Myxie Tryxle

First of all, +1'ing this. Roughly fifteen reputation boosts for the original post, a handful of very appreciative PMs, three friends requests, and eight pages of generally constructive discussion indicate that this thread was useful and informative to quite a few people. Are you really attacking me for giving a rep point to someone who disagrees with you? I'll ignore that blatant hostility toward a differing opinion for a second, and I'll go ahead and say, while miqo'te mating might be interesting to some, it shouldn't be considered the end-all be-all of miqo'te culture. No one seems to care how they got to Eorzea, when they got to Eorzea, when they broke off into separate clans, what their social structure (outside of bumping uglies) is like, exactly how tribal they are, how their tribal culture has been affected by the fact that instant teleportation is available in Eorzea, and how they assimilate into society. None of that seems interesting in comparison to how they mate. That's what I don't get. It's strange to me that this subject is the all-encompassing hot point for learning about miqo'te in the RPC. Sure there are other threads, but this one is by far the largest and it's completely fair to say that it's strange to me. I don't agree with you. Not everyone will. Don't get mad at me for it. Nothing I said there was aggressive towards anyone. The question was posed as to why this discussion was necessary or worthwhile. I provided evidence that some people wanted to have this discussion and benefited from it. I even encouraged in replies throughout the thread that if people wanted to discuss other aspects of Miqo'te or the other races to start a thread and I would enjoy the discussion. It spawned at least one other thread from another poster as well as another thread from me on aspects of Miqo'te culture like ritual combat. As for a scientific, statistical basis for proving the worth of this thread, it's unnecessary. If fifteen to twenty people come up to me and say "Hey, I really enjoyed/learned from that thing you wrote," it has value, even if a small group or even the majority has no use for it. Just today since this thread has been resurrected, I've gotten three new rep boosts for the original post from people who missed its original run. I just hate when I see someone pop into a thread (any thread, not just my own) and say "Why does this even exist? I don't need this. It's unnecessary." Why even bother posting that? In my mind it's like walking into an Alcoholic Anonymous meeting and saying "I can hold my liquor. This group is stupid." And another guy walking in and saying "Hell yeah! Who wants to get a beer?" Or standing outside a soccer stadium and proclaiming "Your sport sucks! American football is the only football!" It adds nothing to the discussion and often brings worthwhile discussion to a screeching halt as we spend the next two pages arguing back and forth until one side finally throws up their hands and leaves the thread. For the four of you from Misericorde who seem to be spurring argument here, I'll say this: If you honestly believe there's something positive to be gained from continuing to argue about this, please send me or the person you're arguing with a private message, and we can discuss it further. If you have discussion relevant to the original topic of discussion, by all means post it. If you want to see a discussion of other aspects of Miqo'te culture, start a thread on that. If I see this thread continuing to devolve into something worthy of the depths of 4chan or reddit, I will request that it be locked. Please allow it to remain constructive for people like Siobahn, Clover, K'nahli, and others who are spurring discussion that is on topic.

Wow, I didn't expect this discussion to be resurrected after a month of obscurity. For those of you who read the title and not the full discussion, this is not about ERP or perversion. I would suggest reading through the full discussion before jumping to conclusions about the scope of this thread, as that horse has already been beaten around page five and six. The Chinese culture you're referring to was actually brought up in another thread. Their name is Mosuo if I remember correctly. You can find that thread with a very interesting video and some good discussion here. To give a little perspective on the question of why this post was created, I wrote it in the weeks of downtime between beta phases 3 and 4, when many of the points I made were questions being repeated on multiple threads every few days. I decided it would be nice to gather all the ideas into one comprehensive thread to encourage discussion during a period when we had more questions than answers, no recourse to play the game and seek out actual lore, and a lot of people were trying to figure out the backstory for their Miqo'te characters. W-What? I wrote this about Miqo'te for two reasons. First, that's where all the questions and discussion were at the time. Roughly 33% of the population planned to play Miqo'te versus 10% playing Roegadyn, so that's where most of the discussion/conjecture/information-seeking was. Second, I'm playing a Miqo'te, and that's my only character. Others are welcome to start posts about their own character's race or culture, and I'm happy to join in on those discussions. As for the quest option for grand companies to eat babies, that seems to have been a writer's quirk of beta phase three. It was gone when I did my grand company quest a few days after the official launch. They apparently changed the options to be less offensive/controversial, as writers often do when phasing from beta fill-in text to official release. First of all, +1'ing this. Roughly fifteen reputation boosts for the original post, a handful of very appreciative PMs, three friends requests, and eight pages of generally constructive discussion indicate that this thread was useful and informative to quite a few people. As a Miqo'te roleplayer I'm inclined to agree. Why is this there such a huge focus on this? It's bordering creepy, in my most humble of opinions. Yeah, 'creepy' sums it up rather nicely. I'm not going to point fingers but it's no coincidence that some of the folk getting really into this discussion are the same role-players trying to mate with any and every female miqo'te comes their way. One of my close friends has already given up trying to role-play a miqo'te because not one, but three different 'nunh' characters sent her messages asking if she wanted to bed them. Perhaps it's unfair of me to stereotype but I'm beginning to think the majority of 'nunh' role-players are simply embracing the role purely to get their rocks off. All I can say for this is creeps will be creeps. Part of my goal in writing this thread was to encourage intellectual discussion to make the discussion deeper than just "oh he's a nunh, so he must be a creep." The creeps who are playing nunh to creep on girls would find another means to creep on girls even if the nunh category didn't exist, because that's part of their personality. I would be one of the first people to rebuff them for this behavior and blacklist if necessary, as I find it disturbing, disrespectful, and unwarranted. This thread was partly to encourage people who wanted to play nunh but in a respectful and informed manner.

