Iex

Not a helpful answer but: I don't have a clue about any of those questions.... I am sure someone will come along with a better answer than: "As lore is revealed and I am sure the quest chain for Ast. will reveal some." Curious myself.

Some people who stand around don't have rp/erp intent of any kind and are instead idling to read the rp. To me thats boring and I wont do it, but out of those 20 idlers, 10 are looking for erp hooks, 7 are waiting for someone, hoping for an approach, and 3 are just idling to read everything else and won't rp / do not rp. Ive got a lot of those people in my LS, it happens. Weird but they're happy so w/e. I... am not sure what you mean by that. You just restated what I said. I don't think the people who are reading things and happy about that are the ones feeling slighted by folks not being social/rping with them.

So... I don't think this thread is anywhere near it was started as, though it is quite frankly the most amazing example I have seen of what the thread was about. (This post ignores the attitude issue that may be present.) Though.... Honestly, I always thought the purpose of the RPC was to provide an out of game resource for Roleplaying in the game of FFXIV as well as a place for folks to discuss concepts RP thoughts and matters such as that. A tool to establish contacts for RP and help folks with similar interests in RPing connect. I did not think it was supposed to be a place where you build your friendships. I would say media such as Skype, IN game, or other messenger services help you get to know people better because if there is confusion of behavior it can be corrected immediately. I do not believe the RPC is supposed to be telling folks what they can or cannot do with their friends in any matter. It is a neutral ground where things can be discussed (a marketplace if you will.) and not a guiding hand. Friendships do not happen magically. For some socially active people it is easy, and for others it is quite perilous. However, expecting friendship to find you is always going to fail. The same is true with RPing. As a Quicksandite I see generally... 5-20 people normally just STANDING THERE without a single line of RP waiting to be approached, even with "walk up welcome." Some of them naturally are erp alts and some of them are waiting for someone they know. Waiting will get you no where. (What does this have to do with RPC) I direct your attention to the event forums. If you are not the type to be good at walk ups, I suggest you GO TO EVERY EVENT YOU CAN. The clique everyone seems to be talking about isn't what folks thinks. It is the clique of being proactive in RP and demonstrating to folks you are eager to RP. Folks will respond to someone wanting to RP if they have seen it isn't going to be a one sided affair. Why don't you see a bunch of the people on the RPC in the Quicksand or outside of events? Because they have a big circle of friends who they RP with, but they attend events which give them a chance to meet new people. People have limited time, and people are within their right to RP with the folks they want to. That being said a bigger presence in game from proactive RPing and attending of public events tends to reflect on folks actually knowing who you are and more likely to be social with you in game and on the forum. It won't be instant. It won't be quick. And you may never get the attention of the group you first were aiming for. But... you will end up getting nestled into your own little place that is comfortable and you enjoy yourself. Being proactive on your in fixing 'problems' rather than trying to find things causing them to blame seems to me to be the better route.

I do not believe Lynx has gotten drunk, mostly probably because he can never afford enough of the cheap stuff or any of the good stuff.

Honestly, if you have been to the Quicksand you probably seen Lynx around, be it cleaning or be it just talking. While I am not the best at walk ups, I still give it a whirl. (though with my gouged finger typing is interesting) If I seem to miss your post you may just need to send me a whisper of "ey my character referenced/talked to your character. On the note of walk ups, I know they are quite hard to do at times because after you rp toward about 4 people with not response it gets discouraging. I can pretty much promise not all characters are going to get along with my characters, but if I am in the Quicksand or at Grindstone (after a few rounds) you can probably just give it a whirl. It is unlikely I will be at Grindstone this week due to IRL relatives from out of state stopping by and then wanting to go out of city for dinner, but after this weekend I should be around often a lot the next couple weekends.

*adds some cans and what not to his post* I was referring to when folks clash on the forums different methodology can and values can breed into sour behavior intentional or not. Edited so that Tiergan's post is correct .

