yesiknowlahee

[yesiknowlahee]

have been replaying MSQ as a summoner, and it is pretty funny

[yesiknowlahee]

have been replaying MSQ as a summoner, and it is pretty funny

[yesiknowlahee]

Playerscope, modding and the hunt for aesthetic: why you should be more upset about mods and community expectations than you already are.

I love that this sounds like an academic paper but HONESTLYYYY. I need to put my thoughts to paper in regards to my burnout with xiv, otherwise I think I'll go insane. This is a controversial yet brave post. I am well aware that I partake in some of the things I'm going to be critiquing; aka, "thank you, dinklebottom, we live in a society." I'm also not critiquing mods from a space of offering more accessibility to people and/or facilitating representation not currently offered within the context of the game. There is nuance to every discussion and I'm coming at this from an overarching view around mods and community expectations/standards rather than player joy. I hope this makes sense. I'm also predominately writing from a roleplay perspective, though I'm sure a lot of what I end up saying can reflect in the art party/social space. Just know if I haven't mentioned the latter it's because that's not my scene and I don't pretend to know otherwise.

Anyway. For those who don't know, there's a new mod that's causing some strife in the xiv community called Playerscope. Here is the reddit thread about it. I'm not going to be talking too much about the mod in general because that's not the point of this post, but seeing discussion around it today just made me feel more exhausted than I already am when it comes to modding and the xiv community around it. It made me realise... I'm actually really sick to death of mods. I'm sick to death of what they're doing to the community when it comes to gatekeeping, policing and in general the interactions we have with each other in the community.

Let me explain: I wrote a post about the roleplay mod on bsky that kind of articulates at a surface level what I mean.

I think what makes me sad, which I'm sure is echoed by a lot of people, is that mods feel like the standard now rather than an option and that there's a certain expectation for people to have them if they want to engage with facets of the community—whether intentional or not.

Unlike XIV, WoW has a supported mod scene (within reason) and TRP 2 and the like have been accepted for years now. In a space where people can't slap on an RP tag, having that tool readily identifies you as a writer/roleplayer and you can include as much or as little of your character as you like. The general idea is if you have one of these tools enabled, you're a roleplayer to some capacity. You can dress up the profile to a certain degree, you can add links and supported pictures, but you're mostly reliant on what you put to paper in regards to your character. Even then, I find filling out what my character is doing currently and marking the rest as a WIP doesn't necessarily exclude me from roleplay if I want to find it. A lot of people will do that and a super simple description to incite interest around their oc.

These days in XIV... I don't know. I do think communities have gotten more insular—it's why I'm so pedantic about trying to find them for the Compendium—but I also think mods and, to a certain extent, the 'nightclub' scene have gotten in the way of it as well. My argument is such.

I want to go to an event (for example sake, I'll call it Seascape). In order to fully participate, I may need:

Their discord.

A roleplay addon.

A carrd/google site/etc.

Their synchshell (including mods, mare and everything else)

Potentially a mod of some description so people know I can see theirs (and vice versa).

Also that your mod isn't made by a shitty person.

Appropriate understanding of the scene/social space.

Some luck and a prayer that it's an inclusive space and not a closed rp group advertising as being open and/or a mod showcase advertising itself as something different.

Like??? Holy shit you guys. If you are someone who doesn't want to mod because you're worried about repercussions it really just feels like a big 'fuck you, good luck'.

And let me be clear, not every community is like this. I'm incredibly lucky to have found fantastic roleplay within my own rp event/community, I have great friends who run awesome, inclusive events for people of any skill (writing or otherwise) and I do fully believe you can just enable the rp tag and find fun, fulfilling roleplay. But I've also found the above a lot of times, too. I've had people point-blank get mad at my partner because he won't install mods and try to exclude and/or circumvent him in spaces. It's weird. I've been to events where the only time I felt like I got proper interaction(s) was when I joined the aforementioned, even if I have my character's profile linked in my about. It's weird.

Honestly, no wonder new roleplayers feel overwhelmed. Not only do they have to learn roleplay etiquette, they have to be a mod expert overnight? It feels less about what someone can bring to the table as far as a story but what mods they can install to either look cool or pass an unspoken social barrier. As much as I'm down bad for aesthetic and looking the part, I hate it being at the cost of accessibility and fun for someone else.

Arguably it's the same for gposing and the like as well, which contributes to my exhaustion alongside all the graphical changes and I just. I'm gnawing at the bars of my cage.

I don't think it's going to change and arguably it's more of a Twitter/X issue than a Tumblr, one but Tumblr lets me write mini essays and Twitter will tell me to kms.

Ergo, I'll go with the essay-writing platform.

Anyway, I guess this is just a reminder that you don't need 4596419651 mods to be in the community and that people should be more vigilant on including people who don't have them for whatever reason, provided they operate in good-faith and want to contribute. I think we're careening to a slippery slope of expectation for something unsupported and I don't like it.

[yesiknowlahee]

ffxiv fans’ ability to devour content that’s intended to be slowly worked on in month rather than days and then say it’s the developer’s fault they’re burnt out and bored never fails to astound me

[yesiknowlahee]

ride_the_rhythm.mp4

[yesiknowlahee]

"I don't need an extra soul to show you who I really am, baby~"

[yesiknowlahee]

this one is for my ffxiv girlies

[yesiknowlahee]

remember how both thancred and urianger saw ramuh back in arr and know what he supposedly looks like

[yesiknowlahee]

being an ffxiv fanfic writer is hard because you have to remember how to spell shit like merlwyb bloefhiswyn

[yesiknowlahee]

Figuring out Argos's role in this AU (I also just really like drawing Argos because he is a Weird Dog to me)

[yesiknowlahee]

Is this anything

[yesiknowlahee]

Dancing Green I think

[yesiknowlahee]

happy Neil banging out the tunes day!

[yesiknowlahee]

🐸🕺 Dancing Green and Disco 🕺🐸

Thought it would be interesting to put down my findings on Dancing Green and all his 70's/80's disco references found within his mechanic names, either from the song titles themselves or from the lyrics within these really iconic songs of the era!

Normal Mode:

Disco Infernal, gives the debuff Burn Baby Burn > Disco Inferno - The Trammps (1976) Do the Hustle > The Hustle - Van McCoy (1975) Celebrate Good Times > Celebration - Kool & The Gang (1980) Arcady Night Fever > Night Fever - Bee Gees (1977)

Savage Mode:

Inside Out > Upside Down - Diana Ross (1980) Get Down > Get Down Tonight - KC & The Sunshine Band (1975)

Non-Song References:

Hi-NRG Fever for the Savage enrage, pronounced High Energy, is a genre of late 70's to early 80's disco, primarily leaning into more electronic styles, which works well with the type of disco music you hear in the raid music itself! Eighth Beats & Quarter Beats are the commonly heard drum beats used in a lot of Disco music! Deep Cut, used for the tankbusters, is a term given to less commonly heard music on a band's popular album but in itself is considered a fave among the fans!

There's some moves that are legit just referencing record players which makes me smile (Drop the Needle and Flip to A-Side which goes into cleaves called Play A-Side).

Honestly it's so nice the amount of attention and love they put into these raids, especially M5 and how much disco it shows in every little part!

[yesiknowlahee]