Eva

While little remains known about the lore of FFXIV and it is hard to forecast exactly what sort of deity/deities will be present, I figured I'd make a post - only partially out of boredom - to sort of test the waters of what sorts of religious and spiritual behavior we might expect to see in FF14. I'm still unsure what to do with Kes. Being the somewhat rebellious daughter of my previous character (who was a religious type for a long time), I think she may want nothing to do with any sort of religion. I had some rather abstract ideas for expressing a sense of spirituality without being bound to any particular religion - a thing I had begun in FFXI but never really had the chance to fully convey. Perhaps this may be inherited in his daughter. I suppose we shall see. I'll need to give it more thought. It has proven much more challenging to create a character with backhistory already pretty firmly in place. In FFXI it was more like, "Okay, I'm here!" and the backhistory came afterwards. I'm finding I need to give a lot of thought to what it would be like for a young girl spending 18+ years growing up with a single father who is admitedly a bit of a prick - then spending the next 10-15 years either on her own or supporting him. After giving it a good deal of thought, I'm figuring that she will be around 30 - a bit older and more seasoned. Anyway that was a huge digression..... In FFXI we had seen people invent entire religions (granted this usually ended poorly when nobody else acknowledged them as being real since they sort of opposed the game lore). We had the usual followers of Altana, followers of Promathia, people who didn't care either way and just used the cathedral to gain power, abuse power, or whatever. We had a pretty evil galka that used Altana's preachings as a way to defend his nefarious behavior. While not necessarily related to religion in FFXI/FFXIV, we did have a guy who concocted an entire nomadic culture of desert-wanderers that lived in Altepa and had a unique system of beliefs and traditions. At first I did not think such an invented culture would succeed, but it really caught on and he did a good job with it. Maybe FFXIV will have a polytheistic "core religion", since they had mentioned the avatars being like gods. Or perhaps they'll take a cue from FFXI and will stick to one god/goddess (and possibly a Satan/Promathia/whatever type antagonistic deity). I guess for now we can only speculate, and make vague plans for what we want our characters to worship/believe/be. How was religion handled in other LS's and on other servers in FFXI? Anything unique or interesting you have in mind for your character? Any other ideas, thoughts, insights, etc? Do share!

I remember when FF11 was released I was all excited and pre-ordered right away. I was frustrated when it didn't arrive until two days after it hit stores (most of which time I spent living vicariously through others' posts on various forums). I'll be avoiding pre-order this go-round and check out my local stores on release date.

A thread for speculation about stuff that will be in FFXIV. I'm predicting that there's going to be a guy somewhere, possibly an engineer or a scientist, and his name is going to be Cid. :twisted: EDIT: ...oh yeah, and there will probably be crystals.

Offering additional speculation, perhaps something on a long timer that any of the jobs might be able to take advantage of. Once every 12 or 24 hours a summon may be conducted. Similar to the 2-hour abilities in FFXI but rarer, and more powerful. They did mention that the avatars would be akin to gods. Or maybe some other criteria would need to be met before you could use a summon, some trials that would take time and effort and make it such that you would only call upon your mini-deity in a time of immense need. Just a thought. 8-)

Castiel, I know you were sending invites out in waves based on servers and such. Have you reached out to everyone yet that you were planning to, or are there still some servers and prospective RPers that have not yet joined us here? I'm excited to read about what kinds of guilds people are thinking of creating, and but I know it's kinda taboo until everyone's assembled so as to be fair. Please forgive my impatience.

