09-15-2012, 11:02 AM
Crystalline RP Linkshell being Repurposed for ARR
I wanted to make a brief announcement that the role of the Crystalline RP linkshell will be changing shortly after 2.0 begins.
What will remain the same is the high level of immersion. Crystalline (even in its 8 years in FFXI) has always strived for 100% in-character content over the linkshell channel. This will not be changing, though we would encourage all members interested in OOC chatter to partake in the Backstage linkpearl as well, to that end.
Presently we are kind of a close-knit bunch belonging to a variety of different "main linkshells" and the idea was to give a handful of RPers across a spectrum of communities a place with which to associate with one another and hopefully help foster cross-LS activity. While some might have regarded it as being a bit underutilized, it's served its purpose thus far admirably. That being said, a number of us have felt that there's an opportunity to transform the linkshell into something a bit more prevalent.
So this kind of "band of friends" as it is now will be evolving - albeit gradually and realistically. Already there's been a bit of a split between who will be getting phased out of time and reappearing five years later, and those who will stay. And we're really intent on RPing this out gradually over a period of time since we expect there should be a lot of chaos as people are suddenly thrust five years into the future. So while the groundwork is currently being established, it's going to be as though this sort of project is coming together through a normal process, likely spanning two or three months - perhaps even more. It's not going to be some awkward instance where a new company suddenly and inexplicably crops up overnight.
Without going into too much detail and too many spoilers we can give kind of a rundown at how we sort of envision things going. Since Eva is kind of at the core of this and since she's arguably not the most steadfast of leaders, the jump forward in time itself will serve as kind of a catalyst to this sort of change. And I'll go into a bit how this will happen and what we're looking at as a sort of "end product" (a term I use very loosely because invariably the end product is ever changing based upon the members of a community).
Please note that these plans below are all subject to change based upon whatever lore may be thrown at us. This is kind of a rough guideline for what we're planning though:
Stage 1: Arrival
We're still debating whether to start this at open beta or official launch of ARR. We don't really want to start until all of our existing members are on the same page, and if that means official release of ARR we will likely push it back to that instead, though I know many of us are eager. In any case, arrival of those who arrive to the reborn realm from 5 years ago will likely stir up a lot of confusion. I can only speak for Eva's character right now, but throughout all of this she has had faith that everything will be fine. She's worried more about personal problems than the cataclysmic events in the sky and such. She's kind of had dreams of a better future and while she doesn't regard them as prophecies or any such thing, they have left her feeling a certain calmness that everything will be fine. Right now there are few who want to hear of such complacency, and generally speaking I think folks would rather panic. After 2.0... when she reappears, along with whomever else is making this jump, she will probably dive headfirst into that faith and it is my hope that at least a handful of others will share in those beliefs (likely many who already have pearls). Which brings me to the next stage.
Stage 2: Spiritual Order from Chaos
We feel that this faith will lead to a renewed sense of purpose. Eva is a devout follower of Nymeia, the goddess of fate. She will firmly believe that their lives were spared so that they could be reunited for some greater purpose. You may think of this almost akin to Morpheus from the Matrix movies. While I don't expect all to fall in line with her own beliefs, the linkshell at this point will be repurposed from simply a communications medium to a kind of spiritual organization whereby each of the Twelve (not just Eva's patron) will be regarded for having played a role in saving lives and helping reunite the "been here all along" folks with the "time traveling" folks. Those who no longer wish to be a part of such a spiritual organization are welcome to leave the linkshell at that point, however further transformations will be coming down the pipe.
Stage 3: Paying it Forward
As time goes on, we feel that this will continue to quickly evolve beyond just kind of a religious community to become something greater still. At its core, Crystalline will likely continue to preach of faith in the Twelve and there will be lots of talk of thanksgiving and the blessings bestowed upon everyone, but the natural place to go here would be encouragement of the faithfull to give back in the name of the Twelve. What with the destruction and the still-present Garlean threat, it's likely that there will be much to pray for, and that prayer will also give way to action. This evolution has been likened by some of our interested members to something akin to organizations such as the Red Cross, where we will go out and volunteer whatever they're able to help make the world a better place. Unlike many of the current linkshells which are more oriented on things like treasure hunting, glory, fame, and gil - we're hoping to be a bit more benevolent and become something of a charity organization. So far as I'm aware, this hasn't really been done before and we feel the time is ripe for such a thing. While we will likely need some gil to sustain ourselves IC, I don't see it being a driving factor. It's also meant to be flexible. Some linkshells are intended to be kind of a full-time job sort of thing - and that's ok! I would expect some people to regard Crystalline in such a manner, but I would also expect some to be kind of "part-timers", coming along to help out when available and go on about their day to earn their own keep. And of course that would be celebrated, since some aid is better than none.
