Kylin

((The following is a excerpt from one of my "Avalon Profiles," 12 batches of stories related to the House Mavanix mini-epic. To view all posts in this particular profile, or other Mavanix profile stories, feel free to visit the Crystalline story forums, as they are accessible to the public. OOC commentary can be posted in this thread if desired, as no other story posts will accompany this post within this thread.)) The night after the Margarah Fashion Duel⦠Kalara slowly took a seat as House Mavanixâs airship, the Scarlet Seraph, took off into flight. Nina sat next to her on the red silk covered bench. âOh sister, is this really whatâs best for us?â Kalara nodded fervently. âI canât show my face in Ulâdah again. And Iâm insulted that Elza tried to âhireâ us back into OUR Margarah. Iâve never been so humiliated in my life. It's just as Veronica foresaw!â Nina sighed quietly. âI feel the same as well. But leaving our home behind? Weâve never been the type to run away. Maybe we should have swallowed our pride and just accepted defeat.â âOh Ninaâ¦youâre always so optimistic. I envy you for that. Maybe that optimism will lead us back home someday in a glorious comeback. But for now, Iâm just too humiliated to stay in Ulâdah. The other houses are likely laughing at us. Itâs a pity William and Xaliel are staying behind for a few more suns.â âOur loves and children will rejoin us after that silly meeting Elza called for tonight,â Nina said with a smile. âI think they just wanted to give her a piece of their mind before bailing on her.â Kalara smiled faintly, patting her sisterâs leg softly. âThank you for coming with me. You are the best sister I could ask for.â The two shared a sisterly smile before leaning back in their elegant seats and relaxing. Within a few moments though, the quiet serenity abruptly came to an end. The airship began to rock violently. The two sisters quickly rose to their feet and looked to one another with a sense of dread in their eyes. Nina rushed to the cockpit and opened the door. She let out a startled scream as she gazed upon the pilotâs motionless body. Quickly, the Mavanix diva rushed to the hyur man and tried to wake him before realizing that he was dead. Not only that, the shipâs steering wheel seemed to be completely missing. A single blood stained parchment was pinned in its place. The Mavanix lady glanced at it in horror, instantly recognizing it as a page from the House Mavanix family contract. It was an informal contract, largely ceremonial in nature only. But every Mavanix had been required to sign one since the days of Darius Mavanix. Nina quickly read over the torn passage. âFamily is the most important unit of society that exists. Betrayal of it in any way is the highest form of treason and is punishable by humiliation and/or permanent exile.â The words âpermanent exileâ were underlined in blood with a small comment hand-written out beneath it in the same blood. âItâs all in the nomenclature.â She turned to look to Kalara, who was now standing in the doorway with a horrified expression. Nina practically ran to her sister and grabbed her arm, dragging her out of the room with a strength one wouldnât think her to have. The airship continued to pick up speed as it plummeted. Wasting no time, Nina began to cast a teleportation spell. Midway through, she stopped and looked to Kalara with an even more horrified expression. âSomeone has placed a ward on the Seraph. We canât teleport outâ¦â Kalaraâs eyes began to water slightly as the realization of what was happening continued to sink in. Nina rushed back into action, moving over toward a large wooden cabinet and opening it. The parachutes were nowhere to be found. Nina moved over to her sister again, taking her hand in hers. âIt was an absolute pleasure being your sister, Kalara darling. No matter what anyone says, nobody in Ulâdah had better fashion sense than you. And nobody could ever replace you.â Kalara fought back tears as she took her sisterâs hand as well. âMy lifeâs journey wouldnât be the same without my supportive sister. Thank you, Nina.â Nina smiled back, reaching forward to wipe a tear from her sisterâs eye. âLive in beauty, die in beauty.â The two Mavanix sisters embraced one another in a final hug, smiling faintly as the airship crashed into the ground below and exploded on impact, sending wreckage and flames all over the crash site.

Garuda weapons video:

Thank you everyone who helped and showed up! It was a great event, though the audience could have been bigger considering the amount of publicity. But it was awesome nonetheless. Congrats to Team Avalon/Everwatch for their victory! And hope everyone enjoyed Nina and Kalara as much as I did. The chaos they swept in sure knew how to put a damper on even the most light-hearted of events! Thanks to Aysun, Dralid, Calico, Yssen, Selene, Nel, and Syesta for modeling! Thanks to Eva, Xenedra, and Kannadi for judging! Thanks to Aylis for announcing! You all did awesome work. Also thanks to Seraphine for helping out so much with this event. Also thanks to Corvus Cinis for acting as backup models, despite not being needed. But it was nice to have a backup ready at a moment's notice. And thanks to all who showed up for the fun RP!

Bump! Big day is tomorrow! *Models be sure to have a total of 3 different outfits ready to go. *Models and judges (and announcer), please try to arrive an hour early (~7pm EST) to get setup so we don't have to delay the event too long. We will need to go over procedures and whatnot after all. *Participants, please be aware of two things: [tab=30]1. There will be various nobles present at the event as NPCs. So just RP that accordingly upon arriving. They'll probably try to hog most of the front seats and whatnot [tab=30]2. There will be 2 intermission periods in which the models change outfits. During this time, you may Rp freely through the amphitheatre. There may be some shady stuff going down within the competition as well, so feel free to get involved in that (whether it means hindering the potential cheating or helping :twisted: )

Awesome news today! The Legacy Campaign will allow all 7th Umbral Players (who have played 90+ days cumulative between January and 2.0 beta) to pay a permanent discounted price. We'll also get a chocobo gift mount in 2.0. The charge system is also changing, allowing us to finally not pay that crazy $3 per alt!! RPers rejoice! In fact, we Umbral players will get to pay a mere $9.99 for EIGHT character slots ! And that discount lasts for the entire life of FFXIV! Check out all the details here! http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/43218

I agree with a lot of whatâs been said so far, especially about the lack of communication that exists. Itâs sad when you know just about every Rperâs name by heart but havenât interacted with so many of them on any level (IC or OOC). The âwolf packâ mentality most definitely exists and has for quite some time. Regarding âcleaning up:â I have actually tried multiple methods to do this (not counting just the aesthetic changes to the site). There was a new RP linkshell roll call thread posted several months ago. Not one person responded though (I since deleted the post as a result during the site overhaul). Iâve also sent emails to some of the more obscure RP linkshells, particularly the âlightâ ones in which so many of us have never even seen/heard of. One of their leaders insisted that he wanted to keep the shell active (even though by anyone elseâs definition, it clearly wasnât/isnât). So I canât really up and remove it from the list just because I /think/ itâs inactive. The old inactive moderation team has been wiped and replaced with some more active mods to help oversee the forums as well. So thatâs helped a bit considering you can actually see moderators posting now. Regarding linkshell leader stuff: As I said on another past thread, Iâm not opposed to adding a LS leader forum section. However, keep in mind weâve tried this before. While Iâve since buried most of the threads there, I can tell you that the section got really ugly toward the end. Elitism reared its ugly head and some smaller linkshells were even dubbed âlolshellsâ just because they had a different style than some of the other more established shells at the time. Politics swirled out of control and it caused an intense amount of drama that killed friendships and caused the community itself to become incredibly turned off from this site. This is why the original RPC charter was killed. If weâre going to do a round two of this, we need to ensure the past doesnât repeat itself somehow. I also agree with Mtoto about the community being oversaturated with linkshells, considering the current size of the community right now. Too many leaders, not enough followers. This is why, after 6 months of struggling, I had no choice but to dissolve Archavalon. As you can see though, Iâve kept the noble house concept alive IC even without the shell and plan to take the story to a glorious finish nonetheless >.>. Itâs extremely difficult to compete with already established shells, no matter how active you are in the community or how aggressive you are in recruitment or how experienced you are in leading shells. However, what can really be done about that? Nobody has any right to tell another RP group that they shouldnât exist. Nobody is going agree to a merge since it will kill their own concept and undo all of their own hard work. We have no right to put a âcapâ on how many RP shells the server can have, and even if we did, we couldnât enforce it. This site has definitely picked up activity in recent months compared to the stale atmosphere that existed for a long time not too long after launch. Communication is on the increase, though it still needs a little push here and there. Iâm still shocked when I learn that some Rpers have never even heard of the RPC. I meanâ¦maybe I have a lot of bias due to being an administrator. But everyone playing this game has a PC. Everyone playing has Internet access. Therefore, everyone playing has access to these forums. Yet so many donât utilize them. Itâs frustrating to repeat information over and over again (whether itâs about an upcoming event or an important thread like this) when all the information is right here on these forums to begin with. I know itâs impossible to force people to come here every now and then, but itâs frustrating when people just outright refuse to check out the forums out of laziness or whatever. In this day and age, this type of global communication is imperative in any MMO. This is why so many linkshells require prospective members to register/apply through a website. I also wanted to take this moment to mention other fansites. When the RPC first launched, I had managed to snag support from Zam and Eorzeapedia (now Gamer Escape), along with a host of other smaller fan sites. Our server choice was promoted on the front page of many of these sites. The administration of these sites have been supportive in other ways as well. Zam gave us a wiki page, Eorzeapedia gave us a podcast, both offered to set us up an IRC room if needed, and more. Obviously these other sites will be imperative to our future promotional efforts, though their own activity has dwindled quite a bit. In regards to an earlier question about getting on SEâs fansite page, I have indeed tried that. Pikko, an admin at Zam, sent an email about us to her SE contact. No response was ever made however ; ;. Gamer Escape asked SE directly in an interview about their plans for the RP community. Thatâs when we got our first official response related to a RP server, and it was later confirmed that we were indeed getting one in 2.0. That leads me to another point (I know Iâm all over the place right now ). Balmung may very well not be our final home server. When SE does designate a RP server, it may be a brand new one that comes with PS3 launch. This makes promoting Balmung a very tricky situation. Also, while I have no issue at all jumping to the official RP server when it's given, I fear that not all Rpers will share that sentiment. We have to be prepared that some may stay behind to stay with their OOC pals, further splitting the community.

