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Perception's a bitch. That's basically what it boils down to and what I feel like the key issue you're running into is.
Mine is a "sort of outsider perspective but not really". For those who are confused by that statement (which is probably all but about 5 people), I was a member of Crystalline back in FFXI days. I've had no interaction with the shell during 1.0 (which I dropped out of not long after it started billing) and the limits of my interactions thus far have been bouncing over to the forums to see who's still around that I remember and to try and rekindle old friendships.
On which note, good to see you're still bald, JJ.
Fact is, a fair amount of the more active posters in the more popular threads tend to be affiliated with Crystalline in some way. Gerik's fantastic art thread naturally involves a lot of Crystalline members, for example, while I constantly see Aysun posting all over the place and generally being awesome. This is a FANTASTIC thing and while I don't remember those two from FFXI days (unless names changed) they both seem to be great RPers that I'm hopeful to get to play with once the game launches proper.
However, this combined with earlier things mentioned like Kylin being a Crystalline member can lend to this perception of control or elitism, especially when coupled with the closing off of recruitment - which I get, incidentally. Assuming the status quo persisted, I can personally vouch that Kylin and Eva disagree quite frequently >.> In fact, when the two of them instantly see eye to eye it's usually a good idea to pay attention because there's a 99% chance whatever it is, they're right about.
So, what's the solution? Well, there's not a clear and simple one. Never is, especially when what you essentially have on your hands is a PR situation. Language is key here. I'd be genuinely curious to see if what you've heard would be different if your recruitment status said 'pending' (much more open to possibility) instead of 'temporarily closed' (in which the use of closed sounds very final, piss off, go away). It's one of those odd things where you can say the same thing two different ways and people react very differently.
Disclaimer: my adventures in self-promotion have given me a crash course in how important that is to people's perceptions >.>
On the flip side, the 'problem' such as it is isn't only yours. Perhaps other shells can be more public in their activities? Not saying that they're not already, but even more so? The whole concept of a 'top shell' referenced in Ellie's above post really sets my skin to crawling and isn't a term I've heard referenced before so I really hope that's not getting thrown around a lot. Every single shell should be considered equal in my mind.
At the end of the day, I would worry less about the shell's overall reputation. The glorious thing about the RPC is that so much cross-shell Roleplay is possible. I know that I personally couldn't care less about a shell's reputation. What I want to know is which individual person I want to roleplay with - see my earlier comments regarding Gerik and Aysun. Focusing more on that - encouraging a shell's members to get out there, roleplay with as many people as possible and generally be all around awesome - will fix the shell's perception as a by-product. The thought process will be "Hey, all these awesome people I've played with are in the same shell! That shell must be awesome too!".
My thoughts probably rambled all over the place there, as they are wont to do. So I'll wrap up by saying politics suck, perception is hard to manage and neither should ever be such a concern that it detracts from the reason we're all here - to bloody roleplay!
Mine is a "sort of outsider perspective but not really". For those who are confused by that statement (which is probably all but about 5 people), I was a member of Crystalline back in FFXI days. I've had no interaction with the shell during 1.0 (which I dropped out of not long after it started billing) and the limits of my interactions thus far have been bouncing over to the forums to see who's still around that I remember and to try and rekindle old friendships.
On which note, good to see you're still bald, JJ.
Fact is, a fair amount of the more active posters in the more popular threads tend to be affiliated with Crystalline in some way. Gerik's fantastic art thread naturally involves a lot of Crystalline members, for example, while I constantly see Aysun posting all over the place and generally being awesome. This is a FANTASTIC thing and while I don't remember those two from FFXI days (unless names changed) they both seem to be great RPers that I'm hopeful to get to play with once the game launches proper.
However, this combined with earlier things mentioned like Kylin being a Crystalline member can lend to this perception of control or elitism, especially when coupled with the closing off of recruitment - which I get, incidentally. Assuming the status quo persisted, I can personally vouch that Kylin and Eva disagree quite frequently >.> In fact, when the two of them instantly see eye to eye it's usually a good idea to pay attention because there's a 99% chance whatever it is, they're right about.
So, what's the solution? Well, there's not a clear and simple one. Never is, especially when what you essentially have on your hands is a PR situation. Language is key here. I'd be genuinely curious to see if what you've heard would be different if your recruitment status said 'pending' (much more open to possibility) instead of 'temporarily closed' (in which the use of closed sounds very final, piss off, go away). It's one of those odd things where you can say the same thing two different ways and people react very differently.
Disclaimer: my adventures in self-promotion have given me a crash course in how important that is to people's perceptions >.>
On the flip side, the 'problem' such as it is isn't only yours. Perhaps other shells can be more public in their activities? Not saying that they're not already, but even more so? The whole concept of a 'top shell' referenced in Ellie's above post really sets my skin to crawling and isn't a term I've heard referenced before so I really hope that's not getting thrown around a lot. Every single shell should be considered equal in my mind.
At the end of the day, I would worry less about the shell's overall reputation. The glorious thing about the RPC is that so much cross-shell Roleplay is possible. I know that I personally couldn't care less about a shell's reputation. What I want to know is which individual person I want to roleplay with - see my earlier comments regarding Gerik and Aysun. Focusing more on that - encouraging a shell's members to get out there, roleplay with as many people as possible and generally be all around awesome - will fix the shell's perception as a by-product. The thought process will be "Hey, all these awesome people I've played with are in the same shell! That shell must be awesome too!".
My thoughts probably rambled all over the place there, as they are wont to do. So I'll wrap up by saying politics suck, perception is hard to manage and neither should ever be such a concern that it detracts from the reason we're all here - to bloody roleplay!
![[Image: TyFFXIVSig.jpg]](http://i968.photobucket.com/albums/ae167/Tyriont/TyFFXIVSig.jpg)