LilMomoshi

First off, I like this post! Alright, on to my thoughts. I've always enjoyed seeing who my characters become given whatever situation came at them. Eventually I started avoiding RP fighting outright, from all the bad feelings both sides tended to share, as no one really wants to lose. I can remember one point in particular though that shaped the way I approach RP, which I think fits in well with the idea of it being free-form. I got godmodded. Like... outright facerolled by a paladin who had powers straight out of Naruto. My dwarf had his face shoved into a fireplace during this encounter. Naturally, I was unhappy with how one-sided the whole thing was. I didn't ignore it though. I didn't pretend that what happened hadn't happened, or retcon it out of my characters history. That character did regrow his beard (because what is a dwarf without a beard?), but I kept the scars. Or, rather, he did. In the end, I was kind of glad for it all, because my character had grown in some small way from that encounter. That little bit of history would follow him until my eventual retirement of his character. I think that's the key to having an evolving character. They might have been shy, or not. They might have been a nobody, or a somebody. It's how we interact with the world (of roleplayers) around us, and move on from there that really gives them that definition in the end. Free form roleplaying is, I think, the only form of roleplaying that really works in an MMO environment.

So, this is something that I've talked about at great length with guilds in the past, most recently with my last guild in WoW before my eventual retirement from the game, and I'm naturally very opinionated about it, but I'll be reeling that in for the sake of an open discussion. How special should a character be? I still remember the early days of RP for me, all those years ago. I was, beyond a doubt, a Sue. I was bad. My characters were overpowered, broke lore like toothpicks, and absolutely had to be the center of attention. The story was all about them, from my perspective. Over the years I've mellowed significantly, of course, having come to a realization early on that what I was doing just wasn't fun for anyone, including myself. Now, I'm all for living the fantasy. Of course I am. I'm a roleplayer, and that's exactly what we do. After this point though, during my first year of RP, I started to take a new direction as both a roleplayer and a writer. I began to seek out simplicity in my characters. The first success, from my eyes, was how I reimagined my dwarf. He was no longer special in ways that didn't fit the world. I actively read the lore, delved deep into the world he was a part of, and sought to make him a character that fit into that world and lore well. My attention turned from "what attributes make my character special?", and instead looked into the character himself, as I would any person I may meet in reality. What about this person makes him special? Years down the road, I stand by my decision. I've had many characters since then, from a simple farmer turned soldier, to an assassin in a harsh world, struggling with her job and relation to the people pulling her strings. I look at my characters since that choice, and I feel pride in what I've created, and the stories I've told. However, I've also had people challenge my approach. These people look at my characters, often having not interacted with them often, and ask me what really makes them special? They have no special powers, no distinguishing features, and all generally tend to fit in with their culture and peoples as well as I can manage. I always answer the same way: How is this fantastic character, as they are, in this world, not already special? Maybe you're an elf wielding incredible arcane power, or a wandering human hunting wondrous treasures lost to time. You already are special, so what beyond that defines you? What makes your character interesting as that person? Of course, everyone has their approach, and as roleplayers (and furthermore, nerds) I think it's kind of our duty to be accepting of each other, whatever views we may take, or however we may choose to find our enjoyment of the things we're passionate about. So! Little ranty thing done with, discuss! I want to know what the community thinks on the subject! Also, here at the bottom, a little link I've often used through the years since my Sueish days. I don't follow it to a "T", as sometimes you gotta have a little freedom, but I've always felt it makes a fairly decent gauge of the Sue situation. http://www.springhole.net/writing/marysue.htm

I figure they occasionally get bored... =P

Having just mentioned it in my own thread, I now pitch the idea here! Using in-game housing parties to invite players over for tabletop RP. THIS MUST HAPPEN. Seriously. In a world full of adventure and danger, glory and gold awaiting us, what better to do than grab some snacks and a few brews, head over to a friends, and pretend to go on adventures?

I want an in game marriage system implemented, so that I can marry my wife and have her move in with me... okay, it just hit me how redundant that is. Also, I want tiny little chairs to fill my house with, so that all who visit feel giant when they sit at my table and play some weird non-canon variant of D&D hosted by my Lalafell.

I'm rooting in the back of my head for something similar to guild halls, and for housing to be in the same instance in that. Walking from my house with a guildmate over to the guild hall... yeah... I wanna do that.

My god, I can't express the sheer joy I felt in beta when my Lalafell first sat in a chair when I just typed /sit next to it... and the bonus joy when he didn't look silly in that chair, or have his face level with the table edge... (See gnomish chair-edge-sitting for reference to the alternative).

