Yeldir Melfusor

Are you sure this is your first time, Kid? You're using the classic archetypes exactly as they're intended, as if you've been doing this for years. I bet you do quite a bit of reading.

PSO was revolutionary. I think it had the most emotional and interesting storyline out of any title in the genre, especially when you related it all back to the Phantasy Star franchise. I'll never forget how excited I was when I first pushed my way into the ruins. I've never experienced anything quite so ominous in any MMO to date. PSO2 is kinda' neat. I play that from time to time, but it just doesn't feel as meaningful or haunting. (And I miss the ridiculous items PSO had.) As for older people, yeah, we're all getting kind of crusty. Welcome to the party! Did you by any chance know a KILLBOT/Tsacar, back in your PSO days? skyly fo life

Say, con'. I don't suppose you played Anarchy Online at some point? Also, welcome aboard!

Don't worry about it, Draheim. As the author of that, uh, exemplary thread, I can say it's a textbook study on how you can mean well, sound well to one group of people, and sound like a total ass to another. I tried my very best to excite others with the reasons I'm going to Gilgamesh, and the end result was that I managed to cheese off two-thirds of the Balmung community. Whoops! Tone is tricky.

Blue Mage. Definitely Blue Mage. I didn't play it in FFXI, but I've already enjoyed the collect-your-abilities game.

What is upwards, Gush? Here's one idea: As the old saying goes, write what you know. Take your own life, and adapt it to a fantasy character. You might be surprised where that goes, or what it reveals to you about your own character. Yeldir is basically me, except he's a magical elf. Kind of a remix of personality traits and motivations. In spite of having a totally different background, and only vaguely similar goals, playing him feels really natural, because he's just who I'd be if I woke up in Hydaelyn tomorrow. As a bonus, friendships I make in character translate automatically personal relationships, most of the time, 'cause my character is so close to my, uh, character. So, try to imagine the kind of life you'd make for yourself if some multiverse nonsense remixed your life, starting from birth, into FF14. Think about how you'd react to the game world, the political situation, and what you'd want to do with yourself, in regards to the game world and story. (We've got some good lore write-ups on the wiki.) Write from there, and you'll have a rock-solid and believable character that's ready to go everywhere you'd want to take him. Don't worry about being super detailed at first. It's OK to work out the theme you want, write that, and then fill in fine details later. If you want any pointers, feel free to hit me up!

Frenzic - Oh, right. You were quite clear on that point. You ought to talk to Rock Sandbourne. He played an Erudite Paladin, and had a pretty badass RP gimmick - he leveled up by saving people from trains. I can't imagine the scale of challenge, there.

Watch out. He's got the.... SPACE MADNESS!

Howdy! Did you RP in Everquest by any chance?

Jolly good, T'sal! I'm glad we can understand each other.

Okay, I'll buy that. I've made some posts lately with the very best of intentions, that were taken very badly. No hard feelings. I hope you can appreciate, the, er, politics of the situation. We can't be having this kind of ooo-reddit-ickyyy business going into 2.0. Rock Sandbourne co, you know, they've already been having talks with these communities I so often hear vilified, and there is genuine interest on their end. Some of their numbers want to give RP a try - we're going to go out of our way to make them feel welcome. You see where I'm coming from, I hope?

4chan has decided against Gilgamesh. Reddit, on the other hand, has its own FF14 roleplay subreddit, and we intend to recruit out of them. Reddit has proven pretty reasonable so far. I mean, really. They're some guys playing videogames. I'm not exactly sure what you hope to accomplish by trying to talk anyone out of one server or another but a further division of the community you claim to be protecting. Morever, by actively trying to dissuade people from mingling with Reddit and the like, you are worsening their perception of us, instigating an "us vs them" relationship. Any Redditers who pass your post by (and they are, in fact, among us) are going to take your story back to Reddit, which harms the efforts of the Gilg crew to cultivate a good working relationship with those guys. In short, you've acting like kind of a jerk, T'sal. Don't be the stereotypical isolationist roleplayer. That's really going out of style.

Hmmn... "This meeting did not merely go well, but was quite enjoyable." I meant "merely" kind of like "just". So I said the meeting didn't just go well, but everyone involved enjoyed it, too. Sorry for any confusion. I thought it went well in every respect except for the problems caused by Skype. I was especially impressed by the attitudes of everyone involved. Very good humored. Based on that alone, I think we're going to pull off our goal of integrating Gilgamesh into us.

