Why do people RP around the MSQ? [Post 2.55 Spoilers]

[K'nahli]

Timeline is probably what affects me most. My main even has a half-sister, a former member of her tribe whom was once 1-2 years younger than her and is now two years older from what I've heard.

[Klynzahr]

I understand using the MSQ to enhance your personal rp amongst smaller groups, but am confused as to trying to apply it to the broader community based setting. I mean... we are all on different timelines within the MSQ. My character resides in Ul'dah a lot, and would be very thoroughly confused if someone was rping that the sky was falling, when it very clearly is not to her.

 

I'm actually in the same boat as you are right now, having just returned after a loooooong final fantasy hiatus. Since I opted to get my feet wet by leveling an alt first, I haven't touched a single piece of post launch MSQ. However despite being far behind, I prefer to view each patch as occurring and effecting the world 1-2 weeks after it goes live.

 

As others have pointed out the dynamic changes that these patches leave upon Eorzea, can spark character development, spearhead RP events, and enhance RP for lots of people. In my honest opinion the 'living world' created by these developments is one of this game's stronger points.

 

Unfortunately that leaves slow-pokeys like us, with the struggle of keeping ourselves current. There are several resources floating around. Youtube has videos of all the current cutscenes, if you wish to get a good overview without all the work of finishing the quests and instances. Alternatively, you can poke through the relevant threads on this site to see how other RPers are interpreting the developments. If you are adamantly against seeing any spoilers, you could always ask a friend to give you the barest rundown of anything that might effect your RP directly.

 

I personally enjoy the MSQ and prefer not to spoil too much of it's story telling. So my choice is generally to follow the forums rather than watching the cutscenes myself. I avoid spoiler tags unless the content seems to have very far reaching effects, like this patch did. My fiance on the other hand, refuses to have any more spoilers than necessary and was content to have me tell him only the most relevant details.

[Hyakki]

I'm an idiot and had my character participate in SoF as a sellsword. The aftermath made her a paranoid wreck and her abandonment issues are resurfacing. I regret my decision but I have to roll with it.

 

I couldn't be satisfied with cactuar hunting and courier work, could I?

[Telluride]

I could never RP a character as totally, frustratingly, obliviously daft as the person we're supposed to be as the Warrior of Light.

 

Bad guy tries to kill you repeatedly? Eh, let 'em go. They learned their lesson, right?

 

Roegadyn tries killing you during a contest. Game refuses to let you fight back, and also refuses to let you do anything at all after to see that he gets what's coming to him.

 

Evil Villain pretty much reveals his utter evilness right in front of you, and taking him out will save hundred, or thousands, of lives? Eh, stand still and let 'em live. It's not right to kill anyone unless that victim is some random soldier. Them, we can kill in droves...

 

...but our hero, who has trounced Titan, gutted Garuda, Impacted Ifrit, Lynched Leviathan, Ransacked Ramuh, undercut Ultima, and slaughtered Shiva, suddenly is a dainty and delicate flower among common thugs, who should die like grass under a scythe should Our Hero even try to fight back.

 

Minfilia is being a useless tool nine times out of ten? Oh, let's back her up no matter how stupid she's being, with nothing but a smile and a nod.

 

Hm, I'm trapped in a beastman jail, and can't get out? What? An aetheryte? What's that? Oh, it's that thing I have to remember exists to get to a DIFFERENT beastman secret area. Right.

 

Y'know, I can march right into the front door of this fortress and render the place empty of resistance in 15 minutes.... but no, let's go through with that complex plan that gets half our people kidnapped! Yay!

 

But of course, I''d love to do all your random household errands and chores and drive off that common fauna from your homestead, common folk! I am the Warrior of Light, and I have nothing better to do!

 

Oh, PLEASE keep smack-talking me, Mr. Scholarly type escort person. Please! These muscles and this weapon are surely just for show, and you MUST be a genius to have information that... oh, wait, that my good buddies, the Scions, surely know more about than YOU do, you simpleton. Please, annoy me once more, Professor Replaceable.

