Racial RP: How do YOU do it?

[Zyrusticae]

Though I have said I'd never roll a Miqo, I'm tempted to make an asexual Tia going around challenging Nunhs for their rights to reproduce and just straight up taking them away. I have no motivations other than being a dick for doing this, so I won't do it, but it'd be funny enough to see him try.

BRILLIANT.

 

Unfortunately, most Nunh RPers are extremely unlikely to play along, so it'll never happen, but still! I LOVE THIS IDEA.

 

I'm going to be giggling to myself for a bit now. Hopefully no one notices.

[Aya]

ANYWAY. HIGHLANDERS. I'M CURIOUS. How do you roleplay your characters? Well-integrated into their respective pieces of Eorzea? Clinging to the ol' warrior tribe in the mountain ways? As pretty princesses? TELL ALL!

Some how I missed this... its such a good question.  Aya's background mixes several powerful influence.  That of her Ala Mhigan birth and parentage is that which throughout her life she has done her best to resist.  She has no interest in ending up like her parents, or so many other Ala Mhigans, wasting away their lives (in her pov) while pining for a past that cannot be reclaimed.  Instead she looks toward the future, adapting to her environment as best she can.  Because of this she considers Ishgard, where she was raised, her home and homeland.  But, she cannot leave her Ala Mhigan birth or her time as a refugee behind.  It has left its indelible mark upon her, no matter how much she tries to escape it.  To quote from some of what I have written about her:

 

1) "The way of war required a manner of thinking so apart from herself.  One could almost call it unnatural, but it came far more naturally than she would ever care to admit.  Born to a line of warriors, and steeped in the blood of heroes, she stepped with discomforting ease into the echoes of the past.  She recalled seeing the family's Crow Banner waving high upon the rampart: a last, fleeting glimpse of a child's proud homestead.  In her mind she had seen visions of battles long passed, glorious dead and legendary feats of arms. 'Ridiculous,' 'pointless', 'wasteful', she would say, and yet all too comfortable."

 

2) "Worse was yet to come. She was a daughter of Ala Mhigo, if far removed.  She had struggled against everything she was meant to be, yet at times the pull of blood fell stronger than reason: could she bear to see another friend die, while she stood helpless?"

[Melkire]

Though I have said I'd never roll a Miqo, I'm tempted to make an asexual Tia going around challenging Nunhs for their rights to reproduce and just straight up taking them away. I have no motivations other than being a dick for doing this, so I won't do it, but it'd be funny enough to see him try.

 

[Kellach Woods]

Though I have said I'd never roll a Miqo, I'm tempted to make an asexual Tia going around challenging Nunhs for their rights to reproduce and just straight up taking them away. I have no motivations other than being a dick for doing this, so I won't do it, but it'd be funny enough to see him try.

BRILLIANT.

 

Unfortunately, most Nunh RPers are extremely unlikely to play along, so it'll never happen, but still! I LOVE THIS IDEA.

 

I'm going to be giggling to myself for a bit now. Hopefully no one notices.

 

Same principle as the dojo smasher trope, only applied to something drastically different.

 

See people, clichés can be used for good.

[Ha'uruh Nunh]

Since Berrod asked about Highlanders... mine is a former slave out for revenge.

 

My Miqo'te Nunh was a virgin until very recently.

 

My female Lala is a stone-cold killer.

 

There's no reason to pigeonhole RPers or RP into racial stereotypes, and it's also not a good idea to assume you know everything about someone's character until you've interacted with them ICly.

[Kinono]

My female Lala is a stone-cold killer.

 

There's no reason to pigeonhole RPers or RP into racial stereotypes

 

These two sentences directly contradict each other.

[Xenedra]

Kinono's secrets come out...

[Amelia]

I shouldn't have to feel guilty for wanting something because I'm worried that I might not be exactly to someone else's liking or set up rules. I should however be respectful and understanding of others on their decisions when it comes to RP.

 

This! I agree with this!

 

This is the precise reason why I am more of a lurker than forum poster these days. I've been burnt back in WoW where there is more solid lore than (personally) I find FFXIV to even have. I find the lore battles exhausting- particularly the Miqo'te ones. I guess I've been looking in all the wrong places for FFXIV lore, but I've found much of it aside from the main storyline from 1.0 to 2.0 to be vague and oft times contradicting.

