Varus

Total agreement with this whole post. If we are really intent on analyzing the puppet-strings of the FFXIV universe, this is the most rational explanation while providing plenty of leeway for the RPers to flex their creative muscles on how to react to the memory loss. To expand: I'm not subscribing to the implied idea that the memory loss was wholly caused by "magical amnesia." The fact remains that: the time-skippers disappeared off the face of the planet for five whole years. During that time, life on Eorzea changed, drastically. In most places, not for the better. When a person's daily survival is brought into question, one tends to focus on the present and the future, not on the past, which can degrade one's memories even further. The constant threat of death on a daily basis does not give one the luxury of retrospection. Compound that with "magical amnesia" and you can easily understand why no one would remember your character unless you made a MAJOR, life-changing impact on the other character. Even then, it is doubtful.

One of the sure fire signs of people RPing in party chat: if the players are emoting at each other with seeming relevance. Another: if they are targeting each other. Yet one more: If they have stood still for awhile. (Typing and moving is difficult!)

I believe I've added everyone who's posted a request to be added. IF I have not, please send me a contact request on skype. Epikphailz, and I will add you to the group asap!

Oh no, the Skype RP is virtually all typed, haha!

Welcome to the RPC! add me on Skype Epikphailz and I'll add you to the OOC chat and the RP Practice Group, if you wanted to warm up and RP a bit before the game launches!

More pictures!

Tyonis Magstrom! After playing him again, I think I'll keep his base look and change the hairstyle or hair color.

I will add quotes and such that may help illuminate some questions about the FFXIV universe. These quotes will naturally be filled with spoilers, so be warned!

This video made me realize I REALLY can't speak French.

@Uther/Dogberry Enough, both of you. ==== I'll also second the Misericorde recommendation. While they are not really into the whole "revenge against Bahamut/Garleans" theme, they do take a stance against any current and future forces that threaten the realm. EDIT: And they are taking a more "realistic" approach to the Final Fantasy XIV universe. Less emphasis on magic and more on technology, etc.

Voted yes because if people want to use a VOIP for whatever reason, they should have it.

AYSUN MAKE ME MORE ARRO-- oh wait. Nevermind.

This is brilliant. +1.

1. What sort of magic is there in the world? I know there's white magic, black magic, etc but what about things like the dragoon's ability to jump super high or all those cool particle effects when a monk is bashing someone's face in? Monks in particular impregnate their bodies with Aether inorder to perform feats of martial skill beyond their regular limitations. In RP, it stands to reason that it can be applied with any fighting style. 2. How does someone learn magic? Is it something they're born with and then study, or can anyone become adept in an area of magic so long as they put in enough time and effort? There is some latent talent required to use certain types of magic. White Magic or Conjury requires one to commune with the Elementals. Okay, so I’ve studied real thaumuturgical theories, so I’ll expand upon this for a moment: Conjury, or the theory proposed by Stillglade Fane, requires the user to attune with the Aether of the area around them in order to perform miracles. Like how a druid would call upon the nature surrounding them to cast spells. They absorb this power and mold it into a different shape. This high level of attunement also makes it easier for Conjurers to heal and grant succor. Thaumaturgy, or the theory proposed by the Arrzaneth Ossuary, requires the caster to use his own Aether to perform miracles. This power is increased, harnessed, and honed through deep meditation. 3. How much do particle effects distract from the game? I come from GW2 where there were particle effects all over the place, but it was helpful when you wanted to combo abilities. I could imagine it being a bit distracting if there was no ability to combo and all the particle effects were essentially lookit my super-mega sword slash! and the like. This is more of a personal opinion: the flashy graphics and particle effects are cool at first, but it happens EVERY TIME YOU DO SOMETHING, so it tends to get annoying. 4. What sorts of things in the game,either minor or major, facilitate RP? I've heard that there are a decent amount of emotes and I've seen that character creation is decently extensive, and from what I've seen from screenshots there are a lot of nice places. Most MMOs tend to give RPers the same tools to facilitate RP, just in a different skin or with slight variations. FFXIV is no different, although the scenery is unmatched. 5. Are there numerous different outfits/weapon skins? Can you dye armor/weapons?Can you transfer stats from a higher level item to a lower level one to keep the appearance without sacrificing effectiveness, or vice versa? You can dye armor. Not sure about weapons. But you cannotreskin them. However, there will be a kind of vanity armor set you can equip that will go over your current armor. So you can play the game’s content in your RP gear without suffering from any stat drops. 6. Are there plans for microtranactions or some sort of cash shop in the game? No final word from the developers, but Yoshi-P is very much against F2P, so I doubt it. 7. How fast is the day/night cycle(provided there is one) and is there dynamic weather in the game? I believe day and night cycles several times in a day. Weather effects exist in the game. 8. Is there any voicing in the game,either in cutscenes, NPCs in cities, NPCs giving quests, or other places? The main story quests will have voice overs in multiple languages (you can choose which language and add subtitles). Regular quests will not, according to Yoshi-P. 9. How easy is it to switch classes,how many can you advance in, and what does selecting a job do to effect the ease (or lack thereof) of the aforementioned? To put it simply, one character can play all the classes, but you can only play one class at a time. In order to switch classes, all you have to do is equip that class weapon. 10. Are there any gender roles in society? (particularly Hyur society) Gender roles always exist, although we are not sure to what extent in Hyurian society. Tribal Miqo’te have very specific gender roles. 11. How many different languages are there and how easy would they be to learn? All player characters have the Echo, with allows one tolisten, speak, read, and write in any language with passable efficiency. 12. Would the average moogle get pissed if my character hugged it tightly? (So fluffy...) LOL. Probably not.

