Why Did You Choose Your Character's Race?

[Gegenji]

If there were a small rugged fierce race like say Dwarves I would have been all over that! (I almost always play Dawrves when an option.)

 

Oddly enough, that's... KINDA how I play Chachan and his father Zozonji, little burly dudes. Zozonji is definitely more the gruff Dwarven smith, though, since I imagine him having a big bushy beard and a stubborn attitude. I can't show it on the models, obviously, but my head-canon they're still in those doofy proportions... just with some pecs and abs above that belly and some decent definition to their arms and legs.

[Olofantur]

Was originally created to be an antagonist to an story line I was a part of back in 1.0 (Cabal of thaumaturges looking to find a way to mess with a few of the Aetheryte in Thanalan and make their own private relay/network.)

 

Turns out I like being the Douchebag McGrumpy-face more than Treehugger McNice-pants. Who'da thunk it.

 

That and it gives me an excuse to be a hermit in the wild instead of lingering in the cities.

[Yoshi]

Hm! Well, you see. I am totally useless at giving alts all the love and attention they deserve, but that does not stop me from constantly developing new stories and changing my characters like I change my clothes (which is a lot.) @_@ It's dizzying, really.

I have made designs and concepts for all the races, all of which I've liked and been ecstatic to try. All of the races, I think, have very intriguing lore and cultures - plenty to work with for role-play fun and collaboration with others. 

Then why have most of my characters turned out to be Miqo'te? I just really don't like the customization and sliders of the other races. So I suppose you could call me shallow! While the concepts for Hyur or Elezen or what-have-you may have enthralled me, if I don't enjoy how my character looks and behaves physically in game, I just... don't want to play them. It really comes down to that. If others pay it no mind, or love how their characters turn out after customization, then koodos! Great work. I'm happy for you! But my happiness was found in Miqo'te. 

Having said that, I consistently seem to be drawn back again and again to the concept of an "escort." Not that kind of escort! A spunky, cocky, brawn-over-brains hired-muscle brat (mostly influenced by Kunoichi from Samurai Warriors, although confessedly any small girl that's lethal with a blade makes my heart throb), and I was really leaning towards a ninja-esque character for FFXIV (especially with the class being released). However, I just couldn't seem to develop someone I would like to play with the races and lore provided to me. It just didn't sit well. Until the release of the Au'Ra! And the rest, as they say, is history. >:3 Though she is more a ninja by action than name, and is less and less a combatant than when I first began her.

I will also never stop loving Miqo'te, because, cats. @_@ And I will likely roll a Highlander looter someday to appease the little Scotslady in me.

[Roen]

Oddly enough, I've played more elves than humans throughout my MMO career, so I had fully intended to create an Elezen when I came to FFXIV.

 

But like many others, the proportions kind of threw me off. (although I've since met many beautiful/handsome Elezens so...)

 

And the character I wanted to write for is somewhat of a reincarnation of my D&D human paladin, so I decided to go with a Hyur instead. And the features and poses for a Midlander was a better fit for Roen's youth and naive outlook at the start.

[Aya]

Because Highlanders are amazing, and I was inspired to do a Scandanavian Viking Warrioress type deal

 

I hadn't really worked out Aya's character yet, and some of my original assumptions were way off base (though they've still factored into the fully developed character).

 

And.. of course.. Highlander?  Right, I fantasia-ed because back in the day the clenched-fist Highlander thing just never felt right and eventually annoyed me enough that I switched Aya to a Midlander, model wise at least.  I could go back now with the addition of /cpose, but I feel like her look is too well known to do that

[13uddy]

I wanted to play against my usual choices.  If there is a choice in a game, I almost always choose any race other than the humans.  In EverQuest and EverQuest II, the majority of my characters were Dark Elves, though in EQ2 I grew really attached to both of the fairy races (and recently the Aerakyn).  The few brief times I tried WoW, I played a Dwarf, both Elves, an Orc and a Pandaren (my friend bought me the expansion and wanted us to RP siblings) as well as trying out a Goblin and a Worgen.  In Second Life, I have way too many avatars to list, but aside from a few freebies, I've only ever purchased a grand total of THREE human skins (and two of those were to match some elf ears).  Everything else is either an unnatural tone (like blue or green) or is otherwise non-human (catpeople, demons, a few custom modified furry avatars, even some avatars inspired by known fictional alien races like Twi'lek or Andorian).

 

I wasn't planning on choosing a Hyur.  I was actually pretty set against it, with my original plan being either Lalfell, Miqo'te or Au Ra.  But the more I thought of who and what I wanted my character to be, the more I thought that this time it might be interesting to play a human character for a change.  I have played human characters in the past, but rarely ever in a fantasy setting.

 

I do plan to make one or two of my other characters that I had originally planned at some point, but for now I'm enjoying the experience of trying something different.

[D'aito Kuji]

Neko

 

/10

[banndsand]

I'm another in the camp of "always picks non-human." I like being a lizard person, but most of the time I'm stuck as a catgirl.

 

Now, the first time I played FFXIV, I think I tried Miqo'te and Lalafell, but my memories of the 2.0 beta are fuzzy.

