Azure Infinitum Network

Its time for a change. A letter from RA:N & Azure Infinitum Founder

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 13:17:00 +0000

Hello there!

Its been a while. I haven't updated here in quite some time, and a lot has happened. I'd like to simply address this, and also the future of this site.

If you've followed me on social media through this year, such as on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, or if you're a member of our Azure Infinitum community, you might have noticed that 2022 was a difficult year for me.

RA:N activity has been up and down for a while. There were great years where I covered conventions prior to the pandemic and posted galleries of my own or featured other's coverage, and times I kept you all up to date more often on my own activities, or opinions of news from around the wide world of visual culture. Then there were long moments of inactivity, times when things became hard. I've had private difficulties in my life that have caused my attention and energy to become needed elsewhere. Moments have come and gone when I wish I would have updated on these things a little bit more, or about when I needed a break and why.

The goal here on this site has been the same as my personal work in the industry. It has always been to keep an active site that continued to share event coverages, pop culture news, collectibles, and Japanese Culture- and a lot more that you can see around the site or get the idea by looking at our navigation bar. While this has been accomplished to various degrees, enough that I am proud of if I were to completely walk away from it all today- I feel that in my downtimes from this site, I have discovered a different approach to this site's future, and the future of what I produce in general.

Many things have happened since RA:N first came into being in 2008, following the previous blog's "Run Around:Kazu" which had begun in 2005. From being a volunteer high schooler who could write a lot and give advice & take lots of photos, to a press member and event programming liaison web developer & press skilled industry entrepreneur with an always developing portfolio- today things have taken another step. Things like our community evolving from an FFXI Online group of friends to an enormously successful FFXIV Online community that has slowly transcended the games we share to merge with the same or similar purposes of my personal and RA:N's followers. In that community known as Azure Infinitum, I have found from what began as an initially unintended journey, a many year saga that has lead me through years of leadership and a gauntlet of social interaction, learning, and self discovery.

Amidst hard times several years ago and the era of COVID-19 today, my career has been transitioning towards more online work than field press work. This isn't to say I wont be involved with live events at conventions or attending expos or doing exclusive interviews, it just means my focus going forward fits my life better in the natural direction I've taken to doing mostly private work and leading Azure Infinitum. More about future plans in a moment.

Another great transition for me is that this year, on January 18th, I came out as Transgender, finally finding the courage and learning enough in my own journey of self discovery, in comfort at a time that I felt was best, identifying as female using she/her pronouns, and expressing myself much more comfortably. I am thankful to have a lot of support and kind people around who love me, who have also supported me through this year's great challenges presented by a difficult emergency moving crisis as well, which finally ended this past summer. Since the difficult move settled, I've been rebuilding my home base and work-life balance.

Starting in 2023, RA:N will be carrying on under the name I have become most passionate about: Azure Infinitum. If you are new to Azure or have not heard of our community's name before, know that it represents an enormously positive growing inclusive community of people across the globe who've come together to play, chat, and enjoy hobbies together within our community. We have major online events & activities that have been taking place for many years now- some events equivalent to online conventions you could say. Azure recently celebrated its 8th anniversary, but it will also be a whole new frontier for many people to come. Azure's motto is "As Free As The Azure Sky!" and our philosophy is that together, we all fly as one, amid the seemingly infinite Azure sky, the possibilities and potential infinite as we fellowship together! Our community welcomes all, gamer, otaku, or not, and always works to uphold a no-drama policy and inclusivity for all people in it.

To move forward and return to active writing on my own platform, and to carry our great community with me and those joining me in creating content, and also- because I just feel right about this- RA:N will merge into the Azure community brand soon, and carry onward as a hub that celebrates visual and popular culture, but also our growing community as well. Our current Azure site will continue to be the de facto portal for community information & profiles where our members can make posts, share content, and collect Azure achievements as well. News items posted to that site will continue to be solely focused on the community, as where this current site will be our main station for posts about anime, video games, music, movies, and much much more- and where you can continue to follow myself and our coming editors too.

As I return to writing here soon and take my communities and following into the next threshold, I want to thank everyone who's supported me since I began as a volunteer at local events in Sacramento, CA going back to 2004. Starting with our very own Sac Anime convention in its first ever year and form, through multiple online communities, trading card game clubs, and more- I am taking all of my life's experiences and skills and pouring my energy into all of this. Whether you've attended live RA:N events or big time conventions and expo's I've been lucky enough to have a part in, or have followed me anywhere online, or have been a member of Azure Infinitum, thank you for all the support. I plan to do everything I can to continue providing a fun, active, organized, and friendly community in Azure Infinitum, as well as informational, inspiring, and interesting content as well. One day I'd love to see our membership grow large enough to support lots of activities across many games, a stream of member-produced content & shares, and provide more perks & maybe even product discounts to our members as well.

There is no specific target on when the merger of RA:N into the Azure name will take place, but it'll mostly be visible from this current site from which you're reading this now. You will see the name change and some updated links. Following those changes you'll begin to see content posted here again as well!

I'll be as active as always on social media and across Azure Infinitum, but as for this site- see you soon!

- Kazushime Hikaru

New Details Emerge About Shin Ikki Tousen

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 06:53:00 +0000

A ton of new details have emerged regarding Shin Ikki Tousen over at ANN, check it out here: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-11-22/shin-ikki-tousen-anime-reveals-cast-visual-spring-2022-debut/.179852

Promos, Visuals, Cast, & More Revealed For 'Slow Loop' Anime Project!

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 06:50:00 +0000

Tons of new details are being released for the Slow Loop anime project.

Read all about it here: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-11-22/slow-loop-anime-reveals-promo-video-theme-song-artists-visual-more-cast-january-7-premiere/.179864

English Dub Cast Revealed For 'Summit of the Gods' Anime Movie

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 06:07:00 +0000

The english dub cast for the Summit of the Gods anime movie has been revealed!

See more info here: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-11-23/summit-of-the-gods-animated-film-reveals-english-dub-cast/.179899

Final Pokemon Evolutions' Episodes Previewed

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 05:23:00 +0000

Final episodes of Pokemon Evolutions have been previewed.

Head over here to read more: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-11-23/pokemon-evolutions-anime-final-episodes-previewed-in-video/.179903

Pre-orders for $10,000 USD Golden PlayStation 5 Consoles Appear

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 00:44:00 +0000

There's been a lot of PS5 theme mock-ups and photos showing the new console in a myriad of different colors and styles across social media since the PS5's initial reveal. While seeing artists' take on themed PS5 consoles is nice to look at and imagine what owning one in said shade or pattern would look like, a real full-blown legitimate 24k Gold PlayStation 5 console has been announced.

There's even multiple versions to choose from. Aside from 24k Gold, there's also an 18k Gold and Platinum models each with their own astronomical price tags.

The Golden PS5's come from a collaboration between Truly Exquisite and Sony, you can check out the official collab page here.

The prices for these incredible golden new PlayStation consoles are as followed, announced in pounds.

This translates in USD to:

24k Gold Digital PS5: $10,417.22

18k Rose Gold Digital PS5: $10,547.45

Platinum Digital PS5: $10,677.68

24k Gold Disc PS5: $10,547.45

18k Rose Gold Disc PS5: $10,677.68

Platinum Disc PS5: $10,807.91

PS5 Controller: $845.20

PS5 Headset: $519.62

Official pricing for regular PlayStation 5 consoles has not been officially released yet at the time of this writing, but many believe the information release for pricing and pre-orders is imminent. This information comes from several sources such as UK retailer, GAME, confirming the release to take place this week.

Pre-order PS5 Games now and help support RA:N and the Azure Infinitum community:

Want to get started on your PS5 collection today, or possibly order games from different regions from a trusted retailer while also supporting us? Visit Play-Asia today with this link!

The Legend of Heroes Series Continues With Not One But Two New Games On The Way

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 23:15:00 +0000

The Legend of Heroes Series continues onward as the next in the series, "The Legend of Heroes: Hajimari no Kiseki" is set to release in Japan on August 27 this year.

Here's the thing though, Hajimari no Kiseki isn't the only one on the way.

Nihon Falcom President Toshihiro Kondo revealed recently during the Famitsu x Game no Dengeki Summer 2020 Live Stream Fes, that the next entry will feature a new setting from Hajimari no Kiseki, and wont just be a "Hajimari no Kiseki II".

Kondo also revealed that the entry to follow Hajimari no Kiseki also will fall onto the Trails side of the series.

Here's a nifty trailer which shows some of the protagonists of the next entry below:

source

Want to check out the rest of the franchise and also support us? See PlayAsia's line-up by clicking here.

Return Of The Kazu

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Fri, 26 Jun 2020 20:39:00 +0000

Hey everyone! Things went on an unintentional hiatus here for the last month after RA:N had kicked off once again, and I want to let everyone know I'll be returning to active posting soon!

This has been a pretty crazy year so far and has presented its own challenges for many, including me. I've been around in other corners of the net, sharing on social media and updating here and there on sites like Twitter. Presently I am most involved/visible among our community, Azure Infinitum, which has a lot going on right now. Azure has become an incredibly big undertaking as we work to build the best FFXIV community we can while securing its future as a larger entity and brand, and building the foundations to do so has taken time and effort.

I just want to say that I really appreciate everyone who's continued to stick by me over the years and check out all of my work across all the platforms and brands I am involved in. You've stuck by me through multiple crisis in life and scenarios that have taken me away for periods of time, but one thing remains- I'm still standing and working hard.

A lot of what I do on a regular basis is time consuming, and balancing work and leading communities, along with home life, can be challenging, but its all worth it to me.

The goal of RA:N ever since it was even just my personal blog as Run Around Kazu, has always been to inform and entertain while carrying you along my journey in life, and presenting what I call Visual Culture- something that touches and improves/adds to people's lives.

Whether I'm building or managing communities, working in the industry, promoting and building live events, sharing my passions, or sharing news, I will always remain dedicated to my efforts and arenas I'm involved in, and always remain grateful.

With all that being said, please look forward to my posts here on RA:N, your portal to visual culture, and my way of sharing awesome things with you.

If you noticed over on YouTube I've started my own solo podcast that was initially a test that I may continue. Azure Podcast had a new episode but took an immediate hiatus due to scheduling dilemmas and will return shortly.