We also want to work with other companies and linkshells in order to offer aid for various projects and such. We feel that there's a lot of possibility with this kind of an organization for cross-LS activity, and we're really looking forward to opportunities to interact with other RPLS's!
Now, in this way we realize we're not going to appeal to all character types. A subset of the RP populis may be put off by the religious "core" to the group, and others may be intent on earning gil and not want to waste time and such. And that's great too. At the start of this we decided that we weren't going to try and create the sort of "all-encompassing" the way Crystalline in FFXI was, for those from Sylph who may have been familiar with it. There will be a core theme here, however we're hoping that the charity organization should help widen the scope a bit to help include adventurers who may "just want to help" as well. And of course there may be room for more religious fanatic types as well as any number of other plotlines. While the goal isn't necessarily for the company itself to be open to all different types, we feel that many character types can at least integrate with it on some level of another.
As we are now, a handful of us are very excited about this and looking forward to RPing the various facets of this company and opening Crystalline's doors to other RPers that would be interested in participating with us. Our site will be undergoing some improvements in the near future to coincide with all of these changes as well. We're looking forward to being a more involved part of the larger RP community and hope that our excitement is felt by all.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and please feel welcome to reply. Thus far feedback from interested parties has been the driving force behind this linkshell, and so it shall be as time goes on.
*FOOTNOTE: I have used the word 'company' to describe the organization as it evolves. As we do not yet have enough information from S-E about what Free Companies will entail, I cannot say that we would go that route with any certainty. While it is certainly a possibility, the fact that players may be a member of only one free company may be offputting to some RPers. Whether we wind up becoming a Free Company of our own, joining some kind of conglomerate of other RPLS's to form a big Free Company, or avoid the Free Company thing altogether - will be determined based on member polling after more information is provided about the specifics and what these Free Companies will entail. I just wanted to make this note to help avoid any confusion in the terminology.
I have left the linkshell description thread alone for the time being (aside from making a bump with a link to reference this thread). Since in-game it has not taken on any of these elements yet and is still a kind of informal linkshell for keeping in touch with each other, it didn't make sense to be advertising it on the RPC as such just yet. I will likely change that after the servers go down. It is important to us that the linkshell evolve gradually.
Questions and comments are of course strongly encouraged. Or feel free to swing by our forums and pay us a visit (though we're still ironing a few things out and making some changes as we go): <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.crystalline-rp.net">http://www.crystalline-rp.net</a><!-- m -->
Thanks! :cheer:
I wanted to make a brief announcement that the role of the Crystalline RP linkshell will be changing shortly after 2.0 begins.
What will remain the same is the high level of immersion. Crystalline (even in its 8 years in FFXI) has always strived for 100% in-character content over the linkshell channel. This will not be changing, though we would encourage all members interested in OOC chatter to partake in the Backstage linkpearl as well, to that end.
Presently we are kind of a close-knit bunch belonging to a variety of different "main linkshells" and the idea was to give a handful of RPers across a spectrum of communities a place with which to associate with one another and hopefully help foster cross-LS activity. While some might have regarded it as being a bit underutilized, it's served its purpose thus far admirably. That being said, a number of us have felt that there's an opportunity to transform the linkshell into something a bit more prevalent.
So this kind of "band of friends" as it is now will be evolving - albeit gradually and realistically. Already there's been a bit of a split between who will be getting phased out of time and reappearing five years later, and those who will stay. And we're really intent on RPing this out gradually over a period of time since we expect there should be a lot of chaos as people are suddenly thrust five years into the future. So while the groundwork is currently being established, it's going to be as though this sort of project is coming together through a normal process, likely spanning two or three months - perhaps even more. It's not going to be some awkward instance where a new company suddenly and inexplicably crops up overnight.
Without going into too much detail and too many spoilers we can give kind of a rundown at how we sort of envision things going. Since Eva is kind of at the core of this and since she's arguably not the most steadfast of leaders, the jump forward in time itself will serve as kind of a catalyst to this sort of change. And I'll go into a bit how this will happen and what we're looking at as a sort of "end product" (a term I use very loosely because invariably the end product is ever changing based upon the members of a community).
Please note that these plans below are all subject to change based upon whatever lore may be thrown at us. This is kind of a rough guideline for what we're planning though:
Stage 1: Arrival
We're still debating whether to start this at open beta or official launch of ARR. We don't really want to start until all of our existing members are on the same page, and if that means official release of ARR we will likely push it back to that instead, though I know many of us are eager. In any case, arrival of those who arrive to the reborn realm from 5 years ago will likely stir up a lot of confusion. I can only speak for Eva's character right now, but throughout all of this she has had faith that everything will be fine. She's worried more about personal problems than the cataclysmic events in the sky and such. She's kind of had dreams of a better future and while she doesn't regard them as prophecies or any such thing, they have left her feeling a certain calmness that everything will be fine. Right now there are few who want to hear of such complacency, and generally speaking I think folks would rather panic. After 2.0... when she reappears, along with whomever else is making this jump, she will probably dive headfirst into that faith and it is my hope that at least a handful of others will share in those beliefs (likely many who already have pearls). Which brings me to the next stage.
