In every RP community, actually) That becomes even worse if people use this thread as a "What not to do in RP" thread. Which it absolutely shouldn't be. This should be seen more as a "Things I personally dislike or don't prefer in my RP" type thread. There is no right or wrong in RP. It's all subjective. Some things like not RPing as a pokemon, not godmodding/metagaming, etc. are typically agreed upon by the RP community at large despite their subjective-ness. These have a consensus. Pet peeves, even if multiple people in here agree on them, do not share a consensus. Folks who really can't be bothered to have pet peeves aren't going to bother posting in here. You don't see the views of people who don't care, only those who do. Therefore it is not a reasonable metric to get an idea of "What do most people like and dislike?" You're only getting one group's opinion here. For example, I don't care about 'would' usage, or thoughts in emotes, or purple prose. It's my preference. What I like or dislike in my RP is no more 'right' than anyone else's 'preferences.' I'm disappointed that staying out of this thread for a few pages and I come back and already see lots of implications going on that suggest stuff on folks' pet peeves list around here are automatically deigned as 'the wrong way to RP.' Perhaps I am in the wrong coming in here if I'm not going to post pet peeves, but can we at least accept the idea that no one in here has the authority to define 'right and wrong' + 'good and bad' styles of RP? This thread may have merit as a form of venting, but it has very little use as a guidline on how to RP. Edit: For some added insight on why I chose to speak out on this:

Is it really pathetically shallow me that I kind of want to make a Hellsguard just so I can use the naming convention? Roegadyn have the best naming conventions. :3 Sea Wolf and Hellsguard both! I love the roegadyn dictionary! Ember and all the NPCs in her backstory have a translated version and roegadyn language version of their names. I have a lot of fun with them. I know a character who is a miqo'te raised on the roegadyn language and renames everyone roegadyn names. It's always a lot of fun to see what she comes up with!

It's cause we are in short supply. But more seriously, I figure many cant take us seriously because of our tiny size. This, I feel, is an important topic and one I've mulled over making its own thread. I've always wanted to make it a point that Ember treats her lalafell friends just as seriously as her non-lalafell friends. (Besides! Lalafells are regarded as equals in lore anyway.) I believe strongly on taking them seriously on a meta level as well. Yet, when it comes to my own creations, I flounder. I voted just for roegadyn, for now. There's no other race I feel I can RP as.

That is exactly the problem. This thread should absolutely NOT be used as a guideline for how to RP. "RP pet peeves" may as well be retitled to "Things I don't like or don't prefer in my RP." There is no right or wrong in RP. It is absolutely and completely subjective. We can agree, that even though it is subjective, that most of the RP community prefers you not to RP as a Pokémon or to meta-game, etc. Even though it is subjective, most of the community seems to be on the same page here. This does not apply to pet peeves. There is no mass consensus on pet peeves. It is all personal preference. Even if several people in this thread agree with each other on a pet peeve, it does not make that pet peeve a 'behavior that might be pushing people away.' Let us look to the OP's response to one of my posts: So, right here there is not a consensus on how people approach their own RP pet peeves. Do people who invoke a pet peeve push others away? Or do they merely warrant an eyeroll, like the OP suggests? You can't accurately measure what the community likes and dislikes through this thread alone. I can tell you right now that I don't care one bit if you use 'would' in your emotes, write terribly long purple prose, or type your characters' thoughts out. However, in a thread like this you're not going to get the perspective of people who don't care. You will only get the perspective from those who do. The problem with venting is... There is no problem until you discover that you're the person who is being vented about. There is no clear announcement that says "You're a purple proser!" RPers who are self-conscious, doubting, anxious, are left to wonder if you are referring to them.

Not my intent to be a "Negative Nancy" just getting a feel for what people do and don't like while listing a few of my own. I don't blacklist a person from my rp circle for doing those things nor do I chastise them for it, but I can't promise I won't be rolling my eyes from behind my computer screen. Usually, RP pet peeve threads end poorly. Regardless of your intentions, it is a negative premise. Listing these out commonly rile up some manner of paranoia, making it harder for folks who are already scared, to approach in RP. What does listing out pet peeves accomplish? It's not really a discussion thread. It is also, to be honest, hard to not get the impression that people care a great deal about the pet peeves they list. It smells of "if you do my RP pet peeve, you're not a good RPer or a good writer." But I get the feeling I am starting something with this. If you're posting just remember the following: A: no RPer is perfect B: you probably do something that somebody else considers a pet peeve C: those who invoke a pet peeve on your list probably have lots of other great positives about their RP style D: relax sometimes; it's good for you Lastly, I don't consider things like meta-gaming, God moding, power gaming, ic/ooc crossing as pet peeves, personally. I would consider those common courtesy.

In an attempt to be serious, this. So much this.

My RP pet peeve: -When people make a big deal out of RP pet peeves to the point where the roleplayer sounds like a stick in the mud. They then have trouble accepting RP or having fun in RP because they can't look past their pet peeves. Or they stop RPing with someone over a pet peeve that really isn't and shouldn't be a big deal. TL;DR RP induced meta negativity -My RP pet peeve is 'RP pet peeves'

This post is worth a quote because it is pretty much how I feel at this point. Though, if Square were ever to introduce a real monster race, like the Amajal'aa, I would IC race change in a heartbeat. Not as Ember, but if I had an alt that I was already playing as. And I mean a real monster race, not something where the men get to be monster-like but the women are cutesy. This is because I really just don't think that the current race selection is anything special. I wouldn't be willing to erase years of role-play just to be able to play a race that I wanted to roll as from the beginning. I do think that IC transformations and glamours have a spot in storylines and RP. (Not a fan of fantasia potion as a reasoning. I like something a bit more detailed. However, I will still go along with fantasia if others want to RP it) But it is definitely worth noting that the RP community is understandably tired of them.

I go along with it. I don't really mind. It is all in the name of fun and since Au Ra are the brand-new race, everyone wants to try it out. Over time, RP will normalize. Everything is out of balance right now due to the new expansion being released. Things will be weird for a little while but then they will start to go back to normal. I expect for some people to Fantasia back into how their characters were before. On the other hand, some will keep the change. I definitely think there are at least some people who are only temporarily Au Ra. Final Fantasy XIV is definitely the only RP community I've been in where IC race changing has been widely accepted. I feel it is a combination of the difficulty of getting alts and the fact that for a time Fantasia potion has been regarded as canon. It's been so long since Fantasia potion has been included in RP that I think it will take a long time for the community to adjust to it supposedly not being canon. And honestly, I don't think the community will ever completely adjust. At this point I have mostly accepted Fantasia as player lore. That said, responding to someone race changing with disbelief is an entirely understandable and realistic reaction. Depending on the circumstances and how well the character explains it, Ember will either disbelieve or accept the race change. Or gender change for that matter. I think Lilia also has some good points where you can actually not put much focus on this type of RP by simply acknowledging it and moving on. If you're not into RPing out race changes, disbelief only draws that type of RP out. Either way, I am happy to participate in the race change RP, especially if there is a grander story behind it. Other players are just having fun and that's what I'm here for. Ember may or may not believe them but I will certainly acknowledge it on a metalevel. I believe in this out of respect for the player.

To be honest, one of the reasons why I might not even notice the level is because the way Final Fantasy XIV's UI works is a lot different from other MMO's I have played. Other MMOs will place the level number front and center, especially WoW's. If you click on a character in WoW, you will know immediately what level they are. In Final Fantasy XIV it is not as obvious.

I continue not to understand these seemingly arbitrary low level examples. Where do they come from? I don't think I have even role-played with a level 1 character or even any character under level 15. No one is level 1 for that long. You can get to level 2 just by walking around! Level 15 is the minimum standard for a RP character you don't feel like leveling up. Not having access to all of the city state areas can be a bit crippling for RP. What I am getting at is, I'm finding that these examples are so exaggerated that I can't empathize or understand them. I have trouble believing THAT many people run into pre-15s with power-gaming fetishes. The only time I run into a pre-level 15 character at all is if they are used for RP storylines in my circles. I would be curious to see some non-'level 1' examples in this thread. Something not on the extreme spectrum? It just doesn't seem very realistic. What about level 20? Level 30? And so on. I don't think anyone has given a straight example on what level a character needs to be to be seen as decently powerful--powerful enough to be a threat. How does one determine such power levels? By the time you're level 20, you've already killed a primal. If something like level 30 is average, what does that make a level 60? Or does a character need to be max level before they are considered a threat? Do people only take this into account when fighting against the other character in RP combat? What about fighting together against an RP-monster together? What about in conversation, such as the character talking about what they do for a living?

It's simply a matter of preference. Those who take level into account have varying reasons throughout the thread. Some folks use it as a meter to gauge how committed someone is to their character (the idea is the more work someone puts into a character, the longer they will stick around); when everyone's character is role-played as powerful, level is the only fair way to settle disputes or claims; or since the RP is taking place in a game built around leveling and obtaining power, what your character has accomplished in game is a comparable amount of power that your character should have. These I believe are the main reasons. Very few people take absolutely everything in game mechanics into RP. I suspect that those who like to keep game mechanics with RP as much as possible do so the best they can. They probably won't RP out the exact warrior of light storyline. They have their own back stories the same as anyone else. Thematically, it may be that their character starts at an average level in combat but grows stronger over the course of the game. There are also some who don't start role-playing until they have hit max level on their characters. This style of RP will not always be for everyone. And I don't feel that we can have our RP styles 100% match up with others. It's typically not brought up in game anyway.

