K'dath

I was mostly asking to see what kind of responses I'd get. For the time being I'm re-leveling another Arcanist before I'm locked into the 'one character per server' limit. (I'm not gonna pay $2 for 7 more slots. I'm not going to use them I only want one character!) The thing is, even though X'chail's already pushing past 30 I don't know if that's a really difficult milestone. I had an alt on Gilgamesh I play very rarely and he's past 20 in both his main class and two of his professions. I'd say I've spent about a third as much time on him. The problem for me is having to slog through the story quests again. I'm not looking forward to it, since I find the story tedious, haha.

You ever have those moments of clarity where, way too late, you realize there's something you just hate about your character? It's your own damn fault and you know it, but now that one little detail is gnawing at you hatefully. Like their real life counter parts, you realize far too late that tattoo looks stupid. And now you're gonna be wearing it for the rest of the game... I was up in the air about just rerolling when I realized that my hair color looked much less flattering in game than it did in the character creator. I was only about level 12 when I noticed this and just kinda shrugged it off. Besides, I would get a free appearance reset after a month, I could eat the tacky way-too-silver look for a while before changing it to a bit more organic looking shade. So I kept playing, attacking content ravenously to make the sprint to end game, because gods be damned, it looked like fun! I was already level 28 and comfortably entrenched in the community when it dawned on me for the first time that 'x' is pronounced 'she'... not 'zee'. I don't know why I thought that. It's my own damn fault for not double checking, but suddenly I was much less pleased with my name. But it's okay, I'll get to redo all of that in another week, I'll just- Oh... there's no name changes in FF14... well then. I guess I'll tough it out. It's just a name. Gods know I didn't pick my blood elf priest's name with the long haul in mind, but I've grown rather fond of it over the years despite its objective awfulness. Pushing 34 and no where near the end of the story mode I had a sudden revelation of how I'd like to just throw the whole thing out and start over. Ball it up, throw it in the garbage, and crank out a pretty new streamlined version. You know, like an Apple product. I'd only recently been more frequent on the RP scene, and my yanking and re-tooling the character shouldn't change anything related to anyone else's story or RP. So here's my question to you: When do you just cut your losses and start over?

I like you already. Sure you don't want to come hang out on Balmung and weave dreadfully psychologically damaging horror stories with us? We can sip brandy and watch The Dream Quest for Unknown Kadath while drawing horrible monsters!

Elitism and tolerance in excess are no different than any other extremes. You can have too much of both. Too much elitism isn't just bad, it's awful. It is an absolute cancer on an otherwise civil community. It drives people away from open communication and collaboration in what is essentially a collaborative communication game. When you create tiers no one wins because are dividing your community for a transient sense of superiority. It's cutting off your nose to spite all those filthy nose-having casuals. That being said, hug boxes are also terrible places. Telling everyone they can do as they wish and that no one is ever wrong undermines progression. If you don't have proper reason to do better, then why bother? If you don't have structure then there's no sense of direction. Everything becomes stagnant and trite. Some are so adamant about everyone being mired in this 'equality' to the point of being openly hostile to anyone who tries to improve because it's 'elitist'. Too tolerant is just 'elitism' for the lower end of the spectrum. It's people who are not good, with no desire to get better, and are snap to condemn anyone 'above' them as an enemy of free expression. It's the exact same sense of entitlement that everyone should play by these standards. There's nothing wrong with having standards. Everyone's will differ, some will be higher than others, but there's nothing wrong with wanting your partner to adhere to them. The issue here is how you handle it. Curing elitism is simple. Denying someone your presence because they are an unwashed mook, unworthy of your skills? Not the right way to go about it. Instead, facilitate open communication. Collaborate with your partner and help them to achieve that standard. If you've got an open mind and some willingness to instruct it's a rewarding process where everyone's enjoyment can be vastly improved upon. Curing entitlement can be difficult. Using 'I don't HAVE to do it your way' is a lazy, uninspired battle cry. No, of course you don't have to do it my way. You don't have to do anything and I can't make you. And I never would attempt to make you play the game any other way than how you want to. But this sort of out-right refusal to listen to well intentioned advice is just as bad as being too good to give advice. I will never turn away someone because they are not 'good enough'. That doesn't help me or them. But I will say "Can I make an observation? You're using an exceeding amount of exposition in your posts and it makes them difficult to reply to, since my character can't observe your inner monologue. I can make some suggestions if you're having a hard time." Talking it out can fix everything, given a bit of time and understanding. Ultimately RP is a collaborative communication game. And games are fun. You should be having fun and not telling other people how to have fun. Helping other people to have fun is admirable, but you need to make sure you're approaching it the right way. You can't impose your fun on others, no matter where you stand.

