Um, hi.

[Saiden]

Hiya, I am Saiden. I am brand new to FFXIV and have no idea what I am doing. Before signing up, I read online that a couple of the servers were considered the roleplaying ones, so I waited to make my character until one of them was unlocked. Set an alarm for 7am this morning and viola, I am on Gilgamesh! I ended up moving to Balmuth when I was rerolling my character and it happened to be available.

 

I have roleplayed off and on over the years in different settings and mediums, but I am pretty inexperienced with the Final Fantasy series. I only played VII, X, and XIII - completing only X I think. I keep meaning to go back and play most of the series at some point, but oh wells.

 

So, yes. I have not figured out all the details of my character yet because I am still fuzzy on a lot of the lore and world setting. Hopefully I can learn quickly! I did spend some time this morning to make sure I made a lore-friendly name for him, so at least I have that (at least I hope I made it lore-friendly :bouncy: )

 

I am rambling now. :blush:

 

Anyways, I just wanted to say hai and hopefully I can get over shyness and actually get plugged in. :love:

 

Edit: I ended up switching to a different character after I brainstormed what I wanted to do. I am quite happy with what I have come up with and am in the process of writing more of him when I have spare moments. Also, even when it makes no sense in the context, I just cannot get enough of this bouncy emoticon. :bouncy:

[Maril]

Welcome

[Zhavi]

The community here is very welcoming, so as long as you're willing to reach out to those you want to rp with, you shouldn't have any sort of problem getting started! From what I've heard Gilgamesh has a lot of sort of event-focused and group-focused rp, so if you don't see a ton of open-world rp don't feel discouraged. Check around the Gilgamesh FC/Linkshell forums here and check out the wiki for characters that interest you, and pm their players.

 

I hope you're able to find lots of great rp. Take your time browsing through the lore in the wiki (or, as I've done, just google something and you should find lots of information). You can always ask your rp partners to speak up if you flub the lore, too -- people are understanding.

 

Happy writing! Welcome to the RPC!

[Mippa]

Hello Hello! Welcome to Gilgamesh! We're a smaller community but we're close-knit and friendly!

 

I started out being completely new to the setting and game lore--don't worry, you'll catch on in no time!

[Guest Hiroshu]

If you're new to Balmung and the game in general, hit me up anytime. So am I! I cheated on my name, lore-wise, but I'm also banking on them introducing Asian-themed characters with the inevitable addition of NIN/SAM jobs in a future expansion, so the angle I'm starting to lean toward is riding out my adventurer amnesia as far as origins are concerned until that comes around. In the mean time, I'd love to meet more people who are fresh to the game like me. I'm real easy going, so don't be shy, just send me a tell anytime! 

 

Welcome to the game! 

[Guest Ragnar]

Welcome to Balmung! If you see Ragnar around don't be afraid to say hi, he's a friendly guy.

[Kage]

Welcome to the RPC and Balmung!

 

If you're in Ul'dah and see a lalafell miqo'te named Kage feel free to say hello if he's got a red hat on :3 or a beret... most likely a red hat.

[Melkire]

...but I am pretty inexperienced with the Final Fantasy series. I only played VII, X, and XIII...

 

...

 

*eyebrow twitches*

 

W-w-welcome to RP and Balmung.

 

Play I, VI, IX, Tactics, Tactics Advance, and Chocobo Racing. Thank me later.

[Mage]

Hi! i'm pretty new too

I've played the mobile version of FF1 and got lost. so very lost. then i played XI, X X-2 Xii back to XI and now finally ARR. i'm pretty much clueless. 

 

if you wanna rp i'm always open :3 hope you enjoy it here.

[Saiden]

...but I am pretty inexperienced with the Final Fantasy series. I only played VII, X, and XIII...

 

...

 

*eyebrow twitches*

 

W-w-welcome to RP and Balmung.

 

Play I, VI, IX, Tactics, Tactics Advance, and Chocobo Racing. Thank me later.

 

Wai twitchy? I could not play eeeeverything back in the day. Someday, I will go back and play all the ones available with translation.:moogle:

[Guest Hiroshu]

...but I am pretty inexperienced with the Final Fantasy series. I only played VII, X, and XIII...

 

...

 

*eyebrow twitches*

 

W-w-welcome to RP and Balmung.

 

Play I, VI, IX, Tactics, Tactics Advance, and Chocobo Racing. Thank me later.