Part of the issue with growing forums and growing communities is that topics that have been discussed to death will often rear their head again in ugly ways. I am not referring to questions about lore that reappear every other week. Fact of the matter with those is the second they are off the main page they tend to be fair game because it is difficult to expect someone to search the forums beyond the first pages for the exact answer to their question. I am referring to the threads that keep popping at least one a month in which the same people take the same stances and verbally spare with the same comments. Such as ERP, representation, sexism, elitism, and other REAL LIFE social issues being applied to a fantasy game where they do not exist. All of them are under the shallow guise of RP discussion but clearly never stay there so it becomes personal for everyone. These threads seem to come in threes and end up kinda getting everyone at each others throats for some reason or another. Over time it will build up to a bit of a sour time for everyone for a bit. What can be done about that? Fuck if I know. The other thing to note is, not everyone is going to mesh well RPing. Some folks are looking for particular things from RP, be it adventure, be it psychological thrills, be it slice of life RP, and of course that list goes on. Folks also have a different method of getting that rp, a recipe if you will. Some people have it this way: Internal Conflict (between characters) -> Resolution -> Bonding -> Growth -> cycle repeats. Other people have it this way: Bonding -> External Conflict (World affecting them) -> Growth -> Resolution -> repeat. You can arrange it in any pattern you want. However, if folks have a different methodology to getting the RP they want than other people, it can create tension. It can also flat out create barriers for RP all together. If someone prefers bonding first or external conflict over internal conflict, RPing won't really happen "easily" between the people and can even create OOC tension because the way the characters react will be based on the style of RP the individuals want. Folks can get excited for the prospect of RPing an idea with someone, but because what the individuals want and the method of getting it does not mesh well, the RP may quickly fizzle out due to a member of it being uninterested or the RP may simply never start. (This is just from personal experience) All of this can bleed (oh another word that causes massive thread issue) into folks whether they realize it or not. People like rping in ways that they think give the best character development or enjoyable times. When you think something is best, you may end up voicing your opinion about it a bit too strongly and because the lack of 'tone' in text it can be taken the wrong way. Those who don't get "RP" style along may start to think folks simply don't want to rp with them and feel isolated as if they are being stonewalled. And since my train of thought has completely been derailed while Rping and trying to post and I don't know where I was going with this.... here is a dancing Cactaur: :cactuar: Edited for better word choice pointed out by Tiergan.

A lot of my post deals with NPCs vs PCs because my experience rarely involves PC characters going after each other outside of 1v1 or maybe 1v2 2v3ness. 1. Ideally if you have a large group of people, you would OOCly establish a posting order only to deviate from it when OOCly agreed (aka someone being attacked and player b dives to take the hit instead of player a) The posting order generally is based on the situation. If it is an ambush... the ambushers etc. Generally, it is a good idea for the "GM" if against NPCS to get the first go just to set things up. 2. In larger groups vs smaller groups, I tend to have the larger groups not go any more than the smaller groups but have them do MORE STUFF on their turn so to speak. This is mostly so the PCs get to post often as well. As a GM you tend to need to post a lot, and sometimes it is best to dial down the detail a touch to get more things happening, and have more things happen per post so you aren't posting 3-4 times per PC post. That may be difficult to do if the PCs are fighting in separate areas or against their own personal foe. In Player vs Player, it is only fair everyone gets a posting turn unless otherwise discussed OOCly. 3. "Powerlevel" has a couple different ways to approach depending on the foes. When GMing Pathfinder or something, if the creature itself doesn't have an attack 'style' I will apply a personality to it. Vulture: Goes after the weak (meaning low power level/injured people will get focused on and likely need help.) Prideful: Goes after the strong as sense of pride of beating the big guy and not wanting to be seen as weak. Guardian: Generally, goes after whoever is attacking one of its allies. This often will go after the leader as well. Coward: Cheap shot guy, so once again may go after weak person. Tactician: This one is more reading the battlefield and going after what seems the smartest at the time. (I avoid this one except for bosses and such because I don't want to "compete" against my players as the GM.) (there are more I use but that is a sample.) In general RP... this question flows quickly into 4. 4. If I am the one assigning the bad guys to fight certain people, I go for the way I think the players will enjoy the most. It may be being led by me, but it needs to have something for everyone, or at least something folks will enjoy. However, after I have 'assigned' in my own head who is going for who if the players change how I expected them to behave I roll with it... This could mean chaotic or more 1v1ish. A lot of times with mass combat if you are RPing the "fodder" I don't.... really treat the fodder with much concern. I let them be fodder and fall quickly... save for a few stronger ones. 5. Friendly fire... really is up to the people doing it. Sometimes a bad guy will sacrifice some lesser to get a good hit on a foe. As for player characters a lot of RP I have seen ends up with the line. "With friends like these who needs enemies." 6. Mass combat need patience from all parties. When you have fights with more than 3-4 people time between posting can get quite long. (The record I had was 1 hour... I cried) The "GM" often has to forgo detail and let the players have the fun with that until the combat thins out of the strong remaining. Often a solution is to have folks split off so they can continue their fights without having to wait for player B to post. (the 1v"1"). One RP I did I split the party into individuals at had their own enemies. It meant I was doing three times as many posts and my posts weren't as detailed as they could be, but it allowed the RP to keep a good pace and allowed each player to have as detailed posts as the wanted for their character. Then when they were brought together again, the combat style turned to 'fodder' where the 'scene' was set and then the players could include their kills in their posts so no one was waiting the GM between posts. Finally, it returned to a more organized posting order with the GM when the enemies were reduced to the strong and it needed a stronger guided hand. Mass combat is very tricky due to the fact everyone has different styles of writing, different pace settings, and limited amount of patience. The other problem is we have fights that last an hour that in real time are 30 seconds if the detail is too great. In most films we see the protagonists in a mass battle and most everything around them is too chaotic to follow and people die left and right with little more than a stab, but then when they encounter a large strong foe the details of the fight get fleshed out and rest of the battlefield becomes a backdrop. If we have all PC characters at once... you have too many "protagonists" for a cohesive and well paced battle if they are all together. Everyone wants lots of details... and the devil likes those. Honestly... a "MASS BATTLE" between PC characters seems nigh impossible without splitting it into smaller chunks isolated from each other without running into mental limitations of players. EDIT: As I find poor word choice this post may change.

