Free Company & RP Trouble

[SapphireSkylines]

So... where to start. I would say that when I join a free company that I really like, I tend to be very loyal to it. I just left my last free company, which I had been in for nearly a year and a half. I had been in my previous FC before that for six months. I attempted to be apart of two free companies. One company had very nice people but I left only after a few weeks because it just didn't feel right for some reason. And then I was in another free company for only a few hours because... well... that was a "joining a free company gone wrong" situation, it was terrible, I'd rather not get into it. 

 

I have been focused on running my own free company with my boyfriend. I have three characters in total that I RP on and while it's been okay to have my other two characters 'camp' in my FC, they just wouldn't be a good fit for the IC theme that I'm going for so I'd like to find them another company at some point. It's just been really difficult finding a company that I think I would enjoy and it's been kind of frustrating because I've never had this much difficulty before. Is it normal to struggle with finding a good FC? Does it usually take you awhile to find another FC after leaving one or do you join another one pretty easily and shortly after leaving your old one? 

 

I would go FCless for awhile but at this point I only really RP with my boyfriend and a few other friends. I'd like to find a decent group of people and replenish my friend group.

[Aedan Marceaux]

1 hour ago, SapphireSkylines said:

I have been focused on running my own free company with my boyfriend. I have three characters in total that I RP on and while it's been okay to have my other two characters 'camp' in my FC, they just wouldn't be a good fit for the IC theme that I'm going for so I'd like to find them another company at some point. It's just been really difficult finding a company that I think I would enjoy and it's been kind of frustrating because I've never had this much difficulty before. Is it normal to struggle with finding a good FC? Does it usually take you awhile to find another FC after leaving one or do you join another one pretty easily and shortly after leaving your old one? 

 

 

This pretty much sums up the situation for my wife and I as well. We would run a company for a while until a lull of some sort (usually a pre-patch lull or release of a newer, "better" game) would cause our members to disappear for an extended period of time without a word. At that point, we didn't feel like rebuilding so we'd let our company lie with alts in charge and try to find another company led by someone else. We'd find one or another that would claim one thing or another (namely lore "abidingness"), but then more often than not end up not being what they said.

 

We'd join a company that claimed to be inclusive, yet despite our attempts to integrate into their premade society, of sorts, by offering to run dungeons, joining in on their events when we could, offering to run (and subsequently doing so once permission was granted) our own events for the company we were never loved. QQ 

 

Or a company that claimed to abide by the lore, then have openly practicing black mages from middle earth that didn't face any legal repercussions. (I wish I was joking)

 

Or a company that claims they do more than just slice-of-life RP (Nothing wrong with it, we just don't want to do ONLY that), but had nothing but tavern nights and beach parties.

 

That's not to say there isn't another company out there that actually did match what we were looking for... we just never found it. Of course, as always, everyone is welcome to RP and lead their company as they wish... those just weren't great fits for us.

 

As such, we gave up trying to join others and just decided to stick to running our own in order to RP in an atmosphere that was more to our liking (realistic, organic, friendly, lore-abiding RP). Being open for just about three months now, I'd say we've been fairly successful and are going strong.

 

tl;dr: Yes. We've had difficulty, too. There may be something out there that matches what you're looking for, it just may not be advertised where ever it is that you're looking. My wife and I found it easier and more effective to just lead our own FC the way we wanted one to be run.

[SapphireSkylines]

Ouch, that must've really sucked for the both of you to be going from FC to FC but I'm glad you have a decent group. The FC I have with my boyfriend is just starting up. It's literally just me, him and one other person. Hopefully we'll be able to get it going and that I'll eventually find a FC that fits my other two characters or I'll just keep my two characters in my FC and draw up a reason as to why they're in my FC. We'll just see how things play out I guess. 

[Roen]

In the years that I've been with FFXIV, I've actually never relied on an FC for my RP. It isn't that I didn't try to join in with what was going on with the FC at the time, but I've always had Roen's story with people that were not in the FC I was in at the time. And that was totally fine.

 

I do think that finding an FC that's a right fit RP wise is hard. At least, I've found it so. The FC's I've stayed with, I've mostly just hung around for OOC attitude. I've yet to take part in any FC driven storyline.  (I tried couple of times but it didn't actually happen for whatever reason)

 

Now I am in an FC that was made just with a few friends. We have a house that is open to public RP (an inn in Shirogane!) but nothing FC driven. And lots of activity or lack thereof of the FC in general doesn't really concern me. I go find my RP with people I am interested in RPing with, whether they are in my FC or not. 

 

So I wish you luck in finding an FC that might fit you! But running your own, however small is fine too! Just don't let either choices restrict the RP you might find.

[Valence]

It mostly depends of your expectations and criterias. Some people have very low expectations and are happy with it, and will find FCs easily. Some will have high expectations, specific tastes out of the mainstream, specific criterias, maybe timezone issues too, and will struggle. 

 

And then you come into the RP triangle of death:

 

- OOC relationships and timezone/playtime compatibility

- RP theme and character fitting in

- RP ideals (super heroes vs average joes, etc) and RP style (slice of life, adventure, etc)

 

Pick two.

[Algun]

Hello,
I am agreeing with Roen/Nabi here.

I have had a degree of success running an FC for a year but because of health issue and the interest in tribal Xaela going down, had to close the FC.

Now I am just creating a small heavy RP slice-of-life Hingan FC with a close circle of friends. Only creating a storyline/event when I am in the mood or if any of my friends have ideas.

I wish you the best in your search!
 

[Mermaid]

Honestly I never thought being in an FC would be a good fit for me or my character. I can't commit to the sort of activity an FC would expect from me. I play D&D a couple days out of the week and when raids drop I tend to not only do them with a static but help friends do them.

 

Outside of the 'me' problems 9/10 FCs don't look like a fit for my character. They'll all be some inn/tavern/restaurant that's looking for staff or some kind of business that's a front for some sort of underground dealings. A mercenary company I could maybe see but even that feels like I'm tying my character to something I may not end up liking. I'd love to see an FC with a general theme and their housing is just the tavern/inn in the area that the members typically stay at.

 

As it is I'm in a friend's FC where I have privileges to pop buffs for raiding and I don't really see that as what's hindering my RP. It's my times/availability that kills it. I do see the community as a whole moving towards FCs and linkshells for RP so I understand the appeal. Have you tried linkshells for a source of people since FCs seem to be a problem?

[SapphireSkylines]

On 9/6/2018 at 3:44 AM, Valence said:

And then you come into the RP triangle of death:

 

- OOC relationships and timezone/playtime compatibility

- RP theme and character fitting in

- RP ideals (super heroes vs average joes, etc) and RP style (slice of life, adventure, etc)

 

Ack sorry, I haven't checked RPC in a few days. But Valence is pretty accurate, I do struggle with the last two on that list. OOC things seem to be fine, but for whatever reason I just can't get into the RP or the RP style. Or I look at a FC ad and don't give it a try because it doesn't sound all that interesting to me. Sometimes I wonder if I'm just burnt out from RP and that's the reason why free companies and their themes don't draw me in as easily as they used to. I have gone through a lot of drama and bullshit in the past two years so it would make sense. As for linkshells, I haven't really tried linkshells. Usually the linkshells I join end up being inactive, but I could always give it a shot again. 

[Livia]

I do think it can take a while to find an FC you're happy with because everyone wants different things and has different 'dealbreakers.' As people have already said, expectations can be very limiting, and all the factors listed above (new game releases, mid-patch lulls) have curtailed FC and general RP activity.

 

People's definition of 'lore-strict' and other similar terms is ultimately very much up to interpretation. How to approach a highly unlikely but technically possible scenario may vary drastically among groups that use the same terminology. My own FC had a very wide berth of preferred play styles for a very long time and it caused tension for a while.

 

That being said, I also wanted to draw attention to Balmung being locked as a factor further restricting RP. That people can only leave the server at this point, and with no new characters flowing in, many FC's have been struggling to maintain an active member base as their current members move along to other activities.

 

My own FC had a great core group, but one of our members had a new job that limited her availability so significantly that she chose to leave the game for the foreseeable future. I had to go back to school after my semester started. Some people simply got bored or felt their character's story was complete and moved on. All of these contribute to FC decline without the FC necessarily having the ability to replenish membership. While there are always members looking for an RP FC, some portion of them are people who are high conflict players and seeking new communities because they have difficulty maintaining long-term relationships, or otherwise are not necessarily characters that meet the standards for membership some FC's hold, so even having people looking for FC's doesn't necessarily mean that they will become core players in an FC.

 

Rather than trying to encourage our members to be more active, my FC opted to just go on an official FC-wide hiatus until the game picks back up. While finding an FC that meets our needs is difficult, I think it's complicated by Balmung's status as a locked server, which produces a difficult environment to really enable an FC to flourish.