Ignacius

I think maybe new MMO developers are thinking on a higher level than most players. Specifically, players like to say things like, "I want an interactive world where the decisions I make matter and affect the game!" On the other hand, that means all the other players can also make decisions and affect the game. And we know what other players are like. So do game developers. I think that, and the EVE experiment, is kind of why so many big name developers of games know better than to give the players that kind of interventionalist power. They know gamers, particularly the ones who are apt to pour days at a time into playing for the tiniest statistical boost, have a high dick-to-mentor level. Essentially, if it's possible for someone to ruin someone else's gaming experience, it's going to happen. What they should probably go for is something that seems to live and breathe without players, something that makes us part of the food chain instead of its sole top layer. It's just hard to do because that takes a lot of development and a very old-school approach to design. It just isn't something that's been done (or seems to be in development) in the current crop of MMORPGs. I'm not sure it's the lack of technology at this point as much as it's just a market that doesn't really get tapped. I can think of a few ways off the top of my head that an MMORPG could be much more entertaining by not focusing on progression PVE or PVP. Unfortunately, I design health care facilities for a living. It just seems like modern developers are caught in a rut and missing the obvious and intelligent solutions.

You touch Orleans Ignacius, and he'll touch you right back. It's all about context...

esEdC0c3YI4

See, that's you're problem. Don't tempt, threaten! OP, explain your post or be eaten by Shirley Manson! (My high school celebrity crush!)

Wait, someone was just attacking the host, or was attacking this particular forum directly? Who would be DDOSing a roleplaying community?

Oddly enough, the MMO I would be most looking forward to in a perfect world would be Monster Hunter Online. However, it's being developed in China for a Chinese audience by a Chinese company (Tencent). No word yet on whether we'll get a North American release. Suffice it to say, if either Tencent or parent company CAPCOM ever decides to make a decent Monster Hunter MMO, none of you will ever see me again until you all inevitably end up playing it. It would be the best game that has ever been made. Unfortunately, CAPCOM doesn't think very highly of the western market. They've got it in their heads that the only things we like are zombies, guns, and quick time events, and if they can get them all in together at the same time, we'll like it the best. It is the one reason I really despise the rest of the western market. We get Resident Evil and Dead Rising, while Japan is awash in Monster Hunter.

On the subject of legality, smuggling, and free trade, can we assume things that are illegal in one nation are legal in another? Also, is there any mention of a sort of an extradition treaty? I know a group of soldiers can technically operate anywhere in anothers' land (they're military allies), but do they have any actual heft in those areas? Are we assumed, in-game, to have informed the local government that we're acting on behalf of another government in their lands? Is it just on the "honor system"? Or does one guard service's authority terminate at their immediate borders?

On that note... is there a black stetson in game? Just a point of inquest.

RealID is [email protected] (just make sure you tell me in your RID message to me who you are and send me a message here that you're doing it, so I know it's you). I have a set of 11 across Moon Guard Alliance side. I've just gotten my new beast of a computer up and running, I just need to install Windows, update everything, and I'll be back to my WoW, FFXIV, and D3. My WoW time might be limited until the release of Warlords, though. I really, really like FFXIV and I might be playing a lot of that first now that I have a machine that can muscle through the higher-end graphics.

Excuse me sir, but you take that back! I play a fight loving gridanian lancer from a "scum" family and not exactly a stranger to mischief herself! My favourite place is Gridania, it is pretty and it's nice just to even walk around in, though not much RP happens there in my experience, which is a damn shame! (I mean come on, it even has a stage and seats!) Well call me old-fashioned, but I just don't think any self-respecting murderous vagabond should live anywhere pretty. Damnit, we live in suspiciously well-furnished flats over bars in run-down areas of town teetering on the verge of social collapse. We don't live anywhere nice until we retire! So if you can be played in film by Jason Statham, you'd better get your ass back into the filth until you're old enough to be played by Marlon Brando.

