Iroh

I love that I get an e-mail every time one of you sends a gift out, so I can easily send you each one back quick. Oh if anyone doesn't get one from me right away, don't worry, it just means I'm away and will get to you as soon as I get back, thanks to the e-mail and the convenient "list" they have of all tickets received and from who.

Agreed! Username: Dal I'll send you a ticket Tadir. Any anyone else in this thread.

Oh um, sure. I'll PM you my Skype info, no problem

It's definitely a cultural thing that doesn't spread ALL over Europe, yes. I've been told by a couple European friends that both France and Germany have a more 'proud' culture (overall, not everyone obviously believes this) in that they don't really believe any language but their own is 'required.' Like American culture in that respect, where instead of hearing that why someone doesn't know anything except English is "because they have no need for it," instead you hear things like "everyone should speak our language because we're so influential in the world." I wish that I spoke like... an insane number of languages though... like, 30 languages. Maybe one day I'll try and start working on that. It's very cool to me though how much you can learn about a culture though by learning it's language. For example, in Danish the term "Hygge" means... well, it's really HARD to translate. It's like, a cozy feeling... at home... with family... or just comfortable, warm, content, and... tranquil. But even with me explaining it like that, it's still hard to translate, because it's just a word that NO other language has to describe a specific feeling/occurrence. It says a lot about their culture that they have such a word. All different countries have stuff like that. It's cool to me, and it's also interesting when I try to find certain American terms that no other country seems to have words for.

I think it's kind of a shame actually didn't get off the ground so other companies could mimic it... Then again... maybe it's for the best...

I actually believe it's more common lately than people realize. Every time I leave the country now and have to explain why I'm going, the Customs individuals say things like: "You met your fiancé online? Let me guess... some computer game like WoW?" It seems the Customs people and boarder control are well versed in the occurrence of people meeting online and getting together through video games. And if it's that widespread on a country -> country level, just think how it might be within boarders.

Having been through our school system, and over the years having seen the majority of results in others from our school system, I believe we're just going to need to agree to disagree here. And that's the benefit, also, of teaching children to speak other languages at an early age. Later in life, they don't need to go slow and think what they want to say before they say it. They can literally just 'switch' how they think, and speak at least two languages (often more) fluently. It is something I envy.

You don't have to worry. Most people in Europe nowadays speak English if not a few other languages. ESPECIALLY people who are on the internet a lot. They are taught it at young ages, in school. America though? They try to begin teaching us other languages when we're teenagers. Yet another reason why our school system is full of fail...

Yup, and I'm sick of that Roleplay too. "I was a slave/orphan! Raised rough, and beaten and whipped! I'm ashamed of my scars but... let me take off my shirt to show everyone, but DON'T LOOK AT THEM!"

I hate the people with scars. Always the scars. And it's not like, just in their description so you can 'discover' it. Oh no. They have to TELL you about them. They emote things like: /em takes off his shirt, displaying a body criss-crossed with scars. He seems to be embarrassed about these scars and doesn't want to talk about them. He tries to cover his scars with his hands, a blush rising to his cheeks. Yes, I had to put up with that $^%& in a game once. Dude, we're adventurers. Everyone has scars. It doesn't make you a special snowflake.

All true if you want to portray a villain in that way, but then again, in a MMO, when do the stories end? Really good villains, which I pretty much never see, are the ones who for ages hide their true motivations. People like them. They are charming. They can do NUMEROUS bad things through manipulation, like pitting heroic characters with big egos against one another. Then suddenly when it suits their interest, they might have to reveal themselves sure... but if they have enough followers at that point, they don't NEED to go to any jail. They can safely combat any heroic types who might go against them through clever planning and the use of henchman. I think there are just several problems people run into when playing a villain, and that's conflict RP in general. Most RPers, for some reason, don't like to "lose." They don't. So if you're a villain, you'll always fail, always be thwarted. If you're a hero, the villain you're up against will always want to win. There is far too often not enough give and take in RP because everyone wants to be the star, not just a small part of the greater whole. That's the biggest cliché of them all and ties in to pretty much every cliché mentioned. 90% of the characters I've run into in RP wanna be the 'star!' It's very rare you run into people who want to be merely a PART in a much larger story.

Honestly, what I'd like to see more in RP is well written villains. It's so rare to see great villains... you either get the "bullies" (who honestly really should be the GOONS and HENCHMEN of the villains, and they should lose more often and not god-mod so much as always being more powerful) or you get the anti-hero types that SAY they are bad but never actually DO anything because deep down their player wants everyone to like them. I want more well-played villains.

Or their chemical makeup is such that any alcohol will cause a chemical reaction within their body that could render them a walking nuclear wessel. Er, vessel.