Uhg, and I was enjoying drinking with me LS mates and gossiping about cat boys in thongs... This is why I stopped drinking and playing MMOs...

ICly my characters rarely swear. I guess because a lot of the environments I find myself playing in don't really call for it so much. In fact... most of them hardly talk at all... My blood elf warlock had a back story and a half. He was rough, weathered, old. He was quiet, made very few facial expressions. There was a scene where he leeeeeeans over the table and with an uncharacteristic undertone of violence whispers "I want you to fucking kill him." And it just made the whole thing a lot more powerful I think. I sound dopey, patting myself on the back like that. It's one of those story lines I, and the people who participated in it, look back and think 'that moment is the moment that defined this.' The fact that he rarely talked, and never swore, meant shit had officially gotten real. Compared to say... my priest, who was... well... priesty. Very extroverted, helpful, kind, sincere. His life's work was helping people. Even in the darkest parts of his characterization, there was just never a time where any curse really felt organic coming from him. Any attempt to include it sound forced. It just wasn't in the character's vocabulary. X'chail's kinda off on his own world though. He doesn't swear, but it's more of 'he doesn't know how' than any moral or characteristic flaw. He'd be the sort to eaves drop on some colorful conversation, then try to work it into a completely random scenario, pronounce it wrong, and have no idea why everyone was shocked or offended. Still, imagining hard swears coming from him is difficult. He'll probably never really graduate past 'flaming knicker weasels' or the like.

I was taught that a lot as a child, that swear words were for people not smart enough to articulate distress in a more civil way. I do find that when I'm in the company of close friends, and I swear more, the range of words I use narrows considerably. A lovely: "My, see that strapping lad over there? Quite the dapper looking gent if I do say so myself. I wouldn't mind inquiring about his dating parameters and perhaps getting a spot of tea if he's available." ...tends to turn into: /point "I'd fuck that." It gets the point across, but it just lacks a certain... elegance that I expect from myself. But that's purely for myself. I'd never look down my nose at someone else over such a trifle. As a whole though, I'm inclined to agree. Besides, sometimes the only way to describe something you're witnessing is 'fucked up'.

I believe that's the infamously quoted definition of insanity. Doing something over and over doesn't automatically make you better at something. Doing something, realizing what is not working, and changing it to get a different result is how you get better. Everyone should always strive to be better, and everyone can always be better, it's true. No one is on the top because there's no ceiling with art. It's not a mountain with a summit that we race to plant our flag in. It's more like a wall stretching up to the heavens. Over time many have scaled the wall, and they've left footholds behind for others just beginning their journey to hoist themselves up on. And the people familiar with these holds tell tales about them to the up an comers. They point to the signs to lessen the burdens of their next journey, so that they may climb even higher. There's not a 'right' way with art, because it is subjective. But there is a way it has been done before. It's a path that is worn and marked and others may find their way more easily upon it. It is simpler to follow a trail than blaze one. And it's certainly simpler to blaze a trail when you are at the very least armed with the knowledge of former pathfinders. Being resentful of experience just leads to perpetuating a culture of willful ignorance where no one gets any better because 'I am doing it my way and you can't tell me different'. Instead of everyone improving, it just lowers the bar to accommodate the unwilling. At that point we're sitting at the bottom of the metaphorical rock wall rolling around in our own excrement.

