Eva

I regret I will not be able to attend as we'll be out of town for the weekend, but I hope that everyone has a wonderful time and that more of these kinds of posts spring up. :approve:

I was reluctant to chime in again so soon, but having read over many of the responses of this thread, there's one point which keeps resonating true. We all have different preferences, different styles, and different things that we hope to get out of our various RP experiences. I think we can also safely say that there is way more than just one spectrum on which we can kind of measure where we fall within the greater community. IC vs. OOC So far this has been used as a kind of baseline metric by the RPC to slap a label on linkshells with regards to whether they are casual, moderate, or heavy. Each RPer may have preferences with regard to this. Myself, I could do without OOC in most instances, but I have friends who feel they need some, or that a given linkshell is too quiet when things aren't happen and it's preferable to have some OOC dialogue than "dead air." This view is going to vary from one RPer to the next. Adherance to Lore This also seems to be a point of differing opinions. From what I have read in this thread and others across a number of RP linkshells I've belonged to in FFXIV it's clear that there are some people who are very uncomfortable with a certain amount of deviation from what has been established as canon by Square-Enix for this game. As the lore is still being written, it's hard to draw a very clear line in the sand. For instance I've known some people to be comfortable making some assumptions with regard to lore related to Sharilyn, Ishgard, or Garlemald - areas where there is still a lot of gray area - but then find things such as vampirism and lycanthropy are frowned upon (even though lycanthropy has been shown to exist in some form in Eorzea). Style/Purpose/Story Different linkshells are also going to attract members based upon their purpose. Adventuring guilds, mercenary guilds, educational facilities, business conglomerates, trade organizations, groups of friends with no formal organizational structure - really the sky is the limit here with regard to what the linkshell's creator(s) decide upon doing. While I'm sure an argument can be made that anyone can fit into any given linkshell's structure, certain types of guilds are generally going to appeal to certain types of roleplayers more than others. Event Types ('casual' vs. 'monumental') This is kind of a new one based upon the last few posts in this thread, but it seems like this is another good point of preference and worth adding as an example. I also use the expression 'monumental' events to describe their greater impact on the characters involved and 'casual' events to describe events where it may seem little character development takes place. I know some may grow weary of the simple get-togethers for tea and roasting marshmelons around the campfire. I agree that the real character development seems to happen within the individual linkshells - or at least this has always been my own experience. I suspect this happens because of the variations from linkshell to linkshell about what's appropriate and what's not (such as godmode, lore-adherance, etc.). I can also see the point about how too many monumental, character-defining moments can result in either being perceived as somewhat outlandish or otherwise the PTSD and frayed nerves and all that other fun stuff kicks in, as has already been mentioned. Personally, I like the frilly light RP and sitting around and chit-chatting and such, but I also like some "meat and potatoes" once in awhile. I can think of about three such incidents (curiously with three separate RPLS's) that have happened in my year-and-a-half of doing this. Some might yearn for more than that. Others may feel that's too much. Not everyone is going to agree on this, just as the points above. As role-players, we are as unique with our preferences as our characters are. I don't expect that any of us will fall exactly in the same place on each of these points. Even people whom I consider like-minded RPers have disagreed with my views, and I with theirs, on certain matters. What's important here - and I think the bottom line to this entire topic - is tolerance. I don't see much intolerance towards anyone for their styles and preferences, and the fact that we can all calmly talk about these variations in an open forum such as this is certainly a very positive thing. I do think a lot of the frustration stems from the fact that there are so many linkshell communities which may not necessarily comprise many members, and of course there is a lot of overlap since we can belong to multiple RPLS's and kind of pearl-hop depending on where the activity is on any given night. This all being said, I don't think the personal variance is a bad thing. This has been more of an observation than anything else really. I don't necessarily view the current state of the RP community as a problem. But for those that do, I think the question we need to ask ourselves is "What we can do to improve things for ourselves, collectively?" Simply understanding and declaring that more people should be more respectful and more tolerant of different styles than their own isn't really accomplishing anything. I don't have an answer to this question, but I put it out there as food for thought.

