Yeldir Melfusor

I can say that the biggest drive for me in regards to choosing Gilgamesh, in spite of already having an established 50's character on Balmung, is the opportunity to build a new community, perhaps with more of an easygoing, cowboy mentality. I tend to like "melting pot" servers and the friction they sometimes provide. Balmung is stable, set in its ways, and is a good place choice for old and new players alike who want an orderly environment with an established community to fit into. I think most of the new players who choose Balmung will like what they find there. For everybody else, there's Gilgamesh, the overpopulated gold-rush server. Yee-haw! We plan to do a lot of our community recruiting on Gilgamesh by drawing in people who haven't really been exposed to RP. We're not merely welcoming to people new to the scene. We plan to build our community with them.

Those of you who express distaste for, or don't think the problem will be serious enough to require these kinds of measures, you have chosen the right server for you. I don't think Balmung will see a whole lot of trouble. I'm quite certain that Gilgamesh will, which is why I wrote this with Gilgamesh in mind. And I stand by every single one of my statements as both tactful and necessary in the coming environment. If you don't believe that, that's all right. You don't need to, if you won't be playing primarily on Gilgamesh. If you will be playing on Gilgamesh, and you don't like what you've read here, I implore you, give it a week, or a month, and then read this again. This document might suddenly make a great of sense, particularly after you've encountered the variety of troll that has hitherto been unwilling to play FF14. There's a certain psychological profile - selfish, vain, impatient, mostly - that couldn't stomach 1.0 longer than a week. This kind of person has been responsible for the perpetual souring of roleplay communities in certain other popular MMO's. These people are going to enjoy 2.0, and when they crash RP's, they are both organized and persistent in a way that, if you haven't been in TERA or WoW or the like lately, will shock you. If you simply cannot believe this stormy forecast, you need to merely glance at the open beta thread in sig. That is the "lowest common denominator" of Gilgamesh, and if we do not immediately improve the perceptions those very people have of us, the Gilgamesh RP community will find itself adrift in foul waters.

I won't miss this. However, I'm taking the level 20-everything challenge, which is three days of non-stop mindless level grinding. What is the timeframe for the event? I'm sure I can fit in thirty minutes or an hour of Yeldir's time. EDIT: That's funny! The first image didn't load when I wrote this, but it did now. That answers my questions.

Yeah, I don't think anyone is going to be put off by that. Take your time.

Lack of acknowledgement is frequently seen as both an admission of being troubled by their actions and a challenge to be more intrusive. I hope you don't mind me saying so, but we've all had it good on Balmung, in regards to trolling. 1.0 was seen as so bad that it couldn't hold the kind of players that really organize their efforts when it comes to disrupting roleplay. The people joining Gilgamesh contain a social element that is for more persistent, toxic, and aggressive, than anything we've seen in FF14 so far. They will find ways to escalate any encounter they see as challenging, and there will be far greater numbers of them than we are used to coping with. I genuinely believe the stone-wall strategy will prove largely ineffective in dissuading these individuals.

