How important is OOC achievement when playing a powerful character ICly?

[Caspar]

I have a preference of it's a major perk to me if the player is able to bring their character up to the height their described as. 

 

It is blending to a point, but it also goes with my Rule of Investment, where it's wrong of me to invest time into someone who isn't going to do the same. Typically having a player with a character at level shows they've made the effort and aren't a splash in the pan. A lot of guilds I've seen in WoW as well as here have minimum level requirements for main characters just for that fact.

 

There's also the sad part that the world is built to level and whatnot in. Being lower level limits some of the things that can be done. They have to stick to cities or have an escort to areas, they cannot contribute to dungeon RP even as a different class/job, the items they can acquire or use are also limited. Obviously things can be tweaked and everyone can accommodate, but it can become a huge distraction and take up time meant to role play.

 

If it an alt, there's more leeway in my mind. If the character is meant to be a placeholder for a NPC or is a villain disposable character again its an alt and someone I know is worth the effort.

 

But otherwise I am of the camp that the player has to show the investment for me to really dedicate the time to have my character see theirs as a peer or more. It doesn't have to be exact class-to-class, but overall commitment shows a lot.

 

There's other perks to people who are leveling up to that point of role play and building connections:

- A veteran could be wounded and recovering and needs to "re-train".

- A new path of life calls for a new sojourn of discovery.

 

That's a bit off topic, but it's a means I enjoy where I can invest OOCly and ICly to building a great character.

I played my character's low level as being crippled by acupressure, to be consistent with the motifs involved. She's since recovered, but I still consider it a good excuse to rp roughness of technique or lack of finesse.

[Kage]

I can't stand it when high-level characters portray themselves as weak.

I'm sorry Verad. Before 2.55 Kage was 50 in everything and was Final Witness. I'm sorry my lalafell still has issues downing a hidden ishgardian evil lady.

[Val]

I find IC age and career time to be a major factor in determining a character's skills.

 

Like, I'm fine if you want to be this young, beautiful wizard lady, but I don't care how talented you are, I will not accept your character to be stronger than my old grumpy sorcerer who has been practicing the dark arts for twice the years she has.

 

For physical classes I suppose it can be a double edged sword. Sure, the old veteran is more skilled and expert, but a young ruthless fighter will have stamina and vigor on his side. Magic class is definitely about mental skills though, and as such the older should make you the better mage of the two (provided that you have been studying magic for most of your life, or anyways more years than the younger mage has). That's like standard protocol in all fantasy stuff.

 

This is pretty much how I feel 100% barring special circumstances such as plot bosses/devices/etc.

[Dogberry]

I tend to play out The Journey.

 

Dogberry started out as J. Random Bareknuckle Boxer in pit fights so mickey mouse he couldn't even hack it in The Bloodsands. He trained, and now he's a world class fist fighter. By no means a kung-fu master, but on par with someone on the professional boxing/MMA circuit for sure. He did the same with the spear, going from a Limsa Lominsan whaler, to a bonafide polearm facewrecker. I didn't just start out with Dogberry claiming to be Eorzea's Muhammad Ali. I was more interested in playing out his rise from a nobody to something more. The time I spent putting effort into the character was the time my character spent training in an 80's movie style montage kind of way.

 

Maybe I'm a giant jerk, but if you're a lowbie pugilist pulling the Ali shtick, the in character response from Dogberry will be to see all of that bravado as foolish bluster, and when you hit Z to pull out your Weathered Horas, he's going to see a thousand things wrong with your body mechanics.

[Arik]

I find IC age and career time to be a major factor in determining a character's skills.

 

Like, I'm fine if you want to be this young, beautiful wizard lady, but I don't care how talented you are, I will not accept your character to be stronger than my old grumpy sorcerer who has been practicing the dark arts for twice the years she has.

 

This, actually.

 

I'm more likely to squint at characters who are still incredibly young/etc and are somehow these masters of a craft. Not that it can't happen, of course, it's just a major story-telling pitfall I think a lot of people fall into... Plus the "child prodigy" angle can get very precariously OP very quickly if not handled well. (And it almost never is.)

[Verad]

I can't stand it when high-level characters portray themselves as weak.

