Trickery

I was curious about this, too, but it doesn't look like there's a way short of preordering the PS3 version. As much as I like the Cait Sith doll and the Mog Cap, I'm not going to blow $40 on an extra copy of the game I won't use just to get them. I WILL blow $20 on the digital collector's edition upgrade stuff, though.

I enjoy the crafting and gathering right now. They were both painfully slow in 1.0, but they've since been streamlined and it's a much better experience. Downside is that I don't think crafters will be as economically relevant (with the exception of materia) due to dungeon drops and such, but that's the price of accessibility. Now if only they had an easier way of transferring crafted items between characters on the same account. My full time crafter is having a helluva time trying to get goods to my adventuring character.

I'm actually part of an RP Linkshell (soon to be FC) that's on Behemoth. I'm probably one of the few that actually stalk around these forums 'cause I split time playing on Balmung as well. www.fatesedge.org if you want to check it out. In the interest of being completely frank, though, the non-Legacy RP communities are a little sparse and spread out at the moment. It might get better in time, but right now your best bet is to find an FC on either Gilgamesh, Behemoth, Leviathan etc. and just roll with them 'cause you're not as likely to just run into random RPers there. So, consider this a plug for switching over to Balmung. I actually just started a new character there and I'm enjoying myself immensely so far. Just make sure to steer clear of Limsa Lominsa at the moment unless you want to drown in a sea of carbuncles.

I went this route with my Sea Wolf. She has her original "proper" name, but her in game name is a Hellsguard version, since she deals with the other races often enough that it was a pain to go over pronunciation every time. The meaning is the same in every language, though, and that's what matters to her more than the actual name. Plus, I feel like simple "word" names make it easier for people to remember you and fits the Final Fantasy feel really well (i.e. Cloud, Squall, Dagger, Blank, Ward, Edge, Hope, Snow, Lightning, Locke, Raine, Paine etc.)

Alrighty, sorry for the super late response! Anyway, thanks everyone for your input, it really helped me mull over a few things. Mostly it just made me examine exactly what I was looking for in a character. Looking at it objectively now, I think I fell into the trap of trying to make some of my characters super unique and forgetting the most important thing: That the character I make should be fun! My Roegadyn I love too much to give up and I figure that I'll have a blast with her. I'm also much more attached to my Highlander than I thought and I remember having a fun time with him during 1.0, so I'll be sticking with him as well. Where I fell into the trap was with my Elezen and my Miqo'te. Pretty much the only thing I had in mind going in with them was making them stand out and adjusting their stories to match their looks, which didn't turn out too well either. I was concentrating too much on being unique and not enough on actually making a character that would be fun for me to play. So... I've decided to scrap both of them. Instead, I'll be replacing them with this little lady: She's not particular special. She doesn't stand out. She's not unique (she's a Miqo'te, how unique could she be?), but she just FEELS like she'd be fun to play. That and one of my favorite Final Fantasy characters is still Rydia from FFIV (you can chalk that up to nostalgia since it was the first Final Fantasy I played), so I've always had the desire to play a green haired Summoner character in FFXIV, I just could never get past my distaste for playing the popular races and the character type always seemed to fit either Midlander or Miqo't'e the best. Since I've pretty much gotten over my "NEED TO BE THE LEAST PLAYED RACE SO I CAN BE A SNOWFLAKE!" syndrome, there really wasn't any reason NOT to play this character. I think I'm finally pretty much happy with my collection of characters. Now I just need to work on their stories more. My Roegadyn is going to be my Tank/Brawler type, so she's easy enough to flesh out. This Miqo'te is going to be my all things magic character, so she should be easy enough to flesh out as well. Think I'm going to need to do a complete rewrite of my Highlander though, since he's exceptionally bland. He's going to end up with the unused classes (Lancer/Archer/Musketeer when they add it), so I'll probably adjust his story to fit those classes, since he won't be a jack of all trades anymore. I'm sure I'll come up with something. Characters that are fun to play tend to write themselves once I start RPing.

Holy. According to this 1 out of every 3 players is a cat. I mean, I knew there were a lot of Miqo'te, but I didn't think they were a third of the population. I could've sworn I ran into more Roegadyn than this survey is saying, but now that I think about it, they could just be standing out in my mind more against the backdrop of never ending waves of kittehs.

Hmmm... what's the steal chance for the Sweet Roll? >.>

I promise that I had her back story much more fleshed out in my head. I purposefully went with trope-like descriptions in order to give a very quick, 3-point summary/impression of the character without forcing everyone to slog through a mini-novel in order to find the main points. You can write it off as a failed attempt to be kitschy. The "mental issues" were going to be more along the line of things like self disassociation, depersonalization, and schizotypal disorders rather than cutesy things like regression and multiple personality disorder. I tend to jump to the darker side of the spectrum when I'm playing characters with mental illnesses. One of the problems that's cropped up already, though, is that it's really kind of hard to fit a character like that into Eorzea at the moment. I mean, yeah, Eorzea's a screwed up place right now, but all of the serious mental issues seem to be isolated to the Empire side rather than with the adventurers. Plus, if I was being honest, her entire back story is basically just a super convoluted way to justify the half and half face paint. I was discussing this earlier and someone brought up that face paint like that should accentuate the character, not BE the character, which is a pretty good point. This is actually an issue I've been batting around trying to remedy. I used to RP with this character in 1.0 and there was never an issue, but I think that's 'cause the RP was strictly of a social nature. Combat prowess was almost never brought up outside of opening lines like "Oh, so what do you do for a living?" "Meh, a little bit of everything." It seems like it'd be a much more prominent problem if there was ever a more conflict oriented story. Another reason that he comes across as rather generic is because I tend to come up with traits for some of my character's on the fly rather than fleshing them out beforehand. If someone asks me a question that I haven't really thought about earlier, I'll usually answer in the way that seems the most natural, then work that into my story later. I think it's fun when they take on a life of their own like that, 'cause then there are situations where even I'm not sure how my character will react, but afterwards after I've thought about it, the actions always make sense. It's fun for me, but unfortunately doing it that way makes for a terribly boring and generic bio before I've gotten some RP out of the way.