Considering I'm on Gilgamesh, I'm happy to RP in whatever city there's RP in. But if I had a preference....? It's kind of a tough choice. I kind of like Ul'dah, actually, but it feels too closed up. Limsa Lominsa is awesome because I love the pirate vibe and the freedom thing. At the very least, it's the best for Orleans Ignacius, Limsa is where he works. I will say I think Ul'dah has a better residential housing area; it's much more awesome. Honestly, though, if I had to personally live somewhere? Probably Gridania. Even on my previous computer's lower-end graphics, the place was absolutely gorgeous and I love the round-building architecture. Even the towns in the Black Shroud are amazing. Unfortunately, Gridania isn't a fit city to live in for any self-respecting low-life scum, so neither Orleans or my possible Balmung concept character would live there. I also don't feel like playing some hippy, tree-hugging, life-loving man of the woods. There's not enough Duke Nukem in that role.

Oh I'm aware of EVE Uni, like I said, I played the game for a while. Luckily, the RP community friends I had showed me the ropes. I wasn't just talking about local, forums are the same way. Strikingly, people are REALLY sensitive on the forums to pretty much anything. It was a weird dichotomy, playing a game where everyone tells each other to toughen up, but it's really easy to hurt people's feelings (not talking about you here, you're alright, just a lot more of them there than here). Maybe it's because I'm harder to write off as a troll or a moron? I definitely get the feeling CCP devs are lazy, though. It's not an issue of what they add; those solar systems are, as I intimated, pretty benign and empty places. It's not what they add, but the rate and pace they add it, as well as their responsibilities elsewhere. Essentially, they care if someone hacks your account or finds some really cheap exploit they don't like (there's a story there). Other than that, they don't have to regulate anything, which is probably a healthy chunk of our MMO cost of living. So without that, you'd think they'd make more ships, more kinds of anomalies, more everything. They don't. Last expansion (patch, for the information of others', you aren't charged for expansions in EVE), they worked through a few balancing issues, issued like three more ship models, and a new type of cosmic anomaly (using their hacking game and tractor beam collection sweepstakes >.<). For the same subscription, look at what we're getting from Square for our next, likewise-free, patch. And EVE doesn't really have a graphical content excuse, nebulas sometimes change but they don't have gravity fluctuations happening in three-star systems or anything. It's all nice and stable and easy. They just don't feel the need to further develop. What they did I wouldn't call positive. Time dilation is terrible; nothing made a thousand-ship starfight more boring than everything happening at 10% speed, so we all alt-tab out while we wait for weapons to cycle (unless you're in a recon frig, where you HAVE to be watching). If there was one thing that soured me on CCP, it was their handling of their last live event. The one that was supposed to gather people together to attack a pirate base. There's nothing easier; it's dungeonmaster 101: get the people together, go somewhere, fight something, come back. I'm kind of lucky I'm in the U.S. and all their events happen when I'm at work. Got to see footage of CCP leading people in TiDi in a horribly organized mess straight into the teeth of player pirate alliances, trickling them in slowly into systems that are maxed and locked, and essentially giving up. The response they gave was mesmerizing. I'm assuming you read it, but I wasn't surprised at the negative reaction to it. CCP dropped the ball and said, "Well, we didn't expect that, so whatever." As soon as I saw that, I was done with them. It's their event, it's their game, it's their baby. They should have fallen on the sword for it and I'd have respected them. Instead, they kind of shrugged and said it was the players' fault that they didn't somehow overcome the organization they were responsible for putting together. And actually, EVE University was setting up pirate raids in the Bleak Lands? (I think) to show people the ropes there, too. So, yes, since I'm not Eve Uni, I was going to be on the menu. You guys, as nice as you might have been, weren't any different than any of the other people that were online at the time trying to kill me. I mean, my corp wasn't as big, but the rules were exactly the same. Don't trust anyone, barely trust the corp members because people will alt in spies. Definitely don't trust anyone that isn't tagged, because if you assume they'll all want to kill you and take your stuff, 9/10 times you're right and the 1/10 you'll never meet. Just the sort of stuff you don't need when contractors are screwing up the mechanical work and hoping you don't notice you'll fail inspection. It's not a myth that everyone but the corp that profits from you wants you dead, you said it yourself, the game is entirely PVPcentric. It's all the content that's challenging or matters. About the only thing CCP did that I really applaud them for were the Sansha Incursions, and FFXIV FATEs are just downright more varied and entertaining. I mean, if you ever get bored of PVP (and I did), EVE doesn't have anywhere near enough meat on its bones to keep you full. I tried pretty much everything after that, but there's really nothing it does that other games aren't leaps and bounds better at unless you like FFA PVP. I did when I started EVE, obviously. I definitely don't now, not for a monthly fee. It's just not worth it when there are more lethal games, PVE and PVP, that don't charge you. If you aren't constantly meeting new people and making new friends, you might as well not be playing an MMO.

