Nikolai

I dunno man, I always felt the best part of the Ivalice world was the entirety of Final Fantasy Tactics, in which I don't recall there being any judges. I really didn't care for FFXII. T_T Why did ye not like XII? Well... I didn't like anything about it, really. I thought the battle system was boring, the progression system ended with all the characters more or less the same, and the characters and story were largely uninteresting. Even the music didn't really wow me. I also didn't care for the throwback to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance; that game's story infuriated me to no end. I think it would've been a lot more interesting to take control of Ritz and try to put a stop to Marche's bullshit or something. I don't understand why any of the characters followed him; he was essentially trying to bring about armageddon, which would kill them all... Oh well. At least I enjoyed that game's battle system, and it made me aware of the existence of the original FFT and later its remake on the PSP, which I love ever so much. <3

I dunno man, I always felt the best part of the Ivalice world was the entirety of Final Fantasy Tactics, in which I don't recall there being any judges. I really didn't care for FFXII. T_T

"Good Gods, one at a time, all of you!" For a moment, the man sitting at the table looked absolutely horrified at the sheer number of people who had just entered the conversation. However, he quickly regained his composure, pointedly shaking his head as though to snap himself free of an illusion. Brushing a little more dust from his coat, he debonairly declared, "Myself first, naturally. You say you're looking for employees? Well, my name is Nikolai Petrilio, and as it happens, I am an engineer, dedicated to providing swift solutions to even the most complex quandaries. Yet, before I enlist, another question; how do you intend to ensure that all members are equally, or, gods forbid, more dedicated to providing excellent goods and services? I wouldn't want my incredible inventions to be associated with some peddler's junk, after all." At that moment, a youngish looking hyur barmaid with long blonde hair wrapped into a bun arrived at the table looking awfully wary of the boisterous man who had emerged from the privy and knocked aside another of her co-workers. She chimed in with a somewhat forced cheeriness, "Welcome t' tha Wench. Can I get y'all an ale? Best in town." She looked around the table expectantly, and her eyes quickly met with Nikolai's, who looked to be doing his best to look charming, but with his messy hair, dirty coat, and strained expression, he instead appeared quite frazzled to her. She had gotten pretty good at reading her customers and whether they might leave a nice tip, but she wasn't sure about this one. She would work her charms as best she could, taking comfort in that at least, with what would surely be a large order, she would likely get a fair amount anyway. "No thanks; I'd like some mead, myself, and then whatever my two associates here would like," said Nikolai dismissively, motioning to Antrekk and the proprietor. The woman nodded, making note of his order on a pad with an extravagant quillpen and waiting patiently for the remaining orders.

Well, I liked your idea so much that I've taken the liberty of posting it for you. I still haven't fixed whatever problem is stopping me from connecting these days (I swear, I fix one thing and I get a new error!), so I don't really have any new input of my own, so in the meantime, if there's anything you'd like for me to say for you, just let me know.

As the group walked along and the woman divulged her plans, the man grinned, eyes glinting, though it seemed the meaning of his prior gesturing had been missed; she had still not given her name. Alas, he would take a more direct approach in a moment; still grinning, he commented as they yet moved, "A lofty ambition. I like it." They were then again interrupted by another girl claiming to have found a hat; indeed, she was carrying it. The man, rather intent on getting to the tavern sooner than later, seemed a little impatient, but was markedly more cordial than he had been with Antrekk. He reluctantly stopped to answer, "Yes, there was a woman earlier who indeed claimed to have lost a hat. She ran off in that direction," he said, pointing lazily, "with intent to return to us when she found it. She had blackish, reddish hair; if you manage to find her, do let her know we'll be at the Wench, won't you?" He nodded at her decisively, and without awaiting a response, continued toward the tavern, which was then, in fact, only a few steps away. "As I was saying," he segued quite smoothly as he pulled a chair from the table nearest to the entrance of the Wench and immediately took a seat, "it seems as though you've got some pretty big dreams. I admire that." He then laughingly added with a wink, "Reminds me of me. Ah, but I have one question; how, exactly, do you intend to go about bringing it to fruition?" He suddenly took a quite more serious demeanor, and he gazed levelly at the proprietor-woman from his seat.

Well then you should post that! Stir up some conversation and hopefully pique the interest of the devs, you know?

