From what I have seen so far:
1) We are in a patch lull. For reasons already explained above (WoW Legion, boredom, people moving to other games, MMO hoppers, whatever), 90% of my contact list is empty most of the time.Â
2) RP in FFXIV is peculiar in that RP is everywhere, but hard to access due to various factors such as the game social network tools (/tell, friendlist, impossible to add offline people, etc) that are obnoxiously user unfriendly and/or just basic. Problem is also that if you are in location X, RP can happen, but maybe not at your location. For you to know that RP is happening somewhere, you have to be aware of it.
3) Some good ways to find your post in RP is, from the most effective in my experience to the least:Â
4) Creating your own RP trip. More easily said than done. People like to tell you "you just have to do X or Y", but that's not "just". It takes investment, time and effort and it's not the privilege of everyone. It also takes charisma and an ability to sell your thing/concept, and even less people have that for them. Generally, when you don't find the kind of RP you are looking for, it's because it interests very little or just nobody. No matter what you will try, good luck with kickstarting something like that. I should know, I tried. If you want a safe and easy way to do it though, you just have to create the 100th generalist FC/LS about adventurers or mercs, but considering the amount there is already, no need to create your own really.
In anyway, wishing you all the luck for anyone trying to insert yourself in the RP scene and find THE good spot of friends sharing the same views on things, because it's hard and takes time. I should know, it took me many months for that to happen. Conciling the RP hooks and the story you are looking for, and the friends you are looking for, can be arduous.
1) We are in a patch lull. For reasons already explained above (WoW Legion, boredom, people moving to other games, MMO hoppers, whatever), 90% of my contact list is empty most of the time.Â
2) RP in FFXIV is peculiar in that RP is everywhere, but hard to access due to various factors such as the game social network tools (/tell, friendlist, impossible to add offline people, etc) that are obnoxiously user unfriendly and/or just basic. Problem is also that if you are in location X, RP can happen, but maybe not at your location. For you to know that RP is happening somewhere, you have to be aware of it.
3) Some good ways to find your post in RP is, from the most effective in my experience to the least:Â
- Find a RP FC that you like and actually does RP things and events and stuff, that way you will find a place in overarching stories, make long lasting IC relationships and RP shenanigans;Â
- Find good RP Linkshells that provide the hooks you are looking for. RP LSes are less effective since the core of RP always happens in your FC, but they provide a good complementary experience or even alternative, but they tend to suffer a bit more from lulls since they are less close knit than FCs (due to obvious proximity/gameplay reasons).
- Find connections, like by asking here on the RPC. It can work relatively well, but by asking for connections you have to go reach out to the people that offered. The onus is on you. Don't expect them to constantly check ingame if you are online to add you and offer RP, it happens rarely. If it's you offering to someone asking for connections on the other hand, yeah... but sometimes they just still don't contact you, so your choice. Anyway, it works well for short term improsived RP things, or just one-time RP. It works a lot less often for long term RP, because most of the players will just either vanish quickly at some point for various reasons (not finding their thing in the game, being bored, or else), or they might also not provide the RP you are looking for, or just not have the same RP views, which is fine. The main issue you will run into is that most people will just add you but actually never offer any RP and you will constantly have to reach out to them all the time to do something, which is super not cool I find (and makes ou wonder if they really like the RP you provide). Anyway, the few players that you will find here that will become long term friends are to be cherished.
- Go to big RP events. Can't speak much about that as I haven't really done it. It can be intimidating for a lot of reasons, is usually full of people and scrolling walls of RP text, hard to insert yourself among all those groups of people already RPing with their friends, etc.
- Do walk-up RP, in the Quicksand or anywhere else. Probably going to get fast food RP with random people with random views on RP and things, and be half of the time or more, just ignored.
4) Creating your own RP trip. More easily said than done. People like to tell you "you just have to do X or Y", but that's not "just". It takes investment, time and effort and it's not the privilege of everyone. It also takes charisma and an ability to sell your thing/concept, and even less people have that for them. Generally, when you don't find the kind of RP you are looking for, it's because it interests very little or just nobody. No matter what you will try, good luck with kickstarting something like that. I should know, I tried. If you want a safe and easy way to do it though, you just have to create the 100th generalist FC/LS about adventurers or mercs, but considering the amount there is already, no need to create your own really.
In anyway, wishing you all the luck for anyone trying to insert yourself in the RP scene and find THE good spot of friends sharing the same views on things, because it's hard and takes time. I should know, it took me many months for that to happen. Conciling the RP hooks and the story you are looking for, and the friends you are looking for, can be arduous.
Balmung:Â Suen Shyu