Does anyone think we should change the way in which linkshells are categorized in the linkshell listing? It seems that it's becoming increasingly lop-sided as of late. Just about every RP shell is starting to classify itself as "heavy" due to the ability to have multiple sidepearls for OOC and the like. I believe the only two "light" RP shells listed aren't even active anymore either by the looks of it. Does anyone have any ideas on how to organize them differently? Or do you think it should just be left alone?

In addition, SE is holding a contest to see who can guess how long after 1.22 it'll take before the first group downs Garuda. For all the details on the contest, go here: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/42613

Reminder that the first preparation event is tonight around 7pm EST (may be pushed back to 8 if necessary). Team Avalon will meet in Limsa at the Anchor Yard. Team Margarah will meet at the Gridanian Amphitheatre. Judges may attend either team's meeting they wish. To better increase turnout, models are welcome to bring friends/coaches/etc to the event, though they will have to not interfere with the process or anything. I haven't had a chance to RP with certain individuals who wanted to model yet. I'll be in game around 3-4pm EST and onward if it's still needed. I'm very open to having more models still. Also still need to find an announcer before next week! All you have to do is make comments as the models strut across stage. For example: "And here comes flaunting a beautiful crimson coatee with matching tights and shoes. She's also sporting gold bracelets designed by exclusively for this show!" A backup judge or two would be nice as well (though you likely wouldn't be needed since the judges seem to have their schedules clear, but it's best to be safe!).

The following flier is plastered around each city... OOC Details: [spoil]Full details can be found at this thread-- viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2796 When: Saturday, April 21st. 8 pm EST. Models and judges gather earlier if possible. Where: Gridanian Amphitheatre What: Fashion showdown! Notes: Numerous NPC nobles will be in attendance and will almost certainly try to hog all the front seats >.>[/spoil]

[spoil]For a slightly larger size, click on image, then click the little icon next to the 'X' in the lower right hand corner of the image to expand size. Sorry for the couple spelling errors made...can't redo the entire image though ; ;[/spoil]

I have a lot of people asking me about the schedule so here's a tentative one (subject to change depending on my work schedule and the schedules of others). Locations and other details to be revealed later via IC correspondence and fliers. Yes, it starts this week but if it's too short notice for too many people, I can possibly push it back another week to an extent. I purposely tried my best to leave the weekend alone for fear it would conflict with LS events. Friday, April 13th around 6-9pm EST: Preliminary preparation event #1. Two separate events will be held back to back, one for each team. Judges are welcome to attend either, both, or neither in order to ensure all rules are upheld. Models themselves should TRY their best to attend, barring any other commitments. Monday, April 16th around 6-9 pm EST: Preliminary prep event #2. This will involve a public auction of sorts to buy certain high class wares for the showdown, so ANYONE is welcome to attend this. Just keep in mind that it's an event held by the upper class of Ul'dah and so there will be a lot of stuffy nobles roaming about as NPCs . Friday, April 20th OR Saturday, April 21st around 6-9pm EST: Fashion Showdown. This will be the actual event and all judges and participants should arrive as early as possible ("fashionably late" is not very fashionable for something like this ). Obviously, this is all coming rather quickly. Pushing it back further will be extremely difficult since people have plans at the very end of the month and/or the beginning of the month. Plus, 1.22 could interfere with the schedule if it gets pushed back any further. IC recruitment for some still has to happen ASAP. If you have not been approached IC about any of this, send me a tell (Kylin Mavanix) in game immediately. I'll be on most of today and Thursday and will try to keep myself open for RP scenes. Also, still need someone to host the showdown event. Another judge or two may be needed as well EDIT: Also edited the original post with relevant info.

