Ciel

Hello, my doves! Last time I asked for your insights, it was in regard to life on Balmung, and your contributions helped shape the resulting article which went into The Moogle Post last month! I’m starting the process of collecting information again for my next article regarding age groups in the community since this has come up as a hot topic of conversation again just recently. There are TWO separate surveys, one for roleplayers, and one for non-roleplayers. You do not need to fill out both, as the age selection portion is the same on each. The subject of each, however, varies a little bit as one relates specifically to RP, and the other is very general in terms of participation in MMOs. 1. These surveys are not exclusive to Balmung. All players on all servers are welcome to participate. 2. I am not collecting character or player names, and I am not collecting email addresses. Your anonymity is protected. 3. The purpose of this survey is to get a measure of age demographics among the playerbase. You will not be asked to provide your exact age, as there are increments provided. 4. You will have an opportunity to fill in an answer in question 3 depending on your answer to question 2. Question 3 is OPTIONAL. The final article is expected to appear in the May issue of The Moogle Post. Please find the links below which best suit you as a player. Take the survey for roleplayers in XIV Take the survey for non-roleplayers in XIV Thank you again!

Last month, I posted a survey asking the roleplayers of Balmung to answer a few questions about life on the server. Are you ready to see the results?? The Moogle Post - Issue 24, February 2018 The article which resulted from the survey responses is on page 16! But enjoy the entire issue, because there's lots of other great content, too, from Gpose tips, glamour, housing, screenshots, and much, much more!

Final bump! Survey closes at 10pm US central tomorrow, 1/3/18. After that time, no further submissions will be accepted. Thank you!

The options on the form are not my personal opinions. Most of the options are a collection of things people have stated about their observations at one time or another. Therefore, no, it's not a bias on my part. It's an option people can select, or not, if they feel it matches their opinion. People will apply their own connotations to it.

As stated in the disclaimer on the survey, I need the names so I can confirm that the respondents are actually on Balmung and not just throwing information into it to throw off numbers. I can't make any further changes to the form to add additional options, as I also stated, and I explained why. I'm sorry you feel it's biased. I feel I did my best to not make it that way. I'm human, I'm not a scientist or a statistician. I'm just someone who plays a video game. I did NOT bias the answers toward being all positive, and allowed plenty of opportunity for negative responses and individual elaborations which will be counted when it's time for the final tally. If you feel it's biased, I'm afraid you're reading too much into it. The data, including the names, isn't going to be retained anywhere once the article is completed. I appreciate peoples' feedback, but I'm going to step back from here. Again, if someone doesn't feel right about filling it out, then don't. It's not that big of a deal.

It's just to collect data, folks. The questions were selected based on things I'm sure we've all heard from time to time: that Balmung is all kinks and ERP (thus the ERP question), that there are cliques (and there are), that there are so many negatives about it. Kotaku's just an example of writing being biased toward all the negatives. I'm trying to show that our server has so much more to it than the sum of all of these negatives which, to be honest, is all most people hear about us. I like to think I was pretty balanced in the options provided for each question. I did refine a couple of things after Franz posted some feedback on tumblr about it, but it received so many responses so quickly that I couldn't keep going back to make more changes. Every time something is changed anywhere on the form, that means there will be inaccuracies in the final data, because some of the previous submitters will either not go back to redo or edit it, or there will be duplications. Since it was first posted, we have received a sample size of nearly 250 unique submissions. That may still only be a small slice of Balmung's population, but that's still a much bigger sample size than I was expecting and I'm grateful to see so many people have been willing to participate. This wasn't something "needed", to answer the question. This was voluntary. I was asked to write the article, and while I could have gone off of my own perspectives it would not have been fair to anyone else who might have differences of opinion. I created the survey so the players could add their voices and make the results as authentic as possible, and yes, everyone who contributed WILL be counted - even the fill in answers which didn't have exact options available. This is not being done in response directly to Kotaku, or to the Balmung Blunders blog. Neither one of them will be mentioned at all in the article, and this was in discussion with the head honcho at The Moogle Post a week or two before the BB blog became a thing. The survey and its results are not intended to be something to inspire judgments or callouts, it's neutral and the results are entirely up to those who choose to fill it out. Balmung is what the players make it. But I think we deserve better than to be known as a cesspool if we have the opportunity to prove there's more to it. Thank you all for your interest. I look forward to sharing the results with you all at the beginning of February. Also, if it helps, I'm the only one who has access to the results, so no one else is seeing the submitters' names or details. I have full control over this information, and it's not being shared. What's going in the article will be mostly numbers and stats. If I feel a need to add quotes from submissions, I will get in touch directly with the submitters I'm getting it from to get permission first. So don't worry!

Hello, my friends! I’m taking a survey specific to the roleplaying community on Balmung. I’ve been asked by The Moogle Post to write an article looking at what life is really like on the server. My intention is to provide this insight in as fair of a manner as possible. Thus… YOU get to participate! Because an article written solely from one person’s opinion can be biased without consideration to the ideas of others. It may look lengthy, but I ask that you please take the time to fill the survey out honestly. A few questions have blanks you can fill in if there are no options available which fit your individual responses. This survey will be available for two weeks starting today, 12/20/17, and will close on 1/3/18. Thank you! CLICK HERE FOR THE SURVEY!

Tonight!

Palazzo Aldenard Presents: All Wrapped Up! A Starlight Slumber Party Where: Palazzo Aldenard - Mists Ward 7 Plot 15 Balmung Server When: December 9th, 6pm-9pm EST A cozy starlight celebration before the fire. There will be warm drinks, seasonal appetizers and rousing performances to warm your body, mind and spirit. Dress appropriately in your favorite loungewear, pull up a rug, and get comfy with us! There will be a raffle drawing to include fabulous prizes, including a cozy flying chair! Tickets 5k each, max of 5 per person. Proceeds to cover our expenses and pay performers/staff. Performer signups are full! Come witness the festive stylings of: *Oleandre Torchier *Ciel Sauveterre *Raeje Draeka *The Farclouds *Kitani Tayuun *Dondúbhan Kelly *X’inay Tia *Dylan Thorn *Sela Wyssrael *WYNG *Vera Vivera and the Loungin’ Lalas *Elphanse Silmontaix *Leanne Delphium And a special group number to close out the show! Please direct any questions to Palazzo management and staff members: Oleandre Torchier, Ciel Sauveterre, Perne Archevauliere, or Dondúbhan Kelly.

Yyyyyyve!

As it turns out there IS already a FC dedicated as a performance school, so if you're new to performing and looking for ideas and direction, go see those guys. ^^ Isle of Paradise https://islesofparadise.tumblr.com/

I've noticed recently that there's been an influx of new players, or long-term players with newer characters, wanting to taking on IC performing. That's great! It can be a lot of work, but it can also be very rewarding in terms of rp and the connections which one builds off of stepping into the spotlight. So here's an idea, and I'm putting this out there before veteran and new, potential performers, since the idea will only function with both parties involved: How about a performers' workshop or sorts? We have a ton of talented, experienced performers on Balmung with a lot to offer to the new blood coming in. Posting suggestions for them on here time and again is great, but it may benefit the new performers more to actually sit down with some of us who are more experienced and discuss things such as venues, possible genres, performance styles, comfort levels, composing a performance, and finally the delivery. This is just an interest check for now. If there are enough veteran performers and new folks interested, we'll look at putting something like this together within the next month or so.

I'd be happy to lend my Doman chef Au Ra, Murakumo, as a friend. He's been looking for work for a while, so he's still pretty new to Eorzea as well. I need to do more with him.

Rosalie, there are as many different ways to do it as there are bards out there. There is no one tried-and-true way to perform as a bard. A few have already given some examples of how they go about it. Some are very creative and able to write their own verses for performances with relative ease, others like myself, I'll freely admit, aren't quite so gifted. We find songs we like and we try to adapt them to the game's setting, and this is perfectly fine! If the song feels like it could fit, we may alter lyrics to make it work if they don't already, such as removing or changing references to real world things (cars, TV, etc). Plenty of performing bards still swear by the harp as their instrument of choice. Others have taken on piano or harpsichord if available at the venue, lute, guitar (and even gone so far as to spoof electric guitars by replacing electric with Electrum and ceruleum as a power source), violins, and I've seen shamisen for at least one Doman-born performer. Now HOW you go about putting on a performance is also just as varied. Most of us either go through the labor (and by labor I mean sometimes close to the pains of childbirth) to macro the hell out of everything. This can be time consuming to do it this way, and it takes extra testing to re-run all of the finished macros and weed out any potential typos. Others will copy/paste their emotes and lyrics from a word doc. And if this is the avenue you go with, I do recommend using a word doc as it allows for unix encoded symbols to be input which will translate into the game just fine, such as musical notes. ♪ These symbols won't work in Notepad or other similar programs liked EditPad Lite. You may even combine use of Word to write everything, and then copy/paste it into macros, keeping in mind the line limit in macros is something like 15, so it will take some finagling to make everything fit and it won't always be seamless. Either method can still fall prey to the legendary chat gremlin in that, at least now, if a string of text gets eaten, it actually lets you know something happened as opposed to someone telling you later that something didn't come through. In this case, my experience has been copy/paste is a more sure way to be certain everything gets through, since you can't pause a macro, and it will continue to run if one line doesn't make it. But again, with the complexity of performances from folks like Savo and Odette, copy/paste isn't always efficient. Your malmage may vary. I do recommend that you try to weave lyrics and emotes together if possible, or alternate. And this is where macros CAN make life easier. Emotes can be several lines or blocks of text describing movement while the character sings/plays, or it can be the existing /emotes, or a combination thereof. If you do use /emotes during performances, it's best to turn off the text description for when these trigger, as the chatlog descriptions don't always match the intention you're trying to portray with the given action. Turning it off means the motion still happens, but the automated text will not distract from your performance. We also explore a variety of genres. Some keep it folky, others lean toward punk, Ciel is opera-trained and loves opportunities which allow her to use this background. Don't hesitate to sign up for events as a performer if they're asking for them. Many events are themed in some way, which gives us a base to work from as far as choosing and tailoring material which will fit the subject matter. For example, lots of events this month are themed on love. If you were to sign up for a future Grand Company memorial event, something with a somber or patriotic feel would work. In my opinion, themed events are usually worlds easier to work from for this reason, as opposed to unthemed, anything goes events, where you can just do whatever. It's ok to start small, too. If you're not ready to jump into the big shows like that yet (and trust me it can be nerve-wracking even for the most seasoned among us), it is perfectly acceptable to sit in one of the taverns and play an instrument/sing, or to get up in front of the tavern patrons and do the same thing. So in short, it's whatever you're comfortable with, being a performer is very, very flexible, and our audiences love variety. The two most important rules of it all: Have fun with it. Don't let yourself get discouraged.

There is nothing wrong with having the Echo, or any of the abilities which come with it. A few pieces of advice, though: 1. Play the character first, not the ability. 2. Unless the character doesn't have a whole lot of common sense, don't ICly have them go around advertising or shouting from the rooftops that they have it. There are still those who may view an Echo user as being unnatural and no better than any of the beast tribes simply because they don't understand what it's about. 3. Use it sparingly. If you're going to use it to peer into a character's past, shoot them a /tell and make sure it's ok to do so first. 4. You can have the Echo but you don't have to have the whole gamut of possible perks which come with it. For mine, I stick with languages. As a character who spent a great deal of time wandering before, and after returning from, the Calamity, she attributes her grasp for languages to her experiences on the road. Peering into the past is something saved for rare plotted events if the person running them is willing to allow it. It helps to have it as an ace up your sleeve if you're in a jam where you can't otherwise figure out how to proceed. 5. It never hurts to touch base with other Echo users for RP, and maybe establish a "comfort zone" of sorts where you can all relax and not have to worry about being persecuted. 6. Not everyone is going to OOCly like it, either, but that's ok. Most won't give you grief for it, but some FCs have policies against accepting Echo users due to either being "OP" or "too common" or some other reason. Don't take it personally if that happens, there are other opportunities waiting which are more welcoming. 7. Most important of all, have fun with it!