When I do finally get in, I'm just going to take the approach I did with Wrath of the Lich King. I'd been roleplaying for years at that point, and sure, my guild would go off and RP out in the world... but I saw a lot of "Full Time" roleplayer tags that... well, didn't roleplay full time (later remedied by people having the option to make up and RP tag, and suddenly there being a million "veteran" or "mature" roleplayers). So I went out on my little gnomish deathknight (I love the little races) and as I adventured through Northrend for the first time, I did so completely in character. I'd wave and say hi to random people, if I saw an RPer at a quest hub, I'd walk around and make comments, and I actually got to enjoy some of the best RP ever just by doing that. So, when the time comes, and I get in game... come say hi! I'll be in character, even if my wife and I are grinding out levels. Worst case scenario is my character is in a rush to get on to the next job, and runs off really quickly with a few kind parting words.

I just want to see a little more recognition of Roleplayers. Blizzard has managed to get by (even if realms like Earthen Ring have long since been relegated to a normal server with a different name), and servers like Wyrmrest Accord and Moon Guard, whatever opinion people may have of the latter, have managed to hold on to a strong RP community over the years, with little need of interference (outside of the Goldshire situation). I just don't see why that approach can't be taken. All in all, though, the roleplay community tends to at least designate a home for themselves, whatever the game, and situations like this just serve to divide that community to its own detriment, which is the situation we're in now. There's no guarantee of free transfers, especially TO a server that will likely hold on to a high population even if some people leave.

Want a thief class so bad!

I'm honestly just frustrated by it all, at this point, as many people are. I played in beta, but once open beta hit everything filled up in a heartbeat. My wife and I have been waiting for weeks now, and there hasn't been a single chance to make our characters. If I had the money to transfer, I probably would've made a character on another server, but that's not really an option for me at the moment, and there's not a solid guarantee that there will even be room on Balmung at that point. I just wanna RP with a solid community! Also, when will MMO's learn to just designate one or two RP servers and step aside? I mean, yeah, several of the ones on WoW died, but that was just because of an influx of trolls or large groups of non-rpers fleeing toxic "normal" servers. I mean, I figured at LEAST Neverwinter would've launched with an RP server...

So, according to the description from the Lodestone page, posted yesterday (at this link: http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/news/detail/4b021eb3d632f08be9d6198fd595066b31d7fb59) they're putting up new worlds and implementing countermeasures for the duty finder, as well as "several known issues". This doesn't give me a lot of hope for getting onto Balmung, as there's no mention of server capacity getting better. So, anyoen else have insight to this I'm missing? Is there any hope of still getting on Balmung? Because after pulling an all-nighter and other late nights leading up to and over the weekend, the server doesn't seem to be opening up ever.

Eh, I'm just tired. By which I mean it's 3 am for me, when I work a 9-6 job throughout the week, and I still haven't seen Balmung open up for even a minute. I'd be happy with the 30 days game time, sure. 7 extra days, even. Right now though, I'd really just like to get on the server and start playing (Since I already missed out on my chance to get on Balmung during open beta, early access, and every day of live so far for the exact same reason that has me up at 3 am).

Stayed up until like 3 am last night, and saw 11 servers open, but not Balmung or Gilgamesh. So I slept some. Should've had a Red Bull. =P

So, new to the forums here, getting ready to (eventually) make my toons on Balmung, so I thought I'd just jump into the introductions and say a little about me. I'm a writer, though as a hobby and not a profession. I've been writing stories pretty consistently since I was very young, and just never really stopped. I started playing mmo's back in January 2005, and in March 2005 made my first RP character ever, and got hooked. Over the years I played on several RP servers on WoW (from the glory days of Shadow Council through the rise and leveling out of Wyrmrest Accord), playing a couple specific characters for most of that run, and a variety of characters on the side. Left the game because, honestly, after 8 years I just wasn't interested enough to stick with WoW, as much as I love the world and story. So, after 8 years of digging up every bit of Warcraft lore I could find, and trying to craft the most real and fitting characters I could for the setting, I've come here! I'm really excited for the challenge involved in learning some new lore, and getting back to storytelling both in RP and in writing more often (I've been kinda lazy about that for the past year). I'll be playing along with my wife most often, though she doesn't RP. Hopefully I'll see lots of you shortly, and... I dunno! Stuff and things will happen, and it'll be all amazing. Yeah. Something like that.

What about server transfers and such? I wanted to get on to Balmung or Gilgamesh as early as open beta, but the servers were consistently locked by the time I got there. Now there's not a single NA server even open. Would server transfers work from EU to NA? Would I still have to pay for that? Or am I just doomed to sit back and wait for them to finish before I can play on a NA server with other roleplayers (or even a NA server at all)?