About a Pre-HW Interview

[Vexander]

The problem is that Eorzean culture and values, as a whole, are very different from our own values. It's an integral part of the world these characters inhabit, and I seriously don't want to see some awkward attempt at political correctness shoehorned into the plot. I've seen way too many stories where the creator's social and political bias wound up ruining the story for me, and I don't want to see FF XIV's story ruined by the same thing.

This is why I'm actually enjoying the portrayal of Miqo'te culture the way it has been done so far: we on the other side of the screen, raised with a totally different set of cultures and traditions may see it as alien and oppressive, but the Miqo'te themselves don't exactly resent their roles, if they even really care about them in the first place. I would be fine if FF XIV chooses not to explore this question; in fact, I don't want it to.

If, and only if, bringing up the topic of gender politics could be done in an unbiased, objective manner, I would be fine with that. The problem with issues like these is that people bring their bias into it all the time, and ultimately I've grown very tired of seeing such discussions about it, especially when they lead nowhere.

There's no reason for gender politics to come into it at all though. Like I said, it's a character who lets the players explore that aspect of the lore, an opinionated character to be sure, but its not as though they're coming to Eorzea to push a political plot and change the culture/nations and what have you. It doesn't need to be blatant and in your face, referenced in every sentence of dialogue. It can be as simple as extra text in the Rising Stones after MSQ patches.

[Fenral]

Hmm, isn't that just an example? I took that as more "We could write a character like this, but we might be limited in how we show it, and that limits what we can write", not "G'raha Tia will be returning, damaged after an encounter with a certain forbidden land...", which is now what I want it to be...

I actually had the random delusion that perhaps the guide NPC to take us into Eureka would be G'raha's hitherto unnamed father, seeking the whereabouts of his wayward son. Nobody ever said he was dead, after all.