Would you join the Empire if you could? Ave imperium!

[Noroi_Kisaragi]

I would in a heartbeat. I find it weird how all these NPC player characters are in a company that the player themself is unable to join. Why is that? Why are we forced to witness the story of Final Fantasy 14 and fight for causes we might not necessarily believe in? What if we side with the Empire?

To be more practical, it's due to development costs probably and would take some time, so obviously there was no chance of this ever happening at launch. But for a future expansion (FF14 has a 10 year dev cycle, remember, lots of things could happen!) the ability to join the Empire would be pretty neat. Wielding those gunblades, fancy class names, cool looking gear, a unique storyline from a different perspective, add in some pvp features, and what's not to love really?

I like being in the Maelstrom and all, but if we could join the Empire like all these other Eorzeans can, but not us for some reason because the developers don't want us to, I would drop it and dash to the Emperor in a second!

My life for the Empire!

[Xayoc]

This one would pave the way to Gre'thor with your ashes just like it did with all of the imperial pa'tacks. Traitors are consumed by the souls of the dishonored dead. Hopefully we shall meet in the Colluseum!

[Aicasia]

The empire is full of rapists, so no thanks.

[Inosaska]

The empire is full of rapists, so no thanks.

Ya very disgusting and makes me hate the empire even more.

[Timsierramist]

Ya very disgusting and makes me hate the empire even more.

They are? Did I miss the lore on that one?

[GilbertLapine]

[

The empire is full of rapists, so no thanks.

Lol, so is limsa.

[FyeyaHerald]

The empire is full of rapists, so no thanks.

Kind of absurdly so. It's actually just annoying how that is played up for "BAD GUYS"

On that note, I'd love to play as Ex-Garleans, It'd be sick to have gunblade/magitek engineer classes and take the good ideals of the empire and divorce them from the bad execution.

Also, talk to the imperial soldiers in some of the quests; they talk about their children and families back home.

Then tell me they're all rapists.

[Artamie]

I'm not Garlean I swear!

Also, talk to the imperial soldiers in some of the quests; they talk about their children and families back home.

Then tell me they're all rapists.

Not to mention the soldier that falls in love with Tataru... lol

[Reiterpallasch]

omg is this a serious thread? This is not WoW kids we don't have an evil side, sorry.

Bad troll is bad. Nobody gives a flying fuck about your hatred for WoW. Which, btw, doesn't have an "evil side" to play as either. But nice try. How's that bandwagon working out for ya btw?

The empire is full of rapists, so no thanks.

"Wanna play the rape game?"

"No..."

"That's the spirit!"

[Duelle]

The empire is full of rapists, so no thanks.

That's "therapists", Mr. Connery.

Anyway, depends on the context. The Garleans' agenda is more "big picture" stuff, of course kept under their rule because they don't trust people to take care of themselves. Gaius is not a bad guy per se, and while you can say that yes, the empire is the bad guys of the story, the writers have presented them as either the lesser evil (1.0) or in a dark shade of gray with some of the stuff seen in 2.0.

On the upside you get access to magitek and it may even encourage some level of competition between player factions. On the downside you'd be likely to become a raid boss and have to put up with the likes of Nero.