Faust

That's what I'll be doing, though I won't be using wireless keyboard/mouse. I got an adapter for my PS2 Netplay controller and it's working perfectly.

Was going to be PS3 before the delay was announced. So now I'm just going to hook up the tower to a big screen TV and use a controller. Same difference, really, except it will be in 1080p.

While I have a hard time envisioning the big picture application of this, I could potentially be involved in it, so I guess there's that. I'm still freelancing myself, though I would eventually like to find a guild that suits me. I'm probably going to want a LS that facilitates the RP more than defining it. i.e., a LS where freelancer characters can coordinate RP efforts, rather than one where you're expected to have your character play a certain role in the guild (like being a soldier, or bandit, or what have you, for the big boss person of the LS). But I also would like to be in a "good" RP group that has some reasonably high standards for RP. I dunno. I haven't looked at specific guilds very seriously yet.

http://xkcd.com/771/# The new xkcd comic seems relevant to some of the earlier discussion. As for being bilingual, you learn languages differently when you're younger versus when you're older. Learning at an early age, you can learn the language nonnatively as if it were a native language. When you're older, the parts of your brain that allow this are no longer elastic enough to achieve that kind of learning, and you almost have to learn new languages by translating from your native one. An amusing phenomenon is that some children who are raised bilingually can't even translate from one language to the other effectively. They're housed in the brain without any significant connection at all. Compare this to people who learn in secondary school, and they can barely learn a new language at all without knowing what words and phrases mean in their original language. But this is far from the most ineffective aspect of the US education system.

The American currency system (I assume you're talking of the american currency, pennies and what not) is already a metric based. Meters to dollars, Decimeters to dimes, all that business. Actually I was talking about our units of measurement in weight, length, etc.

I was actually just thinking a moment ago about how common it is to learn a new word or term in your OWN language. I don't see anything ill-fitting about having different terms. Imagine how many people you could go out to in a public place and introduce them to the term "roleplayer" for the first time in their lives.

I was just making banter. It's not as though I figured anyone would actually care about my personal drinking habits. I'm never angry on the internet, btw. I'm very rarely angry at all because it causes me immense disappointment in myself to experience such a waste of an emotion. That said, the fastest way to catch shit from me is to give it to me, and I happen to enjoy giving it back. As for spelling, I don't find it particularly interesting. English uses non-phonetic spellings, essentially dooming everyone to make mistakes from time to time. A relatively simple change of "the rules" would prevent most people from ever making a spelling error in their entire lives. Instead we prefer to continue the tradition of making someone memorize the spelling of every single word in their vocabulary. And while it seems like a trifling issue, the longer we continue it, the longer we inconvenience ourselves, and the sooner we fix it the easier it will be. Though I can barely fathom a world where such a thing would be addressed.

I just find it a bit ridiculous that abstaining from alcohol should invoke any kind of affront. I know that different cultures have different values about alcohol use, but I think most recognize that to abstain is ideal, even if they wouldn't choose it for themselves. While this isn't the first time that someone has wrongly assumed that I look down on all drinkers, it is easily the most egregious. Frankly, it was an ignorant statement and ignorance is no crime, but warrants correction just the same. It's not my intent to make an affair out of it-- just setting the record straight.

I'm considering making Faust an anti-hero/villain (somewhere between that fine line). I disagree that a villain has to fall, though. Look no further than reality. Nearly half of murderers are ever caught in the US. But even beyond the heinous, there are the frequently white collar crimes that are no doubt villainous, but don't always result in jail time. Bureaucracy alone can foil the fall of the villain. And think even beyond that-- there are "villains" who don't even commit any crimes at all. If you've ever watched a romantic drama, you can frequently identify a man or woman who is the "villain" and tries to ruin the "hero" relationship-- they don't necessarily break any laws to do it, but they still earn our scorn, and we despise them. So I reiterate on something I said in the other villain thread-- keep an open mind about what it means to be a villain. And if you want people to RP as villains, you're probably going to have to work with them a bit and find a compromise that works for them. There are as many reasons to keep a villain close to the party as there are to be a villain in the first place. What's truly cliche is insisting that the good guys and bad guy are always at odds, and the good guys must eventually either kill or imprison the bad guy. I think Faust may come off as the most cliche type of character at first (the lone and silent dark elf!), but really that is not what I have in mind for him as his character continues to develop. I've crafted an intricate backstory, complete with a complex villain, and the overarching story path aims to lead an inherently villainous character like Faust down a better path for completely selfish reasons. But I don't want to spoil my own story. I'm just pretty proud of myself, is all.

Actually I'm something of a teetotaller.

I'm guessing Rhalgr and Oschon will be most popular. Unfortunately they have the most initial appeal to me too. I'm using Oschon for now. I'd really like to see how the dieties play out in the lore before making a decision, but alas. IRL I'm an atheist and would just as soon play an atheist in game, but in a game where there will probably ample evidence that the guardian dieties exist, it seems silly to have a character that doesn't acknowledge that. Maybe if the lore lends to the suspicion, my character could believe that the dieties are less than gods, at least. In either case, my character is very intelligent, and so will believe whatever it makes the most sense to believe.

I have horrible pronunciation habits, much due to my upbringing, though grammatically I tend to only make errors due to typos or intentionally as an effect of dialogue.

Huzzah! I'm on my way to internet fame! This time, I can feel it!

I think a good rule of thumb here, made succinct for those who wouldn't want to read the entire thread, would be, "Don't be a copycat."

I get what he's saying. 15 years ago the Garleans invaded, I think we all follow that. The writing that says that the primals appeared 10 years ago isn't written as though it were present day. Rather, it seems as if it was written about 15 years ago. Therefor the primals appeared 10 years before what happened 15 years ago, meaning 25 years ago total. Good catch.

Yep, it works for me now too. Though actually, I don't like the purple font, and I'm not too crazy about the font style in general either. Maybe I'd like it better if it were italicized. I assume you're waiting to adjust the font on the linkshells that haven't sent you an avatar yet. Should look much better in general once it's nice and uniform.

You've got me there. Garland is easily my least favorite villain. We don't have to scrape the absolute bottom of the barrel, do we?

On topic, I appreciate the OP's sentiment. I'm really looking forward to the depth that roleplaying will bring to the game for me. Frankly, XI was too simple of a game to really challenge me by the time I quit, and there was no saving that-- and I think the infinitely complex art of storytelling will be a welcome injection into my gaming. So I'm really looking forward to seeing how this dynamic, collaborative story unfolds.

Email sent.

Hoo boy, I think you're not going to like what I'm seeing. I almost want to just screencap it and email it to you... yeah, give me an email I can contact you at and I'll do that.

It's foreshadowed/implied a bit that one of the story characters may be from the empire, or at least have pretty thorough knowledge of it. At least at this point, my impression would be that the empire consists of the same races as Eorzea, though of course I can't say for sure.

Getting the same as Shamad here.

Too bad we can't seem to find out anything about the Japanese. I don't really know anyone personally who could do it-- I asked Elmer, but didn't get a response.