Tiergan

Hey folks. Unfortunately, coding bootcamp is devouring much more of my time than I anticipated even though I anticipated it would take up a lot of my time. I’m essentially only reliably online on weekends. (I did warn you all it would be extremely slow moving. :V I just didn’t expect it to be THIS slow.) However, a few updates: 1) Another player has been trying to look for RP posts related to the Red Lotus Arc on Tumblr. If you have a FFXIV Tumblr and want to use it to post RP things related to this arc, feel free to tag any posts related to the story arc with "ffxiv red lotus" so that they can find them much more easily — especially if they’re RP! 2) Because I’m taking forever - if you have any neat ideas you would like to suggest for the gemstones, feel free to shoot them my way. The OOC purpose of the stones is actually just to give people an excuse to interact with one another. So if you have ideas that would help facilitate RP between you and others, feel free to shoot it my way. They have an IC purpose too - but ultimately even if your character tossed them, things would unfold in pretty much the same way when Tiergan finally finds you or if you find Tiergan. 3) My original plan was just to hunt people down as I play the game, but I realised I’m being dumb. So if you want Tiergan to FINALLY find your character, feel free to just poke me and we’ll try to sort out when we’re both online at the same time. If you’re okay with waiting however and are in no rush because perhaps you’re already embroiled in some pretty intense RP - you can also just wait for me to run into you in-game. 4) If it helps your RP at all, your characters would all likely find that they’re being followed. Or at least feel like they’re being followed. The men and women that track your characters are armed, with hooded capes and carefully maintained armor. They would mostly be watching. Though they may also feel compelled to capture your characters - but would take specific care in capturing your characters alive and without any crippling wounds. If captured themselves, would remain silent even under torture or threat of death. There would be nothing on their persons that are identifiable ways to mark where they come from - save for the fact that they’re all vaguely dressed in a similar manner. Please feel free to actually RP/control them as convenient NPCs to spark any RP interactions you like between you, your friends, or even other participants. If you actually want your character captured by them, we’ll have to talk though! And it’ll require a lot more work on my part, which means possibly more waiting on your part. 5) Some folks have asked if it’s okay to organize a linkshell or just to group up and do things together in general. This is totally encouraged. Additionally, if you all want me to actually make a “Red Lotus OOC” linkshell and actually have a free LS slot, I’ll do that too so you guys can find and communicate with each other more easily for fun interaction times with strangers. Let me know if this is something you’re interested in. Thanks for reading.

Wait, wait, wait. ... the job stones are soul crystal things? ... I definitely did not pay very close attention to my paladin job quest. :V

With "Starter" you can have one character per server on I think 8 servers. You won't be able to create more than one character in the character creator. If you have more than one character currently because of a trial or something, I believe it is your first character that is saved while the others are no longer usable - at least that's what happened to my roommate.

