first off: forums are a place for opinions, responses, working together, and getting information; among other things - please don't forget this. opinions can often sound dramatic or "too serious" when they are honest - not to say that nobody causes forum drama. i hope you aren't reading this like i'm making a big deal out of it, i just want to say that everyone [or as many people as possible] should be as intelligent and at least semi-considerate as possible when it comes to posting... and that's just what i think, do want you want. by all means, flame your little hearts out! [i'll probably repeat myself. heyo!]

hmmm... i agree with this post for the most part. jobs images [this is casual discussion, no body should ever take anything too seriously or deeply on a forum - no matter what tone the user is posting with...] should be IG, they should probably have AF1 gear on, an action would be nice, and no matter how pretty or cool you can make a banner look, it still won't work well within the space and context. space-and-representative-efficient pictures would be a goal i guess.

heh, aren't we all just bored at work sometimes - i.e. right now, waiting on those final few minutes to tick down...

while yes, i agree with you that it doesn't matter [and i'm still typing only because i'm bored at work, as i mentioned] what the pictures are of, look like, or that there are pictures at all; i don't think criticizing the criticizers is really fair, not that that matters either [criticizing the criticizer of the criticizers is a different story...] it's simply: new pictures were brought in or made, the forum users were notified, and the forum users responded. i also think a little pride comes in with the user evaluations of the pictures. we want our jobs/races to have good, defining pictures - pics we could show our friends and say "this is what i play." and yeah, it's hard to have race pictures that aren't bland screen shots that appeal to everyone in general, like being politically correct i guess - even though they might be too cute or something, i like the idea of having drawn race pictures.

/sigh... editing in my ideas... no credit? no problem!

eh, it was just sarcasm - i think it would take some effort to look deeply into "art specialist" under these circumstances.

I do definately agree that the jobs images should portray a bit more in-gameness. But all I had on hand were the images given by the official ffxi site, so that's what was used. Regardless, that's not the purpose of the pages. Read on:

The real focus that we were going for was to have something to symbolize the job/class. We don't need to have something "huge" as it'll take away from the important part of the pages: The Information.

Also, not all players are at the highest levels in the game. The best way to portray the classes is to show something that more people will recognize rather than how leet someone's character is based on the armor and items on them (note to self: glasses = uber. No way around it, it just takes far too much effort and time to get to the level in crafting to even be able to have those glasses.)

If someone can send me full res image of various characters in the lower-level main class/job armor(and I'm refering to what is the very first armor which identifies someone as their particular class/job, which is what the now-current images are wearing. Anyone who has played ffxi can identify someone by the armor, so none of the higher level armor, please.), then I'd be happy to change them out, but please remember, the pages are here for the information far more than they are here for the images.

Having images on the page to portray symbolically what the jobs are is just added eye-candy. It's nice, but most certainly NOT the most important function of the jobs and races pages.

As far as the race images, those were created by someone from the ffxi ogaming site, and though they don't completely portray the feel of the game, it also shows a different side that some people take in the game. It's not all about battle and uberness. I've known a lot of people, including my older sister, who enjoy the storyline as much as the battle, and sometimes having fun and beeing goofy is just plain well... fun. The images also kind of remind me of /gu comics art, which a lot of MMO gamers can identify with.

As to the size of the images - they should be smaller, not larger. As I stated before, the point of having the pages on allakhazam (and any page for that matter) is for the information that's on the page. If you want to see a bunch of artwork, then go to the media galleries.

Edited, Jul 21st 2006 at 11:46am EDT by Leonai_art

Um... so what's different about the job ability/trait entries?

...
art specialist?...

not that it's a big deal - or really anyone's business as the race/job pics aren't a vital part of the site and it's ability to serve and provide information; i'm just going to agree with a few of the others who posted before me who had negative opinions of the change...

yeah, the job pictures are bland (though atm i'm glad sams got spared ^_^ ... though their picture was already sort of bland to begin with). i think whether they're superimposed on a background or left in Vana', they should at least be in the middle of a job defining action. like a ninja casting ninjitsu or leading Kirin around in circles while an alliance takes out the summons (as in two different pics or a split image); a blue mage blasting away (or just standing there getting attacked lol); samurai weapon skills, blms nuking, whms healing, brds singing, cors dice rolling etc etc you get the picture.

as for the race pictures, i can see how they will be sort of frowned upon because of the "cuteness" level being <Incredibly Tough> to swallow... it has crossed my mind that the "art specialist" probably just "knows the right people," and that's cool, grats on the opportunity - i'd just like to say, if allakhazam cares about what the forum users think about race/job pictures, they might have some sort of contest where actual forum users submit race and/or job pictures, then have some sort of vote or poll (note that it doesn't have to be completely open to anyone, but whatever would be fair and most convenient for the busy PCs behind allakhazam.) the conditions just being something like: decency, uniformity, interesting, defining, etc... but i really don't care what alla does or if they leave it like it is.

that's just what i think. and i mean no disrespect to Leonai_art - i don't think the pictures are bad, just not suited for everyone.

heyo!
[not going to edit if any spelling or grammar is wrong, so sorry in advance if it's needed]

The Galka picture is.. disturbing...
Big-eyed smiling freak... I think it should have been a grumpy looking galka with his arms crossed...