Naunet

It doesn't have to be legal to be discriminated against. Other globally released MMOs with non-gender-restricted marriage have trucked along just fine, without even a single ripple when it was released.

Honestly, the customization options are almost all woefully inadequate for a game releasing in 2013, save for the colors (which I adore). I need more face option, a greater range of eye choices, more mouth options (instead of the four exact same options for every face - "normal", thick, thin, and pursed), way more hairstyles (long, short, and medium-length, with braids, dreadlocks, corn rows, curls, waves, you name it), at least a few more tattoo options, and significantly more actually useful facepaint options (as opposed to the utterly useless star-on-cheek or chocobo-on-cheek).

Are you honestly trying to claim that implementing a marriage system without gender restrictions would somehow take substantially more time than implementing a marriage system with restrictions? The logic, I see none of it here; all I see are excuses being made to white knight passive discrimination.

I recall seeing a quote from Yoshi-P (or maybe it was from that official lore guy on the lore forums) where it was stated that there really aren't any gender discriminations when it comes to romantic relationships in Eorzea. Which makes the marriage system being hetero-only even more ridiculous. Squee needs to put their grown-up pants on and actually take a stand that they clearly want to take but are too chicken to do so.

I disagree completely. The best course of action is to present marriage with no restrictions and treat it as completely normal. Don't make a fuss about it. Just do it. Nobody's going to seriously get in a tizzy over a lack of gender restrictions in marriage in a video game. The ones that do are generally groups that don't play video games anyway (like ultra conservative groups in NA - who, by the way, didn't kick up one bit of fuss with Rift, which is also a global game).

What game? Because Trion didn't get any notable flack for not including gender restrictions in their marriage system for Rift. And they were incredibly open about what was going to happen (pointed it out in their little advert video and everything). I would be all over this - IC and OOC.

When Rift implemented its marriage system, it came out of the gate with zero restrictions on who you could marry. Squee seems to be of the mind that putting a marriage system in place with no gender restrictions will somehow offend people, but honestly? No one raged at Trion when they did it - and in fact, it was celebrated. The most news-worthy part of Rift's marriage system was the world record they set for most online marriages in a single day (which I happily took part in!). So yeah, to answer the question: No, Squee is not going to be allowing same sex marriages in ARR. Is it absolutely, utterly stupid? Yes. But there it is.

Pretty much, yeah. It's also useful for loot distribution, in addition to roleplay.

Definitely no on that last one.

This is such a bullshit excuse. I'm absolutely convinced they fucked up their coding somehow and they're just using that as a hand-wave, because seriously? If they're concerned about harassment, staff more or better GMs to get ticket times low and give players a functional and streamlined report system. Cutting people off from whispers just because they're afraid people will be "mean" is idiotic. What's more, people can't form their Free Companies in phase 4.

I have to wonder... why not? When it's got lore behind it? Even if you think it's silly lore, it's still lore. Strikes me as a little snobby to not "accept" such an excuse.

This is my attitude, though if the griefing is particularly bad, I'll make note of the date/time and location of the occurrence and file a ticket later. Screenshots are generally not useful, as the GMs have all the information they need as long as you give them the proper date/time/etc to search the logs for - and screenshots can, of course, be doctored, so GMs tend to not pay any attention to them even if they are provided. A simple /block and then I go on about my business. Turn down the sound if I have to, and I'm very skilled at just flat out ignoring spell effects and stuff.

