Harmonixer

Throwing in a vote for Log Horizon. It's really dialogue heavy and expect some filler, but it covers some pretty interesting subjects and handles itself well. A lot of people make comparisons between it and Sword Art Online (which I do -not- recommend) but they are very different from one another and I'd argue that Log Horizon is much better for people who actually play MMOs and generally understand what online communities are actually like. Lots of it is drawn from the writers real experiences and are based on people you might even know in your current social circle. Season 2 has far more filler but much more 'heavy' episodes towards the end. The visuals are really budget, cept for large fights so expect to listen more than to watch. It's still a favorite of mine though. Another vote for Samurai Champloo, if for no other reason than it's music. Nujabes, rip. But honestly it's a very solid animation that will likely stand the test of time. The presentation is understated and focuses on delivering emotions through music and 'movement'. Ouran Highschool Host Club somewhat challenged my ideas on what could be considered 'silly' and actually outright impressed me sometimes. It also features a few episodes that stand out in my memory as being much better than any other series. It possible stems from my love for jaded romances, but I think certain aspects in the story really stand out and earned my respect. Speed Grapher is pretty solid, but like Yssen mentioned it's got some mature subject material that might not be for everyone. Yondemasuyo Azazel-san! is the series I'm going to recommend because it's different. Even people who don't normally watch it anime. All you need is a sense of humor and a strong stomach. So long as you don't mind incredibly vulgar humor and it even helps if you hate certain tropes in anime. It's violent, it's gross and it's really funny and you might even cry a little. It's about demons, the people who summon them and why angels are actually awful and how stuffed animals shouldn't be fucked with. There's OAVs and some short series. Watch them in release order and curb any expectations. It's just going to throw you for a ride anyway. I went into this expecting a bunch of fan service and dick jokes and came out with orbital sides. Highly recommended. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and it's 2nd Gig is pretty excellent. You've likely heard a lot about it and maybe even seen an episode or two. A lot of people find it pretty boring but I'm a fan of the cyberpunk genre and things related to it. The stories are all tropes of such and do them very well. I find it to be one of my favorites and I don't think that will ever change. Following that up, Psycho Pass is another you may want to try. A cyberpunk world in which all emotions and criminal activity is monitored by the Sibyl System. The color of your 'psycho pass' determines your level of danger to yourself and others around you and a special police force is employed to enforce this. Just remember that they are trying very hard to 'replace' GitS in a lot of ways. The promotional art features the female lead in the same style as the Major and sometimes plots of episodes are outright references. It's the same studio unless I'm mistaken and tries a little harder to 'shock' the audience but I think it has real shining moments and can sometimes make a good point. The characters are sometimes overly stiff and constantly contradict themselves but the setting and villains are really compelling. One thing can't be denied, it has some of my absolute favorite intros for any show ever. And... Space Dandy. Just watch, it doesn't need to be explained. Most people either hate it or love it, but it also has one particular episode that stands out above all anime I've ever seen. It's a spoiler to watch this, but this scene sold me on the series. I could never speak ill of it, even if I tried.

They had to know the wrote a character that is generally not well received. I enjoyed it, it made me cringe a little when it came to the actual combos- that's more to do with my own background in the genre though. I laughed and appreciated them even sharing in the first place. I hadn't heard a lot of those characters in their original voice work. Papalymo is my boy, LET'S TAKE 'EM TO CHURCH!

Yooo, you can color the scales? (Tbh, it looks more bone-like to me) I had better see some good color combos from people. They can REALLY stand out more than they already do if that's the case! Also I recall hearing somewhere they could have mild decorations on their horns. ICly I planned on it anyway. Still happy to see!

I wonder if they are going to introduce 'procs' to the game. A fair few combos in the game don't really require the button space, and could just be baked into what already exists. I'm not pleased with the lack of TP being shown, but there has to be a reason for it. I also wondered with new skills being introduced, how we'd have enough to go around unless they just do skill cost reductions. Rotations being different is something I expected, but happy that it's confirmed. Even if I just learned how to MNK, new stuff to learn is a fun experience for me. I really can't stress how happy I am that the Au Ra aren't modeled after dragons though. It bothered me for some time now. Sucks we have to wait on lore, but it is what it is. At least we have dates! Relatively at least. Also, PvP adjustments? They mean que times right? Cuz hooooly fuck they are still terrible.

