allgivenover

The word 'escapism' has kind of a negative bend for me because it implies I indulge my hobby to escape something in my life. I RP because I enjoy it. Not because I need to escape some aspect of my life. I would still do it even if every aspect of my life was perfectly satisfying. In fact I'm immediatly wary of overtly depressed RPers who explicitly seek escapism, as they are most likely to manifest bleed in a negative way. While a wheelchair bound RPer escaping reality isn't inherently bad, it certainly is if that is the sole reason for the roleplay or the individual never moves on from the escapism. Indulging in an imaginative situation you can't take part of IRL is not automatically escapism. When I RP a mage it is not because I cannot cast spells IRL. It's the same for the well adjusted wheelchair bound roleplayer. And... although I have no research to back this up I do feel that most RPers tend to RP for the "wrong" reasons, those reasons being disatisfaction with real life and low self esteem/self validation. It is why so many RPers are on the young side, and why so many more give up the hobby by the time they reach my age, and why bleed can be so devastating.

Bleed isn't inherently wrong, which I'm glad the article touched on. New RPers are most commonly guilty of it, but they are hardly the worst offender. In my experience it's most problematic when an RPers only source of self worth and validation is RP. I'd explain further but I'm at work.

Been wanting to do this for ages, pledged.

This is me exactly.

How would I know? I'm not the one answering a question with another question. If you want to be passive aggressive about a genuine question and a discussion, I'm not holding a gun to your head to have it. Wow. I put a question mark there because I honestly don't know myself and just believe it to be so. If you got a passive agreesive tone there it was entirely injected by you. I know I'm a bit of a pariah around here, but seriously not all my posts are snark. Hell most of them aren't.

Of course they don't have to be in conflict. Every roleplayer has thier own mix of narrative vs character motivation, and I do believe that most lean toward the latter. My point is that if everyone else you associate with is 80/20 character/narrative and you are operating at 60/40 narrative/character then you are not likely going to have fun. Numbers chosen are arbitrary and just for example.

Isn't that the default state for RP?

Just make sure that if you approach RP with the overall narrative in mind like this that you are not the only one in your circle doing so or things will head in a not fun direction for you.

Are you really surprised considering XIV's country of origin and aesthetic appeal? There are actually very few moments in XIV that have an aesthetic that strikes me as being very anime-like, most of the game plays out more like a political drama (which tends to be more western) with brief moments of generic action that could easily be from a western or eastern inspiration. The only scene that comes to mind as being very anime-like was when you defeat Lahabrea and all your friends appear behind you at the last moment to give you their strength. I don't think you can get more anime than that scene without actually being an anime. What you're talking about isn't "anime-like" it's camp. Camp can be found in anything and is not a trait inherent to anime. There are plenty of serious, politically charged anime out there that have zero camp in them whatsoever, they're just on the edge in the current zeitgeist of anime production. And you're wrong about XIV not being anime in aesthetic, it's extremely anime in aesthetic. The style is a unique one thanks to the greatness that is Akihiko Yoshida, but it's still very anime.

Are you really surprised considering XIV's country of origin and aesthetic appeal?

I'm of course not the only one that listens to this stuff, especially considering Revo's success after Attack on Titan aired. But basically anything Sound Horizon. EfjNQdnnGMM

I'm waiting on the lore.

Balmung is currently open.

Yes. I laughed. -Watches as another rock flies across the screen.- It was for me? I guess how I can see it being slower than the average. Just do low level roulette. It'll pop in <5 mins.

Your sound reasoning is wasted here, Naunet will parse whatever she needs to parse to keep her rage machine going. SE is somehow simultaneously an evil mastermind bent on screwing its players over and an incredibly incompetent derp-machine that's incapable of doing anything right. There's no reasoning with that sort of tautology, and I honestly think keeping herself enraged is a primary motivation in her life. T-minus [insert seconds here] until Naunet sees this post, reports it, and sicks her group to do the same while harassing the poor mods about doing their "job" and getting it removed as soon as possible.

The amount of salt over it is rather tiresome.

Then you should have specified exactly what you meant instead of setting up a straw-man attack on "XI indoctrinated" players. Most of us had more than one character for many purposes, and I can't think of a single instance where anyone was actively criticized for having more than one, here in XIV or there in XI.

Best straw-man attack I've seen you make so far Naunet. 10/10 By the way I had five characters in XI.

A good part of the community considers being a WHM taboo. Part of it is that we can be WHMs in game, but we can't be Padjal. There's nothing you can do in game to visibly represent the Padjal horns. On top of that they're part of a small, elite cabal personally chosen by a great power in the world. It just makes it difficult to RP with the greater community. Could you write an interesting, well-rounded original character that is a Padjal? Absolutely. But this sort of thing is better suited for fanfiction rather than roleplay. Having said that, you should do whatever you need to do to have fun without being an asshole. I am very sure there's a ton of RPers who don't come to this forum to find approval engaging in RP that everyone here would sneer at. I once had an idea for a "disgraced" Padjal that had lost everything, but there really wasn't anything in the lore to go on with it, so I dropped it after realizing it would be extremely problematic. If you really want to play a Padjal, play one. Find a group that's ok with it and just RP with them and don't worry about outsiders or what this forum thinks.

...how could I forget Earthbound? Wow...

Almost forgot about Lunar. 71ripBa8Ga8

A hardly comprehensive list in no particular order. Persona 3/ Persona 4 - high school sim + mystery + fun combat system + funky music and style. These games are awesome. Dark Souls/Dark Souls 2 - I've probably sunk something like 1000+ hours between these two. There is something magical and lonely and terrifying about playing them. Tales of the Abyss - Most Tales Of games are pretty decent, this one takes the cake. Tales of Graces f - The story isn't very mature, but the battle system, characters, and aesthetic is awesome. Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together - There is no better strategy RPG. The PSP remake of Tactics Ogre unseated Final Fantasy Tactics in my heart forever. This game is awesome. Dragon Quest IV - This started the episodic RPG thing. It's simple, it's fun. The Last Story -This game is going to be extremely valuable several years from now once everyone figures out how awesome it is and how hard it is to find. Valkyrie Profile - Great battle system, good story, great music. Star Ocean: The Second Story -A lot of fun, the story tends to drag a bit but that battle system and the lovable characters really shine here. Suikoden II - Luca Blight, enough said. Baldur's Gate Trilogy - Do I really have to say anything? Jade Empire - Bioware's overlooked gem. This game is vastly underrated. Dragon Age: Origins - I'm not a big fan of DAII or III, but this game is awesome. I played through it five times.

Edit: Nevermind, my source asked me to delete this post.

I think that has more to do with them not wanting to completely eliminate the ability to play with your friends altogether than it is some scheme to force more money out of people. It's just a way to push new people away from the high population servers, and their desire to do that is more about trying to shore up populations with smaller servers than there being a hard limit on Balmung's capacity (I don't think there is one, since SE seems to handle population limits by zone rather than be server).