Why not defend it? I promise, my poor feelings aren't going to be hurt if you don't agree with me. I wanted to have a discussion about it and its implications, otherwise I'd have just ignored it. I'm not sure what it is that makes people think their opinions aren't valid topics of debate or don't have value. Take the hours to defend it, I'd like to hear the specifics. I'm not personally attacking anyone except, maybe, CCP. I don't figure anyone is attacking me (hopefully I'm right). Here's the issue I have with those numbers. I don't think FFXIV, for example, is more cliquish than EVE because, specifically, anyone who isn't in your corp is your enemy. Period. Whether they're red or not, everyone wants you dead and wants your stuff. Contrast that with FFXIV, where you're sometimes praying someone comes along to help you with a FATE. EVE simply doesn't have any analogue to that. Hell, the Minmatar forces in the Matari/Amarr warzone were literally fighting each other last time I was paying attention. There have been, when I played, as many as 46,000 people on at any one time on their one server. I wanted to see precisely as many as were in my corp in my space. Even on Gilgamesh, I'm happy to see pretty much anyone dismount in my general area during a quest. The worst they could do is ignore me instead of help, which is generally the best thing I could expect in EVE. So the number online is sort of an empty number; I want less of those people on for me to do whatever it is I need to do in the end. Also, on EVE skill.... I originally trialed the game because I was told it was the hardest MMORPG out there. For anyone reading this that feels intimidated, don't be. It's not hard, doesn't require any more thinking than most of what I've played, and isn't nearly as hardcore as people make it out to be. Gearing is essentially about making sure you have the skills to use what you want and checking the numbers. You gain skills over time, rather than by using them, so you don't have to start by sucking at using some certain thing; given enough time, you can come out of the gate using it at the most powerful skill levels possible. The ship flies itself, so all you do is try to control range and transverse speed. The entire idea of combat (which is good and fluid) is about having the particular set of equipment your enemy isn't set up to stop. That's basically it. If you've ever dealt with a PVP learning curve before, that's the element of difficulty. Especially once you're flying, you only need to know how to do a handful of things actively. If you're in a fleet, you usually only need to know how to do one. That's actually probably one of the things I liked about it. After hearing how complex it was, it's fairly simple once you boil it down and everything's about common sense. If something was expensive on the market for a month, suddenly it's cheap, don't sell it. If frigates are flying too fast for your guns, use drones. It's not having to learn to actively fly using a flightstick, it's probably a lot less nasty of a curve than most FPS arena games. If you can master and react to raid bosses in any game, you're more than capable of playing EVE. Within about a month of flat-out learning from my corp-mates, I knew pretty much everything I needed to know about the game. I just needed to wait for my skills to train up. My problem with it is maybe that it's too easy. Players are, literally, the only problem, and they have little else to do than mess with each other. The cluster can be a very empty place and you'll essentially know what you're jumping into before you ever get there. The environment isn't dangerous. Towards the end, once I'd had my fill of PVP, I flew around in a cloaked recon ship scanning down relic and data sites. I was careful and didn't even lose a ship. My entire problem with it, from bottom to top, is all about that point you made about developers not being there to "entertain" us. That's fine if it's free to play. I'm not paying fifteen dollars a month for a company to tell us it's all on us to develop content, not when there are companies around like Square actively throwing new and interesting content at us for the same price. When it's just players providing any kind of depth to the game and I'm looking to entertain myself, I'm certainly not paying CCP for the privilege of making their game interesting on their behalf. Especially when the 45 thousand people on at any one time are just a giant blinking obstacle to me. EVE's PVP focus may work for some people, but it certainly made sure that I didn't want to meet any of those 45 thousand people when I was playing Say what you want about FFXIV server limitations, my blacklist contains only gilseller names and I'm happy as Hell to meet anyone randomly in the road in Eorzea. It seems like a much better use of the MMO community element; I get more bang for the buck for those people logged into my server. It's a measure of potential friends rather than a measure of my sole meaningful opposition. EDIT: Just so everyone knows, I've played World of Warcraft nearly since launch. I love almost everything about it through every expansion. Trust me, I may take game love seriously, but I don't take it personally. Feel free to critique away. We're consumers of video games. We should have a say in how they are developed and what we'd like out of them.

Yes, actually. Here's kind of how it works: There are areas outside imperial space that are kind of "open dibs". Corps like to show up and try to hold them. Many form giant alliances. Alliances get set in their ways and kind of eye each other warily. Then, someone, somewhere, makes a mistake and touches off a giant space battle with all the resources these alliances have been generating. Being part of one isn't as fun. It was more fun to report ship movements since you get to see the whole thing unfold, and being a fleet commander must be brilliant, but being a grunt in those is literally selecting the target that your commander tells you to shoot and hitting F1. There's a currency exchange where you can buy a months' subscription for real money and sell it on the open market. Given how much a PLEX is worth, you can kind-of work out how much ISK (in-game-money) you get for each dollar. Given that, some of these fights cost thousands of equivalent dollars. Personally, the most fun I had was running around wormhole space on a recon frigate, though. The game's entertaining, it just makes almost all the rest of the actual players, at best, an annoyance. I'd probably like it better if no one else was there. That's sort of why I don't like it. What's the point of an MMO if you're having more fun without the other players?

[*] Jesus, Square's earning that 15$ a month, aren't they? Even WoW wasn't cranking out major content this fast, not to mention it all working well. Given how bad the original FFXIV flopped, Square has pretty much earned my respect back. Kudos to them for having some dignity for their profession and for valuing our money.

I think I'm not articulating my point very well. I'm not saying it's bad, but I'm not saying it's original. It's actually much more akin to FPS games in that the world isn't trying to kill you, other players are. I'm saying that's very unfortunate, considering I think PVP these days is meant to shore up developer deficiencies in game design. CCP isn't really noted for their rigorous development cycle and hands on approach to the game. The last "event" they ran, they essentially led a few thousand people in 90% time dilation straight into an ambush out of their own sheer ignorance to how their own game works. The forums lit them up for that. The point being, there are a lot more MMOs these days that focus on PVP (especially RVR). I know it's why I'm not even going to bother with Star Citizen. Mostly, I think it's because no one knows how to make a world dangerous anymore without relying on PVP like a crutch. One theory I've heard on that subject came from my brother, who said that PVP just sells better. It's faster and easier to develop, so PVP games were better developed on modern shortened development schedules. So the best games of the past were quick-developed PVP-fests like FPS games. So they engineered taste changes. A friend of mine also pointed out that hard games may be critical darlings and may be popular long after they're gone, but they don't tend to sell well. It's probably harder to get people to subscribe to a game that's too hard to worry about constant PVP than it is to get people to sub to a game where that's all they have to worry about. Personally, though, I think game developers simply gave up. Aside from a few notable exceptions these days, developers don't want to put the time into a game's difficulty curve when they can get players to do that for them. Then they can spend their time making the flashing lights prettier or twiddling their thumbs. Making hard, responsive games is actually really difficult, so why try? It's almost developed a generation of gamers who seem to think we can't program a game to be difficult, and the only real difficulty left is in PVP. Sort of a post-programming world. What you get is something like EVE, where the game itself isn't constantly trying to murder you because CCP doesn't think they can make the game hard to play. Unfortunately, I don't know that we have a real antithesis to that. FFXIV tries in concept, but nobody is really setting that game out there as a mountain to climb and saying, "We don't think you're going to be able to beat parts of this." At least not in the MMO world; the Dark Souls series tries its best to swat you so hard you cry back to your mother. Before that, you have to go back to Ikaruga? I suppose you can count Monster Hunter in that list of games trying their hardest to murder you. It just feels so cheap to me, in the end. Players should be the least of my problems; surely the people who make games can make things harder than PVP. They definitely used to. EVE just felt, after I figured out PVP, like a very empty place. There just isn't anything to it without other people making your life difficult. Which is disappointing, because that just means I do my best to avoid communicating with people altogether as opposed to meeting them.