As always I've got a ton of irons in the fire with a lot of content coming to fruition and visibility soon!

Some upcoming plans of mine are to refresh my profile and life story that was on my About Page here, and touch up other areas of the site that are old- then its GO TIME in terms of releasing content here.

I love you all!

-Hikaru Kazushime

Shokugeki no Soma aka Food Wars! Anime Returns July 2020

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Tue, 12 May 2020 20:23:00 +0000

Rumors have been circling about when the new season for Shokugeki no Souma would begin after being delayed thanks to COVID-19 complications and recent announcements that the series would return in May. The official Twitter account for the series tweeted on May 12th that the series would return to air in July of this year.

【Important Announcement】
Due to the effect of the spread of COVID-19, further broadcast of the fifth plate will be postponed till July 2020.
Further information will be announced as soon as the new date is fixed.
We apologize for the inconvenience.#shokugeki_anime https://t.co/xUDpHfyGRt
— 『食戟のソーマ』TVアニメ公式 (@shokugeki_anime) May 12, 2020

Note that the english announcement mentions July, but the Japanese portion goes further into depth mentioning the broadcast to take place in or after July.

Are you looking forward to the series' return?

Trails of Cold Steel IV Shows Off New Trailer

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Tue, 12 May 2020 18:29:00 +0000

The latest entry in respected JRPG series "The Legend of Heroes" continues with The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV which comes this Fall to PS4 in Europe and North America, followed by a 2021 release on PC and Nintendo Switch.

Like other popular Japanese franchises such as Final Fantasy, Zelda, and Dragon Quest, this series has run since the early to mid 1980's.

The very first entry was "Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes" appearing in 1989 on NEC PC-8801, followed by other platforms later on.

When the first one released way back then, even though it was the first Legend of Heroes game, it was actually the sixth game in the Dragon Slayer series, also owned by Nihon Falcom and began in 1984.

It was published in the west for the TurboGrafx-CD PC Engine in December of 1992, and remained the only Legend of Heroes game released in North America until 2005's The Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion or Eiyū Densetsu IV Akai Shizuku (英雄伝説IV 朱紅い雫) was released on the PSP. Since then, the series remained a PSP JRPG staple for a while until the Trails of Cold Steel series began releasing on PS3 and Vita in 2015, followed by PS4 versions, and more.

Pre-order your copy today!

Azure Community Update 4.18.2020

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Sat, 18 Apr 2020 16:48:00 +0000

Good day everyone! I wanted to go over a list of coming updates to our Azure Infinitum Community that are coming soon.
There's some jumbo plans at work that are on the way to being complete and the whole party kicks off starting in May. I'm so excited, are you?

Below is a list of things that were announced or discussed at our monthly live panel that streams live straight from our core in Final Fantasy XIV Online, as well as some other additions and coming updates.

Last Saturday's live panel that we call Azure Grand Assembly, had a lot to talk about and we announced AZURE INFINITUM: RESURGENS CAERULEUM which is an ambitious new project with a trailer you can watch here.

Take a look at everything listed below, I've separated each update into categories that fit which parts of the community that they correspond to. Cheers! -Reika

There's never been a better time to join or become an Azure Infinitum member.
The next threshold arrives May 1st.

[Community-Wide]

AZURE INFINITUM: RESURGENS CAERULEUM

-An ambitious new project announced on Saturday, April 11th, 2020. It is a compilation of large updates to the Azure Infinitum community and associated services, social media, and more, in a great effort to take a step into the next grand threshold as a community, give ourselves fresh coats of paint, and launch a limit break of success that will inspire a greater level of activity, pave the way toward the future, and begin to establish Azure Infinitum as a gaming clan community while fleshing out our brand and reach.

-This project's main features includes an all-new Azure Portal Website, a refreshed Azure Community Site (made from the present Shivtr site), more active updates across our social media, establishment of Azure Wings (branches for organized content play sessions in other games as Azure Infinitum), the return of the Azure Infinitum Podcast, and more.

Azure Wings

-Our new name for Azure Branches, and will become established 'mini-guilds' in games outside of our core in FFXIV Online. Azure Wings will be lead by appointed Wing Commanders who will host weekly content or "Play-Sessions" to create community group activities. Been wanting to slay a hard boss in said game but can't get bodies? Azure Wings may be for you if we establish a Wing in said game.
Azure Universe is also another form of grouping outside of FFXIV, explained below.

-Currently our Monster Hunter World Azure Wing is on-hiatus until a new Wing Commander is appointed.

-Azure Wings will be chosen slowly and managed carefully, do not expect there to be many at first. Our goal is to start small with one or two and see where things go. Some Wings may be adaptable if they are a part of a franchise (Take Call of Duty or Battlefield for example) and can jump to the next game to begin activity in it as they release.

Wing Commander

-A new sub-rank that will be a role/rank/title for those who lead Azure Wings. Wing Commanders will be listed on the new Official Azure Wings Page on the new Portal Site.

-Wing Commanders will lead Wings, guide their direction, create events, host play sessions, and recruit for their Wings. They will be appointed community members who will be given authority over our official ventures into other worlds.

Sub-Ranks

-Like Wing Commander, or the name of a Wing a member is in, such as MHW Member, will be added to a member's Discord Role and Website Description/Rank showing they are a Wing Commander, or member of said Wing.

-Wing Commanders are only listed outside of FFXIV, and will only be named Wing Commanders in a non-FFXIV game if said game allows for a custom title.

-Wing Commanders specifically will be listed on the new Official Azure Wings Page on the new Portal Site.

Universal Ranks

-All basic ranks, such as Member, Scout, Scout Captain, Lieutenant, General will be universal ranks that hold the same level of membership and authority across our network and community.

-The all new Azure Infinitum Rules & Guidelines Charter has been written to universally cover the community, as well as listing any specifics for FFXIV, Azure Services, and will be updated slowly over time with any new guidelines if needed to correspond to future new features, Wings, or other projects by Azure. Universal Ranks and Rules assures order and organization across our community, whether in our forums, core games, Wings, Universe, Services, and more.

-In the case of Azure Wings and Azure Universe groups, Council ranks will remain in authority throughout our community, but will take a more background role in Wings and Universe content, unless needed to act or step-in as a Council member. Wing Commanders and Universe member organizers shouldn't worry about high ranks that attend their events imposing on them, unless of course there are serious issues that require a higher authority rank. Council ranks will be informed of their specific jurisdictions in Wings and Universe content.

Azure Universe

-Our upcoming tool to help our members provide a list of games they currently regularly play that are not games supported by Azure Wings.

-Universe will only be lightly overseen by leadership, giving members most of the reigns to list what they play and how to group with them. If a member regularly plays a certain game with clan or guild features and there is no Azure Wing for that title, a member can list it on Azure Universe and use our Services like Discord and others to let people know where they can join them, organizing their own events or simple play sessions. Even in games without clan or guild features, members will be recommended to squad up using Azure Universe.

-If members create a regularly active squad, clan, or guild in another game, they may petition it to become an Official Azure Wing, upon which they may request to be made a Wing Commander to begin leading official weekly activity for Azure Infinitum. This creates a lot of possibility to help us grow our reach as a community, and let those leading the charge into other areas grow in their position in Azure.
This may also lead to further future endeavors.

-The coming Azure Universe page will allow members of the community to submit simple details, including their name in our community, any other usernames like PSN Profiles, Gamertags, Steam Names, Nintendo Friend Codes, or other ways, and names of titles they regularly play, with options to list short messages like "Looking for Group in..." etc.

-Guilds/Clans/Squads/etc made within Azure Universe using the Azure name should also be submitted to be listed on the Azure Universe page.
This will only help you achieve more activity in your efforts to bring people together.

Supporting Azure Infinitum Officially With Clan-Tags

Along with Azure Wings, Azure Universe, and our FFXIV Core, members of our community may use certain tags or bracketed clan titles in other games or places online to represent us regardless of their affiliation or rank within the community, such as AZURE, AZUR, Azure, or others that may be developed depending on certain platforms, games, and limitations. Some places only allow for a 4-character clan-tag, some are all capitals or lowercase, some are 5-characters, it can vary.

-Places that allow descriptions such as player or character profiles should mention azureinfinitum.com if using our tag if possible. We know that the word "Azure" is semi-popular, so there may be some instances that we'll have to get creative- so in that case, hopefully we can list some further info that differentiates us from others also using Azure in their title.

-These tags and our url may be used across social media and other places in profile names, descriptions, and more, showing your affiliation and support of Azure Infinitum. The more support and unity we can get, the better, and it shows to all who see us that we are an active, organized, and unified community. This can lead to much more discovery of our community by others and help Azure grow.

FFXIV CORE

A new term for the core of our community which stems from Final Fantasy XIV Online where we've been established for nearly 6 years as one of the top ranked worldwide communities. Our FFXIV Free Company will always remain a center of importance for Azure Infinitum and will cease to be supported. Currently many plans are underway to infuse our FC with a surge of activity and growth, flying higher than ever before very soon.

Azure Services

Azure Services is the new official term for the services we provide that is managed by Kazushime Hikaru/Reika Fujishima, the Azure Council, or appointed Wing Commanders or other officially appointed aids, whether Social Media Pages, Linkshells in FFXIV, our Steam Group and PSN Community, our Discord, our Websites, but not our Wings, Universe Groups, or FFXIV Core.

[Current Azure Website]

http://azureinfinitum.com

-Our current site will become unavailable in different doses over the next 13 days from April 17th through May 1st due to many back and front end work being performed to transform it into what will be our new Community Site.
This site will be under a different domain eventually, and will be linked to from the all-new Azure Infinitum website which (http://azureinfinitum.com) will point to around launch on 5.1.2020.

-All accounts will be automatically transferred over to the new community portal hosted here on a new major update to our shivtr site where we will continue to host community content and information regarding activity across our community.

-All Azure Alumnus and Azure Members will soon be updated to a universal Azure Members rank, which members of our future Azure Wings (branches of Azure in other games) will also gain when joining our community.

Those in our FFXIV community will find familiarity while also experiencing something new, and those new to Azure Infinitum coming from other sources will find a home there that wont be just FFXIV based.