I'm sorry Verad. Before 2.55 Kage was 50 in everything and was Final Witness. I'm sorry my lalafell still has issues downing a hidden ishgardian evil lady.

 

You should be. Absolutely you should be. Missing out on game content is the price you pay for enhancing immersion by making sure your character's level matches his abilities. Do you have any idea how aggravating it is to see somebody playing some poor civilian in the middle of the Burning Wall, where even a side-eyed glance from a Golden Fleece ought to leave the character in a pool of its own blood? Maddening. Simply maddening.

[Hammersmith]

I'm of the unpopular opinion that I think in-game achievement has some bearing on your characters strength. It's just difficult to bump into a total stranger with a level five character with godlike strength!!!!11 and be okay with them beating my level 50+ decently geared character into the ground. There are plenty of exceptions, of course, like if someone can give me a good reason why their level five character is so much stronger than mine, or if they just legitimately outsmart/outdo my character, if it was an alt made for a storyline I'm participating in, etc.

 

That's not to say I apply it as a rule or anything, though (and it's probably really not much of an issue since most of my characters aren't instigators or eager for a brawl, and I almost never do combat RP). It's just that if some freshly-made character suddenly shows up and starts throwing punches at my character for no reason, I'm not going to take it very seriously, though there are other factors that play into that, such as suspicion that such a character may just be an alt someone made for the purposes of drama or harassment.

 

 

Now...here's a funny thing.

 

I don't think this is because you think level has bearing on RP.  I think it's because you use level to judge the kind of social capital someone might be deserving.  No one wants Nublet McEdgelord to waltz into a gathering and take a giant combat shit on it with a freshly rolled level 1 Char in vanity armor who can suplex Titan Train and is also the last Black Mage of a Royal Allagan Bloodline.

 

So are you against that because you think that levels actually matter, or because you think that at least having a level 50 char means they're invested in the server and RP enough to merit paying serious attention to?

[Sin]

I tend to play out The Journey.

 

Dogberry started out as J. Random Bareknuckle Boxer in pit fights so mickey mouse he couldn't even hack it in The Bloodsands. He trained, and now he's a world class fist fighter. By no means a kung-fu master, but on par with someone on the professional boxing/MMA circuit for sure. He did the same with the spear, going from a Limsa Lominsan whaler, to a bonafide polearm facewrecker. I didn't just start out with Dogberry claiming to be Eorzea's Muhammad Ali. I was more interested in playing out his rise from a nobody to something more. The time I spent putting effort into the character was the time my character spent training in an 80's movie style montage kind of way.

 

Maybe I'm a giant jerk, but if you're a lowbie pugilist pulling the Ali shtick, the in character response from Dogberry will be to see all of that bravado as foolish bluster, and when you hit Z to pull out your Weathered Horas, he's going to see a thousand things wrong with your body mechanics.

So because the character is wearing weathered horas he's going to see things wrong with his body mechanics. Not just assume, nor think he sees, but literally you're going to assign wrong factors to the other characters mechanics because you know that that is a level 1 weapon and you've Inspected his level to be low?

 

There are names for that kind of behavior in RP. They're metagaming and godmoding.

 

The journey can be roleplayed without game mechanics.

[C'kayah Polaali]

This is why I prefer dice and simplified char sheets with any combat related rp. Because otherwise... people just cheat.

 

I think this is probably the most interesting statement in this thread.

 

Personally, I RP to construct a story with other people, as a cooperative project. I don't "RP to win", but I know a lot of people do. I believe the issue of "IC power should be reflected by OOC power" stems from this - it gives at least some defense against someone who simply wants to "win" the RP.

 

I personally don't give a hoot about someone's OOC levels, however. For me they're neat because they allow someone to wear certain RP outfits, but I fall firmly into the camp of people who let RP determine IC power. That said, I also tend to avoid RPing with people who are simply trying to "win".

 

RP is a cooperative enterprise. You have to be able to trust the people you're RPing with. If you can't trust them to do things for the good of the story, then why are you RPing with them?

[Sin]

This is why I prefer dice and simplified char sheets with any combat related rp. Because otherwise... people just cheat.

 

I think this is probably the most interesting statement in this thread.