[align=center]Foreward:[/align] This guide is specifically intended to the benefit of the Gilgamesh community, who have the heavy task on their shoulders of finding acceptance and a balance of quality and accessibility on an (over)populous server with no shortage of trolly types. In its writing, I am drawing on the experience of being both a roleplayer and a troll. (You won't catch me doing the latter in FFXIV, because it's got a great community, one that'll never replicate the terrors of Goldshire. And anyway, I'm a little old for that kind of shenanigan. Honestly. Promise!) But I've been on both sides of this fence, and I'm going to tell you exactly how to defuse the ticking misconceptions regarding roleplayers here, and how to best desensitize trolls to their own sense of amusement at what they do. This little field guide in videogame psychology may be directed at Gilgamesh, but it could be useful to just about anyone. [align=center]Chapter 1: Avoid bad by looking good.[/align] [align=center][align=left] There are four major negative stereotypes that your average player holds over people who like to roleplay. They are all real, and they all started somewhere. I'm going to go over each one of The Big 4, and how you can present yourself (and by proxy, your community) in a light that banishes the negative expectations some people may have of us. By breaking the major stereotypes over our knee, we will find ourselves increasingly accepted, and by doing this, our community will grow in size from new recruits, and in quality from a reduction in hostile encounters. On Gilgamesh, especially, the burden of proof is on us, not them. As Spock always said, "The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few." Like it or not, if we're going to have a good time on Gilgamesh, that's how we're going to have to think. On to the stereotypes, and what you can do to erase them! Stereotype #1: "Roleplayers get in the way of how I want to play." We've all heard the stories - mixed raid groups disrupted by in character chat, group members wearing the wrong gear, or refusing to use certain abilities when they're needed most. We all know these cases are an extreme minority, but they happen, and that's got to stop. What you can do to stop it? Understand when your immersion cuts into theirs. When you are in a "mixed" style party, with roleplayers and non-roleplayers, drop your character. Completely. When you are in a dungeon, raid, or fate, every other player is counting on you to play the game as rapidly and efficiently as possible, with a minimum of thees and thous. Every single act of roleplay in these environments slows their efforts, and in extreme cases (such as raids), actually endangers groups and patience with wipes. If you want to experience gameplay content in character, form groups exclusively for that purpose. Never, ever roleplay when it can detract from the experience of the people you're with. Do not expect them to understand what you are doing. Yes. I am asking you to sacrifice your immersion and present yourself with humility. You will be rewarded for it when the people you do this for don't show up at your character's wedding for a surprise Blizzard 2 snowstorm. Stereotype 2: "Roleplayers are cybering weirdos, and ERP grosses me out." I'm not going to weigh in on the vices and virtues(?) of ERP. That's not what this is about - rather, it is necessary that we recognize that a sizable body of people view this facet of roleplay with extreme contempt, and that there is nothing we can do to change how they view this form of RP. What can you do to alleviate this contempt, then? Do not ever engage in any kind of sexually-charged writing or action in public channels. Keep it behind closed doors under all circumstances. This does not merely apply to actual character-on-character intercourse, but any form of content that could be taken as sexual, or a prelude to, in-character sexuality. Do not publicly describe your character's sexually enticing features in public channels. Do not make sexually exciting advances on other characters in public channels. Even limit casual affection, like hugs and friendly pecks on the cheek. The most innocent of gestures can and will be perceived as the actions of a demented community. That is unfair, yes. There is no way to convince these people to respect your right to play and write as you see fit. There is only damage control. You can still play how you want to, but it must be seen only by people who want to see it. If people who don't like ERP don't see it, it can't irritate them. That's the bottom line. Stereotype #3: "Roleplayers spend so much time RPing that they never learn the game." This one is used as an excuse to moan about roleplayers even when they show up to progression-related events out of character. If you're a known RP'er, some knuckleheads are going to assume that you're bad, with absolutely no inkling of your true hidden power to be good at videogames. What can you do about this ridiculous presumption? Heh, well. Be damn good. Know your classes, come to raids with all applicable consumables, ask about how to beat any encounter you haven't done yet, and, when the people around you are struggling, be a leader. If you're not the kind of person who likes this kind of powergaming, don't attend progression oriented raids and dungeon runs. Gilgamesh is going to have a big and somewhat snotty progression community. There's going to be a few firestorms. Don't get involved unless you like to play their game exactly how they play it. If they don't feel like we're holding their progression back in some way, they have less motivation to come after us and spoil our fun, and they will be more welcoming to those of us who want to raid with them. But there's one more stereotype that needs eviscerating, and it may be the socially destructive of them all. Stereotype #4: "Roleplayers are isolationists. They don't play well with others because they look down on them. They think their RPs make their gameplay more meaningful than my own." Root of the other three, I'm convinced. The core of all our struggles, I am convinced. Allow me to explain: those first three stereotypes all have one thing in common. They hint at perceived lack of respect, on behalf of the roleplay community, towards everyone else. I know that must of us don't feel that way, at least not consciously, but, after an enthralling three hour session of creative writing where new friendships are forged, old enemies are unearthed, and you and your friends are taken down a corridor of twists and surprises, how would you really see Joe Average sitting down with a six pack and spending exactly the same amount of time killing the same boss over and over again with his bros, just to get a footgear item that pushed his stamina up three points? A footgear item that he was going to replace in a few days, anyway? When you compare what you're doing to what he's doing, do you find what he's doing just a bit banal or wanting? If you do, please don't. We're here to have fun. What he does for fun and what we do for fun - these things are beyond, even removed from, merit and validity. So there it is. If you respect the people you're playing with, regardless of