Eva

I agree with this 110% but probably not in the way that you would like. I think a lot of these issues could be side-stepped if the RPC simply rebranded itself "Balmung RPC" and let those who were so adamant in setting up RP on other servers sort out the specifics of that for themselves. The original stated purpose of the RPC as I recall was to help unify RPers on one server. I firmly believe that policy should continue to be adhered to, but that's just one RPer's opinion who is tired of all of this [what feels to me to be senseless] bickering. The way I see it, if you are not working towards the RPC's initial goals of unifying RPers in one place, you're working against it. Maybe that makes me look uncompromising or unyielding, but if you so adamantly don't want to RP with me and others on Balmung anyway, why should I care what you think of me? This is how I feel.

I kind of get where you are coming from Moonfire. The jump from GemStone (MUD geared towards RP) to Final Fantasy XI MMO was a little jarring for me. Limitations in character appearances were awkward. Factoring out some of the less aesthetically pleasing options, it was commonplace to run across your "twin" - or often many of them. I'm glad in XIV that characters look so much more unique and are represented as such. But then there are other things you've mentioned. The day-night cycle and weather and how the passage of time should be handled. Having to "look the other way" with regard to mechanics like this can be frustrating, though it does seem necessary, to some degree. And then RPing the story makes it out like you are "The One Hero", so this sort of needs to be avoided. And you're entirely right - in the end there are a number of sacrifices that need to be made in order for you as an RPer to have a character that fits within an environment that is conducive to RP. And then there are mechanics. If you are a lancer, you gain abilities from some of the other jobs that help you as a lancer. And to some degree this makes sense. Having a knowledge of swordplay might help one think about where to direct his or her lance when going up against a swordsman, for example. And certain techniques may legitimately be cross-class. But when I think of it more from a RP perspective - it makes more sense to me that someone specializing in exclusively polearm training would be a much better lancer than someone who cross-trains in several weapons. Game mechanics dictate otherwise. The same can be said for crafting. So I appreciate where you're coming from, and it is extremely frustrating sometimes to have to make concessions like this and avoid certain elements of the game. But I've learned over the years to kind of offset this by examining the quality and variety of other RPers. People also willing to make these sorts of small sacrifices to fit more naturally into a world that perhaps isn't designed specifically for our style of play. In the end, I think the benefits far outweigh these costs, but that's also only my own opinion. I feel I've seen this community at its best, and I've been proud to be a part of it. It's not a perfect puzzle, where our characters are perfectly rounded puzzle pieces that fit neatly together - it's more of a collage with characters often being a bit rough around the edges, and often not fitting together ideally. But the bigger picture is still the same - if that makes any sense. If you do ultimately decide to go, I will be sorry for the missed chances for interaction and RP. And I'm sure many others here feel similarly. But it is your choice, and if the game is not going to be enjoyable and entertaining to you, than no amount of nay-saying will change your mind, and I hope that you do find something that brings you joy and fulfillment instead.

Good post Nel. I remember sometime a couple years after FFXI launched I withdrew from the larger gaming community forum sites because somewhere along the lines snide sarcasm became trendy and putting other people down became a norm. I sort of decided at that point that such behavior was detrimental to my enjoyment of the game and I would only go back once in awhile to read/lurk if there was something relevant to my interests - but never to post. Those who know me know that I am a pretty big fan of Jeopardy. Alex Trebek, a survivor of two heart attacks, was recently on an episode of The Talk and was speaking a bit about life in general after the passing of James Gandolfini and had a few really simple, but really profound words to say. I think it's highly appropriate to share, what with some possible underlying bitterness over things as menial as RP server selection, the changing of appearance or race in a game, and the various other polarizing arguments here that would appear to have spurned bitterness for whatever reason. Even more recently I've heard some pretty awful things said for reasons I simply cannot comprehend, but some may notice I haven't been posting here quite as often. Alex's words - and I cannot agree with them more - are as follows: "It's just as easy to be nice as it is to be nasty, and the rewards are far greater."

I was highly interested in Loc Talon's group - The Midnight Covenant - back in 1.0. I will be again, I think. Back then it was geared as a sort of "duskwight-only" group, but I don't know if that's still the aim. Regardless, I'll be keeping an ear to the ground one way or the other!