Yes, the Children of Dune was actually a miniseries that aired several years ago on SciFi, but there is a DVD available and it plays out like a movie (albeit an extremely long one, for sure). It encompasses both the Dune Messiah and Children of Dune novels. There is a montage towards the end of the first 'chapter' that really stands out to me whereby a number of loose ends are tied up in the plot. I've always felt that it was excellently directed - particularly for a made-for-cable miniseries. I should also point out that I'm a big fan of Star Trek - particularly Voyager, DS9, and TNG. Some may recognize that this character's namesake is a character from Voyager I had admired. Wiki had this to say about her: "Kes brings a great deal of joy to Voyager's crew. Her youthful exuberance, curiosity and compassion make her a favorite with the crew. Though young and in many ways naive, she has great presence of mind and resourcefulness." I am doubtful as to whether my FFXIV character will have similar personality traits, but I am leaning towards not. I also like Star Wars, but could never choose to prefer it over Star Trek, or vice versa. I've avoided that debate. For me, both are unique and I have enjoyed both thoroughly and could not select a favorite.

Saw Avatar with my gf in 3-D. Amazing effects. We might be going to check it out again at the IMAX in 3-D. I have a movie like that on my PC too. Donnie Darko has been sitting on my computer waiting to be watched for months now. Also tack on Boondock Saints to the list. Although I haven't had a chance to see the sequel yet, the first one was great and I've heard really good things about All Saints Day.

I'll rattle off a list... Dune & Children of Dune Edward Scissorhands Sin City Crash Things we Lost in the Fire ...and while it was a little cheesy and kind of predictable, I really liked Avatar.

As long as it doesn't encroach upon game lore (as Verence pointed out), I am somewhat cautiously in agreement with it. Making people paranoid that assassins are on every streetcorner and rooftop - good RP. Making it such that they really are - seems a little shoddy, possibly hedging on deus ex machina, depending on how such a thing is used. I hate to say it, but this is probably going to wind up being one of those guild-specific things - or at least how these groups are perceived may be. Some guilds may be unwilling to acknowledge a certain faction if it goes against their policies.

Another perspective I had on this earlier while driving home from work and have since refined a bit. My own character is going to be a merchant of some type. I doubt she will have any serious ties to any of the major "guilds" that come about, at least not right away. I would hope to be able to traverse between groups, peddling her wares and making smalltalk for awhile before picking up and moving on to the next guild, almost like a traveling merchant (only the traveling is done upon a different plane of existence). I'm not resolved I'm going to take this route yet - or perhaps just on certain days. But if there were a small band of merchants that could operate together in a similar fashion, that would almost be like... merchant wagons coming to your town... before moving off to other towns along their trade route. Except instead of 'town' it would be 'linkpearl' or whatever FFXIV equivalent of such is. The parameters of the game might not even allow for it. Just speculating another way a guild could be done, cross-linkshell. Might be a good way to spread gossip and such too. :twisted:

It would be ideal if FF14 allowed for a more multidimensional style of 'guild communication'. I waited a long time in FF11 for what would never come - the opportunity to wear two linkpearls simultaneously and direct chat to either (or maybe sometimes rarely both). Something like this would make cross-guild interplay a bit more complex (double edged sword). At any rate, the idea is good in theory but if there are separate 'pearls' as in FFXI, it pulls members off from the greater RP that's going on and makes it more frustrating for everyone, I think. If you just mean a collection of characters from the various guilds with similar hobbies or alignments that may get together to trade wares, rain beastmen strongholds, or cause mischief together - without "switching pearls" so to speak, I think it's a very good idea. But we're not really sure what sort of communication channels we'll have available to us. We'll probably have to wait and see. The thought of a mercantile guild would probably be of some interest to Kes, though. And possibly a more covert organization such as the Tenshodo. So yes, I'm definitely interested in this!

While I admire the spirit in which it was proposed, it's going to be extremely difficult to actually RP the RPC in such a way as to remain objective to its members. I can offer a plethora of examples, but suffice it to say that someone in the RPC in a 'council' type position may be a known brigand, thief, felon, or murderer in RP. I don't think we should limit the RPC to hero-types, and I don't think everyone should be expected to turn a blind eye to villainous types operating within such an in-character type of structure. Prime example of this for those during Crystalline's earlier era would be Darkcat on council. While good in the capacity of the administrative side of things, helping with recruitment, organizing events, and helping handle disputes in an OOC manner, Darkcat was certainly a villainous character and would never have been able to uphold such a position in-character, which was why our elected council (and later appointed officers) were never given these positions in more than an OOC capacity.