Here's a link to the website I was talking about that lists your cross class powers. If you scroll down to the third section, those are the cross class powers. It describes the level and class needed to unlock each power. I would suggest getting one of the DOT powers, one of the defense cooldowns, and Second Wind for tanking instances. My personal suggestions for the most useful low level powers: Feint - lancer 2 - reduces the enemy attack speed; poor for threat but good to reduce damage from melee bosses Foresight - marauder 2 - increases defense for a short period; great for reducing physical damage Featherfoot - pugilist 4 - increases dodge chance for a short period; another defensive cooldown Venomous bite - archer 6 - puts a nice damage over time on the enemy; DOTs are great for threat if you put them on an enemy that is likely to live for more than ten seconds Fracture - marauder 6 - another DOT; same idea as venomous bite, though venomous bite is more potent at the early levels Second wind - pugilist 8 - an instant heal on a short cooldown; it's basically a free potion every two minutes; highly recommended Powers I would avoid: Skull sunder - marauder 4 - identical to savage blade but you can't combo it, making this power worthless for gladiator Protect - conjurer 8 - while a 30 minute defense buff is great, your healer will bring an improved version that overwrites it; leave it for the conjurer Impulse drive - lancer 8 - ideally you'll never be behind an enemy, making this less effective than your other attacks

As I said in AST LS, next time you want to tank something, grab me, and I can help you out. I find most often the difference between a good tank experience and a bad tank experience is confidence. Grab some of us from AST or Intermission for a few runs, and we'll help you build confidence. Once you get the hang of it, tanking can be a lot of fun. Duty finder pickup groups tend to have some degree or combination of stupid, impatient, arrogant, and entitled, which makes for an aggravating learning curve when you first try tanking. As far as the classes go, I haven't played either, but I've seen fantastic tanks of both classes and terrible tanks of both classes. I'd say try them both and see which one jives better for you. Ultimately, if you decide to stick with tanking, you'll want to level both because they both have great cross class utility for the other.

Happy to help! Just bear in mind that either way you go (gladiator or arcanist), if at any point he wants to maximize his job capabilities, he's going to have to face that fear. A gladiator who doesn't dabble in marauding or an arcanist who doesn't dabble in thaumaturgy are both missing out on some signature cross-class abilities. Forcing himself to overcome that fear for his own personal growth should lead to some very interesting stories (which is to say I'm not saying this to discourage the idea). Conflict is the root of good storytelling.

Post traumatic stress is one possibility. Maybe at the exact moment he was shunted in the time stream, there was a meteor with his name on it streaking directly towards him, and he had resigned himself to die. He could have a recurring nightmare about it and regularly wake up in night sweats right before the moment of impact. This could manifest as pyrophobia, where he's afraid of flames and fire based attacks, leading to anxiety and mistrust around thaumaturges and marauders (I think overpower, the marauder AoE threat attack, is depicted as a burst of flame).

