Naunet

I stand corrected regarding Ul'dah, though I disagree with how Squeenix is using the term "noble" and "lord" in their lore. I think it's worthwhile to point out that it might not be wise to RP a member of the Syndicate, considering how very much power that would entail; it would border on god moding and certainly would lean towards "sue"-ish.

We do not know Ul'dah has nobility. There is a royal family and there is the Syndicate, the latter of which is not hereditary but rather bought into with gil. Garlemald isn't Eorzea, so it doesn't apply. As for Ala Mhigo... I'm not sure why you think it being an independent nation implies it had nobility. That makes no sense. Feudalism is not the default state of an independent nation. We know that Ala Mhigo had a king but aside from that, none of the Ala Mhigan refugees you meet make any indication of their former home employing a social system based around family heredity of property and status. Nobles or just significant families?

Lord of what? Lady of what? Nobility generally implies some sort of hereditary power (typically tied to land ownership) and doesn't exist in isolation. As far as I know, Ishgard is the only society in Eorzea with a system of noble families.

Cute girls. It's the slightly flushed cheeks of the one on the left that make it for me.

This is the bottom line for many complaints about this game that people just don't get. There are cultural differences we have to learn to live with. This is a global game, so no, we don't.

Honestly, this is kind of the impression I get of the different Intermission LSes.

There is nothing, absolutely nothing they can do to prevent "bad" images from being made in their game. See Teveriel's screenshot on the previous page for an example. This attitude Yoshi seems to have on controlling players' actions is just absurd. They may as well disable the screenshot function if they don't want people making tasteless images of FFXIV. Also, remove the emote function entirely. In fact, let's just go ahead and put a two foot radius bubble around everyone's characters so they can't come anywhere close to one another and potentially touch in lewd ways. Perfect!

We don't need Squeenix protecting us from the scary sex monster. It's the same attitude and excuse that Yoshi gave regarding the restriction of whispers while in an instance - "Oh, we don't want people to harrass each other!" Well, tough cookies. It happens. All they're doing is stifling their players because they're afraid of a few tasteless folk. They're treating us like a bunch of southern belles whose delicate sensitivities must always be watched out for. Ugh.

*right click saves* I mean, uh. HOW DARE YOU TAKE SUCH OFFENSIVE PICTURES! I AM OFFENDED! I SHALL PETITION SQUEE TO REMOVE THE SCREENSHOT BUTTON TO SAVE MEYOU FROM TEMPTATION!

That's not actually an alternative, as it doesn't provide for RP in any way, which is kind of the whole idea behind wanting a /sleep or /liedown emote. No laying in bed sick or injured, no laying on the ground relaxing and chatting, no anything! Nope, because ~*oh no, some people might make offensive images!*~ As though you can't do that right now as things are. What a load of crap from Squee. ;

It does nothing of the sort, though that is the excuse SE has given, yes. It doesn't prevent people from continuously re-entering, however, which is what puts a load on the server. Actual lock-out timers would work significantly better in alleviating any server stress, though I must say - XIV has maybe a million or so players. Their servers, were they actually decent, should not be experiencing much stress.

Adding a couple things. 16. The dungeon timer needs to GTFO, now. Make timed dungeons a separate thing and create some leaderboards and give awesome cosmetic rewards to people who do it fastest if you wanna give timers a purpose. But for actual dungeons they need to go! 17. A toggle for looping zone music. 18. A toggle for turning off combat music. The generic battle theme is horrendous. Do not make me listen to it whenever I enter combat.

I've got zero beef with Korra's character and am actually enjoying Book 2 right now (with the exception of the very predictable Mako-Korra action - I mean really, we all know that by the next episode, she'll find out that Mako was "right" and then she'll ~forgive~ him and they'll get back together la la la *gag*). I think Korra has fantastic depth and a lot of people aren't seeing her actions for what they really are: the product of a young, intensely independent woman with some serious anger issues. She jumps to conclusions easily, does not understand the meaning of the word diplomacy, and is naive enough that she'll believe what most people tell her at face value (which has left her very open to manipulation, as we've seen in Book 2). She holds strong moral ideals, but she sticks to them with the kind of youthfully ignorant tenacity of one who doesn't know how to apply those ideals. What she accomplished at the end of season 1 did not get close to fixing the issues she has, and those who feel like the writers have forced her to take a step backwards don't actually understand the development that did happen. Tenzen tried to point it out to her: just because she's able to use the Avatar state doesn't mean she's mastered anything - least of all herself. I have a feeling we'll find out that the angry spirits that keep popping up will have a lot to do with how Korra is developing as the Avatar, and less to do with any spiritual wasteland in the southern water tribe. So yeah, there's a lot of really solid build-up going on with Korra. A+ work on her character. Mako though? Just stuff him in a bag and come up with something new, please.

