Information on Life Spans

[Jomoru]

oh wow, that rests the case on Filhaminn. . .

 

but its interesting on how they chose to give her eye glasses in ARR. . .

 

Maybe its a sign of aging? Of course there's a lot of female Miqotes in ARR with glasses it might just be one of the artist's fetishes. It also might be short hand for "Smart" Miqote.

[Fulcrum]

I'm so tempted to relink this thread in my post on the official forum asking for life spans and age markers with something like "SEE HOW MUCH FIGHTING THIS CAUSES!?" >.>

 

 

Just to see if that makes them more inclined to answer. >.>

[ansemaru]

I'm going to say that given the circumstances of her being the adoptive mother of an adult woman, mentioned as aging in-canon, and having grey hair, her getting glasses is probably meant as a way to show she's older without creating new facial models that are going to take up time and resources for a major game, for a single, fairly secondary NPC. Facial models and features that are of going to be of limited appeal and use for the average player, since it's not typical for someone who's decided to play a catgirl to play an elderly or middle-aged catgirl. Glasses are shorthand- your eyesight gets worse as you age, and you're more likely to need glasses at all. Makes more sense than "it's their fetish", seriously.

[Rickter]

i dont see any inherent conflict here.  just everyone throwing in their speculations and theories.  its been a great discussion so far, lots of in game support is used and im finding out more about 1.0 and the races than i did before - mission accomplished

[Tla]

I don't know, to me it looks like in this game glasses were given to intellectuals rather then aged people. K'lyhia, the girl from arcanist questline comes to my mind as an example. But might be both things?

 Sure they're all but good at showing signs of age and maybe we're hurting our head over something they didn't even think about when making the game/character models.

[Jomoru]

I don't know, to me it looks like in this game glasses were given to intellectuals rather then aged people. K'lyhia, the girl from arcanist questline comes to my mind as an example. But might be both things?

 Sure they're all but good at showing signs of age and maybe we're hurting our head over something they didn't even think about when making the game/character models.

 

There alot of miqote with glasses in game. I think someone just thought they were cute. I'd say its short for intellectual Miqote but...Nashu

[Sounsyy]

 

There alot of miqote with glasses in game. I think someone just thought they were cute. I'd say its short for intellectual Miqote but...Nashu

 

Whaaaaat? Nashu is a genius! Nashu picked up immediately that the water outside Limsa was not fit for consumption! Who knows where Limsa would be without her.

[ansemaru]

...but given the WEALTH OF RELATED CONTEXTUAL CLUES, F'lhaminn's glasses are almost definitely there to imply that her vision has gotten worse with age, not because someone decided to moeblob her up out of personal preference or because she's supposed to be implied to be an intellectual NPC. Seriously. She's Minfilia's mother. NPCs very early on in the new story content refer to her having aged. Grey hair. Comparatively modest clothing for a character in Eorzea. And honestly, if she was supposed to come across as an egghead, that would actually be conveyed in any of her dialogue. A retired songstress with a talent for mining isn't exactly the same as an Arcanist, let's keep in mind.

 

Seriously, is it that hard to believe that the creators of the game didn't make facial presets for elderly/middle aged Miqo'te women because they didn't think anybody would want to play one, not because they wanted to imply that Miqo'te don't age the same as, say, Hyur? The same thing, you may note, is the case with women of the other playable races. Go into the character creator and try to make an aged-looking Elezen, Hyur, Roegadyn, or Lalafell woman. You'll notice the same thing across all five playable races- there just aren't presets there to make a character look convincingly older than their 30s, if they're a girl. There are certainly options for the men, but pretty much across the board there are little or no options for women. And this points towards a fairly obvious answer regarding F'lhaminn- she looks as old as the game will let her look.

[Jomoru]

I am saying there are a host of secondary explanations for the glasses especially in light of the fact that the only other person who's shown any signs of aging in the last 5 years is Cid.

 

The simplest might be that 1.0 version of her... looked YOUNGER than her adopted daughter whereas glasses do give her a certain hint of age(if one is expecting it)

 

Of course it might be that glasses are a sign of her aging that they wanted a few characters show they have aged in 5 years rather than it seeming to have left no mark on anyone, but the game has been signficantly inconsistant on that front and I wouldn't use the show or lack of aging of visual aging between 1.0 and 2.0 to prove anything about racial aging speeds

[ansemaru]

Jomoru, have you ever heard of Occam's Razor?

[Jomoru]

Jomoru, have you ever heard of Occam's Razor?

 

You seem to not understand it, so I will explain it is not used when dealing with competing theories but rather as a rule of thumb when formulating one. There are competing theories here, thus its not applicable.

 

At which point we look at the evidence and conclusions directly.

 

The first premise which we can all agree on is her 1.0 appearance does not fit with her ARR role

 

Now your assertion is that this is meant to demonstrate that she has aged in the last 5 years. This is based on Eye sight getting weaker as people age in the real world(and presumably hydaelyn as there's no evidence to contradict this).  That the developers had limited time and effort and thus didn't feel ti worth creating an Older female catgirl face because it would find limited use. This is a reasonable assumption.

 

My counter argument is that there are a significant number of other characters who wear glasses in the game. Especially among miqote females. This is generally used as a shorthand for intellectuals... though certain characters counter act this.

 

My second point is few characters have shown much aging in the last 5 years. The only character who may show it would be Cid, and even then his beard might be a point for his particular background.

 

Secondly F'lhaminn beauty is repeatedly extolled while the player is searching for her, generally in real life people find more youthful appearances pleasing, though she could easily have aged gracefully.

 

 

Thus my point that the evidence for her aging is insubstantial enough to call it into question AND that one shouldn't try and use it as evidence for a theory about Miqote life spans being shorter than Hyur.

[ansemaru]

You just said yourself that she could have aged gracefully. This fits with the theory that the developers didn't have the time/resources/motivation to make aged facial presets for non-unique characters (Cid being a unique character model, as opposed to one created with the same presets as player characters- like F'lhaminn)- it's a convenient excuse for them to use the relatively youthful facial features that the engine permits, give her some secondary characteristics that are associated with age, and call it a day.

 

I'm not entirely sure why you're so obsessed with all of these secondary (and less likely) possibilities surrounding the aging process. I never even said that Miqo'te live substantially shorter lifespans than Hyur inherently- they may be subject to environmental and lifestyle factors that mean the average lifespan of a Miqo'te is a bit shorter than a Hyur's, but that's because of Miqo'te living in nomadic/tribal lifestyles. The actual difference would be less than a decade on average, and insubstantial in the case of Miqo'te who live in the city-states proper. F'lhaminn does not appear to have lived a tribal/nomadic lifestyle for most of her life, so it's completely reasonable for her to be able to live as long as the average urban-dwelling Hyur.

 

I'm beginning to suspect you don't understand my argument.

[Jomoru]

 

I'm beginning to suspect you don't understand my argument.

 

You would be incorrect. I find your argument a valid conclusion based on the data at hand, however I do not find it to be the sole valid conclusion to the data presented by the game.

 

Now I am not saying your argument is stating that Miqote have shorter life spans, but based on the topic of this thread those who hold to that argument could easily use your argument as evidence for such. Since other competing theories are valid based on the evidence(you have already dismissed them as secondary though a miss use of Occam's razor) your argument could not be used as a premise for the argument for Miqote rapid aging.

.

[ansemaru]

I need a drink.