Thanks, Freelance.

Amarr. The second largest trade hub in EVE. Amarr. If any game in existence is judged by its trade chat, which is essentially Jita, Amarr, Dodixie, and Hek local chat, then there is simply no hope for humanity. Trade chat is, without a doubt, a culmination of the worst that society has to offer. There are channels in FFXIV that I have turned off and will never ever turn on and I use my block list regularly. We clearly have different views on this, which is fine. I've been involved in several wars and even then have never had a problem with any of the corporations who have tried so hard (and often succeeded) in blowing us to smithereens. I absolutely love sandbox games (I miss you, Star Wars Galaxies!) and while I agree that EVE has little to offer as far as quest excitement goes, the key to the game is that the players make it great. EVE has been running strong since 2003 and has the largest persistent world in the history of gaming, so clearly they're doing something right. Of course, EVE is definitely not for everyone. But hey, at least they give you a free trial to find out whether or not you think it's rubbish. The sad part? I'd say it's a great game if it wasn't for all the people, which is why I played for so long before stopping. I actually did like flying around, scanning things down, PVP for short stretches. But my IRL job is hard; I'm dealing with everything from design to logistics on a daily basis, often in ten- to twelve-hour stretches. I want to come home to relax with friends and play a challenging game, not come home to constant FFA PVP. If I wanted to do that, I'd be playing Titanfall with my brother. When I PVP, I don't pansy around with the pretty stuff. I jump straight into the deep end where thirteen year olds in Austria can immediately begin embarrassing me. But really, I feel like PVP kind of cheapens the game experience; we are our own content. There was a time when games were so damn difficult that completion was its own reward and, if the people you played with weren't on top of their game with you, you all couldn't move. I've come to see PVP as sort of outsourcing the job of making interesting games to the players. EVE's an example of that. FFXIV will release a gigantic leap of new content in their next patch, whereas EVE's last expansion released a few new ships, a random cosmic anomaly site, and a few bits and pieces. CCP's dev team doesn't really make the game more interesting or challenging. They count on the players to do that for them. I've had the same reaction to FPS games lately. I'm sick of developers using the PVE end of their games as an advertisement for the PVP end because so many people wouldn't buy a truly difficult game. I don't think PVP makes a game difficult, though. That's one of the reasons I tend to roll my eyes when someone calls a game like EVE "difficult". It's not; EVE's a pretty simple game in the grand scheme of things. PVP is only difficult for the bottom half of the player base. That's kind of why I'm glad FFXIV's PVP is so terrible. At least I know Square is focusing on the game first. I wouldn't say EVE is terrible, it's just a terrible waste of an MMO. Essentially, it encourages cliquishness by making sure anyone who doesn't have a vested interest in you being alive wants you dead. There are a lot of games out there like that, but not all of them were decent space sims that had an MMO community. I just think the strengths of an MMORPG are all built up in wanting to meet and play with strangers, so you're always making friends. As it stands, EVE's only real danger is other players; CCP made space a relatively benign place. It probably would have been more entertaining if they hadn't outsourced the job of trying to kill us to only us. Your MMORPG's players should never be more dangerous than your game's environment; it's a sign of lazy development when the masters of the game code can't make you more afraid of them than some jagoff with exactly the same resources you have. I really hate being babied by modern developers. I pay good money for a game to try to kill me, not to kill other people for them. So I'm sure as Hell not paying a subscription to work as an unpaid developer of variable difficulty on some company's behalf. My reaction seeing another player in an MMO should be, "Oh, thank God! I hope this guy's feeling helpful, because I can't do this on my own."

Hey, I played EVE online for like 9 months. I was also into Battlefield 2 for a while. Believe me, FFXIV's community is like walking into a Mormon church compared to a really toxic community. I don't find EVE to be a toxic community at all. With EVE, you know EXACTLY what you're walking into. EVE is all about competition, and the competitive spirit shines more brightly in that game than in any other I've ever played. Yes, you get some people who are just overly mouthy. Yes, you get some people who complain too much. That said, I've never once played a game that didn't have those types of players, and even RP is not immune to these types of players. You have to have an understanding in EVE that when you undock, you ARE going to lose your ship. You might not lose it right away but on a long enough timeline, even the mightiest of Titans gets blown up. The people who thrive on PVP in that game are the ones who fully understand that their ship will explode in a fiery blaze of glory and just want to blow up as many things as possible before it happens. Never once have I participated in a toxic fleet. Those players are immediately muted and if they disrupt fleet ops, they're just flat out kicked. Playing EVE does require thicker skin than with most games simply because of the nature of the game. It's kill AND be killed, not kill OR be killed. I absolutely love it. Also, my character is advancing while I type this message on my lunch break at work even though I'm not logged in. Gotta love that. Oh, I've been in Amarr space for local chat. Trust me, you might be able to get a clique together you won't hate, but the community as a whole? FFXIV is a giant leaping step up over that. I've played more hardcore PVP games in my time; I thought EVE would be different because it was in space and very distant (as in the entire game feels like it's played at arms-length). It's not. It's essentially Quake in slow motion with extra grindy bits. As far as I'm concerned, EVE Online proved once and for all what the strengths of the MMORPG genre by simply not having them. It's fun enough on your own; I can't complain that the game wasn't fun when no one was around to bother me. I suddenly realized, after about nine months, that I hated seeing everyone in EVE. People in my corporation needed things, but we didn't have anywhere "new" to go or anything "new" to see; solar systems are solar systems. So my only interaction with them was to gain materials or data cores in order to expand our base of power so we could get more materials or data cores. Sort of the grind without the reward. Everyone else was, best case scenario, going to simply leave and ignore me. Even in high security space, people would aggravate you for no reason other than space is empty and they're bored. More importantly, that competitiveness isn't balanced by anything else. In essence, EVE reminds me a lot more of a game like Battlefield than a game like World of Warcraft. After you're past the PVP learning curve, there's just not much to it. The game is nothing but a PVP sandbox with a couple extra essentially levequest-style things thrown in. Minimal epic arcs. Having played games that wrench you a lot harder than EVE does in a PVP sense and enjoying a few of them, you'd figure this wouldn't be that big of a deal. But everyone who isn't you or yours, they're out to essentially disrupt you, no matter what it is you're doing or why you're doing it. Even if you've just hacked a relic site and they have no way to tractor your goods, they'll ram you just for the sheer dickishness of it. So after nine months, the second I saw a ship on my overview that wasn't part of my carefully maintained circle of "trusted" corpmates, the only thing that ran through my mind was that these people needed to just leave me alone. I wanted nothing to do with anyone randomly walking by. Which, I thought, was where MMOs were going, but FFXIV goes a complete 180 away from that. You want to see people. It's not just chat that's better in FFXIV (I really haven't talked to anyone who's gotten on my case), but it encourages cooperation and makes you happy to see people. Your nodes are your nodes for gathering, so you can do it with friends and all get the benefits. During FATEs, you want there to be more people so you're hoping they'll dismount and help out. You get EXP for helping people kill things even if they're not in your party, so saving people isn't a complete waste of time. You can both get credit for a kill and loot even if you didn't start it. Very often, in the case of FATEs, there are things happening in the open world you can't handle solo. You gain something by having other people running around in your area. As an MMORPG, I just think FFXIV is stronger for that very reason. The MMO open world cooperation means it's different than just playing a game of slow spaceship Unreal Tournament that doesn't end. FFA PVP is a little overrated, considering I could get my teeth kicked in through just about a thousand game titles, most of which don't hassle me to check market volatility to earn game currency. There aren't that many where you're hoping, and in my case happy, to see complete strangers. Even in WoW on a PVE server, you figure they're there to steal your kills. In FFXIV, everyone, even outside the community, has been really helpful. Hell, even the guys near the Armourer trainer were giving me mats without expecting anything in return (I did have some things they needed when I asked). Not to mention the people here, who are flat out the nicest people I've ever played a game with. EVE's RP community is hospitable, but you'd be amazed how thin their skin can be OOC (I essentially was tripping over people all running around taking offense to everything I said the last months I was there). Unfortunately, you can't pick an RP server, either, every troll, sadfaced teen, and internet scum you didn't want to ever see get to play on the same server as you. No avoiding the toxic people if you want to avoid them. They can even look you up and declare war on your corp for no reason other than it's cheap to do it and the RP community made you blacklist them so that you didn't argue on the forums. In the end, I don't think there's anyone happier to be playing FFXIV than I am. Or would be if my mobo wasn't shot.