 

When I finally started playing in earnest last winter, I tried each race in the creator and only Miqo'te F, Lalafell M and F, and Roegadyn F stuck for me. Miqo'te ended up being my main until Au Ra came out.

 

I fantasia'd and renamed my Miqo'te to an Au Ra after falling in love with playing her brother, who I made in HW headstart. The lore for them just fits me a lot better. I've even made them a tribe backstory, which I never bothered to do with my catgirl before.

 

Aside from that I've still got a male Lala (because he is absolutely adorable), and a female Roe (because besides being badass, she also reminds me of my Giant characters back in Mabinogi c: (except there are actually nice clothing options)).

 

Together they are one big happy disjointed and weird family in my mind.

[Klynzahr]

I initially created my Sea Wolf as a tribute to my longstanding Draenei Paladin from Wow.

 

Oh the hours that I poured into perfecting the profile page that explained how my rugged draenei lady was not a piece of flawlessly oversexualized eye-candy! I labored constantly over that block of in-game text, agonizing over the best way to convey her physique or the perfect wording for her scars. I endlessly tweaked those descriptions for optimum effect, and looked up synonyms for ugly in the dictionary. Only to have all my efforts go to waste, when other RPers didn't even bother to read my efforts and were only interested in flirting with her.

 

 

Admittedly it was fun getting to sock them in the jaw for it, but I always found myself wishing that someone could see the muscular, disfigured palladin in my head, rather than defaulting to the poofy lipped, doe-eyed, H-cup owning character model.

 

Then one day my wonderful boyfriend sat me down with the benchmark for some strange remake of this failed Japanese MMO. (Yeah, I was not convinced.) He mentioned something about checking out this new race that started with R and was spelled very strange.

 

So I opened the creator and there she was, the giant, powerful lady, with blue eyes and a huge smile that I had been trying in vain to describe for the past two years!

 

:lol:

 

Of course I started out with the idea of remaking my old favorite, but I quickly fell in love with Sea Wolf lore and FF14 lore in general. I've always had a love of the ocean and sailing, with a soft spot for R. L. Stevenson. In other words it was only a matter of time before the Sea Wolf lore won me over completely.

 

Several years later, Klynzahr has become the polar opposite of her soft-spoken, pious, demon-loathing, tough-as-nails predicessor.... and it's great!

[Sigil.9054]

I have a "template" for the character I play, and part of that template says that she is never human, but should be able to pass for one with the right application of clothing or lies. The original character was a halfling in D&D, which could pass for a human child - and often did.

 

I don't see this Seldi trying to pass for a Hyur, but I like to think the capability is there in a put-Spock-in-a-hoodie kind of way.

[V'aleera]

I was skeptical about Miqo'te when making my first character but decided to play around with the race's settings just for fun. It turned out the race wasn't as cutesy and moe as I had believed and could actually look pretty vicious. In the end I was too satisfied with the catgirl I'd made to want to bother with a plain looking Hyur.

[Jana]

*shifty eyes*

*PROFUSE SWEATING*

 

I usually go 'human' in games that allow me to select them among different races, and Hyur was closest to that. I also like 'em swole, so Highlander was the clan of choice.

 

I actually usually go human with my mains too; I did in GW2 and countless single-player RPGs. Tera is the first time I picked something other than human, because tiny kitty girl swinging a giant sword around was just cute and funny in my head. I considered Midlander for FFXIV, but the combination of their awkward animations and the cute kitty girls being freely available made me settle on Miqo'te pretty quickly.

 

I still like playing small characters though. I have an alt for that.

[Kamome]

I'm sure a lot of you have seen this on the reddit front page for XIV, but this is interesting! It's a race survey before/after HW that has a big population of respondents. : )

 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1S7qIGIW-Z-wRrsGc6J9jRjbmUVsH8sM6W0Nw9XvnI-c/viewform

[Thorgar]

my main is a fantasy version of myself, im 6'4" and 302 pounds of heavy armor wearing, two handed weilding fun. I make and fight in my own steel armor, in the sca and a few of the live steel combat groups.  I am also an apprentice sword smith, so i always make one character like me but bigger than life.

 

So i chose a hellguard Roe cause they are bigger than me in real life and i love it lol.

[Paradox]

In every dimension I've ported him to, I've tried to make sure Ark is some kind of elf-like product. While Elezen's overall body shape is a little..slender for my tastes in regards to his usual shape, I just can't see him being pure human. That, and too few Elezen, too many Miqo. Thought I'd add to the balance of the universe. :3 #Elezenmasterrace

[Xzenivar]

It's mostly an aesthetic thing with me. I have an idea in mind for what I want to play and what I want them to look like. That usually means human or dark elf characters, males since my mains are almost always males. Female alts tend to be anything but the race of my main.

[Sophia_Grave]

I wanted a garlean and livia seems to use the midder model, so i went with that. 3.0's new Garlean seems to be an Elezeb with rounded ears however, so that sort of defeats that idea. But whatever; until there's a Garlean race Midder does just fine

[Viola]

A) Cats are overrated

B) dragongirls are cute

C) a dragongirl is fine too.

[Sylentmana]

I like characters with fuzzy tails. The cute ears help too.

[Faye]

I went with Midlander for Faye because I'm a boring person who likes humans, and Faye is also a boring person. \o/ I also just found Midlander ladies to be the most physically attractive, and to have the face/body type closest to how I picture Faye. Initially, I was torn between Midlander and Wildwood Elezen, because Faye is supposed to be a tall, snooty lady, and what better race for that than Elezen? But in the end, I didn't think Elezen faces were as pretty, and I couldn't get over the weird necks/shoulders.

[Dis]

The original concept for Glioca was very, very close to the Sidhe fae.  Tall, willowy, pointed ears, fair skin and fair hair, mostly.  Most games who had elves didn't have the ability to make them very tall, unless they were certain types.  And if they did, they always looked too hawkish, with certain features too pronounced, never human enough.

 

In XIV, my first concept for her was Highlander, but their emotes were very rough and Glioca is definitely more subdued than that.  Then I saw the Elezen and tinkered with this one specific face.  After that, it all just kind of clicked into place, and I was content with it.  I also just really like the Elezen in generally, and their lore.  It's probably why my other main Elezen character is an Ishgardian Duskwight (discounting Glioca's son, of course). 

 

I always tend to play at least one elf in every game setting I'm in, and that's in part because of Tolkien, and in part because I just love humanoid, but non-human races.  I'm also very fond of halfling, and I really like Lalafell, but I could never solidify an idea in my head enough to make it really take off, you know?

[FallenVanguard]

When I first started playing FF XIV none of the races appealed to me THAT much. It wasn't that I disliked any of them, just that none of them really grabbed my attention. Since I'm quite often a human in nearly every other video game I play (not MMOs, just video games in general) I tend to avoid them, so Hyur was off the list right off the bat (or so I thought)

In retrospect I probably would have gone with a Duskwight Elezen had I looked a bit closer at them, but I think I saw the Wildwoods and was sort of unimpressed. I can't remember why, because I'm actually rather fond of Duskwights now, but Elezen as a whole didn't strike my fancy.

 

Lalafell...I enjoy seeing them, and seeing others play them, but unless I got a character idea that specifically required a character to BE a Lalafell I'd have no real desire to play as one. They're the race I'm least likely to make a character for.

 

The Mi'qote seemed fun back then and they seem fun now. I thought of being a badass cat dude, and I won't lie and say I don't like Mi'qote women but I dunno, it wasn't enough of a grab.

 

As for Roe, well, they are badass, but I never liked making characters THAT buff. And I knew for certain I wanted my first character to be male because I was a male. That's usually how I roll, make on main male character and then a couple females later on, maybe one more male.

 

So I cycled back up to Hyur and discovered Highlanders, and picked one. Highlanders reminded me of Scottish Highlands, which is quite literally what helped me make that decision.

 

Of course, this was before the introduction of the Au Ra. A reptillian/draconic race that still looks somewhat human and has scales, tails, and horns? Yeah, sign me up for that. Au Ra are easily my favourite race now, and my first RP focused character will indeed be an Au Ra male.

[Momo]

Ever in the interest of advancing Lalafell rights and racial equality, I will post here too!  As I have said before, I spent many years playing a Tarutaru on XI, and it was natural progression to further be a Lala in XIV.  I really don't know why I love Lalas or why I liked Tarus (though I suspect that always being a mage, I picked Taru because they had a veeeery slight advantage being mages in XI), but at this point it will likely never change!

 

A few great things about Lalafell: 

 

~We are cute, like really, if you play a Lala and always do, you know this, when you create a character, you acknowledge a base cuteness and work from there!

 

~We can be evil, adorable, sweet, tough, all of the above and none of the adove, and to me, it doesn't seem strange, nor does it seem all that strange to others from what I've noticed (particularly since most of the Lalas in the MSQ are pure evil anywho).

 

~We have a great community!  I don't see a lot of races band together the way that Lala mains do, we have LSs and we always make a point to acknowledge one another in group settings. I think we just have a natural gravity to us, and though we are short, we seem to command a pretty fair amount of attention from the taller races as well. Respect!

 

Other than XI, I don't tend to pick short races, all the ones in WoW are waaay too cartoony, and in most other games I just play elves of some kind, or an animal race, but I am also in the "No thanks on being a human" camp as I am (believe it or not) a human irl, so in a fantasy realm I would like to try being something else.

 

For me, at this point because of playing first person a lot:

 

Roes-Hhhhnnnngggg, so beefy and hot, but too tall! ( I dunno why, but many of them seem to be sweet and handsome too personality wise)

Elezen-So so elegant and full of such grace, buuuut too tall!

Hyur- Midlander are just a no for me altogether, Highlander....too hot for words (I even like their lack of eyebrows personally!), but...too tall!

Miqos- Hot, sweet, looks suuuper great in a leaopard print speedo, great company to have, nice tails, but slightly too tall. (seem to be full of themselves at times in some cases)

Auri- Also look great in speedos because lets be serious...dem thighs (and scales)!  But again waaaay too tall!

 

Sense a trend?