YesGood

Lol! --- This just in. 10.13.2013, Sindl Arahn is our current champion! With enough healers by Wednesday, a Blood Match may occur then.

Yep. Already started.

Sadly, something -does- have to change. Two days out of the week doesn't seem like a big deal or anything but I have a baby and trying to force him to go to sleep early on nights he doesn't want to sleep is not conducive to a good mother-baby relationship. I'm always worried the tourney's not going to get off the ground without me. Not to mention as they are now they're incredibly chaotic and even I see that. Enjoyable, yes, but chaotic. There just has to be more that can be done. Changes -are- necessary, but in conjunction to them, additions are what I'm looking at and there don't have to be many but there will be a few. Likely I will just combine one or two of the ideas and use them for blood matches and the rest'll be IC things. So another change that needs to be implemented, someone needs to be designated as a tourney runner that can take up the slack for Sio. I'll be more than happy to run the tourneys those every other weds nights I have off. This way mom and baby can have a quality relationship and, as I'm sure we can all agree a mom that isn't frayed at the ends is a happy mom. Measuring earshot distance won't be to hard to figure out. Person A stands where we want a ring to be while occasionally saying something like "Can you hear me now?" while person B walks away from A and reports when they no longer see the spam, add a few meters extra distance to account for participants moving around and ta-da you have your ring location. In my experience it earshot isn't too far in this game midpoint I'll greatly appreciate it. He'll be asleep at 10 or maybe later I just hate to be late to my own event then I feel rushed and panicked and it's harder when people are AFK'ing. Then the tourney lasts like 5 hours. It's lovely, I'm happy, it's just hectic is all. When we get on, we'll have to find landmarks.

That's not a bad idea but for time's sake we'll need to set up two more groups. What we might have to do is go out there and test the distance of our /say so that none of the fighters are overlapping.

I dunno how else to elaborate it. Striving to be the best you can be at something is aspiration. It's a goal. You're aspiring to constantly improve. Chances are you'll be better than you think you are and you'll always be trying to do more than that. It's great when you don't apply the standards you hold yourself to, to others. You -can't- consider -yourself- to be elitist without acknowledging that there are others who 'are not on par with you'. Somewhere in your mind you're saying that someone is god-awful. This doesn't just apply to RPers or gamers, also to artists and musicians. I don't think people -have- to be humble, but I usually don't know what to think when someone presents to me that they're virtually the best thing since sliced bread and everyone else is a clump of dirt. I won't agree that elitism is often if at any point a label thrown on cliques by people who feel left out or looked down on. Most times cliques do ostracize people that one or another individual in that clique has a problem with. It's part of being in a closed group. Always when this happens they'll try to justify it with the most 'rational' approach 'Oh jeez guys, look at his NAME' 'That grammar's terrible' 'Dude, are you seeing this, I'm loling so hard right now'. All of that indicates you would never do such a thing. Chances are, you have before and likely would not have liked it if people were saying this about you behind your back as a newbie. MORE than that, this stuff has a tendency to spread like the flu in close quarters and so at least one or two people will say, and you've likely either heard, seen, or done this, 'Well I heard this person got into this with so and so so I'm just going to avoid that'. ...*eyelid rubbing* If something does something you don't like, IC or OOC, denying participating with them isn't being elitist, it's preserving your own gameplay. STANDING THERE AND BERATING THEM IS BAD. No constructive criticism? Go tell all your friends how bad they are? Yeah. Bad. Elitist. Bad. Being 'straight forward' and 'honest' are excuses I often see used to sugar coat what is really a 'I know I'm better than you so you should know it too' mentality. It's not good. It's not fun. I will agree that using the terms 'elitist' and 'elitism' sometimes goes the route we've seen with 'I'm not an ERPer!' or 'No Lore-bending!' in that it's now a staple excuse for people to give other people flack when their opinions don't agree in the hopes that a bunch of others are going to misconstrue something and jump on the anti-elitist bandwagon with them when they likely did something pretty wrong themselves. Elitism isn't good. But I'm not saying that everyone who claims someone else is elitist is right. It's not as clear cut as that, frankly, but when you see one, you'll know it because it'll make you wince with how hardcore they're driving someone else about how 'bad' they are; they do it like it's their job. @LeCard: Adorable as I think you are, don't you think the last two apply? I mean I already quoted Elitism. The attitude or behavior of a person or group who regard themselves as belonging to an elite ... Isn't it -worse- when you 'regard yourself' as being part of 'A group of people considered to be the best in a particular society or category.' rather than, say, being voted in? Doesn't that already denote that there's a problem?