Now the real question... Will Rocks replace all weapons, and thus improvised weapons and classes replace all other classes. (This nonsense brought to you by the fact about 25% of the successful hits I was able to witness at Grindstone last week... were rocks being thrown and successfully hitting their target.)

In the case of Grindstone, you probably should come an hour early (yes an hour). Normally, there are quite a few people there already and the mechanics of organization aren't taking place yet. Once it starts, getting in RP with anyone until about the 3rd round might be tricky because tons of people are running around trying to make sure things go smoothly with 30+ people signing up. The people who run it don't want it to go to 3-4 am, but before the event offically starts you can generally talk to competitors and even staff a bit easier. If you get knocked out quickly, about 30% of the fighters stick around to watch at least one more round which gives you some conversation chance. If you are really bold at least a half dozen to a dozen folks will still be there after the final roll. (But that can be pretty late for some people).

Ah, just coil and bug fixes. Thanks Kage and Kell.

I have a feeling 3.0 will be mostly all Ishgardian matters (Beast tribes, Dragons, Bismark, and Alexander) but its ending credits (in realm reborn it was the celebration interrupted by Bahy roaring) will be Lord Lolorito announcing that the Sultana has succumb to illness and passed away and call for some time of mourning as well as building LOTS of memorials for her. 3.1 probably will have quite a bit to do with Ul'dah again probably freeing the one armed man with his son. The issue Lord Lororito will have is he basically 'won' by appealing to the downtrodden via their greed and desire for success and power they once had in Ala Mhigo. I think.... there is going content update of a civil war where the WoL and the "dead' scions are backed by Limsa and Gridania because neither of those leaders believe what is going on and BOTH leaders knew the Sultana was going to abdicate her throne (2.4 ending scene I think). They likely will not want to be 'allies' with a power the know they cannot trust. Personal silly theory: The one arm man's son will become the new Sultan when things become 'resolved.' More on topic: When all is said and done I think the Royalist and Monetarist dynamic will continue to exist into the next dynasty. The Royalist (currently) has popular support while the Monetarist has the funds to corrupt. If one is entirely remove it will cause chaos and death. You need happy people for good profits (Royalists) and you need money for national safety and growth. (Monetarists)