I am still a little unsure of what you mean when you talk about "intent". Yes, all decisions ultimately come from the player - but a character can have very different intentions than the author's intentions for why they decided to give their character that particular intent. A villainous character might have the intent that they want to cause chaos. They go off to viciously murder several people, frame Osric for the crime, and inadvertently spawn an investigation. If the player of that character's intent is "My character will have this intent to cause chaos so I can create a kickass murder mystery event for the community to enjoy! I will also respectfully ask Osric's player for permission before having my character frame his character for horrible murder!" -- they are not mixing IC and OOC in a way that causes harm. They are, by most RPer's definition "not mixing IC and OOC". If the player of that character's intent was instead "I hate Osric and I'm jealous of his majestic facial hair. I'm going to have my character hate him with a furious passion, kill a lot of people, frame Osric for it without his player's permission, and then send a swarm of my friends dressed up as Brass Blades and Sultansworn to harass him repeatedly without end, because it seems like a fun thing to do to someone I don't like." -- that is mixing IC and OOC. The player has an intent to cause harm. On the flip side of the coin from 'hate', back in the super early days of 2.0 - Tiergan started a romance with a female character. My character's intent at the time was that he was attracted to the other person, and despite his many, many reservations, was going to give things a shot because the woman kept reassuring him that everything would be fine. My intent as a player was "My character has more baggage than a luggage factory and it will be a lot of fun watching him struggle, grow, and develop as a character while trying to be in a relationship with another person." I did not feel romantic feelings for the other player or her character. She was not my girlfriend. I did not make any OOC demands of her, her character, or her time. However - after about a month, it was very, very clear that the player of the female character had very, very different intentions than I did. (She definitely no longer plays! Just in case the mods are nervous. :V) Her character would often do extremely illogical things in an attempt to force myself and my character into situations she wanted OOC. The player would also get both IC and OOCly jealous if Tiergan spoke fondly of female friends or spent any time alone with another female character. This was irregardless of whether or not Tiergan was spending that time locked in combat along side the other woman to fight off bandits or just getting a drink to reminisce with an old female friend about old mercenary gigs. Additionally, if I didn't spend time RPing with her every. single. day - she would get IC and OOC upset over it. It didn't matter if I didn't feel in the mood to RP that day or if I was exhausted and just wanted to PvE. It didn't matter that I had several other friends who wanted to RP with me and I couldn't blow them off to RP with her when my free time was extremely limited. It didn't matter even matter when my router started to die and I couldn't consistently stay logged in the game for two weeks. She would get IC and OOCly upset. She would send me lengthy whispers about how she needed me to RP with her more and her character would talk about how she felt like Tiergan didn't care about her due to their time apart. It became insanely clear that she her intent was to experience something IC that she couldn't have OOC - whether that be feelings of romance, attention, or even just the feeling of control over another person. She may have crafted the perfect ideal Romance RP in her head for us, but I was in no way responsible for helping make that perfect RP ideal come true for her just because our characters were in a relationship. We were not dating. She was not entitled to me, my characters, my RP, or my time just because our imaginary characters were engaged in imaginary pretend-time romance. The moment she thought she was and decided to let her OOC desires bleed into IC while also pressing into my space as a person -- she broke the cardinal rules of RP and mixed IC with OOC in a harmful way.

EDIT: After a second read - I think perhaps the person you described IS mixing IC/OOC if they kept trying to enforce their views both IC and OOC about how you can't heal that fast while also getting angry at you IN REAL LIFE for your character disagreeing with theirs in the story. If they instead responded with: "Hey, my character earnestly believes you can't heal that fast IC and is REALLY passionate about that belief - but OOC, everyone can do what they like." - that would be a different story. The way you can tell if someone's using their RP to cause problems is their OOC mindset/actions combined with how they react to you when you politely try to sort things out through OOC communication. If someone hates you as a player, they constantly have their character ICly harassing and hounding yours in a way that is extremely disruptive, and when you try to talk to them about it OOC to work things out, they are extremely rude, mocking, dismissive or hyperdefensive - there's a pretty good chance they're engaging in some IC/OOC trouble making. If someone likes you as a player, but their character is a jerkface that is constantly harassing and hounding your character IC in a way that is extremely disruptive -- there is a very good chance that when you politely try to talk to this person about it OOC, they will immediately try to dial it back because they didn't realise they were making things hard for you. (At least, they will if they're not assholes anyway.) -------------- Original Post: I would argue that your scenario is more of a "Two people disagreeing over RP views/standards and one of them is potentially loves being in the spotlight a little too much" situation as opposed to the kind of IC/OOC blending that most people think of when they talk about folks blurring the lines between IC and OOC. Two RPers could meet and begin RPing with each other only to discover that one of them staunchly believes that being a White Mage shatters the lore ...while the other person believes being a White Mage is totally fine. In fact, their character IS a White Mage! If they argue IC for an hour about whether or not that's possible - (which means they completely forgot the whole "COMMUNICATION!" thing being harped on about in this thread), before finally taking things OOC and arguing about their differing views there -- that doesn't necessarily mean IC/OOC blending so much as perhaps these two people are just not compatible when it comes to RPing with one another. And that's totally fine. I am not compatible with RPing with folks with certain RP styles/beliefs - other people don't really find me compatible with their view of the lore. It just means we should probably go our separate ways and find people we *are* compatible with.

We have no more responsibility for our character's actions than an actor playing a character, or a writer writing a character's part. Yes what Aya says. If you play an obnoxious character and push it to cause problems, or try to break other characters up.. then say it is not you it is the character.. no dice. From another angle, RP is a cooperative endeavour in which we are all essentially co-authoring a shared story in real time. This is more about intent and responsibility to be a positive part of the shared story. And that can equally be a baddie as a goody character and action. There is an ENORMOUS wealth of difference between someone RPing with you normally and someone using RP as a vehicle to harass other people (ie. Cause problems, break people up with malicious ooc intent.) They are very very different. Harassment vIa RP is already a form of IC/OOC mixing.

I am having trouble understanding what you mean by this. Are you saying there is not really an IC because all of our decisions are made OOC and thus all IC actions have the same weight and responsibility as OOC actions? Because if so - I STRONGLY disagree and would honestly be really, really unsettled by this line of thinking. That is like saying all villainous characters should bear the same kind of OOC weight as if they were committing a real crime. Or that people in an IC relationship should be just as dedicated to their IC lover as their OOC lover. There MUST be a separation or you are doing harm.

I agree IC/OOC is an ideal and that there are sometimes small harmless ways where things blend slightly. For example: recently Tiergan was speaking with a friend who was leaving in a way that suggested she was essentially going on a suicide quest to prevent others from being hurt and he couldn't talk her out of it. The conversation between the two friends was heartbreaking and I may or may not have teared up a little because of all the FEELS. That is a minor example of IC affecting me OOC. However, at no point did I suddenly start feeling ACTUALLY as heartbroken and despairing as Tiergan as though the friend were actually a real person that was going away. I didn't harass the player to MAKE her character stay the same way Tiergan was trying to demand that his friend not go walking to her death. Things affected me the same way a sad part of a book would affect me. No one, including myself, was hurt in the process and I think THAT is the important key thing people are talking about when they say "Keep IC separate from OOC at all times." To do no harm to each other. IC might affect OOC or OOC might affect IC in small harmless ways (ex: That cheerful moment between my character and her friends made me feel really happy!" Or "I am feeling really tired today so I will RP my character being tired and lethargic as well so I don't have to think too hard during RP. :V") -- but ever to the extent where it negatively impacts other people or myself. All the examples we give of bad ic/ooc mix are examples of harm. Making a player uncomfortable by falling in love with them in real life at the same time as falling in love with their character. Being OOCly aggressive and demanding of someone's time and who they hang out with just because they are in a relationship with your character IC. Hating someone OOC because you hate their character OOC. I also agree that when people run into issues where the IC actions resulted in OOC unhappiness, it is a result of not communicating and not really thinking through the IC consequences of your IC actions. If your character tries to murder several people in broad daylight in front of the Quicksand - it is a little extreme to be upset that all the Brass Blade/Flames/Sultansworn characters ever would suddenly be SUPER aggressive towards your character IC

I might've missed it somewhere in this thread, but is there any lore in game on folks looking down upon Seeker/Keeper mixes? I want to RP it SO BAD, but I didn't want to do it without sorting out whether it's actually a thing or not first.