motivation or interest or even intelligence, and respect their right to decide what is and isn't fun for them, suddenly it becomes unethical, or at least deeply impolite, to break out into a soliloquy mid-raid about the dragon that killed your father, if you're with people who are just there to get loot. There's a lot of people like that on Gilgamesh, and you can expect to play with them. Expect to have to give a lot of respect to them before they realize they should be returning it. Don't expect to be respected first. There's a lot of bad blood that need scrubbing. That's the big four. Remember that we are being collectively judged based on the worst actions of a few of us. When one person behaves like their roleplay owns the place, or what have you, the entire RP community looks bad to everyone involved, the friends they tell, and their pet dog. Your actions as a single person have a rippling impact on how much fun we all have on Gilgamesh. Speaking of "we"... [align=center]Chapter 2: Inclusive includes everybody. [/align] [align=center] [align=left]We've got a lot of events planned for Gilgamesh. A lot of us going there are fans of what they call "tavern rp" nowadays. Show up in character, interact in character, and then go home with or without becoming involved in a complex or specific storyline. This is going to serve an incredibly vital purpose on Gilgamesh - it gives curious Redditers and the like an opportunity to poke their head in the door without having to worry about becoming invested in anything, or being condemned by us for just goofing off in the "tavern". Now, if you're not a fan of tavern RP, and you like strong, directed storylines without distractions and goofing about, what you do for fun is your business. Look at these public events as entry level RP. You'll eventually find people who have the interest and the time for the stories you want to tell and hear. To that end, tavern events are valuable. They produce recruits, a small few of which you're going to want in your linkshells. This is just one reason to support these events, by supplying yourself or your time, even if you don't personally care for them. There is a much larger reason that we should all care deeply about public roleplay events with no entry requirements. These events will be our "face" to the server. This is how new players are going to see us in action. If they see us banging out amusing events like beach parties, auctions, bazaars, exploration expeditions into seldom toured-territory, theater presentations, and all that other good stuff that is fundamentally public in nature, and they feel like they're welcome, in or even out of character, we have successfully provoked their interest, while making them feel comfortable. Let me go over that again. I said welcome people out of character, to publically arranged events for which we will all be in character. Let that sink in for a moment. Consider the Renaissance Faire phenomenon. Ask yourself where the good ones get all their shining knights, splendid lords, beautiful ladies, capering jesters, and many lovable peasants. All in character to some extent, and most of them enjoying themselves, even as they're surrounded by screaming children and discarded smoked turkey legs. You'd think at first glance, that event would be so much more enjoyable if everyone had to be in character to attend. But where did the people who are in character (and enjoying it) come from in the first place? They came from that laughing, belching crowd of tourists. You take them away, and there are no more knights, no more lords or ladies, no more jesters, and the peasants will all be talking like "hey dood wtf", again. We all started in that crowd, in some shape or form. And that's why I'm asking all of you to seriously consider welcoming and interacting (in character) with people who are there to gawk. If we're fun and inclusive, we will be pulling fresh stories, new characters, and longtime friends out of the crowd. The alternative is to ignore them, or tell them to get lost. (Same thing, really.) This is an automatic declaration of internet war. It's not one we'd win. Public events would need to be private, and making private events public would quickly become a popular sport. So I say to you, make public events truly public. I mean John Q Public. Require nothing of the people who attend, and offer them your best. Treat them in exactly the same way you treat others in character. Be creative, be humorous, and be fun. Yet we all know that there's just no pleasing some people. [align=center]Chapter 3: Beneath the bridge, they wait.[/align] [/align] [align=left]You've been inclusive, you attend raids with a well-known progression guild, who are glad to have your skills, you're been respectful to everything that can blink, and you've forced your character and your wants on no one. And now, here comes ten guys who don't give a crap, to treat you two three solid hours of Blizzard 2 and personal harassment. That is as bogus as it gets. It's on the horizon for each and every one of us. Dealing with the kind of person who can press their 5 key and nothing else for three straight hours, and derive some kind of satisfaction form this, really requires some kind of hitherto unknown psychology degree. Jerkology, or something. Good news! The Doctor is in. I am a Jerkologist. I was born a jerk, and made a career of self-study out of it. I've done some extremely jerky things. I've macro'ed quite a few rude emotes, and pressed their buttons many, many times. I know exactly why I did it, and I know exactly why our hypothetical ten bullies are doing it, and what will actually cause them to stop. And that isn't an easy thing to muster up, unfortunately for us.[/align] [align=left]We must discuss their motive. There's only one, really, and it drives everything they say and do. They want to make you unhappy. This makes them happy. Worse still, roleplayers have a reputation for being among the internet's most enjoyable targets, as how highly they value immersion and community makes them deeply susceptible to distraction and alienation. Beyond that, there is no hidden premise, no event in anyone's past that drives them to bully. This desire is a primal weakness of the human species, and it has no cure, and no solution. There is only damage control. There are three main ways to go about this. The most effective method is also the most difficult and requires the most patience and good humor. The Primary Strategy: Effective damage control against trolling sounds a little bit like the after-school special nonsense that bullies the world over love for making passive, easily abused targets. It's simple in theory, but very difficult to put into practice - don't let them think they can get a rise out of you. It's all about what they think, in this case. How you actually feel has very little bearing on their actions, when you compare it to how they see you react to the harassment. Habitual troll communities only become dislodged when they become bored. Your goal is to cultivate a sense of disinterest by presenting a very specific set of reactions towards trolling, that I have designed based on my own experiences as an RP-crashing dirtbag. Here's how it goes