How much is too much Voidsent?

[Altitis Acquired]

Inject as much Voidsent into your system you want! As long you have friends who wants to RP with you and goes along with it, then you can RP whatever you want together and no one is going to tell you otherwise! Have fun with it. ^^

 

Just don't expect everyone to be acceptive of it though. Actually, almost no matter what you do, there'll be someone who disapproves. If you want the general public to be acceptive of your RP, then you don't colour outside the lines at all and you always pick the correct colours. Which means you won't have anything to do with anything Voidsent, unless it is killing them. But that's boring!

 

Just as long you have fun, because that's what RP is about. <3

[ExAtomos]

Up until recently, I've felt rather strongly about avoiding any over-the-top character stuff. Then I sat down and played a couple older FF games. While playing, it occurred to me... y'know FF itself isn't exactly known for low key characters. And /you/ are still the star of your story (you're just working with others since it's a mmo).

 

I am personally still not fond of really stretching the edges of lore, but if you find folks that like your story and want to play along, go for it and have fun! That's the important part. And yeah, telling randoms you're a voidsent/dullahan/alien/etc might get you an "okay.jpg" in response, so just be aware of that.

 

I've used em myself as a plot device: One of my characters was tortured by a couple mages and had a voidsent shoved into his chest. Had to have that sucker surgically & magically removed and he's pretty traumatized by the whole event. (It's now sealed away in a jar.)

 

Voidsent are used a lot in game, so, while they are creepy as heck, I don't feel they are all that uncommon.

 

Side note: I actually had an idea to make a young voidsent character who tries to fit in with the rest of Eorzean society. So, on some other random server, I have this strange looking lala and running around as him just makes me giggle. A lot. Sometimes out loud. >.> If I brought him to Balmung, I would probably get a ton of rolled eyes. lol. I'm having fun though. ^^

[Grott]

So, on some other random server, I have this strange looking lala and running around as him just makes me giggle. A lot. Sometimes out loud. >.> If I brought him to Balmung, I would probably get a ton of rolled eyes. lol. I'm having fun though. ^^

 

You're not alone.

 

Had this guy since ARR launch, and no one's rolled their eyes at me. I'm also not RPing a voidsent though.

[ExAtomos]

So, on some other random server, I have this strange looking lala and running around as him just makes me giggle. A lot. Sometimes out loud. >.> If I brought him to Balmung, I would probably get a ton of rolled eyes. lol. I'm having fun though. ^^

 

 

You're not alone.

 

Had this guy since ARR launch, and no one's rolled their eyes at me. I'm also not RPing a voidsent though.

 

I think it takes a lot of crazy colors to make people roll their eyes at just your character's looks. But yes, I meant specifically about rping as a voidsent. All I'm doing is just rolling with a fresh take on all the quests and stuff as they are presented. Like "why on earth would Hydaelyn even pick this guy?" and stuff like that. I'm not the type of person to shove my ideas in anyone's face (so in this case, it's just a weird looking character as far as anyone else is concerned. And in the case of my character who went through a horrific experience, you wouldn't know unless you saw him without his shirt on and asked about the scar). Could this be what makes the difference? How it's presented?

[Sounsyy]

Back to having knowledge of voidsent if a character has the ability to identify anything that is a voidsent to accuse another character of messing with the void, I'd say there's going to be some raised eyebrows of how that person has so much knowledge on voidsent. If something is so evil and illegal to the point even talking about it can get someone arrested. They'd have to immerse themselves in a lot of voidsent knowledge.

 

I hate using the phrase devil's advocate, but I guess I'm essentially playing devil's advocate to your playing devil's advocate...

 

While using commoners and general adventurers lack of scholarly knowledge as a reason to counter recognition of a controversial RP topic is something I've advocated in the past (see white mage), as far as voidsent classification goes, it may actually work as a disadvantage given that most creatures classified as voidsent are actually just creatures of unknown origin that Eorzeans had a hard time classifying, and may or may not actually be from the Void.