 

Personally, I RP to construct a story with other people, as a cooperative project. I don't "RP to win", but I know a lot of people do. I believe the issue of "IC power should be reflected by OOC power" stems from this - it gives at least some defense against someone who simply wants to "win" the RP.

 

I personally don't give a hoot about someone's OOC levels, however. For me they're neat because they allow someone to wear certain RP outfits, but I fall firmly into the camp of people who let RP determine IC power. That said, I also tend to avoid RPing with people who are simply trying to "win".

 

RP is a cooperative enterprise. You have to be able to trust the people you're RPing with. If you can't trust them to do things for the good of the story, then why are you RPing with them?

 

This exactly. My thoughts in word form!

[C'kayah Polaali]

No one wants Nublet McEdgelord to waltz into a gathering and take a giant combat shit on it with a freshly rolled level 1 Char in vanity armor who can suplex Titan Train and is also the last Black Mage of a Royal Allagan Bloodline.

 

I've always tended to handle these things with the KPAX solution. Nublet McEdgelord *thinks* they're that powerful, but C'kayah simply sees a delusional homeless person who's wandered into the party and is yelling random senseless crap.

[111]

I can't stand it when high-level characters portray themselves as weak.

I'm sorry Verad. Before 2.55 Kage was 50 in everything and was Final Witness. I'm sorry my lalafell still has issues downing a hidden ishgardian evil lady.

 

You should be. Absolutely you should be. Missing out on game content is the price you pay for enhancing immersion by making sure your character's level matches his abilities. Do you have any idea how aggravating it is to see somebody playing some poor civilian in the middle of the Burning Wall, where even a side-eyed glance from a Golden Fleece ought to leave the character in a pool of its own blood? Maddening. Simply maddening.

 

I know you're trying to make a point here Verad, but it is true that allowing someone to 'beat' your character, can be a significant thing. Especially for characters that are supposed to be good at combat.

 

If someone is trying to fight one of my characters, I'm much more likely to engage with them seriously if they're higher level, since the stakes are higher then. I don't even do roll based fighting (outside of the grindstone) much with lower level characters, because there is no tension or stake to it.

 

I think the real thing people are hinting at is that Combat RP has no weight unless there are consequences and risk. And it's hard to do that without trust. Therefor I'm much more inclined to trust someone who has been playing this game for a long time, and/or RPing for a long time, because they have skin in the game. I can't have an epic revenge story after getting my eye poked out by stubbs the lalafell rogue, if I never see them again. However if someone who is active and long term does such a thing, then I can make a story out of it.

 

Edit: What hammersmith said.

[Manari]

I apologize if this is slightly off topic, I don't really think that it is though.

 

How do you feel about characters that are something that doesn't fit into the class/job classifications? There are always people out there that want to RP their favorite job that isn't in the game like Blue Mage, Red Mage, and Samurai. I personally don't feel this can work because we have no lore on these jobs, and as far as the lore is concerned, they don't exist in Eorzea yet.

 

For Manari, back in 1.0 I RPed her as an archer, a huntress to be specific. Even after they forced me to be a bard, I still just RPed that she was a huntress. She had skills that bards don't have, like tracking, stalking, setting traps, things like that. My Bard was level 50 of course, but I never RPed Manari as being that good at playing music.

 

Then towards the end of 1.0, right before server shut down, I began to have Manari slowly shift towards a darker path due to events that have happened to her. She still used her bow occasionally, but now she began to train in the use of daggers. Single and dual blades, and I used Paladin with the daggers they used to have to show this in-game. She wasn't a ninja, she was becoming an assassin. That isn't a class or a job you can be, Ninja wasn't even hinted at yet either (though I did assume it would happen eventually) but I've been RPing this ever since.

 

Even now I don't RP Manari as a "ninja" and she's never had anything to do with the Rogue's from Limsa either. I don't RP her knowing things like the mudras or able to use the ninja spells. She is very good a moving silently, becoming like a phantom when in her natural element of the Black Shroud. I personally don't feel like using a dagger would be something that only rogues and ninjas could ever learn to do. However, I do use Ninja as my RP job to represent all this now, and it is level 50 (I don't have Heavensward yet). So how does the community feel about something like that? Also, it isn't something that I advertise when RPing, like sending a OOC message that says ((Manari isn't a ninja, she's an assassin!)) or anything like that.

