Building a better Alphinaud

[CrownySuccubus]

Aveyond was the person constantly saying that if ever get an expansion thats no themed around a High Fantasy Europe analogue it would fail and the fanbase would hate it because they personally can't stand anything non Western European.

Which was a ludicrous take at the time but I can't believe I myself failed to point out that FFX is one of the top three highest selling games in the series and a beloved classic. And its as far from Fantasy Europe in setting as possible.

Point being they treat there opinions as objective facts and dismiss any others as inherently wrong if they don't line up. Which makes discussion rather pointless

He's stated that he makes exceptions for East Asian cultures; apparently, he considers the cultural aesthetics of the Middle East, Africa, Oceania and South Asia uninteresting (in his own words, the middle two are "safaris"), but European and East Asian ones are supposedly the key to broad success.

[Theodric]

That's typically how personal tastes work, yes. Nor do I think anyone needs to put a disclaimer on each of their posts about their opinion being just that - an opinion. All people can do is put their thoughts out there and make it clear what they'd like to see more or less of which is...exactly the purpose of threads such as this.

[KariTheFox]

Aveyond hasn't claimed that those preferences are an opinion, he's claimed that it is an objective fact that the characters of ffxiv are worse than characters from other media, and challenged people to "disprove" him.

You can't hide behind "people are entilted to thier opinions and preferences" to defend someone when the person in question is asserting thier opinion as fact.

[CrownySuccubus]

Aveyond hasn't claimed that those preferences are an opinion, he's claimed that it is an objective fact that the characters of ffxiv are worse than characters from other media, and challenged people to "disprove" him.

You can't hide behind "people are entilted to thier opinions and preferences" to defend someone when the person in question is asserting thier opinion as fact.

And/or that their tastes are aligned or representative of the line between success and failure.

[aveyond-dreams]

I mean my tastes have been aligned with success and failure given how I've been proven right on exploratory content, the handling of gender-locked races, so on and so on. Me being proven right is a common trend. Am I supposed to retract this?

I do not trust the current writing direction to properly handle more exotic locales after how badly they dropped the ball in Ala Mhigo. I would rather they play it safe with the next expansion's location - which after how Endwalker turned out would be a massive improvement, but instead we are taking the 10 year old cast into...the Void. Lovely.

[Seera1024]

I mean my tastes have been aligned with success and failure given how I've been proven right on exploratory content, the handling of gender-locked races, so on and so on. Me being proven right is a common trend. Am I supposed to retract this?

I do not trust the current writing direction to properly handle more exotic locales after how badly they dropped the ball in Ala Mhigo. I would rather they play it safe with the next expansion's location - which after how Endwalker turned out would be a massive improvement, but instead we are taking the 10 year old cast into...the Void. Lovely.

Just because your opinions have aligned with how things have played out success/failure wise doesn't suddenly make your opinions facts.

[KariTheFox]

Can you define "exotic"? Why is say; Ala Mhigo or Thavanair any more or less "exotic" than Ishgard?

[Iscah]

Can you define "exotic"? Why is say; Ala Mhigo or Thavanair any more or less "exotic" than Ishgard?

To be fair, grey medieval Europe is probably the farthest thing I can imagine from what "exotic" conjures up.

That said, the word doesn't feel right for Ala Mhigo either. The word is more specific than "foreign" and suggests a degree of liveliness and colour that Ala Mhigo is lacking.

Or in Endwalker terms, I'd sooner use exotic to describe Thavnair than the Moon.

[CrownySuccubus]

I mean my tastes have been aligned with success and failure given how I've been proven right on exploratory content, the handling of gender-locked races, so on and so on. Me being proven right is a common trend. Am I supposed to retract this?

"My tastes align with success" is an easy statement to make after-the-fact, in hindsight. Or if we assume that correlation and causation are the same things.

[Dikatis]

That said, the word doesn't feel right for Ala Mhigo either. The word is more specific than "foreign" and suggests a degree of liveliness and colour that Ala Mhigo is lacking.

Well, it's been ground under heel by the Garlean Empire for the past 20 years and many of the local landmarks have been defaced or destroyed as part of Garlemald's M.O. of cultural destruction in the name of stopping the eikonic threat. It'd be weirder if everything were sunshine and roses.

That said, Gyr Abania is plenty beautiful if you know where to look. Ala Mhigan culture is also fascinating with how they've had to adapt and develop food and remedies from the local wildlife given how barren the ground is there. I love the sidequests in Ala Ghiri too and there's even a throwback to 1.0 in there.