 

The "void" is the generic term that inhabitants of Eorzea have given to a dark realm they believe exists beyond their own. This domain is different from the heavens (where the Twelve reside) and the seven hells (one of the destinations to which those who do not follow the teachings of Nald'thal believe the body goes upon death). Little' date=' however, is known about the void or what it contains, and thus creatures deemed too queer or unnatural to be "of Eorzea" (such as ahriman, imps, phurbles, etc.) are often categorized as "voidsent," the common belief being that they were sent by some sinister force from beyond the corporeal realm. Recently, Eorzean scholars have begun pointing to the high concentration of voidsent in the Dzemael Darkhold as evidence of the void's existence, though concrete proof (beyond the Ishgardian sapper's claim) has yet to be uncovered.[/quote']

 

So while specific lore exists for certain voidsent... succubi possess the bodies of dead women, ahriman manifest inside eyeballs, dullahan animate suits of armor, etc ...anything strange and inexplicable, such as demon walls, chimera, or the deepvoid deathmouse can be misclassified as voidsent by the common populace, making tampering with or claiming to tamper with actual voidsent that much more dangerous to do anywhere near the public eye, or claiming to. A character might not have to know that an ahriman occupies the 5th tier of the voidsent hierarchy, but when they see a severed head reanimate or a plucked eyeball suddenly sprout teeth and bat wings, said character is likely going to scream voidsent, because what else could it be?

[Grott]

 

Could this be what makes the difference? How it's presented?

 

In my opinion, presentation is everything. I honestly can't think of a way that "I'm a voidsent" can be presented to me, personally, without me taking a step back and scratching my head and double-checking the lore, but I'm sure it can be done. Like I said, I think presentation is everything but the crazier your idea is, the harder you have to work on presentation. Anything's possible I suppose.

[ExAtomos]

 

Could this be what makes the difference? How it's presented?

 

In my opinion, presentation is everything. I honestly can't think of a way that "I'm a voidsent" can be presented to me, personally, without me taking a step back and scratching my head and double-checking the lore, but I'm sure it can be done. Like I said, I think presentation is everything but the crazier your idea is, the harder you have to work on presentation. Anything's possible I suppose.

 

Yeah, that's pretty much where my brain's been sittin. I think it's the concept of being faced with some phenomenal cosmic power that a character claims to have that halts me more than the idea:

 

"I'm a voidsent!"

 

"Great. So you're a powerful being of darkness..."

 

*spits out a couple feeble Blizzard spells that couldn't cool off a sweet tea* "That's... all I got."

 

"...you're kidding."

 

"I was fired from my last job in Tam Tara. They said I wasn't scary enough. I've been demoted to pretending to be some Aldgoat out near Camp Drybone for people's leves."

 

". . ."

 

"Okay, NOW I'm kidding."

 

 

What do we have to work with in game? Strict lore and plausible filling in of gaps in lore. Unlike real world histories and legends, game lore is a mere skeleton of stories (some very detailed, granted) and we are left to fill in the blanks where we can. Someone wants to be a living suit of armor (met one in the Quicksand once). "Does it fit the lore we have?" "Is it plausible?" "Does it fit within the spirit of FF games?" These are all questions I run through my head when faced with unusual character ideas.

 

Me, I draw the line at invulnerability. Ok, you say you're a god walking around... if we are battling and I /random higher than you, I better be able to punch you in the godly nose.

[Parth Makeo]

Inject as much Voidsent into your system you want! As long you have friends who wants to RP with you and goes along with it, then you can RP whatever you want together and no one is going to tell you otherwise! Have fun with it. ^^

 

Just don't expect everyone to be acceptive of it though. Actually, almost no matter what you do, there'll be someone who disapproves. If you want the general public to be acceptive of your RP, then you don't colour outside the lines at all and you always pick the correct colours. Which means you won't have anything to do with anything Voidsent, unless it is killing them. But that's boring!

 

Just as long you have fun, because that's what RP is about. <3

pretty much this. However I wanted to run this by with public eye because i know there are plenty who have had Voidsent RPers or anything relating to the Void evil peeps in the past. As such this was the best chance to let out people's opinions on Voidsent RPers in a non-intentional way as well :3

 

But yeah what i could of done with this story i can do with another type of aspect I still will be working on. I know not everyone will agree but because this community is the best RPing community i have met, I felt like voicing this idea i had and hopefully see what kind of negativity i would get.

 

shockingly...The negativity was not so much "UGGH FUCK U!" but civilized and respectful in their displease with anyone doing Void things in public. I myself don't approve of people claiming to be even Half voidsent in some regard since that REALLY spells 'OOO so edgy' in my book. Rather I appreciate those who do it well and either hide it.

 

Early experience with a voidsent event was kind of iffy for me and a few others. Then again someone saying "I'm sick of Voidsent related stuff" obviously has no idea that they are considered an actual uncommon threat. I think they meant "I'm sick of people RPing Voidsent stuff" which is ok.

 

Fun fact: It was a spur of the moment idea i had since realizing how similar Quint was to Patchouli.

[Warren Castille]

I know it's inherently flawed to inject real-world rationale into fantasy pretendy times, but I've always had great difficulty in letting what I consider to be "logic" slide in the face of storytelling. Someone being voidtouched is certainly a thing that can happen; We see the slow transformation of some stuff in Tamtara Hard Mode and the THM storyline deals with gradual corruption of someone. As Sounsyy stated, seeing something clearly unnatural would lead to pretty easy accusations lobbed at things that aren't normal.

 

Yugiri chose to hide her identity because she didn't want to make a huge deal about her arrival, remember. It lends that a little girl who sprouted demon/bat wings would draw a little bit of suspicion, especially in Ul'dah. The Ossuary is pretty much the Center for Demon Control in Eorzea as far as we've seen, and it isn't that far off to think there's some kind of "See something, say something" protocol in effect for the city. At the very least, it follows the logic of the world to consider it.

 

The problem/challenge/issue with Voidsent RP isn't that it happens; We've seen it in-game and it's certainly a known thing. The issue, I think, is when people flaunt that shit openly and in public settings. There's no means for anyone in game to stop someone playing an out-and-out succubus in a tavern, for example, despite the logic of the world dictating immediate response from adventurers/a militia/the Grand Companies. If you were going to have a child with obviously-otherworldly-features walking around as if it weren't no thang, that would be a bit much for a lot to swallow.

 

Again, if you wanted to run the story there's plenty of means to. Run it as is, run it without the void, do whatever you'd like with the concept, but the biggest hurdle anyone playing with a template has to jump over with the community is whether or not it's done for a purpose beyond "I wanted to RP a voidsent."

[Parth Makeo]

I know it's inherently flawed to inject real-world rationale into fantasy pretendy times, but I've always had great difficulty in letting what I consider to be "logic" slide in the face of storytelling. Someone being voidtouched is certainly a thing that can happen; We see the slow transformation of some stuff in Tamtara Hard Mode and the THM storyline deals with gradual corruption of someone. As Sounsyy stated, seeing something clearly unnatural would lead to pretty easy accusations lobbed at things that aren't normal.

 

Yugiri chose to hide her identity because she didn't want to make a huge deal about her arrival, remember. It lends that a little girl who sprouted demon/bat wings would draw a little bit of suspicion, especially in Ul'dah. The Ossuary is pretty much the Center for Demon Control in Eorzea as far as we've seen, and it isn't that far off to think there's some kind of "See something, say something" protocol in effect for the city. At the very least, it follows the logic of the world to consider it.

