On Extreme Role-playing Within XIV

[Zsolen]

It's not forcing someone to play slave, it's deliberately turning the course of the RP event into something darker because "you want to".

You can make that claim about anyone, even someone that is 'nice.' Anyone can push things in the direction people don't want. Darker themes have nothing to do with it.

Protip: "I just really want to RP a racist" is, in fact, a red flag.

It's funny how the people that demonstrated how RP usually is and had previous experience say otherwise. It was explained how that was not the case. This is coming from a minority, in case it makes a difference to you. Given your response, it would make a difference, even though it should not.

[Theodric]

As an aside, I'd like to note that I've played multiple MMO's on various European servers including FFXIV, ESO and WoW and have rarely run into issues when it comes to role-play on European servers. I think it would be worth it if some people took a step back and considered that there's cultural differences at play - and that it's pretty sinister to be implying that European role-players are secretly big racists just because they seem to be more willing and able to separate a character with flaws from the role-player that is controlling them.

To tie in with that, I'd also note that a significantly larger amount of role-play on American servers seems to consist of 'fluff' and visiting taverns/night clubs. It isn't my intention to suggest that European role-players are necessarily better or more mature, but equally I'd note that there is less focus over on our side of the pond on things such as brothels, self inserts and wish fulfilment. A lot of us just like an interesting story with deep characters that fit the setting we choose to role-play in. It isn't necessarily more complicated than that.

Nobody is forced to interact with another role-player. They can and should politely decline interact if they feel they're not going to be a good fit - but that doesn't mean that people are necessarily doing something wrong simply by choosing to portray a character with flaws or antagonistic traits.

[Vyrerus]

Europeans Mature etc.

Well, in general, Europeans tend to be older. They also tend to have more experience with different cultures. It doesn't give them all understanding, but I've always found that the ones that stick to more EU populated places online tend to be more polite and reserved than others.

Tons of EU do play on NA though, and they tend to blend in as just another NA unless they point out where they're from.

But going back to the age thing, I really do think that there are a ton of young people playing FFXIV. Droves, even. I literally raided with someone in Shadowbringers who would have been 12~13 when ARR came out. I've also RPed with someone who really wanted to know my real age. Age gap can really drive a wedge between people in game, whether it's RP or not.

I recall in December 2013 I met a DRG in i90 with the i95 Twintania weapon. She taught me the optimized DRG rotation at the time. Turned out they were a 16 year old French girl. They'd asked my age after revealing theirs, and I told'em(I was 23 going on 24 at the time). They said that I was, "a little creepy to be playing a game for teenagers." It really threw me for a loop, because when I'd played FFXI most people I met were older than me buy and large and also by a lot, sometimes. I sometimes wonder if she still thinks I'm creepy, now that she's about 24 herself, and still plays! lmao.

Of course, how that translates in RP is that usually the younger folks have different expectations in social interactions, and also have consumed watered down media for most of their lives with politically correct remakes that try to safety wrap every corner/push agenda/ideas. Activists-for-a-living parents. Hugbox internet etc.

Not saying everyone younger than me is like that or victim to it, but it's a little bit more prevalent than a trend, if you ask me. And I think it bleeds into every facet of their lives.

[SomeRandomHuman]

As long as the RP is kept to the more private channels (FC if it's an RPFC, RP linkshells, etc) and not plastered in the public channels (Say, Shout, General, non-RPFC chats, etc) you can do whatever and I won't care. If you're going to do a dungeon or trial with RP restrictions you best make your own group. No one wants a party member that's needlessly handicapping themself. Unwilling participants are often the unruliest as well and for good reason.

[Caurcas]

Its interesting how many posters are attacking me as a person rather than addressing my argument.

[Floortank]

Its interesting how many posters are attacking me as a person rather than addressing my argument.

Attacking you is not good. I don't agree with attacks against you.

I do think that whenever you express disapproval for what people RP you are going to get kickback. I sure have, and in this thread.

I don't really agree with you that RP is worse. I've been RPing for an unimaginably long time, across various communities going back to the dawn of the internet. RP has not changed at all in all that time. The settings of games change, and the technology changes, but the attitudes, personalities, and arguments are all the same.

You find genius writers, incredibly soulful poets, arrogant posers, and very dangerous abusers in every RP community. Sometimes all in the same person. And they have always been there.

The same arguments about metagaming, smut RPing, gatekeeping, all of it... all the same. Only the games have changed.

[yajnaji]

Its interesting how many posters are attacking me as a person rather than addressing my argument.

What argument?

[MilkieTea]

I guess I should pipe up, now that I’ve figured out the words I want to use.

I find RP hard in XIV but only because I’m used to forum paragraph roleplays from like 2014. Elegant prose, with rules in group chats such as “Dont use asterisks, write it out in sentence format. Don’t godmod. Don’t do anything without someone elses consent if you think a reasonable person would object to it (This included things such as kissing, even. Intense roleplays required planning and scripting beforehand - your character couldn’t just “be ‘X’ and wing it.)”

Perhaps those rules are what shapes my view of RP today. I grew up in communities where consent was the golden rule. If you were uncomfortable with the direction a scene was going, you spoke up and said “I’m not comfortable with this anymore,” and people stopped- because who wants to make the person behind the screen uncomfortable? That doesn’t make good RP.

I personally do not want to roleplay with people who play racist or xenophobic characters. I experience racism in my day to day life, and roleplay is an escapism thing for me - I want to craft meaningful stories with people, I don’t want to bring my outside strife into a scene. I find it uncomfortable to be around people who are currently roleplaying racist characters because of that same reason. It doesn’t mean I think the person behind the screen is gross, or is racist themselves, it just means that I personally don’t want to interact with them.

I’m younger. I didn’t grow up in the “wild wacky west” of the internet yesteryears - I was a teenager from 2012-2018 and most of my foundations were built upon being around people who cared about consensual storytelling, worldbuilding, and ensuring that the environment fostered was safe to be in. This doesn’t mean we didn’t do insane, dark stories. We did. We just made sure that it was also consensual because it’s a lot more fun to create a story when everyone who’s there to create it is onboard.

[Bobby66]

It is always interesting to see how environmental factors sway our thought. I was 13 when I started to RP in swtor and my experience with alpha company as a plus one I was given a very serial RP experience. Given it was a heavy military system clan one of the first things they told me is always keep ooc and ic interactions and based xenophobic stance given the IP was also common. Conest appeared to always be implied based off the IP. Just a matter of being respectful and never put another in a situation they did not. Like walk up and hand cuff someone. Though when it came to things said it was always considered free game just a fine line. Like someone being overly an asshole was never looked kindly upon. It is a fine line and often did create drama with newer recruits or encounters especially with non human species.

Though many of our events were free form and worked on an honor system so to speak. We had scripted events though for the most part the end goal was set everything else was free form.

[Floortank]

If you're writing a story for yourself, sky is the limit. But RP includes at least one other person, and a good RPer considers that other person's desires and not just their own.