On Extreme Role-playing Within XIV

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Originally Posted by Wyssahtyn

XIV roleplayers have significant difficulty in differentiating between IC and OOC on both sides at the best of times.

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This 1000 times.


If you go looking for people to do this kind of thing with make sure you know them and know there limits of acceptable speech/actions. Also if you do find a group that can and will do this just be mindful of who is around you if you leave the confines of instanced areas. Offending a 3rd party will land you straight into the gaol.

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Originally Posted by Caurcas

I disagree, people are free to wrote how they wish.

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I'm not saying people can't write how they want, provided it falls within the Square-Enix ToS.

I am saying that there's a lack of social awareness if you want to write a character that's just walking shock-value and expect people to want to hang around it, and I am saying that heavier, delicate topics should be written in a mature manner and not a childish one; with a group of people who are interested in exploring those topics.

The problem is not on the people for thinking your content's bad.

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Originally Posted by ItMe

IDK man that just doesn't sound fun.
I wanna at least RP something I'd be comfortable being IRL.

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To some (myself included) the idea behind RP is being able to act out such roles in the way that an actor does in a play. Although everyone has different preferences, to me the notion that I need to be comfortable with being something IRL in order to RP it is simply irrelevant.

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Originally Posted by TheMightyMollusk

There's enough racism, xenophobia, and intolerance in the real world, most of us don't really want to see it in our escapism too.

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Equally turning it into a hugbox often seems to be more of the "real world" (really, the picture the media wish to paint of it) creeping into that escapism, wrapping around it and slowly strangulating it. This setting makes for a rather poor choice if one does not wish to see such elements in one's "escapism".

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Originally Posted by ItMe

IDK man that just doesn't sound fun.
I wanna at least RP something I'd be comfortable being IRL.

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Rping a garlean or ascian sounds super fun tbh imo. More fun than the typical "Bar owner" or "Brothel owner"

At the end of the day you are free to rp however/as whoever you want and others get to decide for themselves if they want to roleplay with you.

The reason why people don't like to play "bad" characters is obvious, it creates conflict and a bad light on yourself and most roleplayers want to stay in a good light. Most players want to run around in silly glamours in nightclubs and such and roleplay there a bit just to relax without thinking about either heavy character related questions (like is my family alive, where do i come from, what are my morals?). They just want to have a good time, which is alright in my eyes no way of roleplay is really wrong, except forcing actions on others.

To the reason why "bad" characters are actually good, a story needs conflict and suffering and characters with different personalities which creates interaction. I mean who would like going to a theatrical perfomance or movie only to see the characters be completely friendly to each other for some minutes before the credits roll? We humans like stuff we can relate to and a story often only gets relatable when writers put a good amount of conflict and suffering into it and struggles a (or the) characters can either succumb to or overcome. Also different good and bad traits make a character also more relatable, showing that everyone has flaws they have to deal with.

This form of narrative and storydriven roleplay is more for groups or places where you know this kind of thought into a character is actually liked and approved. Not your usual nightclub venue or a open roleplay spot. In my experience the best time you can have with such characters lies in FCs which play basically like the tabletop roleplayers. Cause they want a immersive world where they know there are characters that are actually more than just catears and boobs.

Thus said, again every form of roleplay is valid. Don't flame other people for not playing your way, rather search yourself the group that does play like you and find a home there.

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Originally Posted by Lauront

To some (myself included) the idea behind RP is being able to act out such roles in the way that an actor does in a play. Although everyone has different preferences, to me the notion that I need to be comfortable with being something IRL in order to RP it is simply irrelevant.

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I don't need to be comfortable with being something IRL to RP it though.
I have been my D&D group's regular DM for almost 20 years. I've had to play the parts of all sorts of morally devoid characters.

But there, the characters are driving the narrative and serving a point.
To just RP a racist because... what... that's fun?
That I don't get.

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Originally Posted by KizuyaKatogami

Rping a garlean or ascian sounds super fun tbh imo. More fun than the typical "Bar owner" or "Brothel owner"

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Yeah. That sounds neat.
I'd like to RP as an Immortal space wizard too.
I just, personally, wouldn't wanna RP as a

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Originally Posted by Caurcas

racist, xenophobic or intolerant

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immortal space wizard.

But the Ascians are very racist (speciesist?), and intolerant.

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Originally Posted by Caurcas

But the Ascians are very racist (speciesist?), and intolerant.

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Are they?
All of them?
Do they have to be?
Is it an integral part of being an Ascian?
Or is that just what some of the Ascian survivors of The Final Days feel?

It's a matter of nuance, really. I think it does a bit of a disservice to the storytelling to dilute Garleans and Ascians to just being 'racists'. When it comes to Garleans, we're talking about a race who used to be peaceful farmers cruelly attacked by magic wielding neighbours and forced to carve out a living for themselves in a bleak frozen wasteland. If not for the presence of ceruleum, they would have died out completely. They didn't, though and survived against all odds - and when given the opportunity, decided to inflict a little payback on a world that had wronged them so cruelly.

Did they go too far in some ways? Perhaps. Though at the same time, it shouldn't come as much surprise for a race driven to near extinction through no fault of their own to desire revenge.

The Ascians, too, have their own valid reasons to view the Sundered as lesser lifeforms - because from their perspective, they're akin to a human looking down at an ant. Ants which exist at the expense of their own loved ones, no less.

Many elements of the story have been established as not being a matter of black or white morality and Yoshi-P has commented to that effect across a number of interviews. I can provide sources for such, if desired!

Plus it's all fictional. None of us are actually our characters much in the same way as how actors and actresses are not the characters that they play in movies. As a role-player myself, it's always a red flag when other role-players cannot separate fiction from reality.

In such situations, parting ways and agreeing to not interact with one another is the prudent course...but in my experience, unfortunately it often turns out to be the case that the same individuals who are offended by the idea of someone playing an antagonist just so happen to be the sort to take to media to stalk and harass people in an effort to 'cancel' them. I'm sure other role-players know what I mean by that, as it isn't unusual to see horror stories about such events taking place.