Tsumi's suggestions seem within reason. One thing to be careful of from Castiel's post: When Crystalline was run democraticly (a bit before your time with us I think Castiel), we had issues where council members were often away on various types of leaves of absense - vacations, personal issues, quit but didn't tell us, etc. While I applaud the end goal of dealing with issues by council vote, it may be a good course of action to impose a time constraint on these votes. Many of the issues we're apt to face are going to be very time-sensitive, and having to wait for every single council member to cast a ballot could prove counterproductive - particularly when many of these people will also be dealing with their own guild issues and, y'know, trying to have fun in-game. "If > 50% of the votes cast within the next 24 hours" seems a little strict on the council members, but maybe there can be a way to bounce an email to them to let them know a vote is pending or somesuch. Despite ultimately doing away with it in Crystalline, I like democracy. But it is slow....

I agree with both points. Perhaps if we state something in the RPC policies explicitly indicating that if at least two neutral individuals (people who are not members of either conflicting guild) approach the RPC concerning the matter, the RPC may be authorized to intervene/mediate. The number two is of course subject to change, but I feel that this is a good number, and this would mean that the conflict is overflowing from the particular guilds involved, and other RPers in the community are being impacted by it. Just thinking out loud of a way to quantify this. The only way I can see this falling short would be if two individuals cooperatively approach the RPC about non-issues (making false claims, smear campaigns, overly sensitive behavior), but in such an instance the RPC can make that distinction and choose not to take any action if it seems unwarranted and the guilds are either not in conflict at all, or not to a point where they are unable to work it out for themselves.

Regarding the forums and corrupted mods deleting posts: phpBB offers a means of customizing very specifically what priviliges each group has. Rather than using the pre-defined 'moderators' that phpBB has set up, consider creating a customized moderator group which has the ability to move posts to a hidden Trash forum (I know the concept of hidden forums and secrecy was discussed but might be prudent for moving spam threads and advertisements and such, at least until such a time that you can review/delete them yourself). In this way, you can create a group and completely revoke its ability to delete any posts but allow them to move them as needed, thus enabling them to still perform their duty. If you need any assistance setting this up, please feel free to PM me and I can walk you through it.

"Oh no not another Kes post..." It's short, I promise. I have been trying my best to bite my tongue (fingers?) but I just wanted to put something out there, then I'll keep quiet again. I'm eager to hear other perspectives. In support of this idea, maybe Castiel should create a section of the RPC forums whereby each guild's leader(s) can post their rules, policies, guidelines, views, whatever. Then when an event is posted, or even if an event randomly comes together*, there is a central hub where those rules may be reviewed or referenced. This would certainly help avoid any confusion, ease tensions, and be conducive to better cross-guild relations. * During the random ones there may need to be some agreement on whose rules should be followed. I would think that even random events would normally be the result of an individual or small group of RPers that could make this distinction early in case any issues arose. Just covering all the bases. /endfootnote

No, I don't think that. Your analogy with Starsider and the couple of guilds that were "a bit out there" seems much akin to what I had in mind. I think it will probably be the role of the guilds to set these boundaries. We're on the same page here now. Also I got dibs on John Adams. I'm not really well-liked, so it just works too well for me. :lol:

Last post for me before bed. Will follow up tomorrow from work if there are more concerns. I think you have me all wrong. When I say I'm in favor of rules and structure, I do not mean exclusivity within one guild and no spontaneity. I mean I don't necessarily want to be RPing with the silly stuff like the blue skin and glowing eyes and grown wings. I can appreciate some of the more subtle things. I have preferred my RP in keeping with the lore of the game. Others in the past have been bent on adding elements like this to RP in the name of creativity, but a lot of it comes across as being over the top, overkill, or just downright cliche sometimes. Frankly, it's the godmode I worry most about, and that blurry line between what should be acceptable and what should not be. This line will lie in different places in different guilds, as well, no doubt. I have little opinion on the methods for RPing combat. This was seldom a concern I ran into in FFXI (I think I remember one battle between two individuals where there was no communication, neither wanted to lose, and it turned godmodish fast). However I can see how it could be an issue under the right circumstances. I've participated in RP duels though where I had worked out a sort of interplay with the rival, often planning in advance to be defeated. Once or twice a third (and fourth) party would suddenly and spontaneously intervene and this was more than cool with me, even without prior communication, so long as it was done gracefully. In fact, I had posted earlier that I took issue once during a cross-linkshell event where I was essentially prohibited from having my character do what he would naturally have done in such a situation given his alignment and ideals. I've never really been a fan of scripted RP, but I do like to keep an open line of communication with the people with whom I'm interacting, and always welcome to outside intervention so long as it is reasonably executed. I hope this clears things up a bit. I might edit my post in the 'About Me' area to reflect these opinions, or might it be a good idea to create a thread to outline what we want to see and what we do not want to see? I can see how this might closely border recruitment, but maybe when it is closer to the time to begin segmenting off such a thread would be helpful for those intending to be leaders. Just a thought!

I was/am Dyterium in FF11. FFV image to lighten the mood a bit I just want to touch on a couple more points, then I'm done with this and on to happier discussions.

We're in agreement then, but the examples were insightful. I had hoped that my post would have erred on the side of 'less is more, but we do need some kind of structure here cuz everyone is not always going to play nice' but I think something may have been misconstrued. I can cite similar scenarios within Sylph during attempts at cross-linkshell RP. One that jumps to mind right away is an event that Castiel had planned and apparently had already had a foregone conclusion which some/all of his linkshell was aware of. My own character was ready to leap into the fray (as it would have been OOC for him to do anything else at that point in time), but this was not very well received and prompted serious discussions about "scripted roleplay" and led to further tensions. It's in the past and I like to think Castiel and I get along pretty well now, but if something had been in place prior to the event - whether it have been a guideline of some sort (which was what I had originally proposed) or some increased communication in an OOC manner about what was expected to happen (which if I understand correctly is what you have proposed) - I think the end result would have been much better. I continue to prefer to look at the RPC as a sort of liaison between guilds and not a governing body in any way. I don't like the idea of 'rules' or 'standards' for such an entity as the RPC, as the guilds themselves should be taking care of that mostly, however I do think 'guidelines' or at the very least 'suggestions' may be appropriate for events that encompass more than one guild. Even if these guidelines and suggestions are little more than 'communicate!' 90% of the drama I witnessed and experienced within Sylph was the end result of poor communication, or a lack of communication altogether.

I don't expect this will be like FFXI was. I understand where Castiel is coming from with past experiences, and I was there too and I remember how policy had to be set up in order to help keep order. There were fewer people and more tensions back then. I also don't think everyone is going to just hold hands and sing kumbaya around the proverbial campfire. To be plain, there will often (if not always) be someone around that wants to do nothing more than rain on someone else's parade. It's happened in the past and having some mechanism to deal with it, I think, is a very sound idea. And while I have checked it out and do think that the Starsider community sounds like it turned out to be quite the Utopia, for all of the reasons that you mentioned, I think we need to accept that we may be dealing with a smaller number of people and a different, albeit similar, set of issues. I do like a lot of the ideas, and if the RP community on Sylph were much larger I could see how this would have worked well for us. I think some preparation is warranted and Castiel's concerns are not without merit. Ultimately no matter how we start off, we're going to have to make some adaptations and changes as we grow. I don't think the expectation here is that these discussions are to come up with 'standards' or 'guidelines' or 'ettiquite' or whatever term you choose to give to it are going to be set in stone. The RPC will have to adapt to the issues as they come and deal with them (or not deal with them as the case may be) accordingly.