Does anyone know if they're still planning to nuke all of the linkshells (presumably due to issues where same-named shells exist on both servers that are merging)? It seems to me like this may no longer be necessary - like whichever was created first stands or somesuch - since all players are going to set locations now rather than being scattered. Just curious.

HOO-RAH! I did always find it rather peculiar that I belong to multiple RP pearls and none of them sees nearly as much traffic as the OOC pearl. I attribute this - in part - to the sheer number of people that belong to the OOC pearl. But I think there is an inclination for a lot of RPers to not want to RP so much. My own view on the matter has been a point of contraversy in some linkshells I've belonged to in the past, but I'll share it anyway in the hopes that it at least sparks some further discussion. I'm not IC 100% of the time. If there's an Ifrit run happening or anything else where it's fundamentally important to discuss the matters at hand in an OOC manner, that's understandable. I usually try to do so in as convenient a channel as possible - /p or /tell if it's feasable. But I am IC as often as I can be, easily over 90% of my time playing. I got more than my fill of endgame from FFXI and while having pretty virtual items is nice, having meaningful storyline and in-character interactions with other brilliant RPers is far more important - to me. I understand not everyone is of this mindset. From the get-go I've wanted to be a part of 100% immersive linkshells and without going into any flowery recruitment-esque descriptions, that's what I love about the Everwatch. Very rarely is anything said OOC over that linkpearl for any reason. There may be lulls, which is where having other RP pearls has its perks, and then OOC pearl is usually active if I'm looking for social interaction where RP is unavailable at any given moment. But it has always made the experience more "real" from a more pure role-play perspective. Our preferences are as different as our personalities, though. I have found that casual RP is a lot more prevalent and heavy RP a lot less popular than I have seen in previous games. There is nothing wrong with this. But it happens not to be my own style. And then of course having the ability to jump between multiple linkshells and filter text accordingly has provided a whole new dimension to the experience as well. Events like last night's picnic make me happy, and I'm thrilled that Deirdre put that together. I had a lot of fun at it, and several unexpected things happened during the course of the event. This came on the heels of the Valentione's event I had put together for Friday which was a partial success. I think if I'd advertised it a little better, it may have seen a better turn-out. But for what it was, we got to meet up with several RPers bit-by-bit rather than all at once in one big event. So it was fun in its own way (and Eva doesn't like large crowds anyway so she could be a little more comfortable than she would have been if it was a swarm of RPers). My take-home from the experience has been that the OOC pearl is a valuable tool. The RPC forums are a great way to organize events for the greater RP community. And marketing an event entails a bit more than just writing a post, but building up hype about it and maybe talking about it on the OOC pearl as well. I also have a few ideas for future events and something on the horizon which should help foster more RP opportunities, but I'm waiting for certain conditions to be met with the game itself and with some of my friends before that can really move forward. Still, I have to laugh whenever someone says that "RP is dying" because I have spent SO MUCH of the past week-and-a-half RPing with various people, both in linkshells that I belong to and not, that it's hard for me to see where this mentality is coming from. The only thing I can think is that maybe some people aren't being as proactive about FINDING the RP or limiting themselves to RPing with just a handful of their fellow RPers and may want to consider "casting a wider net" so to speak. I have no funny Spoiler pics to post, so I'll just conclude by saying thank you to Deirdre for putting the event together last night and for making this post. :cheer:

I agree, Option 2 looks the best. This entire restructure seemed awfully convoluted from the get-go and I had hoped that the inevitable community push-back would urge them to reconsider. If they keep with their plans to assplode everything and make us choose I think the previously mentioned plan is pretty solid: Designated RP server > Besaid > Server#9 I just went with the majority and voted #9 in the poll. I play for the RP before anything else, and I'll go wherever the RPC decides, since that worked out quite well the last time. If much of the rest of the Besaid server is kind of following our lead, than I think that's wonderful!