down: When a troll initially approaches, one or two of your number must neutrally acknowledge him (or them) as an equal and a bro. Drop character and say hello in an informal or humorous manner. "What up" or "Howdy" or "How's the loot table treatin' ya'?" or one of my personal favorites "Is it cold in here, or is it just me? lol" (which is a response to ten guys casting blizzard 2). Do not use brackets or any "OOC' modifier. Talk like they do when interacting with them. Do not talk in any manner that could be construed as angry or unhappy. This demonstrates two extremely important things. Firstly, that you are not intimidated by their presence, and secondly, that you are not afraid of dropping character/having your immersion broken. If they think you're upset that they're there, they automatically win, and they will follow you all day, every day. If they think you're upset that your precious immersion was smudged, they'll smudge it some more. They cannot think, even for a moment, that you're bothered by them. This is why you must not ignore them until after the greeting, and after that, one or two of you need to still demonstrate a casual awareness of their presence from time to time. If you can't even be bothered to say hello, they know their presence is unwelcome and upsetting. You must also never, under any circumstances, ask them to stop what they are doing. Do not say please. Do not threaten, do not attempt to intimidate or reason with them. Asking in any way for them to stop is a sign that they are hurting you, and a single instance of this from a single member of your event or rp is all they need to sustain an all-day trollathon. At this point, after the crucial informal greeting, proceed as if absolutely nothing unusual is going on. If they ask any questions or take any actions that would under normal circumstances grab your attention, react normally, out of character. Act casual, answer questions. Then seemlessly slip back into character, as if nothing had happened. (Yeah, I know going without OOC symbols is a technical hassle, but your friends will know what goes where.) If you are insulted, respond with either amusement or "eh'?"-style bewilderment. Don't bother insulting back, even if you have a really good quip. Taking insults in a way that makes you seem not merely impervious to them but disinterested as well is a bit of an art, but it is the conversational equivalent of one of those scenes where somebody punches Vegeta clear on in the face, and he very nearly fails to notice. You can't merely declare the old sticks and stones line. (Indeed, that would acknowledge hurt, and therefore ruin the entire strategy.) You have to act out how it would look if it were actually true, even if it isn't. Now, they're not really going to believe what they're seeing, at first. And I mean that literally - they're going to think (perhaps correctly) that you're just pretending to be tough. You've got to keep pretending in a way that seems disinterested, and does not challenge. Trolls love a challenge. But they also bore easily. They will eventually move on. This could be in ten minutes, an hour, or a month. You're in it for the long haul, but when you pull this off, you legitimately surprise them. (I only ran into this two or three times back in my old stomping grounds, but when I did, I was forced to conclude that those guys had real balls. There's no trolling that.) Remember that this is essentially a battle of psychology and presentation. You're doing everything in your power to make them feel like you don't mind their presence, and that they could spend the next month of their FFXIV gaming harassing your group without without ever once feeling in control of your game experience. When that really sinks in, they often don't merely hit the road - they start to think of you as "all right". That may be worthless to you personally, but people have got to admire moxie, y'know? The second means of dealing with party crashers: If you and your companions don't have the time or the sanity left to appear as untouchable coolguys, leave without a word. Don't ask them to stop, not even once. Don't express anger. Disperse and re-form elsewhere. Do this as often as necessary. Unfortunately, this method is not applicable when it comes to public events, as dispersion = destruction. But for individual or private roleplay groups, this is a good way to eliminate intolerable distractions. If they follow you, consider moving to an instance that is locked to your group. With the whole lot them blacklisted, and with your group off in another dimension, so to speak, the fight is over. They'll be waiting for you, though. It is better to be seem untouchable. Better still to be untouchable. The third means of dealing with trolling, harassment in particular: It's simple, elegant, has no downside, has no special requirements of endurance or psyche, and it takes the fight to their turf, and puts them on the defensive. Screenshot and report every single instance of harassment. Have everyone in your group do this, every time, all the time. Never let the people you're reporting know that you're reporting them, as that would be a sign that they're bothering you. We've all seen "reported" and laughed at it hundreds of times. Reporting seldom works in a way that we can feel a sense of satisfaction from. Moderators and gamemasters almost never tell victims of harassment cases anything beyond that it is being investigated or that appropriate action was taken (which can mean no action was deemed necessary!). But when it does work, you take people out of the game. In a pay to play mmo, they're forfeiting money invested as well as time, when they're temporarily banned. If they're nasty enough, and insert racism or that kind of thing, they risk losing their characters forever. This does not improve the community's perception of roleplayers, but it it will occasionally snare an unfortunate troll with consequences to their actions - something they're never ready to deal with. Do it! Report harassment every single time it happens. Never shrug your shoulders and "meh", because you don't get to see the results. When a flood of ten or fifteen harassment reports regarding a single event hit a gamemaster, from individual paying accounts, they will investigate. When the same individual(s) implicated in these reports begin to rack up harassment reports, they (the trolls) become a perceived threat to the ultimate bottom line in any MMORPG community: money. That's when the bans start. ... You'll note that at no point do I mention usage of the ignore feature. This is because it is imperfect. Ignoring someone is a valid way of eliminating conversation, but it does not stop harassment. Ignore can't stop the visual consequences of emote or spell spam, nor against a posse of five or ten or thirty men who underpants dance through somber occasions, or arranging characters to depict crude nazi signs, or any of the other dozens of ways I can think of to aggravate people who have me blocked. [align=center]So concludes my little manual on being good and dealing with bad. I hope you find it useful.[/align] [align=center]TL;DR? BE NICE. BE WELCOMING. BE TOUGH. [/align] [/align] [/align] [/align] [/align]

