Recently, JP Button was contacted by Associate Professor Aaron Delwiche from the Department of Communication at Trinity University. Professor Delwiche is teaching a course on Transnational Onilne games. He had some very exciting news for us. A portion of JP Button, specifically the Talking Points community project, was made required reading for the class! It’s really exciting to hear that people from outside the FFXI community have seen the site and can maybe learn from some of the issues that affect us to make better games in the future. We’re really honored to be included like that. Thank you Professor!

You can be included too! Along with his students, he has initiated the WorldPlay Research Initiative. He is looking for the FFXI community to contribute their thoughts and experiences adventuring with players of all different cultures in Vana’diel.

Currently, I am working with seventeen undergraduates to launch the Worldplay Project. As you can see from our site, the Worldplay project is trying to figure out ways that players, game developers, and researchers can promote cross-cultural cooperation in virtual worlds. We are very committed to the same values that are embodied in JP Button.

As the first step of this project, we are asking players from around the world to share their thoughts,concerns, and suggestions about cross-cultural interaction. We’ve put together a short (10 question) open-ended document that invites people to speak up on this important issue. This survey is currently posted in Chinese, English, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese.

If you have the time, check out their site and fill out a survey. It’s a little more complicated than yes/no , but it’s not very long at all. There’s also a link that downloads a PDF with the results they have compiled so far.

Here are some direct links to the project pages:

And some fast links to the survey in each language:

Sorry for the wait!  We are finally ready to release the results of our 1st Anniversary commemorative contest, the Bilingual Treasure Hunt.  For those that don’t remember, we had five clues written in Japanese that people would have to try to translate into English and then send us a screenshot that fits the clue.

Curious who won and what the answers are to the clues?  Click more to find out!

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To celebrate the one year anniversary of JP Button, we are holding a Bilingual Treasure Hunt for Final Fantasy XI players around the world!

As we head to the Tokyo Game Show this month, we are striving to make it so everyone can come along for the ride. In that vein, we will be giving away four Tokyo Game Show 2009 t-shirts, and some exclusive FFXI-related merchandise available at the show!

This is a screen shot contest where players need to decipher clues in Japanese and take an appropriate picture in locations throughout Vana’diel. There are a variety of clues of varying difficulty, so feel free to try your luck at as many as you wish.

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It’s been a slow month, I admit. Both Corinth and I have our FFXIV projects to keep up on and personal sites to build. Ever since Moogle Kupo D’Etat came out, there just hasn’t been much FFXI info.

JP Button has been running for a full year now, though, so we have to do something to celebrate. We’re looking to involve our trip to the Tokyo Game Show next month, and work out something where we can get prizes back to our readers.

Since we bought Contributor Tickets, which will allow us early access to all the FFXIV content there won’t be, we will have enough TGS T-shirts to clothe Bastok’s Fightin’ Fourth. Keychains will be available at the show, and possibly some new toys that we’ve seen glimpses of over the past few months. Also, we’ll definitely be making a stop at the Square Enix store, which is loaded with cool stuff.

Look for an update within the next few days.

(I still can’t believe they think looks appropriate… )

Speed Gamers, http://www.thespeedgamers.com/, is holding a Final Fantasy Marathon to help raise money for ACT Today, a non-profit group that provides funding for autism treatment and research.

The event will run from Friday, July 17th, and last the entire week!

They are going to play through every numbered Final Fantasy, from I-XII, excluding X-2 and XI. You can check out the video stream on their site or sign up at U Stream for a free account.

Not only can you watch the fun and chat with other viewers, but donators can win a variety of prizes! According to SpeedGamers: “… each day we will do two random drawings. The winners of the drawings will have their prize chosen by us spinning a wheel. Whatever the wheel lands on, that’s the prize they will be given.”

JP Button will be contributing to the pool with some Japanese calligraphy scrolls. If you win, you can choose any term related to the Final Fantasy series to be hand-painted onto a hanging scroll. Here are some samples of Black Mage, Caller and Puppetmaster:

So, check out Speed Gamers and the Final Fantasy Marathon Discussion Thread for all the details.