Oddly, I'm perfectly okay with this. It really eases up a lot of the lore hangups I had. Now it's a matter of getting those naming conventions. Very excited about the new dungeon, curious about the lore. I like that they call it heroics internally. Thanks for the post! A lot to think on.

Many thanks! Excellent stuff here.

While I tend to always side with the free spirits doing it for the love of their craft, consider that at least 17 well-known modders decided to take a cut. Valve's not to blame if there's a market (or specifically, a supplier) for these things. ...maybe I'm wrong, though! Maybe this is an abstract ToS pull or something that renders mods as belonging to the developer or platform on which they're distributed. I didn't look into the litigiousness of it. In the end, though: Valve can't sell you what people won't sell them. And I don't fault them or valve for doing them, upon reflecting. There are plenty of people who don't quite feel comfortable with donating to paypals, and the like. This is a much more forward format for someone to be inspired to continue to do good work and balances out the effort required. Something like that anyway. I think my 'fear' stems from the thought that people will think this is how it 'has' to be done. If that make any sense. It should always been a choice when. DLC is a sore subject for me, but I have strong opinions for jaded, selfish reasons. Edit: It should be clear that I'm not flat out against it. I wouldn't change it given the chance. Just voicing a concern really.

I thought that when I read the OP I was being fucked with, but as this thread continues it's becoming quite clear what this is. You aren't dumb here, quite the opposite actually.

Even as a modder myself, I don't have much good things to say on the subject. Really it comes down to me going 'Well, I suppose.' I know for certain that people who want to support good work will find ways to do it. This somehow 'spoils' the way it's worked for so long. I understand the intent is good, but the execution makes sort of go: 'Eh.' I wish everyone the very best, but as stated earlier. Pay for what you want to support and lucky for us, there are plenty of people who want to be part of the community for little reward other than the virtue of being able to even do it in the first place. I think some people deserve praise for what they do, but the thought to do something to gain something doesn't seem to sit well in my mind. All the best to them, truly.

I myself can vary a bit. I tan incredibly well, I can get really dark, but I stay a relative lightish brown tone I suppose. I'm Thai/Puerto-Rican irl. My characters tend to have very dark shades. Currently I have a duskie. Before that, I had a very dark highlander. In other games that have odd shades, I usually do darker shades of purple. I have a habit of making my characters generally darker if I can help it. I think it started with the fact that I saw it less often. Unless you count the every popular color scheme of black and red, but that's usually armors. I myself favor golds and yellows. Originally it was just to be 'different' and had little to do with my own appearance, even if I do stand out somewhat compared to some of my friends. As time went on, it's just what works for me. I do have a few pale characters on other games, but it's lore reasons. I'd argue I'm not picky when it comes to myself, but I know that I'll always pick darker skin out of habit. Which is funnier yet to me, because I find pale skin really attractive for some reason. A contrast thing maybe?

Shadow Hearts series. Without question. I think with the right amount of work people would be blown away by that series. It's aged well in story, but not so much in visuals. Clean up a few of the game mechanics and put back in all the removed content and side stories and you'd have something easily AAA quality. Failing that, Onimusha. I still believe the first game was highly overrated and kind of bleh, but everything after that was really solid and completely improved as a whole. If they redid them and made some adjustments to the games mechanics it could be a very welcome addition to any library. In a perfect world though, someone would remake Phantasy Star Online Episodes 1 and 2. We have a lot of things like it, but nothing that quite reaches that eerie spaceloot and scoot feel like it does. The story is exceptionally dark and the whole universe itself was just the fucking best. A full remake with modern visuals and keeping of most of the core mechanics (yes, even section IDs!) and I'd be set forever.