1) DO NOT USE RP AS WISH-FULFILLMENT OR TO VICARIOUSLY GET THE THINGS YOU WISH YOU HAD IN REAL LIFE. Honestly? This is one of the biggest reasons why I see people blurring the lines between IC/OOC. They really want something in real life, but they can't get it - so they try to live the dream in RP. At that point, they're already mixing IC/OOC because their OOC desires are what ultimately fuels their IC actions. Things suddenly become far more personal and carry far more weight than is appropriate for fantasy pretend-story fun times in a video game. If you really, really want romance in real life - DO NOT try to get it vicariously in the game only to get super upset when the RP romance doesn't go the way you want. If you really, really want to be popular or well liked and beloved by everyone in real life - DO NOT make that your sole goal in RP only to get angry when another character doesn't love yours. The other problem with this is that you have the perfect fantasy in your head of how you would like things to go, but that is YOUR fantasy - not anyone else's. Everyone else has the power to think and act on their own and may make decisions that completely contradict what you want in your perfect scenario. Because you can't force them to be the way you want (unless you're a huge asshat), you just set yourself up for disappointment. It's also generally (there are of course exceptions to everything) really, REALLY unhealthy to try and use RP to get what you don't have in real life. Fix your real life first - then play the game. 2) Everyone's already mentioned communication. I'm just putting it here to stress how important it is even more. This is doubly true if you're playing a villain. I know a lot of people are super strict about no OOC in their RP because it ruins immersion, but I personally feel like I HAVE to have it to make sure that not only are we on the same page, but to show that I am a friendly, kind person even if my character is a villainous jerk or a grumpy asshole. When all someone sees of you is your IC jerkface villain, it can be easy for even the best-intentioned person to kinda slip up and wonder if you are also a jerk OOC, but not if you show that you're a good, friendly player behind the character. 3) Lastly, think of your characters as characters for a literal book you are writing - not characters you am inserting yourself into or becoming. RP is like a giant book written by numerous authors. Or like another analogy, a comic series where different parts of the comic universe are written by different people. You don't get pissed at another author for having a villainous character in their story/comic. The author is not their characters. YOU are not your character. Your character is just a creation for the story you're writing with everyone else. When you think of it in this light, suddenly a lot of bad and horrible things that could happen to your character are just terrible, but AWESOME things that make for a really fantastic and dramatic story. A painful betrayal might suck for the character, but it can be excellent for building a deeper narrative or creating more character development! Having a hated rival might suck for the character, but it's great for building up a story between another player! This is why I love all kinds of moments from the soft fuzzy happy stuff to the heart-wrenching, painful, tragic events because it's exactly like all of the awesome FEELS you get from a great book.

I age my characters by real life year, but rewind the clock if SE is all "HEY SO EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED BEFORE THE EXPAC TOTALLY TOOK ONE YEAR OK." They did have an in-game memorial moment for the year anniversary of the Calamity during the summer so I wonder if to SE a year has passed.

Just wanted to add a quick note to Chachan's post with something I said during the pie event: I shamelessly nicked the idea from my old (and sadly defunct) FC Reacher's Fall because it was so much fun at the time. Just wanted to give credit where it was due!

Post about some RP that you thought was TOTALLY AWESOME and brought you immense joy participating in it. Feel free to mention other RPers that helped you have fun. It can be something small and subtle, like a hug at just the right moment -- or something big like an epic gigantic event you got to participate in. You can also post about other RP-related things that made you feel good. Like getting to brainstorm a storyline with a buddy. Anything goes! ------------------------------------------------------------- I got to RP with Brynhilde Wulf again after a long time of our schedules not syncing up so well and the RP that came out of it was fantastic and emotional. THE FEELS. (I may or may not have teared up a bit in real life.) I got to RP with two new people this weekend and it was a blast. Looking forward to running into you again Vaermiont and Jet'a!

That's not what people are doing though. As someone posted a page or so back it's a discussion thread about a subject relevant to the site's purpose. I doubt anyone is losing any sleep over this, or feels obligated to go along with whatever bizarre concepts are conjured up. It's not a case of being a 'dick' either. If people are going out of their way to make their character super special then it's pretty naturally for them to stand out and become the topic of discussion from time to time. Then again, I've said this already in other threads: a lot of people seem to take even the slightest bit of criticism as a major personal attack even when it's not intended that way or can be justified. This is a community with people from all sorts of different backgrounds and styles - it's not going to be all sunshine and roses, nor should anybody feel compelled to never ever speak out against something. The OP literally posted this entire rant in the event thread of another RPer for an IC Primal fight. If you or others don't like that kind of RP, that's totally fine. However, posting that in someone's event thread is basically the definition of a 'dick move'. You don't like the event? Don't go. The event was explicitly labeled. There was no reason for the OP to even look in there much less post how much they think IC primal fights are crock. I'm not a participant of the event nor do I know the story details of it, but you don't get to hide behind "we all come from different backgrounds" with that kind of behavior.

My characters do not have Echo or Warrior of Light status. However, I also do not give a rat's ass whether other people do or don't as long as they're not hurting anyone. I just find like-minded friends and RP with them. I'm not sure why people seem to have such a vested interest in finding people whose RP they disagree with and then shitting all over them. Like posting a rant about IC Primal fights in an event about fighting Primals IC. It's okay to not like things, but don't be a dick about it.

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Hggnnggng. ;-; Thank youuuu!

;___; Good luck Osric!

I tend to insert reference to ears and tail when trying to highlight Tiergan’s emotional state. If his annoyed, he might just narrow his eyes at you, but if he is REALLY testy his tail might lash back and forth in anger. If he is displeased with something, his ears might flatten out or fold back. I have made him bare fangs at people he is absolutely furious with, but not as often. I tend not to RP sniffing the air or enhanced scent or hearing (outside of Tiergan swiveling his ears to pick up on certain sounds), but that is honestly only because I totally forget to and not because I don't want to. Its also sometimes hard to find a good place for scent when it comes to interactions with other players, but much easier when it comes to things like tracking down an NPC. No idea if Sun Seeker cats can see better than hyur, so I don't incorporate it. I sometimes, when feeling cheeky and goofy, have Tiergan's pupil widen and round out when he is feeling a mix of extreme delight, excitement, and awe (aka this: http://i.imgur.com/hpwU7.png ) because that is exactly the actual facial expression my pet cat makes when I wave around his favorite toy in front of his face. When it comes to sounds - Tiergan snarls, growls, and hisses a lot - but I almost always mean it in the context that a human person would be snarling, growling, or hissing out an angry word at someone or making an angry sound and not literal snarling the way an animal would. I don't really mind if people purr, though when Tiergan does it (which is not often at all) I usually just describe it as a low, contented rumbling noise that could be taken either as a purr or just a happy person noise depending on how people like their particular flavor of miqo'te RP. Lurial on the other hand never ever purrs. I guess I just see it as a personality quirk.

I read back through this thread a bit and saw that basically half this thread was already saying all the same points I made and 14 pages later, people are still not in agreement. I think this is a great example of how all the critique in the world isn't really going to change the mind of someone who isn't asking, wanting, or planning to use critique someone gives them. People are going to stick to their guns unless they make the decision for themselves that they are receptive to changing. They're going to do their thing. You are going to do yours. At that point it's not critique - it's just venting like you mentioned. If you want to vent about it, that's fine! People vent all the time about things -- but at least accept that venting is all that folks are really doing at that point instead of trying to paint it as 'constructive critique' that is going to help someone build a better character or criticism that has any other purpose other than to shame someone for not RPing as you want them to. (Or in the case of the original thread that spawned this one - out right telling people they are RPing something wrong because it's not what they personally wanted and putting "You're doing it wrong" in the title of their thread Whoops! I got confused about this and thought all that came from some other miqote thread I missed. Apologies. ) It has no other purpose other than to make someone feel bad that they're not RPing a certain way. You may feel it's okay or necessary to criticise someone for RPing something wacky that doesn't really suit the lore in FFXIV - but I don't. This is just something we're going to have to agree to disagree on. I personally would rather spend the time I would have wasted criticising someone's RP actually roleplaying with people whose RP I DO enjoy and find engaging/adherent to the lore.

