Emet-Selch

[Esmart]

What part was relatable? The genocide bit or the insane mad god worshipper?

I do not consider you to be truly alive. Ergo, I will not be guilty of murder if I kill you.

If you had to erase all the FFXIV NPCs to bring back your loved ones, would you lose much sleep over it? I mean, looking from the outside - all the characters are NPCs, they are equal, so one NPC saying he's more alive than other NPCs - yeah, right. But the in-game logic is not the same.

[YianKutku]

I do not consider you to be truly alive. Ergo, I will not be guilty of murder if I kill you.

If you had to erase all the FFXIV NPCs to bring back your loved ones, would you lose much sleep over it? I mean, looking from the outside - all the characters are NPCs, they are equal, so one NPC saying he's more alive than other NPCs - yeah, right. But the in-game logic is not the same.

If I had to erase all the FFXIV NPCs from my computer and only my computer to bring back my loved ones, then yes, I would consider it.

If I had to erase all the FFXIV NPCs from everyone's computers, and indeed uninstall FFXIV from the world and remove it from existence, then no, I would not do it.

It's the difference between doing something that is a loss to myself and only myself, and doing something that is a loss to everyone.

Similarly, I would not, say, erase every single chicken or dog from the world just to bring back my loved ones. But that's what Emet-Selch is proposing, in that his plan would also kill the dragons, who are very much not Sundered souls.

EDIT: Also if the FFXIV NPCs suddenly appealed personally to me not to erase them, showing signs of sapience (or, to use a standard from Mass Effect's Mordin, the ability to perform advanced calculus as a species), then absolutely not would I sacrifice them to bring my loved ones back.

[Esmart]

It's the difference between doing something that is a loss to myself and only myself, and doing something that is a loss to everyone.

Everyone - real living people, right? Not NPCs. From Emet Selch's point of view, there is exactly two people left alive, game servers are running on dead people energy and not giving it back.

Similarly, I would not, say, erase every single chicken or dog from the world just to bring back my loved ones. But that's what Emet-Selch is proposing, in that his plan would also kill the dragons, who are very much not Sundered souls.

We kill NPC chickens and dogs all the time. In-game - not sure about dragons. They survived previous rejoinings. But of course Ascians have created the Allagan Empire that killed Bahamut. Hardly a genocide though.

Also if the FFXIV NPCs suddenly appealed personally to me not to erase them, showing signs of sapience (or, to use a standard from Mass Effect's Mordin, the ability to perform advanced calculus as a species), then [I]absolutely[I] not would I sacrifice them to bring my loved ones back.

It's called "breaking the fourth wall". Cartoons have had appealed personally to me, I still don't think they're alive.

I understand the sentiment. If in a game I see a button "kill this nice NPC", I would not push it. But I would uninstall the game and that would "kill" the NPC way more finally.