I was literally just talking about the RPC with friends in Skype. I don't think I'd be alone in saying that there's been some toxicity on the forums lately, some hostility, arguments and defensiveness.
Whatever, it's the internet. But we're fortunate to have the RPC. Without the RPC, there'd be no role-playing servers. Without RP servers, our experience of Eorzea as Role-players would be a lot quieter and far more lonely. I personally have found the RPC to be a wonderful and priceless tool for finding and improving RP and making connections (love dat wiki u guiz srsly), which is why I'm happy to pay for its upkeep over on the Patreon drive.
I'm a strong believer in community. I've been on both ends of the MMO-RP spectrum before; being in a lonely little RP LS in a game innately hostile to RP (FFXI), and being in an RP guild on a official RP server (WoW). In these cases there either wasn't an RP community, or the RP community had no wider organisation. Compared to our situation on Balmung at least, both sucked. I can honestly say that my time on Balmung has been the happiest, most fun and fruitful experience I have had with RP in MMOs, and that's due in no small part to the RPC.
Basically, I think it's obvious that we get the community we work for. I can't speak for Gilgamesh, but as I've said, I think Balmung is wonderful. But there's always ways to improve. To do that, we've got to pull together. Let's not forget that SE isn't making official RP servers any time soon; they never had any intention to do so. We're pretty much on our own. But Balmung and Gilg are the RP servers because we decided we were going to make them the RP servers. That was us, pulling together.
Anyway, the point that I'm trying to make in this TL;DR post, I guess, is that I've been feeling for a while that we as RPers could do a lot more to really strengthen our communities in ways that would benefit all of us. In particular I'd like to see efforts toward:
1) Encouraging greater inter-FC RP, and
2) Helping both those new to our servers / new to RP settle in and become part of our communities.
Whatever, it's the internet. But we're fortunate to have the RPC. Without the RPC, there'd be no role-playing servers. Without RP servers, our experience of Eorzea as Role-players would be a lot quieter and far more lonely. I personally have found the RPC to be a wonderful and priceless tool for finding and improving RP and making connections (love dat wiki u guiz srsly), which is why I'm happy to pay for its upkeep over on the Patreon drive.
I'm a strong believer in community. I've been on both ends of the MMO-RP spectrum before; being in a lonely little RP LS in a game innately hostile to RP (FFXI), and being in an RP guild on a official RP server (WoW). In these cases there either wasn't an RP community, or the RP community had no wider organisation. Compared to our situation on Balmung at least, both sucked. I can honestly say that my time on Balmung has been the happiest, most fun and fruitful experience I have had with RP in MMOs, and that's due in no small part to the RPC.
Basically, I think it's obvious that we get the community we work for. I can't speak for Gilgamesh, but as I've said, I think Balmung is wonderful. But there's always ways to improve. To do that, we've got to pull together. Let's not forget that SE isn't making official RP servers any time soon; they never had any intention to do so. We're pretty much on our own. But Balmung and Gilg are the RP servers because we decided we were going to make them the RP servers. That was us, pulling together.
Anyway, the point that I'm trying to make in this TL;DR post, I guess, is that I've been feeling for a while that we as RPers could do a lot more to really strengthen our communities in ways that would benefit all of us. In particular I'd like to see efforts toward:
1) Encouraging greater inter-FC RP, and
2) Helping both those new to our servers / new to RP settle in and become part of our communities.