If I'm remembering right, the maps were much bigger in 1.0 (like twice as big as they are now, but that was three years ago, so I may be misremembering). I agree though that the game is likely a microcosm of the greater world. Otherwise all of Ul'dah would be fed by two small garden patches outside the Nald gate. That doesn't seem likely. I didn't really pick an area of the map for her homestead. I described it as a circle of four small cabins with a common area/firepit in the center set against the backdrop of a tall, rocky cliff with a small stream running past it.

My character is a Keeper of the Moon, and she grew up in the Shroud as well, but in a small family group. It was just a cluster of four log cabins in the woods. I simply referred to it as her family's homestead, and it's definitely off screen. There's very few villages or communities in the outlying areas around the three city states in game. Most of what are there are just quest hubs, with an aetheryte, chocobo stalls, and a handful of small huts or buildings. There's plenty of room for off screen interpretation.

I would suggest checking out the linkshell listings (click the link!) and being proactive in trying to find RP as well. In particular, the Intermission OOC linkshells are a good way to ask other RPers where they're RPing, or if anyone would like to meet up for RP. Good luck

Intermission is an OOC linkshell for RPers on Balmung. It's for RPers to set up dungeon runs, talk about their characters, or find out where RP is currently happening. Given the small size of linkshells (128 characters), there will likely be several iterations of this channel. I think during phase 4 they were talking about making an Intermission2 for more players and an Altermission for alts. I think the adventurer's guild linkshell she described would fall into a similar category and would be a good idea. Just make sure there's a few characters from that shell that cross over into the Intermission shells as well, and word can spread through the different channels about RP events and whatnot. Hopefully SE will raise linkshells to 512 characters in the future, the same as Free Companies.

Even if you can't get up that early to make a character, try as soon as you can. They're likely to be locked during primetime hours (when everyone is getting home from work/school), but early in the morning and late in the evening, traffic should reduced. As another poster said, they lock if there's too many people playing at the time of log in. If you log on during off-peak hours, you should be able to get in. Make your character in the benchmark/character creator, and you can just pop your character on the server before you head off to work in the morning, and you'll be free to play when you get back during primetime.

Welcome to the RPC! Be sure to check out the stickies in the various forums. There's information there to help you figure out which server(s) you'd like to join as well as helpful suggestions and etiquette for MMO roleplaying. There's a link to the different linkshells in the header bar. It may help you figure out where you'd like to play by browsing the linkshells and finding players or storylines that interest you. Feel free to ask questions as well. We're happy to help.

I think it's a good idea. I leveled up my CNJ during phase 4 to 20 using exclusively groups from my linkshells (Intermission, Corvus) so that the RPC folks playing DPS didn't have to wait in line for half an hour or more just to finish each step of the story quests. I think I ran the chain of three dungeons three separate times on Saturday to help folks out while gaining a few levels myself. It also helps build the community. Even if a player isn't the best DPS, tank, or healer you've played with, in this kind of environment, there's incentive to work with them. Offer helpful advice and such, because unlike a random pickup group, you will likely be seeing that player again, so you'll invest some effort. If you help those other players out, there's a high chance you'll play with them again and have a good time. I think it helps foster community while improving the gameplay of that community, in this case, the RPC community.

Very good! I read the whole thing straight through. Quite the adventure. Fair warning, if you run into Myxie she's going to pick your brain for hours about technology. :geek:

I've been rolling around the idea of an evil group to serve as antagonists for the community. This sort of discussion keeps cropping up, so there appears to be some demand for such a group. In my local RP group, we've been breaking away from the typical gaming paradigm of "GM writes plot and runs game." Basically, everyone has a PC, and in any scene where a PC isn't present, their player takes up the role of the NPCs. Generally it plays out where each player has their own character and several notable NPCs (good, bad, and neutral) to play in the game. Occasionally you have to pass off one of your NPCs for someone else to play, but we try to assign NPCs to players who have little conceivable reason for their own character to interact with the NPCs they play. I think this idea would work if we had an antagonist group that served as a resource for the community. Since Garryson is in this thread, I'll use his organization as an example. Suppose XI: 7 needs an antagonist. Garryson contacts Villains, Inc (just a stand-in title) in advance and requests some dark characters for his storyline. The members of Villains, Inc work out among themselves whose villains would be best for the task, based on Garryson's needs as well as trying to find players who would likely never overlap with the XI: 7 storyline. Considering the size of the community, if we can get a couple players from each of the established groups supporting such an organization, it could be a good resource for the community and give players interested in having a villain alt the organization necessary to make it a worthwhile endeavor.