Oh good it's been a droll morning and I was looking for something to help occupy my downtime at work! First off I think you're putting too much emphasis on the whole "X's last hope for RP" thing. I don't even remember what I had responded (if I even bothered at all - the people involved were really not worth expending the effort on). This sort of negative campaign did a much better job at harming their own image than any of ours. Essentially they shot themselves in the foot, and the fact that their guild fizzled after what, a few weeks or a month, seems to be testament to that. I'm not sure if it was through this or another similar thread that we actually gained a member or two after they realized how foolish these people were. At best I think the RPC can make a post indicating such a thread's existence, thus enabling RPers to post their individual thoughts and opinions on the matter (since it is clearly already not a fact-based, but an opinion-based thread anyway). As far as conflict, I feel that the RPC should intervene if it becomes apparant that two guilds are in direct OOC conflict with one another. If a member expresses distaste towards a particular guild, that's his/her opinion and entitled. If a leader is swaying a number of members to participate in some sort of smear campaign, then I think it may be appropriate for the RPC to step in and try to resolve the issue. As far as RPC standards for cross-guild events, here's my thought. Create a 'default' policy for such things as OOC speaking, godmode, emoting, foul language and content rating, and such. By default, that is how OOC events should be conducted. If the organizer of the event so chooses, these can be changed, and such changes can be indicated either at the beginning of the event or via forum post. These defaults may also be subject to change depending on the overall community's feelings about them. As far as structure goes, I have not formulated an opinion yet. I may carry two or three pearls and be something of an errant RPer, traveling back and forth as my characters whims change. I imagine there will be other people like this, and others who are strictly loyal to one group. This sort of errant behavior does bring about an interesting point that should probably also be brought up. RP that happens in one linkpearl has happened. That is to say, let's assume PersonA stabbed PersonB while RPing openly on GuildX and PersonC was a witness to the act. If PersonA and PersonC both switch over to GuildZ it should probably be assumed that this deed still took place and PersonA cannot deny that it ever happened just because it was on another guild at the time if PersonC starts making accusations and such. This may be confusing to the people of GuildZ at first until more information is revealed, and could also be frustrating to guild leadership who may have no idea what is happening, but I think it sets a bad precedent for there to be any incongruence between guild communities as far as these things are concerned. That's my 2 gil for now (assuming we're still using gil in FFXIV). Thanks for helping my day go a bit faster, too. :lol:

It's a good idea but perhaps something less illustrious than 'high council' as far as the nomenclature goes. May I put my nomination in for "poor saps"? Or perhaps no name at all. You're apt to get a lot of [unqualified] people interested in such a position (even if it is strictly OOC for administration purposes) by giving it a more regal title than it really deserves for what I once called "the perceived status factor." The rest of it I like, and I see your point more clearly now Solana, and I agree. Thank you for the clarification. I also agree that the "RPer Profile" idea brought forth by Tsumi and think that would be an excellent addition to these forums. I also agree 110% with Verence's post and have witnessed this firsthand a few dozen times. The RPC should not be responsible for personal conflicts. The involved individuals should work it out themselves, or take it to their guild leadership if no compromise can be made (and even then there's often only limited action that guild leadership may take). The only time the RPC could be brought into it would be if it comes to the point where one of the individuals chooses to seek a new guild, at which point recommendations may be made and the RPC could give the RPer a perspective on the other guilds that are available. As long as I'm agreeing with everyone else, I may as well agree with Mason as well. If someone is that burdened by a grudge, they shouldn't interact with the target of their enmity. I'm sure there's a couple people that don't like me and that's cool. I've mostly let go my past grudges, but I can understand there might be some very legitimate reasons for animosity between RPers, whether of the same guild or different guilds. It just makes sense to avoid these types of scenes if it's just going to explode into a dramabomb. Mason's final statement put it best - everyone's just trying to have fun.