Only in japan some time ago there was a Monster Hunter Online. Like 200 people attacking the same monster that was about the size of an island (bigger than the desert one) I am just sad Monster Hunter 4 won't be on the Wii U. =\

No. I don't see many people playing the "White Knight" stereotype when playing paladins. I actually don't see many people playing paladins at all. Most folks if at all, are free paladins. A lot of people play as "gladiators" or just mercs that know a shield is an extremely valuable weapon as well as a defensive measure. Since we have no clue about the Dark Knights damage mitigation, but can assume that it is going to be sort of magical in nature (maybe... I mean warriors just can take a beating because the inner beast helps them defy normal limits of damage and pain). Shields will always be a better IC non-magic 'protection thing' without being self sacrifice of just taking the blow. My prediction is if folks aren't RPing the Dark Knight as the dark knight, they will treat the class in the same way Warriors are often treated. "A RP DPS CLASS" Just using a sword instead of an axe. I also predict the two handed sword will just be added on as a weapon to the character's arsenal. Sometimes you need a shield sometimes you need a huge ass sword to break something. As Rpers we are not restricted by 'class' not to mention you can be every class on a character. The two-handed vs sword and board are not mutually exclusive. I am sure though, we will see some 'fallen paladins' treating Dark Knight as the anti-paladin or Blackguard of D&D.

I would say great RP comes from: Not being stuck so much in your own rules of what you expect from other RPers. (Namely to referring to rping in Taverns and public events). You can have a set of preferable habits in RP and the set of rules will end up creating a core group of people you may enjoy RPing with, but the fact is if you are at Public events if you focus purely on the group of folks who conform to your expectations it will end up just making a bunch of islands with no bridges between. If you create a checklist of what you want from RP, you will end up just having an imaginary clip board QAing the RP. Naturally, you will be bothered by things here and there, but if you are super concerned about that stuff you end up thinking about that more than the RP. While we are all here for our own amusement first, (I mean if you are only playing to amuse other people that is a whole other problem) if you are so focused on only the best RP you are going to miss a lot of opportunities with people that could turn out really 'Great.' Just speaking from personal experience.

And now the joys of figuring out a 'hook' for Lynx to be there. Then I realize wait... will I be on? Maybe not, hopefully I will be able to be online and attend.

Honestly, I never really have seen much /racism/ in Ishgard. (Though that could be because of racism meaning perspective.) I am not denying there may be some... I don't know every quest or NPC chatter. They are Xenophobic in terms of they don't want outsiders to be to involved in their matters. Lots of pride of not wanting matters to be interfered. Having to rely on outsiders to solve their problems is a sign of weakness that would make other houses lose respect. Most of the MSQs in the North, Pre 2.4ish, involve you actually being purely an errand boy except for literally annoying the leaders with things until they reluctantly agreed to listen to you. If they truly saw you as a lesser being, they would have kicked you out entirely. The matter of which caused folks to trust you seemed to be because folks were too prideful to admit to things. The Ishgardians never seem to consider folks 'lesser' people, just that outsiders should stick to their outside and leave Ishgardian matters to the natives. They dislike folks trampling over their world of tradition and such in the name of "we know better than you." Which is why there was so much conflict about Garuda and the post 2.0 MSQ. They only asked for aid for Steps of Faith and such because the danger of massacre out weighed the cost of loss of pride. The fact the Ishgardians were extremely grateful for the aid (so far as to GO TO ANOTHER NATION FOR THE CELEBRATION) shows they never thought of adventurers and other nations as lesser just... over Zealous in their ideas of 'good for everyone.' A lot of racism exists between the Elezen and the Moonkeepers, where the Elezen genuinely don't see the Moonkeepers as a civilized race. (Archer storyline and Lancer Storyline) We, also, have to remember Racism in FFXIV is different than in real life. There are actual differences in the races and traits that define their ability. You don't get call racism for giving the heavy box to a Roegadyn rather than Lalafell. It is a fact of life. ((If anything a lot of folks are racist (or nationalist) against Ishgard because they are a bit colder than everyone else (/pun) ))