 

Wai twitchy? I could not play eeeeverything back in the day. Someday, I will go back and play all the ones available with translation.:moogle:

 

It's funny cause X and XIII are considered among the worst. Which is nothing against you, of course, you just... don't know what you're missing yet. My favorite is VI, by far, and IV, and really the early ones are all pretty good through VII. People have mixed feelings about VIII, some love, some hate, I never got into it, so I abstain. IX seemed pretty good, but I just never got around to playing through it all. I have mixed feelings about XII, cause I didn't jive with the story, but I loved the combat system (feels a lot like XIV, imo) and using gambits to play the game for me. Seriously, one healer and two berserkers beat the last boss for me, it didn't even feel fair. I played the beginning of XIII and I just... I couldn't do it. VI and VII have a nice steampunk feel that the series has never gotten back to. I like that XI and XIV have catered more to the flavor of the earlier games, rather than the recent ones.

[Saiden]

It's funny cause X and XIII are considered among the worst. Which is nothing against you, of course, you just... don't know what you're missing yet. My favorite is VI, by far, and IV, and really the early ones are all pretty good through VII. People have mixed feelings about VIII, some love, some hate, I never got into it, so I abstain. IX seemed pretty good, but I just never got around to playing through it all. I have mixed feelings about XII, cause I didn't jive with the story, but I loved the combat system (feels a lot like XIV, imo) and using gambits to play the game for me. Seriously, one healer and two berserkers beat the last boss for me, it didn't even feel fair. I played the beginning of XIII and I just... I couldn't do it. VI and VII have a nice steampunk feel that the series has never gotten back to. I like that XI and XIV have catered more to the flavor of the earlier games, rather than the recent ones.

 

Ah, yes. I have heard similar things about X and XIII. Back when the early ones were being released, I was playing games more akin to the Castlevania series. I found RPGs in video game form rather late in life, sadly. So there are a lot of classics I have not played. I just loved those platformers. :chocobo:

[Guest Hiroshu]

Ah, yes. I have heard similar things about X and XIII. Back when the early ones were being released, I was playing games more akin to the Castlevania series. I found RPGs in video game form rather late in life, sadly. So there are a lot of classics I have not played. I just loved those platformers. :chocobo:

 

You know, the older I get, the less time I want to invest in RPGs. After I played through Journey, I thought, "Why can't we have more awesome games that I can finish in 2 hours?" That said, I do love open worlds. I just don't like to have to do a lot of math and reading while playing the game. I just want to sit back and adventure. I honestly wish there were more open world games with fewer RPG elements.

[Saiden]

Ah, yes. I have heard similar things about X and XIII. Back when the early ones were being released, I was playing games more akin to the Castlevania series. I found RPGs in video game form rather late in life, sadly. So there are a lot of classics I have not played. I just loved those platformers. :chocobo:

 

You know, the older I get, the less time I want to invest in RPGs. After I played through Journey, I thought, "Why can't we have more awesome games that I can finish in 2 hours?" That said, I do love open worlds. I just don't like to have to do a lot of math and reading while playing the game. I just want to sit back and adventure. I honestly wish there were more open world games with fewer RPG elements.

 

Yeah, for more recent years when I play singleplayer games it is more along the line of casual adventure/story games such as last year's Tomb Raider reboot. As far as open world goes, I have found that many of the lauded open world games tend to not jive with me because the openness leaves me too directionless. They tend to provide content via lack of meaning - you run around this world until you see an icon on the minimap, which will be some kind of event that seems suspiciously familiar to the last five events you did. I tend to get bored rather quickly. If somebody ever developed a combination of Heavy Rain, The Sims, and EVE Online, I would be a happy person. :bouncy:

 

But on top of all that, I just simply do not have anywhere near as much time to devote to games as I used to. When offline life gets busy, everything but MMOs tend to fall by the wayside - with an MMO, I can log in and everything was just as I left it, depending on the game I may have acquaintances I can chat with while I relax for an hour or two that evening and wind down, and I do not have to worry about paying attention to new releases and finding something new to play.

[Guest Hiroshu]

As far as open world goes, I have found that many of the lauded open world games tend to not jive with me because the openness leaves me too directionless. They tend to provide content via lack of meaning - you run around this world until you see an icon on the minimap, which will be some kind of event that seems suspiciously familiar to the last five events you did. I tend to get bored rather quickly. If somebody ever developed a combination of Heavy Rain, The Sims, and EVE Online, I would be a happy person. :bouncy:

 

I daydream about a similar imaginary MMO. 

 

That's basically my hang up with open world games: it's kind of a quest grind. That's actually had me hesitant to play FFXIV until now because while WoW was a striking change from FFXI, after awhile you realize you're still grinding either way, but with questing they're just adding a bunch of a text you have to read in between the fighting, and in between that you're still just running around. Unless there's a robust quest tracker, at which point the quest text becomes superfluous and even more tedious because you're just button pressing through windows. What I really, really wish is for a more open-ended MMO that is built more around actual role playing, and less about stat progression.

 

Have you heard of No Man's Sky? I'm really looking forward to that one. I just want to be an explorer at the end of the day, and that's always hard to make in a game with all the limits current technology puts on the size of high quality game worlds. But I digress.

[Saiden]

I daydream about a similar imaginary MMO. 

 

That's basically my hang up with open world games: it's kind of a quest grind. That's actually had me hesitant to play FFXIV until now because while WoW was a striking change from FFXI, after awhile you realize you're still grinding either way, but with questing they're just adding a bunch of a text you have to read in between the fighting, and in between that you're still just running around. Unless there's a robust quest tracker, at which point the quest text becomes superfluous and even more tedious because you're just button pressing through windows. What I really, really wish is for a more open-ended MMO that is built more around actual role playing, and less about stat progression.

 

Have you heard of No Man's Sky? I'm really looking forward to that one. I just want to be an explorer at the end of the day, and that's always hard to make in a game with all the limits current technology puts on the size of high quality game worlds. But I digress.

 

I enjoy current MMOs as long as the setting is one I enjoy, but yes it does feel as if the market is so full now that quick games of the same structure are par for the course. MMO players are a different breed now than they used to be - most players do not stick with a game for several years on end, they hop from one new MMO to the next grinding to the top as fast as they can to see if they like the endgame progression. There was a great article in Wired about it a while back. The old style of game where people spent years (EVE Online just hit its tenth anniversery and is actually growing) in it has kind of disappeared. The majority of players switch MMOs multiple times a year.

 

I do enjoy MMOs, but I need a setting I like, an endgame PvE progression (that was the problem with Elder Scrolls Online - there is literally no endgame progression), and preferably some fun people I have met.

 

Most of the innovation in gaming is in different genres now. MMOs have become a static genre, much like RTS games. Adventure games, games that push the boundaries of game versus film (Heavy Rain), and the like are what push the innovation in the genre now.

 

I put myself on the No Man's Sky mailing list a few days ago, but I have sort of reached the point now that I do not ever look forward to an MMO or have high expectations. That does not mean I will not enjoy them when they are released, but I just do not see the point in having high expectations - being different and innovative rarely pays the bills. The majority of gamers want something they can get the hang of in five minutes, grind to endgame progression in less than a month, and finish the progression within four months.

 

All of that said, I have found that the less time I have to play an MMO the more I enjoy it. As my offline life is busy, I do not have time to play a game for 4+ hours a day like I did when I was younger. It helps stop it from feeling like a grind, keeps the world fresh, etcetera. The only downside is that leveling is so slow that endgame is already chock full of experienced people that have done it all already and it can become difficult to get plugged in to experience the content. And the same goes with roleplaying - the less time you have to play, the later you arrive in a game, the higher chance there is that cliques have already been formed and it becomes more difficult to become involved.

[Guest Hiroshu]

I enjoy current MMOs as long as the setting is one I enjoy, but yes it does feel as if the market is so full now that quick games of the same structure are par for the course. MMO players are a different breed now than they used to be - most players do not stick with a game for several years on end, they hop from one new MMO to the next grinding to the top as fast as they can to see if they like the endgame progression. There was a great article in Wired about it a while back. The old style of game where people spent years (EVE Online just hit its tenth anniversery and is actually growing) in it has kind of disappeared. The majority of players switch MMOs multiple times a year.

 

On that note, I just saw this article the other day: Red 5 Studios: I think WoW killed a genre

 

Sadly, I had to agree with him. I say sadly because I do have a lot of fond memories from my years in WoW, but I did get the sense that the new approach it brought to the genre took a toll on the vastly different experience I had playing FFXI, where leveling up was, itself, the experience of the game, and not just a means to an end. Leveling felt more like an accomplishment, and certainly a more social activity.

 

Most of the innovation in gaming is in different genres now. MMOs have become a static genre, much like RTS games. Adventure games, games that push the boundaries of game versus film (Heavy Rain), and the like are what push the innovation in the genre now.

 

I put myself on the No Man's Sky mailing list a few days ago, but I have sort of reached the point now that I do not ever look forward to an MMO or have high expectations. That does not mean I will not enjoy them when they are released, but I just do not see the point in having high expectations - being different and innovative rarely pays the bills. The majority of gamers want something they can get the hang of in five minutes, grind to endgame progression in less than a month, and finish the progression within four months.

