Abodo more or less hit the nail on the head, to an extent. In short, a linkshell is a grouping of linkpearls, which are just little pearls that have the ability to transmit audio across large distances. So, there is technically a difference there. Your character has a linkpearl, but is a member of a linkshell. A linkshell can dish out a hefty amount of linkpearls, and all of those pearls will be connected to eachother.
In 1.0, they were used as "guilds", but come 2.0 they're basically falling back to being a social tool, with Free Companies taking the place of guilds. You'll see a lot of RP linkshells popping up, simply because you can have multiple linkshells, but you can only join one free company.
While there's bound to be RP free companies, I know some people will opt to join an endgame free company, or one that isn't necessarily related to RP, which means having an RP linkshell is the only viable option for them. Unless they have alts or prefer to freelance.
Lore-wise, there are ways to disrupt linkpearls. The Garleans have technology that can nullify linkshell transmissions. Magical/aetherial disturbances can also mess with them. Outside of that, they're basically one of the main means of communication across vast distances in Eorzea. They're like cellphones. Pretty much everyone has one.
In 1.0, they were used as "guilds", but come 2.0 they're basically falling back to being a social tool, with Free Companies taking the place of guilds. You'll see a lot of RP linkshells popping up, simply because you can have multiple linkshells, but you can only join one free company.
While there's bound to be RP free companies, I know some people will opt to join an endgame free company, or one that isn't necessarily related to RP, which means having an RP linkshell is the only viable option for them. Unless they have alts or prefer to freelance.
Lore-wise, there are ways to disrupt linkpearls. The Garleans have technology that can nullify linkshell transmissions. Magical/aetherial disturbances can also mess with them. Outside of that, they're basically one of the main means of communication across vast distances in Eorzea. They're like cellphones. Pretty much everyone has one.
![[Image: 7Ho5y7x.png]](http://i.imgur.com/7Ho5y7x.png)