Stage 2: Spiritual Order from Chaos
We feel that this faith will lead to a renewed sense of purpose. Eva is a devout follower of Nymeia, the goddess of fate. She will firmly believe that their lives were spared so that they could be reunited for some greater purpose. You may think of this almost akin to Morpheus from the Matrix movies. While I don't expect all to fall in line with her own beliefs, the linkshell at this point will be repurposed from simply a communications medium to a kind of spiritual organization whereby each of the Twelve (not just Eva's patron) will be regarded for having played a role in saving lives and helping reunite the "been here all along" folks with the "time traveling" folks. Those who no longer wish to be a part of such a spiritual organization are welcome to leave the linkshell at that point, however further transformations will be coming down the pipe.
Stage 3: Paying it Forward
As time goes on, we feel that this will continue to quickly evolve beyond just kind of a religious community to become something greater still. At its core, Crystalline will likely continue to preach of faith in the Twelve and there will be lots of talk of thanksgiving and the blessings bestowed upon everyone, but the natural place to go here would be encouragement of the faithfull to give back in the name of the Twelve. What with the destruction and the still-present Garlean threat, it's likely that there will be much to pray for, and that prayer will also give way to action. This evolution has been likened by some of our interested members to something akin to organizations such as the Red Cross, where we will go out and volunteer whatever they're able to help make the world a better place. Unlike many of the current linkshells which are more oriented on things like treasure hunting, glory, fame, and gil - we're hoping to be a bit more benevolent and become something of a charity organization. So far as I'm aware, this hasn't really been done before and we feel the time is ripe for such a thing. While we will likely need some gil to sustain ourselves IC, I don't see it being a driving factor. It's also meant to be flexible. Some linkshells are intended to be kind of a full-time job sort of thing - and that's ok! I would expect some people to regard Crystalline in such a manner, but I would also expect some to be kind of "part-timers", coming along to help out when available and go on about their day to earn their own keep. And of course that would be celebrated, since some aid is better than none.
We also want to work with other companies and linkshells in order to offer aid for various projects and such. We feel that there's a lot of possibility with this kind of an organization for cross-LS activity, and we're really looking forward to opportunities to interact with other RPLS's!
Now, in this way we realize we're not going to appeal to all character types. A subset of the RP populis may be put off by the religious "core" to the group, and others may be intent on earning gil and not want to waste time and such. And that's great too. At the start of this we decided that we weren't going to try and create the sort of "all-encompassing" the way Crystalline in FFXI was, for those from Sylph who may have been familiar with it. There will be a core theme here, however we're hoping that the charity organization should help widen the scope a bit to help include adventurers who may "just want to help" as well. And of course there may be room for more religious fanatic types as well as any number of other plotlines. While the goal isn't necessarily for the company itself to be open to all different types, we feel that many character types can at least integrate with it on some level of another.
As we are now, a handful of us are very excited about this and looking forward to RPing the various facets of this company and opening Crystalline's doors to other RPers that would be interested in participating with us. Our site will be undergoing some improvements in the near future to coincide with all of these changes as well. We're looking forward to being a more involved part of the larger RP community and hope that our excitement is felt by all.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and please feel welcome to reply. Thus far feedback from interested parties has been the driving force behind this linkshell, and so it shall be as time goes on.
*FOOTNOTE: I have used the word 'company' to describe the organization as it evolves. As we do not yet have enough information from S-E about what Free Companies will entail, I cannot say that we would go that route with any certainty. While it is certainly a possibility, the fact that players may be a member of only one free company may be offputting to some RPers. Whether we wind up becoming a Free Company of our own, joining some kind of conglomerate of other RPLS's to form a big Free Company, or avoid the Free Company thing altogether - will be determined based on member polling after more information is provided about the specifics and what these Free Companies will entail. I just wanted to make this note to help avoid any confusion in the terminology.
I have left the linkshell description thread alone for the time being (aside from making a bump with a link to reference this thread). Since in-game it has not taken on any of these elements yet and is still a kind of informal linkshell for keeping in touch with each other, it didn't make sense to be advertising it on the RPC as such just yet. I will likely change that after the servers go down. It is important to us that the linkshell evolve gradually.
Questions and comments are of course strongly encouraged. Or feel free to swing by our forums and pay us a visit (though we're still ironing a few things out and making some changes as we go): <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.crystalline-rp.net">http://www.crystalline-rp.net</a><!-- m -->
Thanks! :cheer: