(06-20-2015, 12:19 AM)Lilia Lia Wrote: I feel I should clarify something.
There are some people who feel personally let-down when they realize, too late, that the distinctive quality they meant to give their character is actually the opposite of distinctive. This is a subjective feeling that some people get towards their own characters and it's the main reason to caution someone who is considering basing a character around an idea that's a teensie bit overdone.Â
For some people, they realize only too late that their character backstory is an instance of an overdone player trope, and that bothers them because they genuinely wanted to use it as a way of making their character stand out. From a lore point of view, the concept of a miqo'te who was raised by hyur parents is unique, which is part of the charm of it. But the fact is that in the player community, it's just the opposite. And people wouldn't know this unless they were told ahead of time. That's really the only reason I see it as a courtesy to alert people to how widespread it is.Â
If it doesn't bother you that you'll be one of the many playing a very similar backstory, then that's really all that should matter. But there are people that would want to avoid this kind of thing for their own reasons, so knowing ahead of time can be helpful to them.
To put it another way: It's now a kind of fan-made lore that miqo'tes tend to be adopted and raised in cities. It's so commonplace, in fact, that it's almost the norm. Many characters you meet will not be surprised to learn this about you. You may find this to be disappointing. And for that reason it won't really be a distinctive feature of your character like you may have intended for it to be.
This only really matters if you intend for the city-raised tribe-ignorant backstory to be anomalous or to be going against the grain. I think a lot of players do intend this because they write that story with the official lore in mind, without taking into account what you might call the "player-made lore" which is in reality going to form a significant part of the actual RP experience. Does that make sense?
Also, as a disclaimer, I don't mean to offend any of the many adopted miqo'te who are certainly replying to this thread. I'm only saying that there are some people who would decide against making this a major part of their character if they knew how common it was. And there are players in the community who find it refreshing when they meet a miqo'te who actually does have a tribal background, so that alone makes it an attractive option when considering the kind of character you want to RP. You COULD be the first tribal miqo'te that a lot of people meet, and firsts like that are always interesting.
This entire post is really great for anyone considering a new character. I wanted to quote this post to basically say I agree with everything written here. I even bolded a few sentences that I find to be especially important. I don't know if I could even do this post justice by paraphrasing it in my own written voice.
Though I think it would be helpful to note some of what Faye said in her posts. I, for the most part agree with her posts as well. Your character's personality and how they interact with other characters will be the most important feature about your character. Your back story will help dictate what kind of personality they could of developed and as well as open up future storylines. But back story won't always come into play with every RP scene like personality does.
So, regardless of your back story, having a strong personality can help your character out.
I know for me personally, I do appreciate uniqueness and the ability to stand out. It does bug me when RPers or other players say that this isn't something that should be a factor. For some people it is. And I know that not only do I look for uniqueness in my own characters but I look for them in other people's characters as well. Now, I think 'uniqueness' is less dictated by how 'uncommon' your back story is and more about how your character is portrayed.
And on the topic of uniqueness, I'm going to have to disagree with some of you. I have met plenty of miqo'te who are completely unique characters from the rest of the miqo'te playerbase. I know a lot of strongly written characters of this race. They are pretty much proof that it doesn't matter how highly populated your character's race is-- you still can write something unique.
