There’s no shortage of things to do inFinal Fantasy 14. The game itself provides hundreds of hours of content from raiding to the main story to its various minigames. Beyond that, the community is constantly putting on large-scale events and engaging in creative projects.
One of the most interactive ways communities come together in online games is roleplaying. Part creative writing, part improvisational acting, part game design, roleplaying can feel exciting and rewarding for players.Roleplaying has been a smash success in games likeGTA Online, and has deep and storied roots in theFinal Fantasy 14player base as well. But like any social group, learning the customs and unspoken rules of roleplay in Eorzea can be intimidating to new players.
EnterThe Kweh. Started in September 2022 as a way to highlight roleplaying venues, The Kweh expanded in March 2023 to become a resource guide explaining community norms and common shorthands in the various servers, datacenters, and even language groups ofFinal Fantasy 14. Game Rant spoke with Legaia, creator of The Kweh, about the project and the roleplaying environment in Eorzea.The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: Will you introduce yourself?
A:Hi! My name is Legaia. I created The Kweh late last year, and it’s changed quite a bit from the initial vision and today quite a few people use the site to learn how to roleplay! It still surprises me how many people actually use it, so I am forever grateful! I have been playing MMORPGs since I was a little kid starting withFinal Fantasy 11on Playstation 2–Play Online launcher music intensifies. InFinal Fantasy 14, I do a bunch of different things, like savage raiding, hopefully ultimates soon, roleplaying, housing, running venues, glamours, maps and so on. Although with this most recent project I conducted so many interviews over the last 6 months with about 4 hours of sleep a night. I’ve barely had time to play the game itself! Hopefully I can do that now.
For roleplaying, it was one of those cases where I didn’t know I was roleplaying which almost follows a similar mentality as to how Japan views the world of Eorzea. I was about 13 years old inWorld of Warcraft. This might have been around 2004 or maybe 2005? I was in a guild and one day they were like “Hey we’re going to have a guild meeting in Stormwind City later this afternoon” So I went and the guild leader and officers were talking about how their day was, and we went around in a circle.
However, they were talking about their day in Azeroth without the influence of anything in the real world. It was told from the perspective of their character and when it was my turn I did the same. It’s actually quite a common way to view the game world especially in Japan without calling it roleplaying–more on this later. So in a way you could say I was roleplaying then and actually many people have told me during the interviews this year that they started similarly. They didn’t know they were “roleplaying.”
Q: How did you get into the roleplaying community inFinal Fantasy 14, andwhat brought you toFinal Fantasy 14itself?
A:I initially picked upFinal Fantasy 14at the very end of Heavensward for the Stormblood pre-order/pre-launch period in 2017. I was set on playing a samurai and was actually pulled into the game by some friends who also playedWorld of Warcraftwhich was my main MMORPG at the time. Actually the reason that I did not purchaseFinal Fantasy 14when it first released was because many people said it felt likeFinal Fantasy 11which I had already played. After seeing how far the game had come I had to play it! I ended up getting through most of the MSQ and stopped sometime after getting to Kugane since my friends had stopped playing the game.
I returned toFinal Fantasy 14for good toward the end of Shadowbringerssince I wasn’t enjoyingWorld of Warcraftat all anymore. This was roughly 1-2 months before that huge wave of players jumped ship fromWorld of WarcrafttoFinal Fantasy 14. I picked up the game solely for the intention of Savage and Ultimate raiding. If you told me I was going to be making a guide for roleplaying I would have laughed! It’s funny how the things we set out to do can change drastically! Since I’ve come back toFinal Fantasy 14I’ve been enjoying the game a lot.
As for getting into RP inFinal Fantasy 14: When I initially playedFinal Fantasy 14in Stormblood in 2017, the FC [Free Company, theFinal Fantasy 14equivalent of a guild] I was in at the time had some members that brought me to different places. Maybe a cafe or a club or an izakaya. I remember people just dressing up in really great glams suited to their stories and again, acting as their character and just having a great time.
When I returned to the game in 2021, I knew venues existed, and so I ventured into Party Finder to see what was around then. Cafes, clubs, spas, etc. These spaces for me are the doorways to roleplaying inFinal Fantasy 14. How we define what “roleplaying” is depends on the language and culture, and of course the perspectives of each individual player. These spaces got me interested in what else was out there, and I encountered some spaces that used these implied rules that come from text-based RP like chat rooms and forums, and TTRPGs passed down through different mediums and games. Some time later, I had a multiple-page backstory story for my OC [original character] who was raised in Ishgard and studied music as a child–not by choice–so she deals with a love/hate relationship with it as an artform.
Q: So you’re one of the much-discussedWorld of Warcraftrefugees? How would you compare Eorzea’s roleplaying community to Azeroth’s?
A:Final Fantasy 14’s roleplaying community is more colorful in a way, and we have the in-game housing system to thank for this, as well as means of advertising events and communities in-game and outside the game like Party Finder, Fellowships, Community Finder via The Lodestone, and others. I will also say the lore ofFinal Fantasy 14provides a nice kit to work with compared toWorld of Warcraft. Roleplaying is also much more popular inFinal Fantasy 14thanWorld of Warcraft,for sure. you’re able to absolutely find themed RP inWorld of Warcraftlike things related to the Argent Dawn and such, but it feels much more closed off. Each game has its own subcommunities for RP with varying levels of openness. I honestly did not get intoWorld of WarcraftRP much, just back in vanillaWorld of Warcraftas mentioned before.
I think there is an interesting nuance between the two games. InWorld of Warcraft’s narrative you are just an adventurer. InFinal Fantasy 14you naturally play the Warrior of Light in the main story so when you RP, a norm was developed by the community to shift to a more adventurer-like role where the Warrior of Light, the game’s protagonist, is just seen as a celebrity-like figure in the universe.
Of course you can choose to RP however you like and there are folks that don’t mind someone RPing as the WoL, you just need to find folks who are okay with it.
Q: Tell me one of your favorite stories of roleplaying inFinal Fantasy 14!
A:I have so many… Okay so this one is pivotal to my transition to the RP I enjoy today withinFinal Fantasy 14.
One day I was sitting in a cafe semi-AFK working on a project in Photoshop. I was occasionally tabbing back and forth between the game to make sure I didn’t miss anything and was able to read the chat log as I really enjoyed reading some of the conversations. I was sitting on a three-seater sofa right in the middle with no one beside me. I tabbed out and continued working. When I went back to the game, there was a male Au Ra and female Au Ra on either side of me sitting on the same sofa.
The thoughts in my mind were like “Alright… what do these two want?” and “How should I proceed?” It was a rather comical evening and I ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the night. One of the Au Ra’s was actually bubgoat, the original artist for The Kweh’s Beginner’s Guide to RP! That night re-lit a flame in me, one that I thought had blown out so long ago. I had forgotten how muchI liked creative writing and improv. We ended up at a different venue, and I was suddenly inspired to cause mischief in a fun way to have a few laughs and ensure everyone had a great time. It led to my character getting knocked out behind the venue and having amnesia and forgetting who they all were that evening.
There was something about the writing style I used, paired with improvisation and reacting to events in real-time that inspired me to dig deeper into RP. It was only the beginning. I learned something about myself that day. I really care about creating great experiences and stories for others and from that day it would be my mission to continue that path.
Through one of the earlier interviews for the base guide for RP, someone shared they had been to a restaurant where someone acted out a Garlean discovering ketchup for the first time. It’s these small details that make some of the best stories and writing inFinal Fantasy 14.
Q: Why did you make The Kweh?
A:Ah there are so many reasons. I will try to go into all of them.
RP hasdone so much for me and my mental health. For a moment I get to be someone else and switch off the part of my mind that has to deal with my daily life and the stresses that come with it. I got into RP during a very difficult time for me, and it helped me manage that stress. What roleplaying does for an individual will vary person to person and if I can potentially help someone else experience what I did, then great.
The Kweh’soriginal purpose had nothing to do with teaching RP at all. One day I was incredibly burned out from work and streaming and was absolutely mentally exhausted. I ended up picking a venue at random through Party Finder and going there. It had a bar, a nordic spa and more. The interactions I had with the staff were great, and I looked around the space and there was no one there. It somewhat baffled me that a beautifully designed venue with great staff had no one walking through its doors.
As I was sitting at the bar lost in thought an idea came to mind. “What if I built a website that did RPevent or venue reviewsin a comical and anecdotal way about my experience there and ended with an interview with the owners themselves so that readers could learn more about the inspirations behind the space they created.” The idea sat with me for a bit during my visit and I distinctly remember leaving the venue and standing outside for a moment and saying. “[Expletive] it, I’m doing it.” I walked right back in and was like “Hey I got this idea…” and that was it. All the venue related blog posts are just my visits to different venues and writing about them and interviewing the owners to share their stories. It’s very hard to derail me once I set my mind to something (laughs). I am not writing these posts anymore since my time is heavily consumed by The Kweh’s current purpose.
