Fantasia usage ICly?

[Gegenji]

It's just when Fantasia is being used solely as a cop-out that I would have issue - no reason for being the race in a permanent sense beyond "I drank a Fantasia." Even just putting in a bit about feeling out of place and some strange merchant gave you a vial that brought out "your true self" would help some.

 

In a funny way, I actually find it easier to deal with people whose IC Fantasia has an "oops" explanation than people who make it a major part of their story.  When it boils down to it, no matter how much time and effort people put into their "How I IC Fantasia'd" story, the grand majority of people are really changing their race for OOC reasons, and adjusting their IC stories thereafter.  "This new race looks neat, I want to Fantasia into one, but I need to find a way to make it work with my story..."  At least this is the case with every IC Fantasia I've ever seen.

 

Is it any worse than the other way around, though? Someone suddenly retconning their entire history to say that they were always this race? Being glamoured the entire time and not knowing it, possibly even having false family and false memories of a past that is suddenly in-congruent with the "revelation"? These sorts of explanations have the same potential to be just as immersion-breaking as a "How I IC Fantasia'd" story. Which is why I put emphasis on the overall presentation and how it is worked - I'm sure both could be done fabulously well just as much as they can be done terribly - so I try to take them on a case-by-case basis and seek to avoid any sweeping generalizations if I can manage it.

 

I suppose the issue is and always will be that this is ultimately an OOC cosmetic item that folks seek to use and explain in RP. It just became a hot topic of discussion lately due to the advent of an entirely new race. And, due to the overall alt-unfriendliness of the game, people sought easier ways to explain why their character was suddenly scaly. New jobs are easier to explain and work around from an RP standpoint. An entirely new race? Not so much.

[Dravus]

Accidental double post. >_>

[Dravus]

I'm not really sure what to make of the 'polite human being' comment. Poor choice in wording, perhaps? I'd quite like more clarification since after taking another look through the last few pages I can't see anyone being mean.

 

Nobody is saying 'you can't do this'. They're pointing out as  - polite human beings - that role-players who use fantasia shouldn't be terribly surprised if other role-players are uncomfortable with the idea of acknowledging it.

 

It's a matter of personal preference and to be honest I'm starting to get a bit weary of the implication (intentional or otherwise) that someone is 'mean' or 'not a team player' for valuing a good story above appeasing every little whim that another role-player happens to have.

 

Debates like this are interesting. They stop things from stagnating and we're dealing with a very diverse community. I'd rather see everybody bring their opinions to the table instead of going down the route of never speaking out against anything ever.

 

Personally speaking I don't feel the need to lace my every word with sugar. Will I try to be polite? Certainly - but in my experience quite a lot of role-players are drawn to drama and will kick up a fuss even when someone explains to them, politely, that they're really not interested in acknowledging some of the more bizarre ideas that the more colourful character concepts revolve around.

 

Admittedly I may be being a tad defensive here - so apologies if so - but it's a major pet peeve of mine. Hence the rant!

[Manari]

This all happened back at the end of 1.0 and the beginning of 2.0 when they added male Miqo'te. Many people were already playing either a midlander model or a female Miqo'te model but RPing that they were male Miqo'te. But even more people just suddenly became male Miqo'te seemingly at random with the OOC explanation of "I always wanted to be male Miqo'te, it just wasn't added yet."

 

This was even before any kind of fantasia or character changing item was added in game. This was all using a one-time character redesign that SE offered all 1.0 players the first time they logged into 2.0, so there wasn't even an "is this IC'ly possible" argument. It was just a lot of arguing about how its silly that so many people are suddenly a completely different gender or race. But yet again, it was all due to a shiny new race being added... or at least a shiny new gender to a race.

[Momo]

One of the things I think is fascinating in this instance is the fight for transracial characters, and the fact that it is possible to be one.  Now as a person who leans towards heavy RP, I personally don't like IC Fantasia use, as I tend to ignore it exists at all as a character (nor would I ever have a reason to change from being a Lala...because well, hello, Lalafell duh best yo!), but I have seen it used in instances where it was part of a plot that I felt was acceptable and supported by lore, however they didn't state it was a Fantasia, and was more of a curse which was placed upon them.

 

Whatever the case, I agree in this case that for the most part, a great deal of RPers are not going to support a race change with Fantasia, and for good reason.  The potion itself was placed in the game for OOC of character reasons, and is used to change characters for OOC reasons in general and then made to fit.  This isn't the best approach to a race change for me, if one wants to change their character, then make a new character as a main and make a new story to go with that character, if one would like to keep a character they already have and retcon that background to being a different race, then do that, and I think you will be better accepted than using a scapegoat to justify your OOC decisions to race change.

 

 

Otherwise, I say make an alt first of that character, play it for a while, see what you think before you make this kind of decision, which assuming you love your character...is a big one!  Then accept that you will be choosing to call some of your RP cred in question, because whether you like it or not, it is clear that is what may be a consequence of this choice.

 

(Am I the king of run-ons?  Me finks, yus...yus I am!)