I think a lot of the grandeur of the FFXIV Jobs is overlooked by the RP community because the lore behind them is inconvenient. But let's break down what the classic FF jobs are in the XIV lore. They are the professions of Legend, many of them lost for thousands of years. They are special snowflakes in their own right, and why shouldn't they be? If everyone could walk around as an Azure Dragoon then there would be absolutely no point in having a beautiful legend and richly crafted lore behind the title. You lose the gravity of the job. Yeah, dude, I got the Godsbow out of the cereal box!
But this debate over what jobs can and can't be used in RP according to lore has no right answer that will satisfy everyone. The undeniable fact is that certain aspects of the game are not RP friendly. Because while the lore in this game is beautiful, there is a huge population of players who will play this game and never know it. Never even care. So the game itself must stand alone without aligning 100% to the lore. A game needs a healer, regardless of whether or not only one such healer should exist in lore.Â
I hear a lot people complain about how the story and lore support a lone Hero viewpoint in a Massively Multiplayer game world. But when you think about Final Fantasy, which games come first to mind? FFVII maybe. VI. FFIX. X. XIII. Final Fantasy has a rich tradition of single player games that are small ensemble or singular hero based. All FFXIV is doing is staying true to that tradition. They're keeping to the wonderful hero-based storylines that captivated us and made us raging FF lunatic fans in the first place. I honestly believe, if they had not done the lore in this way, (which I personally believe FFXIV has some of the most wonderful lore) the game would really feel just like any other MMO and not a Final Fantasy MMO. But maybe that's just me?
It ultimately boils down to a choice each roleplayer has to make. Do you:
A) Respect the lore for this world as imagined by the creators, or
B) Ignore the lore to some degree or entirely in favor of doing things the way you want to do them.
But this debate over what jobs can and can't be used in RP according to lore has no right answer that will satisfy everyone. The undeniable fact is that certain aspects of the game are not RP friendly. Because while the lore in this game is beautiful, there is a huge population of players who will play this game and never know it. Never even care. So the game itself must stand alone without aligning 100% to the lore. A game needs a healer, regardless of whether or not only one such healer should exist in lore.Â
I hear a lot people complain about how the story and lore support a lone Hero viewpoint in a Massively Multiplayer game world. But when you think about Final Fantasy, which games come first to mind? FFVII maybe. VI. FFIX. X. XIII. Final Fantasy has a rich tradition of single player games that are small ensemble or singular hero based. All FFXIV is doing is staying true to that tradition. They're keeping to the wonderful hero-based storylines that captivated us and made us raging FF lunatic fans in the first place. I honestly believe, if they had not done the lore in this way, (which I personally believe FFXIV has some of the most wonderful lore) the game would really feel just like any other MMO and not a Final Fantasy MMO. But maybe that's just me?
It ultimately boils down to a choice each roleplayer has to make. Do you:
A) Respect the lore for this world as imagined by the creators, or
B) Ignore the lore to some degree or entirely in favor of doing things the way you want to do them.