 

The problem/challenge/issue with Voidsent RP isn't that it happens; We've seen it in-game and it's certainly a known thing. The issue, I think, is when people flaunt that shit openly and in public settings. There's no means for anyone in game to stop someone playing an out-and-out succubus in a tavern, for example, despite the logic of the world dictating immediate response from adventurers/a militia/the Grand Companies. If you were going to have a child with obviously-otherworldly-features walking around as if it weren't no thang, that would be a bit much for a lot to swallow.

 

Again, if you wanted to run the story there's plenty of means to. Run it as is, run it without the void, do whatever you'd like with the concept, but the biggest hurdle anyone playing with a template has to jump over with the community is whether or not it's done for a purpose beyond "I wanted to RP a voidsent."

Yeah i did the same thing with Quint since she was unsure how people would react to her being artificial and accuse her of being a Voidsent herself. Now she isn't so concerned about it with people interacting and offering help as well as others able to say 'Wait...you mean this person with little to no Aether is a demon? HA! That's a riot!" to those accusing her of being such a thing. Yet still there are those who are judging her from the shadows.

 

And yeah that last line you posted goes for others who said 'Can't you do the same thing without Voidsent' idea. My reason behind wanting to RP a voidsent was to dive into the lore and try to pull out something more interesting to keep at the home rather than let her roam about openly or even under veil. She would of strictly been kept in the home with plenty of safeguards to prevent her running outside (But maybe in months of RPing and possible people involved she somehow escapes and could lead to a lot of trouble with maybe...A TRIAL FOR QUINT! )

 

The more you guys add onto your opinions, the more i feel like I SHOULD attempt.

[Dravus]

As far as I'm concerned it's best for people to avoid role-playing anything directly related to Voidsent unless those individuals are willing to accept that their character is likely to be killed, imprisoned or exiled.

 

Though most people make excuses as to why that can't happen - which puts a lot of the people  they interact with in an awkward position. The vast majority of player characters are portrayed as 'good aligned'. Therefore when people have their character expose the fact that they're corrupted or planning to murder someone then the role-players behind those 'good aligned' characters usually have to make a choice.

 

Either they try to get involved to dish out justice or they simply ignore it. Most end up going for the latter option because again, most people playing Voidsent pull it off poorly. 

 

Can it be done well? Certainly - but it's incredibly rare and I've seen far too many people believe that they will be the exception to the rule and somehow succeed where others have failed. Those same individuals will usually fall into the exact same pitfalls, making excuses as to why their character can't be killed, imprisoned or exiled and then the cycle just repeats itself.

 

Ultimately people can do whatever they like...though that goes without saying, I feel.

[Grott]

So I've been skimming this thread a bit and I have to bring up an issue that comes up with all of these types of "Can I RP ____?" threads:

 

People saying "You can RP whatever you want. Don't let people tell you how to play the game."

 

I realize this is meant in the nicest possible way, but it's really misleading. Yes, you can RP however you want. But to answer that way to every question about whether someone should or whether it's lore appropriate really gets on my nerves. I feel like it insults the intelligence of the OP. They know they can. Giving a fluff answer that essentially has the same functionality as saying "You're special! Everyone is special!" is just kind of unnecessary. No one thinks the RP police are going to take them away and throw them in a hole for life if they run around saying they're Professor X. That's not the issue.

 

One time, like three years ago, a guy showed up saying he was RPing a character from DCUO, who literally was transported to Eorzea by Lex Luthor from Metropolis. Now, he was clearly new to RP, and when he asked if that was something he could do, people gave him this "You're the best, and your opinions are the best." response and then no one wanted to RP with him because he came off as a lore-breaking crazy man. It's totally misleading and it hurts far more than it helps.

 

So, for future reference, when someone asks "Can I RP this?" can we start giving the honest answer on whether it's socially appropriate or it follows the lore? 

 

Sorry, this kind of went off the beaten path of the thread, but it's just something that came up here as well and I thought I'd address it while one of these types of threads is popular. If you're reading this as a mod or admin or whatever and think this should be in its own thread, shoot me a PM and I'll take care of it.