Sadly, something -does- have to change. Two days out of the week doesn't seem like a big deal or anything but I have a baby and trying to force him to go to sleep early on nights he doesn't want to sleep is not conducive to a good mother-baby relationship. I'm always worried the tourney's not going to get off the ground without me. Not to mention as they are now they're incredibly chaotic and even I see that. Enjoyable, yes, but chaotic. There just has to be more that can be done. Changes -are- necessary, but in conjunction to them, additions are what I'm looking at and there don't have to be many but there will be a few. Likely I will just combine one or two of the ideas and use them for blood matches and the rest'll be IC things. Oh, okay, I see what you're saying, then. Gotta trust in me, Fen! When have I ever steered you wrong, bb?!

Sadly, something -does- have to change. Two days out of the week doesn't seem like a big deal or anything but I have a baby and trying to force him to go to sleep early on nights he doesn't want to sleep is not conducive to a good mother-baby relationship. I'm always worried the tourney's not going to get off the ground without me. Not to mention as they are now they're incredibly chaotic and even I see that. Enjoyable, yes, but chaotic. There just has to be more that can be done. Changes -are- necessary, but in conjunction to them, additions are what I'm looking at and there don't have to be many but there will be a few. Likely I will just combine one or two of the ideas and use them for blood matches and the rest'll be IC things.

Grindstone is active all the time at night. Can't say about during the day though as I get on at 10 pm EST. We're combat-oriented but there are plenty of merchants, spectators, and healers in the LS as well. We have 80 something members and when I'm on there's usually over 20 online. Not sure if that's considered big, I doubt it.

You're right, Gharen. Originally it was my intention that the Overseers watch each fight separately. Sadly some of our Overseers fight as well. I really need someone to organize a list of people and I wish I could elect officers for this purpose and differentiate ranks but I can't in the LS. We could use a new area somewhere in Thanalan. Someplace large, easy to reach, and relatively clear and flat. If you know any place, please post a map picture and if you can, a screenshot. I appreciate all the help thus far, you know I love you guys.

Well, we know because science has proven... River > Fire. Q_Q We do absolutely need healers and an organizer for said healers. These would have to be dedicated healers as well who are willing to show up for this Blood Match event. Likely it would only be held once or twice a month so I hope that wouldn't be too difficult. Also Tau... Yanno Sio'd win that right? Imagine it... Sio and Qaeli.

A Battle Royale might not be viable. Some people might feel singled out, which is kind of the purpose, but in an effort to prevent as much ooc conflict as possible, I think that's one of those things we should wait on if we do it. Blood Matches + 2v2 or FC battles will do. We can't have a thousand different things mostly because I just don't have the energy to run all of them. I'm hoping to depend more on my Overseers to this end, but nevertheless, too much stuff and people'll get tired real fast. The /party + /say is a good idea though. I'm going to have to be stricter about enforcing the two paragraph maximum because when you try to post five paragraphs in the midst of twenty people it's going to get hard for your opponent to keep up. Extraneous detail is nice and all but not altogether necessary.

I agree with Lament here. Let's look at the definition of elitism: the advocacy or existence of an elite as a dominating element in a system or society. Who exactly are they dominating? The new people? GG, bro. Standards? Standards are good. Elitists? Elitists are bad. But that good and bad applies to your views on others and their views on you. When it all boils down to it, we all have to start somewhere. There are people who claim to have been roleplaying for twelve plus years that do things I sometimes find questionable. Do I call them on that? No. Do I sit there and try to point out how my approach is just better? No. Giving my position on things is done solely in an effort to show that there is more than one view about it. If you have been labeled as an elitist, you should probably be offended; not to say that it might not apply, as it might, but being dubbed one denotes that what you do is not conducive to community interaction or social interaction and those two things are kind of the basis for fleshy roleplay. No matter how good you think you are or how much back up you think you have to testify your goodness there is really no way to -define- what makes you better. Grammar? Immersion? Creativity? Are you just -better- at thinking than other people or are you better at conveying those thoughts? Better is relative. I would rather sit there and RP with someone who has no idea where they're going but is trying their hardest to be the best they can than someone who has an amazing character story but the worst OOC personality. And really, that's what it comes down to. If you're intolerable to most as a person, it'll very likely carry into your roleplay and I'll end up with a bunch of tells correcting my typos. I don't typo all the time, I take five minutes to look up a word if I forgot how to spell it, and the majority of people are right in that boat with me. I'm just not going to be on board with someone who holds a person's lack of lore knowledge or RP knowledge or the amount of time they can play or fashion sense or anything against them. I have standards but in terms of roleplay, I only offer advice and I do not feel the need to spit on someone or many someones for the sake of their differing opinion. Many people I find that try to make 'elitism' palatable by changing -what it means- and presenting it in a light that makes them favorable usually bear all of those characteristics that tend to ostracize others. I personally refuse to accept those words as good because of the full breadth of their meaning. It doesn't mean you're just 'better' than everyone else. It means you -think- you're better, and as I said, better is relative.