As many of you may have heard, I was chosen to star in the new season of Paris Hilton’s BFF.

Unfortunately, I had to pass on that to take a position on the ZAM network. I will be working for ZAM now within their Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV sections. I don’t want to belabor the issue, but I felt the offer was something I should not pass up. I will be able to reach users on a much larger stage and receive some much needed support that will ensure I can keep up this hobby that I enjoy so much.

Before I descend into my digressive ramblings, I want to assure you that JP Button is not going to disappear or be deleted or stop updating. You can read on for more details.

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Thank you to everyone who participated in our 2009 English Speaking Players Survey! I think it was a great success especially for our first try in putting something like this together. We received a lot of feedback from people about how they are curious to see the results as well as tips for how to make it even better in the future.

Overall, there are over 1000 completed responses to begin to compile and process. I’m hoping to take about 2 weeks to sort through things and see what sort of interesting stats are hidden in them. There were some things that have really surprised me so far so maybe they will surprise other people as well.

After everything is typed up and presented on JP Button, the information will be shared with a Japanese community site to share with Japanese players. It is thanks to everyone’s assistance and cooperation that we were able to repay the kindness we’ve been shown by (Kan). I really cannot thank you all enough!

One little tidbit to share so far: Nearly 17% of respondents said they have listened to at least 2 episodes of JP Button Radio. Considering we only have a few episodes out so far, that’s not too shabby. (Then again… it is our survey….)

Make sure to come back and check out what other people had to say in the weeks to come!

Color me impressed – the Square Enix Community Team continues to dish out the goods to its beloved fan sites. We had the Podcast Tour, which you can still check out at Pet Food Alpha, He Says She Says and Limit Break Radio. In addition, Allakhazam has received some love and attention from Community Team members posting to clarify common concerns among the players.

The latest bonus to promote community sites is a new tool, which you can find over in the sidebar. It combines the playfulness of the “Blog Parts” they offered with the Taru Bard that was used here a while back, and the functionality of the original tool box by providing Topics and Information.

Being from Bastok, I have set the tool to that city’s theme, and throwing Shantatto in there is a given. Be sure to give her a click!

It appears Square Enix is ramping up efforts to support its fans even more, so be sure to keep your eyes on the official PlayOnline site!

This is a collection of forum avatars I made a little while back. I keep going back and forth on the idea of having a JP Button forum, but never go through with it. It’s all set up, but it will stay on the back burner for now.

I started up another JP/EN Q&A session and posted it on several forums. I went to the big three: Alla/BG/FFXIclopedia, and for a new perspective, I reached out to The Quetzalcoatl Daily News. Just like last year, it’s gotten a good response so far, and I’ve been busy hopping back and forth reading up on everyone’s opinions. I think that is the true nature of JP Button. I feel like the site acts best as a supplement to other communities rather than attempting to be a community unto itself.

That’s really my favorite thing about running the site, too. I’ll see a forum post pop up, and they say, “Hey, I found this on JP Button…” or “JP Button posted this info…” and everyone tests it out and discovers something new. Watching the information flow out in that way and help players is just really cool.

Anyway, I made these for use on the dormant forums, but they can work pretty much anywhere. They are 150×150, and are abbreviations of various jobs throughout the entire Final Fantasy series. The abbreviations are not official, but are constructed in the same way as FFXI ones, where the first character is used (unless a different character was more appropriate). They are also presented with no backgrounds, so they can easily be used in constructing a signature as well.

Enjoy!

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Wow, that was a scary little event.

I think we’re back in control now.

I contacted my ISP, and apparently the guy who took control of the site (whoever he was) was consumed by his own ego and disappeared. I was the previous owner of the domain, so they gave it back to me.

I’ll make sure to auto-renew from now on!

It’s still April Fool’s Day overseas for a few hours, but I don’t think we have any time to get our joke up. Sorry.

However, the new Vana’diel Tsuushin with an interview about A Crystalline Prophecy comes out today! You can look forward to seeing that very soon.