Also 33 here. Good to see some folks around in this age bracket!! I don't have any formal writing training but I like to think I'm still all right at it. I've pondered writing/publishing but it sometimes seems a bit daunting and tough to break into professionally. I think I enjoy it more as a hobby anyway.

Here we have Edgy - whom I got 7 years ago when I was living in Oklahoma. He has a pretty easy life of sleeping about 21 hours a day and pretending that he hates the new puppy when it's pretty obvious that he likes her. I thought this picture was fun because he's chosen to seat himself on the lower part of the sofa, even after his mommy bought him a nice cat bed up there by the window. Also lazer eyez!

There must be a cutoff somewhere before that point then. It does seem tied to the story.

I believe that both jobs will be tied to the Arcanist level and vice versa. You can increase all three by exping on any one of the three - if that makes more sense. But this is the first time we've had a class branch into multiple jobs, so they may do something different. It remains to be seen. Also generally speaking, I believe S-E wants it such that jobs are made to be more specific and tailored to party play while classes are more versatile and cater more to solo play. For example, as a dragoon you may not have access to some of the other class abilities for regenerating your HP for example, however you gain specific job abilities geared towards enhancing the amount of damage you can do.

Good info! I have heard (though cannot confirm) that the cutscene is specific to having completed all of the storyline up to (and probably including) the "Living on a Prayer" quest in 1.0. This seems to mesh up with what I've heard from other folks who have or have not done that. I like that the mark itself is subtle but being a long-haired character would have preferred a different location or a few different options, but regardless it is a neat little thing and has a lot of potentially interesting uses within RP (e.g. - "The prisoner is probably one of the hollow ones, check her for the mark!") This is also what I mean by it being concealed by the long hair, if anyone is interested to see - you can only make out a little of the bottom of the mark:

Welcome!! All that stuff comes with time. Please make yourself at home, feel free to read some of the guides about RP, the lore, the wiki, and all the other good stuff we have to offer here, and if you have any questions or need any help, everyone is usually very eager to lend a hand (as I'm sure you've already seen!) Also there is a sticky thread at the top of the Welcome Desk forums about mentoring if you want to pair up with a more veteran RPer. If that's something you would be interested in definitely check it out!!

Kass and her daughter are so lovely! I love their facial expressions here! :surprise:

Well it's a good thing I'm not a Linkshell Leader participating in open talks, eh Aysun? And apparently to some people yes, this is an issue. That is why the topic was brought up and that's why it is being dealt with. While perhaps not a linkshell leader, you do apparently own all of the decision-making for the Wiki, you are the administrator of the large Skype channel that most RPers are directed to, and you seem to have taken on ownership of a voice chat as well. So it may be that you don't lead a linkshell community, but you are a very important and influential figure in this community and Aysun made an interesting point in spotlighting something where you'd redacted something you'd once said. I imagine you had good reasons for doing that, and I don't think anybody really leapt down your throat about that back then. Now it's already been advocated that future LS meetings be unedited and most everyone is in agreement about this. Or perhaps we'll open the thing up to everyone. At this point the whole thing is starting to feel bureaucratic and burdensome, and my understanding is that we're all here to have fun. This... is not. Is there actually anything more here that needs to be discussed or can this please, please be put to rest?

I see what you mean Curtis & Armi. Kylin explained this to me back when I was trying to set up the RP Handbook which was also crazy long. Sometimes really lengthy posts seem to truncate after a certain point - so it made more sense to make that over two or three posts. I imagine the same thing has happened here, and he will probably post the rest of the log when he gets back online. I don't think he realized the truncation happened, nor was this left out intentionally.

Everyone is kind of repeating the same thing and agreeing here. So I think it makes sense for all future LS meetings to be held in a glass house. I know I may have edited one or two lines of text from the last meeting, but if we're going for full transparency going forward I will make it a point not to do this in the future. I think most (if not all) of the other leaders can agree upon this. It feels like we're all just spinning our wheels here at this point. :dazed:

I'm thankful for the RPC because it's brought me to a lot of wonderful RPers; enabled me to be a part of several amazing communities (and one really big community). I'm kind of persnickety about things and I've been here since early in 2010. I wouldn't stick around if there weren't good people here doing good things. :love::love::love: RPC :love::love::love: And super special thanks to Kylin for all that he does for us, and all he puts up with. And thank you also to the moderators!!