(( For the purposes of this story, Mikhi is eighteen years old. )) Mikhi listened for a while until her sisters’ breathing became slow and rhythmic. Convinced that they were asleep, she sat up slowly, grabbed the small bag underneath her cot, and tiptoed to the door. She opened the cabin door excruitiatingly slowly to avoid making any sound and slipped out, closing the door with equal care. The sun hung low in the morning sky. Clutching her package, Mikhi started walking along the bottom of the cliff face. In the Shroud around her, she could hear the early morning chirping of birds. After a short walk, Mikhi found the cave in the cliff face. Peeking inside, she could see that it was empty. With one last glance around to make sure that no one was watching her, she ducked into the cave. Mikhi opened her parcel and took out a small pot of honey and small jug of cream as well as two bowls. She filled one bowl with the honey and the other with the cream, putting the empty containers back in the bag and tying it to her belt. Leaning over, she picked up the two bowls off the floor and held them, one in each hand, as she stood upright in the center of the small cave. For an hour Mikhi stood like a statue, watching the entrance to the small cave. She stretched occasionally as her arms got sore, but she never put down the dishes she held. She rolled several ideas around in her head to keep from becoming sleepy. Finally, she heard a deep, annoyed sigh, and a winged fae appeared at the entrance of the cave with a frown on her face. “You aren’t going to give up this time, are you?” asked the fae in a high pitched voice. Mikhi squeeled in delight. “I knew you couldn’t put me to sleep this time!” “It’s not like you offered me a choice,” replied the fae. “Are you going to give me those? It would be a shame for you to break our arrangement on the last payment.” “You’ll get them,” answered Mikhi. “I just wanted to talk, since I may not see you again.” The fae regarded the Miqo’te for a moment. “All right. I suppose there’s no harm in a little bit of gab. What did you want to talk about?” “I’d like to know your name,” Mikhi declared boldly. The fairy furrowed her brows. “You should know by now that names hold power. Why should I trust you to keep it safe?” “Well, for starters I’ve kept up my end of our bargain for the past five years, and I haven’t told anyone about it,” offered Mikhi. “That’s true, right up until today’s little coup,” the fae retorted. “The day’s not over,” countered Mikhi. A grin spread across the fairy’s face. “I think you and I both know which one of us would win if I choose to wait this out until midnight.” “Maybe you. Maybe neither of us.” Mikhi yawned as she crossed her legs and sat down on the floor of the cave. She balanced the two bowls precariously on her knees, angling them towards the entrance of the cave. The fairy’s eyes grew wide as she saw her prize at risk of tumbling to the dusty floor. “Careful. Careful!” The fae held both hands out in a calming gesture. “I mean it only seems fair, right?” asked Mikhi. “You know my name, I’m sure.” The fairy glared at the Miqo’te for a moment before speaking. “Fine, put the bowls safely on the floor, and I’ll give you part of my name.” Mikhi considered for a moment before answering. “I suppose your first name would be fine enough. Do you promise that if I place these two bowls safely on the floor for you that you’ll tell me your first name?” The fae shook her head. “You’re getting smarter with age, girl. Yes, I promise I’ll tell you my common name.” Mikhi eyed the fairy critically. “And a common name is equivalent to a first name?” The fae sighed. “Yes, a common name is generally how the fae refer to other fae they consider friends or equals.” Mikhi place the bowls carefully on the ground then clapped her hands in excitement. The fairy relaxed once her prize was safely placed. “Now understand that even this fraction of my name will draw my attention. You aren’t to use it willy-nilly. I don’t need to hear from you every time your mother yells at you or some boy cat stands you up for a date.” Mikhi nodded fervently. “I understand.” “Very well,” continued the fae. “You may call me Farawynn.” “Farawynn,” Mikhi repeated. “Does that mean we’re friends now?” Farawynn laughed. “Well, we both seem to have a knack for holding the other hostage.” Mikhi let out a nervous laugh. Farawynn smiled. “But that’s a decent place to start in my world. You’re becoming a worthy adversary, Mikhi Trikhel.” Mikhi continued to laugh nervously. “Well, that’s, uh... good, then. It’s a pleasure to properly meet you, Farawynn.” The two chatted for an hour while Farawynn enjoyed her final treat of their five year arrangement. The honey and cream lifted the fairy’s spirits, and by the time the fae departed, the two were bantering cordially. Mikhi crept back onto the homestead quietly. It was afternoon, so everyone should be fast asleep. As she approached, she could hear voices coming from behind the matriarch’s house. It seemed very strange that her grandmother would be out and about in the middle of the day, so Mikhi moved to the side of the matriarch’s cabin to investigate. She could hear the Matriarch speaking to someone. “Thank ya for these pelts,” said the old woman. “With the roads openin’ for spring and summer, I should be able to make boots out of these and trade ‘em for amenities. I don’t suppose ya need new shoes?” Mikhi froze when she heard a familiar voice that she hadn’t heard for over ten years. “It’s alright, Grandma. The boots you gave me last fall have at least another year’s worth of tread in them.” Mikhi stumbled around the corner, staring in shock at the visitor. “Grendar’a?!” The two turned in surprise to see Mikhi standing at the corner of the cabin. The Matriarch shook her head, but the young male Miqo’te looked pleasantly surprised. “Hi, sis,” he said as his mouth formed a smile. “Grendar’a!” Mikhi exclaimed again, rushing forward to embrace him with tears forming in her eyes. For a moment they held each other, then he placed his hands on her shoulders and held her at arm’s length to look her over while Mikhi wiped the tears from her eyes. “You’ve certainly grown, Mikhi,” he finally said. “Are you still the princess of mischief?” Mikhi frowned and began slapping Grendar’a on the shoulder. “Why haven’t you come back to visit?” Grendar’a looked as if he’d been punched in the gut. “I wanted to sis, I really did. But mother told me never to come back.” “Grendar’s too hot-headed for her own good,” scolded the Matriarch as she wagged a finger at no one in particular. “But I can tell ya this much, she misses ya, boy.” Grendar’a sighed. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ve come back twice a year with pelts and extra goods. Grandma’s kept me up on everything that’s been happening.” Mikhi stared her brother defiantly in the face. “I’m going with you when you leave today.” Grendar’a gaped at Mikhi, while their grandmother continued to shake her head. “Grendar’s gonna throw a fit,” said the Matriarch. Grendar’a nodded. “Are you sure this is a good idea Mikhi?” Mikhi stood unwavering. “I’ve lived under her thumb in this hollow for eighteen years now. I want to see the world! Uncle Ori’to’s brought me books, and I know there’s more to life than a log cabin in the woods. Please, take me with you!” Grendar’a frowned. “I can’t stop you if you want to leave, but you can’t just sneak off like that. She deserves to know, whether it leads to a fight or not.” Mikhi’s resolve wavered for a moment as she considered the confrontation. “If you just up and leave without a word, you’ll end up the same as me, with no home to return to.” Grendar’a couldn’t meet Mikhi’s eyes as he pronounced his warning. Mikhi took a deep breath. “Then I’ll tell her, but she can’t keep me here any longer. I’ve made up my mind.” A smile grew on Grendar’a’s face even as a tear ran down one of his cheeks. He embraced his sister again. “We’ll travel the roads together, then. Damn it’s good to see you again, sis!” Mikhi tried to suppress a sniffle as she returned his embrace. “Ya’d best wait for nightfall then,” grunted the Matriarch. “Grendar’ll be angry enough about the news without ya waking her up in the middle of the day too.” Mikhi awoke to a gentle shake from Grendar’a’s hand on her shoulder. She sat up slowly, feeling a little bit stiff from where she’d fallen asleep on her grandmother’s couch. “It’s time,” was all he said as he waited for her by the door. Mikhi walked outside to see that the last rays of sunlight were fading from the clouds far overhead. She walked to her own home with Grendar’a staying behind. She opened the door and walked in to find Rhassal and Aylee prepping the main room for breakfast. “There ya are,” said Rhassal as Mikhi entered. “We need ya to gather some wood for the stove.” Mikhi ignored her sister, moving to where her cot still sat on the floor. She pulled a knapsack off a hook on the wall and began packing her belongings inside. She grabbed a couple changes of clothes, several books, and a small tin box, placing them neatly inside and buckling the knapsack closed. When she turned, her sisters were staring at her. Just then, the door to Grendar’s room opened. Grendar walked out and stared at Mikhi as the girl threw the knapsack over her shoulder. “What’s this then? Another of your little rebellions?” “It’s not a rebellion, Momma,” said Mikhi, her voice steady. “I’m eighteen, and it’s time I set off on my own.” Grendar laughed, but it was a hollow sound. “Do ya honestly think ya can take care of yerself out there, Mikhi? Those books ya been readin’ are fairy tales. The real world’s harsh and terrible. The safest place for ya is right here. Who’s gonna look out for ya out there? No one out there cares about ya.” Mikhi hesitated and glanced out the door. “There’s a couple who care about me out there.” Grendar snorted. “Who? Yer uncles? Ya could wander for ten years and never see a one of ‘em.” “I’ve made up my mind, Momma,” Mikhi protested. “I’m resolved to this path. Please don’t make this harder than it has to be.” Grendar growled and her nostrils flared. “So that’s how it’s gonna be, is it? Finally worked up the courage, did ya? I’ll tell ya exactly what I told yer brother. If you step through that door, don’t bother-“ “Mother!” Grendar’a’s voice pierced the woman like a spear. Grendar turned in astonishment to see her son standing in the doorway. For a moment, she stared. Then her rage came back in full force. “You!” she exclaimed, pointing a finger at Grendar’a. “You talked her into this, didn’t ya!” Grendar’a met his mother’s gaze and shook his head slowly. “Mikhi made this decision years ago. You know that, and you’ve been fighting it for too long. Don’t make the same mistake twice.” Grendar glared at her son then at Mikhi. She didn’t look at Grendar’a as he stepped in next to her, just breathed in short, raspy, pained breaths. He moved to wrap his arms around her. She growled in protest, but didn’t move away as he embraced her. “We’re leaving because of who we are, not because of you.” Grendar’s raspy breaths turned to shallow sobs. Mikhi walked forward, wrapping her arms around both her mother and brother. Mikhi whispered into her mother’s ear. “I love you, Momma, but this is something I have to do.” Grendar’s legs gave out, and the two helped her to a chair at the table. All four children watched in silence as their mother cried, one elbow leaning against the table and a hand shielding her eyes. After a few minutes, Mikhi placed a hand on Grendar’s shoulder. “Goodbye, Momma. It’s time for me to go.” For a moment Mikhi stood there with her hand on her mother’s shoulder as Grendar fought to control her sobs. When the sobbing stopped, they all stood in silence. Mikhi looked to Grendar’a. He nodded his head towards the door and stepped outside. Mikhi removed her hand, but Grendar continued to lean against the table and stare at the floor. Mikhi nodded to each of her sisters who watched in stunned silence as Mikhi turned to leave. As Mikhi stepped to the door, Grendar finally spoke. “Mikhi. Don’t....” Mikhi turned to look back at her mother. Grendar continued to stare at the floor. “Don’t... Don’t forget about us. Come back and visit... from time to time.” “I will, Momma!” Tears began to well up in Mikhi’s eyes. With a whisper, she added “Thank you.” Stepping outside, Mikhi found Grendar’a silently wiping tears from his eyes, out of view from the women inside. With one hand she wiped away her own tears, grasping his free hand with the other. Grendar’a smiled and looked at her as she dragged him towards the footpath out of the clearing. “Come on, big brother. You’ve got a lot to teach me.”