Chat flood'll be a problem regardless, sadly. So long as there are people to spectate, we can't expect them to sit silently there for however long it takes for the fighters to finish. 2 v 2 matches would be simple enough and we can incorporate the FC idea into it if needbe. In fact, we'd probably only have one fight at a time (four people posting) and then another (four more). That'd be it. This would likely be a biweekly (every two weeks) situation rather than twice a week and would take the place of a Wednesday or Saturday tournament. If we take four FC entries or four pairs at a time for the month then we'd have our winners by the end of that month. On another note if we can have a steady group of healers that are -legitimately- affiliated with if not in the Grindstone FC (unlike some of ours that just show up willy nilly but are appreciated) Blood Matches can take the place of our regular tournaments. Nevertheless, there will only be one champion each time and that champion will have their fee afforded for the next but they'll have to start out like everyone else. Three wins will still earn them the 'Master' title, which Fystrael has currently. Likewise, everyone is going to be tired as time goes on, even with the healing, so that has to be kept in mind.

This is quite true. We already get a lot of people who show up as it is. The spectators want to see the posts from the fighters and they want to make commentary but doing that floods the chatlogs for everyone involved. What we can do is FC versus FC challenges. Where a tournament is held for two competing FC's to put up two of their best fighters. In fact, we could go 2 v 2 as Denn suggested, as we've done it before and it was pretty amazing. Also a good idea. *rubs chin* Hrmm.... A Free Company Tournament... The only issue that I see is that the Grindstone is predominantly a Linkshell. The majority of our people (70 ish) are in other FCs or are not in the GS FC. So they're already kind of repping their FC as it is except they don't need their leader's express permission to do so. -Are- there enough other combat-oriented companies to do this or should we just make partner tourneys? Two fighters versus two fighters?

Edited:--Actually, in retrospect, totally not worth the time it took to write the response I had. ^.^ To each their own.

Those are pretty good ideas. Thank you.

So, in an effort to assure this gets read by a healthy number of our members instead of wall-o-texting the LS directory page: Some ideas were presented to me recently that seem amazing but that I have yet to implement. They are as follow: Mobile Tournaments (Moving to other areas such as Gridania and Limsa Lominsa to hold our tournaments there from time to time.)- Faith Inviting merchants, salesmen, and craftsmen to peddle their wares or services (such as armorsmithing like the wonderful Aleister, or culinarian things and the like) ICly for some extra RP. - Norlaise Blood Matches (remove all the rules except for the 'death blow' rule. This means cheap shots, environmental weapons, attacks to the groin or eyes, etc.) Also, due to the one existing mention of anything regarding magic-users being excluded from the regular tournaments I -may- consider allowing them to enter these tournaments under the IC pretense that physical warriors need to know how to overcome magic-users. - Me. So, I love many of these ideas and if there are any comments or criticisms from current or future members of the Grindstone, feel free to contribute them here (tactfully...). Also, for all three of these I need to organize my existing and future Overseers. I would like to keep the organization of these functions (i.e., 'representatives' in Gridania and Limsa Lominsa, messengers to merchants and organizing them, and professional healers) to members in the Free Company to assure they will have less of a likelihood to suffer any conflicting obligations with another Free Company or what have you. Blood matches may also 'require' (icly more than oocly) something of an admission fee so that we can generate some sort of profit for our company. Volunteers or suggestions?