I would beg to differ, but before going further down that path I'd first ask that you explicitly outline what constitutes a special snowflake. I, too, was hoping for some sort of explanation of what makes a character a 'special snowflake'. Though, at this point, regardless of your intentions 'special snowflake' is already a derogatory term. A single person does not make the meaning, rather words are born and take shape from the community they spring up from. I find it admirable that you respect others' views. If you'd like to use language and words that aren't seen as 'derogatory' and 'elitist' then I would recommend to anyone reading to coin a new term or phrase. Different words can end up meaning the same thing but they will always have different connotations. ' Special snowflake'in this case is a negative one and there's no way getting around it. Though, we might be approaching a need for a new thread at this point. On the subject of special snowflakes though and how they relate to the thread--I suppose being powerful in RP is something of a commodity. It is easily a very desirable aspect to have in a RP character. Being a 'badass' is a trait that seemingly almost every RPer strives for in a character. We have gritty badasses, adorable badasses, unassuming badasses, femme fatale badasses, survival badasses. As Addison notes, it's harder for people's characters to feel competent when everyone is quite capable. This reaches all the way back to the earliest instances of roleplaying: Chiefs and Indians. Or some other variation. Everyone wants to be a chief. But then how do we get to decide who gets to be a chief? According to this thread, I guess you have to be high-level. Despite the fact that you face your first primal by the time you're level 20. A desire for more every day characters is so high in demand but so few in number that even those who dislike special snowflakes hold powerful characters themselves. I wonder if the qualifications to be a 'special snowflake' are particularly high considering I've only run into a grand total of 2 completely normal characters in my entire year and a half on this server. It's a competition amongst role players that seems to be born from mistrust. We've all had negative encounters to some degree and we don't want repeats of those. When I look back on this thread I feel like the need to attach roleplay with levels isn't done to keep OOC and IC mechanics together, but as an act of mistrust. We don't want to be burned again, essentially. That's just my impression anyway. It's also a competition that I like to stay out of. Because it IS a competition and that's not what role-play should be about. My solution is to just never get into combat with other players' characters or to keep that number of RPer vs. RPer type RPs as low as possible. It's worked for me.

You may have answered your own question there. Truth be told, when I first read your post, I was a little upset with its contents. I took your post personally because I am a player who subscribes to FFXIV for roleplay. I do enjoy content but it is not the main reason why I am here. I realize in hindsight that you probably weren't speaking to roleplayers like me with this post. Mostly, because I do have a leveled character. (Though technically not anymore, heh.) After first posting and then going back and reading the entire thread, your posts do come off as a little harsh before you explain them in greater depth in the latter pages of the thread, Dogberry. I did want to bring up this post to at least say that I can sympathize with people who never hit max level. Roleplaying on MMOs is my favorite medium of roleplay. You're going to get fast response times, (IMO faster than IMs because the other person in IM RP is usually doing something else while RPing), premade worlds, avatars you can make yourself without any artistic ability, immersive graphics, etc. There is a lot of reasons for why someone who is not that interested in a MMO playstyle but is interested in RP would choose to come here over other places. That's not to deter you from the points that you were making but rather just to give you some insight on a perspective that might seem a little strange to you.

I would like to dissect my post here. I'm going to go into further detail with the sentence. As I look back over it, I worry that this one might be interpreted as being more harsh than I want it to. In the role-playing community, writing ability vastly differs from RPer to RPer. I avoid judging other role players' writing styles. Though, I do recognize when someone is particularly talented. This sentence from my original post comes with a bit of back story to it. I used to play in WoW, and my RP experiences from that game were a lot different from the ones in this one. Though, since it was the first MMO I RPed in, it also helped form many of my RP opinions. I met many more role players in that community who focused entirely on PvE/PvP and yet when they joined in RP, they showed up with the most basic of RP skills. These players I would run into never showed progress past being an RP newbie. They would have terribly clichéd back stories, had no personalities, and would pretty much have one sentence replies. But because they were decked out in purples and could kick your ass in PVP, somehow I was expected to take them more seriously in terms of combat and personal achievements? No. I don't think so. It's understandable that a lot of the RP community is self-conscious about their writing ability. RP can be difficult and we often end up worrying whether or not people will like our characters. I totally understand that. I don't want people to get the impression that they need to have a bachelors in English for me to be able to take their characters seriously. What I want to see is people being passionate. People who love their characters and love writing for them. I like seeing people who continuously seek growth and new skills. I do like a realistic approach to combat and thus enjoy practical life-like approaches to combat RP and power. (Vs. Something like Guts slaughtering hundreds of people in an hour) But I also like RPing and I don't need everything 100% tailored towards me. I'm happy just to interact with you.