Well... Let us be quite honest. There is a limit of how realistic we can be without trouncing on RP. If we were being HYPER realistic. There would be a stigma against even rolling a Male Miqo'te. A stigma against Moonkeepers males that stick around in Clans. A stigma about saying you are an Ishgardian outside of Coerthas. A stigma about your character being involved romantically with another race (that lore post about how rare half-breeds are due to culture differences and the NPCs for HM Wanderer's palace being kicked out not because of them being interested in the same sex but rather a different race.) Ul'dah will (I say 75% chance) stay as the primary RP hub even with Ishgard being opened up, due to it being a zone you can go to at level 1 to 49 without problem. Hence all the new Au Ra will be there, unless you are saying newly leveled characters aren't allowed to RP until 50 unless in racially correct areas. As role-players we end up breaking with realism all the time in terms of cultural aspects of a race. The core of the race may still be there but we build a character off of it. You character is not Miqo'te #5694 Type #5. Your character is (insert name here). If you cannot find five words to describe your character without one of them being their race or sexuality (ziiiing) you may need to work harder on it. If a character has a nomadic family that ended up in south, it doesn't really affect anyone. It is a hook to explain why they are here. It is not an attempt to create racial lore. They want to RP simple as that. A similar matter occurred with everyone RPing a Doman, but in that case of that folks were literally creating the culture based on (cough) anime japan (cough); however, no one seems to blink an eye at a Doman character anymore. Right now it seems folks are just trying to figure out bend what we know to work with an Au Ra character. A lot of parallels have been made between Miqo'te and the Au Ra. Now we can be bluntly honest here and no one can actually deny it. There are a lot of Miqo'te being RPed with no regard to their lore and treating them as cat people rather than a FFXIV race. I half wonder.... if a lot of dislike about folks eagerly wanting to have an Au Ra is some desire to 'make sure the RP community' RPs them "right." A second chance so to speak. Frankly... given that the possibility of glamoured Au Ra remains viable as more and more lore is revealed. (Technically the disguised Yugri makes the Raen being among us completely possible since travelers from the east was possible long before 2.uh..2? and for sure at least after 2.2). I would even stay RPing an Au Ra vaguely is a good idea before the drop. Why? Because it allows you to create the character before the race. Even if the 'dramatic reveal' I was an Au Ra all along. is a bit... cliché, it allows you to have connections and depth already to the character. They have friends, they have motivations, and they have goals. I can assure you the introduction RP for every character you meet as an Au Ra will get old. TLDR: Applicable to the whole thread: Folks trying to use the lore to make their character work shouldn't be discouraged from trying because it doesn't fit perfectly in the cookie cutter of NPCs. They are using the lore without creating it. Even if the concepts may be cliché such as "left their tribe," it means they are recognizing the lore but have established that their character acknowledges the standard but has IC reasons for not falling in line with it. Footnote: If everything I said gets smashed by a lore drop, good for them. It means we have more lore and I take everything back.

Another possibility for those wanting to play nomads (since it seems a lot of people don't want to play the Doman ones possibly due to the doman RP stigma.): Since likely the tribes have been fighting for a while... your tribe get mostly defeated and destroyed and then you just being nomading you way through life. If your family is tight knit you might want revenge/die honorably or maybe you realize it is somewhat hopeless for one person to defeat another tribe and just flee.Not the HEROIC choice... but still fitting. Really not much was truly revealed other than location and social structure of loner and tight knit families. We also know all of these are 'standards' not hardcore rules via evidence presented by other race NPCs that don't follow the racial standard created by SE. Just because your character is going to be 'different' than the standard doesn't mean you are going to fall into SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE EXPECTION SUPER AWESOME MARYSUE... (insert other trope stuff here) territory.

I have seen you around the Quicksand etc. Of what I understand there are two Au Ra clans, one of which shares a naming convention similar to Doma (implying they are close in some way to that nation) and the other has a /sigh/ yet to be announce unique naming convention. I assume she is the tribe closer (all be it the other one are nomads so pretty much they could be among the Domans in theory) As far Au Ra in general... technically I am considering making a character one, BUT I am keeping all the absolutes so entirely vague about his past etc so that as the information is revealed I can see if the whole plan can work or if I just get to scrap a two month character as a silly side project. As for his "glamor" I am merely being rather vague about things and make him rather protective and attached to a necklace with a small shard of crystal on the end. That way if it turns out I cannot rational his Au Ra status in my own head... he just liked his necklace a lot. He also mostly keeps his body well covered to prevent physical contact, and he can't feel his ears, which could just be a quirk or something else. As more information becomes available if to looks like the "glamored among you" thing will work for me personally (I ain't gonna tell people what they can and cannot do). I may become interested in joining some sort of linkshell for Au Ra. Best of luck though! (Also grats on getting to the end of Grindstone I think I caught a bit of the end there.)