Ah, alright. I'm of the personal opinion that atmospheres and environments that are too shielded by policies that promote politically correct niceties and seek to impose "we're all friends and we all have to get along!" utopias generally can't support large communities after a certain amount of population growth because when you stuff too many people into the same room, those policies start to fail. Why? Because you can't force everyone to get along without going totalitarian and transparent. But that's just one man's opinion and I'll be standing by the updated rule sets and policies once we release them. I wish the mods the best of luck with this, in complete seriousness. I stepped down for my modding responsibilities simply because I had no patience for it.

I really wasn't prepared for this ride. But I'm glad I sat down.

I did it, I finally read through everyone's posts! I'm actually surprised that a fair amount of people that I thought would have opinions on this, are no where to be found. I'm hardly instigating, mind you. It was really an observation. Speaking of which, I've had the pleasure of speaking to a fair amount of you now. In my short, 3ish months on being actually active on this game? I made a few friends, working on some new ones and have for the most part discovered who I'll be avoiding and luckily, more than I'd like to pursue continued interactions with. You might ask 'wtf does this have to do with anything?' Well, none of it would have happened if I hadn't met people on here in some way. Be it LS, FCs, whatever. Lots of posts catch my eye. I've actually been lurking here since 1.0. I just never bothered to reg because I wasn't actively playing and I enjoy being part of a community semi-actively. I've watched people come and go, see the 'drama' and seen lots of very happy people. But more recently, it's seemed mostly positive. A lot of the threads I've participated in, were pretty cool discussions and I learned a lot of stuff. Some of the so-called troublemakers are actually really grand people, come to find out. At least, from my interactions. I didn't list my character for a long time, I don't have a wiki because the race I plan to play isn't even in the game yet. When I joined some LS, the most common thing I heard was 'holy chit, you're Harmonixer from RPC? I didn't even realize'. Part of that was the plan, I guess? There are definitely cliques here. There are certainly celebs, even if you don't want to be labeled as such. I'm sorry, it's just something that happens in social circles. However the things you do with such labels, chosen or not, is very important. I've said it before, -most- of the people I've interacted with have been very kind of me. I don't really leave an impression around here I don't think. Most people don't even recognize my character in game. (Who can blame them, I've fantasia'd him oocly a number of times, I didn't even start actively rping him until maybe a month ago?) Whenever I've asked about events, I'm given the proper info or directed to where I can find it. If I've asked someone to RP, they are able to communicate to me accurately if they can or want to. I have been ignored, but I know for mostly certainty that it was not intentional. There are people that have said things to me that have -really- rubbed me the wrong way. It's vague, I know. But the catch is I've not thought to myself: 'This community is really hostile.' Or 'Things sure are heating up.' I don't think I'm popular. I don't think I'm hated. I like to think I'm mostly neutral in the regard to the general populous. Things I have noticed: A fair number of people who aren't regulars are very quick to proclaim 'RPC is a shithole! It's so fucked up how this and this happens, and me-me-me-me and my friends are really looked down on!' Some of the more popular people have even said things much to my shock like 'So and so is a horrible person and this and that!' when me, the person typing this has seen nothing but wonderful things coming out of this persons fingertips on my screen. Does that mean they are indeed faultless and not capable of things that they are being accused of behind their back? No, but I would say the sheer amount of negativity coming from people that have shown me that they are mostly negative and generally unhappy sure does tell me a LOT about their own thought process. Surprise, I don't think a single one of us here is special. I actually think a fair amount of you are wonderful, I hope some of you who have taken the time to listen to what I've said think I'm at least somewhat worthwhile. But I'm not going to get really hung up if you don't. The community that I normally frequent is extremely hostile and very hateful. I've seen some absolutely horrible shit come from it. Which brings me to the next part. If I had to really wager on the subject. I'd say more good is coming from here than harm. Most of the raw things being said, are behind each others backs. I usually get to hear about it from people because of gossip, random things I catch from going to events and just observing in general. I don't think removing rep or stars or whatever is going to make a bit of difference. I don't think 'growing thicker skin' or 'being more sensitive' is suddenly going to fix stuff. It's going to take effort on all parties to figure out what they are really trying to say. Altho I do agree some people need to stop playing victim, because that actually is taking place in a lot of cases. My theory is, the people who think this place is the worst thing ever will do better to just actually leave. I don't think their horrible people at all. I think they'll be happier exposing themselves to different outlets and realize that they are as much of the problem as they claim to be against. Someone recently pointed out to me, it's healthy to vent a little. Without the intent to harm others, sometimes you just have to bitch a little. I'm supportive of this, but once it becomes a consuming facet of your existence, it's better for you to place your passion somewhere else. You'll be happier, I promise you. As for the OP? I think it's just a matter of some people being much bolder with their opinions because more people are becoming brave enough to say things in general. It's a rise, a reaction and it's not very different from how it's always been. Denial on my behalf? I certainly hope not, nothing is at stake for me here.