I just wanna say that sonar and sound are not quite the same thing. The sensory input a dolphin or a bat receives from echolocation is amazingly detailed and precise.

I'm just gonna leave this here, and it may mean nothing or it may mean everything. Who knows! Roleplay people, not characters.

Alright, I'll bite. Some of these wishes are pretty straight-forward; others would require significantly greater effort and attention to follow through on. 1. Expanded dye system. Remove the restrictions on dungeon and AF gear to make them dye-able. Expand the color choices. Create primary and secondary dye parts on each armor for even better variability. 2. A /sleep emote. 3. Improved UI. I want to be able to remove the mana bars and cast bars on the party UI and filter which buffs and debuffs I see. Timers for said buffs and debuffs on the party UI are a must (a rotating shader wheel like the cooldown timer on the action bars would be nice and compact). Filtering of buffs and debuffs on target unitframes is a must. Allow macro'ed abilities to display the spell's tooltip as well as the out of range indicator (neither of which currently work if you use macros for your spells). 4. Greater armor variety. I should not have to wear the same potato sack robe for 40 levels, and I certainly shouldn't see that potato sack make a grand return after I hit 50 either. 5. Greater variety in boss mechanics. Far too many fights amount to "Kill adds and move out of the way of X on the floor." Some break the mold to an extent, but they are few and far between. When I hit 50, I was expecting some honestly challenging encounters, but everything I've done has been a yawn so far. I'll admit that this is likely in part due to my lengthy raiding history prior to ARR; someone new to PvE encounters may very well indeed find these fights challenging and complex. However, I don't think it's too much to expect a new MMO to go beyond "kill adds and move out of X". Halls of Origination, a single heroic 5-man, had more boss mechanics than every level 50 dungeon I've done to date. I shouldn't have to wait for Coil to get a good fight out of this game. 6. High resolution textures. This really shouldn't even be a problem in 2013, but apparently it is. 7. Fewer invisible walls. Zone boundaries? Okay. But open up the zones within them - and preferably just open up the zones in general, because right now they're mostly just tunnels funneling you from one place to the next. Give me wide, open spaces (or wide, cluttered spaces filled with trees, or whatever - just BIG zones please). 8. I know we're getting vanity slots, but I'd like to specify: Anything less than LotRO or Rift's systems in terms of customization is just not good enough. No armor type restrictions. Include weapon slots. Go the extra mile and give us ticky boxes to choose which slots to display or hide individually. Also, I'd like vanity slots to arrive sooner than 6 months down the line. 9. Body type customization. Simple presets across a spectrum of slender to curvy would be enough; we don't really require sliders for this. 10. Expand the musculature slider to all races. 11. More hairstyles. Self-explanatory! 12. Remove the level locks for things like dye and bank space. I'm fine with putting the broker behind a level wall for RMT-combating purposes, but there's no reason I shouldn't be able to dye my clothes or store my crap at any level. On a related note, I should not have to level a combat class in order to get access to these very basic things (dye, bank space, selling stuff on the broker, airships). 13. Public grouping a la Rift. Parties would have two settings: public or private. If someone or a group of someones is nearby and has their group set to public, a button will appear on your UI somewhere that you can hit to join their public group. Similarly, if two public groups that aren't full are near each other, the button comes up to merge public groups (with an associated un-merge button). This would make grouping for FATEs far more of an organic process. 14. The current attribute point system needs to be tossed and replaced with a system that allows for actual individual customization. Currently, there is no decision-making that goes into picking up your points. Look at WildStar's Milestone system or WoW's current "talent" spread for good starting ideas on design. They've both turned the traditional "spec" system into individual utility decisions, and it's great. 15. The in-game mail function needs to work for alts. Uhm... I could probably continue. I have some pretty huge critiques about this game. It's an excellent base and the roleplay potential is phenomenal, but it definitely has a lot of room for improvement.