 

Just felt it was an issue worth addressing.

[Warren Castille]

There was actually a good couple of threads where people said "Can I RP this?" and people pointed out with the lore why they could not, and it resulted in pages-long forum wars between elitists and RP illuminatis and popular crowds gatekeeping what's "acceptable" for RP.

 

If people are doing it, it's because no one wants to derail into a WHM or Miqo'te Dragoon tangent again. It sounds patronizing, and I suppose it is, but there's good precedent for it.

[Grott]

There was actually a good couple of threads where people said "Can I RP this?" and people pointed out with the lore why they could not, and it resulted in pages-long forum wars between elitists and RP illuminatis and popular crowds gatekeeping what's "acceptable" for RP.

 

If people are doing it, it's because no one wants to derail into a WHM or Miqo'te Dragoon tangent again. It sounds patronizing, and I suppose it is, but there's good precedent for it.

 

This is a completely fair rebuttal, and I can totally accept that. At the same time though, I feel there's an appropriate middle-ground to be reached between "You can do whatever you want!" and "No, you're an idiot and that could never happen in this game!"

 

My main concern isn't having a ton of lore-breakers running around and doing what they want, it's that a lot of the people who say "RP what you want" are already in established cliques in the community, so they're not worried about what actually happens when you RP what you want. They'll tell everyone their ideas are special and should be accepted, but they're not there to actually RP with them after everyone else says "You're lore-breaking, don't talk to me."

 

And this kind of stuff happens mostly, though not always, with newer RPers and it discourages them from coming back. I just find it a bit misleading.

 

But I get what you're saying that it prevents a really ugly through-the-mud discussion about what is and isn't okay, especially since a lot of people are just picking and choosing the positive comments and are going to do what they want regardless.

[Parth Makeo]

Unlike Forum RPing, MMO RPing is way more community heavy. My time RPing in Gaia i've noticed that if you are not in a guild for RPing one thing it's usually multiple things in various sub threads. As such the community is everywhere from original to actual RP in universe stuff.

 

MMOs on the other hand has more open community and to me the comment of "You can RP whatever you want, ignore haters' Only makes me shake my head. While yes you are free to RP what you want, you have to take in account that other people you may want to RP with may avoid you or worse...Spread stuff about how to avoid you. I'm not going to name anyone in particular but let's say person A's attitude OOC wise is highly known to be unstable and while he is good at his IC work on his character, slowly people stopped RPing with Person A because of how he takes some IC situations into OOC because of either an RP issue he hates or someone hating his RP

 

You can't please everyone but you CAN find a middle ground with the community of RPers. My thread I hope has been helpful for the group thus far about Voidsent and supernatural opinions and I will probably rename the topic to something more appropriate if it continues on.

 

So to me, hearing "You can RP whatever you want, Don't let others tell you how to play." Is more harm than good. You can RP whatever you want yes but if it actually breaks the lore you might not get a good group of players or even anyone responding because of your infamy.

 

For a while, I was actually scared to approach Warren and the Grindstone with Quint purely because my character was still fresh despite the backstory i hidden about her until then. I know Arala is more middle ground in terms of character but with Quint my lore stick was being bent on the verge of snapping in half with each person i talk to. 

 

If you want to RP whatever you want, you have to also respect the limitations and already established lore in the game to make a good RP. But the subject in question I brought up is a concern since I'd want people to give me as much feedback as they wish about their opinions on it. I actively ignore the "Rp what i want" line purely because I don't want people's own immersions to be broken.

[Verad]

My main concern isn't having a ton of lore-breakers running around and doing what they want, it's that a lot of the people who say "RP what you want" are already in established cliques in the community, so they're not worried about what actually happens when you RP what you want. They'll tell everyone their ideas are special and should be accepted, but they're not there to actually RP with them after everyone else says "You're lore-breaking, don't talk to me."

 

That presumes the community respects the lore at large in the first place. I don't believe that's the case in FFXIV, though the RPC with its couple-dozen or so die-hard adherents and its prominence can and does give the position a lot of visibility.

 

What I've found to be the case instead is that the RPC believes one thing, and the players in-game another.

 

Because of that, I tell people to RP whatever they want.

[Grott]

 

That presumes the community respects the lore at large in the first place. I don't believe that's the case in FFXIV, though the RPC with its couple-dozen or so die-hard adherents and its prominence can and does give the position a lot of visibility.

 

What I've found to be the case instead is that the RPC believes one thing, and the players in-game another.

 

Because of that, I tell people to RP whatever they want.

 

That's fair, but I think it depends on who you're RPing with. I've been approached by strangers about apparent lore-breaking without realizing I was doing it before, and I try to stay pretty close to the lore, so I can't imagine what new RPers who intentionally lore-break get from strangers. Or they could do it and never get approached for lore-breaking. I guess it depends where you are and who you're with.

[ExAtomos]

I just feel bad for those who perhaps become so afraid of offending the strict lore-abiders somehow that they give up on trying to RP at all. It's almost as though the lore becomes a specter by itself, some boogeyman lurking under the bed that will gobble you up if you dare make one mistake. >.>;

[Caspar]

What Abodo discussed has been weighing on my mind a lot lately, and the conclusion I came to was that, for me personally, the best approach to chargen threads is to make suggestions based on giving the player what they want, while being honest about the concept, and not really volunteering a strong opinion for or against the idea unless prodded to do so.

 

Frankly I'm garbage at it right now, as it's hard to escape a bias, but I want to address the themes that the idea should engage with given the setting and lore, then assess what it is the player wants to do with the concept, and then given them alternatives in case the themes end up not working for them or for others who'd wish to play with them. Like here, I felt thematically there were other options for Parth, so I suggested them. To me that seems like a reasonable middle ground, and probably why posters who just supply lore info and not a stylistic opinion or "I rarely see this done well" seem to get better reception from newer players.

 

Essentially people are answering a question that hasn't been asked, but is assumed to be understood from chargen threads, which is of course "will you play with me if I do this?" I think it's right to be concerned that being too nice will let people get the wrong impression about how accepting people on the forum will be to the idea, and some new posters ask the questions they really don't want answered. The best way to deal with that, I feel, is to just give them the facts and tell how it can be done, and if they look at the steps they need to take to make it happen according to or in spite of the rules the setting imposes, and decide that it's not for them, that's fine too. 

 

Likewise I get where Abodo is coming from, and I've seen the argument that misleading new players drives them away. In a logical sense it is reasonable to think that there's a correlation there, but I think that lack of RP or RP ostracism and elitism are two separate problems in most cases on RPC. For instance, a lot of veterans who are proud of their adherence to lore also get put off because they feel they're on the outs and can't find partners to play with. That characteristic is not criticized off the site, whereas the other problem is often at the core of criticism players from the RPC or who used to frequent this site bring up when they visit other places, like Reddit, in-game, etc.

 

I felt this was off topic a little, but it was worth mentioning.

 

 

The other thing that Warren mentioned is interesting too, in that the whole "RP Illuminati" term really only obfuscates the real problem and is never used by people actually criticizing the site, but rather by people who want to suggest that their concern is legitimate, not that that's what he's doing in this case. He's referencing the idea, but I feel it's often a tool of an aggressive poster to make it seem like vets are somehow being persecuted by newbies, if that even makes sense. There's just lots of hyperbole flying around that keeps the issue a zombie on the site. Newbies are too thin skinned and can't take criticism! That's sometimes true, but often false. Vets just want to help and they're all about the tough love! I can think of many cases where this was provably false given conversation both private and public. There's a secret colluding group trying to keep newbies down! Or alternatively, newbies actually believe that! Both assertions are false, but the culture of the forum is a real, if nebulous, thing, and some are not comfortable in it.