The Kweh’sRP Guide component is one of my shower thoughts. For some reason I get these ideas while taking a shower, and they are simply “huh, what if…” I have a habit of exploring most of my What if statements are and seeing what happens. My approach to streaming and some of the other neat things I’ve built are the explorations of what if statements.
The main reason for that shower thought, however, was just through my constant observations of hearing people and players say “I don’t know what the RP tag means. I want to try RP, but I don’t know where to start.” I saw players in-game in more casual venues or out in cities saying this. I saw streamers say this and their chat would tell them silly things like “you don’t want to know” or something along those lines without an actual explanation.
I wanted to see if I could simply take the person who “didn’t know where to start” to a point of “I know the bare minimum to give it a shot and see if I like it or not.” If you like it, great! If not, that’s also good because you had enough information to feel confident enough to at least attempt it.
The Kweh’s Social Anxiety in RPsection was inspired by players telling me they want to try RP and wanted tips for how to get into things if they deal with anxiety. A large quantity of players expressed this to me after I had created the base guide in March. I knew it was time to expand and build a new section for the site, but I didn’t expect the amount of work it was going to be. Shoutout to my friends who listened to me at 3am going off on philosophical questions related to RP! It was an intense 6 months, and it actually was one of the hardest things I’ve ever made. Not from having to conduct 80 interviews across every timezone and missing my morning meetings for work… but emotionally.
I was creatively frustrated and stifled. I picked up a lot of skills from producing music, editing videos and pictures, photography, working at art museums, scripting and dev stuff for work and I used to use all of this for my last job, but things changed, and I just had all of this pent-up energy and needed to spend it somehow. So The Kweh is a result of burning through that energy and taking all my skills plus my desire to help people learn new things and putting it into something people might like.
Q: Tell me about the social anxiety interview project that you published recently? What inspired it and what did you learn?
A:The Social Anxiety in RP section of our website, which we published in mid-October, is dedicated to an incredible friend I met inWorld of Warcraft. She invited me to her guild and I used to hang out with her and the rest of the guild in real life every month since we all lived in NYC. She helped me get a job out of college and her and a few guild members and I worked together at an art museum. I was going through a rough time, and she helped me with my anxiety. She would drop everything to help me deal with panic attacks and listen to the words I had to say. She was like another mom to me, and I am so grateful for having someone in my life that could do that for me. I would attend her wedding and her daughter’s second birthday party. She took pride in the fact that her daughter’s initials were NPC. Then, unfortunately, four years ago I would also attend her funeral.
She was an amazing person, and I was so lucky to have someone like her in my life. I know people like her are hard to find in life. We don’t always have a hero like that to support us and help us. Since she passed I took everything she did for me, and today I attempt to pass that on to others and help others if I can do it.
The Kweh is just me screaming my frustrations and burning all of my creative energy and skills into one thing while also keeping who she was alive. And when I realized this, I continued working on the recent release. There was no way I could stop now and I pushed myself to finish the project.
I interviewed 80 people from all regions, so they knew they were heard, and I could try to build a resource with the words of people from all over the world. It’s more than just a resource for me. It’s a collaborative resource and a chance for players to contribute to something that’s bigger than themselves.
It’s a combination of me dealing with my own anxiety, folks asking me for help and tips and my love for creating things where others get to contribute.
I learned much about myself and who I am as a person in that period where I needed to pause and just self reflect a bit and understand why I was pushing so hard to make this into something that could help others. It is woven in my fabric that I create things that can be helpful to others even if it’s just one person, that is enough for me. I remember someone looking at The Kweh’s base RP guide and going, this is awesome, but I have too much anxiety to even give it a shot.
I look at RP as another form of content to enjoy that is community driven. I’m justtrying to increase accessibilityto something that can be enjoyable and at least give the players everything they need to just try it. Nothing more, nothing less.
Q: You conducted a lot of interviews with roleplayers both in general and about social anxiety. Did any surprising patterns emerge from them–things that a lot of people either said or experienced that took you by surprise, that you hadn’t really anticipated?
A:Surprising patterns hmmm…
I didn’t anticipate this but wasn’t too surprised because I don’t RP very emotionally heavy scenes in general, but there were a number of players who felt anxiety in these situations. This is despite setting expectations and all roleplayers agreeing to RP something so heavy. Players have thoughts like “I hope they are doing alright after that interaction.” There is a genuine concern for the other player on the other side of their screen in those intense moments and this was expressed by many players.
In Japan it was surprising to learn that many roleplayers keep to themselves and don’t share that they RP in fear of being bullied due to how otaku was viewed in the past. A recent in-person interview in Tokyo confirmed what two or three players also said, which was thatthe view of otaku is now more acceptedin Japanese culture in attempts to accept different viewpoints and diversity. Still, the anonymity of playing an online game results in bullying even on social media.
