Naunet

Interesting thread. It sometimes strikes me as strange how strident people get over defending sexuality in roleplay as something vital to story. As a real person myself (at least I think I am... ), it's certainly not something that comes to mind much. There's a lot more going on in my life that's far more important. THAT SAID I totally get it and can see how sex and related topics contribute to a character's story. Though sometimes I think it gets a little exaggerated... but that's beside the point. As for my characters... Antimony/K'piru doesn't really have an issue with the act of sex, but she does have a very set mind in when such an act is appropriate. She grew up and lived out a huge chunk of her adult life in a tradition-bound, isolated Seeker tribe where sex is a privilege confined to between the Nunh and the women who choose to mate with him. And the overarching purpose of said acts were driven by a need to reproduce. That's not to say there wasn't affection - in many cases, there was a lot of affection (in Antimony's case, even...) - but there was also a very strong sense of duty around the act. So, she treats sex not as something to do casually with whomever, and she definitely gets disturbed when others (especially other Seekers) behave in a way that suggests a sexual (or romantic) habit deviating from her established culture. She's a bit intolerant in that respect. K'thalen shares some similar views, but he's a far more gregarious person than Antimony has ever been, so he's much less constrained when it comes to considering sex. As once-Nunh, he put a lot of value in building close relationships with the women in the tribe he laid with. Of course, that's also just representative of his personality - he puts a lot of value in building close relationships in any way. It's what made him such an admired father figure in the tribe as well. x3 Though all of that is in the past, and there are some subtle but significant changes to his personality as a result of certain things.

Part 3, K'airos, the Lover

*flails* Thank youuuuu again! I can't get over how cute it is. Makes me squee inside, even though the ship is currently pretty rocky as far as RP goes haha.

A gift for Ildur. K'airos is way too adorbs.

So I decided to do a thing... Part 1, K'piru of the Sun Part 2: Illira the Fury

Yes. Please continue, K'ile Tia. K'yohko agrees.

Aaaah adorable! What a sweet pose.

The first breath K'deiki took after the fire lit was one of the clearest she'd taken in years, or so it felt to her mind. She kept her face upturned, feeling more than seeing the growing glow of flames before her. The burning wood smelled different in this place than anything they'd burned in the Sagolii, but that did not worry the elder. "Many things are different now," she spoke her thoughts slowly, her voice carrying easily through the respectful hush of the tribe. Unseen by her, K'jhanhi's yellow eyes turned her way, heavy and tired but dutiful. "Many things may continue to change. But we cannot be shackled by fear. The fire here burns just as our fires in the sands, and so will we as well. We will sleep under new stars, but they are still stars. We will hunt new prey, but their meat will still fill our bellies, shelter our heads, armor our skin. I have great hope that new lines will begin here soon, new eyes created that may have never seen our ancestral sands but will still know out tribe's heart. When we burn and bury the dead, their ash and bones will find great rest and welcome still in our Warden's arms." Milky eyes crinkled and she turned her gaze forward to the fire then. It appeared in her vision as a golden blur against shadow, but she saw it more as a gateway to new life. The heavy wrinkles drawing her face creased further, pulling thin, old lips into a smile. "And when we dance with the fire, our spirits will still alight."

lakjdfalskdfj ME! Can I do a couple? Or just one. *throws gil*

K'deiki smiled at her Sister's voice, at the sacred words the old woman spoke. Soon perhaps they would be able to commit new sacrifices to the flame, but it felt right to greet this place with gifts of their ancestry for now. "As we set light to these flames, we pray not only for our own prosperity, but for the health and well-being of the land we've come to sleep upon, of the creatures we've come to run alongside, and of the water that brings us all hope and life." Frail arms lifted, palms turned upward to the darkening sky. "We pray for good winds and for Azeyma's gaze to reach far on our hunts, and what bounty we find, we will return twice over, ever grateful for our existence." She sensed movement next to her, K'jhanhi straightening next to the bonfire's frame. The staff he held clattered as he lifted it and shook the decorations braided along its length. Then he brought it down against the ground, and for a moment the sound it made was like a thousand rain drops. He lifted it and let it fall again, and the sound recurred. In silence he continued this steady rhythm, an echo of the heartbeat of the land they gave their lives to and of the Warden's heart that pulsed unseen far above them. It was the signal to begin the flames.

Dragoon isn't really a good example here, as it is perfectly possible to roleplay a dragoon. One's choice to do so would have huge ramifications for one's roleplay, as well. To be a dragoon is not just to wield a lance; you would get to incorporate all the flavor of Ishgardian culture into your story as well, the war with the dragons, etc. See, that's the "really good" part I mentioned! Only.. one village.. knows how.. to rage! I think our forum itself has shown how silly that is over the past two weeks! Warrior is far too generic to be limited to a single village, I'm sorry, I'm not buying it! Haha I have to agree on this count. Just look at Earth cultures - many historical cultures have "berserker"-type soldiers.

And still none of those are the same kind of issue as the housing mess. o.0 And your last paragraph is completely unproductive.

Huh? Elaborate, because people complaining about horrendous server problems (the Great Error Singularity of launch) or being unable to beat Titan Hard Mode are not in any way, shape, or form similar to SE failing - through deliberate or unintended stupidity - to take into account how much MMO players love housing systems these days.