Long post incoming!!! Thanks for all of the responses. I like being able to see what people are prioritizing when they vote. It's also helping me see some of the deficiencies that are already popping up in these characters, as well as some of the things that it looks like I'm doing right. Anyway, yikes, no love for the Miqo'te! I'm kind of curious how many of those votes are just knee jerk "Miqo'te Population Control" votes, since whenever I see race recommendations it's almost always against Miqo'te since there are so many of them. Yeah, I've kind of noticed more of that face type cropping up. I remember making it awhile back as a sort of Chimera concept and was really excited about it. Since then, though, I've seen that particular combo pop up all over the place. I actually made a male version of that Miqo'te earlier, but right after I made him I jumped onto this site and saw another user that had joined and had the exact same character, all the way down to facial features and hairstyle. I think the problem is that it's an odd look, but because of that it's super recognizable. For people who just make generic characters, it's hard to tell them apart, so you don't really think much if you run into them. For face paints like this, though, it's such a specific look that it seems like the 2nd or 3rd time you run into it, you're already completely over it. Kind of hard to explain. Anyway, I liked the look at the time, but now I'm not so sure. Her story was actually the part I was most excited about with this Miqo'te. The second I put on the two sided face paint, my brain already started churning out a crazy backstory for it. I think I was most excited because a large part of my roleplaying background comes from a World of Darkness forum game that I spent three or four years playing on and off. In those games I always played characters/clans/tribes with an abundance of mental flaws that I'd have to overcome while RPing. I just love playing deeply flawed characters just trying to get by in the world. Seems like that always brought about the best RP stories. Hmmm. I'm kind of curious what's giving you the bad vibe. Maybe it's how the highlights in her hair make it look like she has devil horns? Or maybe just the prissy rich girl trying to break into adventuring story? I have to admit, her story is much less fleshed out than the other characters. I made her specifically because I like the way Elezens look in the Dragoon AF armor better than the other races. Her background is basically just what I came up with spur of the moment by looking at her and trying to imagine what her personality would be like. Someone mentioned that she looked Cleopatra-esque, so I kind of just ran with that. I still need to flesh her out more. I'd probably try to work jewelcrafting somewhere into her background to help explain the wealth more. Or I'll just come up with something else altogether. I think the generic vibe comes from me trying to make him a jack of all trades character right from the start. Roegadyn were too big, Lalafell were too small, Elezen were too supple, and Miqo'te were female only at the time when I was making him. I could've went with a Midlander, but to be honest, they felt a little TOO generic for me, so I went with Highlander. It helps that at the time there weren't many people playing Highlanders, either. One of the big draws of this character for me, though, is that he's kind of like duct tape. He fits in pretty much everywhere as a temporary solution. His story's main theme basically revolves around personal independence and breaking free from limitations. He doesn't need to be the best at everything, he just needs to be competent enough to not be tethered to someone else. It also makes it so that he's really not limited in what stories he can participate in. He's pretty much the epitome of a choose your own adventure book. He can wander off anywhere, join pretty much anyone, and do pretty well in it. He just gets in trouble when he starts coming across things that needs a specialized skill set that he can't provide. Hmmm... maybe I'm more attached to this character than I gave myself credit for. I think the main issue I have is that, story and personality wise, it just doesn't seem like he has enough character flaws. At the moment, it seems like his only real flaw is that he can't stand toe-to-toe with a specialist in a particular field. Just doesn't seem to be a big enough drawback to being able to do pretty much everything else competently. I'll have to work on that a bit more. Anyway, looking at the results, it seems like the Seawolf is really the only one that's pretty much completely safe. Things definitely don't look good for the little Miqo'te, though. She's not happy about it. >.>

I actually used to get away with making decent ones using only MS Paint. I've since upgraded to using a mix of Photoshop and GIMP when I'm at home, or Pixlr when I'm at work and want to mess around with something. I tend to like the banners that I make all the way up until I see someone else's banner that they've made. Then I get jealous that mine doesn't look as good.

Short Version: Of the four characters below, which is you least favorite? Longer Version: Sooo, I spent a lot of time messing around with character creation. I made a ton of characters, but finally settled (or thought I'd settled) on the three I'd be using at launch. I'd specifically planned three characters because: 1) I wanted one character in each Grand Company. And 2) I'm horribly addicted to alts and if I allowed myself more than three, I'd never get anything done (has happened countless times before in other MMOs). Anyway, I'd settled on my characters, but during this last Phase 3 test, I spent a little time on my old 1.0 character and remembered why I liked him so much in the first place. I'd been all set to just scrap the guy or remake him into a Miqo'te or Roegadyn, but after messing with him for awhile, I found myself getting attached again. So, help me decide! A: Seawolf Roegadyn. Confident, brash, sea going warrior. Has a penchant for belting out a myriad of lewd drinking songs during battle and bar room brawls. B: Wildwood Elezen. Calm, charming, and ever so slightly haughty. Very much used to living quite lavishly, but loves the urban lifestyle and has become addicted to the thrill of adventuring. C: Keeper Miqo'te. Young, inexperienced, but knows how to pull through when it counts. Was raised in a rather odd religious cult dedicated to Nald'Thal and wears the two faced paint to represent it. Has some mental issues due to the unusual upbringing. D: Highlander Hyur. Humourous, down to earth, and very much a jack of all trades. Comes from a rather well off family from overseas. Has been trained in a myriad of martial and mental disciplines, but left for Eorzea to get some real world experience before beginning any sort of specialized training. Anyway, my dilemma here is which one to cut. I really like all of them, but I know if I allow myself "just one more character" that it'll eventually become a huge downward spiral of me constantly creating and recreating characters and never actually playing the game itself past the first 20 levels or so. For reference, I enjoy playing both male and female characters and don't mind if all of my characters wind up female. I also don't mind playing the super popular race (a.k.a. Miqo'te) as long as the character design is unique. So, just kick your least favorite character off the Island! Doesn't matter the reason (RP story doesn't look interesting, characters looks bland, etc). Thanks!