((RP from the CRA's IC chatbox! Follows roughly a day after Amongst the Orange Trees and An Accident.)) Light refracted strangely through theimperfect glass of the single window carved into the stone above the modest kitchen counter of Antimony's apartment. It sent wavy lines of pale yellowdancing across the dull-metal sink, the clean but aged and scuffed wooden floor, and the rocking chair with its thick woven quit thrownover the back. The rest of the apartment - really, a small alcove with a bed and a well-used table sitting in the middle of the primary open space - was not well lit, however, and Antimony moved about it with ease. At this time, she was carefully lighting anumber of candles, which she would use to keep down the eyestrain of staring at pages upon pages of numbers. Or at least, they would theoretically be used for such a thing, if she could get herself to stop wondering in a mild panic if she should run to the authorities and seek some kind of protection for the assassins she was /certain/ were going to come for her next because why else would Perelon and Ernafalk up and drown like that? Well, granted, she had never learned if they were good swimmers, and drowning could be a present danger in Limsa, what with the walkways crossing deep water frequently, sometimes even without railings. And lalafell were so tiny, Perelon may have easily been swallowed up in a wave or a whale or--did whales even come this close to Limsa? But no matter, even Ernafalk, with his great bulk, may have tripped and fell and simply sunk like a stone! But both of them, on the same night? No, it had to be a coincidence. It just had to. Such went Antimony's thoughts as shemethodically lit candles in the middle of the day, when there was more than enough light to fill her apartment even with only one window. Someone knocked at the door three times. Thelast one came out after a rather long pause, as if whomever was knocking suddenly had forgotten how to use his hand. It was only chance that theknock came between candles, and Antimony would later be grateful because she really couldn't afford to pay for fire damages. In that moment, however, she mostly thought 1) Oh Nymeia (ignoring the fact that she hadn't actually been observant for over five years), they've come already! Followed quickly by, 2) Don't be silly. Why would they come in broad daylight? And then finally, 3) You've really let them wait for too long. They've probably already left in a huff by now! At which point, she turned around, unlitcandle in hand, and approached the door. She spent another moment squinting at it as though she could see through the thick wood, but had to accept the inevitable eventually: opening the door and peeking out at... someone's midriff. The man on the other side looked old, his haircompletely greyed and tied up in tidy dreadlocks rows that met at the back of his head where they formed a ridiculous bow. His clothes, while not expensive, had been made by some respectable tailor. A dark grey open coat over a red shirt, black trousers and boots. Unlike his apparel, his beard had probably been left without trimming for some time. Or perhaps it had seen a very liberal use of the word 'trimming'. He bowed his head at theopening door. "I'm looking for miss Antimony." he said. Craning her neck back, Antimony took in theaged and proper appearance of the hyur in front of her and, in a self-reassuring gesture, smoothed the loose, blue fabric of her robe with the hand not holding onto a silly, uselessly unlit candle. She watched him for several seconds before realizing he had spoken and so started with a, "Oh! I'm sorry. That's--well, that's me, I think." A blink. "Not that I'm unsure of my name. Only that I think I am the Antimony you're looking for? Seeing as you did show up at my home and though I'm surethere are many Antimonys out there, there is only one who lives here, so you... must be looking for... me." She finished a bit lamely. Ildur found the aimless rambling amusing. Heshowed this by smiling, most of his lips perfectly hidden under his beard. "Allow me to introduce myself: I'm Ildur Vaernian from the Commerce Regulation Agency." "The commerce... oh!" Antimony'smouth quirked. Perelon and Ernafalk had had much to say about said Agency, most of it tinged with frustration. Antimony honestly hadn't paid much attention except to note that they were in roughly the same business as she. The greying miqo'te flashed a small smileupward, still holding the door so it was open just enough that her body fit in the gap. "That's nice." The hyur dropped his smile, adopting a moresomber tone. "We had a business association with your late employers. I know it is quite insensitive for us to come at this, time, but this are matters that, unfortunately, are better settled now rather than later." Her own smile faltered, a new wrinkle joiningthe faint ones always present in the creases of her features as her brows knit together. "Matters?" She stifled the thought that wanted to translate "matters' into "I have come to kill you". That was silly andunproductive and just... nope, not thinking about that! Ildur nodded. "For their association withus, all properties of the Paqirelon & Bleigarasyn firm will be divided between the Agency and the Maelstorm. This division often includes employees. If they so choose to