[Dogberry]

I tend to play out The Journey.

 

Dogberry started out as J. Random Bareknuckle Boxer in pit fights so mickey mouse he couldn't even hack it in The Bloodsands. He trained, and now he's a world class fist fighter. By no means a kung-fu master, but on par with someone on the professional boxing/MMA circuit for sure. He did the same with the spear, going from a Limsa Lominsan whaler, to a bonafide polearm facewrecker. I didn't just start out with Dogberry claiming to be Eorzea's Muhammad Ali. I was more interested in playing out his rise from a nobody to something more. The time I spent putting effort into the character was the time my character spent training in an 80's movie style montage kind of way.

 

Maybe I'm a giant jerk, but if you're a lowbie pugilist pulling the Ali shtick, the in character response from Dogberry will be to see all of that bravado as foolish bluster, and when you hit Z to pull out your Weathered Horas, he's going to see a thousand things wrong with your body mechanics.

So because the character is wearing weathered horas he's going to see things wrong with his body mechanics. Not just assume, nor think he sees, but literally you're going to assign wrong factors to the other characters mechanics because you know that that is a level 1 weapon and you've Inspected his level to be low?

 

There are names for that kind of behavior in RP. They're metagaming and godmoding.

 

The journey can be roleplayed without game mechanics.

 

Yes. If you're a level 1 Pugilist, in my eyes, your character is a level 1 Pugilist. To me, metagaming and godmoding is claiming your character has abilities it clearly doesn't have. If you can't be bothered to level up a job to at least a level where you can pull off a look that fits the job beyond "freshly made character", then I don't see why my character should recognize the skills yours claims to have.

 

If you're going to RP a character and not level them, why even subscribe to the game? You'd probably be a lot better suited doing forum RP. Gaia Online is over there, bro.

[Magellan]

Real power has zero to do with level. Zilch. Nada.  It has nothing to do with gear, gil, or class. It has *everything* to do with how your character carries themselves. Do they, by their actions, instill awe, fear, or respect? Or are they a cartoon caricature looking for a fight with anything that moves?

 

Power is never assumed and must be continously earned. Just because you are considered OP in your circles means nothing to me. You must prove to my character you are someone to be reckoned with. 

 

Do people get out of line trying to prove how tough they are? Absolutely.  Their actions show they don't have a firm grasp on how power is represented, and this has *nothing* to do with level.  It has to do with skill in story telling. Player level can only be accessed via meta-gaming, and therefore should be tossed right out the window. Pay attention to the rp first, and then decide how you feel about the person.

[Altitis Acquired]

People can RP whatever they like. And if you disagree with their RP, just don't RP with them. ^^

[Verad]

 

I know you're trying to make a point here Verad, but it is true that allowing someone to 'beat' your character, can be a significant thing. Especially for characters that are supposed to be good at combat.

 

If someone is trying to fight one of my characters, I'm much more likely to engage with them seriously if they're higher level, since the stakes are higher then. I don't even do roll based fighting (outside of the grindstone) much with lower level characters, because there is no tension or stake to it.

 

I think the real thing people are hinting at is that Combat RP has no weight unless there are consequences and risk. And it's hard to do that without trust. Therefor I'm much more inclined to trust someone who has been playing this game for a long time, and/or RPing for a long time, because they have skin in the game. I can't have an epic revenge story after getting my eye poked out by stubbs the lalafell rogue, if I never see them again. However if someone who is active and long term does such a thing, then I can make a story out of it.

 

Edit: What hammersmith said.

 

People are relying on this argument of investment, but I have to say that somebody who has played this game for a long time and has remained at a low level is showing a level of commitment that can't help but make me doff my hat towards them.

 

Imagine all the temptations of playing the game - the story of the MSQ, the content, the gear, the vanity items - in front of a person for such a long time, and for them to say "No, thank you, that would be out of character, for it would put me at a higher level" speaks of a dedication I can't help but admire.

 

But the emphasis on combat, on stakes, on story-building, all points to this being yet another variation of the same god damned argument people always have - "I will only trust a powerful character given it is done well," with "level" being another restriction on "done well."