10.9.13 New Champion: Shae'ra Rah. Winnings: 10,000 gil. (Yes, real gil. ; ) Thank you to those who donates as well as to our dedicated spectators. <3 We even had Aleister who decided to set up shop there and gave Nalaise the great idea that we should invite individuals who play crafter characters and merchants to peddle their wares during the tournament and get some side RP in!

First off-- The Grindstone is an FC that caters specifically to the physical arts. Strength of arms, speed, reflex, mastery of weapons, etc. I, personally, have played magic wielding characters in combat RP in previous games where the magic was far more forthright and the matches were not friendly whatsoever. I know it can be done. But usually there is an air of superiority that goes with magic, higher levels of skill and the knowledge that you should only use it when you must go on the offensive rather than whenever you feel like it. I believe that there are plenty of groups that do cater to magic users, even if it isn't for the purpose of combat, which leads me to my next point. Yes, 'a magic user' may be 'capable of holding back and avoiding causing serious injury in a training match'. Many of the entrants to the tournament and to the shell itself are young individuals and you cannot put an age restriction on how quickly someone becomes proficient with magic. One wrong move and you might light someone up. The competitors aren't allowed edged weapons, they have to fight with peace binding, padding, wood, or blunted weapons. There isn't really a legitimate explanation for a magic user on what you expect them to do about blunting a spell that wracks your body with pain or freezes you in place. Siobhain, the leader of the Grindstone, is not a magic user. Like some, she even distrusts certain types of magic users. She cannot really judge nor would she really be fair in judging how a magic user's potential will operate. For some, like white mages and conjurer's, -not- allowing healing, as is a requirement in the fight, would work to their heavy disadvantage. (Not to mention the lore reasons why their participating even in friendly tournaments may not look so good considering they're supposed to be -very- elite, -very- rare, and -very- serious.) Similarly, there would have to be extensive rules about familiars and the use of mediums such as staves, rods, and the like. Siobhain would have to say they're not allowed to physically strike with those tools (I suppose blocking and such would be acceptable) otherwise she would be forced to allow the physical combatants to use as many extraneous and environmental weapons as possible which is currently prohibited. So. While a magic user is welcome to train with the Grindstone, there is absolutely no cause or reason to open the existing tournament up for them and risk putting anyone at more or less of a disadvantage by having to proceed with the rules. Thus far? One person has shown any kind of interest in using magic for the fights and he was more than happy to go in with his bo staff and not employ any magic use. I haven't had any complaints about that rule. In fact, I do not recall ever having seen you at one of our matches so perhaps you haven't seen how complicated it can be already despite all my efforts to smooth things down. If more interest is generated for these magic users, I am perfectly fine with seeing about starting a separate tournament. But you have to understand we have over 80 members and our tournaments are usually well populated (30 something people are online and a good portion of them are at the tournament now), which is great, but any more matches than we have now and everything is going to be -very- difficult. We run a max of four at a time and when eight people enter (nine including the champion) even when we use the /roll system (which not everyone wants to do) we're talking three to five hours of roleplay. I would require many more volunteers than I already have. And to reiterate-- this LS caters to physical fighters. I've written it -everywhere-. -That- is the niche I elected to fill. If there is someone out there who would like to start a magic-oriented Grindstone, I cannot say no but I will ask you to please coordinate with me for tournaments in the event that we overlap for some reason.

Tourney should be started in under an hour. If my little man goes to sleep well then I should be on in thirty to forty five minutes. If you're interesting in entering, I hope you'll be on around then so we can get the formalities outta the way!

We can get you recruited today then!

WHAT IS WITH ALL OF YOU AND YOUR FREAKING ARMOR ART?!

EVENT: 10.09.13 @ 10 PM EST As usual, our tournament will be on tonight. <3

I know the pants are like hempen tights... and... dress...shoes? The shirt is... er... er... ah... O_O I really honestly forget the name. It's a something something of crafting though. It's a Coatee. Any level one will look like that. The different tiers velveteen/vintage/linen etc. just have differences in the small details and the neck bow thing. :moogle: You, madam, are a super-helper!

A butt to bust slider. Too top heavy for my tastes. I'd also like to see a 'wear this item' thing where you click on something to see what your toon would look like in it? There might be one, but if there is, I've missed it. I'd also like them to add some more emotes. I know there are a lot of them but mm... wish there were more. And finally... a perpetual knee emote. I hate kneeling for five seconds and getting back up.