This is what I have done. And I couldn't be happier. Farewell, crappy XIV housing. The fishing weeklies are a competition. By nature, a competition only has a few winners. Housing is not a competition in any reasonable MMO, except for making bigger and grander displays - not to just get in the door. Attempting to equate fishing weeklies with a massive development feature that can hook people to a game for a long period of time and gives them an established place of their own in the game world is like saying that a pebble is the same as an apple.

There is no limit to the number of people who can compete in the fishing weeklies. No slippery slope here, even though you keep trying to insist on it.

Please, please point me to the MMO trend where fishing weeklies designed as a racing competition are established as standard, available to everyone content, as housing is.

The soil beneath K'deiki's feet felt different as she shuffled towards the skeleton of the tribe's bonfire, a tower of tinder and wood designated family members had spent several hours gathering and arranging. It crackled with a rigidness beneath her wrapped toes that the Sagolii dunes had never possessed, and when she closed her aged eyes, she felt the breathing of foreign spirits beneath its surface. It would take time to grow familiar with them, to know how to live alongside their new neighbors and how to seek their help and guidance. Luckily the elders carried great patience between them, even if the same could not be said for some of their younger family. As she approached the unlit bonfire, K'deiki withdrew her arms from the colorful wrappings shrouding her form to reveal a hefty bundle of short and long-stemmed herbs and grasses. Artifacts from Sagolii side-by-side with findings from their new home, a symbolic mingling of different natures unified by spirituality. She caught K'jhanhi's scent nearby and turned a weary smile towards his blurred silhouette. He stood to one side of the bonfire, leaning on a tall staff crested with feathers, bones, and woven braids of earthy fiber, which all clattered musically whenever he shifted. "We begin," she said both to him and the other miqo'te she knew by scent who milled close by, and bent to tuck the bundle of herbs into the base of the bonfire. Their hunters were eager to be on the move, to begin learning the lay of the land and enjoy the thrill of such a new hunt, but first there was ritual. Standing back from the bonfire's frame, K'deiki lifted near-sightless eyes skyward and called out in a voice that carried further than her fragile frame would seem capable, "Azeyma, our Warden, has guided us to newfound security and prosperity. Let us now express our gratitude and prove our ability to make good on Her endless gifts."

Why are you arguing against points no one has made?

Is buying and decorating a house something one does in the game? Is raising a chocobo, gardening, and dyeing a chocobo something one does in the game? The answer to those questions is, of course, yes. They are part of playing the game. Anything that you do in a game is content. The game is not defined solely by its dungeons and PvP. It's not necessarily unreasonable, but that would certainly make him stupid. Anyone can look at the trend in MMOs today and see that personal housing is extremely important to the playerbase.

Meh. I don't think FCs/guilds need anything to make them "worth it". They are "worth it" by providing a unifying banner for a group of people. Anything else is unnecessary gravy. Not saying they should remove perks, just that I don't think people should be made to ever feel like they need a guild unless they want to join a group of like-minded people. Besides that, other games have managed to make both guild and individual housing quite successfully without absurd restrictions or worries of no one using guild housing because it's not special enough. People use guild housing for the exact same reason everyone wants a personal house: because it's there and it's cool and it's something that represents your group of likeminded people.

Eeeh just as a note, as I currently play WildStar - they haven't really changed the core design. They've just been carefully pruning out the bullshit from the hardcore tree - e.g. adjusting the medal requirement for dungeon/adventure completions for attunement because the timer requirement on Silver is far more applicable to status achievements (which it now has) than is was to raiding. Regardless, however, things like housing are generally expected by the general MMO populace to not be some 1% or less exclusive feature. That's kinda why Carbine gives everyone their own plot when they hit 14.

Did you actually look at the numbers? 3, 8, 16 - none of those come anywhere close to being plenty. 16 new wards only services an additional 0.1% of Balmung's population at it's most illogically conservative estimate (dividing the 80k number on xivsoul by 6). It is perfectly reasonable for people to look at this, look at Yoshi's response of "Meh, but we will double the existing wards in 2.4 and consider adding more later", and view this whole thing as horribly insufficient. They would have to add many multiple hundreds of wards at a time in order to provide opportunity for housing to anything close to a medium chunk of the population, and that's really shown no evidence of happening. Do you think it's reasonable for people to have to wait 3 months, 6 months, a year, more to have access to a feature that, in most other MMOs, is readily accessible and extremely popular?

Was me typoing 80 for some random reason. Even if every single player in that count had 6 alts - something that is extremely unlikely to the point that there's no real point in considering it, but we'll do so just because - that's over 13,000 players. In reality, it is far, far more, as most don't have more than one or two. And it still means there will be no where even close to "plenty" of wards, even after 2.4.

What is your definition of plenty? Because it seems to me to be very odd. Consider that Balmung has 30,000 (roughly) players. Then consider how many houses we have, even after the wards are doubled.

Even if you throw out an entire half of the playerbase completely arbitrarily, there will still only be enough houses to service 4%. And I'm willing to bet far more than half of the 2 million subscribers are active players and want a house, which means that percent is an overestimation. The fact is, creating a system that is in such high demand amongst players, has been established in many other MMOs as something available to everyone, and that contains a number of other highly desired game features (chocobo raising, gardening, airships in the future) is just not a good decision. SE was lazy. They spent 9 months doing... what, exactly? 9 months to wait for personal housing, and all they've done is edit some code so that individuals can purchase FC houses also. The minimal effort put into this demonstrates a disappointing lack of caring on SE's part, and Yoshi's responses to player concerns have so far been equally lacking in care.