-Our current Rules Page on this site will soon be updated to reflect our re-written and updated set of organized guidelines as our new Azure Infinitum Rules & Guidelines Charter. Most are not 'new' just painstakingly freshly written to fit our current day community and organization.

[New Azure Portal Website]

A New Home For Everything Azure Infinitum

One of the biggest parts of stepping into our next threshold is developing a portal or home page for everything Azure Infinitum. This is vital to giving a great example of the breadth of our community to those who visit, while providing pages and resources to help discover everything Azure has to offer. And it launches May 1st.

Revamped News

A system of latest news updates, featured posts, event announcements, content updates- and many other items, will now be displayed in organized sets of thumbnails on the home page.

Azure Days Page

-Our quarterly celebratory weekend event, Azure Day Weekend, now finds a home on an all-new Azure Day page! This page will feature the latest information regarding the next Azure Day event for both regular or anniversary Azure Day Weekends, Summer Festival, and Seasonal Azure Days. These events take place in our FFXIV Core, but there are plans to expand it across the community in other forms eventually. These ideas include expanding Azure Day celebratory events into Azure Wings and online contests across Azure Services. Stay tuned for more information on this.

-The Azure Day Weekend May 2020 Program Guide will be live upon the launch of the new Portal Website, complete with event details and information for the grand celebration taking place across May 30th and 31st.

Azure Infinitum Podcast

-Returning for Episode 3 and beyond, Azure Podcast's returning episode will be hosted on the coming Azure Infinitum Podcast Page which will have information about each episode, hosts, and the episodes themselves linked from the RA:N YouTube where they'll be hosted.

-Azure Infinitum Podcast started as a test-run around 1 year ago but went on hiatus.
We're happy to announce its return and that it will stay regular going forward with new episodes.

-Azure Infinitum Podcast will be lead by Kazushime Hikaru/Reika Fujishima, selected Council members, with the possibility of featuring other community members over time. Topics discussed will go over the latest Azure Infinitum community updates, followed by featured topics discussing FFXIV, other games, and random hilarity we hope to manifest!

Azure Wings Page

-As mentioned above about Azure Wings, a page detailing individual Wings that are active or in the works will be listed, along with any Wing Commanders and their info, and details regarding Wing events, games, and content.

Azure Universe Page

-As mentioned above about the Azure Universe feature coming with the new site, will be a directory of names submitted by our members, mostly from the official Azure Universe thread from our community forums on our new community site.

-Details regarding who's looking to do what, or who plays what, and what groups may have formed whether large or small, with plenty of information on how to represent Azure even if you're completely alone- will all be listed here.

Social Feeds

-Not everyone has social media, and not everyone knows about all of ours. New feeds displaying posts from across our Azure Infinitum community and some from Run Around:Network will display on the new site. Check out our section below about Azure Services to get an idea what these feeds will feature.

About Page

-A new page about Azure Infinitum will be present at the launch of our new site.
This page will begin with a perfect introduction to Azure Infinitum as a community and as a brand. Simple details and descriptions will describe all of our community features.

-An Azure Timeline Chart will give a visual look at each year of our community, certain growths, improvements, and more will be listed showing how far we've come, when certain events or themes began, and more.

-An Azure History section will feature a telling of our incredible story of innovation, endurance, and teamwork starting from humble beginnings and leading towards success and unforgettable moments.

-Azure Lore that has become a large part of our formalities, customs, and back-stories as a community, including some role-play lore and some very real lore that personifies and binds us together both aesthetically and honorably will have a section here as well. Such examples include how we got our name and the philosophy behind it, why blue and gold, what our crest means, the different eras of Azure and how they impacted our success, and more.

Events Page

-A page detailing each current event in Azure Infinitum will be listed with times, details, and prerequisites for joining in.

How to Join Page

-A page detailing how to join Azure Infinitum will be listed that covers the very basics of how anyone can get started in our community. This may be very helpful for our Scouts or those bringing friends or loved ones to Azure Infinitum.

Azure Calendar Page

-A page hosting a new calendar will be listed. This calendar will most likely utilize Google Calendar and can be subscribed to/followed. The new calendar will list all of our FFXIV Core and Wing events, and any official events elsewhere.

Support and Leadership Page

A page listing members of our Support and Leadership ranks will be listed, and will provide small personal bios for each, creating a personal reference of who our Support and Leadership members are.

Other Features

-A feed or featured widget will display content on our home page from streamers in our community who have submitted their details on an official thread for streamers that will be present on our new Community Site.

-A feed or featured widget will display content from content creators or influencers in our community who may wish to share their content, blogs, articles, feeds, videos, and creations and gain more exposure by having their work show on our home page. Details can be submitted via an official thread on our new Community Site.

-Tweets from members in our community who submit their Twitter handles via an official thread on our new Community Site will have a special section.

-As Azure is a brand of Run Around:Network and our community, some RA:N content will also be featured.

-A highly requested feature is an Azure Shop. There are plans currently underway to create Azure Infinitum merchandise, which may range from but is not limited to- notebooks, cups & mugs, t-shirts, accessories, phone cases, and more. The Azure Shop may not be available upon launch, but the option will be listed on the site's navigation.

-An Azure Services directory of all our optional services will be listed on its own page, with descriptions of each. This includes all of our social media and in-game services like Linkshells in FFXIV and more, plus our hubs like our PSN Communities and Steam Group, Discord, and whatever else we add in the future.

-A donation system will be set up to support the community and the needs behind running it, providing more possible physical merch for contests & giveaways, and to support hosting costs & fund future projects.

-Some affiliate ads from our network and links will also be installed. Items sold through these affiliates also help Azure Infinitum and RA:N.

-A page discussing How To Become A Partner will be listed with details on officially Allying with Azure Infinitum for allies from our FFXIV CORE, Azure Wings, and beyond.

-A Contact Page will be listed, which will detail several ways about how to get in touch with community leaders or support if needed.

-The new site is being developed with what is called Responsive Coding. This means it is adaptable to any device, with special mobile and web versions appearing naturally depending on window-size or which device accesses it.

-An Art Gallery will be listed, which will host a variety of art submissions and commissions from illustrators and members over the years, and will eventually begin to feature new entries.

[New Community Website]

A Refreshed Home For Azure Forums, Community Details, Organization, & More!

-An all-new version of our Shivtr-based website will release under a new url announced at the launch of our new Portal Site, as well as linked to it, at the beginning of our Resurgens Caeruleum Project starting May 1st. Many features will be removed, added, or repurposed. The Community Site will fit Azure Infinitum as a whole, and will be user friendly and pleasing to those inside and outside our FFXIV CORE, from Wings, Universe, visitors from RA:N, and more.

Azure Infinitum Rules & Guidelines Charter

-As mentioned above in this post, our Rules & Guidelines Charter will find a new home on this site. It has been lovingly gone over and rewritten to better communicate our General Rules and for the length to be less intimidating to read.

-The Charter will now focus on our General Rules, and will lead into Guidelines that cover a wide range of universal behavior and etiquette that we expect in our community.
Following the General Rules, will be further guidelines that separate from 'rules' and focus more on 'here's how this works, here's how that works' listing protocol and more. This will help folks be able to sort out what's most important to know versus learning how the workshop works in FFXIV mixed into important necessary guidelines people need to know first.

-Some specific guidelines for Azure Services, Wings, Universe, or FFXIV will have tags that can be easily referenced.

All-New Azure Infinitum Forums

-The Azure Infinitum Forums will be getting an overhaul, with very few threads being kept around from the distant past that offer no value and takes up space on our server.

-The Forum sections and sub forums will be massively revamped while also becoming more simplified. The old forums were created years ago before we had Discord, and it is no longer necessary for us to have as many sections that are dedicated to certain topics.

-Forum activity did slow some when we launched our Discord, but they still provide a handy place to host threads for contests, have other types of discussions that wont get as buried as Discord conversations, use threads for filing certain information, create threads for certain events, and have places where we can all host certain details that we can link to.

-There's still a lot of use for our Forums, and the key is to use Discord and our Forums in harmony in ways that complement the two.

-The new Azure Forums will be a major location that will be recommended for streamers, content creators, influencers, artists, and those with talents & more to share their content and make threads in supporting areas that will be provided. Those who want to feature their feeds or content on our home page Portal Site will also be able to submit details in special threads. Simple associated channels will also be provided on our Discord.

-Azure Universe and some Wing events and content will also be recommended to utilize the uses of threads on our forums for helping organize, discuss, and share their events. Simple associated channels will also be provided on our Discord.

Community Event Calendar

-The Event Calendar on our Community Site will be similar to the old one that we've always had. Its purpose will now specifically be to list simple entries that members can post regarding Azure Universe groups, Wing events, things like in-game weddings, and more. Official Events such as FFXIV CORE events will still be listed, but our FC Action/Buff Schedule from XIV will be moved elsewhere to its own page.

Official FFXIV CORE FC Action/Buff Schedule Page

-The official schedule for our Free Company Buffs in FFXIV will be listed on a special page, with names and detailed explanations of what our buffs do and why they are listed on different days of the week.

-Information on how and when we craft and operate our Grade III FC Actions/Buffs will also be listed.

Community Roster Overhaul

-A great overhaul of the current roster is planned to take place before the rebirth of our Community Site. This will see to certain community members' profiles being adjusted appropriately in rank or activity.

-The Azure Alumnus rank will be no more. We will now consider all who are registered on our website as Azure Members whether they are active or in-active in game, within one of our Wings, FFXIV Free Company, or elsewhere- so long as they are not banned or were removed for good reason.

-Scout Captain, Wing Commander, and General Ranks will be created, with some members being added to certain ranks respectively.

-Registering on our site and joining its roster will become the universal way of joining Azure Infinitum, and while not mandatory for those within our community to do so, there will be many benefits. These benefits include eligibility for Legacy Member status in our FFXIV CORE Free Company, ability to better utilize multiple community features, enter online contests and giveaways, and possibly even more benefits down the road.

New Design Aesthetic

The Community Site will display an entirely new design aesthetic matching the new Portal Site and representing Azure Infinitum's overall themes.
Because Shivtr's service's mobile theme is locked, the mobile version will not see much, if any, design differences, however, the full site can still be used on mobile devices by clicking "view web version" at the bottom of the mobile site.

