The Case Aganast roleplaying as the Warrior of Light

[Gothicshark]

---had to split my post in 2---



Long story short, RP Players tend to make a back story that fits the world lore, and then RP as things happen to their character. Having RP of someone skilled is fine, but no one wants to RP against a god unless it's apart of a storytellers campaign, which I've seen, yes RP players will sometimes have a member of their RP group RP as the WOL, an official of the city, or even a Primal or god. But these are a part of long ongoing RPs, and the RP God is a temporary character used for a plot device or other storytelling tool. These characters are usually scripted as well.

It's always fun when a Default Midlander shows up in the level 50 Warrior gear, with the name Hero or other cheese name, to a private house, and everyone has to react to the guy being literally THE Warrior of light. (happened 5 years ago for our FC, the sky pirate one, he was asking our help to face the Void Ark. Yes, our Guild leader used a Fantasia and a temporary name change, just to RP out why we as an FC were going to do the Void Ark. It was a good RP session as well, we then had a huge laugh in Discord about it. That was near the end of me doing lots of RP as well. I kind of miss having a good group to RP with. My fault really, I was still splitting time between this and the Irvine based MMO.)

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So basically your idea works, but exceptions are made for long term stories that work just like a D&D game. With a Story Teller, and a party of adventurers/crafters playing out the story.

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BTW because it's fun to do, my 3 mains:


Marielle Sansoleil - Black Mage Ishgard Elezen grew up in Ul'dah

Mary Jigoku - Dancer, Au Ra Rean, She was born in the village of Sui-no-Sato, in the Ruby Sea, she left home at 16 years old and found her way to Kugane, which eventually lead her to travel to Ul'dah where she started her adventurer career. She is currently only 18 years old. Her birth name was Mariko Shisui, she took the name Mary Hell due to 8th-grade syndrome when she left home.


Caitlyn "Bhump" Aliapoh - Miqo'te Keeper of the Moon -Isekai RP:

Born in 2030 in the Bay Area, to North African and Latin parents, Azeem Garcia lived in a world that was dying, the Phantoms had all but killed most life on Earth. Azeem went to bed one night with his husband and woke the next day in a wagon heading to Ul'dah. With that as a premise, I am using this character as a leveling challenge, and streaming it to twitch, also I am writing a novelization of her leveling adventure. <- Not using her for any active RP because she is going to be the WOL, in fact, I named her Human self Azeem because her husband in that life was named Emmet. Yah, not even going to be subtle in the story, as I want that dynamic that Emet-Selch and the WOL, both are reminded of life on a world long destroyed in the forth Umbral Calamity.

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Additionally, I have a whole list of high-level alts, for more specific RP.

Ashett Tholl - Dwarf from the First RP
Bhump Dabhump - Cat Girl predecessor to Caitlyn "Bhump" Aliapoh, less Isekai, more Sky Pirate.
Marhiel Aloc - Reimagining of my old 2nd Ed AD&D High Elf War-Wizard. All my Mary/Mariel, Marielle, characters are based loosely on my AD&D character. Mary was not her first name, and I can't say what it was because I can be an idiot at times and not notice a thing for years, and couldn't figure out why people laughed when I would say her name. Note I'm bad with names and use to name things based on the reverse spelling of a thing I saw. In this case, it was a can of cola. You can figure it out.
Dhuem Bhuenay - doom bunny, made the character as a lala way back when.
Llis Yesirel - Bunny Girl for fun
Mary Winter - My first character was a Lalafell in 1.0, now a femroe.

[Ruinfeild]

I do recall in the thread I made some time earlier about what the RP community would and wouldn't accept in terms of RP in terms of the WoL and going to the first (which was the big one).

There is a quote from Yoshi-P in regards to going to the first for RPers.