 

Others and myself certainly shouldn't feel guilty or afraid to create a character because they're worried that they won't meet someone's skewed standard.

 

To say that you are playing a character that happens to be X race and therefore expected to act a certain way is enough to ruffle my feathers. That's like saying: "Amelia. You're from Northern Minnesota, so that means that you're going to sound like you came out of the movie 'Fargo' and be overly polite, reserved and mild-mannered." (ie: "Minnesota Nice.")

 

There are threads of lore that say Seekers don't really do much of the tribal life anymore and many have moved into the larger cities. Other threads of lore will inform you that tribal culture is still very much a major and relevant part of what a Miqo'te even is.

 

To say that most Miqo'te characters that one may run into are simply 'Hyur in cat ears and a tail' hardly seems fair. I agree where others have stated that such things can be said about each and every race in this game. Why push players and their characters into stereotypes?

 

And how much about that character do you REALLY know about? Did you just RP with them for two minutes and call it a day? Are YOU really just taking them at some face value so you can smugly categorize them into some pile of unworthy RPers?

 

Reading over this now, I notice that this sounds pretty... irritable. I guess it probably is mainly because this sort of thing gets under my skin in FFXIV.

 

I swear. Whenever it comes to lore in this game, I'm constantly getting that over-anxious feeling that I didn't finish my homework or study as much as the next person for the big exam coming up.

 

Starting to have college finals flashback... -shudders- All those long nights...

[FreelanceWizard]

I swear. Whenever it comes to lore in this game, I'm constantly getting that over-anxious feeling that I didn't finish my homework or study as much as the next person for the big exam coming up.

 

To be honest, I think some people (and I know I sure can at times) come off as a lot more confrontational than desired when lore comes up. However, I've rarely if ever seen this come through in game. It's a bit of a difference between theory (discussions on the forum) and practice (actual RP). In theory, everyone would know every bit of lore and apply it to their characters. In practice, there's significant gaps in the lore and enormous grey spaces, and honestly, I think people are largely more interested in the stories and the RP than everything being exactingly correct.

 

So, I view the forum discussions as attempts to talk out our ideals, but we all have a lot of give and take in our actual RP. I've commented about rules of thumb like the Three Thing Rule before, some have railed against Fantasia, and the battles over Jobs are legendary -- but in reality, I think it's very rare that there's an instance where someone simply Will Not RP over a dispute regarding lore, most people are willing to help out when there are questions, and almost everyone is willing to say, "no biggie" when there's a reasonable deviation from lore (i.e., no X-Men crossover mutant long lost siblings of Hildibrand who are possessed by 9 voidsent who are actually the souls of Allagans who were originally faeries from the World of Darkness but sucked here through the Dark Magic of Heavy Metal :roll: ).

 

In short: it's not as bad as it sometimes seems!

[Desu Nee]

I swear. Whenever it comes to lore in this game, I'm constantly getting that over-anxious feeling that I didn't finish my homework or study as much as the next person for the big exam coming up.

 (i.e., no X-Men crossover mutant long lost siblings of Hildibrand who are possessed by 9 voidsent who are actually the souls of Allagans who were originally faeries from the World of Darkness but sucked here through the Dark Magic of Heavy Metal :roll: ).

 

In short: it's not as bad as it sometimes seems!

Can't really say anything besides the fact that is the most metal thing I heard today. Please ignore.

[Harmonixer]

@FreelanceWizard: "that's fuckin' BRUTAL"

 

Echoing Amelia's sentiments, actually. You aren't the only one! Really!

 

I do feel a lot of anxiety coming over me when it comes to RP on this game. I've only had one particular incident back when I first played where someone was outwardly correcting me and quite rudely mind you. What's great about that is they don't play anymore to my knowledge and they themselves were wrong, come to find out.

 

Regardless, I was even somewhat hesitant about rping on this game a lot of times simply because the lore is a bit more like how it 'used' to be. Which by no means is a bad thing, just coming from other titles is an adjustment I need to get used to again.

 

Normally, I say fuck all to what people think but I don't see nearly as much leeway on this game, in my own mind anyway. It's very difficult (and somewhat pointless) to deviate from a lot of the lore here. This might paint me as a bad guy to say, but I don't know how else to put it quite yet.

[Chris Ganale]

Nah, you're not the only one who treats lore as a suggestion. -Looks sternly at Chao, Garon, and Yuuna-

[Flashhelix]

If you're going to roleplay in a game with established lore only to take huge liberties with the lore, why roleplay in a game with established lore anyway? There are other avenues that allow far greater conceptual freedom if amending a character's concept and/or story is too great a feat.

[Zyrusticae]

If you're going to roleplay in a game with established lore only to take huge liberties with the lore, why roleplay in a game with established lore anyway? There are other avenues that allow far greater conceptual freedom if amending a character's concept and/or story is too great a feat.

Yeah, this is what it comes down to for me.

 

If you're not interested in using an established setting's framework, why even bother with it in the first place? It's rather self-defeating. There is obviously some room for messing around with all the gray areas in the lore and all, but throwing out huge portions of it instead of using what's available just strikes me as careless.

 

If you want to play an outrageous concept, you're much better served trying to play it in a setting that actually supports it. You certainly won't get anywhere near as many people pushing back that way.

[Briggs]

If you're going to roleplay in a game with established lore only to take huge liberties with the lore, why roleplay in a game with established lore anyway? There are other avenues that allow far greater conceptual freedom if amending a character's concept and/or story is too great a feat.

Yeah, this is what it comes down to for me.

 

If you're not interested in using an established setting's framework, why even bother with it in the first place? It's rather self-defeating. There is obviously some room for messing around with all the gray areas in the lore and all, but throwing out huge portions of it instead of using what's available just strikes me as careless.

 

If you want to play an outrageous concept, you're much better served trying to play it in a setting that actually supports it. You certainly won't get anywhere near as many people pushing back that way.

 

 

You could say that for any universe.

 

I'm trying to digest this, because it sounds like its on its way to being a good point, but I feel like there's a genuine lack of context. Is this a response to Miqote acting like Hyur or something?

[Kellach Woods]

I don't see the point in sticking only to the lore presented either.

 

First, there's always going to be bias towards a certain part of the lore. Either because the creators really love certain parts and care less about others, or because certain areas need lore due to a product they're about to sell (aka Ishgarde in Heavensward), etc.

 

In short, if you're not part of that part of the lore, you're fucked if you want good, comprehensive lore sources.

 

Second, because rare is the time I've seen where lore went in direct conflict with something a RPer wanted to do. What you really should be railing against is people ignoring the blatant obvious consequences of their actions due to the lore (e.g. Nunhs who get challenged not caring, Lalafells who act like children getting treated like such getting mad that you are treating them like that, etc.)

 

Hell, one of the funniest things I'd seen was when a Keeper male was hitting on Kell, there was another Keeper male trying to shame him for wanting to shack up with a non-Keeper, and even worse, a non-Miqo'te of the same sex. That is a genuine consequence of getting caught acting like a neko yaoi boi - and it made for interesting RP, allowing me to actually use that incident to improve my own reactions to shit happening.

[Caspar]

My female Lala is a stone-cold killer.

 

There's no reason to pigeonhole RPers or RP into racial stereotypes

 

These two sentences directly contradict each other.

Oh, my character's kinda violent too!

 

I want to be able to play tragic, funny and cool scenes.

 

Some people may look down on a Lalafell character trying to be intimidating, but I think it's perfectly reasonable given the background I've established. The lore seems to support violent Lalas too.

 

My character is unorthodox. I often have difficulty resisting the urge to snowflake a little and Virara is no exception in how exceptional she is. One look at her background and personality will show how differently she behaves from the expected conventions of Plainsfolk and Dunesfolk behavior. In many ways, she wasn't raised as Lalafell at all. If I play the character's race, it's almost always noting the absence of stereotypical behaviors, cliche as that is. If it's physical behavior, it's mostly just noting her doing something unusual; things like her looking up at a taller person are not necessarily always worth mentioning, since they go without saying if she's meeting their gaze. I will note something unusual, such as a twitch of the ears, or trying to stand on her tiptoes to appear even taller/shrinking her shoulders to appear shorter.

 

Why I do this rather than play the character within the culture is because I like the idea of characters wedged between two identities; I empathize with them and can use my own experiences to inform their behavior sometimes, though Vira doesn't resemble me in any way other than that, not even in personality. I think that characters transitioning between cultures and trying to find a place for their mixed identity are very interesting, in the same way I'm often fixated on the duty/emotions conflict and the feeling of "getting left behind by the times." That conflict can create really interesting stories. One of my major goals is describing that loneliness well, in a lot of my RPs.

 

Hm, this thread really exploded. I'll have to read it all...

[Kellach Woods]

The lore supports violent, sassy, lewd, boisterous, and outright bonkers Lalas.

 

They're growing (ha!) into my favorite race even if I want to punt 99% of them.

 

That being said, I really love my own female Lala. Goes around town implying that Franz the Fair stuffs his subligar.

[Nalin]

I'll admit that when I got into FFXIV:ARR, I picked a catboy because they were cute. And I picked a Keeper because I like all things related to the moon or space. >.>;

 

It wasn't until after I made Nalin that I learned about the Miqo'te tribes, their way of naming and all that crazy lore. Which... Only served to excite me. As I really love working with established lore and all the research one has to do. It's really fun for me.

 

So while I'm still not quite set on Nalin's past(I've been retconning things since his creation), I do know for certain he has some strong Keeper roots. He wanders off for various periods of time without warning, he struggles to make friends and to keep those friends, he has some issues approaching people, he keeps all his problems and opinions mostly to himself. He's even submissive toward women when they take command or control of a situation; as his clan had established that women were the boss and the men of his clan were... More often than not, traded to other clans or were told they hold no place of power. (Just his clan, at least. I'm literally going by what little Keeper lore we have. Gotta dig hard for this stuff I swear.)

 

But at some point of his life, his clan was destroyed completely which flipped his world upside down, and he was taken in and raised by his dragoon mentor. Who, more-or-less, taught him how to behave more like a civilized person. Or at least, as much as a civilized person as he could get. Which is why he doesn't make weird faces at people getting married, why he kind've follows Halone and why he behaves a little more civil than a wild crazy purple lionman. Though... Those tendencies do get out from time to time.

And his name was given to him by his step-father; he had a Keeper name prior to the adoption, but he refuses to be called by it because... Well he's also a momma's boy and hearing his mother's name over and over kind've upsets him. So he just took on a new name to avoid the sad feels.

 

So he's a mixture of both civil cat and wild cat, I guess. And he never thinks too much about the subject because he's too busy distracting himself with other things. He doesn't like to think about his clan or ponder his place in the Miqo'te world or the Eorzean world. All he wants to think about is protecting what little he has left in his life and that works for him. I'm sure that once he's done running from his problems he'll eventually start to think about this more, but for now all he wants to do is stab dragons and keep his "new clan" safe, no matter the cost.

 

Basically I took what I had made(A Keeper Catboy Dragoon) and tried to make it work with the itty bit of established lore I had. It's a bit of a bend and stretch but it feels like, to me, it works. So I keep rolling with it!

[Tiergan]

I admittedly have not read most of this thread. However my thoughts boil down to this:

 

"I will RP my way, other people will RP their way, and if I am comfortable RPing with them, I will. If I am not? I just leave them alone to do their thing in peace without me."

 

Tiergan emotes with his ears and tail, has a better sense of smell than a hyur, and other small cat quirks. He also has a bunch of admittedly cliche, dumb, bullshit quirks I should probably get rid of. If someone else wants to RP their miqo'te as being indistinguishable from a hyur with cat ears and a tail - whatever. Not a big deal for me, and even if it were, it is still not my problem because I can just turn around and find dozens of folks I do enjoy the RP of while leaving that other person alone.

 

By the same token, if my RP makes someone else uncomfortable, they are well within their rights not to RP with me at all and I probably wouldn't even notice unless they decided to be enough of a dick to explicitly tell me they think my RP is wrong. No one is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to RP with anyone you are uncomfortable with. So long as someone is not using their RP in a way that is literally harmful (such as using RP as a tool for various forms of harassment) - who cares what some random stranger is RPing?