Links, Resources, & More

-Sidebars will now display new helpful and informative links that correspond to Azure Services, Azure Wings, Azure Universe, RA:N, our new Portal Site, and websites & resources that are from properties we support, such as FFXIV, and future Azure Wing supported titles. The idea is to make it resourceful, represent the community, and also- fun!

-Some community content may also be displayed, such as certain feeds submitted by members, or other content generated by our community.

-Affiliate Ads will be displayed that sell products from trusted retailers that when purchased, supports the operation of the community and may help fund future projects and merchandise.

-Upcoming Member Birthdays will continue to be displayed.

-Links to threads that will host certain compilations of in-game or game-related submitted content, kind messages, videos, or stories, such as Message Book Archives or our Azure Yearbook Channel, will be created and reorganized and saved in special threads. We'd like to clear our Message Book in FFXIV soon as well as our Yearbook Discord channel so new entries can take place too. This may not be ready upon launch.

[RA:N]

-Run Around:Network's main site will resume once more in posting content- currently on hiatus due to issues presented by the CV-19 Pandemic and also due to the amount of work being put into the Azure Infinitum: Resurgens Caeruleum Project as a whole.

-Content related to Azure Infinitum will completely have a home on the new Portal and Community Sites, however RA:N will continue to report on some Azure activity as well, with it being our beloved community brand. As time passes, some editorials, retrospectives, special works, or news that may relate to Azure will be posted under a new Azure tag and section that will appear in the near future on this site.

-Feeds and news from Azure will also show up on special sections on RA:N that will appear in the near future on this site.

-An official link to the Azure Infinitum Portal Site will be also appear in the future on this site.

[FFXIV]

Azure Day

-Azure Day May 2020 takes place May 30th and 31st.

Activity Policy

-Our Activity Policy which normally discharges members who've arrived at 120 days straight offline, has been increased to 180 days or roughly 6 months at this time. This is mostly due to the CV-19 Pandemic and lack of some knowledge on the whereabouts or well-being of individual members who may have suddenly become inactive. All members discharged for excessive inactivity are welcome to return to Azure Infnitum Free Company as a part of our 3-join policy.
We hope that the extra months provided may assist in seeing a return of some members, but we cannot hold inactive space forever due to imbalances it creates in our active model.
Anyone is welcome to comment in our Discord's Absence Notifications channel to keep in touch and let us know what's up. Most of the time we make acceptions toward our 3-join policy as long as there's been communication.

Return of Our Ongoing Recruitment Drive & Other Recruitment Measures

-Careful Recruitment and Recruitment Drives will continue after May 1st to further increase activity and welcome fresh membership into Azure under our new coats of paint across the community and under our fresh Rules Charter.

-Careful Recruitment is a method outlined by Reika Fujishima that is practiced to find higher percentages of quality new members for the community at a slower pace.

-Recruitment Drives are bursts of discussions with players about Azure Infinitum, where Careful Recruitment procedure is used to help ensure new batches of recruits are well informed and spoken to about Azure policies. From our data, these drives have higher percentages of recruiting newer players who will grow into their journey in FFXIV alongside Azure, and other veterans we look for in hopes of adding to our overall core- the list of most active members.

-We believe that a community unable to welcome in fresh faces to the community and do so with care and consistency is one that is fated to grow stale and diminish. We also believe that in order to find more who'll become part of our core, we have to find them first. Activity is all over the place in this time of CV-19, so there's even better reason to welcome in new waves of active players who'll be great fits for our community.

-As always, we consider those who're already in the community first when welcoming new members into it, especially in batch recruitment like Recruitment Drives. We will strive more than ever before to put in extra effort to build new generations of active players as time goes forward, ones set to last and also mesh well with our present membership, to the very best of our ability. This ensures our members we will always grow, adapt, and have available personalities to grow and play with.

-Players of various time zones will be searched for in order to further strengthen our activity that is available at different times of day, such as strengthening our early morning and late night crowds.

Company Chest

-Company Chest tabs 4 and 5 has been unlocked, along with the ability to store more Company Actions/Buffs. Chest tab 5 is now used for Azure Council needs which is the management of materials for buff/prize/ship part creation. Anyone can deposit prize donations to tab 5 which will be added to the Azure Prize Pool.

-Materia of grades IV through VIII, as well as grade IV through VIII DoL/DoH materia is now allowed in Tabs 2-3 of our Company Chest. Old discontinued main stat materia is still prohibited.

Weekly Events

-Memoria Misera Extreme Learning and Progression Parties begin April 17th and will begin grouping on the FC Estate Lawn every Friday at 8:30p ET/5:30p PT.

-Friday Morning Classics has been post-poned until further notice. This event ran from the last quarter of 2019 through to just a few weeks ago, as a weekly event spearheaded by Pennadrin Stormhelm, and acted as a weekly clear session of mostly older raid content from past expansions.

-Azure Eden Tuesdays will continue until the launch of Patch 5.3. This event runs weekly Eden's Verse normal raid clears every Tuesday at 8:30p ET/5:30p PT.

-Wondrous Wednesdays: After Dark Edition, is now listed as Wondrous Wednesday Nights.

-Treasure Thursdays Morning Maps events are still on hiatus.

-With the launch of Patch.5.3, Azure Eden Tuesdays will go on hiatus until the next set of Eden raids releases in Patch 5.4 (estimated to be toward mid-Fall 2020 or the end of the year.), and a new version of a favorite Azure event will take its place, Azure 24-Man Tuesdays! This new event will run at the same time, and will run both The Copied Factory and the new Nier-themed raid that is expected to release in 5.3. 24-Man Fridays will not be returning for the foreseeable future, so long as we have Memoria Misera, or any relic-themed trial hosted as Friday's main event.

-Monstrous Mondays will continue to run Cinder Drift Extreme learning and progression parties until Patch 5.3 launches.

Organization

-Pennadrin Stormhelm has been promoted to Lieutenant rank and has joined The Azure Council.

-A number of other promotions in our Scout & Support Team have been made. It is planned that this team will grow much more in the coming month as we work to further strengthen our team as we grow, and to continue to build a stronger foundation for our future as a community.

-Scout Captain Trials will be added alongside applications that appear on our new Community Site in May. These trials will begin once an application is approved, which will see a member of Member or Scout rank promoted immediately to Scout Captain as a trial. During this trial, the S.Captain will be taught event protocol, leadership ethics and strategies, and will be guided with the purpose of joining the Lieutenant ranks in the lower Azure Council. This is an attempt of ours to discover who among our community may have prior officer or leadership experience, and/or who may be cut out to be a great fit among Azure Leadership- which can lead to many possibilities, and is among the highest honor in supporting our community!
If successful, we will be able to expedite the rate in which we promote those who've got enough under the belt to be ready as an entry-level Lt. we can further mold and guide. More people in our Council means more available hosts, more available authority if needed, more assistance to the Council and Scouts as a team which helps everyone, and more available leaders for our community members overall.

-Donations for Azure Day Weekend May 2020 are being accepted! You can trade any minions, glamour, materials, orch. rolls, gear, mounts, & more to any Council rank (Lt., or Reika), or deposit items into Tab 5 of the Company Chest. All items donated will be added to the Azure Prize Pool. Gil is also welcomed, as we usually have big gil prizes like 1 million gil Golden Flash Raffles, participation bonuses, and many other gil prizes.

Alt Registration

-Registration for Alt Characters will return as of May 1st via a new Discord channel which will allow us to more easily reference our member's alt characters for management needs. This is necessary also for problem solving. If a member has no access to a PC or mobile device to be able to use Discord, a Council Member will post in the channel for them. Alt names and their owners in the channel will be able to be referenced by all members. Alts shouldn't be used in complete secrecy, we find that potentially destructive given possible situations and also somewhat shady.

-Normally, we have required our members to post their main and alt's names on our current Alt Registration Thread at our current site. We allow 1 main and 1 alt per member in our community. Alts will be discharged if too inactive and not registered, or if they show little use/activity and our in-game roster caps. We welcome members to bring their alt character to Azure Infinitum, it may help you and us more for it to be here, but definitely consider using it semi-regularly should you decide for it to take up a spot on our roster.

[Azure Services/Social Media]

FFXIV Linkshells

-Azure Hunters and Azure Industry Linkshells will receive an eventual boost as work harder to find more LS members.

-Industry Leaders will be appointed among the Industry Linkshell, and will be a new role added on Discord where it can be tagged. This role can be requested any time, but will only be granted to those with Crafters and Gatherers at the current level cap, and who seem to know their stuff! We hope Industry Leaders can be points of support for members looking for tips, mentoring, or guidance on DoL/DoH activity in FFXIV, and also potentially become an aid to the free company overall in this way and more.
Industry Leaders in the LS will not be marked as Leaders in the LS.
If this role has significant impact on the community, it may be considered to become an official company rank.

FFXIV Fellowships

-A major roster and content cleanse is coming to the current Azure Info Board & Recruitment Fellowships.

-Since February, the usage of our fellowships has gone on-hiatus. Fellowship activity will resume in May, with updated event information and special notices being posted more often in the Azure Info Board fellowship.

-Fellowship Invites will return in May, but will be randomly given out as members and leaders are online at the same time. Keep in mind there is still a glitch, when we invite sometimes it doesn't go through. All members will receive a one-time invite. Any member may request an invite as well.

Twitter

-The Azure Infinitum Twitter Account at @AzureInfinitum will continue to share all news related to Azure, but may begin featuring content from Square Enix franchises, Run Around:Network, Azure Wings and content related to Wing-related games.

Instagram

-The Azure Infinitum Instagram Account at @azure_infinitum will continue sharing randomly selected content from our Discord's FFXIV Screenshots, but will begin to include randomly selected content from the non-FFXIV Screenshots channel as well, especially content from Azure Wings in the near future.

Facebook Group

-The Azure Infinitum Facebook Group will begin allowing non-FFXIV members to join, with some features or descriptions to be rewritten to better adapt Azure Infinitum as a community that is poised to eventually grow as a community overall and not just bound to FFXIV content.

Facebook Page

-The Azure Infinitum Official Facebook Page at facebook.com/AzureInfinitum will continue sharing content and news related to Azure Infinitum, with some additions from RA:N, Azure Wings content and updates from Wing-related games.