English-speaking communities in general, across every single region, have similar issues, and we all feel anxiety the same way. That’s including those who speak English as a second language. There were many, many, patterns which you’ll see in “Player Statements” via one of the diagrams.
Also, not necessarily a pattern, but it was great to learn about players who have ghosted others and their anxieties around it. Obviously those players remained anonymous, but it was just interesting to hear what they had to say about it.
Q: The Kweh has a Discord community. What’s that aspect of the project like? How does that relate to the website?
A:The Discord community, as well as The Kweh itself, as a whole is designed to just be the landing page for RP inFinal Fantasy 14. It’s the museum map that leads you to the different galleries and art styles but doesn’t tell you how to tell your story. That’s up to you.
The Discord has a resources section that includes various discord servers across the regions and for more specialized offerings like mentorship, RP event listings, lore resources and more. These are community based resources and The Kweh again is just the intersection of how to get started. We also have a help desk for asking basic questions for getting started.
Q: What makesFinal Fantasy 14a good medium for roleplay?
A:Glamour, character customization, ability to use emotes and see each other in a 3D space, the lore itself and the lovely team behind it (the amount of people that slid in remarks about voidsent during interviews was amusing lol), player housing and the creativity the players have to create some amazing spaces and great stories. The framework the developers put in place for the players to use like Party Finder, Fellowships, etc.Final Fantasy 14has a solid framework for players to decide what RP means to them.
I will say I got lost in the sauce and fell down several rabbit holes related to RP during the last wave of interviews. What we think is a “good medium” for RP might not be for others, and it boils down to why we enjoy RP in the first place.
This goes back to patterns, by the way, as a large number of players from recent interviews come from text-based RP including chat rooms and Discord servers. When they came toFinal Fantasy 14to RP there were mixed reactions. People loved being able to see their characters and others interact with each other and use a housing environment and visuals to RP with, but for some it became too much “effort” to RP, and they preferred storytelling in chat based only settings because it was “easier.”
It depends on what it is about RP that makes it “good” for you. I do think an improved chat log system would greatly help here.
Q: The different regional approaches to roleplay have come up a couple of times, so that leads me into this question: Can you tease us with a little bit of information about that? Kind of your first draft of your thoughts on that idea?
A:Looking at RP from a very high level across every single region… Yes there are differences across regions, but the true division in my eyes is language and culture. English-speaking communities across every single region–NA, EU, JP, Oceania–have very similar viewpoints on RP. Japanese-speaking communities however, a very small percentage of roleplayers are aware of the implied rules that stem from what we know today and their origins.
In Japanese culture, it is quite normal to create a character in a world, and you are that character. What we call “RP Lite'' is actually a constant state of mind in a game world. In English-speaking servers, you might run into Limsa and overhear a player talking about something that occurred in their real-life whereas in Japan that’s really uncommon. When you go and ask someone in Japanese-speaking communities about RP, they will ask you what you mean by roleplaying.
The definitions for the RP tag are different in the game manual for English and Japanese. Initially I thought, “oh maybe this is just a translation nuance and nothing more.” But as I conducted interviews with the Japanese-speaking community in-game, on Twitter, Discord and even on my trip to Tokyo, I’m beginning to think this is absolutely intentional.
In NA, the definition aligns with how we think about it. Once it’s on we think “that person is roleplaying” and when it’s not on, then they aren’t roleplaying. It’s almost like an on and off switch for in-character versus not.
In Japan, if the players are already in a way not including their real lives in the game environment and see the world in the eyes of their character, then what would the RP tag mean in that case? The RP tag means they “enjoy” RP and many interviews indicated that players who use the tag are “enthusiasts.”
I sat at a whiskey bar in Shinjuku, Tokyo with anotherFinal Fantasy 14player who plays on Gaia. We talked about savage raiding, RP, the marketboard economy, housing and more. He said he looks forward to the day we all get to fight side by side together in Eorzea.
Q: I’ve been a roleplayer in this game for over a decade and this is a problem I still encounter, and I know it’s a thing that still scares new roleplayers: Do you have any advice for dealing with chat scrollat a large event?
A:It’s really difficult. Hopefully chat bubbles come soon enough!
Typically, all we can do is just use chat log filters. The base guide has a video on this, but you can filter the chat log and make a tab that has what you need. In English-speaking communities, that’s emotes, custom emotes, say, party and linkshells–change this to only include what you’d actually use. Also set some better color assignments to help separate things in your log.