[C'kayah Polaali]

How do you feel about characters that are something that doesn't fit into the class/job classifications? There are always people out there that want to RP their favorite job that isn't in the game like Blue Mage, Red Mage, and Samurai. I personally don't feel this can work because we have no lore on these jobs, and as far as the lore is concerned, they don't exist in Eorzea yet.

 

For me? Entertainment covers up a lot of sins. If someone's a great RPer and can portray themselves well, then I'll typically accept what they're saying. Over the years in FF, I've happily RPed with:

 

• A woman who can see the future in her dreams
  
• A woman who can read people's auras
  
• Several voidtouched people who can feed on aether
  
• Several 'what the hell are they?' types who play very powerful and paranormal characters
  
• An artificial primal made by Garleans
  
• Several mad artifacers who create devices completely divorced from anything in gameplay/lore
  

 

I do this because they play them well.

 

Think about it. If we would restrict everyone to playing just what the game allows, we wouldn't have had Scales in the Sand, we wouldn't have had any of the Askier/Jin'li arcs, we wouldn't have had the Nero Lazarov arc, and any number of other high-profile arcs that have run over the years.

[Gegenji]

I tend to play out The Journey.

 

Dogberry started out as J. Random Bareknuckle Boxer in pit fights so mickey mouse he couldn't even hack it in The Bloodsands. He trained, and now he's a world class fist fighter. By no means a kung-fu master, but on par with someone on the professional boxing/MMA circuit for sure. He did the same with the spear, going from a Limsa Lominsan whaler, to a bonafide polearm facewrecker. I didn't just start out with Dogberry claiming to be Eorzea's Muhammad Ali. I was more interested in playing out his rise from a nobody to something more. The time I spent putting effort into the character was the time my character spent training in an 80's movie style montage kind of way.

 

Maybe I'm a giant jerk, but if you're a lowbie pugilist pulling the Ali shtick, the in character response from Dogberry will be to see all of that bravado as foolish bluster, and when you hit Z to pull out your Weathered Horas, he's going to see a thousand things wrong with your body mechanics.

So because the character is wearing weathered horas he's going to see things wrong with his body mechanics. Not just assume, nor think he sees, but literally you're going to assign wrong factors to the other characters mechanics because you know that that is a level 1 weapon and you've Inspected his level to be low?

 

There are names for that kind of behavior in RP. They're metagaming and godmoding.

 

The journey can be roleplayed without game mechanics.

 

Yes. If you're a level 1 Pugilist, in my eyes, your character is a level 1 Pugilist. To me, metagaming and godmoding is claiming your character has abilities it clearly doesn't have. If you can't be bothered to level up a job to at least a level where you can pull off a look that fits the job beyond "freshly made character", then I don't see why my character should recognize the skills yours claims to have.

 

If you're going to RP a character and not level them, why even subscribe to the game? You'd probably be a lot better suited doing forum RP. Gaia Online is over there, bro.

 

I'd like to present a question I'm honestly curious about given this statement, Dogberry: at what level would they have to reach to pull off that "not fresh" look?

 

Again, I'd like to use the busy working mom example - someone who only has enough time for an hour or two to hang our with her friends who all RP in FFXIV. She wants to RP a skilled swordswoman, let's say a Sergeant in the Flames or something. At what point would she lose the "freshly made character" stigma and be honestly considered as the character she would like to play in that short window of time she has to play it?

 

It's a unique situation, certainly, but I'm just curious where your opinion stands on it.

[Caspar]

I apologize if this is slightly off topic, I don't really think that it is though.  

 

How do you feel about characters that are something that doesn't fit into the class/job classifications?  There are always people out there that want to RP their favorite job that isn't in the game like Blue Mage, Red Mage, and Samurai.  I personally don't feel this can work because we have no lore on these jobs, and as far as the lore is concerned, they don't exist in Eorzea yet.  

 

For Manari, back in 1.0 I RPed her as an archer, a huntress to be specific.  Even after they forced me to be a bard, I still just RPed that she was a huntress.  She had skills that bards don't have, like tracking, stalking, setting traps, things like that.  My Bard was level 50 of course, but I never RPed Manari as being that good at playing music.  