Separation between IC and OOC only goes as far as you are OOCly comfortable. In the situation you stated, if I was uncomfortable with the apparent motives of the individual wanting to take me to a private place 'to assess' I would have two options. OOCly contact and ask: What are you planning to do? There is no harm in asking. If they want to do something you don't care to do such let them know. Hopefully they are understanding. Or, if it is quite obvious he wants to put your character in a situation you are not OOCly comfortable with(for that day or just in general), bend your character some so that the RP does not continue in that direction. IC never should override OOC sensibilities. It is far easier to soothe a bit of character bending than to be dragged into RP you are not OOCly comfortable with at that level. Your character's personality is meaningless, in the end the player behind the character is the one calling the shots... all of them.

Gonna side with the folks who believe getting into a community is a two way street, partly because I fail at it, but is my own failing no one else is responsible. Emoting in general and at not toward anyone in particular is not really a 'good' way to get into the RP scene unless it is in a smaller setting with less people (which is honestly the easier way to get into RP.) This is why active player run taverns/repeating events are good things. In the, for example, Quicksand there are so many people it can be a challenge not to lose yourself and focus on those around you. In order to get involved in RP it is very similar to PVE. The player needs to put his best foot forward, be willing to learn, not expect things to happen over night, and not expect folks to carry you. How does this relate to RP? Going to use Nara'to as an example. He recently is returning to the community, but a lot of people remember how he 'exited' last time, which is part of the reason he is finding it hard to get into Rping with folks on the RPC. People here are not machines that just get used with no consequence; they remember how folks interact with them. First intro post. He made on February 28th which was a typical connection looking post. It mentioning how he was shy etc; however it also mentioned his method was a bit.... 'I expect people to come to me.' He was polite, though somewhat passive aggressive toward the matter, but it could be easily be excused as social anxiety. The posts after that consist of folks giving him advice and consequently them 'being shot down' by the 'this confuses me' or 'I don't want to jump into an FC without knowing entirely what is going on." Both are technically valid reasons but if you are desperately trying to get into a community, you are shooting yourself in the foot. Exit post came two days later or more exactly 53 hours after his connections post. This post basically was laden with the 'community has failed me.' In reality, he never gave it a chance. 53 hours or 37 waking hours (giving 8 hours of sleep between days) is simply far too brief of a time for anything substantial to occur. Between the absurdly 'guilt trip' style of interacting with folks, short window of interaction, and Passive aggressive player note in game, Nara'to was not putting his best foot forward and was expecting to be carried. Since then he as created a New connection post which seems much more level, but the problem is... people remember how he exited. Thus he is going to have a harder time getting into a community he all but said 'Fuck you' a month ago. I wish him the best of luck because he has a steep climb ahead of him now. Am I trying to demonize him? No. I am just providing some evidence as to why it is not just on the community's head for getting people involved in RPing. The community should be welcoming and eager to help provide some assistance, but frankly not everyone is going to have time/desire/ability to RP with all new folks. New players need to willing to give the process of getting into RP a chance, not guilt trip folks into RPing (which frankly is the fastest way to find yourself without rping), and put their best foot forward. RP will not come to you unless you first go to it. Shyness can only be rationale so long as you do not use it as weapon. Being shy sucks, trust me I know, but unfortunately the only way to break out of it is to surround yourself with other people. It will be awkward. It will be nerve-wracking. It will down right suck. Sometimes you will want to disappear. Sometimes you will feel like a spectator to everyone else having fun. However, the effort you put into things will be noticed, and folks will want to have you along as long as you are trying. It is a battle that no one can be your white-knight to carry you into paradise, but so long as you honestly try and put your best foot forward in how you interact with people, there will be folks there to help you along. .endcheese

I preface all of this with…. “in my opinion” so that I do not have to add that to everything. First of all, what is this event? According to what I have read “an OOC event in game for discussion between FC leaders +1 about the state of community rping on Balmung.” Now, ignoring the ‘potential’ problems with the content of the event, what about the physical mechanic. You are having 35 FCs discussing things so naturally you will need rules and what not of who can speak In game you are limited in size of post by 500ish characters and the chat window can only go so wide and resets randomly when someone posts. Mechanically it will be difficult to discuss things in game in a reasonable time for everyone. Speaking of time, some FCs are from different time zones so finding a time where they can attend the entire meeting. (If the meeting is timed to two hours very little will even be discussed with that many people.) Going to the matter of ‘community:’ what is the RP community? By definition it is everyone that RPs on Balmung RPC or not. If you are recruiting for this meeting to be inclusive with the community you cannot exclude those not on the RPC. The RPC is optional and not required at all for being part of the Balmung community. You are also only including FCs, what about the folks who are not in FCs or in PVE guilds but RP a lot. They are part of the community. I understand the concept is there is a limited amount of space etc, but in reality the execution of the idea is looking to be more exclusive than its goal. Not to mention… a lot of events that are designed by folks are not actually led by FC leaders. Relying on the people who keep the cats wrangled to also provide the community ‘content’is honestly putting all the load on one donkey when you have three others tied to the first by leads that could also carry some of the load. Also, the idea of having an IN GAME OOC EVENT is downright a waste of time regarding this matter. It will take more time and planning to find a time for OOC event than using the “RP DISCUSSION” forum right on the RPC. It would be easier to ask the thread to be heavily moderated and lay down posting rules than to try to get your 35 FCs into one place for 1-2 hours. Using the forums also prevents character limit on posts, less confusion as to what you are talking about thanks to quotes, a ‘permanent’ record of what transpired rather than logs and ‘recordings, and finally actually open for the community to see and interact with, because you could have folks message questions to be introduced to the discussion. The belief that anything can be accomplished in 2 hours with 35 FCs attending is downright borderline idiotic, pardon the bluntness. The in game discussion about the community is like talking about stuff behind closed doors so even if harmless it will bear the undesirable scent of a ‘ruling body separate from the masses.’ In closing, making a formal-ish discussion about RP events and stuff is not a bad idea. The execution of it in a semi-private, in game, time limited, ooc discussion is a bad idea in my opinion and honestly a waste of time, unless the goal of it is to basically pat each other’s back in a mock ‘we are doing something for the community’ ego stroke. The medium the matter is taking place will prevent anything but that. edit: lawl formatting

Think people should remember this is a Japanese game therefore will have an aesthetic of that region of the world for their entertainment. (See movies, cartoons/anime, other games, toys, and so on.) Not to mention the US is a 'secondary' market so data from those servers would likely be considered secondary to data from Japanese servers. Before 2.0 there was not even female Highlander or Roegadyn to be played. (Nor Miqo'te males.) The smaller and softer female vs Male is a consistent trope for all the races except Lalafell which fall into the "cute race" trope. Even the "amazon" Roegadyn females can be dropped short enough to be confused with Highlanders. Female character models actually have the largest height change allowance (Roegadyn females being the cap of that for now). Really... we don't know exactly how different the Au Ra will be until the benchmark drops. So I don't think they caved to much of anything other than probably going to Idea #56049 out of 100000 because it looks like it will be popular. I doubt they scrapped initial designs for numbers, I bet the current look was one of the many designs presented before fan data. Now going into more than aesthetics, what makes the character quality is not the looks. Do people love the Admiral because "amazon woman" or because she is just damn awesome in every thing else. Edda was cute and petite but she obviously was not someone to be messed with, deluded as she was. Y'stola is 'cute' but by far one of the most imposing members of the scions. Yda honestly is the 'muscle' of the scions, while not the brightest (well.. honestly I think she just pretends to be foolish to banter with her Lalafell bud.) Of course there are examples of more "Amazonian women" such as a certain axe wielding scholar Roegadyn or the Gladiator in the Hildy lines, but both of their 'physical traits' get sidelined by the actual characters. Most of the Archetypes that color our perspective on their physical traits come more from how the characters are played rather than their physical traits. We have so many 'cute lalafell' we end up not being able to take them seriously, which is why ones that don't behave always cute are well loved. We have so many ... uh... Catbois and Catgirls we end up seeing the whole race as those tropes rather than the way they are presented in the game. A lot of midlander females are soft spoken and shy so we end up seeing them as frail. Sadly, this trend is why folks are seeing Au Ra as frail and cute despite all the evidence we have so far is they are anything but that. Yay, for stereotypes and tropes! (Also the inverse exists everyone expects Roegadyn and Highlanders to be brutal fighters etc.) Mind you... I am not denying folks are attracted to certain body types. Just was discussing other aspects of like or dislike of races other than how warm folks get down there.

