(01-13-2014, 03:38 PM)LiadansWhisper Wrote:(01-13-2014, 03:02 PM)Jomoru Wrote: Not really use of Alignments is more a hinderance than anything else, because unlike D&D Eorzea doesn't have morality as a physical law. Â In D&D one can say out right certain things are good certain things are lawful but without those bases alignments become arbitrary arguments.
Instead you can make a much more simple basis. "My character values this" What does it mean to value justice? Does it mean you need to do horrible things to horrible people? What does it mean to value justice and Mercy? What does it mean to value nations or Eorzea or race or family. These things make a code. These things make a character and they are far more useful than saying something like "lawful Good"
Well, you're completely entitled to your opinion, it's just one I don't share. Â While I agree that Lawful Good is a really difficult (possibly impossible) Alignment to play in this setting, there are plenty of other Alignments that can provide a nice starting point from which to fully flesh-out your character.
Remember, Alignments are just a lodestone that points you in a particular direction. Â They aren't shackles that bind you in place. Â
Edited to Add: More related to the topic, I do think that it would be helpful if people stopped equating the D&D (and, to an extent, World of Warcraft) Paladin with the Paladins in FFXIV. Â Because they're not the same at all. Â In D&D and in WoW, they are directly chosen by a deity/the Light to be a champion of good and yadda yadda (unless you're a Blood Elf, BUT WE AREN'T TALKING ABOUT BLOOD KNIGHTS OK?). Â In this game, it's more of a training and mindset thing. Â They aren't "Holy Warriors of Divine Power." Â At least, not as far as I can tell, anyway.
Lawful Good is no more difficult to play in this game than any other alignment because as I said they are all equally impossible. Alignment is built around the idea of certainty. Good is good. Evil is Evil. Chaos is Chaos. Law is Law. As one cannot measure objective truth in Eorzea its worthless. What is good? What is evil? These are hard questions that humankind has wrestled with for centuries and Gary Gygax didn't come up with a miracle solution in 1976.
Conversely there are thousands of concepts that don't fit into the Alignment paradigm, concepts that readily exist in real life and in Eorzea.Â
Finally Alignment makes you think less about your character. Â When one makes a character and says "he's Chaotic Good" it doesn't give you answers about what your character is really like as a person, it causes you to skip deep introspection which is great for shallow characters(and shallow characters do make sense) but should all your characters lack a rich inner life?
