Eva

This may be getting a bit off track, but it sounds like you're talking about OOC disputes more than guild conflicts Solana. Granted, depending on the level of persuasion I can see how this could become a larger issue, particularly if one individual is being ostracized unnecessarily. Tsumi has made some excellent points and many of the principles that Starsider seems to have followed are similar to many of the underlying policies I had strived to follow in managing Crystalline - which I like to think of as a success. I say if it works, go with it. The organizer of the event should be able to choose whether it is a guild-exclusive event or whether people from the other guilds may be invited as well. While it may seem petty, it would seem to me that there may be some instances where such an exclusion could be warranted, depending on the excluded group's policies and how the event should turn out. For example, a member of the fictious guild TheShiningKnighthood might send a public invitation for a fun group fishing trip to all guilds except ThievesAnonymous. I think most can probably extrapolate the result of such a thing, however there may be some fun to be had if a member of ThievesAnonymous also happened to belong to NeutralThird and went and informed the other Thieves. The in-character implications of this are interesting and could be a lot of fun, so long as the organizer of the event is clear that the exclusion is intended to be strictly IC and realizes his party will be crashed and is okay with just "rolling with it". Then again, if it's meant to be a peaceful gathering to just talk and do some fishing, this should probably be communicated accordingly along some out-of-character manner so as not to leave anyone with hurt feelings (thieves have feelings too y'know). This hypothetical scenario would be another opportunity for involvement on the part of the RPC, probably.

I can see a lot of potential for this coalition, if it's handled delicately. Castiel (or any other liaison for the RPC) could serve as a loudspeaker on all applicable guild forums, helping keep them up to date with what is going on elsewhere in the RP community. On Sylph I know Zarik often had his finger on the pulse of the RP populations from other servers and while such a thing may not have been directly helpful to our linkshell, it was reassuring at times to know where we stood on some issues. Obviously this would be different if we were all on the same server, and I can see the value of knowing what the other communities are up to - cross-guild events for instance. The following notion is premature probably (most of this is since there's really no infrastructure set up yet), but perhaps some of the guilds might grant Castiel forum rights to be able to post RPC-wide announcements - or perhaps repost a PM if uncomfortable giving a non-member posting priviliges. Others may prefer to defer to the leadership and decide if their guild wishes to participate in a cross-guild event. This may differ from guild to guild depending on how much involvement that particular guild wishes to have with the others. Obviously this will vary depending on the type of guild it is. Like the United Nations analogy that keeps cropping up, a guild should probably go through some process in order to be recognized and represented as a part of the RPC. Maybe not necessarily a formal application, but the leaders of a guild should probably make some sort of an announcement to the RPC in order to be recognized. As others have stated, I too don't want to see the RPC overpowering any one guild or becoming involved with its internal affairs. I don't want to see a laundry list of rules that must be followed in order to be a part of the coalition. I think it would be really poor form for the RPC to come down on a guild and "tell it how to do its job" if a member of that guild has a particular complaint, for instance. Also Castiel, have you given any thought to your own role in this? Will you be an errant, splitting your time evently between all of the guilds? There may be some concerns if you belong to one guild and others do not feel adequately represented. Or do you envision the RPC consisting of multiple administrators? Not trying to ruffle any feathers or upset anyone. Just trying to address problems before they become problems.

I can foresee both good and bad stemming from something like this Castiel (it's still gonna take awhile for me to get used to not calling you Zarik ). Recognizing this in advance is the first step in avoiding a major clash when push comes to shove. It's foolish to assume that no conflict will ever arise within a large group of people marked by their flair for the dramatic. Different RP Guilds are likely to have different views on acceptable policy, rule-making, and structure. This is part of how they will draw like-minded members. Some groups will be much more free with their rules - possibly having a much more relaxed view with regard to things like godmode or content rating for example. Others will be much more rigid in such policies. I'll give an example: AlphaGuild has strict rules set in place that prevent its members from anything even remotely godmodish. Characters portraying demons, growing wings, glowing eyes, half-breeds, and being direct descendants of royalty have been either turned away from this group or asked to change their style to fit in. BetaGuild is much more free in their policies and allows character types that AlphaGuild does not. BetaGuild however considers itself a 'family guild' and has strict policies in place regarding content rating - allowing no vulgar language or any sort of interactions that would not be seen in a PG-13 movie (a familiar example for some I'm sure). There are perhaps a few members who belong to both groups and abide both sets of rules, but many from each group frowns upon the others' rules. In the above example, endeavors at a cross-guild event might prove difficult. Members from AlphaGuild might be put off if others at the event start preening their wings or prating on about how King Destin is their Dad (to use a FFXI example since Lore for FFXIV is still sketchy at best). Conversely, members from BetaGuild may be upset by lewd or vulgar conversation being held by the others. It would seem that temporarily combining the rule sets would be the most ideal way to proceed, prohibiting everyone at the event from talking about their royal lineage, keeping the wings tucked away, and also avoiding foul language and explicit content for this particular RP. It seems to me that it is events such as this where the RPC would have a voice - particularly if any sort of conflict should arise from it. There may also be members who are left out of such gatherings - perhaps an RPer with blue skin or something blatant which could not be concealed. As far as not recognizing particular guilds that may not necessarily fall into some sort of cookie-cutter mold - I feel this is a very slippery slope, and while I know very well where you're coming from with it (I was on Sylph too and I remember), I would encourage caution. I feel that an RPC that serves as a liaison between the groups without getting too involved with their own internal matters and without looking for anything further than a very abstract qualifier as to 'What an RP guild should be' is preferable. It should probably also be acknowledged that there may be some groups that may not wish to be a part of the RPC, and members that may be attracted to such guilds for that very reason, among others. Despite all of this, I still feel that the good qualities of the RPC far outweigh the bad and I continue to applaud the effort being put into this endeavor. Now if we could just get on with Open Beta...

Maybe it was Alpha testing - I'll follow up with him later on. But I have heard pretty convincing stories. The friend is trustworthy. The friend's friend I do not know so I can't say much about it, but from the information I am being relayed, I'm convinced that it is not some kind of a hoax. EDIT: I just spoke with him. What we're being emailed about was Open Beta Testing. This guy was apparently part of Closed Beta Testing. He evidently seems to think that everyone who applied for Open Beta will be accepted so long as they didn't get banned in FF11 or anything. I'm not sure what to make of that, but it will still be pretty cool. I asked if he knew any sort of timeline and he said he had already asked the guy and he didn't know. But it supposedly runs smoothly on a dual-core Vista 64-bit, which I guess isn't really saying a whole lot.

Anyone seen any information yet on what the System Requirements will be for FFXIV? Since it's moving to beta I would imagine they'd have something posted somewhere. I'm planning on overhauling my PC sometime before the middle of this year prior to the official release date - or sooner if accepted to beta testing. I'm probably going to go overboard anyway, but wondering if anyone knew what the minimum and recommended settings were. I'm sure they'll introduce benchmarking software like FF11 did before the release. But just curious. Also, has anyone heard any news yet about the beta? A friend of a friend has been in closed beta for a few months now and I've heard good reports.

I would imagine so, but I think the point of it is to serve as a repository for spam, or directly slanderous posts. I think this is preferable to giving mods the power to delete threads/posts outright. At least that is my understanding of it. This way if it's deemed the moved thread/post should not be deleted, it may be moved back to its original home. For flame wars, I think we can expect that threads will simply be locked and offending parties issued some sort of a warning to knock it off. I don't view this as 'freedom of speech' infringement. I view it as a place to move downright offensive content and those stupid Cialis bot ads we used to see all the time on most of our forums. :lol: Castiel can probably clear this up though. I'm only speculating. Also grats to the new forum mods!! :cheers: