"mercenary"

adriant1978 · June 27

Anyone else getting a bit irked by the current trend for quest-giver NPCs to refer to the Vestige as "mercenary", along with references to how their task pays well, etc?

A small thing, I know, but it does hurt immersion if you're trying to roleplay a character who is not primarily motivated by money. My character considers it his duty under the Divines to pitch in against the Worm Cult and honestly might even be a little bit insulted at being referred to as a mercenary and told that he's on the Stirk Fellowship payroll now.

Other games tend to use "adventurer" as a term for the player, which is less specific and leaves more room for interpretation.

amig186 · June 27

You get paid for fighting, you're a mercenary. To stop being one you'd have to no longer accept any money from the quest givers. I imagine that if your Vestige told the NPC that he's not a mercenary, the latter's reaction would probably be 'oh, so I don't have to pay you, cool'.
On the other hand, you're also supposed to be alliance military personnel, and isn't the whole Stirk group like an inter-alliance task force? It's strange that they of all people would call you a mercenary when you're part of the army.

Danikat · June 27

How another character refers to you doesn't determine your character's values or personality, at most it tells you what assumptions that person makes about you. (Same as in real life, if another customer mistakes you for a shop assistant it doesn't mean you now work there, or even that you're the type of person who would, it just means they made a mistake. And probably that you're wearing dark trousers and a plain t-shirt or polo shirt.)

It is annoying that we don't get to correct them, and the same goes for a lot of the assumptions NPCs make about our characters. The ones that bother me are when they're being condescending about how they're not looking for "treasure" they're looking for knowledge (either books or scrolls, or studying the history of the site) and you couldn't possibly understand this but that can be just as valuable. Considering our characters can be part of the Mages Guild, the Psijic Order and the Antiquarians it's annoying we don't get at least one option to point out we know a fair bit about that too.

For now all we can do is imagine the rest of the conversation where we do get to correct them.

But the important thing is I don't think it's a statement from ZOS about who they have decided your character is, it's just how that character describes someone they're hiring for something too dangerous to do themselves.

AcadianPaladin · June 27

It does change from zone to zone somewhat. Adventurer, outlander, little mortal, mercenary. . . .

For the Stirk Alliance quests, my elf is there representing the Mages Guild but I don't know if the game is sophisticated enough to allow for calling her by her affiliation (magister) or by her profession (healer).

Credible_Joe · June 27

This is one of the few cases where I think AI voice synth could be used ethically (as far as creative rights go). There is no feasible way to VA record every name & title a player could conceivably choose, so narrative stand-in titles are substituted. Stand-ins that we won't always identify with, along with the dissonance of NPCs apparently not knowing our names.

AI could feasibly be used to reverse-substitute any name or title the player wants without eliminating any actual VA lines.

We could even choose different levels of familiarity for our names so different characters call us appropriately in any given context. Nick-names, familiar shortened names, formal full names, preferred title, guild-specific titles. The list goes on.

A touchy topic, I know. But I believe that using AI to expand the scope of what's possible in dev and design is very exciting. Using AI to cut corners on dev and displace creatives is toxic and self sabotaging.

opaj · June 27

It is a bit disconcerting to be constantly called "mercenary" and told "the Stirk Fellowship pays well" when I was a founding member of the Stirk Fellowship. The Worm Cult did bad things to characters who are ostensibly my friends.

This certainly wouldn't be the case for all characters, but they've set the story up to be personal for the player. Having everyone call us "mercenary" does work against that a bit.

Credible_Joe · June 27

opaj wrote: »

It is a bit disconcerting to be constantly called "mercenary" and told "the Stirk Fellowship pays well" when I was a founding member of the Stirk Fellowship. The Worm Cult did bad things to characters who are ostensibly my friends.

This certainly wouldn't be the case for all characters, but they've set the story up to be personal for the player. Having everyone call us "mercenary" does work against that a bit.

To be fair, the player has WAY too much agency to be typically ranked within ANY of the faction hierarchies. Founding member or not, we're not involved in leadership or day-to-day operation. Too busy wandering around fighting monsters in the wilderness and contributing to Rigurt's miraculous career.

We're basically a cryptid that these factions point at their problems every chance they get whenever we happen to wander by. Most normal people probably don't even believe we exist.

opaj · June 27

Credible_Joe wrote: »

To be fair, the player has WAY too much agency to be typically ranked within ANY of the faction hierarchies. Founding member or not, we're not involved in leadership or day-to-day operation. Too busy wandering around fighting monsters in the wilderness and contributing to Rigurt's miraculous career.

We're basically a cryptid that these factions point at their problems every chance they get. Most normal people probably don't even believe we exist.

It would be amazing if one or two characters treated us that way. Not all of the characters, as that would be obnoxious, but just as a one-off.

"You're ... you're a real person?"

Djennku · June 28

opaj wrote: »

Credible_Joe wrote: »

To be fair, the player has WAY too much agency to be typically ranked within ANY of the faction hierarchies. Founding member or not, we're not involved in leadership or day-to-day operation. Too busy wandering around fighting monsters in the wilderness and contributing to Rigurt's miraculous career.

We're basically a cryptid that these factions point at their problems every chance they get. Most normal people probably don't even believe we exist.

It would be amazing if one or two characters treated us that way. Not all of the characters, as that would be obnoxious, but just as a one-off.

"You're ... you're a real person?"

I would honestly find this hillarious, especially because my character is very much the 'phantom' type, being a vampire and DB silencer.

TX12001rwb17_ESO · June 28

The worst part about this "Mercenary" and "pays well" nonsense is the game acts like the player has no gold, I am a COUNT why am I doing this for "gold when I probably have more gold than the entirety of Solstice's inhabitants combined.

Maybe I only do adventuring as a hobby, I am not a mercenary.

katanagirl1 · June 28

I dislike the mercenary title as well. I looked up the definition:

primarily concerned with making money at the expense of ethics

This is not the motivation of my character. Mercenaries are hired fighters used in armies. It may make sense when doing daily quests in the dlc areas. I can see why they don’t use Vestige anymore, since all of may characters have gotten their souls back.

It’s not a huge problem for me, but the game does put us in a position where we are supposed to side with the good guys and actually care about the outcome of the situation.

ArchMikem · June 28

You're talking about Keshu the Black Fin right? She's from Blackwood, where you're known as the Mercenary. She's just calling you what she knows you as.

Different places call us different titles. Vestige. Outlander. Five Claw. Auxiliary. Mercenary. Fate's Chosen.

Pixiepumpkin · June 29

They can call me anything, just don't call me late for dinner.