Looking for information about the Mosuo, I found this scientific thesis on the subject that has a lot of interesting information about the research into matrilineal societies. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find anything with statistics for gender ratio among the Mosuo, but there was an indication that Mosuo society appeared to reverse the trend for male preference seen in the Han majority. The Mosuo value and encourage female offspring, which may skew their gender ratio towards more females than males (which is contrary to the world average). For further reading on the points that have been brought up on this thread, I suggest the wikipedia pages on Gender Ratio, Fisher's Principle, Kin Selection/Hamilton's rule and Cooperative Breeding. I'd also caution that the writers for Square Enix probably aren't scientists and likely didn't put nearly this much thought into the mating system. Whatever lore we see in game about this will likely either skim the surface or contradict real world scientific theory to some degree.

The way I've argued this in other threads on the subject is that monogamy may exist under the Keepers, but it wouldn't be the norm. There's way too much incentive for males to be promiscuous. If they paired up 1 to 1 and half the population had no mate, there would be a coup or rampant adultery or both. I've also read that males are reclusive and tend to be nomadic, so polyamory just makes the most sense to me. For my own backstory, I'm having Myxie's dad experience wanderlust, traveling around and never spending more than a couple months in any single place but tending to return to the same communities around the same time year after year. As for only the top females breeding, this is also unlikely. Even if it did exist in this fashion at some point, exposure to the other races (Hyur, etc.) would likely break down that barrier. Wolves, for example, have alpha structures where only the top male and top female breed. Dogs, the domesticated siblings of wolves, don't experience that same restriction, indicating it was removed during the domestication process. Also given that there are more Keepers than Seekers, it's unlikely the Keepers have a more restrictive breeding system than the Seekers. As for bees, I wouldn't use them as a point of comparison. Hive insects like bees have a haplodiploid chromosome system for gender determination versus the diploid system we tend to think of as normal. As far as I know, haplodiploid doesn't exist in any mammal species, only in some insects and rotifers. You may find a fair amount of what you're looking for in a thread I did a while ago on Miqo'te Mating Strategies. There's a fair amount of good discussion there on many points surrounding this issue.