As I read all of this, a thought comes to mind: Is this sort of thing in place to fill in the void of 'faction' gameplay elements? For the most part, outside of PvP- we as players are united. ICly from what I understand, adventurers work together and accomplish a great many things. There isn't a Elyos/Asmodian conflict, or a Alliance/Horde thing here. We have some friendly shoulder punching when it comes to Grand Companies, but it's mostly representative of the city states and for variety, general life to the game. I do agree that this subject is interesting, but I wonder if somewhere they thought against making this gameplay related as an effort to prevent splitting up the playerbase. Regardless, I'm struggling to decide if this is what I want the focus of the games story to be on. It's mostly predictable at best and at worst it sometimes executed hamfisted. It's difficult even to make criticisms of the game in certain circles because they are quick to defend it without looking at the bigger picture. I do enjoy this, I have been and I hope to continue to well into the expansion, but it's somewhat of a dangerous juggle to do stuff like this and still keep the 'the power of peace and love will conquer all' among the 'powerstruggle of basic human ideals and desires'. I'm awaiting patiently to see what they do with all of it. It's important to me they take the time they need to execute the story they are trying to tell, because I feel with the right amount of time it could surprise and even impress me. It's gotten better, but it hasn't quite gripped me just yet. Close, but I may just be overthinking it, as ever. I just don't want the ascians to stick their grimdark dicks into everything and suddenly override the whole 'btw, real people are just as evil if not worse than everyone else'. Also constantly challenging what the definition of evil is, but that's another rant.

Considering the sheer size of the blade, it can likely protect quite a bit of space. It just requires better placement, martial strength and perception. The way I see it, in some ways it would be better to be behind such a huge weapon than a shield! Obviously it's more limiting, but perhaps more stylish if nothing else. Conduits for magiks as well. I can't imagine anything being a replacement eitherway. There's a place for it all.

Or a Doman military scout who finds delicious irony in turning Garlemald's weapons against them. Or a bounty hunter who had a pair of crystal-powered energy guns made to go with his stolen/upgraded Garlean armor. Or a retired Flames soldier who finds that a carbine-type weapon doesn't agitate his injury and makes a good ranged weapon aside from hand throwing axes. Or a combat mage who keeps a high-caliber semiautomatic squirreled away for emergencies. Or a guy who fell through a rift to another world is perfectly normal, thank you very much, and does freelance "ambassadorial" work for the Maelstrom. I'm sure someone is going to at some point.

Coffin-sled rides sound like a lot of fun to me and Yhur. I fail to foresee a problem of any kind. They are all likely to be snappily dressed afterwards as well. Don't worry about where those clothes come from though. They won't need them anymore.

Hard to say with the current amount of lore we have. There might be reveals later on or in the quests themselves that confirm it either way. The Dark Knights may very well recruit more people - any likeminded people - for their cause in the hopes of spreading their sentiment further throughout Ishgard or even outside of it. But you don't have to sport the title to use a fighting technique very similar; it's essentially just a certain use of magic + greatswords + armor. Anyone can do that with enough training! Bolded this so I could speak on it with you. I'm thinking this to be the case as well. I was racking my brain about it all night, trying to figure this out. Like Seriphyn mentioned, it seems very out of place to have an Au Ra doesn't it? Yet we have singular auri like Yugiri in Doma and then this character in the promotional cutscenes. She still seems somewhat out of place to me, but I'm slowly starting to see where it fits into place. Going to say since the WoL is an outsider, it shouldn't be any different than them as it would be to us as PCs. I'd also venture to say the ideal of DRK is going to be far more important than the origin of it. Everyone everywhere is going to need help, not just within Ishgard. MCH knowledge would well extend past just fighting the Horde in that regard as well.