 

Then towards the end of 1.0, right before server shut down, I began to have Manari slowly shift towards a darker path due to events that have happened to her.  She still used her bow occasionally, but now she began to train in the use of daggers.  Single and dual blades, and I used Paladin with the daggers they used to have to show this in-game.  She wasn't a ninja, she was becoming an assassin.  That isn't a class or a job you can be, Ninja wasn't even hinted at yet either (though I did assume it would happen eventually) but I've been RPing this ever since.  

 

Even now I don't RP Manari as a "ninja" and she's never had anything to do with the Rogue's from Limsa either.  I don't RP her knowing things like the mudras or able to use the ninja spells.  She is very good a moving silently, becoming like a phantom when in her natural element of the Black Shroud.  I personally don't feel like using a dagger would be something that only rogues and ninjas could ever learn to do.  However, I do use Ninja as my RP job to represent all this now, and it is level 50 (I don't have Heavensward yet).  So how does the community feel about something like that?  Also, it isn't something that I advertise when RPing, like sending a OOC message that says ((Manari isn't a ninja, she's an assassin!)) or anything like that.

I think that's cool and like Lucas before he started to suck ill accept it up until it is directly contradicted by canon.

[Asmodean]

I tend to play out The Journey.

 

Dogberry started out as J. Random Bareknuckle Boxer in pit fights so mickey mouse he couldn't even hack it in The Bloodsands. He trained, and now he's a world class fist fighter. By no means a kung-fu master, but on par with someone on the professional boxing/MMA circuit for sure. He did the same with the spear, going from a Limsa Lominsan whaler, to a bonafide polearm facewrecker. I didn't just start out with Dogberry claiming to be Eorzea's Muhammad Ali. I was more interested in playing out his rise from a nobody to something more. The time I spent putting effort into the character was the time my character spent training in an 80's movie style montage kind of way.

 

Maybe I'm a giant jerk, but if you're a lowbie pugilist pulling the Ali shtick, the in character response from Dogberry will be to see all of that bravado as foolish bluster, and when you hit Z to pull out your Weathered Horas, he's going to see a thousand things wrong with your body mechanics.

 

I see this as the best way to handle level if your going to use them for role play with randoms. This would only really be a problem outside a group of friends, which shouldn't be surprising. Everyone has their own way to look at how to handle things like this. I'll use my own character as an example.

 

50 WAR so he knows how to fight with and against other ax user like the back of his hand, but at times his cockiness would get the better him in a fight if he let himself get full of himself. But for the most part he can hand himself as an equal at the very least.

 

41 NIN so he knows how to use knives well and has some skill with stealth so his he was to drop his heavy armor.

 

30 GLD He can swing the blade and know how to deflect attacks but can be easily overpowered.

 

22 PUP Punching thing is not hard to do and more or less meant to part of his willingness to do anything in a fight to survive a battle as needed. And then he started train with a lance before Hevensward came out.

 

For the most part out side of him using an ax or knives, Asmodean will more then likely lose a fight but for rp sake it become a reason he could learn something he might not of thought about. IN a group that knows me they might be willing to let me get away with more but I should never expect a 60 PLD to lose a sword fight to my character.

[Hammersmith]

I tend to play out The Journey.

 

Dogberry started out as J. Random Bareknuckle Boxer in pit fights so mickey mouse he couldn't even hack it in The Bloodsands. He trained, and now he's a world class fist fighter. By no means a kung-fu master, but on par with someone on the professional boxing/MMA circuit for sure. He did the same with the spear, going from a Limsa Lominsan whaler, to a bonafide polearm facewrecker. I didn't just start out with Dogberry claiming to be Eorzea's Muhammad Ali. I was more interested in playing out his rise from a nobody to something more. The time I spent putting effort into the character was the time my character spent training in an 80's movie style montage kind of way.

 

Maybe I'm a giant jerk, but if you're a lowbie pugilist pulling the Ali shtick, the in character response from Dogberry will be to see all of that bravado as foolish bluster, and when you hit Z to pull out your Weathered Horas, he's going to see a thousand things wrong with your body mechanics.

So because the character is wearing weathered horas he's going to see things wrong with his body mechanics. Not just assume, nor think he sees, but literally you're going to assign wrong factors to the other characters mechanics because you know that that is a level 1 weapon and you've Inspected his level to be low?