That assessment made me think of this. In a good way, I assure you. Made me giggle. There's a big difference between showing thoughts, telling thoughts, and gratuitously needless exposition. While it's better to show through your words what is going on, stating something plainly is not in and of itself wrong. Uh, examples! (quick and dirty ones) "His expression changes as the implications on her words dawn on him. His ears roll back and he looks down, avoiding eye contact." In this example the characters thoughts aren't explicitly stated and it's based on the reader to infer based only on observable reactions. You'd probably add a little more detail to make sure you get the right meaning across, but it should make sense in context without having to go into that pseudo-mind reader place. "Her account of the situation had put him on edge. He looked nervous and haunted." In this situation you're explicitly stating what emotion you're projecting. This is relying on the reader to put together the actions and expressions themselves based on what they associate with those things. You're not giving as detailed an account, and little nuances of behavior get lost in translation, but it's a 'quick and dirty' way of making a point. It's not unacceptable by any means, you're still making statements about observations. "He feels scared and alone when he thinks about going back to that place." This is where it stays into the 'exposition' territory. Thoughts and feelings are not observable traits, unless you are a mind reader. Exposition is not in and of itself a bad their either, because it serves to give context to you, the reader, even in your character does not benefit from it. But exposition is like an expensive spice, you use a little bit of it for flavoring. It can be used to impart a certain tone on your writing. Putting the three examples above you get an over all coherent feel for what is going on in this situation and the character's feelings come through without wasting a lot of effort on needlessly fluffy prose. What is not a decent use of exposition would be... "He didn't know what to do in that situation. Memories of the terrible things he saw came flowing back unbidden. Images of crimes unspeakable, deeds unfathomable to the waking eyes of innocent mortal minds. He wanted to scream, or to cry, but his body was frozen. All he could do was let himself become a useless, nervous wreck." That right there? That's a shitty post. Don't do that. Snark aside, that is a terrible use of exposition in an interactive story telling medium. Because what you are doing is bogging me down with a lot of things I can't observe or react to. In all of that block of text I don't actually know what his reaction is. I, the reader, know that he's wrestling with some serious PTSD, but that's not something I, the character, know. I just see a guy, standing there, maybe looking a little uncomfortable. I don't know, because you didn't show me anything. Again, there's are just sort of quickly thrown together examples used to illustrate a point. It's just not good writing to sit there telling someone a bunch of things they can't react to. It doesn't matter if your English isn't good, or if you don't have a large vocabulary. The thing you need to ask yourself before posting is What information am I trying to communicate and Can I see them doing this. It doesn't matter if the observation is blatant (telling) or intuitive (showing) it only matters that it's something that CAN be seen and CAN be reacted to. And that's my crash course on exposition and why it's a terrible thing. Blah blah disclaimer blah opinions blah blah subjective blah blah grain of salt yadda yadda

I completely agree! But at the same time, we need to remember that not everyone is a good writer, and that ignoring/belittling them will not help them improve. I agree on that point too! Which was what I was trying to say a little further down. I'm a big advocate of helping people to improve. However, you only get chewed out for attempting to be helpful so many times before you elect to stop approaching people about how they can improve and instead wait for them to ask. People take it as an insult, like they're not 'good enough' if you attempt to share your observations with them. I don't insult people under any circumstance. There's just, frankly, no excuse to be rude to someone ever. Even with the mini-rant above about metagaming, I meant it to convey my pet peeve with a tone of jest... which knowing me did not come across at all and rather seems like elitist snobbery.