 

In my view - when it comes to a video game where our primary goal is obviously to just have fun - "Doing it Wrong" is entirely subjective based upon your individual wants and needs as a roleplayer. If you want a casual experience that is just silly, light-hearted fun without too many meaty, more structured elements to over complicate and bog things down? Maybe 'right' for you is RPing however makes you happy regardless of lore.

 

If you want a heavier, more narrative experience with deep character development, overarching themes, and weighty emotion that is more firmly rooted in the setting - maybe 'right' for you is a character that is seated within the limits of the lore and the setting while building upon those limits to construct a compelling story.

 

There is no wrong answer in pursuit of fun in a video game. There are only your personal standards and whether or not the other person matches yours or not. It is not worth my time, effort, or the hurt feelings I would cause in another person to tell them their RP doesn't jive with what I personally view as "right." (Unless of course, they ask for my pinion or for advice.)

[Kurt S.]

M'aiq Tia knows many things.

 

SOMEONE MAKE THIS HAPPEN.

 

In any case I'll just put my two gil here, because I'm generous but poor enough as it is T_T

 

Whenever I roleplay Keil(formerly _'Keil Tia), I usually don't stick in any of the tail/ear/nose movements except when certain conditions are met or I need them to do something specific that the idle animations can't portray. Say for example Tricky and Atoli approach him at the QS and interact with him. Before I even put his spoken response to them I already try to get the outward actions and movements out of the way. 

 

Echoing (heh, echo) the other sentiments here about tail stuff and all that being redundant, I have to agree with those points. The thing is your character is already physical present and it's just plain to see that yes he/she has a tail and cat ears and those two things are doing whatever because I think it's about as unconscious to them as breathing or making one's heart beat. 

 

These are just his mannerisms and how I portray that. Because I'm sure people are going to shake their heads at his umm optimistic back story which I'll stick in a wiki soon.

 

Oh wait....the topic changed?

#Internetexplorerstyle

[Dravus]

If you're going to roleplay in a game with established lore only to take huge liberties with the lore, why roleplay in a game with established lore anyway? There are other avenues that allow far greater conceptual freedom if amending a character's concept and/or story is too great a feat.

 

I just wish more people outright admitted that they had no interest in sticking to the lore instead of pulling out the card of 'I can do what I want, FREEDOM AND LIBERTY' that is becoming alarming common in debates such as this.

 

I mean, yeah - nobody is saying anybody can't do whatever they want. They're saying that if someone deliberately ignores the established setting then they're opening themselves to valid criticism.

 

If my character happened to be played as a relative of a major lore character then I'd fully expect people to offer constructive criticism, raise their eyebrows and even avoid me altogether. Nobody has an obligated to interact with role-players that don't align with their style, however nobody has the right to claim that they can never, ever be criticised.

[Kinono]

I just wish more people outright admitted that they had no interest in sticking to the lore instead of pulling out the card of 'I can do what I want, FREEDOM AND LIBERTY' that is becoming alarming common in debates such as this.

 

This whole post is actually kinda my view on it. Yeah "do what you want and eff the haters" sounds really great and empowering, but... Unless you are keeping your RP within a really tight circle, everything has a ripple effect. You have to take SOME responsibility for your character and their actions and their repercussions and what you do or suggest within the provided setting. What you do and how you act is going to have an effect on other characters, and whatever characters they interact with. I know what I'm capable of believing but Kino is sort of a blank slate in a lot of different areas of knowledge. 

 

The biggest frustrations for me, is trying to wrap my head around in-characterly handling completely conflicting information. I'm not that type of person that likes to disregard people, characters or encounters at all, even if they go entirely against what I know to be true. One person Kino trusts is changing their form all the time because "fantasia flows like water thanks to the alchemist's guild," while another character Kino trusts staunchly tells her that such a thing is beyond our current ken. Okay. One friend gets pregnant through [MAGIC MEANS] while modern biology (and I assume the common opinion of characters in-game) tells us this isn't possible. How does Kino, or any other character, react to the fact that there is conflicting information on THINGS THAT WOULD BE COMMON KNOWLEDGE. 