"Never give up on your dreams." Honestly, this isn't even a fortune! I've been tricked!

Guys, I think we have James Bond playing with us D: LOL The name's Bond. James Bond. /que epic jazz music and gunshot background noise.

links? also send Deirdre a PM.

The Magstrom noble family of Ul'dah bears a sigil with a pair of crossed broadswords, both sheathed in scabbards of gold with trimmings of blue enamel and white silver. Between the two swords rests a curved heater, akin to the canopus shield. It covers the crossed blades, as if binding them together. Near the top and on the flats of both scabbards are inscriptions. One sword bears: "Strength." The other: "Honor." Finally, one final inscription lay on the top edge of the shield which connects them: "Benevolence." The Magstrom motto: Benevolence in peace. Strength in war. Honor in death.

I'll second the recommendation on the AMD FX processor series. For the price tag, it's really good. Any higher and you might as well by an i5 or i7. Also, for upgrading your CPU, you'd normally have to buy a whole new motherboard along with the CPU, since most CPUs are thermally glued onto the motherboard.

Alrighty thanks. Those things get outdated so quickly I was worried it was my processor X.x your processor is outdated too lol! Mine sits at 2.60 ghz, but computers now have like 3.40 ghz or something.

AH your video card is pretty old. It's a few steps down from mine, and I can barely run the game at max settings (virtually unplayable), so I understand your issue. Unfortunately for you and I, there's really not much we can do with outdated video cards except cutting down on our graphic expectations.

What video card are you running? Also, turning down the resolution might help. Another idea: If you are playing in a Windowed-Mode (Windowed or Borderless Windowed), try running the game in Full-Screen. Playing in Full-Screen will definitely increase your performance, but make it harder for your computer to shift tasks, because your computer has to unload and reload the game every time you alt-tab. EDIT: After reading through the benchmark settings, I suggest you DISABLE AMBIENT OCCLUSION IF YOU HAVE IT ACTIVE! I guarantee over9000+ points to your performance if you do so.

Yeah, so I've been wondering what a Free Company actually IS. EDIT: Google-sensei had all the answers. ZAM Question #11: What are Free Companies, and how will these be structured? Are these the player-run companies we heard about in the past? Yoshida: "These are player-controlled companies. You can think of it like the guild systems that a lot of other MMORPGs have, the player-run guilds. Think of it as each player, for example, five people can be a Free Company. I can be a member of the Order of the Twin Adder, he can be a member of the Maelstrom, he can be a member of the Immortal Flames, but we can all get together and make our own Free Company. Individuals can do the Grand Company content on their own, and then we can make this Free Company with a lot of people from different companies. And also, the Free Company can sign up to join the Grand Company, so you can experience Grand Company content through your Free Company, even though if I'm in Gridania but our Free Company signs up to work with the Maelstrom in Limsa Lominsa, then we can do those contents as well. That's one thing where players will be able to cross over. "So when players make their own Free Companies, they can decide what they want to do. They can go, "OK, I only want to have people from the Order of the Twin Adder be in my Free Company, and their Free Company is going to be hardcore, or they can have a mixture of lots of different players. That will be up to the players." ZAM Question #12: Can people experience all the company content through Free Company participation, just by signing up with all the different companies? Yoshida: "The content will be different. There will be the Free Company content of the Grand Companies, as well as the solo content of the Grand Companies. You'll only be able to do the solo content of the Grand Company you're in, but when it comes to the Grand Company content that's for Free Companies, it won't matter as a solo player which company you're in, it will matter which Free Company you're signed up with. It will be two different stories." JeuxOnLine (JOL) : For the 2.0 version, with the arrival of free companies, what will become of the linkshell system? Yoshida : We'll keep the linkshell, so players will have several linkshell pearls, they can talk to their friends whenever they want to like a chat community system, while the Free Company is more like a guild, you can't be in several guild, you can only select one Free Company. You can have several linkshells, it's more casual so that you can chat with your friends, while the Free Company is more like a strong community, you have to stick to one. JOL : I would like to ask as well, about the Free Companies, basically, you're saying that it is a guild, the lower level players won't be having a Free Company, will they? Yoshida : It's not only for the high level players, if the guild already exists, you can recruit level 1 players, and we will also have a Mentor system, higher levels can guide and teach the new players, and if you help the new players, you will get rewards so it will be good for your Free Company as well. We would like to encourage you to help the new players so this is going to be a really good balance, not only for the high level players, but low level players can enjoy and benefit from this system as well. That being said, even if you're not belonging to any Free Company, that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the functionality, for example, [myself] and Sundi have their own Free Company, [we] can still invite someone else as a Guest, and [we] can help him to complete one particular content, so don't worry, even if you don't have a Free Company, you can still enjoy the game.

I managed to find two good pictures of me!

Sounds fun! I especially like the exploring part!