I agree with you Curtis. I admit I've felt a bit more hostility here lately as well, and I can understand why some groups have, in the past, withdrawn from the RPC more than others. I think this is unfortunate and I do think we should be acting more in the spirit of cooperation and collaboration rather than competing with one another. This particular issue doesn't directly impact our group since recruitment is temporarily closed within Crystalline for in-character reasons anyway (not because we're not looking forward to RPing with new folks - we really are!). So I suppose maybe I'm a good neutral voice? I don't think there's any harm in the bumping of certain linkshell threads for the purpose of asking questions and such. I'll confess I had been under the assumption at first that it was designed to operate the same way that it was in the previous RPC where bumps were only intended for LS news update, so I was surprised at first. But as long as the material is relevent and appropriate to open discussion in public, I don't see any harm in this. Just as a point of clarification, the previous iteration of the RPC did have a separate 'pub' forum for discussing particular aspects of a LS, or providing a separate forum for Q&A. This was removed for the sake of cleaning up the forums, and this seems like a good alternative, as long as things aren't really being bumped senselessly - but even what is 'senseless' is going to be a polarizing matter that would likely stir up some folks. As long as Inactive or Disbanded groups are removed promptly to help avoid confusion, I don't think it matters greatly what order the threads appear in.

Edited previous post to amend a point about utilizing PM's. Additionally, perhaps this is something that can be agreed upon by the leaders and others at the start of the next meeting? I have no qualms about leaving my own lines of chat intact going forward if nobody else does.

Since you seem to have your own log that differs from what was posted, why don't you share with us exactly what it is that's bothering you so much? Every representative in those meetings has been fair and mature and I'm sure if you need some clarification he or she would be glad to provide an explanation as to why a particular line of chat was redacted. EDIT TO APPEND: If whatever was said really is of an inflammatory nature and you don't want to create any additional drama, perhaps sending a PM to whichever leader/rep said it may also be warranted.

Did this awhile back with some other folks from Crystalline. Here's chibi Eva~ (complete with signature tea beverage!) Her Father:

I was just thinking this was kind of how it was done before. If the sequence of the posts is a concern, is there a way for them to be posted in random order for that forum rather than by the date of the last post on it? I know with PHP this is not too difficult to accomplish in the code, but I'm not sure if it's been done before. For that particular forum it would make a lot of sense. "Here are your RP communities, in no particular order..." :thumbsup:

Wow!! You've been playing vidja games almost as long as I have!! :angel: Great intro though! Any thought given yet to what kind of character you're interested in playing? Race? Job? Personality? Preference in dessert dishes? Looking forward to reading more! :thumbsup:

Time-skipped. Trying to even fathom how much Eva would have changed over five years naturally was way, way too daunting a challenge for me. Really looking forward to the struggle and trying to scrape things back together after the 5 year nap. :angel:

Well, this sort of OOC or 'meta-' stereotype is not something you'll see from me or my characters. If there was any reason to be disdainful of lalafell it would stem from something in-character. And I agree that it does happen and is perpetuated by any number of folks who play the race (and not just RPers) and those that tease them for it. After seeing those two in Amajina and Sons taking care of business... well... yeah... *slouches back down in her seat and sips her wine not wanting to draw any unnecessary brutish lalafell ire* But you are right. I don't think I've seen any NPC's really regard lalafell as being weak or inferior in any way - the way some PC's do. I honestly had never even really noticed this or thought about it before seeing you mention it. I think there's some that have referred to them as being short, maybe. But that's like calling a roegadyn big. Duh.

Wowowow!!! This is a wonderful picture of Aysun!!! :love:

I think most of the races can be mocked in-character to some degree or another, and we've seen that certain types of racism do exist in Eorzea. The one I most commonly hear spoken about is the Wildwood elezen at the archer's guild in Gridania badmouthing miqo'te archers. But it's not like I've never heard the dhalmel-neck remarks. Thankfully it's not as awful as it was in XI - plus I don't think we have dhalmels that I've seen anyway, but I may be wrong on this. There have been RPers who've exhibited a prejudice against some other race for whatever reason. And I think this is fine so long as both side realize that it's just a character thing and not really any sort of animosity (you would think this wouldn't need to be mentioned for most folks, but sometimes it doesn't hurt to add that little OOC /tell just to be on the safe side). I think lalafells are awesome though, and wish there were more of them that I interacted with on a regular basis! Also I wanna go watch the Kill Bill movies again now... :blush: