Valence

Oh I believe you. While I have always have dogs and the likes, I always thought there were a few different species in the whole lot. I guess I never really asked myself the question until now.

Even as a not-new person this baffles me to high extremes. I basically have to do everything that there is worth doing in the zone and explore it completely before I can use something confined specifically to that zone, which I will never visit again because that zone is now basically done. By the time you unlock flying, it's practically useless. What the hell, SquareEnix. This design decision was made because Yoshi looked at games like WoW that had flying in the past and realized that introducing flying in the very beginning takes away the feeling of exploration and navigating terrain during the leveling process. People would just fly in straight lines from point a to point b and never explore, and it would take a very short time to complete quests. So that's why Blizzard killed flying abd that's why Yoshi made flying unlockable only after the zone has been thoroughly 'warmed in'. Hope that makes sense. Oh that makes sense. I would be inclined to agree with Yoshi on that. The real issue may be more on the side of abusive pingpong questing, uninteresting sidequests, and the usual themepark MMO culprits. Look no further. It is sad, to know that 80% of the time spent in game if not more, what makes you play long hours of MMOs, is actually the mob killing quests and the time spent traveling between various points of quest givers. And yes, knowing that you can fly in an area, and knowing that you have to unlock X things to be able to, is the most unnerving thing I have had to deal with while leveling. Which is rather indicative of the flaws of the usual MMO questing design. The MSQ doesn't really suffer from those flaws. They did it very well with that little pilgrimage through Dravania, to the Churning mists, etc... It even teleports you to the point of arrival when a cutscene makes you use Sid's airship and the likes... Am I bittervetting? Damn. I'm too young for that.

Well from what I understand, magitek technology used by garleans basically replaces everything magic used by eorzeans, and sometimes on much greater scales as well (cf huge floating dreadnoughts and weapons especially). Because well, instead of an art practitioner and long years of attuning with aether, the magitek machines do the stuff themselves for you. You know, the same way allagan technology does the same, on a much more elaborate and advanced fashion. That's what I understood though, and will let people more experience with the lore have the final word on that.

You are sure that say, a chihuahua can reproduce and produce fertile offspring with a mastiff or something similar?

I am not sure what you mean by NPC RP..?

If you say that aliens would divide us between legions of human species, then how does that fit to the definition you gave of species? All humans offspring don't lose their fertility when reproducing with another phenotype of humans...

Skin tone is easy to conceal... But eye shape, yes, I can see where you are going... I was not totally sure of the differences they have between them. I think that saying that Darwinian theories don't apply here might be a slippery slope in any case, since we all know they were probably not going to recreate a variation of the same mob 3D models everytime for every region... Imagine the weight in game files as well as the futility of the +++ hours of work required... Similarly, I am not sure that Eorzea has reached the threshold where man races have started to blur and intermingle like in our modern contemporary society. Travel remains overall very costly and limited to a few, etc. On the other hand, there are so many anachronistic things with that same contemporary society (sunglasses, costa del sol, the Gold Saucer, real estate agents, and a lot of very modern societal and consumerist concepts overall and all that jazz) that well... It's hard to argue either way. Which brought me a question of curiosity, are different races/species offspring infertile? Like, in the MSQ, is the Mongrel infertile? Also, is it an abuse of language when they speak of all the races as races, and not species? When they speak about "Man" like the encompassing species?

Being myself from another native language, I think it is a complicated issue. More than it looks. I think there is a huge difference between grammar, and just syntax and mastery of language. Most foreigners to english i know, myself included, don't do that many grammar mistakes, because they already don't with their native language. What they can do, however, is clumsy sentences, syntax mistakes, and bad phrasing, that kind of things. Especially when you still lack of practice in english, you will feel very limited. But I think that most people actually writing actual trash grammar in english were a few english natives in my experience. Like you will find a few natives of your own language (in every language) writing like shit. All il all, yes, more help and support for people in need is always good.

Personally, whatever works. But I think what they did was badly done as it removed the only side that gave the character flavour and depth. In the 2.0 version, he seems just flat and two-dimensional, like the average non important NPC you will only see once in your life.

If people IRL can pass for females while being male, or the opposite, then I don't see why not honestly... That sounds a lot easier to conceal to me.

You will have to forgive my brevity, but I think it illustrates the point decently enough... 1) Magitek and garlean stuff. Anything related to it will bring up her nosy face in a short notice. 2) Everything that is spooky or looks promising on the spook-o-meter will trigger her interest. 3) New knowledge or learning things, the discovery, always holds a strong appeal to her. 4) What are you guys doing? I'm not being nosy I swear.

Well if you are into frivolous anorexic busty space lesbians with a kink for side drama and tears... Go for it I guess.

That is one of the things I headdesk over a lot. Also, welcome fellow EU player.

I really had troubles to find the right words to express myself and certainly didn't want to point the blame on anyone, just to be sure. It was mostly a curious question. I have also noticed it growing over the years in eve online as well. To a point where sometimes it seems to me that we have shifted from old school roleplaying to dating online... Not everyone mind you. But the remark from the player to the OP that initiated that thread sure seems to go in that way...

How to say it... Was that guy implying that people should choose a race solely on their ability to draw RP romance, or ERP, or whatever? The thing that struck me when getting into the FFXIV RP community is the emphasis put on IC love and romance. Don't take me wrong, the community has proven to be really awesome, nice, and full of determined people with a general good atmosphere... It's just that everywhere I look, from RP players sheets to... wikis, there is always that central mention of views and stances on romance. Is that such a central part to everyone's RP? (I know it can be powerful, but still?)

I would love to get an invite... I am struggling between all those OOC heavy RP channels, but I suppose the amount of those is due to the limited slots for linkshells, right? In any case, i'm all for keeping as many connections as possible with people!

Thanks for the spoilers, guys... Anyhow, I see, so that's not gay per se, but more than a little obsessed with kinky stuff and lewd remarks? Ah well, I suppose it doesn't bother me because i'm seeing it with the eyes of a roleplayer, seeing a character for what it is... I guess that the average player could take it personally yeah...

To each his own views on that I guess. To be clear, I am not against retconning and I can understand that in a lot of cases it can be a good tool to use, especially on very minor details or embarrassing stuff that you would like to get rid of. I just happen to think that it's the easy way to get out of the problem, that it's highly inelegant, and most of all, it can show an unwillingness to deal with the consequences of one's own RP (and yes, again, not your fault here). But it can be a basic denial of what you did with other people. Now then, I understand here it's mostly between one player, and a player that left, and as I said, everyone is free to do what make the thing more enjoyable for them! I just tend to think of other people before myself most of the time, which might be why I have a differing viewpoint on that. Now then, were there other people around? Did that wedding impact many players and characters? Are you going to go tell them "actually no, that wedding didn't happen, you weren't invited, and all the nice RP you got out of it is actually void because I say so" ? That's what makes me think it can be a slippery slope and lead to pretty bad form scenari. Again, do as you wish though, I'm mainly voicing the unorthodox point of view I guess...

I can be wrong of course, but from what I have seen of the gridanian elezen (they are many), they seem very different on the honour part than their Ishgard kin. They don't seem to care very much about it, but pride, as said above, is what truly defines both, Ishgard and Gridanians alike to my eyes. I think honour and code of conducts and chivalry and all those things are societal constructs that stem from Ishgard society, while pragmatism and no-nonsense are defining traits of the ones living in the Twelveswood. Pride, though, seems to me to be central to the bloodline. They appear haughty and mannered, no matter where they are.

Out of curiosity, where does the word "ser" comes from? Not just game of thrones, right? Does it have any basis in history, like its probable old french mirror "sire"?

Oh, that sure is a classic. I have had to deal with that once or twice on another MMO, though it was not marriage proper. Of course having a few OOC words with the other player is the best (which was my case, but not to a point where everything was planned and laid down), but if you can't, it's eventually the same. I find the most elegant way to deal with that without any retcon - because retconing what other people have RPed with you is bad form and can lead to a lot of dire IC and OOC related issues - is just to consider that as you say, why would have he left? Why did he do that? Maybe more, why did he betray your character like that? Well, your character can not know actually. It can draw your character desperation to new heights and overall allow you to capitalize on that OOC/RL issue by turning it into an IC drama full of potential. It can lead your character to go on a desperate quest to find what happened to him, even if you OOCly perfectly know that you will never see him again, or maybe you don't know either, which is even nicer... I think that can turn to be a very strong, central plotline defining kind of a new identity for your character, make her evolve, mature, grow up, or whatever you fancy. You know, kind of like the trope of the vagabond that went on a lifequest to get his revenge against someone, to a point where it becomes the only thing that matters for him (cf Auron, or most spaghetti westerns). Except here it's more about finding someone that killing someone. Of course, that's the first idea that comes to mind, and it could be pretty much anything you decide it to be. And if the player eventually returns, who knows, then all the better to draw a conclusion to the story.

Well that's lame, it could have been really fun actually. More tri dimensional characters please. Current Haurchefant is not bad per se, but he sure feels more... tame, flat. Also, I'm a bit disappointed to see that kind of decisions being made just out of fear to draw unwanted homophobia among westerner players, because that's really the only reason I can find behind.

Alright, the last thread gave me another idea... Eorzea art and locations can be very inspiring, and so... what would be the places IRL that would look alike with Eorzean locations, or remind you of them? I'm starting with one of the various versions of RL Thanalan, I hope you will humour me: http://www.nationalgeographicexpeditions.com/assets/images/2069/itinerary-header.jpg[/img] Alright now, past the obvious Grand Canyon reference, here is another less obvious place: http://img.over-blog-kiwi.com/0/44/27/77/201310/ob_10ce12a74ae45d6930e181e4b76c1c13_pic-d-aurelle-01.jpg[/img] http://www.hirondelle-blanche.fr/v2/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/DIVERS-ET-ESTEREL-054-1280x768.jpg[/img] Which is located in the Esterel on the Riviera (Mediterranean sea). Just lack the huge thanalan land hammers, the cerruleum pipes and the railways and we have it I guess..

I suppose Suen could be coming from around Mongolia or Siberia, having been raised in the non nomadic parts of it, and having fled that life to greener and more uncertain pastures, on the road, doing petty jobs to do a few more kilometers that could bring her closer to all the asian high tech fashionable places like Hong Kong, Tokyo, etc... I suppose she could have a gift for everything electronic.

Pinning myself in there: Main Character's Name: Suen Shyu Link to Wiki: Wiki Usually online: GMT+1 evenings in the week, can be all GMT day in week-ends Intensity: Heavy (unless i'm somehow running a purely OOC gameplay thing...)