Naunet

I prefer Dhalgren, personally. ;P (off-topic, I know lol)

The Hipparion Tribe: The Hipparion of the Sagolii desert are a reclusive group, content to wander the sands with little regard for the rest of the world. Those who have been lucky enough to encounter them on friendly terms return with tales of Hipparion huntresses besting mighty sandworms with seeming ease, each glorious hunt undertaken only with the blessings of their Elders and Shaman. Their celebrations and ceremonies possess a dramatic flair in their Fire Dancers, Hipparion members who seem to effortlessly call flame to their ritual staffs and engage in complicated, dangerous, and beautiful displays.

I didn't really see any in this game - probably because of how strict the level requirements are to access the more rp-friendly aspects of the game. But in WoW and Rift and TERA, I roleplayed with many level 10 and under characters, some of which had logged months of /played time on those characters alone. Perhaps it's these experiences of mine that make me so willing to be blind to level in RP. Someone presented a hypothetical situation of a level 5 character picking a fight with your own character. Personally, I would just take their IC actions at face value and roll with it. Any negative OOC reaction to the RP I may have is strictly based on things like "are they god-moding?" My level capped characters have had their butts kicked by level 1s.

Awww geez thank you so much! Wow now I feel all giddy! Haha. Words like that really mean so much to me, so thank you. <3 Along the line of the last two... A friend demanded Rose Quartz, so, uh. Here. I promise I'll try and do some FFXIV stuff soon. Just have to get the Steven Universe out of my system.

Metagaming involves taking IC knowledge that you gained either OOC or on another character and applying it to a different character's knowledge despite that character never having been involved. I suppose in the strictest sense, when you are equating everything your player character does in gameplay as an experience IC, that... might be metagaming. But I've honestly never heard the term applied in such a way. Most roleplayers I've engaged with have a pretty healthy separation of gameplay time and RP time. I have no trouble believing some OOC level 20 character saying they helped defeat a primal, so long as it isn't done in a way that suggests otherwise poor RP etiquette (which is a really subjective thing).

I'm kind of in a fan-girling stage, so...

I love this thread.

I have yet to run into a person who even cares if you are gay on Balmung. Were all behind a computer or TV screen who cares. 1. I have definitely ran into bigoted individuals in MMOs and FFXIV is no exception to that. 2. The game is more than just the game. Someone touched on this in a prior post, but a lot of people build rich and deep social connections with the people they play an MMO with. When I log in, I'm logging in to greet friends and family - people who I want to share my hopes, my fears, my daily gripes, my happiness with. Heck, some of these "MMO friends" even flew across the country to attend my real life wedding. I married one of my "MMO friends". So yeah, I care about who the person is behind the keyboard and mouse. I want to make sure they're in a place where they are comfortable. I worry about them when they're going through trouble. I know you want to believe that everyone is happy and accepting, but they're not. And many LGBT folk have suffered a great deal and don't want to take the chance of joining a guild only to see "that's gay" or "fag" thrown around as casual words; they don't want to see people making rape jokes; they don't want to have to worry about talking about their boyfriend or girlfriend; they don't want to be afraid to speak in vent/mumble/ts/whatever because their voice doesn't match their gender. Maybe they just want to be sure they're in a place where they're not alone, maybe guarantee that there are at least some people around who will understand first-hand what they are going through, so that they can receive and give support. Those are the reasons I helped run an LGBT safe space FC while I was playing this game. They are perfectly legitimate reasons for someone to seek out a like-minded FC. There's nothing exclusionary about it, and we shouldn't feel the need to knee-jerk defend Balmung. It's got nothing to do with attacking Balmung players.

Thank you very much. I've been busy lately, but I did finally find time to smash out some fanart today. Sorry it's not ffxiv-related...

Really what "gear" does a person need to be a good fighter? The raid gear doesn't really say "I'm a highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant" any more than a guy in some level 20 greens. Not ICly, at least. And functionally a lot of the raid gear is just ridiculous, with all of its dangly whatsits and various additions. Maybe someone feels pretty satisfied that they "look" the part in the pants they picked up from a lowbie quest and a shirt that dropped from Sastasha.

I have been, and I don't really see how its any different from how I categorized it. You'e worried about the look, and kit of characters representing their role correctly. I really think its entirely unnecessary (which is why I said what I did about a level 1 in starter clothes RPing as if in fancy noble attire). Maybe its just because I am a pen-and-paper and forum RPer at heart. I feel that the avatar should be, at most, a visual-aid for RP when appropriate, but that its the text that is canonical, important, and interesting for RP. If the avatar is useless as a visual aid, I really don't mind, I am more than willing to go along with it, if I'm enjoying the RP. To me, the avatar is a tool, not a limitation. I see far more possibility for fun that way, and wouldn't have it any other way. I know you at least understand that, since you're willing to RP classes that simply don't exist. So I can't fully understand why you apply a different rubric to those that do. To me, they're completely the same. What matters is the RP world, not the game-as-game. I really want to say, again, that I'm not trying to convince you to do otherwise. It really is to each their own, enjoyment of RP is an entirely subjective matter. The only thing I took any exception to, whatsoever, was the suggestion that people who don't want to level a character to RP it, shouldn't bother with MMO RP. Edit: I will just add that I do like it when the visual aid is there! Its fun RPing with people who put a lot of effort into their look, their outfits, gear, and fashion (obviously I do quite a bit of this myself!) I just understand the innate limitations of the game engine's ability to portray our characters. I just wanted to swing by here and voice my support for pretty much everything you've said in this thread, Aya. I have roleplayed and roleplayed with sooooo many characters that were not at all like what their OOC avatar may present. It's very easy for me to draw a line and accept whatever the player is describing as their character. Heck in TERA, my husband roleplayed the main villain of a huge rp plot, which included a level 11 baraka (decked out in the best armor skins we could buy lol) plus several other level 11 characters that were actually constructs made of termite mud or flesh or swamp-nastiness but were represented in-game by a castanic or aman or baraka. And these things wiped the floor with many a level 60 rp character. I had not a single issue with it! We've also been known in the past to spend so much time roleplaying that it takes us ages to level, so... Yeah, I just don't associate OOC game constructs with IC things at all.

Taken straight from the Au Ra name convention page. Ahah, thank you! I missed that somehow. Still this touches on something I've been talking about in skype chat with some friends - namely, folk are gonna have to be careful about stepping on people's toes regarding headcanons of the named tribes, as it doesn't sound to me like they have sub-groups a la the Seeker miqo'te.

I disagree. There are 51 "existing clans". That is pretty concrete lore, IMO. Wanna chime in that I'm impressed by the detail of the Xaela lore but also extremely disappointed that most of it is pretty much just backstory fodder.

I teach middle school and high school kids science - primarily earth science and environmental science. The school I work at is a really incredible private academy that champions a one-on-one learning and teaching method. So much better than classroom teaching. The pay is crap though. And it's not my ideal job still, though it's enjoyable and fulfilling. I want to work in museum science collections. Or as a science advisor to game developers lolol.

Brayflox requires the tank to know how to dodge, hold aggro, and pull the boss out of lingering AoEs, the DPS to manage adds and not suck terribly, while the healer must know how to manage MP or go OOM especially during the final boss fight. It's all really, really basic stuff, but it's pretty jarring at times how often you run into people who don't even know the basics. Qarn, on the other hand, is a whole other ball of wax. If people know and pay attention to the mechanics, it's pretty easy. If they can't? Nothing will save you. Especially if they can't DOOODGE the beams of light at the end. I honestly think you're overstating the difficulty of those dungeons - a bad player is a bad player (especially a healer... not healing) and is going to make something feel harder than it actually is no matter what. But I sincerely doubt a bad player would even bother going back to Sastasha or Brayflox or whatever. If by "force you to learn your job", you mean "Oh, I actually rolled a healing class?", then... I'm not sure I care about catering to that level of derp. Never ran into much trouble when running dungeons anyway, so meh.

When did you have to learn your class in order to succeed in Sastasha? Or... most leveling dungeons? I tanked that on my baby CNJ while two-manning it with my husband because our other two party members d/ced and never came back... Pick your battles...

Okay it's not FFXIV, but I'm still proud of it so hah. That's my Cassian alt, Eilor, from WildStar. ^^

Then why are you arguing? Because that is exactly what we've been asking for - the jobs to be accessible once you've reached level 30 on a class. It's ridiculously easy for SE to plop NPC trainers in Coerthas outside of Ishgard.

I... really don't think that locking astrologian, dark knight, and machinist behind a 50 level and MSQ grind on a different class is "what makes FFXIV successful". At all. There is nothing about buying a game and an expac and expecting to have access to all the classes in said game that is "like a F2P game". You mischaracterize arguments so much, I am starting to think you're only in here to troll. The aggression in your posts certainly suggests such.

Are you seriously trying to suggest that the way an MMO handles an expansion is the reason behind it going F2P? Most that I've witnessed made the transition to F2P well before any expansion. The P2P/F2P debate doesn't really belong in this discussion. Also the argument that a player should just pack up and go to another game because X game does something a player doesn't like doesn't really fly with me. There are a million reasons to like or dislike a game. You do not have to accept the whole package to want to play the game, and it's perfectly reasonable to point out observed flaws in that package.

The debate surrounding this design mechanic has nothing to do with F2P vs P2P (though I'll point out that I'm one of the most ardent defenders of P2P you'll find out there, and I am anything but okay with this Heavensward decision).

Because I don't want to play a class I don't enjoy longer than absolutely necessary? Why else did I pick to level WHM first on my main and only later go back to boost acn and thm to needed levels for cross-classing? The level grind without quests is horrendously boring, made even less bearable by having to play a class I don't want to.

Not all the way to 50 they won't.

People bitched about DKs largely because they were a new thing to bitch about. Hunters needed at least a little bit of a break! I raided with many a highly skilled DK - tank and dps alike - and any player worth their salt knew enough to recognize the important tools they brought to raids. I recognize that there are going to be certain classes in any MMO that get stereotyped. I also recognize that some classes might have a steeper learning curve, while some might be easier, some middle-of-the-pack, etc. Just because a class is "challenging", though, is no reason to try and protect the poor hapless players from it. That's a sure-fire way of boring your skilled players to death and really, what good would a little newbie get leveling a completely different class up only to have to switch to astrologian/dark knight/machinist anyway? They're STILL going to have to deal with a swath of new abilities when they do make the switch. As a side-comment, I realize that a lot of people have had trouble with things like Titan HM. To this day it still baffles me, though. I could dodge those patterns in my sleep and solo-healed the fight in half regular AF gear. >_>

People always scream for nerfs. In every MMO. So no, challenging content (or lackthereof) isn't where the handholding is or should be. If people are so concerned about the wash of newbies who would be oh-so-terribly confused by leveling to 30 and picking up astrologian/machinist/dark knight, I would argue that the better suggestion would be to spread out their skill acquisition a little more. Rather than make said delicate newbies play 50 levels and run outdated end game content on a class they may not want. Though I didn't actually find Titan HM (or Twisters) that challenging. One is just memorizing a pattern; the other is literally just run in a little circle whenever you see a cast.