(( Shameless bump. Hope to see a good turnout tonight. I've turned down a couple offers to do the event quest this week so that I can accomplish it tonight with whomever else has been dragging their feetsies. ))

Hello and welcome! :cheer: This sounds good. It's admittedly difficult to get anything further than a very abstract concept of what you want to RP without knowing too much about the lore of the game and the styles of other RPers that you'll be playing with. As such it's sort of common for a character to develop naturally over time as they interact with the game world and particularly other RPers. As for this: In some ways I can kind of understand the mentality, but RPers seem to have earned a bad rap for not being skilled at the game. I've heard this misconception a lot from when I played FFXI too. From my own experiences with XIV this simply isn't the case. I've had the pleasure of being able to RP with a handful of skilled storyweavers and then effectively put things down to focus on something like Darkhold or Ifrit or whatever. If they're able to throw out an emote once in awhile while still playing their given class like a champ, good on 'em. But I haven't seen too much of the "spammed flavor text" since my very early days in FFXI. Granted, there's always one or two who will cling to that, which may be why the stigma is still around, and I'm sure there are a handful that simply aren't good at the game. I just think that it's no longer the "norm" the way it is often perceived to be. At least, not in my own experiences in Eorzea. Sorry to rant. Just wanted to throw that out there. Hopefully we'll be able to prove it to you soon, too. :cheer: Again, welcome to Eorzea and to the RPC!!

A simple notice appears at a few of the more common gathering spots around the three city-states: "For those who have not yet had an opportunity to participate in this winter's Valentione's event, and for those who have but wish to help their friends out - let's meet on the 10th sun at the 20th bell in the Gold Court of Ul'dah and show the true spirit of the Valentione holiday season!"

White Mage, of course!

Yeah yeah yeah... we've heard that before. :roll: I jest! Always good to have old friends come back! Looking forward to seeing you around Eorzea! :cheer:

Hello and welcome from a former FFXI-addict (who still plays but probably not as much as I'm sure my LS there would like, since there's not really any RP left there)!! I don't think there was ever any unofficial RP server for FFXI, but rather a number of servers [at least during its prime] that were known to be the homes of various RPLS's. I came from a large group on Sylph myself, but I know there were some from Asura, Leviathan, and at least a few others. The RPC here has helped mobilize everyone that RP's onto one server in order to offer everyone as wide a range of styles as possible. This is definitely a good thing! Many RPers now participate with more than one linkshell, and there's even an "OOC" linkshell for shooting the breeze or finding out where open RP is happening if things happen to be quiet on your linkshell at that moment (hint: Mineral Concern seems to be a hot spot >.> ) FFXIV still isn't perfect, but it certainly has come a long way since alpha/beta and with each new update we get to adapt to an ever-changing set of rules and conditions. I agree with you in your hope that people look upon FFXIV more favorably as each update is released and the world continues to grow and evolve.

I can help with the graphical components and I may be able to help with the PHP/HTML/CSS/etc. I'm a bit rusty with that, but I'd be glad to at least take a look at it. Much more confident with graphic edits though.

Welcome!! The best way to learn is by diving right in! If you have any questions or anything, please don't be afraid to ask. Everyone was new to RP at one time or another and we don't bite (except for those of us that do :lol: ). Hope to see you around Eorzea soon~

I just wanted to chime in. I was very hesitant to join this at first because I felt like there is already a ton of OOC going on and what the RP community seemed to need was more people RPing rather than just gabbing/socializing on an OOC pearl. I actually declined Miyu's initial invitation (sorry Miyu!) I later wound up taking a pearl because I didn't want to be that one RPer that wasn't going along with this. To see 70+ names on it now is an inspiring counterargument to the "RP in FFXIV is dying" nonsense we were hearing for awhile there. It is very easy to filter (my tabs now are RP [a few RP shells] and OOC [same as RP tab plus this OOC one]) - and it's filtered by default when I log in. I've also set the text to be somewhat dark such that, when I'm not filtering it, it's not really detracting so much from stuff in /say, /party, and /ls. While I have tabbed over at times when things on my RP pearls are slow and generally just lurk since I'm not really one for OOC chatter. But to know that RP is going on and where to go to be involved with some of it... well, I think that is a pretty valuable tool. I echo Aysun's final sentiments about smiling at hearing that RP is going on, and I would encourage any RPer that might also be on the fence about this to join, or at least give it a try.

Merry Christmas!! (and a Happy New Year!)