This is all largely set to go. There are plenty of contestants now. It's likely that, per recent RP, Everwatch will be contracted out for Team Avalon. However, that doesn't mean there's still no room there. I do need to work out some RP with most of the volunteers (judges and contestants) still to properly 'recruit' them into the cause. Team Margarah is a bit...difficult to approach due to its leaders being incredibly snobby noblewomen who only want the absolute best for their team (experienced models, etc). So we'll have to come up with something on that front for those who will be on that team. Dates are not set yet. A couple preliminary events are being planned to 'prepare' the models and judges, which should be entertaining. I would like a couple more volunteers for judges in case anyone in the current roster can't make the date/time. I'd like like a host/hostess who can make comments as each model takes the stage (along with a backup host/hostess in case the primary can't attend). Should anyone see another opportunity to involve yourself (designing clothing to be displayed, etc), please don't hesitate to speak up. More details will be revealed in the very near future, including a schedule.

So we have a newly designed RPC site. Patch 1.21 is out, further transforming the game from its initial horribly reviewed state. Patch 1.22 is due out by the end of the month. Thatâll leave only 1.23 left before 2.0 is right around the corner. So itâs high time we at least start this discussion. How should we go about promoting the new FFXIV and RPC? What methods are best in gaining as many new/old role-players back as we possibly can? And when should this extensive marketing be done? Timing is crucial. Too soon could end up driving newbies and oldies away again before taking in the full breadth of changes. Waiting too late, on the other hand, could minimize the positive impact we could make on the overall RP community. Mass emails via these forums are an obvious method to utilize. However, it would be nice if we could put together a simple, attractive, and coherent ânewsletterâ detailing the massive amount of change thatâs come and is still coming. Iâll also definitely reach out to the other fan sites (Zam, Gamer Escape, and Core) to help with our promotional efforts. How and when we want to go about this is still unknown though. Overall, itâs imperative that we come together with a solid attack plan in advance. FFXIVâs rebirth is a territory that few to no other MMOs have really ventured into. As weâre all well aware, the RP community as a whole has dwindled to quite a small size since launch. The opportunity for us to reach a new potential is there, we just have to approach it properly. So please donât hesitate to list ideas, concerns, and so on in this thread so we can prepare for the fast-approaching 2.0 (can you believe itâs now only about 6 months away?!). We need lots of ideas to make the most of this upcoming opportunity, no matter how small. Weâll need talented artists, crafty marketing strategies, a strong presence, and as much unity as possible. So letâs get this crucial discussion underway

Added the following two translated maps in case anyone hasn't seen them yet: http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/4860 ... 01820f.jpg http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/6809 ... ardffx.jpg /drool

Did not know about that bug. Was an easy fix and is taken care of now though ^^

The button works fine for me. It may have been because I was trying to fix a bug earlier this morning and had to reinstall the buttons menu. You may have clicked on it before I was finished or something. Check it again after a quick refresh and let me know if it's still doing it. Edit: Oh, I see what you mean...hang on >.> Edit2: Fixed ^^;