Ultimecia! Yesssssssssss. :cheer: :cheer: :cheer: I agree with this sentiment. Ultimecia~ <3

Haha, I kinda just did. I'm tester639_45200. You guys should give my post a read and see if that sort of idea is what you're looking for, too, and if not, what would you change about it? I don't want it to just get buried by trolls. D: Also, I really hope they don't increase the battle tempo too much. I think it's fine the way it is.

I'm surprised no one else has said this yet: If FFXIV doesn't work out for me, I'll likely go back to FFXI, if I go to an MMO at all. I've played it for years, I know it like the back of my hand, and I thoroughly enjoyed it up to the day my RL friends dragged me back to WoW. It sounds as though they're really working hard to breathe new life into it, too, though unfortunately the population can only further dwindle at this point... I wonder if FFXIV will travel down the same path? As enriching as it was to build such strong connections with others in the community, as the servers shrunk, I felt the game experience begin to wither as well. Games based on teamwork don't work so well when you've got no one left to team up with.

sweetidealism = Lumei Tuolim

Well, I'm back from my vacation, but uh... huh. I'm very sorry to hear about all that. x_x Um, well, I'm pretty exhausted, but I'd like to continue this RP, so if everyone else still wants to, I'll start writing something up tomorrow morning. What do you all think?

Fat Princess was crap, imo. At least, it's not the reason you should buy a PS3. Aw, haha, well don't worry, it's not the only thing I'm getting a PS3 for, it's just one of the things I was interested in.

Magic's gone to many exciting new places since then, but yeah, I don't really care much for the Zendikar expansion... The "living world" aspect was pretty well portrayed by the cards, but the ally effects not only seemed arbitrary, but they weren't the sort of thing you could just fit into an existing deck like other expansions; just from the way it worked, if you wanted to use it in a deck, you were pretty much forced to center that deck around the ally mechanic. Finally, the eldrazi... As big a fan as I am of the whole "cthulhian horrors from beyond reality" deal... I dunno, I feel they turned out just being annoying. Though, my best friend uses Eldrazi Monument in his Goblin deck which works pretty well, so I suppose some good has come of it? Haha... Man, I'm wrapping my mind around a FF-themed Magic homebrew now... I already have so many ideas x_x Those superhero cards are really well done, too! Kudos, Renaise

I'm looking into getting a PS3 myself. I've always wanted to play Fat Princess; it sounds so cool.

I tried to make a Smash Brothers card-based board game when I was 11, but it didn't go too well.

I tried playing the WoW tcg for a time, and though I enjoyed it while it lasted, I couldn't really get into it. It doesn't seem to take itself very seriously. Meanwhile, I still play Magic to this day. Lorwyn's my favorite expansion by far; I feel like the setting was brought out really well by the flavor of the cards-- something I feel zendikar's allies mechanic totally failed to do, on a side note. x_x I mostly play blue/green, which seems to be pretty popular! This is my deck list, which I'm pretty proud of: Lands: 9 Forest, 8 Island, 4 Misty Rainforest, 2 Reliquary Tower Creatures: 4 Noble Hierarch, 4 Shorecrasher Mimic, 4 Cold-Eyed Selkie, 4 Murkfiend Liege, 3 Lorescale Coatl, 3 Trygon Predator, 2 Simic Guildmage, 2 Momir Vig, Simic Visionary Enchantments: 3 Favor of the Overbeing, 3 Shielding Plax Instants: 4 Arcane Denial (replaced instead by Dream Fracture on the rare occasion I'm playing in an extended tournament), 1 Invert the Skies ... for a grand total of 60 cards! It's a lot of fun, and works pretty well for me. I've got a lot of friends who are also really into Magic, which makes it all that much more fun. Meanwhile, I've got three works in progress drawn up in a neat little program called LackeyCCG: a scarecrow deck (my favorite creature type), a blue/green EDH style deck using Momir Vig as the general, and a green/black deck that revolves around getting my persistent creatures killed to queue their "enters the battlefield" effects in addition to triggering abilities from enchantments such as Grave Pact and Golgari Germination. They're all pretty fun to play so far, though they each have some issues... the green/black deck, for instance, is pretty top heavy, and in spite of abundant acceleration creatures, it tends to pick up pretty slowly... But yeah, as far as online magic goes, I know it's not quite the same, but if you'd like to acquaint yourself with LackeyCCG, it's a really neat system that allows for up to 10 people to play in one game at a time. Just hit me up in a PM or in IRC and I'd be happy to play!