Awww, 11 pages already? Too bad I didn't get to post earlier. I suppose it will be lost in the sea of discussion but here goes anyway. I'll be writing this post blind, as in not reading any of the other prior posts. That way, I can speak without forming any biases. That said, what did I vote for? I'll get to that in a bit but first I would like to start off with the question: when these topics are asked in RP communities why is combat ability and power always focused on? This isn't a question directed at the participants in this thread nor is it directed at Sasha Rochester, the OP. It is directed to everyone in RP community and those that extend beyond RPC. I do appreciate Sasha Rochester's wording here. She uses 'achievement' and not 'levels' or 'power level' or something of the equivalent. What about wisdom and charisma? The ability to settle disputes through pacifism? Wit and trickery? The ability to silently stealth past any threat? The ability to lead effectively? Survival skills? Etc. It's a question that gets asked at least once in RP communities' forums. Though, I am grateful that the RPC seems to focus less on RP combat then other discussion boards. When a character can solve everything with combat skills, in general I think it makes the RP feel less fun. Sometimes, combat can't win over a situation. For a character who is proficient with combat might have character flaws to make up for it that make them interesting character. Being good at combat, just for the sake of it just doesn't interest me. There needs to be more to the character than that. What did I vote then? I voted "No, it doesn't matter." What matters is writing ability. I can believe someone is strong if they are written to be in a believable way. The better able someone is to convince through writing that their characters strong, the more I will believe them. Leveling, raids, PVP, none of this matters in the end. If a role player doesn't have the writing ability to back it up, no amount of PVP is going to make me think that your character is capable or awesome. Beyond that, I can't explain further because it becomes a matter of preference. Some role players put what happens in the game first and what is written by other players second. That is a legitimate preference that I can't deny. But it's just not something I can connect with for my own preference. Much of RP is dependent upon writing and social interaction. If you don't have those things then you don't have RP. It's that simple. I would like to close out this post with giving a positive example of a character and role player who can lend himself to both sides of the argument. He is a terror in PVP and raids actively. He is also a very capable and strong writer with a well-balanced character. His character has been portrayed very clearly to be a power house and he has several character flaws and strengths to help balance that out. His name is Zaius Rhal'seer. His character is both strong in game and is strong through his writing. We can believe that his character has power because it is such a focus in how he RP's the character and in Zaius's own story. However, through writing, we get the idea that having Zaius' power wouldn't be all that it is cracked up to be. There are very serious drawbacks for the kind of power that he has been able to achieve. They are constantly a factor in RP. Though, perhaps if you are strong with writing AND have very capable in game accomplishments, it may even give your character more credit.

Hmm. The thing about houses randomly popping up is that it doesn't mean they were automatically evicted via game. The player could have given it up willingly. We can't see when they log on, unless they are in your FC.

I've read all the patch notes since housing has been implemented and never seen this in the notes. There have been regular discussions on the main FFXIV forums that act like this isn't implemented. Such as this one: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/237860-Two-reasons-why-an-eviction-system-is-INEVITABLE. Are you sure your friends didn't just get lucky and find a house that someone spontaneously gave up? Not everyone is going to carry forward the practice of selling the right to relinguish a plot.

It doesn't drain it, per say. I believe that seeing aether requires quite a tax on one's self... and you're foreshortening your life if you do it constantly. Brief glimpses if one has the ability would likely be fine - it's just that the spoiler character is using it ALL THE TIME. Whelp, good thing Bri is dead /rolls out. Aw, that is so sad. I saw Brianna around a lot so she feels so much a part of the server lore. I also recognize her as a fellow blind character. How did she die?

Most characters I run into who can see aether RP it as something innate. It's something they just can do like seeing a certain color. You don't choose to do that. But this sounds like new lore so all the RP surrounding this that I've known has been from 2.0 This is a very popular trait in many of my RP circles so I am interested to see how this might affect existing narratives. I hope it doesn't throw people's storylines too far off!

Are these new quests you are talking about? I know a great wealth of characters who can see via aether and I wonder what it will mean for RP concerning that. I wonder, too, how does simply being able to see aether drain it? Kinda weird.

They talked about it but due to all the negative feedback, they haven't implemented it. They may in the future but there definitely has been nothing in any official patch notes that has stated its inclusion. There have been ghost houses that have been empty for ages still around in my ward.

This. Please be reasonable customers. It's unrealistic to expect everything will be fine and dandy when millions of players are all logging on at the same time. The content isn't going anywhere.

RP is very active here. I'd check in Ul'dah around the adventurer's guild. Sometimes there is some at the Bismark in Limsa Lominsa. Also check various houses and FCs. Although, since the expansion launched you're probably going to need to wait before RP fully recovers from expansion hype. Balmung is one of the worst servers right now for queues and lobby errors so expect to locate some added patience before transferring.