From a fellow descendant of a dragoon, welcome!! :cheer: Hope you decide to join us on Besaid and looking forward to hearing more!

I think I'd like to redirect to my original questions but only more specific. I'm positively thrilled that we've received a response, but I would like to hear more specific details. As it is Nymeia is regarded highly by weavers, but to my knowledge no such altars or other landmarks exist for her the way Oschon and several of the others. (yeh I want a Nymeia altar dammit! >.> ) Althyk and Byregot don't seem to get as much attention either. Perhaps as more lands are released and we learn that they are patron/matron deities there? Speculation, but I suppose it makes sense that Llymlaen, Nophica, and Nald'Thal (and Halone) would have more content associated with them than the rest of the Twelve for that reason. It doesn't lessen the thirst for knowledge about the remaining deities though. With regard to the races and their history, I want to know more specifics. I can appreciate that there's a tolerance between them, particularly with regard to the way some of the nations regard the beastmen tribes. To be very specific, I was wondering about my own race - the duskwight. I would imagine others would want to know a lot about their own races and history of them as well. This was the part I was hoping they could expand on a bit. I would like to know more about these rocky pasts and what each race is bringing to the table that is Eorzea. (sorry this was very hastily written from work and perhaps someone can paraphrase something better than "Tell me more about duskwights and Nymeia" )

I recognize the name from back in the hayday! Welcome back!! :cheer:

Also staying but removing both of my supporting characters since $3/slot is absolutely ridiculous. I am concerned as to what this will mean for the future, as a lot of folks I stay in touch with from FFXI are saying that the stigma is already in place and they're going to be hard-pressed to undo all of the bad reviews and poor press from early on. I'm staying for the RP though and I personally have a lot of hope for the quality of the game in the future - I just hope that that is enough for average folks to overcome a certain stigma that seems to have been created.

I would like to know more about the Twelve than the descriptions at character creation. Certain ones seem to have been given more attention and detailed information (Nald'thal, Nophica, Halone) and others get little more than a passing mention (Nymeia, Althyk, Byregot) from an NPC here or there. I'm also interested to know (and maybe it's already in existing lore and I've somehow missed it) whether the Garleans acknowledge the Twelve in any way. I would also like to know more about the history of the races/clans. There is very abstract information that the Elezen were rooted in Eorzea and the Hyur came from overseas elsewhere (going from memory here, this may be somewhat inaccurate), and some NPC in Gridania shows prejudice to Duskwights but it's left obscure whether there's any basis from lore for that opinion or whether he just has a personal grudge. I hunger for lore. :?

Oh awesome!! Happy birthday you two!! :cheer:

Found another I don't see mentioned here. In 'Kobold and the Beautiful' at the end when you are receiving your reward, Nolan says: "...On the other hand, ten score tonzes of ore could not simply have vanished into thin air." I think we can probably safely assume that a tonz is the Hydaelyn equivalent for a ton.

I realize it offers little in the way of the arguments that have been put forth, but I just wanted to point out that, for the most part, the people who are posting here are the people who have been posting here for the past several months anyway. If we're trying to attract newcomers and old timers who went away to avoid the dramz, perhaps word needs to reach them in-game or along some other avenue. I don't know how many people are aware of this movement to try to revitalize the RPC, and of those who are I'm not sure that many feel particularly passionate about it. I've kept my thoughts to myself thus far because I really would like to see what someone else might have to say - not a regular but perhaps someone who may have found out about this movement/thread and came here to check it out. I also think that longwinded debates such as this, while perhaps necessary at times, turn people off to wanting to participate. Given the wall of text that this thread has become (and yes I've read through all of it), anyone who "just wants to have fun" likely won't find much value to this - what I'm going to call minutia for lack of a better word. For myself, I just want to RP. If the RPC can help foster communication and bring [some] people together, than I'm all for it. What I don't want is to become mired down reading stuff such as this which - at least in my opinion and in such I mean absolutely no disrespect to anyone here (most of you know that I like just about everyone anyway) - seems like little more than a massive timesink.