Gonna start with… this probably should go into FFXIV forum rather than RPing forum because that particular part of topic is long since gone the wayside. Regarding Zeta, as someone with one I feel inclined to note something. I have never once seen anyone brag seriously about the relic. Until recently, relic was actually considered more non-endgame, because before Zeta it was rarely BiS for more than a few weeks if at all. To be honest folks with Zeta are more likely to be talked down to if they don’t know something. If you have Zeta you are expected to be good. A humorous twist on the whole elitist thing, I would say. Regarding comparing DS (2 etc) to FFXIV: That is comparing apples to oranges. The selling part of the Dark Souls franchise is the difficulty and the fact you must be PREPARED to die. MMOs have never had that aspect. MMORPGs are designed to appeal to a wide demographic of hardcore to casual players. Sure most MMOs will have Hard modes (Heroic Raids or whatever they are called in WoW, and Savage modes in FFXIV), but in general the difficulty of MMOs come more from coordination of many folks and overcoming unfortunates such as lag and miscommunication. In Dark Souls you only have one person to worry about (if you aren’t invaded): yourself. Regarding Elitism in general: Frankly, you are going to run into dicks who will rub it in your face that they beat T13 before you, or that they are better than you. It is natural. I mean I am sure folks don’t like it when their sport team lost to another and those fans goes bragging. However, in the case of elitism in FFXIV the onus only rests on you and how you handle yourself when you are being “elitist.” Someone being an ‘elitist’ (read rude)? Ignore them because you don’t take the game seriously, or if they are being rather annoying at a point where it bothers you (we are all human we will get bothered): leave the group or blacklist. No one is making you play with that person. It is your 15 dollars so you can decide what to do with it. If they are really being terrible it is likely they will get vote kicked. Along that same vein, a lot of people in this thread have posted gripes or expectations of other players. The thing is…. You can’t have expectations of ‘stranger’ players. Not everyone is going to play well, and frankly some folks are really quite bad at games in general. The thing is: You don’t have to play with them. The $15 allows you to play the game the way you want, just like everyone else. You can spend that $15 worth of time playing with folks you know play the game the way you enjoy and they know you play the game they way they enjoy. What I am saying is… playingwith friends. The primary Roulette (expert) is party friendly! You never have to do Duty Finder for that. Expectations of other players can only exist when they are set down at the start, aka Party Finder. If the person says ‘know the fight’ that has been established they want you to know the fight. It isn’t elitist by any standard. Established Expectations =/= Elitism. Hence why if someone is botching up a lot and ignoring the advice in a Coil group… they might find themselves kicked out because they do not meet the established expectations for the group. Roulettes and Duty Finders exist to provide folks who don’t have a pool of friends a way to get content done and the like. You are given bonuses for doing them as a daily reward, but also because it might honestly be hell. In that case, if you have expectations you are setting yourself up for failure, and if you go off (rudely addressing the issue) on folks because it is not going the way you want, you are an asshole. You can just as easily leave the party as you can go off on other players. OF COURSE I am not touching the fact that if you politely try to get folks to fix stuff for the sake of everyone else and they go off on you. That is just a mess where nothing will end up well. Frankly, in most games their isn’t so much Elitism in PVE or RP as there is just people being dicks because it seems that is the default way to deal with things when they aren’t going their way. ((Before anyone brings up CT… don’t… it isn’t worth, it those raids will always bring out the worst in people.))