 

Imagine, if you will, a real-life scenario where your best friend or significant other suddenly came forth and told you they just didn't believe in cats. Like, flat-out didn't believe they existed. You'd probably say "look at these videos" or "but I own a cat" or "but we own a cat." But they just shook their head and emphasized that cats don't exist. You'd think they were crazy. And I would hate, hate, hate having to treat every other godsdamned person I meet like they're a lunatic because they choose to "eff the haters" rather than read some dialouge.

 

Okay, sorry about that. Rant over. I swear I'm like, the least lore-nazi person ever, but sometimes I hate having to compile this stuff.

[Tiergan]

If you're going to roleplay in a game with established lore only to take huge liberties with the lore, why roleplay in a game with established lore anyway? There are other avenues that allow far greater conceptual freedom if amending a character's concept and/or story is too great a feat.

 

I just wish more people outright admitted that they had no interest in sticking to the lore instead of pulling out the card of 'I can do what I want, FREEDOM AND LIBERTY' that is becoming alarming common in debates such as this.

 

I mean, yeah - nobody is saying anybody can't do whatever they want. They're saying that if someone deliberately ignores the established setting then they're opening themselves to valid criticism.

 

If my character happened to be played as a relative of a major lore character then I'd fully expect people to offer constructive criticism, raise their eyebrows and even avoid me altogether. Nobody has an obligated to interact with role-players that don't align with their style, however nobody has the right to claim that they can never, ever be criticised.

 

I am in the "Why RP in an MMO with an established lore if you're not going to RP with the established lore?" camp. It's why I don't get why people would want to RP that they're Naruto from the Hidden Leaf village in FFXIV when they could go join some actual Naruto RP group or something and RP all of that over there.

 

My miqo'te characters obviously don't have conventional miqo'te names (I honestly couldn't stand the naming conventions even though I really wanted to play a miqo'te) - but other than that, I try to adhere to the lore as closely as I can without introducing elements I feel would directly contradict it. My characters aren't from random unknown locations. They're not secretly some unknown race. I don't give them skills and jobs that haven't been introduced to the game world yet. They're not secretly a Dragoon and White Mage rolled into one that has mastered both arts at age 15. They don't have any unique special powers or abilities that a normal person couldn't otherwise get through a reasonable amount of training.

 

That said -- I don't understand this pressing need to criticise people for not roleplaying the same way you do with the same exact level of lore compliance when they haven't asked you for advice. It's easy to stare your nose down at some guy RPing Naruto in Eorzea, but it can get dicier when it's something more subtle like "your miqo'te doesn't act cat-like enough" or whether or not someone should be playing certain jobs. (Example: Some folks think warriors are totally cool to play as! Other people think it's breaking the lore to RP any job-class other than Paladins! Who is right and who is wrong? NO ONE KNOWS because it's all subjective thanks to the Warrior NPC actively trying to teach people the art, but it having died out long ago, etc, etc. Please let's not actually talk about whether it's okay to RP certain classes, because that conversation has been done to death.)

 

As an artist, I don't go around offering critique to every single artist I come across, even if they're fledglings and really could use the pointers. Unless they explicitly ask me for it or present it in a situation where it is implied that they want critique - it's actually considered rude to drop unwanted, unasked for critique on someone's artwork out of the blue without them expecting it or giving some indication that it is welcome and they would use it to improve their craft.

 

By the same token, I earnestly feel it's not any of my business to criticize or tell someone how to RP their character unless they explicitly ask me for critique. make a thread asking for advice on how to make their character more lore compliant, or otherwise imply that they're looking to improve themselves and wouldn't mind someone telling them how they could do things better. If they do ask me for advice? You better believe I'm going to try and steer them towards reading up on the lore, choosing a backstory that is more realistic in terms of the game setting, and not secretly being Bahamut reincarnated in the body of a pink-haired bubble-gum scented female roegadyn. Constructive criticism on how to be a better roleplayer and RP within the setting are fantastic - but only if someone asks for it and sincerely wants to apply it.

