Now that FF16 will feature LGBT+ characters, can we get some rep in FF14 too?

[Hurlstone]

snip

I mean no offence, well OK perhaps I do a little, but I do not think you do have any respect for such people at all. Especially when you decide to drop drag into the mix and perpetuate the incredibly gross attacks against them. I too am bi, but disagree with your stance. Do we have to have a bi-off to see who is the superior bi? In the end neither of us represent the community as a whole. You do not feel like you need that representation? Good for you! I wish I could just go outside and not have to worry about who I come out too, and you are certainly not alone. But there are many people who do think representation is a positive thing, and I like to think I can be more empathetic to people outside my own bubble. In regards to this debate, I just do not think they deserve to be labels as ‘fascists trying to force peoples views’ just because they may like more then one token-blink-and-you-miss it LGBTQ character in a cast of hundreds. And I question whether anyone who says a community forced them to be more ‘hateful’ to them ever had any respect or tolerance for them in the first place.

Do some people go too far and make outrageous claims sometimes? Sure, and unquestioning obedience to one viewpoint is never a righteous path, but name a group which does not have those elements that people will exaggerate and twist to pass as the majority. Believing rubbish like ‘all trans folk are trying to force kids to become accepted as cats’ is akin to believing that ‘gay people should not be allowed to teach children’ or that ‘bi people are just confused’. Thats whats infuriating in many ways. The current rhetoric being used again trans/drag folk is the exact one they have used again other equality movements decades ago, yet even LGBTQ+ folk can be blind to that fact. Plus every march for equality gets labels as too ‘radical’ and forceful. Civil rights, gay rights, now trans rights etc. History white washes them as civil debates won only by polite talk over tea, and not the true fights they where (Samuel L. Jackson himself got arrested for helping barricade collage trustees in order to push for equality changes!) but thats perhaps another topic for another time.

[Theodric]

Personally, as a gay guy, I'm only really interested in 'representation' if it's handled tastefully and isn't played for laughs or forced where it doesn't fit. I liked the relationship between Dion and Terrence in FFXVI not only because both men are conventionally attractive and don't conform to negative, performative stereotypes but also because the story just lets their relationship play out without drawing attention to it.

It's a vast improvement over Square Enix's attempts to promote Andrea Rhodea in Final Fantasy VIIR as 'representation' when the guy is a sex trafficker working for Don Corneo who is at no point held accountable for the part he played in sending women to their untimely demises at worst and 'playtime' with the sleazy Don Corneo at best.

[OM3GA-Z3RO]

I don't get the argument. Kids are exposed to straight/cis people daily, how the hell is seeing a drag queen once gonna suddenly change them?
I have spent my whole childhood only being exposed to straight people in media, it didn't make me straight. Why the reverse wouldn't be also true?
Sexual orientation is not really something you can be persuaded into.

I wonder about this too, I grew up with gay godparents and I am straight. I learnt to be accepting people that have different preferences and they taught me the difference between normal people that are straight/bi/gay etc and those that take things too far and are not quite right in their heads that do things to the extreme to try and get a message across, people should not be those kinds of people because they can do damage to a childs mentality.

[Bekuta]

Welp... looks like the hate mob is already out. Blocked.

If you're considering that "hate", then you're already acting in bad faith. If they want to add that stuff in, they will, but adding that just for the sake of having it isn't going to lead to anything other than it feeling out of place. Only in the west do I see people obsess over identity politics, and it gets to be grating after a while.

[Aword3213]

Only in the west do I see people obsess over identity politics, and it gets to be grating after a while.

Let us pray it stays in the west, so there are places left for people to escape to.

[Katish]

I understand why there should be a community, I grew up tormented because of my sexuality and I would not want that on anyone [I still hear horror stories even from the young of today]. Actually, I still am not free given I have to face religious zealots putting "It's wrong to be gay" all over our car. (I once had one stalk me to the grocery store which was rather...unpleasant). Also weird given I'm from the north-east and these problems are typically not problems, and before someone says something, yes there is still hate and discrimination going on, we just tend to look the other way. The issue nowadays though I see is that, yes we need a community to prop ourselves up, but the community we have atm is just too accepting/naive (also misrepresenting) and because so, doesn't know what it actually represents. Thus it accomplishes nothing or at least not as much as it used to accomplish.

In FFXIV, I'm not sure representation is needed although it does make for more of an immersive game play experience I guess(?) I would welcome said characters. Though immersion aside, there is already a lot of things that let's you experience that expression of freedom like clothes for example. There are a plethora of options available from dresses, gowns, what have you but there are still a lot of things that are gender-locked unfortunately. I think I would prefer those being unlocked or reinstated if they had a unique version prior but was then replaced. (Thavnairian Tights for example) {I'm still snarky about that}

[TheMightyMollusk]

I made a game for that VR headset that kills the wearer if they die in the game. None of the ppl I sent test copies out to have given me feedback yet tho...

Oh, silly me, I went in on multiplayer but forgot to turn Nuzlocke Mode off.

[Yuella]

Ryne and Gaia

[Troxbark]

I don't get the argument. Kids are exposed to straight/cis people daily, how the hell is seeing a drag queen once gonna suddenly change them?
I have spent my whole childhood only being exposed to straight people in media, it didn't make me straight. Why the reverse wouldn't be also true?
Sexual orientation is not really something you can be persuaded into.

False equivalency.

Are you fine with kids being exposed to strippers? That's more similar to drag than the average people you're crying about running into.

[Katish]

False equivalency.

Are you fine with kids being exposed to strippers? That's more similar to drag than the average people you're crying about running into.

I'm sorry, have you even been to a drag show? It usually is rather tame with people in drag that just lipsync and dance. It's not everyone's cup of tea and it's certainly not mine, though I typically catch a show now and again by happenstance from being in bars, events, what have you. And yes, there are those that are gaudy at the bars sure but those drags usually know what their demographic consists of (adults), if they do behave outlandish outside and know that their demographic consists of children then they shouldn't be entertaining period. This goes with basically any entertainment job though and should be common sense.

I will get hate for this, but I liken drag entertainers to be more relative to clowns. They're there to entertain but only in select settings. As they're so unusual, those settings tend to have to revolve around them. Just like a clown however, I'd totally be okay with a drag performance at a birthday party for my child, if my child wanted it. I feel we ostrocize that which we do not understand, and I get it, weird things are weird, but we shouldn't let that be the boulder blocking the road to an open mind. Not saying you're not open-minded but perhaps go to a drag show and experience it yourself it's definitely different than just taking it for granted at face value. I just started experiencing the world in a different light myself, not taking things as they're told but going the mile to see it for myself. I think it's a refreshing way to look at things to be honest.