Everwatch Monthly Update I (Sept/Oct) Beginnings The Everwatch linkshell hit the ground running shortly after news spread of the disbandment of the Eorzean Guard. A number of former Guardsmen as well as several new faces came together to ensure the linkshell's success. While still in its infancy, those of us of the Everwatch community now boast our own enjin forums and more importantly about a dozen talented RPers. Scheduled events occur daily. Where the concern expressed by some of us once seemed to be regarding a lack of activity, now it seems to be about when we may find a chance to take a break from all of these events - and of course risk missing some crucial turning point. From the onset, we've been driven to integrate role-play with the normal progression-oriented nature of the Final Fantasy experience. This has been achieved largely through pairing up events such as the successful "Testing the Watch" challenge with the more mundane, in this case levequests within the Twelveswood. Rather than simply performing tasks as assigned by the adventurer's guild, we found ourselves struggling to prove to the Twin Adder company that the Everwatch was a valuable subdivision and worthy of sponsorship. Additional events such as "Pests in the Maws" and "Jacking Up the Price" were created to add another dimension to the relatively bland exploration of the Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak, and an otherwise simple NM hunt. And of course other events - such as sparring and aetherial training - have been planned as well, the goal of bringing every one of us together for the betterment of the linkshell as a whole. In addition to physical and aetherial improvement, as members of the Everwatch, we have also benefited from a regularly scheduled guided meditation, led by our leader Oskar Helvig. This has served to help all of us hone our minds and confront issues which may be lurking in our deep, dark unconscious. Finally, The Everwatch has launched "Woodswatch" - a select team within Everwatch (the only one of it's kind - for now). Once proven to the Adder to be a successful mercenary company, a great opportunity provided by Milton Cooper, a liaison of the Order, was passed along to Everwatch. This is a seed which will grow into a Linkshell storyarch, but how it will do so remains to be seen. We're very happy to report an overall interest in this "project" by our membership! While it may seem a lot of work, there are also rewards. Just last week each member that had enlisted with the Twin Adder was honored with a personal steed from Gridania's chocobo stables. Already we have begun forming connections with these beautiful creatures and Everwatch is more the better for their addition. We will now be able to reach our destinations with due haste in order to complete whatever objectives the Twin Adder has in store for us! Leadership Oskar has appointed three Archontes to assist in the day-to-day operation and smooth running of our linkshell. Deirdre Ta'ea, Eva Ianeira, and Rhio Aldul have each received a custom-crafted dagger - a symbol of the faith and trust that Oskar has placed in each of their hands. This took place during an in-character meeting where those attending spoke of their past deeds and future aspirations within Everwatch. The title of Archonte grants in-character leadership role to the founding members of the Linkshell. That is not to say there wont be a need for more Archons/Archontes in the future! Members With our thorough application process in place, it's great to see a steady growth in our membership. The Linkshell gained a number of rich and well-developed characters, putting us at about a dozen members total. Here is to our new members! We hope you will continue to enjoy Role-Play in Everwatch! A warm welcome to: Nel Ariciont Syesta Shien Malcolm Saeko Grimalkin Aliran You all make a Linkshell into a thriving, evolving community. We're glad to have you so early in our history. Monthly Mentions Poll of the month: Our poll of the month asked members to vote on the number of events per week they are most comfortable with. 1-2 events per week: One vote 3-5 events per week: Five votes 8+ events per week: One vote It seems the "sweet spot" for events should hit no more than five per week, giving the members enough time for personal RP and *gasp* real life obligations, without feeling like they're missing out. Report of the month: Talk about detail! Now that's an awesome report, thanks for the write up Syesta! Journal of the month: Written by Deirdre Ta'ea, a founding member of Everwatch, after a guided meditation. The imagery, tone, and the mood - all very well described in this piece. A Glance Ahead A glimpse to the horizon will yield a view of what's to come. Relations with other communities within Eorzea are being established, treks into the newly-discovered beastmen strongholds, the establishment of a storeroom and its inventory management to help with provisioning equipment to each member of the Everwatch. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Check in again next month to see what progress the Everwatch makes in the days and weeks to come!

Hey you!! Welcome back!!! :cheer: (Lumineux says hi too)