 

Noooooooooooope.

 

Not one of my characters even will acknowledge that the MSQ EXISTS except as mandated by world-shaking and realm-forming events, ones that someone else must have brought about, of course.

[Kalooeh]

I do appreciate the amicable tone so far, and of course understand many of your points. However, as stated, some people haven't gotten through the storyline yet. And so... what is 'current events' to some, is not to others, even if their character legitimately should have experienced it due to their position/title.

 

I understand using the MSQ to enhance your personal rp amongst smaller groups, but am confused as to trying to apply it to the broader community based setting. I mean... we are all on different timelines within the MSQ. My character resides in Ul'dah a lot, and would be very thoroughly confused if someone was rping that the sky was falling, when it very clearly is not to her.

 

I don't remember whether you've had a great deal of experience RPing in MMOs or not.  Generally this is always a problem that happens in MMOs that have any sort of basic overarching story.

 

For the most part, in many MMO RP communities, every time a new patch comes out, its contents are the 'update' for current events happening in the world.  Otherwise the world would still be in its extremely stagnant 1.0 version or 2.0 relaunch version of itself for all of the RP community which would be very stale, would lock out new things like Doman roleplayers -- and would even prohibit everything in the upcoming expansion as all of the events in the MSQ lead up to what is coming next.  (AKA, you wouldn't be able to RP an Au Ra because they are virtually non-existent in the MSQ save for one main NPC.)

 

Also, it would directly clash with small things SE does to the world itself to imply time has changed, such as Mor Dhona constantly being updated to show that as time progresses, it becomes a bigger and better place.  

 

While this isn't necessarily fair for newer RPers or people who are much slower to complete the MSQ - it would prove to be more of a detriment than an asset over time.  Especially as SE continues to change/update the world and most of the RP community will have completed the story quests over those who have not.

It really doesn't matter where a character's personal timeline is at. It doesn't affect the overall story but if you're an rp'er you need to pay attention to world-current events and not just personal story/quest current events.

I have a Miqo that's sitting about level 30 and a Highlander at 50. They're obviously at different points in the story but I don't play them at being at different points in the overall timeline. I'm pretty casual and a super lazy leveler (Hell took me about a year to get Kal to 50 and only did just recently), but I still recognize the world doesn't revolve around my characters and where they are in the story. It's not like a normal single player game where it's where you are in the story affects the rest of the world.

Dhei isn't stuck in the past around events around the time you unlock Haukke manor. She's still part of the overall world and same with Kal and my being stuck at the just hitting 50 part. I'll get to the story eventually (after I get a new computer that can run the game), but the world isn't going to be static and overall events will continue to play out and I just need to read on what's going on and try to pay attention to the updates and other people and react to current events like everyone else.

 

Always surprises me how much rp'ers whine about spoilers when you'd think they'd want to know about world events that may affect their character, either by learning of it by word of mouth (which really is going to happen at some point) or by it affecting them directly. You can't really rp if you're worried about spoilers before you can get to them unless you elect to do the content before you rp. Not fair to others if someone icly talks about something that has happened and you get mad at them or deny it happening because you havn't done the content yourself. Really makes no sense.

Only time something like that is a problem is if someone's metagaming and talking about something their character couldn't really know, especially when it involves something that hasn't actually happened yet because it hasn't been added to the game and they only know about it because of developer announcements that it was coming.

[Chris Ganale]

Roegadyn tries killing you during a contest. Game refuses to let you fight back, and also refuses to let you do anything at all after to see that he gets what's coming to him.

Technically you can beat his ass, just as long as he doesn't die. I always do.

 

I do agree, though. Of my eight characters, Tahz is probably the only one who might have gone peacefully with the Blades. The rest would have slaughtered Teledji and his little mook troop right then and there. Especially Ganale. Accuse a loyal son of Ul'dah of assassinating the sultana, will you.