Update: --A new forum background scroll has replaced the old one. This new design not only gives a more elegant look but a significantly faster load time and less image stress. --A default avatar has been added for those without an uploaded avatar. This can be changed at any time via the user control panel. In the near future, a gallery of avatars may be added. The default avatar does not yet display in the memberlist and this will be looked into at a later time. It does, however, display on posts, your profile, and in the user control panel in the banner. --The navigation buttons have been removed and replaced with a more streamlined version. --Custom titles can now be given a color of your choice via the control panel >> profile section. More colors can/will easily be added in the future. Titles will also now display on the memberlist under the "rank" column. Selecting "none" will hide your title from the memberlist, though it will still display on posts and profiles. --Home page has been properly set up once again, eliminating the need for redirect pages. --The "Location" column in the memberlist has been removed. It can still be found in a user's profile page. --The website column in the memberlist has been made slimmer and will simply display an icon instead of a full link. Hovering over the icon will reveal the link. --Beige panels have been made lighter in order for text to better display. --Numerous background borders have changed in order to lessen image loading and be less distracting. --Numerous text colors have changed to be more pleasing to the eye. --Removing multi-colored links has been delayed. This javascript effect impacts ALL forum links, so removing it caused quite a mess in the different types of links and their respective hover effects. I'll look into this again at a later time. --Bulletin Board forum moved into News section. --Tonberry's Lantern forum moved into Resources section. --Town Square forum moved into General section. --A bug currently exists in the Classifieds section. Sidebar links are all in white instead of the default green. I've looked extensively into this already but haven't found the cause. Due to the fact that the section is never used anyway, I won't likely be in a hurry to fix this. --Identified a bug where a link to a deleted topic will lead you to an error message instead of the default forum message. More tweaks will continue over time. But I figured it was best to get something a bit more stable and presentable up right now ^^;

Update. I guess this is tomorrow (31st):

Not sure if anyone out there has ever played any of the EQ games (shame on you since they're likely the closest MMORPG out there to FFXI and FFXIV ). But as of today, the PS2 version of Everquest is finally being shut down after years of service. For me, EQOA was my first ever MMO. It was the first MMORPG made for the PS2 as well, I think even prior to FFXI. I'll personally miss it quite a bit. http://everquestonlineadventures.statio ... m?id=67961

Perfectly understandable. Leadership of anything is a thankless and extremely lonely burden. I completely understand what you mean by the deep desire for a "clean slate" and have been seeking such a thing myself for a year now. Sadly the burden of leadership catches up even to the most hardy of them all in some manner or another. When you feel like you're starting to alienate friends/comrades and make enemies because of your position, it can get quite frustrating and destroy your own morale. Thank you for stepping up to keep the shell running following OOC's dissolving though. I'm sure I speak for a number of people when I say it was very much appreciated. I'm sure the shell will continue to flourish in its next, and future, incarnations.

Any other interest at all? I really don't want to cancel this like the myriad of other unique events I've already had to ><. All that's needed would be 3 models (male or female) on each side. A couple backups would be nice too just in case one or more of the models can't make the scheduled date/time. Again, we can work out the IC details /after/ the fact. I just need OOC interest first. Depending on the team you choose, a number of IC workarounds could be made. Team Avalon would likely put up a lot of pressure/guilt and/or offer a ton of gil to work as the one-time model. Team Margarah could do the same, along with potential blackmail/coercion tactics since Nina and Kalara are total...well, you know .

Okay, a few things. I'm recoding the template/theme files completely from the ground up. Reason? Too messy due to the insane amount of alterations made. As such, too many file leftovers from the old theme are still floating out there that are a cause for concern. Fortunately, this redo won't be too labor intensive (it's already 50% done after about 3 hours of work) due to me knowing exactly what's needed/not needed as well as using a pre-made template already validated by phpbb. The site will also not have to be down nearly as long this time since I'm simply installing the new template and then clicking a few buttons to enable it when done. Here's the new proposed design (with tweaks still being made--most of the sidebar is also still missing): [spoil][/spoil] As you can see, the background scroll has changed. It's MUCH snappier and faster with loading since it's (perhaps surprisingly) much less memory intensive. It's also (hopefully) more pleasing to the eye. The buttons at the top of the site have also been removed and replaced with a more streamlined navigation menu. This will also reduce loading stress and be less distracting to the eye. It also enables more room (and a submenu feature) for adding more links if we ever want to. Two things I need feedback on (along with whatever other feedback may be out there): 1. Look closely at the difference between the Links sidebar (and/or the Information Center section at the bottom) and the forum section lists. You'll notice the forum list has the green surrounding the entire thing. The sidebar/Info Center only has it at the top. I'm only going with one, so which is preferred? It's purely cosmetic and has no bearing on loading or anything of the sort. 2. Does a different color other than green seem more suitable to you? I've prepared a red version to compare, though I can pretty quickly put together other colors as well if that's preferred as long as we can settle on one quickly. [spoil][/spoil] If I do not receive any feedback, I'm simply going to go with whatever I like best and ignore complaining that comes after the fact. So speak now or forever hold your peace. Note that other changes will be made within the forums (such as to the borders around posts) to accompany the new template. All present features (gallery, classifieds, etc) will remain largely in tact.