 

There are names for that kind of behavior in RP. They're metagaming and godmoding.

 

The journey can be roleplayed without game mechanics.

 

Yes. If you're a level 1 Pugilist, in my eyes, your character is a level 1 Pugilist. To me, metagaming and godmoding is claiming your character has abilities it clearly doesn't have. If you can't be bothered to level up a job to at least a level where you can pull off a look that fits the job beyond "freshly made character", then I don't see why my character should recognize the skills yours claims to have.

 

If you're going to RP a character and not level them, why even subscribe to the game? You'd probably be a lot better suited doing forum RP. Gaia Online is over there, bro.

  Question:

 

Does this apply to old, experianced RPers, who play slowly and only have the evenings to invest in?

 

Do they have to go through the 40-50 hour story quest without being able to play their concept?  Does everyone have to start as a fresh faced recruit because the game starts everyone at level 1?

 

Where is the flex allowed there?  A lot of good RPers also have lives outside the game and, as we all know, the content pit of FF14 is pretty deep.

 

And since we're talking about Gaia Online:

 

Thank You,

The Management

[Aya]

If you're going to RP a character and not level them, why even subscribe to the game? You'd probably be a lot better suited doing forum RP. Gaia Online is over there, bro.

I don't understand why MMO RP should lack the same sense of imagination that other RP embraces.  Why place such unnecessary limits on it?  The OOC game in FF, not to mention the MSQ, results in characters so ridiculous that they cannot be RPed plausibly.  So why is there any reason to turn that ridiculous equation around?

 

It just doesn't make sense to me.  Not to mention the shortcomings of the game in representing the full breadth of actual professions and skill sets available in the world of Eorzea (a shortcoming strictly shared by any MMO, by necessity). 

 

Live, and play free.  Its more fun that way (at least to me).

 

Edit: I just want to add that these is one of those unresolvable, intractable, and forever standing philosophical disagreements that occur within RP communities.  There is no real way to reach consensus; its just a matter that people disagree on :-]

[111]

 

People are relying on this argument of investment, but I have to say that somebody who has played this game for a long time and has remained at a low level is showing a level of commitment that can't help but make me doff my hat towards them.

 

Imagine all the temptations of playing the game - the story of the MSQ, the content, the gear, the vanity items - in front of a person for such a long time, and for them to say "No, thank you, that would be out of character, for it would put me at a higher level" speaks of a dedication I can't help but admire.

 

But the emphasis on combat, on stakes, on story-building, all points to this being yet another variation of the same god damned argument people always have - "I will only trust a powerful character given it is done well," with "level" being another restriction on "done well."

 

Is that an argument you do not agree with? Do you trust powerful characters whether they are done well or poorly?

[Sin]

Yes. If you're a level 1 Pugilist, in my eyes, your character is a level 1 Pugilist. To me, metagaming and godmoding is claiming your character has abilities it clearly doesn't have. If you can't be bothered to level up a job to at least a level where you can pull off a look that fits the job beyond "freshly made character", then I don't see why my character should recognize the skills yours claims to have.

 

If you're going to RP a character and not level them, why even subscribe to the game? You'd probably be a lot better suited doing forum RP. Gaia Online is over there, bro.

 

This is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever read on this forum.

 

How does your character even know the person is level 1? What even is level 1?  How do you know its not a Kung Fu master using a Weathered Hora? What if it is and you just went and assigned a bunch of flaws to their stance and literally wrecked the person's intended character.

 

That might be what they mean to you, but they have slightly more concrete meanings... When you roleplay your character as having information that by the story they should not have then that's metagaming. Like knowing they are low level because you inspected them. Godmoding is when you establish factors as truth and become the sole determinant of the outcome of a story. Like flinging a punch and making sure it lands by putting it in your emote. Like saying that your character can see flaws in another character's stance despite whatever they are emoting.

 

You can't really determine why people want to pay 15 a month and play this game. A person could pay 15 a month to sit and look at the Forgotten Spring kitties and be fully within their right.

 

I don't know where Gaia online is bro, but here's my character.

 

 

 

Would you assume he is a god amonst men?

 

I wouldn't.