-Facebook Azure Contests w/prizes and giveaways are planned to take place in the near future, stay tuned!

Tumblr

-Azure Infinitum's Tumblr will return in activity soon, with the focus of becoming another avenue where galleries of Azure Infinitum media can be posted, along with Tumblr-specific shared content that relates to supported media & more.

PSN Community

-Just recently the PSN Community App for mobile devices was discontinued. This has thrown a wrench into our plans to utilize the Azure PSN Community as a way to quickly share content from our Instagram and other media, as well as other strategies to uphold an active space for Azure on our member's PlayStation 4 consoles.
The PSN Community for Azure will remain, but may receive significantly less updates. We encourage you to help keep things alive and active by continuing to share you PlayStation screenshots from your screenshot gallery, host PSN parties, and make use of any communication or grouping capability with our PSN roster that is there.

-Due to the limit of available invitations for listed Events, we will mostly cease to use the Event feature in the PSN Community.

-We encourage those who haven't joined to do so if you own a PlayStation 4! Our PSN Community took a big blow last year when an Ex-Leader who owned the original deleted it out of spite, causing close to 150 community members to lose some contact and activity over PlayStation Network (not everyone has everyone's ID's memorized or friended), and we've been working to grow it again since. It could really use more love from the community!

Steam Group

-Somehow one of our lesser used features is our Steam Group, those who own Steam should consider joining our Group! There are plans to post notices, our podcast episodes, create discussions for PC members, and content suited for Azure Wings and Azure Universe that are PC-focused!

[Azure Wings]

Monster Hunter World PS4 Wing

-Our Monster Hunter World PS4 Wing is still on a hiatus until a new Wing Commander or two can be appointed and activity is restarted. A poor decision to change our Hunt-A-Thons to Monday mornings effectively killed activity and recruitment ended upon its hiatus. This is Azure's very first Wing (previously called Branch), and started running Azure Hunt-A-Thons in 2018 and early 2019 first, then was rebooted in August 2019 and ran until February 2020 when it went into hiatus.

-MHW is full of content and is very viable for more Azure activity and events. At its peak we were running several full parties and quickly catching people up to the Iceborne expansion & began holding Iceborne hunt events alongside parties that assisted new players as well.

-This Wing will be scheduled to be revived as soon as possible, keep an eye out for any updates!

Call of Duty Wing

-An Azure Wing supporting the Call of Duty franchise starting with Modern Warfare was being planned, but has since been cancelled due to separation of interested leading parties. This Wing was meant to be our first adaptable one that would be positioned to grow into each new release in the franchise. This may still be possible in the future, and like with all Wing propositions, this one will certainly remain at a higher viability should future options arrive.

Wing Propositions and New Wing Development

-Want to help Azure take charge into the unknown, or, are you willing to help carry the Azure Crest and banners forward by leading that charge? Visit the all-new Azure Wings Page on our new site this May and read which Wings can use support, members, or Wing Commanders to help host official Azure Play-Sessions, or recruit for us in other games!
The Azure Wings official proposition thread on our new community site will be the forge that ignites the creation of future Azure Wings in viable locations across cyberspace! So don't forget to post there as well if you've got ideas for places Azure can grow!

[Discord]

Updates & New Channels

-A number of updates, changes, and new channels will be added some time before the May 1st and 2nd launch of the Azure Infinitum: Resurgens Caeruleum Project. Some lesser active channels may be removed or compiled, and a few new ones to better categorize Azure Gaming, Wings, Universe, and more will be added or adjusted. Other new channels on the way is a Request Help channel, and a channel to post Alt character names for Alt Registration and reference.

Changes to Azure Discord Membership

-Starting toward the end of this month, April 2020, the Information channel in our Discord will be adjusted to more clearly explain how to obtain member role, and a link to a compilation of information displaying links to our sites, services, & more will be displayed.

-As of May 1st, new members to Azure's Discord may only obtain one of our member roles (such as Discord Member, FFXIV FC Member, MHW WING Member, Allied Member) after they have registered on Azure Infinitum's new community website.

-Pruning of inactive members has now been heavily lessened as our Discord is no longer closed to just Azure Infinitum's active roster, on-vacation, or allied members from FFXIV.

-New roles we consider Sub-Roles will be added or adjusted: Wing Commander, MHW WING Member, and Industry Leader.

Bots

-We will continue to use Ser Aymeric and may reactivate the level-up system which we saw positive results using, which inspires more people to chat more often.
Higher level members on Discord may qualify for future contest entries, perks, and promotions that are in development now.

-Research is under way to add an amount of new bots to assist with adding more features to our Discord. Stay tuned for more information on this. They may or may not be implemented by May.

Here's Why Re:ZERO Is Getting Delayed Until Summer

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 22:26:00 +0000

April was initially intended to be the release month for the highly anticipated second anime season of isekai titan, Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-.

Over the last day there's been a lot of talk about why the anime's staff have chosen to delay it, and you can probably guess why.
The staff has revealed that the production of the second season of the hit show has suffered difficulties thanks to the worldwide problems caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus.

They went on to say that it was a "big effect" on the second season's overall production and that they have chosen to pick a completely new date and timeframe to begin airing the anime, with more plans to announce the channels it will air on, as well as what timeslots the anime will have.

Its doubtful that the "big effect" on production couldn't have been upon the majority of the creation process- the COVID-19 coronavirus issues only sprung up pretty recently.
Its assumed for now that the staff is referring to the finalizing of quality checks, last minute touch ups or additions to music or animation, planning with networks, merchandising, commercializing, talking with partners, and more.

Some fans might be assuming that there couldn't have been that big of an effect being that the anime was slated to air next month, but we need to think about how much work goes into all the final processes of making a hit show and airing it.
The last few months leading up to an anime's release are crucial, and these crucial steps now have more time afforded for them to be taken care of properly- unless things get worse and it gets delayed again.

The staff has said they are now looking at a Summer 2020 release for the second season to finally air, which will make over four years since its first season started.

Konomi Suzuki will be back with a new opening theme, and nonoc will also return for the season's ending theme. Both Suzuki and nonoc's CD singles of the opening and ending themes were scheduled to release in May, but have now been delayed as well to Fall.

Like Re:ZERO? Check out all of these great otaku needs here!

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Devs Admit Dead or Alive 6 Hair Color Microtransactions Were A Mistake

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 08:47:00 +0000

The fighting game franchise "Dead or Alive" was once a respected series that released many entries into the fighting genre of gaming that were serious contenders in the industry. While not totally not respected today, DOA has become nearly synonymous with having heavy doses of microtransactions or DLC.

DoA features a cast of memorable characters and a fighting style as a 3D fighter that helped set the bar for 3D fighting games today.
This sub-genre if you will, is still a major part of the fighting game scene but has a style that is somewhat opposed to the healthy other side of the fighting genre, with titles like 2D fighters like Street Fighter II, Guilty Gear, or BlazBlue.

Dead or Alive 5 specifically set an actual record for its absurdly high list of DLC, and it was considered for some years by the developers themselves that DoA5 would either be their last game, or the last for a while due to the long years of work they put in developing a titanic number of DLC.

It seems the developer's addiction to DLC and now microtransactions have only gotten worse, as the PS4 version of Dead or Alive 6 (released last year) created even more reasons to reach into your bank account- now to simply change a fighter's hair color.

Its a really roundabout process too. One must purchase a "premium ticket" for a dollar, then use it to change a character's hair color. Don't think it fits and want to change it back? Time to pay up some more.

Many fans have reached out to Tecmo Koei to let them know how they feel about this absurdity and they have responded a little, like with this tweet:

#DEADORALIVE6 #DOA6 pic.twitter.com/a6IvwCHRe2
— Official DEAD OR ALIVE Fighting Game (@DOATEC_OFFICIAL) March 7, 2020

Not really sure how it'll be fixed, but it does seem like the ball is rolling.

Microtransactions are pretty out of control these days, and unfortunately have invaded console gaming beyond mobile origins and far beyond that of just regular DLC.

Many have mixed thoughts about just how out of control microtransactions are, with many whales and others happy to flex how much they've spent- which feeds the problems by showing developers that schemes like this one will work. That is, unless enough people stop using microtransactions like these, and complain. Maybe.

Many despise gaming's decline into a microtransaction nightmare of half-made games and Games As A Service models, where you receive a product many feel should include everything the game should have upon purchase of the game, some going far enough to boycott titles they'd normally play or support.

Personally I support content heavy or story-driven DLCs, games that have a few character DLCs, maybe a few costumes or music DLCs. But these little microtransactions, and things like big packs of coins or energy in mobile games?

No way.

I feel like Dead or Alive 6 could have at least put a big pack of hair colors together and made them a pack for all characters for one DLC or microtransaction.

Overall, I still support Dead or Alive 6, and this isn't a feature that ruins it for me, but it doesn't make me happy to see. This game needs support, but it doesn't need players supporting features like these. I'm happy to see players supporting by voicing their concerns and I'm happy to see the devs listening at some level.
This situation so far does give me some minor hope that if we support games with microtransactions and work together to raise concerns over the really bad ones, that that support will go towards making positive changes regarding bad or rampant microtransactions in gaming at least.

Unfortunately at this point it does look like microtransactions are here to stay for the foreseeable future, but its going to take small movements like this and publishers or devs who listen, to guide and protect whatever could be in question from ridiculousness like Dead or Alive character hair color microtransactions, and things like the now old but infamous Elder Scrolls Oblivion horse armor DLCs.

What are your thoughts on the Dead or Alive 6 hair color microtransactions, or microtransactions in general? Let us know down below in the comments!

Support RA:N and purchase a copy of Dead or Alive 6 from our trusted affiliate, Play-Asia, or shop there today!

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COVID-19 Causes Hundreds Of Manga Volumes To Become Free

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 07:41:00 +0000

Health officials in Japan have warned and recommended that people stay inside or avoid crowded places. That's quite a hefty recommendation in a place like Japan where there's a strong amount of urban locations and populated environments from various entertainment and shopping districts to packed housing communities nearly everywhere you look in many cities.

Since the spread of the COVID-19 Coronavirus, schools in Japan have been closed and a handful of events have been cancelled or shut down for now.

Amidst all of the inconvenience, potential boredom, and concerns over the issues surrounding the situation, a legion of Japanese publishers of manga have teamed up to make hundreds of volumes of manga free to read online!

Some publishers haven't just made recent volumes or chapters of hit manga available either- they've released entire histories of their series or franchises available!

Japanese manga apps Dragon Zakura Note, Comic Days, Book Walker, and Manga Mee are offering chapters from Crayon Shin-chan, Sensei Kunshu, Dragon Zakura, Space Brothers, Hozuki's Coolheadedness, Mei-chan no Shitsuji, and The Gentleman's Alliance Cross.

Shogakukan Sunday Webly has made 11 different titles free-to-read set to releaase on certain days of the month, beginning with Kekkaishi, Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, and Hayate the Combat Butler, and then releasing Ranma 1/2, Psyche Mata Shite Mo, and Major on March 8th, followed by Miyuki, The Law of Ueki, and Ghost Sweeper Mikami on the 15th, and then finally Libera Revolution, and Ushio and Tora on the 22nd.

Other sites or services include about 70+ free versions, anthologies, and back issues from recent months from:

Weekly Shonen Sunday
Weekly Shonen Jump
Weekly Shonen Champion
Betsu Comi
Sho-Comi
Kokoro Ichiban
Kokoro Comic
Monthly Flowers
Petit Comic
LaLa
LaLa DX
Ciao Deluxe
Cheese!
Hana to Yume
Hana to Yume Shin

Many titles from the list just above can be found on stores online such as Manga Cross, Shogakukan e-Comic Store, Margaret Bookstore, Shonen Jump +, Sunday Webly, and Kokoro Online.

Having a massive list of free manga available doesn't take away the issues presented by the outbreak quarantines, but for folks in Japan there's this chance presented for fans of manga to catch up on many series or discover ones they haven't read before. Often as fans of our hobbies, delving into things we're passionate about can be a form of support to us during hard times or difficult days. The characters and situations presented in stories can often be inspiring or uplifting, or at the very least, entertaining.

Everyone on planet Earth is effected differently by different things, and for those who are in tough situations- or boring ones- thanks to Coronavirus, having some good material to sink into and enjoy during times like these can be even more supportive.

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A New Big Bleach Announcement Is Coming

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 05:35:00 +0000

Weekly Shonen Jump Magazine editors announced Friday that there will be a live stream presentation event online to make up for a cancelled event that was scheduled to take place at AnimeJapan 2020.
The event was called the "Bleach 20th Anniversary Project & Tite Kubo New Work Presentation", and was meant to be a stage presentation featuring a small handful of voice actors and talent involved in Bleach.

Bleach's creator Tite Kubo will unveil a 'New Work' along with Bleach's 20th Anniversary Project at AnimeJapan 2020, being held on March 21. Weekly Shonen Jump's Editor-in-Chief Hiroyuki Nakano will be at the stage presentation. pic.twitter.com/NM9zHCLOuz
— Weekly Shonen Jump (@WSJ_manga) January 27, 2020

AnimeJapan 2020 has been cancelled due to concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 Coronavirus, but that isn't stopping a coming big Bleach announcement that will be presenting the same or similar presentation anyways, via livestream on March 21st which will be presented in English and Japanese on the English Jump YouTube Channel, and Japanese Jump YouTube Channel.

Bleach was first released in 2001 in Weekly Shonen Jump and then ended in 2016. The franchise follows the story of a boy named Ichigo Kurosaki who obtains the powers of a Shinigami (Japanese gods of death) and an epic tale that flows through many sagas.

Bleach had mega success and became one of the most successful series of the shounen genre, up there with the likes of Dragon Ball, One Piece, Naruto, and more. The franchise spawned many video games, movies, stage plays, tons of merchandise, and more.

The event that was planned for AnimeJapan 2020 was set to have voice actors Masakazu Morita, Ryotaro Okiayu, the Editor-in-Chief of Shonen Jump Hiroyuki Nakano, and Yoshiyuki Hirai, a member of the America Zarigani comedy duo. Its not clear at this time if the live stream that was announced will still include the names mentioned above or in what form the announcements will take place.

Momoiro Reku Atelier Ryza Cosplay Photoshoot Gallery

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Wed, 04 Mar 2020 01:02:00 +0000

Cosplayer Momoiro Reku has released a set of lovely photos of her cosplaying Reisalin Stout, aka "Ryza" from the game "Atelier Ryza" which released last September in Japan, and in November in the west.
If you're a big Ryza fan like me, like Momoiro Reku's cosplay, or just like cute girls, then you'll enjoy this featured cosplay gallery! Personally I love the setting chosen for this photoshoot.

The foliage, lighting, and aesthetic decently match the game's light and colorful feel, and Reku's charm communicates a deal of Ryza's who is a pretty energetic and charming personality.

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Community News Roundup 1.2020

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 06:34:00 +0000

Our growing community and gaming clan, Azure Infinitum, recently held its monthly Azure Grand Assembly LIVE stream and in-game event on Sunday at its home base in Final Fantasy XIV.

This was the first assembly to kick off the year and had a lot to announce.

Here is the official news roundup from the assembly of what was announced and talked about as well as some recent Azure news all listed below:

Azure Infinitum FFXIV Events

Monstrous Mondays will be hosting weekly Hades Ex groups for learning and potential clears every Monday w/grouping beginning at 7:30p ET/4:30p PT On occasion that those showing up have clears or when attendance varies the event may pull a wild card and run mount farms or other trials for those in attendance based on the decision of the host.

Tuesday's Eureka 2nd Invasion event has become an official weekly event hosted by Lt. Shalindra Quartztail and supporting ranks.

Eureka 2nd Invasion's event date and time (Every Tuesday beginning around 10:00p ET/7:00p PT) will not be effected by the return of Azure Eden Tuesdays in February when FFXIV Patch 5.2 Launches.

Treasure Thursdays will now host a morning and an afternoon/early evening event, with the mornings grouping at 9a ET/6a PT with Lt.s Saiori and Kita Fukurokuju, and the afternoon evening run that begins grouping at 6:30p ET/3:30p PT will continue to be supported by Captains and higher ranks supporting.

Friday Morning Classics has now run over one full month and has been running classic raid clears and classic savage mount farms for many members every Friday morning at 11:30a ET/8:30a PT. Check with Scout Pennadrin via in-game or on our discord to find out what each week holds as raids will vary per week.

24-Man Fridays: The Copied Factory will continue until the last Friday before Patch 5.2. It is assumed that this will be Friday, February 7th or 14th.

It will now be officially presented and requested at the start of each 24-Man Fridays events that all parties hold their Limit Breaks until an event host makes an official call for them to be used, except in the situation that a party is taking heavy losses and a healer uses the Limit Break.

Azure 24-Man Fridays participants on our discord server will be permitted to join individual channels for Party A, B, and C to communicate effectively during the Hobbes boss fight in The Copied Factory.

We ask that everyone regroups for continued team communication following Hobbes defeat.

Event Feedback or Discussion is welcomed post-event as well as in the form of a direct message to FC Lts or higher.

Azure's Spring 2020 Room Decor Contest was announced to take place, and will take place around April. This contest will include decorating FC Private Chambers that will be judged and submitted for a community-wide voting period. Throughout the entry period of the contest, any member can request the 300,000 gil from a leader to purchase a private chambers of their own via our Free Room Campaign.
Full details are TBA.

Azure's event roadmap was discussed toward the end of the assembly, and comfirmed all yearly and quarterly Azure Infinitum events, as well as certain event changes, all organized via quarter (3 month periods) and will continue to match things like some event content with FFXIV's Patch seasons/schedule.

FFXIV FC Buffs

Monday will now feature Gathering and Crafting exp buffs. The previous buffs were a battle exp buff and one that supported stats of low level characters. This decision was made considering that Azure currently had 3 days a week that had battle exp, and only 1 day for gathering exp, and only 1 day for crafting exp.

Tuesday will now feature a food buff in replacement of the previous perception buff. This decision was made because the perception buff only increases perception by 10, and that the food buff is beneficial to all disciples/classes. Tuesday buffs will now be Gathering exp and Food.

Wednesday will now feature a food buff in replacement of the previous control buff. This decision was made because the control buff only increases control by 10, and that the food buff is beneficial to all disciples/classes. Wednesday buffs will now be Crafting exp and Food.

The buff changes announced above began this week following Sunday's meeting. The Azure Council hopes that these small changes will have big effects in inspiring more industry within our great community, and hopefully assist with them as well, while also supporting exp for all classes via 2 days of food buffs.

FFXIV Patch 5.2 Azure Plans

Azure Eden Tuesdays returns in Patch 5.2 which launches mid-February. Its safe to assume it'll either be February 11th or 18th. The event will be running Eden's 5th through 8th raid every week one time through for weekly clears, the weekly drop, and potential gear. This event will group weekly at 7:30p ET/4:30p PT.

Eden Loot Finsher returns when Patch 5.2 launches in mid-February. This event will focus on being our second weekly run to gain loot for folks who're available on Sunday and those who may not have gotten a piece at our Azure Eden Tuesdays event or throughout the server-week so far for one more chance. This event's time is TBA but will begin the Sunday following Patch 5.2's launch.

How the "Resistance Weapons" are obtained will be analyzed and debated for future Azure Relic Events. If its something that could be viable for weekly group progression, it could be considered.

Discord

The slowdown to our bot channel has been reduced to 1 minute.

New sections for Azure Social Media have been made. Some feature webhooks created with applets.

A D&D channel has been created due to high request. Information for online D&D sessions and D&D-related discussion can be found there.

Organizational

It was announced that Azure Starlight Day 2020 was our biggest one yet. Thank you to everyone who attended and/or supported.

Stefan Vonwest was promoted to Lieutenant and has taken a seat on the Azure Council. Stefan recently served as a Scout Captain since September, a Scout before that, and has been a supportive and active member of the community for 2 years. Stefan strives to be a continuing voice and source of support amid our weekly events and within the community.

"Azure Network", the name for the project to launch a new Azure portal website will now include a second site attached to the new main one that will be a community website.

The new community website will feature a miniature social network where members can make profiles and follow each other, post blogs, add characters they play from many games onto the roster, and have ways to share their streams and content automatically.