It shouldn't be. It's not as if you're probably even the first person on the board to feel that way. My recommendation? Try a crafting class. They seem boring at first. I was doing leatherworking just to make sure I could keep my armor updated. A week later, I'd almost outleveled my lancer class because I just wanted to open the next log and keep going. But I finally ran out of aldgoat leather and my lancer finally switched to a dragoon, needing metal armor rather than leather. So I started armoring. *taps inside of his elbow looking for a vein to just raise itself up, damnit!*

I should go into a bit of in-depth explanation, given the questions surrounding these things. I've had a WoW token for as long as they've been around. Essentially, what they do (and the reason their batteries last for so long) is to run a mathematical function that neither ends nor repeats. It figures out digits in six-digit strings at a fixed interval. When you hit the button on the authenticator, you're seeing where it is in the process. The six digits that it's "on" is your temporary passcode. When you log in, FFXIV (or whatever program is authenticating you) will ask for your passcode. It knows what six digits should be there at the given time you request to log in. What that means is that, unless someone manages to hack deep into the Square network and pulls your function from there, the only person who can log into your account will be the person with your authenticator, since no one else knows the function. That means that Johnny McGilseller in Laos can't hack your account with a keylogger even if he knows your password and username, because he doesn't have your authenticator to know what the six digit code is at. So essentially, yes, I definitely recommend getting them. They're not just another layer of security, they're practically invincible to your common, everyday hacker because they would have to be either deep enough into Square's system to know your code for the moment or they'd have to be able to hijack you once you're in. I know that I've never been hacked in WoW despite the long time I've played, mostly because of my authenticator (and because I don't torrent or do anything equally stupid). It works on the login from the launcher menu, where it asks your name, password, and one-time use password. That'll be where the code goes. I'd recommend everyone get one if you're going to be investing any appreciable time into the game. Mine will probably arrive after my new heat sink fan. I hate when I order from Amazon.com and everything shows up except for one essential component. Of course that will come on the very last day we expect it to arrive. :frustrated:

Hey, I played EVE online for like 9 months. I was also into Battlefield 2 for a while. Believe me, FFXIV's community is like walking into a Mormon church compared to a really toxic community.

I dunno, I guess I love doing FATEs. I'm not much of an endgame guy myself, at least I don't like scheduling my life around a game, but I do want to learn every single job to the max, then lord above you all with my superior knowledge. It's half the reason that the stories I've been in describe Orleans as using both a polearm AND a bow; I'm leveling both weapons simultaneously even though they don't cross in any endgame jobs. I've also got both leatherworking and armouring just about caught up to my dragoon. I think it's enough entertainment to keep me in FFXIV for a good long while.