 

[Dravus]

Experiences may very well differ, so take this with a pinch of salt, but I've never really seen many posters on this site or role-players in-game demand a strict adherence to the game's lore. I'm not saying it doesn't happen but it's far more common for me to see people in both crowds to shrug their shoulders and make a big fuss about the existence of supposedly widespread 'elitism'.

 

Usually it's something spouted by the same handful of posters across multiple threads; no doubt providing an illusion of sorts as to it being much more common than it actually is. At the end of the day many people who end up clashing on this site due to differing opinions aren't likely to ever interact with each other in-game anyway. That's something well worth remembering, I feel.

 

There's also role-players who treat any form of standards or constructive criticism as the most horrific personal attack they've ever experienced in their lives. That alone is often justification for the 'obvious' disclaimers brought up as a point of discussion within this very thread.

[Caspar]

Experiences may very well differ, so take this with a pinch of salt, but I've never really seen many posters on this site or role-players in-game demand a strict adherence to the game's lore. I'm not saying it doesn't happen but it's far more common for me to see people in both crowds to shrug their shoulders and make a big fuss about the existence of supposedly widespread 'elitism'.

 

Usually it's something spouted by the same handful of posters across multiple threads; no doubt providing an illusion of sorts as to it being much more common than it actually is. At the end of the day many people who end up clashing on this site due to differing opinions aren't likely to ever interact with each other in-game anyway. That's something well worth remembering, I feel.

 

There's also role-players who treat any form of standards or constructive criticism as the most horrific personal attack they've ever experienced in their lives. That alone is often justification for the 'obvious' disclaimers brought up as a point of discussion within this very thread.

I think really both parties are severely exaggerated in presence because they have a strong opinion, to say little of how much influence a visible poster can leverage. And yeah, I think the disclaimers about playing what you want are very clearly inspired by that sort of behavior. I've seen threads where the person with the query asks for honest opinions, gets honest opinions, and takes it personally. Taking the opinions and still doing your own thing isn't really wrong, but I've seen worse than that. Still, I don't believe the "coddling" is what actually drives new people away as the rp-starvation problem happens to many players of varying style and experience level.

 

I tend to be harder on the established side because they don't have anything to prove, and very little to lose in the matter. But both sides are prone to hyperbole.

[Warren Castille]

I probably do remark on a side of opinions that might not actually exist or are wildly exaggerated about the illuminati thing; The thread in question was somewhere around a year ago or something and I admit I got on the defensive because of what accusations were brought up and who they were lobbed at.

 

But to echo the choir here, it's not an actual attempt to be all huggy sugarcoated about things. There have been a lot of threads asking for advice that were actually (and not subtly) asking for permission from the populace at large, which eliminates the point.

 

"I want to play an archangel who helped build Eorzea!" Yeah, uh, that's not really evidenced at all in the game...? "OH well I already designed his super form and his wings and his halo and his special attacks so is there really no way I could do it?"

 

Without knowing each person on the site individually, it's sometimes difficult to answer these topics. I know I try to play the middle with as many caveats as I can drop in: Do what you want but be prepared for the ramifications if you get too far out there. That doesn't just apply to people wanting to go off the rails, either! The RPC's got a few "mundane" characters that aren't likely to go trotting off to slay Primals or ICly clear out rovings gangs of pirates. That's also not to say that some people can't cross or blur those lines in specific settings and all, but...

 

Well, roleplay is as convoluted and as deep as we want it to be. I don't think anyone should ever feel they need permission from people they don't know to make a character or run a story. I also can appreciate the gesture at not wanting to be the cause of any of those ugly RP-immersion fracture lines that pop up when someone you know and RP with does something wildly out of the norm and you're then forced to acknowledge it. To counter that thought, though, is it really so bad to react to the world around you even if it isn't in your comfort zone?

 

In short, we can't really tell how any specific person will receive advice guidance or feedback, so I think we all try to keep it hands-off. Which is a shame, I concur.