The new community website will feature new forums, news posts, an Azure Wiki and FAQ section, will be mobile friendly, will use responsive coding to format to many devices, can be saved to home screens and work similar to an application, can be logged into via Discord, Facebook, or with a Guildtag profile, and more features to come.

The new community website will have certain forum threads linked to the Azure Discord via Webhooks, allowing simultaneous posting.

The new portal site will feature some content from the community site, and will have pages about our individual events w/full descriptions, a new event calendar that will utilize Google Calendar, will have pages with information on each Azure Branch as well as lists of what our members submit that they play.

Branch pages will have information on Official Play-Sessions as well as links to our community site where members can post their own events or connect to play together.

The new portal site will feature a brand-new Azure News system that will show thumbnails for recent news, articles about the community, member submitted content, Azure lore, event announcements, patch details and special game announcements, and galleries.

The new portal site will feature sections that display posts from Azure's Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook feeds.

The new portal site will feature sections that display affiliates of Run Around:Network, as well as some RA:N content which supports us all.

More details about the Azure Network project will be revealed at February's Azure Grand Assembly which is currently TBA.

Azure Network is set to launch as the two new sites in late February.

The next Azure Day Weekend event that celebrates our Azure Infinitum community in FFXIV has been pushed forward to early March, compared to its usual late February date.

There are plans to launch a new Azure Branch with the launch of the Azure Network project. The content the new Branch will be related to is currently a mystery.

Azure Podcast will be returning in the new future.

Azure Infinitum Monster Hunter World Branch

Our Azure MHW PS4 Branch and Squad's "Hunt-A-Thon" event was postponed for Monday, January 20th.

There's a number of people playing MHW in Azure Infinitum and we want to make sure you're in our in-game Squad if you want to be! Please message Saiori Fukurokuju or Reika Fujishima for an invite.

Azure is looking to continue promoting the MHW PS4 Branch for higher activity.

Other

A reminder that patience and support for our event hosts and leaders is requested by our members during events. We have many new promotions that are fresh to their duties and filling big positions as they grow into them.

A reminder of patience for each other, you never know what's going on in real life at someone's location or how much they're handling on their screens. Keep in mind that when asking for something in the FC chat in-game in FFXIV, people may be busy or not see your request.

A reminder that you can contact leaders anytime to get something accomplished, be vocal.

A reminder that content in chat anywhere in our community should not exceed PG-13 or venture too far into Rated R territory depending on the context, we have a mature content channel in our discord called The Mature Lounge. Be sure to read our Rules Page at our site http://azureinfinitum.com for Mature Lounge's description and rules. Full graphic nudity and ERP are banned in all channels.

A reminder that we are running a special Thavnairian Onion Campaign, headed by Lt.Saiori Fukurokuju who has been growing onions and will be selling them for an enormous discount versus marketboard prices. All funds made go back into covering what's needed to keep it going.

Writers are being sought for the new Azure portal site for content creation, as well as for RA:N. Details here. You can also direct message Reika Fujishima in our discord for details.

Azure Infinitum is off to a big start in 2020 and its going to be a huge year for our community.
If you'd like to join RA:N's Community Portal, Azure Infinitum, join our .

You can also follow us on:

Facebook
Facebook Groups
Twitter
Instagram
Tumblr
Steam (Search for Azure Infinitum on Steam!
PS4 Communities (Search on the PS4 Community section on your console)

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HATSUNE MIKU SYMPHONY 2019 ORCHESTRA LIVE CD [LIMITED EDITION]

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 08:15:00 +0000

The latest Hatsune Miku Symphony CD released just a few weeks ago in December and is quickly becoming a hot item and a favorite of mine, so I wanted to highlight it a bit here tonight.

I've been listening to this one while working or relaxing and I keep finding myself playing it over and over.
I think I might like this one the most out of all the Miku Symphony Live CDs, and this is the 4th one to be released.

The CD is packed with orchestral Vocaloid music played by a real live orchestra and it includes 20 tracks that go from the very first performance leading up to MEIKO 15th Anniversary, SEGA Feat. Hatsune Miku Project 10th Anniversary, and many more.

I recommend picking this one up, especially if you love Vocaloid and/or orchestra, and you can get the nice 2-disc Limited Edition from our affiliate Play-Asia by clicking here which also supports RA:N.

The video below shows the song "1/6 -out of the gravity- feat. Hatsune Miku" from Hatsune Miku Symphony 2019 and has an example of how epic this album is.

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FIGMA METROID PRIME 3 CORRUPTION: SAMUS ARAN PRIME 3 VER. (RE-RUN)

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 07:48:00 +0000

Figma Samus is getting a re-release which is no surprise given the popularity of this Figma and its exquisite detailing of popular Metroid heroine, Samus Aran!

She was originally released back in November of 2017 and is set to release again this month! You can still pre-order her right now at our affiliate Play-Asia.

Figma Samus is pretty smooth and posable with great flexibility- and she even comes with her famous Morph Ball!

Besides being part of the great Figma series, this Samus is the best Samus figure ever made in my opinion.

More details on this figure can be found here where you can buy her and help support us!

More pictures below:

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Dancing Freeza Clones Cheer Runners At Japanese Marathon

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Tue, 14 Jan 2020 00:58:00 +0000

It was time again for the Hakone Ekiden marathon which took place on January 1st through 3rd which had participants running from Otemachi to Hakone in Japan.

This televised race usually brings in groups who want to stand on the sidelines and cheer the runners on.

Japanese commenters stated they were impressed that the dancers would travel all the way there in costume and continue to cheer on the runners each year- apparently they do this in some form yearly?!

箱根駅伝にフリーザさま#箱根駅伝2020 #箱根駅伝 #フリーザ様 pic.twitter.com/MlPqL21la6
— すぶぶれ (@kimoiobahann) January 3, 2020

Aside from regular citizens giving their shouts of encouragement and good wishes, a dancing band of costumed men dressed up like Freeza from the Dragon Ball series was seen dancing to "Paprika", a Japanese children's song.

You'll also see in the tweets that the group were dancing the can-can, and that a Majin Buu and someone wearing a special take on Freeza's costume also joined in.

Now, if we could just get some cheering cosplayers during marathons here in the west!

フリーザ様ときりみちゃんも…？ pic.twitter.com/wmwJipt5x5
— デルコ (@delcostarz) January 3, 2020

#箱根駅伝 #フリーザ #フリーザ様 pic.twitter.com/rVH5gMY07R
— ka ko (@iyaaaom) January 3, 2020

The Oscars Leave Anime Films Out

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 22:37:00 +0000

The 92nd Academy Awards is about to take place and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have released their nominations.
Issa Rae and John Cho presented what the nominations were in a recent livestream.

Despite the many incredible and popular Japanese animated movies that have recently released, there were no nominations for a single one in the Animated Feature category, despite submissions for Weathering With You, Promare, Children of the Sea, and Okko's Inn all being submitted for the award.

The nominees are: Toy Story 4, Klaus, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, I Lost My Body, and Missing Link.

Shinkai Makoto's Weathering With You has made roughly $176 million worldwide, and was the first anime submission for Japan since Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Monoke in 1998 to be submitted in the Best International Featured Film category.

It doesn't seem abnormal that Japanese anime movies would get left out of these types of award shows on one hand.
Anime no matter what, as widespread and common as it and the fandoms surrounding anime exist all over the world- especially in the west today- is still seemingly viewed as a niche genre.
It seems to me like the Academy just doesn't understand that these immensely popular and successful films exist or are serious experiences in film worthy of these awards.

For crying out loud, even the titanic popularity of Kimi No Na Wa aka Your Name and its record of becoming a top grossing worldwide animation in film history wasn't enough.

On another note, Alita: Battle Angel, received no nomination whatsoever for the Visual Effects category but it did make the shortlist.
Instead the nominations are: The Irishman, Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker, The Lion King, Avengers: End Game, and 1917.

source

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Azure Grand Assembly Live! January 2020 Announcement & Details

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 18:33:00 +0000

Its our pleasure to announce the next Azure Grand Assembly!
This monthly assembly, live in-game panel, and news release takes place at RA:N's Azure Infinitum community home in Final Fantasy XIV, detailing what's ahead for our community and all recent Azure Infinitum related activity.

The next Azure Grand Assembly will take place at our FC Estate's top floor on January 19th at 8p ET/5p PT! (other timezones can click here)

You can attend in-person in Final Fantasy XIV's Midgardsormr Server if you're a member of the Free Company in-game, or if you can't make it, or want to watch it LIVE on YouTube you can also do that.

There's a lot in the works right now for our gaming community and coming network we're continuously building and we've got a lot to talk about at this next assembly.

Azure's January 2020 assembly will feature these topics:

New Recruits and Member Welcoming
Current Ranking Status and Breakdown
2019 End-Year Results & Azure Starlight Recap
Azure 2020 Roadmap Announcement
New Azure Network Details and Reveals
New Weekly Event Details
FFXIV Patch 5.2 Plans
February 2020 Azure Schedule Changes
Buff Schedule Updates
Azure MHW PS4 Squad Status and Info
New Community Additions
Updates and Plans for Azure Discord
Creation or Updates of Azure Social Media
Azure Extended Services Info
Upcoming Contests
Azure Podcast Status and Return Announcement
Q&A round for comments, questions, proposals, and feedback

We hope to see as many of you as possible who can make it!

Azure Infnitum is an established 5-year old active, organized, and friendly community by Run Around:Network and managed by Hikaru Kazushime and The Azure Council.

Azure Infinitum is for everyone, including fans of anime & manga, video games, movies & tv, music, fandoms & hobbies, FFXIV-enthusiasts, RA:N Readers & Followers, and folks who want to make friends and have a good time.

Azure currently hosts regular event content and community activity in Final Fantasy XIV and Monster Hunter World on PS4, with members who hold play sessions in other games as well.
We're growing as a gaming clan and community, and anyone can join!
Our coming new website will feature a plethora of growing content and activity, member streams and blogs, all-new forums, ways to connect with others for better experiences in games, and so much more.

Join us on Discord, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, or find us on Steam through Groups or PS4 through Communities.

"As Free As The Azure Sky!"