Yeldir couldn't possibly enter - wouldn't fit his personality. But he'd definitely be entertained by being a judge, exactly as I would.

Ah, dang. I was hoping it was something with numbers. I apologize for wasting your time. Thank you!

Naturally, you can count me in, Rock.

Where's this hint at? I have no cause to doubt your accuracy, but I'd love to read this myself.

Something that has been driving me up the wall, in terms of trying to write Yeldir, is the issue of lifespan. Do we have any canonical leads regarding the general longetivity of the Elezen? If they're proper Tolkien knockoffs, we can just pick anything between fifteen and a billion and be content with that. Yet I'm hesitant to define Yeldir's age without knowing how old he shouldn't be.

Oooh. I'll show them level 20. 200 levels of level 20. Energy drinks and protein bars are packed and ready.

Glad to have you aboard! And again thanks everyone, you guys have seriously been a pleasure, thanks to every last one of you. Open Beta starts soon and thank goodness because I'm sure once everyone is playing things will get a lot better! Oh and for all the newcomers go ahead and start making your character profiles so people can start making connections with each other and such! Lets also get those FC's up as well. If anyone needs ideas for an FC they want to start just ask or throw some ideas out there for feedback! You can pm any of us going to Gilgamesh in this thread to give a hand if need be. Same goes for any event ideas, so come on, say hello and don't be shy! http://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=33 This is a top quality thread. Kudos, Rock. Your rep will be in the quadruple digits at the rate you're going! Sorta' related, I'm working on a manual for roleplaying ettiquette specifically for environments that may not be welcoming to roleplay in many situations, with a focus on encouraging behaviors that improve the general perception of roleplayers, minimizing the impact of the things we do that drive non-rp'ers nuts, a detailed examination on why the troller loves to troll RP'ers specifically, and tactics for coping with rp-crashers that are designed around the aforementioned motives. You want to take a peek at the draft before it's done? I'd value your input. That goes for anyone, actually.