This whole post is actually kinda my view on it. Yeah "do what you want and eff the haters" sounds really great and empowering, but... Unless you are keeping your RP within a really tight circle, everything has a ripple effect. You have to take SOME responsibility for your character and their actions and their repercussions and what you do or suggest within the provided setting. What you do and how you act is going to have an effect on other characters, and whatever characters they interact with. I know what I'm capable of believing but Kino is sort of a blank slate in a lot of different areas of knowledge. The biggest frustrations for me, is trying to wrap my head around in-characterly handling completely conflicting information. I'm not that type of person that likes to disregard people, characters or encounters at all, even if they go entirely against what I know to be true. One person Kino trusts is changing their form all the time because "fantasia flows like water thanks to the alchemist's guild," while another character Kino trusts staunchly tells her that such a thing is beyond our current ken. Okay. One friend gets pregnant through [MAGIC MEANS] while modern biology (and I assume the common opinion of characters in-game) tells us this isn't possible. How does Kino, or any other character, react to the fact that there is conflicting information on THINGS THAT WOULD BE COMMON KNOWLEDGE. Imagine, if you will, a real-life scenario where your best friend or significant other suddenly came forth and told you they just didn't believe in cats. Like, flat-out didn't believe they existed. You'd probably say "look at these videos" or "but I own a cat" or "but we own a cat." But they just shook their head and emphasized that cats don't exist. You'd think they were crazy. And I would hate, hate, hate having to treat every other godsdamned person I meet like they're a lunatic because they choose to "eff the haters" rather than read some dialouge. Okay, sorry about that. Rant over. I swear I'm like, the least lore-nazi person ever, but sometimes I hate having to compile this stuff. I honestly don't have this problem. My FC is awesome and filled with like-minded people who all think the lore is an important, fantastic resource that you shouldn't just toss out the window so someone can have a magical, time-warp pregnancy where the child ages up to adulthood in a matter of days so their best friend can play as said child and RP out a romance with another person. I also politely step out of RP that veers into that territory and work to avoid it. I have had to have Tiergan think someone was insane just once, and I just never RPed with that person again afterwards. While Rpers are always going to be the minority on Balmung, the RP community is big enough where I personally feel that if you don't want to deal with people that RP in a bizaare way -- you really don't have to. If someone gets butthurt over you deciding not to RP with them, they are just going to have to accept that not everyone RPs the same way and that if they aren't going to RP in a way that is compliant with the lore, a lot of people are just not going to feel good about roleplaying with them.

I just wish more people outright admitted that they had no interest in sticking to the lore instead of pulling out the card of 'I can do what I want, FREEDOM AND LIBERTY' that is becoming alarming common in debates such as this. I mean, yeah - nobody is saying anybody can't do whatever they want. They're saying that if someone deliberately ignores the established setting then they're opening themselves to valid criticism. If my character happened to be played as a relative of a major lore character then I'd fully expect people to offer constructive criticism, raise their eyebrows and even avoid me altogether. Nobody has an obligated to interact with role-players that don't align with their style, however nobody has the right to claim that they can never, ever be criticised. I am in the "Why RP in an MMO with an established lore if you're not going to RP with the established lore?" camp. It's why I don't get why people would want to RP that they're Naruto from the Hidden Leaf village in FFXIV when they could go join some actual Naruto RP group or something and RP all of that over there. My miqo'te characters obviously don't have conventional miqo'te names (I honestly couldn't stand the naming conventions even though I really wanted to play a miqo'te) - but other than that, I try to adhere to the lore as closely as I can without introducing elements I feel would directly contradict it. My characters aren't from random unknown locations. They're not secretly some unknown race. I don't give them skills and jobs that haven't been introduced to the game world yet. They're not secretly a Dragoon and White Mage rolled into one that has mastered both arts at age 15. They don't have any unique special powers or abilities that a normal person couldn't otherwise get through a reasonable amount of training. That said -- I don't understand this pressing need to criticise people for not roleplaying the same way you do with the same exact level of lore compliance when they haven't asked you for advice. It's easy to stare your nose down at some guy RPing Naruto in Eorzea, but it can get dicier when it's something more subtle like "your miqo'te doesn't act cat-like enough" or whether or not someone should be playing certain jobs. (Example: Some folks think warriors are totally cool to play as! Other people think it's breaking the lore to RP any job-class other than Paladins! Who is right and who is wrong? NO ONE KNOWS because it's all subjective thanks to the Warrior NPC actively trying to teach people the art, but it having died out long ago, etc, etc. Please let's not actually talk about whether it's okay to RP certain classes, because that conversation has been done to death.) As an artist, I don't go around offering critique to every single artist I come across, even if they're fledglings and really could use the pointers. Unless they explicitly ask me for it or present it in a situation where it is implied that they want critique - it's actually considered rude to drop unwanted, unasked for critique on someone's artwork out of the blue without them expecting it or giving some indication that it is welcome and they would use it to improve their craft. By the same token, I earnestly feel it's not any of my business to criticize or tell someone how to RP their character unless they explicitly ask me for critique. make a thread asking for advice on how to make their character more lore compliant, or otherwise imply that they're looking to improve themselves and wouldn't mind someone telling them how they could do things better. If they do ask me for advice? You better believe I'm going to try and steer them towards reading up on the lore, choosing a backstory that is more realistic in terms of the game setting, and not secretly being Bahamut reincarnated in the body of a pink-haired bubble-gum scented female roegadyn. Constructive criticism on how to be a better roleplayer and RP within the setting are fantastic - but only if someone asks for it and sincerely wants to apply it. Additionally, I think most people adopt the "People can do what they want" approach - not because they want to escape all consequences or criticism while RPing Titanium-plated Space Dragons with a secret yaoi cat man form in Eorzea - but because it is extremely easy for RP communities to dive down the slippery slope of transforming into a very hostile, aggressive police force that dictates every single aspect of what is acceptable in roleplay. I think we have all been in one of those at least once in an MMO where there is a core group of people who enforce the most strident (and sometimes even incorrect) view of the lore and outright harasses people for veering just a little bit outside of that. I have been in MMOs where RP communities went so far out of their way to dictate every little detail of what people are allowed to do or be that they actually told people what hair colors they felt were adherent to the lore and which ones they were not allowed to use despite the fact that the developer of the game itself provided us with multiple colors to choose from. It's the equivalent of telling all Moon Keeper Miqo'te that they can't have reds, yellows, oranges, and other similar colors that might too easily be associated with Sun Seekers while Sun Seekers can't have their hair be various shades of blue or purple. I would rather have an open, accepting, friendly community that has a wide range of Rpers from magical sparkle fairy-vampires I don't really want to RP with to people who earnestly enjoy working within the confines of the lore ...than to have an aggressive, hostile, judgmental community that makes people feel like shit and scares off newer RPers from RPing openly for the first time out of fear that if they fuck up with the lore just a tiny bit, some asshole is going to jump down their throat for not getting it quite right.