Oh... Kefka all the WAY! Listening Pleasure

Sounds like we need to hear someone on Vent sometime, hehe. Would that happen, you would all fall under her magical power... Yes, I don't get jealous. I understand you see everyone will end up loving her. Strangers come right up and kiss her on the neck, it's true! Now that I've accepted I must share her with the world, life is a lot easier. But oops, I believe this got majorly off topic. I tend to understand most spelling errors as I'm a horrible speller myself... but I can't stand the typical 'your' vs. 'you're.' Makes my eye twitch every time when people screw that up. And I screw it up too... and when I do, I make myself twitch. I know people make mistakes, it's just a personal thing I'll never be able to get over. Besides, I can't fault anyone for typos. I'm the tampon king.

I personally find that amusing, since Vahsyl WAS weird, but no one ever seemed to think so. Most people just thought he was charming. But no, he was one weird, messed up, artistic, INSANE crow.

She sounds like , it's adorable. >.>

I think it's almost impossible for a Roleplayer to completely separate IC and OOC. I'm not saying it's totally impossible. I'm not saying it's never been done. I do it often... but every single time no matter what? No. There are always times someone does something really mean IC and you just sit back and think... "Huh... you know, that person is kind of... well, a dick." Not all the time. Sometimes you can tell it's COMPLETELY IC... sometimes the player is awesome and they literally TELL you OOC they are just being IC and clear things with you. (That's the best, keeping an OOC dialogue running) But there are times, and if you think hard about it, trust me, you'll remember those times... when it just feels like someone is being an arse IC and are ALSO being an arse OOC. Ergo, sometimes you have an IC relationship that doesn't cross ANY kind of boundary... and sometimes you just have one that does. It might not happen a lot for some, it might happen almost never for others, it might NEVER happen to you. There is just no way to tell how things will go down in life, is there? The best anyone can do is prepare themselves as best they can for "potentials." This is why many claim they keep things COMPLETELY separate. This is a very good thing to do to "prepare" yourself from the inevitability of IC and OOC feelings meshing slightly. This doesn't mean you've completely protected yourself from drama and are now immune to all emotions, however, so always be careful... but it usually helps people feel more secure in their online interactions. I am an actor, on the stage, in real life... and trust me, when you are really into the part, you have to feel SOME of the emotions you are portraying. Usually it's ok for actors as at the end of show we throw off the character and can become us... but in RP, you are constantly PLAYING that person, day in and day out, and it can be very tricky to claim with 100% certainty you are immune to feeling anything your character might feel. Here's how I view it all. Dudes and Dudettes, it's ok to feel similar emotions that your character is feeling. The trick is to recognize when it's happening and take certain steps to avoid any serious issues. Is that person really pissing you off even though they've only said IC things to you? Don't RP with them. Walk away. This does NOT, however, mean you start mouthing off to all your friends what a jerk they are (this often happens, and people convince themselves it's completely justified because deep down, we always want reassurance from our friends that we are not... you know... insane). This just means you keep you respectful opinion to yourself and just try to do your own thing. Feel like you have a crush on a player? First sit back and think "well, what do I know about them?" If you really know NOTHING OOC, you are probably just crushing on the character. If you still think you like them, the person behind the role, then maybe take some steps further. Either talk to them about it, gently, to see if they feel the same (or are... you know, AVAILABLE). If they do, maybe you've just made an important discovery. If they don't, you know clearly that it's rejection time... and it's probably a good idea to get over it and just move on. It helps NO ONE to pursue something like that. Now, all that being said, I met my fiancée in an online RP community. I think the main difference between us however was that we did not begin flirting and talking IC, but we began our communication OOC. Gradually, it was clear our feelings had nothing to do with our characters, and our characters, frankly, never even really got to the levels of adoration we feel for each other now, or even back then when we were first chatting. So I suppose to make a long story short (TOO LATE) it's important to separate, yes. It's important to distance yourself, yes... but don't listen to anyone who tells you that you're evil or a drama-llama or a bad roleplayer for slightly meshing some of your OOC feelings into some IC things that happen. The trick is to just be aware that this CAN happen and conduct yourself in a mature and adult fashion. Just because this is the internet doesn't mean we have to remain uncivilized, after all. *Is so going to start doing that, just to freak out Iroh* So not funny

So far I've only seen awesome shades...

Actually, I believe I read it was Ul'dah, as the city is "famous" for it's affluent cloth designs and styles. EDIT: Ah yes, according to the official site:

Ah yes... I'm hoping that's the latter. And I just read on some site a 'rumor' about how the light houses in Limsa are run by Thaumaturge magic so hopefully, yeah there will be some overlap. Besides I doubt travel will be that difficult... gone are the days it seems of it taking a few hours to get to some far corner of a MMO world. I was just wondering if we are limited to calling our base of operations something based on our class interests. Here's hoping you are right! Thanks for the reply.

Hello, New to this forum and liking what I see here. Haven't posted yet but this thread caught my eye because I still know so little about the game... Do we really choose one of these three as a starting city? Or do we all start like the Benchmark shows and end up in Limsa first? Also, how does this affect our armoury interests? I mean, certainly if you love Limsa (me) but want to focus on the skills of a Thaumaturge (also me) would you not have to trek over to Ul'dah all the time because the HQ for the Thaumaturges is there? Just curious if anyone knows more about all this, or if it's still all speculation until the NDA is lifted.