Oh, I hadn't considered any of this till just now! I like to think people are pretty creative and will come up with clever ways to integrate them into RP. Hopefully anyway. I myself am trying to do something that will be reasonably presentable. I'm glad they have more of a 'loose framework' so far instead of a hard and fast set of rules. People will disagree simply to disagree, but if we all had the same precise thought process- what fun would that be?

Well to be fair, we know that Raen also associate closely with the Domans and... uh, they're not doing so hot right now. They're doing plenty hot. You could say Doma's really on fire right now. I can't tell if I'm mad you said it or if I'm laughing so hard it's turning into rage

Let's be real, the people that aren't going to RP with each other aren't doing it because of something like this. It's a collection of other things. I've said it dozens of times now, people aren't that bad here. Many people I thought would flat out ignore me didn't. The road goes both ways and I'm not really picking sides eitherway. So who's going to start the first DRK ls? Or do we think they operate alone? I expect MCH to stick together to some degree.

I swear we need an fourth wall breaking Mythbusters crew for this game. So, this isn't an incredibly flattering story but I'll share it as best I can. When I was younger and in highschool I thought it brilliant to spit some game at a fine young lady in the seat behind me. Much to my surprise, her very short, stocky brother was within earshot. While she was quite charmed by my dashing advances, he was not. So, when the bell rang, I felt a tiny, yet burly pair of arms wrap around my legs, lifting me up off the ground. Before I realized it, I had been deposited in a nearby trashcan and informed that I was to rethink my decision. If it had not happened to me, I never would have believed it. I stand at around 6' and that fellow could not have been more than 5'nothing. I never exchanged blows with this guy myself, but I witnessed several occasions where braver ones that myself did. They did not end well, many times it was hardly amusing and almost horrifying. I wouldn't say this closes the book on it, but it's since tainted my opinion on the subject. 'Don't fuck with the little guy'

I daresay that's going to be the issue that all Au Ra are going to run into. Yeah, I fully expect people to sigh upon my characters appearance. It's going to be that way for a long time. I've stated before that I've been quite fortunate with the people I interact with and have very little issues with. ICly however might fare a bit differently. That bleed thing comes to mind again. So long as people aren't just in RP for themselves there should be no problems. It is kind of funny to think I'll 'have to earn the trust' of some tho. If I didn't have something in mind already, I would have definitely rolled a pale scale fortune teller. I know it's typical, but I oh so love the travelers life in RP. If anyone does something like this, let me know! I'd love to RP with you.

I'm gonna die from blood with all these lacerations I have from reading the lore. That's a good thing, mind you. For appearances, I was going to go with the dark skinned Au Ra. Amusingly enough, I've also been working on the Warmonger title. In a lot of ways, I'm pretty happy with everything about the race, I've been fond of tribal stuff and find that it doesn't always show up where I want it to. Here it's quite welcome though! Hmm, there's going to be a lot of lamestorming on my end about them. Expect a lot of questions from me, as ever! Speaking of cuts, DRK isn't as brooding as people wanted it to be! I'm quite glad for this in fact. I thought it was going to be like this, and for the better. AST seems perfect for the pale scales, I hope to see a lot of RP with it, since I'm a fan of stuff like that. Fortune tellers are important to every circus, even if the real thing is a scam. Then comes the MCH. BANG BANG, FEUER FREI I like it! It makes sense to me and I hope people embrace it. Of course people will now add this to the list of things they argue about, but it'll be entertaining to the rest of us, if nothing else. So, question about Yugiri now. Obviously she's a pale scale. But do we know if she's native to Doma? Maybe I misunderstand but maybe she wasn't always? It's WILD SPECULATION or I'm just flat out wrong. Going to have to read some more.