It's certainly possible that they could. There's at least 26 tribes of Seekers, so some could be more aggressive or territorial than others. The division between diurnal and nocturnal could be a consideration, but I could see this going either way. The Seekers and Keepers could coexist in a symbiotic fashion, where the Seekers rules apply during the day and the Keepers rules apply during the night. Or they could be paranoid and xenophobic, not tolerating the presence of a competing tribe that could ambush them in their sleep.

I read somewhere that the limit for players in a linkshell is 128 and the limit for a free company is 512. That seems backwards to me, but it is what it is. As far as keeping everyone connected, I think that was the original goal of these forums, as linkshells are too small to incorporate everyone in character.

Mostly I was speaking from what I imagine to be a game designer's point of view, not that of individuals with individual preferences. Personally I love the way thaumaturge plays. I plan to start phase 4 as an arcanist, since the way I've been roleplaying Myxie is very scholarly and bookish, but if it doesn't play the way I'd like, I'll be right back to fireballs and blizzards. My point was that having one class with twice the potential of the seven other classes is going to skew game balance to make that class more attractive, at least until other classes also have options. In general, the MMO community tends to react strongly to even slight perceptions of class imbalance. One class = one job is likely the fairest way to balance it until all eight classes have multiple job options.

That's what I'm saying. They may be essentially forcing you to pick one job or the other. If one character can be equally effective as both a scholar and summoner, your choices for higher level magical play become thaumaturge (damage dealer only), conjurer (healer only), arcanist (damage dealer and healer). If the arcanist can fill both roles with equal effectiveness, there's less incentive to play the other two magic classes. Thus they force you to choose one job or the other the same way you choose between thaumaturge or conjurer. One class = one job the same as it does for any other class without two job choices.

Part of their goal here may be to encourage cross class play. Thaumaturge and conjurer have to choose what role they wish to fill, but they make that choice at level 1. Arcanist makes that choice but does so at level 30. If arcanist is equally capable at ranged DPS and healing through job choice, it reduces incentives to play conjurer or thaumaturge. Why not just play arcanist where you can do both without penalty? I think we'll have a much clearer picture once we see the powers available to arcanist and its jobs. They may very well have different stance choices (likely through the pets) the way conjurer, pugilist, monk, paladin, and warrior do. It would make sense, considering the chocobo companion gets four stances (healer, defender, damage dealer, and grab bag).

Roleplaying games are roughly the same age as video games, with D&D first appearing in the mid 70s. I'd expect to see similar age trends for video gamers and roleplayers. The combat system he describes reminds me of the attack chains from FFXI. With proper communication and planning, you could do some hefty damage with attack chains, but even then timing was important. Each player had a short window in which to add their own special attack to the chain, so reflexes were still important. I think FFXIV is leaning towards the older players. Just looking at the Japan demographics, they'd be silly not to try to include the aging gamers. That or they're compensating for the fact that consoles aren't the ideal platform for MMO gaming. Either way, the 2.5 second global cooldown as well as the limited ability for tanks to taunt (one single target taunt with a 40s cooldown, no AoE taunt) indicates they expect players to be working more tactically. The general impatience that younger gamers often exhibit is not going to be rewarded in this game. It's also part of the reason I plan to level conjury with friends and guildmates rather than random pickup groups.

The auction angle could be effectively worked out with just a linkshell. If you had other activities to roll in with it, you might get a decent idea for a Free Company (guild) going. If you just want to do the auctions, I think a linkshell and announcements on the forums would work just fine.