Interviewer: This is a question on behalf of the game’s roleplaying community. Many players, who do not act as if they are the Warrior of Light, but rather pretend to be everyday adventurers, were excited to create stories that take place on the First but saw that the game’s narrative didn’t really allow travel for “normal” individuals to end up there. If players want to pretend their “normal” characters can travel to and play on the First, is that okay? (I promise this is a question that many of them eagerly await an answer to.)

Yoshida: Hrm… Personally, I see video games as something that gives you the freedom to play however you like. So, if you, the player, believe that you can travel to the First, then so be it, right?

We have yet to reveal everything about who the Warrior of Light is, and whether they are the only ones who are special. Furthermore, the definition of a “normal individual” seems a bit vague here, as well. I think the power to believe and the desire to persevere are the biggest elements that drive progress in an individual, and so if you believe that you as a character can go to the First, then wouldn’t that be enough? A life dictated by someone else is no fun anyhow, is it?

Problem is, even if we use this as saying pretty much our characters on our own will can to and from places like the first (and in essence being one of the WoL thanks to the most recent patch story), the community continues to fight back against it even though I rarely if ever see people actually RP as the WoL or even one of them.

[Ruinfeild]

Job crystals: Been a while since I paid much attention to the job crystals so I can't argue that going some of these jobs might make the character a target and such (though I will need to go back and rewatch the cutscenes for some of them to see if the lore has changed or expanded) but I think at this point the crystals are not as big of a deal as people make them out to be. Sure they might take a long time to understand and use to their limit but having people walk around with multiple job crystals isn't so far fetched anymore this far into the story. Hell, if you wanted to bring in gameplay mechanics as well, I would argue that most of the mentors probably have a stockpile around just waiting to give them away for any future WoL.

For the echo, I maybe only bumped into a handful of people who's characters have this sort of ability though never RPed enough with them to know what sort of power they had with it. If the latest patch (or the last patch) has shown like you said, it just allows them to hear her more easily rather than actually being gifted by her so it isn't such a rare ability (if also supported by the multiple WoL's in the most recent patch AND taking into account the other shards who still have a population to talk about).

Location: This sort of fits in with the whole 'not everything the player does is canon to their character' which is true, but if they wanted to also RP that their character has been to these locations than sure, why not? I think the problem here is just the way the game is designed. For a lot of just normal dungeons, I am sure that other characters before ours came along have been there and either gave up or locked it up due to failure and being either the WoL or just gifted in battle, we came along and cleared them out. This goes for any of the raids as well. For trials and those where you have to deal with a primal, loops back around to the characters being special in some way (which writing it now does seem like a strange loop if a character says all this is canon but their character isn't gifted by the echo).

Any RP character can just be as well connected as the WoL depending on how they go about their backstory, orgins, and how they play the character. The only difference being no cutscenes or anything to show it but it isn't far fetched to say that a character knows one of the major leaders personally or even side characters like Hildebrand, Godbert, Amyric, etc. The last thing we need is someone who isn't part of the RP community and even claims they are not an expert on the subject to start calling people a liar if their characters have some sort connection to more powerful NPC's (looked up what Chuuni means and still don't understand it).

One thing that annoys me the most as a long term RPer is when people bring up the whole 'power fantasy' when it comes to WoL. Just because he can't be tempered, has multiple job crystals, and known connections doesn't make it a power fantasy. To me, a power fantasy would be someone who's character has done all of these things (lets say MSQ and side content) in RP alone and with no help whatsoever with no injuries or even any sort of effort. Where they are the best thing ever and nothing can touch them (I tend to see power fantasy and god modding as almost one in the same).

It's been shown countless times throughout the game that the WoL (our character so to speak) has been exhausted, beaten, injured, nearly killed, etc, and this is with having the echo, (assuming) multiple job crystals, and being well known in Eorzea and the first. If it was really a power fantasy, our character should have no trouble with any of the threats that come to them and wouldn't even need any help from the leaders, factions, or the scions.