[Magellan]

 

Not one of my characters even will acknowledge that the MSQ EXISTS except as mandated by world-shaking and realm-forming events, ones that someone else must have brought about, of course.

I think I'll go with this. If I actually enjoyed the MSQ, I'm sure I'd be pretty gung-ho about rping along with it, but alas I do not. I've got one character who works for the Blades, and probably will not anymore, but the rest of my characters would be pretty unaffected/clueless anyway.

[Tiergan]

Some updates are very easy to do this with. For this current one - almost all of my characters would be 100% unaffected and wouldn't really know much more than "Wow there's WAY more guards in Ul'dah than usual." and a few very minor tidbits.

 

Other ones like when the Domans arrived however, are a bit more far reaching. Especially when folks started making Doman RP characters. As long as you're okay with OTHER people using MSQ bits for character development, you can probably safely get away with your character not really being in the know about stuff until she actually literally runs into them in game (like a Doman! Or an Au Ra.)

[Aya]

If you're not right up to the edge of the MSQ, just play along! Unless you're involved in Ul'dahn politics ICly (which I doubt you are) or your character is particularly in-tune to the possibility of political and civil turmoil (Aya tends to be, out of a sense that when bad things start to happen generally, they often happen to people like her), you really don't need to worry about anything more than the most casual connection.

 

What do you do in real life when someone starts talking about news you haven't heard or don't care about? Now imagine putting your character in the same situation.

 

It shouldn't really have much of an impact.

[Dis]

I have a couple of characters who will be influenced by the MSQ, but for the most part, everyone's going to be just going 'Huh. Well that happened', and going on about their business.  Conversely, I have a character who's much more impacted by what's going on in Ishgard than she is what's going on in Ul'dah.  

 

As far as the why of it, I pay attention to the MSQ because for the most part, I can't play in a bubble.  If I wanted to do that, I wouldn't play in an MMO, I'd play in a forum where I can dictate precisely where the storyline is at all times.  But in an active and moving world with a few thousand players at the very least, I can't expect current events in MSQ to not catch up to me, even if I'm behind the story.

[Warren Castille]

Always surprises me how much rp'ers whine about spoilers when you'd think they'd want to know about world events that may affect their character, either by learning of it by word of mouth (which really is going to happen at some point) or by it affecting them directly. You can't really rp if you're worried about spoilers before you can get to them unless you elect to do the content before you rp. Not fair to others if someone icly talks about something that has happened and you get mad at them or deny it happening because you havn't done the content yourself. Really makes no sense.

 

Not everyone has the luxury of infinite free time to be able to run through all of the content in the first 24, 48 or 168 hours of it being released.

[B'ren Lyrgh]

Always surprises me how much rp'ers whine about spoilers when you'd think they'd want to know about world events that may affect their character, either by learning of it by word of mouth (which really is going to happen at some point) or by it affecting them directly. You can't really rp if you're worried about spoilers before you can get to them unless you elect to do the content before you rp. Not fair to others if someone icly talks about something that has happened and you get mad at them or deny it happening because you havn't done the content yourself. Really makes no sense.

 

Not everyone has the luxury of infinite free time to be able to run through all of the content in the first 24, 48 or 168 hours of it being released.

^ Pretty much that.

 

There's folks that wont be able to actually finish the content until the end of the month! Imagine that! There's usually folks that tend to wait quite awhile before taking events of the main story into account in their RP. It didnt all happen in one day, the patch quests that is.If someone doesnt wanna rp ___ being gone or ____ doing "THE BAD THING", then they don't have to.

[Michikyou]

Always surprises me how much rp'ers whine about spoilers when you'd think they'd want to know about world events that may affect their character, either by learning of it by word of mouth (which really is going to happen at some point) or by it affecting them directly. You can't really rp if you're worried about spoilers before you can get to them unless you elect to do the content before you rp. Not fair to others if someone icly talks about something that has happened and you get mad at them or deny it happening because you havn't done the content yourself. Really makes no sense.