We call it Gilgamesh, my good fellow. =P Snark aside, what I mean by this is that on that day, assuming the Gilgamesh community thrives, it will be the source of its own distinguishing features, whatever those may be. I think the stance the mods are taking on this one is extremely tactful. It ensures we're the ones who are obligated to sort this out, (or not). New players will view how this two-headed (and one-bodied) ettin of a community interacts, and they'll choose their server on this basis. That's as pure an informed decision as anyone's going to get. Edit: Well, so much for that. Oh well. No sense sweating the small stuff.

Now I think we're getting somewhere, Anna. Building on the premise that there's essentially no nice way of saying, "I'm taking my toys and going to that other kid's house, see ya!", imagine for a moment that many of the people you see trying to justify their move to Gilgamesh are sounding so standoffish because they can't think of a way to say why they're doing what they're doing that comes out sounding nice. Consider my thread on the official forums. I like to think I'm level-headed and eloquent, but it was a complete disaster, from the perspective of attracting attention and garnering excitement without alienating Balmung players. What I wrote was read by prospective Gilgamesh players as I had intended it, and read by career Balmung players as something way more malevolent than intended. A good case example of the problem we're faced with. It is easy to say write one thing and have it read as another. This isn't anyone's fault, unless you were to blame the human species in its entirety.

Uh, who put you in charge of how they play their game? What I mean by that is, let's assume two-hundred ninety-nine out of three hundred Reddit players are there to kill boss, get loot. I have two questions to ask about that assumption, which can't be all that far off from the truth. Question one is, so? Let em' do what they find fun. The time they spent popping back energy drinks, wiping on bosses, and screaming with rage over teamspeak, is every bit as valid and meaningful as how we spend our time. (You didn't imply it wasn't, it's just something that makes me sound totally cool and balanced to say. ;3) Question two is, what about that odd one out? Have you been watching this thread closely? Have you seen the link to Reddit dudes interested in RP? Have you seen Rock talk about the Redditers who have contacted him about involving themselves in the community? (Okay, that was quite a few questions. The one at the top of this paragraph is the important one.) Now, if the people question two regards suddenly realize they don't know the game well enough to write a character, I'll point em' to the wiki. I don't care how they play their game, or if they dedicate a smaller amount of their time to RP than any of us. They can come and go as they like. That kind of attitude, I think, is how we'll win acceptance from that mess of a server. Edit: whoa fast thread I don't think Balmung has any problems. Yet the implication that people might be happier somewhere other than Balmung - such as myself - is rather hard to confront in any way that isn't unpleasant. Yet you can rest assured that, when I think about a new player considering both servers and deciding on Balmung, I think they will be pleased with their decision. Those of us who can't resist the temptation to try to hammer out our own community are going to be just as pleased we decided to do so on Gilgamesh.(barring catastrophic failure, which isn't something I've ruled out). I think we should all take a step back and consider that maybe both choices are immediately good for the kind of persons who make them, and that this can be true without any fundamental problems on either side of things. Not everyone likes Apple pie, even if it's perfectly baked.

It's too convenient to pick Gilgamesh, in Reddit's case, as most of them are headed there already. That those of us on Gilgamesh are even going to interact with them may be completely coincidental. Ironically, if Reddit wasn't planning on going to Gilgamesh, the guys there who were seriously interested enough in RP to play on another server, may well have chosen Balmung. But by going to Gilgamesh they get both communities and play styles. Pretty clear motives, there.

If Selsix is an achievement oriented gamer, and is going to have more fun starting on a server where everyone is level 1. He'd have less fun on Balmung, because he wants to race to the top. If the majority of the server is already 50, there's no race. Consider Diablo 2's ladder server-type. It has been an enduring method of bringing people back to play that old game again and again for well over a decade. How? By kicking off every single character from it every x months. That captures the attention of people who like a bit of competition, to clear difficulties first, to drop bosses first, and so on. Maybe you're asking why he's even on these forums, if that's why he wants to play FFXIV? Well, maybe both styles of play are important to him? They are for me. There are a few people who actually resent Balmung, but I don't think there are any of them in this convo, to be honest.

