I haven't reached the end of the main storyline, myself, but I read Ildur's spoiler tag anyway--
I don't think anyone should exclude the main storyline's events from their roleplay.
But I can see why people would.
Unlike console games, MMOs can't change much, visually, as the story progresses, because you have multiple people playing, and each person may be doing a different story step. So, as Ildur mentioned, the world itself is in a sort of permanent stasis. Story events aren't actually reflected in the world.
When there are changes that are reflected in the world, they tend to come in the form of patches. Now consider this scenario:
A patch comes up. Ishgard opens to foreigners.
Consider we have players A, B and C. Player A finished the story, player B just defeated Titan, player C just started.
Ishgard opened to foreigners at the same time to players A, B and C. But for player A, this was after the main story, for player B this was right after Titan's fall, and for player C, it opened before the main story actually happened. If all three players are taking what they know of the main storyline into consideration, you have three completely incompatible timelines.
This is generally why people tend to disregard the main storyline when it comes to RP - timelines get very messy.
Now, you absolutely can set up a scenario where you consider the main storyline has happened, for RP purposes (disregarding which step of the main storyline you're actually on in the game itself). But this also brings up a few potential problems:
- New players will not have experienced the full storyline yet. Reading about it is different from experiencing it, so it's likely new players will be unable to take part until they're done with the main story (which can take a long time if you prefer RP to leveling).
- Like Ildur has stated, most other people/groups will not be sharing that timeline. This makes it difficult to cross-interact or to absorb new players, unless they specifically roll a character to fit the timeline.
- It rules out or complicates several character concepts/ideas and limits what those characters can accomplish. Consider:
Obviously, you don't need to disregard the main storyline if you don't want to. But it does severely limit entry into the group, it does rule out some concepts that people are likely to think of before they finish the main storyline, and it does severely limit interactions with people outside the group.
Which is absolutely okay, if you don't mind. It's entirely possible to make a group if everyone involved approves of the idea. There's nothing wrong with having a group headcanon that is incompatible with other people's.
Ildur never said this was a bad idea and everyone ever should always disregard the main storyline, just that they have reservations due to how limiting it can be.
I don't think anyone should exclude the main storyline's events from their roleplay.
But I can see why people would.
Unlike console games, MMOs can't change much, visually, as the story progresses, because you have multiple people playing, and each person may be doing a different story step. So, as Ildur mentioned, the world itself is in a sort of permanent stasis. Story events aren't actually reflected in the world.
When there are changes that are reflected in the world, they tend to come in the form of patches. Now consider this scenario:
A patch comes up. Ishgard opens to foreigners.
Consider we have players A, B and C. Player A finished the story, player B just defeated Titan, player C just started.
Ishgard opened to foreigners at the same time to players A, B and C. But for player A, this was after the main story, for player B this was right after Titan's fall, and for player C, it opened before the main story actually happened. If all three players are taking what they know of the main storyline into consideration, you have three completely incompatible timelines.
This is generally why people tend to disregard the main storyline when it comes to RP - timelines get very messy.
Now, you absolutely can set up a scenario where you consider the main storyline has happened, for RP purposes (disregarding which step of the main storyline you're actually on in the game itself). But this also brings up a few potential problems:
- New players will not have experienced the full storyline yet. Reading about it is different from experiencing it, so it's likely new players will be unable to take part until they're done with the main story (which can take a long time if you prefer RP to leveling).
- Like Ildur has stated, most other people/groups will not be sharing that timeline. This makes it difficult to cross-interact or to absorb new players, unless they specifically roll a character to fit the timeline.
- It rules out or complicates several character concepts/ideas and limits what those characters can accomplish. Consider:
Obviously, you don't need to disregard the main storyline if you don't want to. But it does severely limit entry into the group, it does rule out some concepts that people are likely to think of before they finish the main storyline, and it does severely limit interactions with people outside the group.
Which is absolutely okay, if you don't mind. It's entirely possible to make a group if everyone involved approves of the idea. There's nothing wrong with having a group headcanon that is incompatible with other people's.
Ildur never said this was a bad idea and everyone ever should always disregard the main storyline, just that they have reservations due to how limiting it can be.