 

Additionally, I think most people adopt the "People can do what they want" approach - not because they want to escape all consequences or criticism while RPing Titanium-plated Space Dragons with a secret yaoi cat man form in Eorzea - but because it is extremely easy for RP communities to dive down the slippery slope of transforming into a very hostile, aggressive police force that dictates every single aspect of what is acceptable in roleplay.

 

I think we have all been in one of those at least once in an MMO where there is a core group of people who enforce the most strident (and sometimes even incorrect) view of the lore and outright harasses people for veering just a little bit outside of that.

 

I have been in MMOs where RP communities went so far out of their way to dictate every little detail of what people are allowed to do or be that they actually told people what hair colors they felt were adherent to the lore and which ones they were not allowed to use despite the fact that the developer of the game itself provided us with multiple colors to choose from. It's the equivalent of telling all Moon Keeper Miqo'te that they can't have reds, yellows, oranges, and other similar colors that might too easily be associated with Sun Seekers while Sun Seekers can't have their hair be various shades of blue or purple.

 

I would rather have an open, accepting, friendly community that has a wide range of Rpers from magical sparkle fairy-vampires I don't really want to RP with to people who earnestly enjoy working within the confines of the lore ...than to have an aggressive, hostile, judgmental community that makes people feel like shit and scares off newer RPers from RPing openly for the first time out of fear that if they fuck up with the lore just a tiny bit, some asshole is going to jump down their throat for not getting it quite right.

[Tiergan]

I just wish more people outright admitted that they had no interest in sticking to the lore instead of pulling out the card of 'I can do what I want, FREEDOM AND LIBERTY' that is becoming alarming common in debates such as this.

 

This whole post is actually kinda my view on it. Yeah "do what you want and eff the haters" sounds really great and empowering, but... Unless you are keeping your RP within a really tight circle, everything has a ripple effect. You have to take SOME responsibility for your character and their actions and their repercussions and what you do or suggest within the provided setting. What you do and how you act is going to have an effect on other characters, and whatever characters they interact with. I know what I'm capable of believing but Kino is sort of a blank slate in a lot of different areas of knowledge. 

 

The biggest frustrations for me, is trying to wrap my head around in-characterly handling completely conflicting information. I'm not that type of person that likes to disregard people, characters or encounters at all, even if they go entirely against what I know to be true. One person Kino trusts is changing their form all the time because "fantasia flows like water thanks to the alchemist's guild," while another character Kino trusts staunchly tells her that such a thing is beyond our current ken. Okay. One friend gets pregnant through [MAGIC MEANS] while modern biology (and I assume the common opinion of characters in-game) tells us this isn't possible. How does Kino, or any other character, react to the fact that there is conflicting information on THINGS THAT WOULD BE COMMON KNOWLEDGE. 

 

Imagine, if you will, a real-life scenario where your best friend or significant other suddenly came forth and told you they just didn't believe in cats. Like, flat-out didn't believe they existed. You'd probably say "look at these videos" or "but I own a cat" or "but we own a cat." But they just shook their head and emphasized that cats don't exist. You'd think they were crazy. And I would hate, hate, hate having to treat every other godsdamned person I meet like they're a lunatic because they choose to "eff the haters" rather than read some dialouge.

 

Okay, sorry about that. Rant over. I swear I'm like, the least lore-nazi person ever, but sometimes I hate having to compile this stuff.

 

I honestly don't have this problem. My FC is awesome and filled with like-minded people who all think the lore is an important, fantastic resource that you shouldn't just toss out the window so someone can have a magical, time-warp pregnancy where the child ages up to adulthood in a matter of days so their best friend can play as said child and RP out a romance with another person. I also politely step out of RP that veers into that territory and work to avoid it. I have had to have Tiergan think someone was insane just once, and I just never RPed with that person again afterwards.

 

While Rpers are always going to be the minority on Balmung, the RP community is big enough where I personally feel that if you don't want to deal with people that RP in a bizaare way -- you really don't have to. If someone gets butthurt over you deciding not to RP with them, they are just going to have to accept that not everyone RPs the same way and that if they aren't going to RP in a way that is compliant with the lore, a lot of people are just not going to feel good about roleplaying with them.