Oh, don't let the tough talk and bold plans you hear tossed around regarding Gilgamesh put you off. Ideally we want to make ourselves the most accessible environment to RP in, and that includes to you. That aspiration in itself is what ticks some people off, I've come to realize. Maybe a little competition between servers can be a good thing, if how it manifests is in the efforts of our little two-headed, one-bodied community, towards making more events to bring people in and together, and finding ways to make people more comfortable coming into (and exiting gracefully) eachother's stories. But I think you've made the right choice regarding your server. Balmung is going to be a lot more stable and less chaotic, particularly early on.

When did I say I expected it (trollins) to stop? This isn't some out-of-touch-with-reality after school special on how (not) to deal with bullying. I said I expected to find good recruits for Gilgamesh RP out of its messy community, by being robust, fun, and impossible to "get at". This is going to happen parallel to dealing with knuckleheads who's only interest in us, is trying to get a rise out of us. And when I say that, I mean, there's going to be people who can and will cast Blizzard 2 forever. I'm not the type of guy to be bothered by that kind of thing. The proximity and actions of their character no more break my immersion than the proximity of my gurgling apartment toilet. (My computer desk is right next to my bathroom.) Whatever Gilgamesh want to do for fun is all right with me, and that includes impromptu snowstorms. It's just a game.

Hey, go. Great post, great thread. As the fellow who coined that unfortunate term, I should like to clarify what I meant by it; a lot of the communities people are worried about(Reddit, for example) are in truth extremely diverse within themselves. Reddit actually has a subreddit for FF14 rp, which is gradually drawing genuine interest from their own member base. So, when I say, RP for bros, I mean a light, entry level atmosphere that is spirited, good humored, nigh impossible to offend, and welcomes pretty much anybody who wants to participate, even if they type like dis dood and lol. This doesn't mean people have to dumb down their writing, or invite anyone to their character's personal storyline, but it does mean that our public community events need to be really, really public. We need to find ways of bringing these people to them that aren't related to trolling opportunities. Rock's beach party is one such example of a situation in which I think everybody and their brother should be accepted, and tolerated, even if they want to emote spam. If they see us having fun, and laughing trouble off, I mean, really having a good time, trolling included, they're going to see us as ballsy, and they're going to look at roleplayers in a new way. And to be totally honest, I think that's the only way the Gilgamesh community can survive - by having a friendlier, more accessible face than ever before. By appearing the complete opposite of the isolationist stereotype that drives people to troll roleplayers. Maybe a discussion on the motives why people love to troll roleplayers deserves its own thread, as it's going to be the first and most important issue we'll have to tackle on Gilgamesh. I'll think about it.

Well, they're the beta forums. You could post pictures of a four course thanksgiving feast, and you'd get at least five guys calling your cooking skills into question for each dish. I don't tend to take those forums seriously enough to consider the things I hear in it an accurate representation of any community. As for the rest of your post, I think you've got an extremely good handle on the situation. You made some cogent points, and I'd have to agree with all of them. Yet, I genuinely believe that, assuming Gilgamesh endures the inevitable tribulations of playing on Superfuntime Server, accepts and finds acceptance the ruffians and bros we'll be playing with to any meaningful extent, the resultant community will be robust and flexible, and have a different "tone" to offer prospective roleplayers.

Adelpha, I am genuinely surprised that you took away what you did from that post. It was intended to capture the excitement of starting anew. I am beginning to think that post was badly written, in particular, how I phrased the legacy whoppers bit. That was directed at achievement oriented gamers who want to race to 50 on a fresh server, but the grammar is unclear. It almost looks like I was implying that would affect roleplay quality in some way, which is absurd. Yet, I need to say: There is nothing in that post that was intended as an attack on Balmung. You are filling in blanks I left blank because they are blank. Some other server is any server someone is dissatisfied with. Probably the worst thing I said about Balmung is that it has a pecking order. It does. That's a benefit to the kind of people who want to start out on Balmung - the kind of people who want a strong established community with well-understood rules and self-policies. It's a detriment to people who want an unformed and uncertain environment and the opportunity to shape the community they are in. Both of these attitudes are "right", in their own, way, and neither of them are wrong. Every new player who decides to move to Balmung, I think, is making a decision they will be satisfied with, and it will be a good decision. Balmung is a good server, with a strong, established community. I have said this very thing in that same thread you've lifted my statements from, and I stand by them.

Yes, perfectly well. Sounds like I can have my cake and eat it, too. Also, I really like what I've seen from your members so far. They seem quite fun. I'll put in an application shortly.

This thread needs pictures of the food it alludes to. I cannot imagine them.