 

I remember for a time after WoW came out, I found myself thinking, "Why can't more games be low-investment like this?" Be careful what you wish for, right? After FFXI, it felt like a good change. But now I feel the best path lies somewhere in between these two vastly different routes. I was wary going into FFXIV, having read some people complaining that all the new transportation opportunities have taken away something that made FFXI feel special, which was that sense of grand exploration. I remember sitting down with a meal to watch my character run across three different zones while occasionally course-correcting to avoid dangerous mobs. Sure, that became tedious sometimes, but that scale is a lot of the reason I got into the game to begin with (and I was young enough to have that kind of time). I don't entirely blame developers for having a tough time trying to find the right balance between this and convenience, and you're right, it feels like other genres are having to pick up the slack in the wake of the WoW trend.

 

The only downside is that leveling is so slow that endgame is already chock full of experienced people that have done it all already and it can become difficult to get plugged in to experience the content. And the same goes with roleplaying - the less time you have to play, the later you arrive in a game, the higher chance there is that cliques have already been formed and it becomes more difficult to become involved.

 

Yup. I didn't realize how lucky I was to start FFXI, my first MMO, only a week after the PS2 launch. This meant I rode the wave of an influx of new players, so there was plenty of camaraderie in the trenches to go around. That really made the experience for me. I haven't actively played an MMO for years now, so I find myself trying to seek out another community of newer players to learn the ropes with together. That's what brought me to these forums.

[Saiden]

I remember for a time after WoW came out, I found myself thinking, "Why can't more games be low-investment like this?" Be careful what you wish for, right? After FFXI, it felt like a good change. But now I feel the best path lies somewhere in between these two vastly different routes. I was wary going into FFXIV, having read some people complaining that all the new transportation opportunities have taken away something that made FFXI feel special, which was that sense of grand exploration. I remember sitting down with a meal to watch my character run across three different zones while occasionally course-correcting to avoid dangerous mobs. Sure, that became tedious sometimes, but that scale is a lot of the reason I got into the game to begin with (and I was young enough to have that kind of time). I don't entirely blame developers for having a tough time trying to find the right balance between this and convenience, and you're right, it feels like other genres are having to pick up the slack in the wake of the WoW trend.

 

I suppose I never had that feeling in an MMO. I played WoW many years ago for a brief time purely because so many offline friends started playing it, but I had a hard time getting into it. It was not my setting, my style, or writing I enjoyed. There tends to be very specific styles of fantasy that I enjoy, the genre as a whole is very hit or miss with me. For example, I do not watch Game of Thrones but I just read the first book because people would not stop pestering me about it. I found it dreadfully boring - obviously, this is not a reflection of Martin or the work itself, simply a preference of the reader.

 

Yup. I didn't realize how lucky I was to start FFXI, my first MMO, only a week after the PS2 launch. This meant I rode the wave of an influx of new players, so there was plenty of camaraderie in the trenches to go around. That really made the experience for me. I haven't actively played an MMO for years now, so I find myself trying to seek out another community of newer players to learn the ropes with together. That's what brought me to these forums.

 

That has been my perpetual frustration with MMOs in the past - I tend to come along late in the formulation of the community and it brings with it various obstacles. That and I simply do not have time to play for long, long periods of time anymore. So naturally, communities tend to revolve around those that do have the time to spend. That is normal.

 

I am hoping that ARR can be that game I play for a long time to come, sometimes logging in for an hour sometimes longer. See all the content there is to see, try to be more relaxed and less of a "gamer," and just meet some new folks along the way.

[Guest Hiroshu]

I am hoping that ARR can be that game I play for a long time to come, sometimes logging in for an hour sometimes longer. See all the content there is to see, try to be more relaxed and less of a "gamer," and just meet some new folks along the way.

 

You know, having played FFXI, and assuming FFXIV is anything like that community, then I suspect this can very easily be that kind of experience for you. I mean, just look at the fact that FFXI is still being maintained and updated to this day. I never felt an external rush to level and progress in FFXI, despite it being more "hardcore" as a game than recent MMOs. The Linkshell system in this one seems pretty ingenious as far as social connectivity is concerned, given that you can equip multiple linkshells at a time, giving you access to a lot of different chat channels to meet up with people. My experience between FFXI and WoW led me to feel as though FF players are more communal and cooperative than WoW players (WoW had some great PVP, but that also fueled a much more competitive environment). Plus, look at the two different franchises, and what kind of audience they draw. Warcraft, and Starcraft by extension, are very competitive games, while the common theme throughout Final Fantasy is making and helping new friends. I think those contrasting themes breed the kind of player community you can find in each franchise.

 

On top of that, I've always experienced role players to be more communal than "gamers." Some play for the experience, some play for the game. Experience-oriented players would appear, to me, to be more empathetic to the experiences of their peers. 

 

In short, I'd say the early signs suggest we came to the right place to find what we're both looking for.