Myxie Tryxle

New players can create characters on Legacy servers. This post by Aysun should clear up any questions you may have about the differences.

Reading over this thread for the last few hours, I've noticed two points of view that seem to be leading to the conflict in this thread. I'll describe the first as rational (with varying degrees of sympathy) and the second as emotional (but not necessarily irrational). I'll start with the rational, as that's the camp I identify myself with. While at first glance, it may seem like this is a single straw, for someone who has experienced and gathered a lifetime worth of straw, one more straw is one straw too many. The LGBT community suffers harassment, intolerance, discrimination, and abuse - potentially on a daily basis. The people you're arguing with may have been cast out by family and friends or suffered death threats when they revealed their orientation. Consider how you might feel if you experienced a lifetime of discrimination, heartache, and fear just for being who you are. As an American, I live in a country where high school students will bully their peers to the point of committing suicide to escape the harassment. Walk a mile in their shoes and consider why they may feel so strongly about this issue before writing off their emotions. For the emotional, please understand that the rationals (myself included) may not have a basis to understand the depth of your feelings in this argument. I've never experienced discrimination in my life, but I nonetheless despise inequality and unfairness. The immediate response from the rational point of view is that this is a problem, an intellectual exercise in need of a game plan. While it can come across as insensitive to a person for whom this debate represents their life and not just an intellectual exercise, the goal of the rational approach is the same - to find a solution that supports equality. We're on your side, even if our arguments appear dispassionate. As for Square Enix's role in all this, I think it will help to consider their structure and their motives. Giant, multi-national corporations operate in terms of black and red, not black and white. Nike, Apple, Walmart, Square Enix, etc. are going to base their decisions on what is most profitable. Based on what I've read from the dev team, it sounds like they're supportive and open to this discussion. They may be fighting an uphill battle in which they have to convince some combination of the CEO, CFO, VP of marketing, board of directors, and/or shareholders that allowing gay marriages in the game won't hurt the bottom line. I think the opportunity is here for us to make a difference. I think the dev team is on our side in this debate. And I think that if we can present a united effort that yields a combined rational and passionate argument, we can sway whoever it is at Square Enix that is sitting on the fence. Everyone deserves equal privileges in the game, and I'll gladly stand by the LBGT community in seeking equality. Personally, I would be saddened if we lost players over this. My gaming group since I moved to California in 2007 has included at least three bisexuals and one gay man. All of them are good people, undeserving of discrimination, who bring interesting variety to my life and my gaming experiences. Even if Square Enix doesn't support this, I think it's important that we as a community do. Ultimately, if the corporation supports it, that decision will come down to dollars and cents. It's the hearts and minds of the players that will really define the importance of this issue, and that's why you'll have my full support.

As far as the lore goes, you can consider the fact that one of the biggest opponents of gay marriage, namely Christianity and Christian groups, doesn't exist in the setting. Looking at the Twelve, there are several male-female relationships but none that are same sex. Of course we only have 1-2 paragraphs about each of them, two of the Twelve have a father but no mother, and six of them have no parentage at all. I wouldn't be surprised if Menphina at least encouraged love in every form. Again, there will be regional differences as well. These poll numbers are confusing, but from what I've been able to interpret, Japan is anywhere between 3-17 years less progressive than comparable polls in the United States. Even in the US only 13 states, Washington DC, and five Native American tribes have legalized same-sex marriage. I don't think you can blame Square Enix for being careful about jumping headfirst into muddy water like this. It would be nice if they took a stance on the issue, but they aren't going to until they have a reasonably good idea how it will affect the bottom line.

Same sex marriage is less progressive in Japan than the United States, so probably not. They actually have a law that is worded that marriage is between a man and a woman, though they will acknowledge a same-sex marriage if it occurs with a foreigner in a foreign country.

The main risk with this idea is you'd be walking the razor's edge when it comes to meta-gaming. That may be fine if you have a certain linkshell in mind for the character and work out the details with the leaders or if you communicate ahead of time with individuals how it works. If you go with someone who truly has the gift of clairvoyance, it could be a valuable and interesting RP tool if used correctly, but the potential for accusations of god-moding and metagaming are quite high, depending on your audience. If you're a cold-reading charlatan, that should be less difficult. That sort of thing happens all the time in real life. In my mind, all psychics are fakes. Should be easy to fake faking it. I've actually lost friends in real life over this type of argument, so I'll just provide you with this link to an article about Cold Reading if you'd like to look behind the curtain. If you'd rather remain blissful about the mystical idea of psychics and reading the future, I don't suggest looking further. Ignorance is most definitely bliss when it comes to real world "psychic powers."

My point was that if a 9 point disparity from race is not significant, a 15 point disparity from flex stats is going to be insignificant as well. At level 20 on the beta on my THM with normal crafted gear and empty materia sockets, 15 points of int would have boosted my magical attack stat which determines spell damage by only around 15%. By level 50 with decent gear and rank 4 materia, 15 points of int will be such a small difference you probably won't even notice it without a DPS meter to analyze the data (which I don't think will be available, anyhow). In my MMO experience, player skill makes up 90% of a player's capability anyhow. As far as cross class skills go, we'll have to see what those are, but every job gets cross class skills from one additional class outside their sub. For example, warrior sub is gladiator, but they get cross class skills from gladiator and pugilist. I wouldn't be surprised if scholar got conjurer and thaumaturge cross class skills, since white mage gets thaumaturge and arcanist cross class skills. Whoops, I missed summoner! Not sure what their cross class skill pool will be. Black mage gets arcanist and archer, so maybe they'll get the same?

They've already stated that differences in starting attributes will be insignificant when it comes to end game play. If you consider a Lalafell or Miqo'te (with the worst stats for tanking) versus a Roegadyn or Highlander (with the best stats for tanking), their overall difference in the three physical stats is 9 points. From what I've read, you get a max of 30 points to allocate at level 50. Assuming the primary stats are intelligence for summoner and mind for scholar, you could do a 15/15 split and not be noticeably disadvantaged. Slot materia with dualistic caster stats (crit, spell speed, determination), and you should be able to build a dualistic arcanist that you probably won't even be able to tell isn't 100% maximized for one job or the other. This is all speculative, as I was hoping I had missed some information on their powers. It may end up being moot once we see the actual gameplay. Maybe scholars will get a "scholar stance" the way conjurers get cleric stance, warriors get defiance stance, paladins get sword/shield oaths, and monks get fists of fire/earth/wind. This might work if you built specifically to focus on mind and used cleric stance when you were playing arcanist or summoner. If cleric stance is disallowed for arcanist/summoners or if the arcanist/summoner class favors int over mind, it wouldn't work. Cleric stance isn't viable to switch int to mind for healing due to the % reduction in healing ability.

I read the news from the announcement today, but didn't see any specific information about stats for arcanist jobs. Perhaps you could post the pertinent information here for reference?

Felix put together a very informative guide for new players to find info on the site. If you have seen it yet, there's lots of good information for new members of the community on his thread that I've linked here.

Welcome to the community! Always good to have another internet vet join us.

If you're looking for information on the specific classes and their skills, I suggest using this site, FFXIV Info. I linked it to the dragoon, since that was your first question. With my limited experience in FF games, Freya is the closest example I can think of to FFXIV dragoons, as both use a lance and jump around for their attacks. We have very little info on summoners and scholars, but from what I've read, summoners will be DPS with maybe a potential to tank a little and scholars will use their pets for healing. Arcanists, summoners, and scholars are still very speculative as they haven't been available for play. Archers, thaumaturges/black mages, and arcanists would probably appeal to you as ranged DPS classes. In my experience playing the beta, no one is flashier than thaumaturge, though I didn't get archer high enough for group play or AoE attacks. Every class is going to have cool armor choices, so that really comes down to personal preference.

Welcome to the community!

Phantom of the Opera style! 8-) Maybe Isobeau can lend you a mask.

I made my character's name way back in 1.0 when I didn't know anything about naming conventions. In going back and writing up her backstory, I decided she changed it in the last year from Mikhi Trikhel, her tribal name, when she moved to Ul'dah. There's lots of options.

Even if Balmung's server population is smaller, it may still have the larger number of roleplayers. If there's an even split in terms of numbers of roleplayers, if you consider from a point of view of concentration, Balmung is likely to have a higher percentage of roleplayers. I expect that will facilitate finding roleplay and reduce griefing.

I'll explain a few of the reasons I chose Balmung. While I respect the optimism and ambition a lot of the Gilgamesh players are showing, I don't share it. I do, however, wish them the best of luck, as I consider it a tragedy when any RP community suffers hardship. We're all part of the same greater roleplaying community. I'm a returning player from 1.0, but I only played it for about two months. In two weekends on the beta, I managed to surpass my original character in every class that was available, and that's before I learned about the NPCs who would auto-level you to 15. Leveling in this game will be substantially easier than it was in the original, assuming the curve wasn't accelerated in the beta. Within a month, you're going to see plenty of level 50s on Gilgamesh. If what you're really looking for is the best possible roleplaying opportunities, level should be inconsequential. In my mind, it's all about the community, and different players will have different needs or desires in that regard. Personally, I'm resurrecting my character on Balmung, and that's always been my plan. I don't know or remember anyone from three years ago, but I've had ample opportunities to meet people. I have yet to find anyone from the Balmung community that fits this fearful notion of the spiteful Legacy player lording themselves over new-comers. Based on the behavior I've seen from the Legacy players I've met, if such a person did appear, they'd be fervently and immediately rebuffed by most of the other Legacy players. Even when there was a call from some of the non-Legacy players for a split, they accommodated it in an effort to foster a greater roleplaying community for all players. They truly wish to be inclusive for all roleplayers, even those they won't be playing with on other servers (all servers, including Gilgamesh, Behemoth, Leviathon, etc.). As for the trolling and the griefers, I'll relate my experience of it on the beta on Gilgamesh. I found a couple people I had roleplayed an event with the previous night being griefed by a couple of guys from one of the "official" Reddit groups . I decided to join the RP and see what happened. Over the course of the next hour, six to eight members of appeared to join in the griefing. They did emote spam, AoE spell spam, danced on the table where we were sitting, sat or positioned on top of our characters so we couldn't easily target one another, and mocked everything we said. Different members rotated in and out, but by the time I left over an hour later, they were still griefing. As far as I can tell, not a single one of the roleplayers did anything to even acknowledge they existed. I can't say how this will play out when the game goes live. Maybe the trolls will get tired, but only if absolutely no one feeds them, which is unlikely once Gilgamesh becomes an open community rather than a beta. Some people just can't resist the bait. There's lots of optimism floating around that it won't be an issue or that they'll even be able to reform the griefers and bring them into the fold. I even saw someone say they'll produce a hybrid RP, calling it "RP for bros." Personally, I think that sounds terrible, as I'm not going to compromise my RP to accommodate someone who actively despises my hobby. Whichever server you choose, I wish you the best of luck. I fully expect that after the hurdles of the first 2-3 months, the difference between the two servers in terms of RP will be barely noticeable.

Sadly, I imagine cooking a moogle is like putting a peep in a microwave. It grows to about four times its normal size then bursts into flames like a smoldering marshmallow.

I disagree. If anything in the setting is going to have cream filling, it's a moogle.

Has Square Enix said anything about renaming, race changing, or appearance changing? I know I've seen something about character transferring becoming available in a few months, but not sure if any of these others have been mentioned.

You could call her "Secret Identity" or "Jane Doe." Everyone will know you might look familiar but have to decide for themselves if you actually look familiar. Not sure if that's actually helpful, but I had a good laugh when I thought of it.

As for bombs, that's a pretty nasty thing. Sometimes it's hard to tell who the villain is until they blow you up. This apparently happened to the RPG club at UCI. I don't play in their LARP, but one year a player saved up all his influence for the final game of the year and used it to firebomb the LARP, killing half the player characters. By the rules, it was legal, and he moved away before the next fall leaving lots of people angry and nearly killing the LARP (which has died at least once before to be resurrected with a new system/setting a few years later).

It's entirely possible they are waiting to see how we work this out for ourselves. Six months down the road, we may see Balmung and Gilgamesh designated RP servers. I see no reason they'd have to make a brand new server and designate it RP. It's likely they'd realize that this would frustrate the established RP community.

The main difficulty with playing a villainous character (truly villainous, not just morally ambiguous or antiheroic) is a matter of etiquette. If your primary character is a villain, they almost have to be attached to a certain storyline or guild to get proper play. For example, if I'm playing a mafioso character and show up with a few brutes at the Corvus Cinis barbeque during the open beta demanding protection money or tribute because they're on my turf, that's a rude way of ruining other peoples' game. Proper etiquette requires that you work those sorts of things out beforehand with the person coordinating the event (maybe not the final outcome, but at least the notion that the barbeque is going to get strong armed). If you just show up out of the blue and try to force dark RP on someone else's event or character, they're likely to either start an out-of-character argument or completely ignore you. Also, what makes villains truly villainous is that they are larger than life. Their screen time is generally less with less characterization, and their traits, particularly morality traits and resources, are exaggerated for effect. In terms of player characters, this will often be perceived as god-moding. Personally, I'd like to play a dark character, but it would be an antagonist alt attached to a storyline, not what I would generally consider "my character." Unless the character gets redeemed, but even then I find redemption to be a fantastic point at which to retire a character.

As far as the D&D alignment system goes, theft is a chaotic act in that it's breaking the law or established rules of order, and even this is dependent on the character and their circumstances. Whether or not it's evil is debatable and situational. The evil distinction has a lot to do with whether or not you consider or care about the repercussions of the crime. I can imagine an entire spectrum of theft acts in the D&D sense. Chaotic Good - Robin Hood; stealing from the corrupt politicians to ease the suffering of the common folk Chaotic Neutral - stealing the purse from a noble or successful merchant, someone who can weather the loss without suffering hardship Chaotic Evil - stealing the donations box from a orphanage Lawful Good/Neutral - spying on a corrupt or evil government to steal their state secrets Lawful Evil - Sheriff of Nottingham; using a position of power to profit off of others' work or suffering through means like excessive taxation There's a reason the rogue class in D&D doesn't have alignment restrictions. It states that they are more likely to be chaotic than lawful and states nothing about good or evil. Whether or not a rogue is a thief and how their particular brand of theft affects their alignment is open to interpretation based on the players, and will vary from game to game. I think the problem with most alignment systems appears when people try to make them objective when they're actually subjective. You have to consider the act, its reasoning/justification on the part of the character, how the character reacts to its repercussions, and even how your unique group of players views morality. Alignments used well lead to interesting and dynamic characters with difficult choices and dilemmas. Though I do agree that it's difficult or impossible to build a system that can capture any and every possible nuance.

I kinda jokingly hinted at it earlier, but a big part of what makes a villain a villain is their intentions. If he were an anarchist or a nihilist, that would be potentially villainous, but it sounds like he's poor, down-trodden, and desperate. Given the luxury of choice, would he do the right thing?