 

Not everyone has the luxury of infinite free time to be able to run through all of the content in the first 24, 48 or 168 hours of it being released.

^ Pretty much that.

 

There's folks that wont be able to actually finish the content until the end of the month! Imagine that! There's usually folks that tend to wait quite awhile before taking events of the main story into account in their RP. It didnt all happen in one day, the patch quests that is.If someone doesnt wanna rp ___ being gone or ____ doing "THE BAD THING", then they don't have to.

 

 

But if people want to roleplay the content as they do it? they can. Because how the world is impacted is instant. If you're worried about spoilers, its going to be unavoidable. Even for a one player game it'd be unavoidable. All I can say is don't roleplay for a while to avoid it - and when you have caught up, roleplay with it.

[B'ren Lyrgh]

Always surprises me how much rp'ers whine about spoilers when you'd think they'd want to know about world events that may affect their character, either by learning of it by word of mouth (which really is going to happen at some point) or by it affecting them directly. You can't really rp if you're worried about spoilers before you can get to them unless you elect to do the content before you rp. Not fair to others if someone icly talks about something that has happened and you get mad at them or deny it happening because you havn't done the content yourself. Really makes no sense.

 

Not everyone has the luxury of infinite free time to be able to run through all of the content in the first 24, 48 or 168 hours of it being released.

^ Pretty much that.

 

There's folks that wont be able to actually finish the content until the end of the month! Imagine that! There's usually folks that tend to wait quite awhile before taking events of the main story into account in their RP. It didnt all happen in one day, the patch quests that is.If someone doesnt wanna rp ___ being gone or ____ doing "THE BAD THING", then they don't have to.

 

 

But if people want to roleplay the content as they do it? they can. Because how the world is impacted is instant. If you're worried about spoilers, its going to be unavoidable. Even for a one player game it'd be unavoidable. All I can say is don't roleplay for a while to avoid it - and when you have caught up, roleplay with it.

No one should be told that they shouldn't be allowed to RP something if they haven't caught up with it, because not everyone RP's with the entire server. I see your point, but sometimes folks just don't want to RP the entire MSQ at the very instant because it doesnt fit their way of progression vs RPing it out.

[MostlyAwol]

I read this thread and everyone replying seems to be people who played since the game re-released or something. I just started playing this game little over a month ago. I'm just completed the level 30 MSQ and frankly it will be a lot longer if ever that I will complete the MSQ mostly because it requires raiding to complete. I will respect world changing events with expansions but things that are not shown in game but only in cut scenes I will have a hard time with. 

 

Please remember that not everyone you are RPing with are long time players who had the time and the means to play the MSQ through the current patch.

[Aya]

Please remember that not everyone you are RPing with are long time players who had the time and the means to play the MSQ through the current patch.

That's true, certainly! But if the question is "why do people incorporate the events of the MSQ into their RP", which I think is a fair restatement of the original question, I think we have covered that very well

 

One of the ever-present problems with MMO RP is that not everyone is on the same basis in terms of world and story.  There's no GM to give the thumbs-up or thumbs-down or state objectively what your character knows about the world around him or her.  We all have our own tactics for dealing with such conflicts, but I think its fair to say that a fairly large swathe of the RP community here accepts the events of the MSQ (in terms of the major events at least) canon after a week or so of the story update, even if they themselves have not actually caught up (I'm included in that number myself).

[Aduu Avagnar]

some people join MMO's after the second or third expansion. Should people just not rp the events of those expansions, on the off chance that their RP partner is one of those people?

 

When the majority of a player base is already at the cusp, and they give a grace period, that should be enough. Yes, it can be annoying, but to ask everyone to cater to your own sense of progression when it is in the minority is more insulting than the majority refusing to.