I tend to put ALL of my characters on the tall side, both male and female. I have a Seawolf Roegadyn that's on the tallest possible setting, so she towers over everyone except average to tall male Roegadyn. I love how she feels powerful without feeling overly bulky like the male Roegadyn feel. I have a Keeper of the Moon Miqo'te that's on the highest setting because they're already very short and having them on the tallest still makes them very short compared to the other races (sans Lalafell). The height actually turns me off of Miqo'te more than their extreme popularity does, but I had some fun with the face paint and made a combination that just looks strange on anything but Miqo'te, so I'll be playing one come launch anyway. My other character is an Elezen that I haven't quite decided her height yet. I had her on the tallest setting to begin with, but that made her look really gangly compared to the other races. I set on her on very short for a bit, since that would still make her taller than a lot of characters, but then her proportions looked way off, since she was way thinner than everyone else and her small head really stood out. I'll be messing with her more, but she'll probably end up somewhere around the halfway mark, or a little lower.

Kind of. My mooncat's name used to be Trick Silverpaw, but I changed the last name to be more convention friendly while still keeping the general sound and theme (Silvrapah). The first name's just an easily pronounced nickname from his give name "Maltriq'to" I also have an Elezen named "Faye Cadenza" who just flat out ignores the naming conventions. I'll use the naming conventions when I can, but I like "word" names (Violet, Trick, Bear, etc.) so I'll bend the conventions a bit to fit a particular name that really fits my character.

If I was making this character, I'd probably do something like have the character be a part of the Garlean air forces rather than being on the ground, perhaps a part of Gaius Van Baelsar's XIV legion, seeing as they were there in airships during the final battle in order to observe. Your airship could've been one from that legion that was slow to withdraw after Bahamut appeared and got caught in the blast, blowing you wildly off course, destroying the airship, and obliterating the crew, yourself being the sole exception. You could then awake later to find yourself in the care of a friendly nomadic tribe of some sort who rescued you from the wreckage. With no idea of where you were and little hope of returning to the Empire anytime soon, you'd be forced to accept their generosity while you plotted your return to the Empire. During the course of your stay with said nomadic tribe, you'd become more sympathetic, trusting, and attached to them as you assured each others continued survival. Eventually you'd learn that "they aren't really so different from us after all" despite the years of brainwashing to the contrary. You might come to relish your freedom, develop friendships, and maybe even start to fall in love with someone. You'd inevitably find your way back to the Empire, but only come to realize upon your return that its embrace is much colder and restricting than you'd remembered. You'd try to fall back into the day to day duties that you'd originally been accustomed to, but you can't help but think that the Garlean way isn't as virtuous and honorable as you'd been brought to believe. You'd eventually be ordered to do something that would serve as the crux of your rebellion, finally forcing you to choose freedom and desertion rather than continue to serve under the yoke of the Empire. At least, that's the kind of story I'd use for a Garlean turncoat. It's not that uncommon a story Final Fantasy wise either, to tell the truth. A lot of that is purposefully left very vague in order to be filled in with relevant bits or your character's own background and personality.

In 1.0, I know the vast majority of the random RP I found was at the fountain in Ul'dah (the indoors one with the benches) and the amphitheater in Gridania. I wouldn't be surprised if the Adventurer's Guilds in the various cities got some action, since there are conveniently placed tables/chair where you can sit and discuss adventurey thingies before going off to do said adventurey thingies.