The Eorzean Glamour Idols are an up-and-coming group of FFXIV players who are taking in-game fashion and screenshot creation to a whole new level. They showcase a number of varied styles from all kinds of players within the game. Our own Luna Vox sat down with Sophia Edenhart, the founder of EGI, for a very enlightening and entertaining interview which was featured in episode 62 of the show. Here is the transcript of that interview.
Phoenix Down Radio: Can you tell us in your words what the EGI is.
Eorzean Glamour Idols: EGI is basically my attempt to bring together players from across all of the data centers who are interested in sharing glamour screenshots of their characters in a way that will let them get their work out to more people as well as help them get inspired and improve their skills.
PDR: So! Tell us about yourself! In character name and server, main class, anything else you want to tell us about yourself?
EGI: My name is Sophia Edenhart, and I am a blue-skinned Keeper of the Moon on Excalibur. My main job has been summoner since I first started the game, but I like to play and rotate through all of the different jobs. I consider myself to be more of a balanced player—I divide my time up between a wide array of content from hunting to PVP to raiding to Triple Triad and chocobo racing. I also try to stay up to date on crafting and gathering and love decorating my personal spaces as well as glamouring my character’s various jobs.
PDR: We see it around all the time but NEVER thought of making one. What made you want to start a community that was dedicated to screenshots and glamours?
EGI: I started using Twitter back in August to begin sharing my screenshots with other people who might be
interested, and my favorite part has been making new friends and meeting new people without being limited to my own server. I made friends with some people on Discord and have interacted with them individually and through Twitter, but I have found that Twitter can encourage competition between people due to numbers being so prevalent, and I wanted to find a way to get past that and bring people together to have fun instead. For me, MMOs are about finding fun people to play with, and I wanted the passion that players put into their glamour shots to benefit from that same outlook.
PDR: You’ve seem to have gotten an amazing amount of feedback from starting the twitter page and discord. Did you expect so much feedback from the community?
EGI: I expected that we would get some attention because I selected an initial core group of people to help me get it started who have their own networks and influences within the community. I tried to pick people who I admire and respect so that others would want to come and share their time with us. However, I did not expect to get as much attention and praise as we have so far. It seems apparent now that these players were looking for such an outlet, and I think it just took some willingness to do the footwork to facilitate it for them.
PDR: What are some of your favorite screenshots/glams you’ve seen in game? (Screenshots linked are fine!)
EGI: When it comes to screenshots, I really admire a lot of what the Japanese players are doing. One of the conversations that actually inspired me to try to bring together this community was one that discussed the need for players on the western-based data centers to step up their skills so that they can be just as good as our friends in Japan. I tend to prefer works that are full of color and motion and life, but sometimes I do enjoy more of the subtle works, and I always love seeing adorable characters. I tend to appreciate attention spent on smaller details as well as expressions and directions faced and shot from. My favorite screenshots are the ones that make me think, “Why didn’t I think of that?!”
Concerning glamour, it is difficult to describe favorites because there are just hundreds of examples of great combinations out there to choose from. Personally, I like to see combinations that are rare and represent thinking “outside of the box.” I tend to shy away from the most popular glamour items until their popular use has subsided somewhat because I just don’t like to look like everyone else. I think the best glamour decisions are made when one takes into account the full spectrum of appearance—including hairstyle and color, skin color, and accessories. I also think glamour should somewhat represent one’s personality as well. When people ask me to help them put together glamours, it is best if I know some of their personality and maybe some of the in-game emotes they enjoy using before I select the pieces and colors.
PDR: Do you think any of my co-hosts have potential in being models for EGI?!
EGI: Well, Klauss seems like a handsome guy, and Chille is super cute, but I have a special place in my heart for suncats, so Seyrr would be my top pick. More generally, though, I think everyone has the potential to be an EGI model. Anyone who joins our Discord server will see in the welcome message that our invitations are not extended to people simply based on their creative skills or the aesthetic qualities of their characters. It’s
more about who they are as people and how they interact with others. I think taking an elitist stance where only the best are allowed to fill a certain rank just paves the way for hurt feelings and big egos. We should instead be looking to foster good spirit in others and encourage them to learn and improve rather than lament any perceived lack of skill. Everyone has their own experiences and style, and I think that when we come together we can create better things than we can as separated individuals. I think even the most skilled and popular people can still learn plenty from others if they can sustain a healthy amount of humility.
PDR: Did you call the community EGI since we have egi’s in the game?
EGI: That was definitely a part of it. Really the name came partially from hashtags that I started using to appeal more to Japanese players. I started using: “#ミコッテグラビア,” which basically means “Mi’qote pin-up girl,” and refers to a type of model or “idol” which appears in Japanese men’s magazines. In some places they are referred to as glamour models, so I took these ideas and decided to apply them to FFXIV. We of course already had idols as part of the game’s lore through the past songbird events, so I felt that idol already fitted quite well, and one of the coleaders of EGI, Holli Would, goes by “Eorzean Supermodel” on Twitter, so that was where the “E” came from. The resulting acronym was just a huge bonus that really cemented the decision for everyone.
PDR: In game I run a role playing community so I gotta ask, do you/will you guys ever hold events or fashion shows?
EGI: I would definitely love to do that, and I would even like to participate. The biggest hurdle is overcoming the server divide, so I am currently thinking of ways that we can have events across data centers, perhaps using alliances through the party finder feature. However it will take spirited and dedicated people to organize such events, so I hope your listeners come to us and bring those skills with them! I already have my hands pretty full with keeping the community operating smoothly at the present time, so others would need to take the initiative.
PDR: With 4.2 coming up with the new glamour system, how are you feeling about the changes we’ve learned of so far coming to the glamour game? Excited? Skeptical? What are you hoping to see from it or future patches?
EGI: Oh, I am beyond excited for the changes to the glamour system as well as to gpose. One of the major burdens of being interested in glamour is having a place to store and easily access all of it. I think the new system will help alleviate some of that burden and allow people to focus more on the creative part and come up with more interesting ideas. I tend to have a positive outlook on the future, and I think people should look for where the new system can benefit them rather than lamenting what they might lose or having to learn a new system. I have faith that the positive gains will outweigh whatever weaknesses the system may carry.
PDR: Is there anything else that you want the FFXIV community to know about EGI? (Shoutouts, where to find you, etc etc)
EGI: I would love it if everyone followed our Twitter page twitter.com/EorzeanIdols. That is our central, public hub where we are retweeting our model’s screenshots as well as posting the best offerings from within our Discord server. I encourage people to like and retweet our posts as much as they can so that we may reach the widest audience and try to include everyone who enjoys this type of content. People can find an invitation link to our Discord server there, and I can tell you that most of the people who have joined are in love with the community already. The camaraderie that has already built up over the last few days is astonishing, and I can only foresee that growing and strengthening. People can also look for collaborations between EGI and other content creators in the future. I am already speaking to other fan-media groups about ways that we can enhance each other’s content and communities. Above all, I hope everyone has fun and enjoys FFXIV for many years to come! Don’t get stuck on a few ugly trees and miss the forest!