Two observations I can make here: One, the D&D style order/alignment scale is great for beginning roleplayers who need a grasp of the basics. You should discard it at your earliest possible convenience; nobody thinks like that. Essentially, the D&D morality scale is built as a summation of two basic character traits, selfishness v. selflessness and discipline v. capriciousness. Not only is this a very limited scope of morality, but it's also somewhat inaccurate. Many people are willing to be selfless to a point, and sometimes they're willing to do something incredibly selfless on the spur of the moment, but are otherwise selfish pricks. Real morality, and realistic characters, have distinct personalities made essentially from a set of stock beliefs modified by their histories. In short, heroes and villains are decent concepts in the early string of things, but they're really not something you should aim for. For instance, Orleans Ignacius is a criminal, a mercenary, a murderer, and all sorts of terrible things. He's essentially a thug for hire. I wouldn't necessarily call him a villain, though. He himself is capable of incredible acts of kindness and selflessness; he simply doesn't see the world the same way many of people do. He's something of a ronin, someone roaming haphazardly through life while trying to maintain some semblance of discipline in his life, earning money for himself but ultimately looking out for his partners and organization. It's hard to say he's a villain when he's just as likely to look out for the little guy out of a sense of justice as he is to kill him for crossing the wrong people. The second point is that, based on point one, don't play a hero or a villain. Play a concept a bit less nebulous. Everyone's doing what they think is best; there aren't many people out there saying, "I'm screwing people over and it's absolutely fine to screw people over because being evil is kewl." If you want to play someone of questionable morality, you have to give them a reason to be that way and set out ways in which their behavior manifests. Are they crusaders for what they think is right by doing wrong, Robin Hood style? Do they just believe everyone would do terrible things if they had a chance and so they indulge in nihilism? Are they sick of society and inflicting their vengeance on it and everyone in it for the cruel life they led? Are they simply certifiably batshit-insane and think their local tailor is a plant for the demon-worshipping cult of Scions that must be eliminated and disposed of? All of those "villain" archetypes are also capable of doing things that are positive for society. "Heroes" are also VERY capable of doing wrong by society, thinking they are doing what is right and only screwing the system up. Maybe they're too strict, too fascist, maybe they have a tendency to be too lenient to terrible people or not forgiving enough to people that stand a chance of redemption. Really, the best you can do is play a character, not a concept. Focus less on heroism and villainy, more on consistency. Make sure people are doing things for a reason, not simply to fill a role.

You sure can. I'm hoping my post headed off any flames so we can get back to the, ahem, "meaty" discussions the original post spun off. *hands out some fava beans and chianti* An admin tried to ban me once. I ate his liver, with some macaroni cheese and a nice birch beer.... Pftpftpftpftpftpft.... Maybe I'll make a serial-killer character. I'm kind of enjoying my biker-ganger-ishness on Ignacius, but I've played the crazy sonovabitch before. Guess I'll dust that one off and start a Thaumaturge. In the meantime... When you're playing a criminal or a cop, it's best to keep the golden rules in mind. Your character doesn't know what he doesn't know, no matter how much you know, you can't auto the actions of other people, and always remember to use your common sense. I mean, on the one hand, if you're a law enforcement official, you can't just ambush other officers, senior or junior, if you see them speaking to criminals. It's just not smart, considering that might be an internal thing. On the other hand, if you're engaging in questionable activities, the law will almost inevitably catch up to you, and you'd better be ready if you get caught. If you want to live on this side of the law, you'd better be a smooth operator. We don't have all the information to pass judgement, as I said before. Being that I'm on Gilgamesh, it really doesn't concern me anyway. I'd say, unless you're ready to handle the inevitable, don't play the law or dabble in crime. Be a basketweaver or a soldier. Being a cop or a crook is deceptively difficult to do right because so much can go wrong for your story so quickly. As we say in architecture, think of every blatant cock-up to your design as an opportunity for development.