I admittedly have not read most of this thread. However my thoughts boil down to this: "I will RP my way, other people will RP their way, and if I am comfortable RPing with them, I will. If I am not? I just leave them alone to do their thing in peace without me." Tiergan emotes with his ears and tail, has a better sense of smell than a hyur, and other small cat quirks. He also has a bunch of admittedly cliche, dumb, bullshit quirks I should probably get rid of. If someone else wants to RP their miqo'te as being indistinguishable from a hyur with cat ears and a tail - whatever. Not a big deal for me, and even if it were, it is still not my problem because I can just turn around and find dozens of folks I do enjoy the RP of while leaving that other person alone. By the same token, if my RP makes someone else uncomfortable, they are well within their rights not to RP with me at all and I probably wouldn't even notice unless they decided to be enough of a dick to explicitly tell me they think my RP is wrong. No one is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to RP with anyone you are uncomfortable with. So long as someone is not using their RP in a way that is literally harmful (such as using RP as a tool for various forms of harassment) - who cares what some random stranger is RPing? In my view - when it comes to a video game where our primary goal is obviously to just have fun - "Doing it Wrong" is entirely subjective based upon your individual wants and needs as a roleplayer. If you want a casual experience that is just silly, light-hearted fun without too many meaty, more structured elements to over complicate and bog things down? Maybe 'right' for you is RPing however makes you happy regardless of lore. If you want a heavier, more narrative experience with deep character development, overarching themes, and weighty emotion that is more firmly rooted in the setting - maybe 'right' for you is a character that is seated within the limits of the lore and the setting while building upon those limits to construct a compelling story. There is no wrong answer in pursuit of fun in a video game. There are only your personal standards and whether or not the other person matches yours or not. It is not worth my time, effort, or the hurt feelings I would cause in another person to tell them their RP doesn't jive with what I personally view as "right." (Unless of course, they ask for my pinion or for advice.)

Oh my god.

Won't be around for a week or more due to real life circumstances. Apologies for any plans I have made.