keep their work with one of their new employers." Well, if he was going to assassinate her, hewould've done so by now. At least, she figured that was how assassins would operate - not that she really knew much about assassins, but they did seem like the kind of people who would want to get a job done as efficiently as possible. So. She could be reasonably certain he wasn't some evil man out to kill her. This decided, with rather zero evidence to back it up, Antimony let the door open wider and somewhat relaxed her posture. "I still can't quite believetheir both dead," she said with a small measure of distressin her voice. "They were so kind to me, and they were going to help with... well, things!" If her voice squeaked a little on that last word, she ignored it. Hopefully this hyur would as well. "Yes." The Hyur nodded, keeping his composureand, probably, not noticing the woman's squeaking word. "It is quite unfortunate that they met such an unsavory end." His glassy eyes wandered behind the woman and into her house. He raised his brows. He probably noticed the flickering of the candles. "Ah, butyou must excuse me! I see you are expecting someone. Let me stop taking your time and go to the point: we are offering you an employment under the Agency, keeping the same status and a slightly raised salary as the post you had in Paqirelon & Bleigarasyn." Ears wilting a bit against her head, Antimonytook a moment of silence for her apparently swiftly departed former employers before catching the particular phrasing of Ildur's proposition: "What? Oh! No, I'm not expecting... well, anyone really. I was just..." She trailed off and then just waved the hand holding the unlit candle as though it offered some kind of explanation. "But... employment? Well... I'd been considering retirement. But I suppose..." Ildur followed the unlit candle with his eyes.Indeed, it offered no explanation. He resumed looking at Antimony. "Retirement? You certainly do not look old enough to be considering such an option." he chuckled. "But I suppose it is your right." "Oh, I don't know. What with recentsituations and all..." Her tail twitched a bit distractedly behind her. She continued, largely just thinking out loud, "I suppose it's not really wise, considering what a drain living in the city is on finances. And I really wouldn't want to end up living in a box. Or really anywhere but a place with a solid roof. Though I'm pretty sure there's a small leak in the sealing of the window, but I just haven't had the time to look into getting it fixed and--" She stopped herself forcibly. "Right,employment. Ah. I... don't suppose I'd have to worry about assassins?" He tilted his head to a side, squintingslightly. "Were they...a common issue in your last job?" Antimony choked. "Well, uhm, no! Notcommon. I'm sorry, forget I said anything." "Assassins are one of the many things ouremployees do not have to worry about." he smiled. "Well, that's comforting." Shechuckled a bit faintly before glancing behind her at the otherwise neatly organized room and its... redecoration-by-candle. Blinking at the strange sight, Antimony thought for a moment, and then turned back to peer up at Ildur once again, "So you're offering me a new job." Her tone grew a bit more serious, words more precise. "What duties would I be asked to cover?" "You will essentially keep the duties youhad previously: auditioning of associates, clients, potential partners and merchants; along with appraisal of their assets." Silence. Several seconds of it, to be exact,as Antimony mulled over the offer, mulled over the candles cluttering her apartment, and then mulled over the two bodies that had been recently fished up from the seas around Limsa. "Alright," she found herself saying, and really, there really wasn't any reason not to. She had enjoyed her work with Perelon and Ernafalk, at least up until that trip to Gridania. "Do you have anything for me to sign...?" "Oh, sadly, I haven't. That would havebeen too smart from me." he laughed faintly. "But if you could come by our offices tomorrow at noon, I will have the paperwork ready." She chuckled along with him, grey-furred ears perking slightly."Very well." A pause. "Perelon and Ernafalk had given me... a week's rest. To... recover. Would that, ah, still be in effect?" Ildur bowed his head. "Of course! Do not worry yourself overit. Would you like me to send someone with the papers for you to sign tomorrow? " "Well..." She ran a hand through her hair lightly, andthen caught the candle in it a bit comically (forgetting she still held it) so spent several seconds dislodging it from her hair. She grimaced in mild embarrassment. "Yes, please, if you don't mind. I'll want time to go over the contract, of course, before signing it, so... ah, I'll get it back to you in a day or two." "A cautious woman. I expected no less." he chuckled."I will send you the contract tomorrow after noon. Thank you for your time, miss Antimony. I hope you have a nice rest during this week." Smiling, Antimony dipped her head slightly. "You, as well.Have a nice..." She leaned to one side, glancing past Ildur's head towards the sky, "... late afternoon!" Ildur smiled one last time before turning around and walking away,hands clasped together behind his back. His expression straightened. He felt he had smiled way too many times.