Don’t be afraid to ask folks to join a party because you’re having a hard time following a conversation. I would say be careful about adding folks to your friends list, though, as that still needs some improvements. But if you are RPing with your in-game friends in a busy environment, make sure you put them in a group and assign a symbol so whenever their name shows up in chat, you can see a circle or a star or whatever you assign beside their name.
This problem actually only exists in English-speaking communities. In Japan, it is frowned upon to use /say and most RP and messaging is done in DMs, Party or Linkshells. Hell, there’s a venue that RPs interactions using message books hidden inside the furniture!
If you take a look at the recent blog post about Features players requested, you’ll see the ideas for chat improvements that were shared by the players and what they hope for.
Q: So, you were talking about most requested features and that obviously makes me want to transition into talking about Dawntrail. We’re talking right now during London FanFest: Has anything coming out of London particularly caught your attention?
A:Chat Bubbles! I thinkPreach asked Yoshi-P for chat bubblesand he replied with a “we’re working on it” type of response. I don’t recall the exact details, but maybe we’ll get it for Dawntrail? Maybe?
I’m very excited to see theFinal Fantasy 11things coming into the spotlight as a former player, so I want to see how Vana’diel plays into the story ofFinal Fantasy 14. The game has many nods toFinal Fantasy 11already; for instance Hyurs are called Humes in The First just like inFinal Fantasy 11. Actually, The First also has Ancient Lizards in Amh Araeng, and when I first found them in Shadowbringers I stopped in my tracks. I suddenly remembered people camping out “Leaping Lizzy” for the boots inFinal Fantasy 11.
Q: From what we’ve seen so far of Dawntrail, is it going to be a good expansion for roleplayers to sink their teeth into?
A:I think so but it’s hard to say. As long as we don’t “Throw wide the gates” for a majority of content then I think we’ll be good there!
I’m really excited to see the new tribes and how those stories are going to be told. Things that are WoL-centric only can be hard for roleplayers to engage with. Of course new expansions mean new stories, new items, new glams, etc. I hope the folks that have stories related to the New World are able to tell them the way they hoped to.
Q: Do you have any other interview projects coming up?
A:I’m really tired! [laughs] On the sheer scale of what I’ve done this year, I’m not entirely sure I’ll just drop another 100+ interviews right off of the bat. This recent work took a lot out of me, but I do have one project in mind.
I’ve been talking a lot aboutcross-region traveland theorycrafting how it could work considering all of what I’ve learned about the different cultures and players from the regions. Later this year, Yabi Yabi and I were discussing the idea of a podcast or mini-stream series about cross-region travel and differences since we managed to spend several hours talking about it. Yabi Yabi, if you don’t know, posts videos about how things are done differently on JP servers and EU servers in terms of raiding and such. I approach it from the RP side, so it’ll be a nice combination!
As far as the next massive wave of interviews, well, we’ll have to see what inspires me next.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
A:If you’re curious about something, give it a shot and don’t let anyone hold you back from a new experience. It’s how we learn about ourselves and who we are as people, not just adventurers in Eorzea.
Q: Lastly, if someone has read through one of these articles coming out of this interview and is wondering “Maybe I should try roleplaying,” other than consult The Kweh what advice would you give them?
A:Let others know that you’re new, and you’ll find that most people are there to help you along the way, but it starts with you. Let them know if you have anxiety as well. Open up Party Finder and start messaging venue owners and ask questions. You’re not alone in how you feel and there are many ready to offer a helping hand.
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Final Fantasy 14 (2010)
WHERE TO PLAY
Begin your adventure in FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm RebornCreate your very own Warrior of Light and embark upon a quest to deliver the land from an eternity of Darkness.Take to the skies in FINAL FANTASY XIV: HeavenswardTake your first steps in the reclusive nation of Ishgard, locked in a seemingly never-ending struggle with dragons.Rekindle the fires of hope in FINAL FANTASY XIV: StormbloodJourney to the East and rise up against the might of the Garlean Empire.Become the darkness in FINAL FANTASY XIV: ShadowbringersTravel to a world where light ushers all unto oblivion. But hope is not yet lost, for where there is light there is shadow.Journey to the very stars above in FINAL FANTASY XIV: EndwalkerA great calamity has been building - a second advent of the Final Days. The Warrior of Light must journey ever higher and stand firm as hope’s last bastion.Set forth for new horizons in FINAL FANTASY XIV: DawntrailBlue seas, clear skies, and boundless possibilities await! Explore uncharted territories with familiar faces as hope’s light dawns once more.