As said above, show, don't tell. That's not just good RP, it's good writing. If you tell me something is the way it is, I'll just have to take your word for it, and it comes off as you being an undependable narrator. If you show me, however, I'm more inclined to believe what you're telling me. There's substance to back up the claim. The more tangible you make what you're trying to describe the more I'll buy into it as a reader. And that doesn't entail just over-fluffing the point you're trying to get across with a lot of purple prose. Good writing is striking that balance, communicating the exact amount of information for your reader to not just know but believe what you are saying. That being said, I'd bet money that most RPers are not some form of trained/published authors, so holding them to that level of quality seems like some lofty expectations. Maybe calmly, politely, articulate this finer point of the craft to them if they take offense to you 'ignoring' them? Also, on the subject of metagamers... Where's my table flipping emoticon? Because there's a point of contention where I'll just up and walk away mid-post. There's just no excuse for that nonsense. It is bad and you should feel bad.

I have to agree on the front of 'a grand jumblemesh of everything i like in a MMO'. To me it feels essentially identical to Guild Wars 2, but with the structure it was sorely in need of. The freeform, do whatever you feel like aspect was appealing, but it was easy to completely lose sense of direction. And with no formal job classifications and next to know reason to actually party up with people, group activities felt completely pointless... to me at any rate. My experience with FF14 thusfar is that it won't punish you for not strictly adhering to the plot laid out before you, a la WoW, but there are things you have to do and there are things your class is good at. And when you get to the latter game stuff you need to have a sense of what those things are and a few good friends to boot or you're not going to get anywhere. As far as Linkshells and Free Companies, it is as you described. Linkshells are custom chat channels anyone can make and you can invite your friends/guild mates/RP partners to without being a part of a formal guild. Free Companies have their own chat channel similar to WoW's /g chat and level like WoW guilds. Companies can activate certain perks like exp boosts and have a communal bank. Other than that, there's no big difference. I'd personally recommend going with a progression based Company, if you want to do progression that is, and going for RP linkshells. They're mostly quiet unless someone needs something content related and will give you that little buff. It also means you have all your LS space for joining various different RP link shells that might be restricted to smaller groups or themes. But that's just personal input.

Well, I always have to be sure. I have this terrible habit of coming across as combative. If I had a gil for every time I was told to 'stop arguing' when I wasn't even aware what I'd said could have been taken for argumentative, I would be able to buy myself a lot of Hard Mode Primal carries :lol: As for 'Teen' rating, it means anyone 13+ in theory, but more like anyone 9+ in execution. Without trying to make a sweeping generalization of an entire country of peoples, Americans just don't care about what is 'age appropriate' content for their kids. Unless it involves breasts.

I completely agree with you. I hope my tone before had didn't present itself as argumentative, I was just trying to offer up my assumptions as to the 'why' factor. I do think it's silly for people to get their knickers in a twist over things that are a part of the theme of the game. It's almost akin to being offended that people with swords kill monsters. But all in all swearing, unlike killing things, isn't an integral part of enjoyment of the game, and so someone is going to complain about it. As far as ratings go and comparing it to WoW however... ...they're approximately the same page. (as far as Americans are concerned)

It's just not to some people's taste. They have no control over quest text or even cut scene dialogue. They also don't have to read or listen to it if it offends them. But in a conversation with another person they're able to interject their opinions and request the other person exert some control over their behavior. I, personally, try not to use obscene language just because I think it is a habit that begets laziness. That's in general conversational situations though and am not above saying some truly grotesque things in good company... Though the other day in one of my linkshells, someone got highly offended I used the term 'fabulous' to describe one of the rather feminine NPCs. I was a little disheartened they took so much offense to what was suppose to be a jest in good fun.

You probably recall my opinion on the voice acting, but I did find it a little presumptuous to tell people the first thing they should do was change it to Japanese. Though I actually didn't know how to do it in game, and the option is well hidden, so there is a tip hidden in there. I changed it to German for the sake of leveling an alt, since I understand it and am dreading watching some of the unskippable cutscenes again. The rest I'd found out on my own by virtue of flailing around slapping my keyboard randomly.