I added a quick edit on the brief discussion that touched on that very subject, Rock. I'm sure we'll organize on a voice chat server next time. Now, off to bed!

GILGAMESH AUGUST 10 2013 MEETING. This meeting did not merely go well, but was quite enjoyable. At first, an introduction to the concerns of the community, and then, a discussion of interests and motivation of character and gameplay for the attendees, who numbered approximately 15 during the majority of the meeting. Thanks to all who attended! A summary of the meeting is as follows, in order of issues presented: Item #1: The friction between servers: It was established that friction between Balmung and Gilgamesh is inevitable and blameless. There is, independent of reason and rationale given by the communities of both servers, a competition for new members. This is the core of a predominantly civil competition between players on either side. It seems unlikely that an immediate solution exists, but it also seems likely that it will dissipate to a large (or total) extent after launch, as the RP communities on both servers will have a wealth of new players within the game to entice into joining their linkshells and roleplays. An additional problem of friction between Balmung and Gilgmesh relates to the self-advertisement of Gilgamesh RP'ers. Attempts to stress the potential virtues or goals of the passionate but fledgling community getting started on Gilgamesh are frequently seen as implications of inadequacy by Balmung players towards the Balmung community. In most cases it is felt by the participants of the meeting that this is not the intent of Gilgamesh players; rather, a specific psychological problem: How are the players of Gilgamesh to distinguish themselves in a way that does not implicate that Balmung may lack the virtues the Gilgamesh community is reaching for? Example(s): If Gilgamesh is touted as the new server, Balmung can be construed as old. If Gilgamesh is advertised as having an especially inclusive community, it is possible for a Balmung player to assume that this advertisement implies Balmung is not inclusive enough. Feedback from Balmung players on this subject is desired, to develop methods of advertisement for Gilgamesh that are not perceived as antagonistic to Balmung's efforts. Item #2: Reddit and other internet communities, and their presence on Gilgamesh. One of the primary concerns of many new members (and some old ones moving to Gilgamesh) of the RPC, regards the presence of other strongly motivated communities who have also claimed Gilgamesh as their FFXIV home. Reddit is the most obvious example – they are numerous, and have a variable reputation. The consensus of those at the meeting was that conflict with Reddit on any scale is the worst possible outcome to their presence on Gilgamesh. Their are numerous, organized, and can be supportive of each other. It is largely agreed that any conflict with so large a community would be one that the fledgling RPC on Gilgamesh cannot win. To that end, the course of action that was indisputably in the favor of all speakers on this subject at the meeting, is to welcome Reddit at nearly any cost. This includes, but is not limited to: Formal invitations to the Reddit FFXIV RP community to participate in our events, tolerance for out of character participants from Reddit at public events that are intended for in character interaction, and a general interest in recruiting from Reddit and Gilgamesh's “standard” player base, even if this includes spending a great deal of time teaching them the ropes, and turning the other cheek in response to hostility. It was also remarked, to general agreement, that these players represented our future on Gilgamesh as an RPC, and that we would either recruit from them successfully or dwindle to numbers that are inadequate to sustain an independent roleplay community. In this circumstance, a move to (re)integrate with Balmung seems likely, as the official stance of the HRC is that a third server option will not be supported. Item #3: The possibility of choosing another server than Gilgamesh was raised briefly. This suggestion was met with universal disinterest. There were no dissenting individuals on this point. We have settled on Gilgamesh and will “dig in” for whatever may come. Item #4: Additional subjects that users have raised: (My memory was imperfect here, as I was charmingly compelled by a couple sweet girls and a handful of bold bros to write a summary of the meeting after it was over and after I had put away several substantial drinks – Dewdrivers, PM for the simple recipe - the last of which was insisted upon by a certain Isis, who I can't help but notice seems to be calling me out for my lateness in delivering these notes, and for my inebriation.) At this time I can only recall one other major item of discussion – but I'm willing to allow for having missed one, or two, or three. If I did, please chime in. What I do recall: There was some support for Gilgamesh and Balmung alike to have their own general/ooc subforums, for the discussion of server-specific topics that are neither scheduled events, nor character directory entries. This is not all that useful or necessary as today, but the release of 2.0 will create discussions relating to trends, situations, community observations or other things that are distinctly server-specific, and would likely be confusing when posted in the RPC “general” subforum, requiring users to attach [bALMUNG] or [GILGAMESH] to their thread titles simply to avoid misleading players as to where the dicussion really applies. A simple example: An deficit of a certain gathering profession on one server would create economic problems that required discussion to resolve, but these discussions would not apply to the other server. Having subforums for this kind of thing would simplify communications of this kind. The subforums would need to be cleverly titled to avoid confusion with the present general forum, which is seen as something that should remain for FF14 discussion that is not server-specific. EDIT: One other thing did spring to mind, after I had finished this impromptu report. While the participants of the meeting proved surprisingly self-organizing, even to the point of causing the organizers of the event to contentedly abandon their own speaking schedule, Skype was not as impressive, and had multiple instances of difficulty when networking a voice call among 15+ clients. The next meeting will probably take place on Mumble or Teamspeak. Typers are welcome, although speaking is encouraged. ... Beyond this point there is mostly a haze of laughter, drinking and eating (I was hardly alone in this excess), good stories told about how we came to choose Gilgamesh, prior games played by various members of the meeting, and other pleasant social topics. Good fun was had by all, several hours after the end of the meeting. Now I'm off to put away a few bottles of water, pee for two minutes straight, and have a nice sleep. Be sure to attend the next meeting!

That is very strange. Do you have a link to the original thread? In my wildest imaginings, I can't wrap my head around how this would be construed as an attempt to antagonize the community. Your OP is so reasonable.

Arg! Let me sober up, at least. Trickery and exploitation of binding language was exploited to coerce me into my unexpected duty.

Meeting notes have been constructive in retrospect. Many good things were said in voice chat, and some drinking occurred. I have been misled into constructing a synopsis of the meeting after the fact. Outlines have been created to this end. However, I am a tad drunk. This will be completed tomorrow.

"Squeep Squad".

Ah, ha. You point out something quite true, Ildur. In the short term, the methods I have outlined are not at all effective in preventing disruption. They actually render one more easy to pull out of character, as most of my suggestions involve redirecting the one's attention in ways that are distinctly more time and energy-intensive than popping a few people on ignore and going about one's business. I think I can give a little better context, here. The methods I drew up are not intended to protect one's immediate immersion, as an incident of trolling is occurring (with perhaps the exception of method #2). They are intended to create a lasting impression, and to change how trolls view roleplayers, perhaps quickly or perhaps over a long period of time, in a ways that will (in the majority of cases) disinterest the most tenacious and organized of trolls, not in an individual sense, but in a communal one. They will find the act of trolling roleplayers less interesting in a total sense. This is the goal. Said more simply, I am suggesting a short term sacrifice for a long term payoff. I should probably credit Val for this particular post, too. Ildur, and then Valystia, were pretty dang enlightening to read, in terms of the two ways of looking at this.

Hohohoho. Straight to the lady's heart, you.

Indeed? I have done my best to design my strategy based on personal experience, and what attitudes myself and my peers found the least exciting to antagonize. I can say with total sincerity that myself - and the kind of people I did this with - took the silent treatment as a challenge to find novel ways of intrusion and disruption. I'm hesitant to reveal more details about this, as it might paint me as a character who doesn't belong in any roleplay community. Your problems with my method(s), I've noticed, all seem to stem from the belief that simply ignoring these characters causes them to go away. Perhaps our experiences have led us to believe differently, because we have seen different results to the same strategy. If my countermeasures prove unnecessary, my reaction would be one of both relief and unmixed pleasure. I hope you're correct in your assessment, actually! It is so much simpler when they just go away.

I wouldn't undersell the stability of Balmung's community. That's how you're getting most of your new recruits.

What did Kirby have to eat to produce that? Stem cells. That's got to be it. Oh, as for what you've described, it sounds to me like you'd find most of the linkshells on either server to your liking. As much as I'd like to insert a thinly veiled Gilgamesh advertisement, I can't really think of an excuse, in your case. You're certain to be welcomed anywhere. If you have any questions, or would like to know what makes any of us tick on a personal basis, please drop any one of us a PM! I'd love to talk with you more.

Hi, Aether! Why don't you tell us a bit more about the kind of RP you like? Would you consider yourself heavy, light-hearted and humorous, or something in between?