What I wish I would see is the RP community just shut up about excluding people just because they don't agree with something in regards to their character and just go along with it until it becomes extremely out of bounds (like with the whole god modding bit). I get that people will like and not like certain things but it gets annoying hearing how x person was belitted and insulted because y didn't agree that z was canon and the x persons character didn't follow the lore to the very letter. Any long time RPer knows (or I would think so) that lore at most can be bent but not broken.

[Morningstar1337]

---had to split my post in 2---

Yeah I kinda forgot that the constant influx of sprouts, though it didn't help that the thread I made was partly a response to a comment made on another thread that also disregarded this.

Anyway. Your insight is also appreciated and for all its worth, even though I don't RP I did take the time to craft a backstory of sorts and some details for my character

[Krotoan]

Alright, here I try to discuss the reasons why I think RPing as the WoL (at least ingame) is usually considered taboo. Bear in mind that I'm not involved with any RP communities, nor am I an expert on the topic, so any corrections and discussion on this would be appreciated.

I wasn't aware I needed permission from other people to imagine my story?

[Iscah]

Bear in mind that I'm not involved with any RP communities, nor am I an expert on the topic, so any corrections and discussion on this would be appreciated.

What are you trying to do with this post if you're neither in a roleplaying community nor posting to one?

Are you trying to set rules for a community you're not part of?

Are you trying to understand it?

Why are you spelling this out, and what is the outcome you are looking for?

[Tsalmaveth]

People can, will, and do RP whatever they want. For whatever reasons they want. With others who want to RP with them. People who try to police other's enjoyment and what is, or is not, 'permissible' in RP are generally side-eyed as sticklers who need to, and should, stick with others of like mind and leave everyone else well enough alone.

I can have an AU(Alternate Universe) where my character is NOT the WoL, but IS a Dravanian(dragon) running around in Landlord("human") form.

I can have an AU where my character IS the WoL and enjoy myself thusly, shipping with whatever NPC I desire with or without other people being involved.

And frankly, no one is going to stop me from doing either and enjoying myself.

[Morningstar1337]

What are you trying to do with this post if you're neither in a roleplaying community nor posting to one?

Are you trying to set rules for a community you're not part of?

Are you trying to understand it?

Why are you spelling this out, and what is the outcome you are looking for?

In a way, I'm trying to understand it, yes. But I was also collecting some thoughts I had on the topic when another thread mentioned WOL-roleplayers, and the thread is a collections of reasons why that is the case. Which is to say that it is a response to post on another thread that I didn't post on that thread because I find it to be rather long and not germane enough for it.

Primarily because I do have some interest in how storytelling works, and because I've been around certain aspects (namely fanfic, and RPs could be seen as a different, more collaborative take on that concept) long enough that to tell that there is a stigma against "too perfect" characters, and assume that such a stigma manifested against WoL role-players. In a way I was basically trying to spell out the ways the WoL would be or is seen as such. The nature of MMO protagonists means that they are perfect for starting RPs as they are blank slates, but this also means they could run into the same issues as in fanfic communities (again, Sturgeon's Law)

I think its also why I made the Superman comparison as he too could be seen as "too perfect" in some circles (even despite the kryptonite).

With that said I do admit that I sometimes have a problem with tone, phrasing and communication in general. And I must acknowledge that the post could be seen as a gatekeeping attempt, even though I didn't intend to gatekeep (its why I mentioned my lack of credentials in the field, and also why I asked for actual experts and RPers to share their insight). So I apologize for any tonal mistakes.

[DRKoftheAzure]

Might as well throw in my opinion; can you RP as THE DEFACTO WOL... I don't think I have a proper answer for that one... but you CAN RP as A WOL, which is a fair compromise...


But then there is going to be at least 1 person who WILL argue WHY you can't RP as A WOL(which mostly boils down to "Fun not allowed because I didn't come up with the idea first" tantrum)...

[MistakeNot]

I wasn't aware I needed permission from other people to imagine my story?

Of course you don't need that, as long as you do your imagining all by yourself.
But if you are going to do any actual RP, together with other people, you all need to agree to some ground rules - just like when playing any game.