It's people paying people to play the game they pay for to play for them. The logic of it is baffling, isn't it?

They get bragging rights "Look at me I finished titan on Hardmode!" They get the better quality gear They get through it without having to study the fight, know, or actually do anything because the other players are good/over geared enough that they make up for the 'missing' person In one light, It's for people who don't actually want to play the game, which is mind boggling. In the other, it's for people who are screwed by the 'only accepting people with experience/X level gear' requirements of everyone else.

I actually did see someone earlier selling HM Titan runs for 200kg. I just blocked them like it was gil seller spam. Ain't nobody got time for that. Selling carries itself isn't abnormal behavior though. Really, many major raiding guilds do it on some level. Exchanging goods for services rendered is a completely legitimate method of acquiring wealth. The amount changing hands here though is excessive and mingles with the realm of RMT. Even if it's not harassment it IS disrupting the economy. And you can bet that'll get them shut down, probably even sooner.

Haha, I've been contained in one such town for the whole of my existence and then moved to a big city, though only briefly it was... an experience. So I can relate to that. Well, relate in reverse... And I sort of moved into a ghetto... Bringing that back to your small midwestern town makes life very difficult. Upbringing is probably the most important factor when it comes to interpersonal relationships though, not just location. A nice family in a bad town can still raise nice, normal kids. Or vice versa. I grew up in the age of teaching your kids to run screaming away from strangers, and in a home of 'Children should be seen and not heard'. I am the kind of person who keeps to my own devices and won't initiate contact with others unless it's something important pertaining to them. However, I'm very receptive to others and am all too happy to drop whatever I am doing for the convenience of someone else. All in all it goes back to programming. Some people are just the way they are. You don't know why and you can't presume to know why because you are not them. So saying a behavior is unrealistic is like saying having a mental disorder is unrealistic. I also realize in retrospect I made being friendly sound like it was a character flaw. I absolutely didn't mean to imply that and I apologize, my wording in that former post was awful.

With end-game raiding you're not going to be told how to spend your free time... You'll be told when to show up, how long to be there, what class/job you better be, what gear you should be wearing, how your attribute points should be spread, what materia you should have, what really expensive items you need to get for yourself because the guild can't afford to foot the cost of your potions, and then MAYBE they'll have an open spot for you. I did this nonsense for 6 years. As a healer.

Tidus has good points, even a few great ones... and he also has some that are so earth-shatteringly horrible they make me cry tears of blood, a la Anima. Vaan I don't even want to talk about. I completely agree though. Final Fantasy has only had one main character for a while now, with a growing collection of wigs and outfits compromised solely of zippers. I loved Basch and I thought he was a strong, well designed character who didn't get his dues. Him being sidelined by that little... abomination, was really a deal breaker for me with the game. I never did ACTUALLY finish it... especially once I realized I did not actually have to participate in combat and could go make a sandwich while the game played itself. I think Square has come to rely a lot on Nomura, since his characters are always the most popular ones. But then, you know, he also has ideas like this. Far be it for someone like me to tell them how to run their company but... you know... I probably wouldn't leave someone in charge of a project if it was taking them eight years to finish it.

As far as I can ascertain, a lot of people are on around 3am. Maybe we should make a shell just for people up at unorthodox hours?

This is 110% true on the Japanese cast. And out of curiosity I gave them a listen. Kan-E-Senna is great. Her lack of inflection feels organic, her voice is very smooth and flows elegantly. It's the serene, calm I expect of someone who professes to be one with nature. Comparing to the English one made it seem all the worse, because she just sounds robotic. I suppose that's kind of ironic, in a way. I'd disagree that Square doesn't care about localization though. Even though I'm quick to point out the laughably horribly moments in FFX and XII, the English voice crews were excellent. One could even argue that Balthier was Gideon Emery's break out role. And with people like John DiMaggio on the payroll for former games, you can't tell me they don't have their numbers lying around somewhere.

. . . /throws entire computer desk out the window