Yeah, I'm pretty certain that's the case, too. It's a damn shame, though, not to mention flawed logic; assuming the goggles don't stop working at some point, an effect like that would have to be pretty minor, or else SE pre-ordering folk would quickly surpass everyone else. That said, we don't know how big or small the bonus is, so who can say?

See, I'm not sure that I do care about the extra 8 days enough to warrant the extra money, haha... but I'm a sucker for concept art, so I dunno. I probably would get the collector's edition if the garlond goggles were included with it, too. As someone who primarily wants to do crafting, some stylish goggles that happen to increase the rate of skill ups would be invaluable, as skill ups can be hard to come by. Then again, those eight days of gathering and crafting could also set me up in a better position to play the market... but then, I suppose that's a big part of why I joined the Silver Anvil; to have an easier time of all that. I'm heading to my local gamestop to preorder my copy later today, so I guess I'll just have to flip a coin or something. D:

It's confusing. On the "game info" page of the main website, there is an asterisk aside the subscription fee that directs one's attention to the following message: "Access to Eorzea is subject to certain license agreements and, after the 30-day free gameplay period, recurring subscription fees. All new game packages come with a period of free gameplay, one playable character and one non-playable retainer character (a non-playable character that provides free item storage and in-game merchant services). After the free gameplay period, the regular 30-day subscription fee will be $12.99. Each additional character will be $3.00 per period, with a maximum of 8 playable characters per account. Each additional retainer will cost $1.00 per period." The underlined statement asserts that, indeed, the Standard Edition grants players a period of free gameplay. However, the page listing the bonus content of the Collector's Edition also makes note of offering free gameplay for 30 days as a bonus, implying that such a bonus is exclusive to the CE. Perhaps the CE offers an additional 30 free days, on top of however long the trial ends up being?

Hmm, well, looking closer at the website, it looks as though the standard edition may not allow you to play for the first 30 days free, something I'd just taken as granted with any MMO. With this in mind, the collector's edition drops to $62, as $13 of that 75 may as well just be going to the initial subscription. Add to that a $10 security token (though frankly I feel they're overpriced), and then, so long one feels the early access, gorgeous box art, DVD, travel journal with more art, right of passage certificate, and the ability to invite a friend to play free for a time are together worth more than $2... Well, I think it's fairly safe to say that the collector's edition is by far the better deal. I think I know which I'll be getting.

Not at all! I should've thought of it myself!

I haven't placed my order yet personally, but I was intending to get the collector's edition. Awesome box art, early access, and a number of trinkets, including a new security token; I still have mine from when I played XI, but I figure it'd be nice to have a second on hand for when the battery inevitably dies. All for just $25 extra, it seemed like a fair enough deal, especially considering the security tokens alone are what, $10? However, recently, I've been thinking of getting the standard edition instead. First, it's $25 less and I'm poor; second, I'll probably be busy with my classes at the time the game is released anyway; and third, the garlond goggles. I can totally picture my character wearing them, and they increase the amount of skill you gain! It's useful, and stylish~ Meanwhile, the onion helm is cute, but as I hopefully will not be dying all too often, I don't see it being too useful, nor can I picture any of my characters ever wearing something so gaudy anyway. On the other hand, there will probably be other glasses-type items, as well as other means to increase your skill gain, whereas the Onion Helm would likely be the only item of its kind... and even if my character wouldn't actually wear it, it might be the sort of thing he'd have just for the sake of having. I'm so torn! Haha. What are everyone's opinions on the two editions and pre-order bonuses?

He watched huffily as the girl sped away, and seemed to disregard the woman beside him as she spoke, although he waited for her to finish. "...Tch!" Childishly, he scrunched up his face and shot an accusing glare at Antrekk in a way that utterly failed to be remotely intimidating. "You dolt, you've gone and frightened her away!" He put away the vial and folded his arms, and with a huff, he relaxed. He discreetly looked over the displays the highlander had laid out. They were nice, and clearly well made, but he wasn't about to tell him that. He then sized up the man himself. Look at him, all... come to think of it, what didn't he like about him again? His thought process was interrupted by the woman clearing her throat.