Okay, it's been a few days now so let me go over a few things now that people are getting better adjusted to the design... Banner: I'm 95% satisfied with this setup (alternating pic on the left, logo in middle, user panel on right) and it won't be changing in the future. The only changes to be made include a default avatar put in for those who don't have one in order to make the user panel look less bland for them. The green color MAY change as well. Look further below for further details. Rainbow text: Will be removed entirely once I find a decent hover color for links. Overall background: This is the one with the ruins/sylph/paladin. This is pretty well set in stone now and aside from minor tweaks, it won't be changed too much in the future. Scroll background: I've further optimized this by shaving off about 50kb memory from the scroll images. It hasn't seemed to help much in the loading department though sadly. We can either keep this particular scroll background and just make further ninja edits to it or change it to a different parchment type entirely. I actually originally considered using the parchment used on the Avalon forums for the scroll background. It's elegant and snappy/speedy. However, I just didn't want it to seem like I was copying anything (though I'd only be copying myself ). Changing to this type of parchment would cause the top forum buttons to not really match too well though. Beige colors for boxes: This beige color is probably here to stay, aside from -possibly- changing the shade slightly. Mossy green: The original purpose of the mossy green was to make it seem like moss was growing off from the ruins in the background onto the parchment in various places. I'm unsure if this intended effect was noticed or not or if it's even liked. I'd like more feedback on this. The green could be changed to red or blue instead (red being the likely best choice color-wise), though it may still be not as good. I'd like more feedback on this. Of course, this would also mean that the green link text would have to change as well. Post borders: The Lodestone-like borders that surround numerous boxes (such as this one that you're reading right now) can be replaced with the universal mossy green (or whatever color is decided on) seen in the forum section list, etc if desired. I'd also like more feedback on this. This would further decrease the number of images needed to load. I should note that all of these changes, if desired, wouldn't come for another month or two. I'm a bit exhausted and need a break from site design right now. And I also have no desire to keep changing things over and over again. So whatever is decided upon will pretty much be final for the next couple years.

I guess I can chime in, though I don't have too much more to add that hasn't been said already. The biggest concern for me, from the outside looking in, is indeed the application process. It just seems like potential members get 'grilled' before entering. Having led numerous RP groups in the past and being a simple member of just as many, I still find this somewhat...agitating. Don't get me wrong. Interviews, IC and OOC alike, are fairly natural for inducting a new member into a role-play group. But this particular process, which seems partially borrowed from old AETHER, is a bit intimidating. Even more so because the questions are done in a public atmosphere which can actually embarrass the individual being interviewed depending on the nature of the questions. I'm the type of person who likes to follow all the RP shells on a semi-regular basis just to see who's doing what and how they're doing it. So I've seen a fair number of applicants in EW get asked in depth questions that even I wouldn't have been able to answer (and I consider myself a hardcore RPer). There are a lot of pieces of a character's history that may not be fully worked out yet and getting asked to give details on such a piece may cause the individual to rush into making a hasty decision just to satisfy the interview question. My other issue, which simply boils down to personal preference, is the militaristic nature of the shell. To me, it seems more limiting than other linkshells when it comes to individual storylines and events. Though events seem to be quite frequent within EW, they also all seem quite similar to one another. I could be wrong of course and the events could be wildly different and offer a variety of different things to do. But from the outside, they all look about the same to me. This is the primary reason I haven't yet attempted to attend a single EW public event, though that's probably an unfair reason. I personally have not heard anything about the ERP issue and likely wouldn't put much stock in it if I did hear it about this particular shell. I can see a huge focus on romance though through the journals, but that's not really a turnoff or anything. Romance is a natural part of character development after all. The "elitist" comment, I do however hear quite often. To an extent, I can see why as well. EW is probably one of the top 2/3 shells that grounds itself so heavily in the lore and /appears/ to leave little wiggle room any other way. I will say that it's been difficult for me to find a means to approach Everwatch through any IC capacity. As a heavy Rper, I'm always looking for ways to get some RP in with other heavy RPers. But it just feels too difficult for some reason that I can't really explain. I've found it much easier to approach other mercenary type shells like Nebulous and Shimmersong with events and interactive RP. Maybe it's just a fear of having my RP judged or something. I'm not really sure. Following Stormguard's disbanding, I had actually considered applying to EW. For the above reasons, I chose not to though. It's largely a preference thing though, and the shell seems to be doing just fine regardless of what other people think of it. So long as people are enjoying themselves, that's really all that matters.