Okay not TECHNICALLY an anime, but still regardless! And why does EVERYONE hate Mako!? For me, it's because I find his character a boring mash-up of Zuko and Jet from The Last Airbender whose primary purpose has been to serve as a (very cliche) love interest for Korra, who he doesn't even have chemistry with. >_< I also hate that his presence has relegated Bolyn to basically a lesser Sokka role - all the comedic relief with none of the character development ever since Mako and Korra got together. Q to the Q!

How one responds to that depends entirely on the rules you've established for your particular community. For my FC, well, said person would simply be turned away at the door with a polite suggestion that Unity would not be a good fit for them. Though two things. 1) You passed over where I said "on a case-by-case basis". And 2) The "over-sensitive" and "non-apology" situations I referenced in my post are generally not used for such things as in your example, and more for topics related to oppression, control, deprivation, and generally triggering situations of all types. And yes, this can include curse words (particularly certain ones). I thought it was pretty obvious I wasn't talking about situations where one person's taking of "offense" was just disguised oppression of another.

In an increasingly cosmopolitan world, a few still cling to isolation and tradition. Deep in the Sagolii Desert, Azeyma receives the prayers of a small but tenacious tribe of Seekers of the Sun. They spend their lives crossing the sands, eking out a nomadic life ever threatened by nature and the beast tribes. The great worms are their prey, their source of sustenance and home and armor, and to fulfill the hunt is one of the greatest honors of them all. There had been a time when leaving the Sagolii was done only in moments of great necessity, when one seeking to make their mark in the tribe might leave on a foraging to learn new skills and bring back news of the wider world. Recent years have seen the youngest generation more willing to travel beyond the borders of the desert, however, and Ul'dah has become a city with which a few are developing a strong connection. These changes and those wrought by the Calamity are placing great pressures on the tribe and its way of life, and conflict is never far from hand. Please check the wiki for more information about the Hipparion Tribe Please contact either Naunet, K'ailia, K'mana, or K'luha for more information or an invite.

Honestly, this skirts dangerously close to the tired "You're being over-sensitive" accusation (and is similar to the "I'm sorry if you were offended by what I said" non-apology), which is just complete and utter horseshit. There needs to be responsibility on the part of the offender. You have no idea what history the offended person has that led to them reacting how they did, and you have no right to tell them not to be offended. One must understand that they are, accept that, and work around it on a case-by-case basis.

Not anime! and can Mako please die in a fire already

As the flap fell shut, cutting off the bright rays of late afternoon and sending the tent back into perpetual lantern-lit night, K'deiki sighed, her fragile form seemingly sinking into the floor. With her head bowed, one knotted hand reached out and felt around on the ground beside her until fingers touched smoothly carved stone. She brought the object to her lap, holding it in the palm of one hand, and let her thumb run along the worn edges of the flat, roughly circular shape. Across its surface she could feel shallow grooves radiating outward from a central point. With her eyes closed to the orange light of the lantern, K'deiki could, for just a moment, call up the memory of a stubborn, young woman presenting this token to her, thrusting it out as though to ward against any protests she might make. It was the mark of Azeyma, carved and carried in ritual by their chosen shaman, and the day her daughter presented her decision, K'deiki had finally felt secure in the strength of her family. The icon had not been worn in years, however, and to K'deiki it now represented the full weight of the changes forced upon her and her people. Abandonment, loss, fear for the future and fear of the past. "May we have the strength to face what you could not, my child," she muttered down to the stone icon and then, with regretful bitterness in her heart, she set it aside once more. "We must remain strong. We must not break." Her spine bent forward, curling beneath the layers of cloth that shrouded her body like a withered willow branch, and swayed in thought.

Emphasis mine, because this may be the root of the problem. Until very recently, I don't the Squeenix really appreciated just how large their NA base is. I'd hazard a guess it's far larger even than their JP base now, but Squeenix has never treated NA as a market worth special attention before. It's a small part of a much broader critique of the game industry, which is heading towards a very devastating bubble pop a la the dot com crash of the 90s. Budgets are getting bigger and bigger, and the industry is set on treating video games like Hollywood blockbuster films, but they're ignoring one very important fact: Video games are a niche market. They may be more mainstream than they used to be, but they can't pull in the same ticket sales that movies can to make back what they spend (and even movies are facing a similar issue with bloated budgets now). I could write up an entire essay on the details of this, but then this thread would get way off topic.

As a side note, there are some cut scenes from 1.0 that suggest the Empire's airships carry weapons of extreme firepower. A single shot from one ship decimated nearly an entire valley in one scene.