Wooo finally got around to doing this. It was fun! Though the libido one was a bit awkward haha.

I don't see how OOC communication "kills" any part of the idea. We expect OOC communication for tons of other things, even simple things like "Hey, mind if I interject my character to this scene?" Yeah, I really don't see the problem. OOC communication is vital in roleplay, and it's certainly not the same thing as meta-gaming (which applies knowledge you learned OOCly when that information wasn't given to you with the intent of you to use it). or god-moding.

Though I can do without the nasty attitudes, I do hope arenas (and PvP in general) in ARR becomes more than just a side-thought. I'd love to be able to sink my teeth into some serious, high-end, demanding PvP in ARR.

1. What do you think is a main character? Whatever character you play the most. You make sure to get all the achieves, mounts, pets, etc on this character; you gear them out first; if there's something to be done, it gets done on the "main" before the alt. However, this definition only applies to people who don't spread their attention across multiple characters evenly (which I have known people to do). There are also people who has their "raiding mains" and their "pet collector main" and their whatever else main all separate. 2. What do you think makes a character an alternate character? You spend measurably less time on that character than others. "Alt" vs "main" is a very fluid dynamic for a lot of people, whether they're raiders switching characters to better sync with their raid's composition, or roleplayers who decide they want to spend more time roleplaying Character B rather than Character A. 3. Do people have a responsibility to make certain "mains pair with mains" if you sense an interesting relationship (friends/rivals/lovers/enemies/long-lost relatives) forming or is it okay that someone's just not going to be around at random or for long periods of time? Neither. I have nothing against developing lasting plots with someone's alt - or using my own alt - and I've done so with great success. I also expect to be informed if said player is going to be away for a while, and I generally know the name of their main so that I can poke them if I get an RP itch. 4. Have you ever discovered that your main was paired off in one of those situations with someone's alt? They just didn't play them at all or played other characters? Did it stall out your story? What did you do? Fluid time - learning to utilize it can be a roleplayer's most valuable skill. Basically, scenes do not have to happen at the exact moment they happen. On numerous occasions, I've had to stretch out scenes that supposedly occurred in the span of a few days across a week or more due to other players' (and my own) availability. As long as everyone is on the same page of "the scene we're rping tonight happens at X time", then it works perfectly. A few times, some folk we were rping with just disappeared off the face of the earth, but that's generally easily explained with "Oh, this character just hasn't been around and we don't know what happened to him/her." 5. What's the biggest stereotype you think of when you think of people who only have one main character? Uhm... there are stereotypes for that? o.0 It's kind of the norm for MMOers, I think. 6. What's the biggest stereotype you think of when you think of people who suffer alt-itis and swap characters often? That they never get to level-cap and/or never do endgame seriously. 7. Which are you? A single or two main characters? 5 main characters? A bunch of alts? Somewhere in between. I generally have one main PvE/PvP character and multiple roleplay "mains" that are just characters I really love roleplaying a lot. 8. How did you usually break up your time between your main characters? Play on demand? Always on one, demand for the other? One with one group and when they all sign off switch to the other? On demand! Or whatever I'm feeling like at the time.

I don't suppose anyone can upload that as something not .docx? I can't open the new version of MSOffice files. >_>;

Docx. Frik.

Eva said "name over the head", so I figured she was referring to the... names that float over other players' heads. Not really much you can do about the chatbox. Without it, trying to figure out who is who would be nigh on impossible, especially as ARR is stupid held back by the PS3 limited in that it doesn't have chat bubbles.

You can disable display names in the UI configuration. I do it in pretty much every MMO I play.

I adore PvP and will be all over the arena when it releases.

I agree. The long periods of silence were horrible. The Feedback section of the beta forums is definitely the way to go, though you can start drumming up support pre-phase 4 with a post in GD if you want.

Then that's not a "we". The RP community is far greater in scope than what it was in 1.0, and while I personally will be rolling on Balmung (unless Squee labels another server with an RP tag), I will point out that no one has any obligation towards the people who played in 1.0. And this is why I say humans suck at making group decisions. There is always going to be division, and the best bet any of us have towards heading into release with a unified community is for Squee to pull a freaking official RP server out of their asses.

Then that tells me that "we" did not actually make a decision.