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Anniversary Azure Day 2019 Info and Event Program

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 05:03:00 +0000

This coming weekend we are celebrating 5 years of Azure Infinitum- our extended community that presently produces a variety of activity and fun through our established Final Fantasy XIV guild and community sites and branches.

Azure has grown to become RA:N's official community portal and big plans are in the works for a new Azure site that will be a sibling site to RA:N, and plans to expand and grow the community.

We celebrate our great community pretty often- every 4 months roughly, but the November celebration in Final Fantasy XIV is unprecedented compared to the rest of our activities.

About Azure Day

"Azure Day" or now "Azure Day Weekends" are normally two-day events that last through the afternoon and evening of the given days taking place in Final Fantasy XIV within our guild or FC (Free Company) on Midgardsormr Server, and features a convention-style program of back to back hourly events.

Anniversary Azure Day celebrates the FC's anniversary and is the biggest Azure Day event of the year. Its a big time to show our community spirit, clad in FC colors (blue and various shades of Blue), have a ton of fun together across the weekend, and participate in some unique activities, games, and do various raffles.

Azure Day began as a singular afternoon of activities in early 2015 and quickly evolved into a full day, then a full weekend of activities that celebrate Azure.
There are many beloved events that return to most Azure Days, while new ones appear and are added to keep things fresh.
We've taken to creating a mix of social and content-using minigames and also throw in ever popular "Flash Raffles" which are sparratic random raffles that take place in chat using the game's "/random" command to roll numbers closest to the hosts within a time limit.
Azure Day features a mix of contests, races, sometimes game-shows, and also presents opportunities like our Azure Day Auction, which provides great deals on donated items while contributing to the FC's in-game funds that support the next Azure Day.
We also do big guild-wide screenshots with as many people we can get into the shot as possible to commemorate the celebratory weekend and immortalize those who were there.

Why We Celebrate

The biggest reason for our celebrations is that our community in Azure as a whole is a wonderful, fantastic place that has continued to succeed and thrive no matter the obstacles we've faced.
We continue to enjoy and manifest an active, organized, and friendly harmony that has been the catalyst for many great memories, and has brought so many people together.

Azure has a sense of love to it in most if not all of its corners, and there are great bonds between many who all- even the most quiet or casual ones- contribute to making it a reality.
We work to display a level of community excellence and organization as we strive to be an example of not only what a Free Company or gaming clan/community can be or achieve, but also to prove what we can accomplish together as a group of people from all sorts of locations, backgrounds, beliefs, and beyond.

We celebrate our community, and each other on Azure Days!
We also celebrate the birth and founding of Azure Infinitum, known to many as a tale known around our server as The Liberation of the Crimson Blades.

Our founding story details our rise from an era within a year from FFXIV's launch, where Azure faced great challenges before and after its creation as we made a restructure from a dying community named Crimson Blades.
The challenges we faced were amidst great hardship in our server when an outside gaming clan had attempted an Eve Online-scale conspiracy of trying to assimilate the server's communities and their resources through masterful planning.

Crimson Blades was abandoned by its previous leaders and without our knowledge we were being used to build it up so they could have one character they left with powers, to sell it off.
We were lucky for their error in poaching a member who leaked the conspirator's details from the inside, allowing us to expose, warn others, and bring down the plans- but because of the one that still held those powers as an alt character that was installed to watch our progress- we knew we had to leave or be kicked out after leaking their plan.
Being scattered and homeless would have separated the community, and thrust an exodus into being.

(There are many groups named Crimson Blades or after the fictitious Final Fantasy factions of the same name in the series. Any relation to certain groups or people in Midgardsormr is coincidental and have no relation. Many have stepped up over the years to try and claim they were there or that their Crimson Blades was the one we left from. Wild accusations and speculatory rumors have persisted for years, and the legend continues. We are proud of our founding and story of endurance and indignation to create something positive out of a negative, and Azure does not condone any action or bad behavior toward anyone of any coincidental history or relation to any group of such name.)

Our founding members and myself stood against the trials of overcoming what we faced and began, and held together with a mutual positive dream, eventually settling on our name "Azure Infinitum" and founding our great community on 11/2/14. Standing true to our values and grasping our goals, Azure Infinitum was born to be "As Free As The Azure Sky!" (one of our mottos).

Azure Infinitum is latin for "Blue Infinity" or "Infinite Blue" and is a family forged and united under positive philosophy and values. We believe that together our potentials, dreams, and goals, are as big as the infinite sky above, grasping them together as we fly as one.

We have a growing history that has evolved and innovated alongside Final Fantasy XIV which has been our main location for 5 years.
Azure was only recently introduced officially a little earlier this year when I decided to release my personal anonymity and reveal myself. This allowed me to become much closer with the community and fully flesh it out as an extension and growing clan that is produced by RA:N with plans to continue to grow and keep making things awesome.

Azure Infinitum became a trendsetter among our server years ago- and even beyond, inspiring many with our no-drama policy and our codes of conduct, organization, and events many others have adopted.
We reside high among top leading communities world-wide and across our server- a major North American server- with some of the highest activity/productivity rates and rankings overall in Final Fantasy XIV Online.

On these Azure Day Weekends, myself and our leadership and support teams, work to give as much back to the community as we can by showering it in tons of great in-game prizes, oftentimes raffling off physical merch and promotional items, as we have tons of fun online together over 3 days.

Event Wear and Clothing Options

If you're in Azure, come and show your Azure spirit more than usual on this Azure Day Weekend!
Various blue dyes are found in the company chest so people have a chance to dye their gear for Azure Day if they don't already wear company colors.
Please take as much as needed, making sure also to save some for others too.
Our official dye in-game is Othard Blue dye, but we provide many shades.
Many armors and gear in the game have different reactions to certain colors, and some shades may appear better. Company Tabards must be dyed Othard Blue however.

If you are a recruit who's recently joined us and are experiencing Azure Day for the first time and would like some dye, ask someone to get you some out of our chest. Company Tabards pre-dyded in Othard Blue will be given out for free to those who don't have one. THESE ARE VERY LIMITED! Members will only receive one. The materials for the Tabards (official FC formal wear) are rare, and we'll give out as many as we have stored, which we routinely collect materials for Azure Days where we mainly give them out.
Don't forget to get your gear or Company Tabard crested with the Azure Crest! You can do this anytime by speaking to the NPC inside the Maelstrom HQ in Limsa Lominsa who is just inside the entrance, all the way back to the left.

The Azure Day Photobooth

Once again returning will be a photobooth we set up for members to take pics and make some memories together on Azure Day.
The photobooth will appear on the 1st floor of our estate and will be visible upon entering. If you need to visit a Private Chamber in the Hall while the booth is up, just walk through the walls by holding forward movement in one direction until you move through it.
The photobooth will remain up until November 19th Flash Raffles As mentioned earlier- and badck and better than ever, our flash raffles happen usually between or sometimes during events.

Many random quick-fire raffle rounds will occur across each day at random times. Flash raffle prizes include gil, minions, housing items, glamour items, and more! Raffles are held in-person around the FC yard or in the midst of certain events when many people are presently gathered in one place.

Flash Raffles begin once everyone is asked by me to use the "/random" command which will roll a random number from 0-999 for you, and the number must be closest to the number I roll.
Flash Raffles usually go on for about 30 seconds to 1 minute, roughly.

Look out for the rare "Golden Flash Raffle" which will be giving out a prize of 1,000,000 gil!

Events

There are many events we hold on across Azure Day Weekend, with tens of millions of gil value in our prizepool.
Remember that we're all here to have fun and celebrate our community, the prizes are a bonus!
Each day's events will begin at 4pm EST/1pm PST and will run as long as each one takes- usually about 1 hour is allotted for most events, while some require 2 hours. Events will be called out regularly and you can ask what's going on in-game at any time for quick response.

We ask that if you attend our events, to please make plenty of time to attend them should you join in.
If you win or participate during an event, we ask that you please stick around the event location and have patience, following any instructions to obtain prizes or any special bonuses.

Our prizes for the events that have them, are sorted between High, Medium, and Low tiers that are based on their present value, and are usually announced at the start of events.

Azure Day events are hosted specifically for Azure Infinitum members of all ranks, and Infinitum Alliance members are invited as well.
If you've got friends outside of Azure Infinitum, invite them to join our Free Company or visit our events to see what we do!

The Event Program for this weekend is as follows:

Visit our present site today at http://azureinfinitum.com (currently in maintenance while the new one is being made).
Join Azure Infinitum, RA:N's Community Portal and Gaming Community Celebrating Visual Culture! Join our Discord and register at the site link above.
Azure Infinitum is a product of Run Around:Network.
(http://www.runaroundnet.com)

Azure Infinitum is not officially endorsed by Square Enix

Final Fantasy XIV is owned by Square Enix Co.LTD, All Rights Reserved

Want to join us in FFXIV?
Find us in Midgardsormr Server, Mist housing zone ward 7, plot 1 and put in an application in-game.
Join us in Monster Hunter World any time by joining our Discord and asking for a MHW Squad invite. "Hunt-A-Thon" takes place every Monday at 2pm EST/11am PST

Purchase FFXIV or MHW from Play Asia to help support us!

Buy Final Fantasy XIV on PS4
Buy Final Fantasy XIV 60-day time card
Buy Monster Hunter World on PS4

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Live Streaming Hiker Falls Off Mount Fuji

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 16:02:00 +0000

In another terrible case of live streaming accidents, a hiker recently fell while on Japan's infamous Mount Fuji.
The video showed a man going by TEDZU talking about rushing up the peak and how his hands were freezing but he was doing his best to operate his smartphone.

Moments later he mentioned how slippery the rocks were and before you know it he was falling as his climbing sticks could be seen falling away and the video ended abruptly. Since the story began travelling around the internet, police have found a body at 3000 meters down and are working to identify if its the man in the video.

Currently we're about a month following the usual hiking season for Mount Fuji, as reported by Japan Today, but there are no laws that prevent hikers from attempting to climb the mountain at any other part of the year.

This is a great reminder about how quickly accidents can happen and that life can end in an instant- even if the man wasn't live streaming there's still a good chance he could have fallen to his doom either way.

Full story here.

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Here's Why PS Vue Is Shutting Down

noreply@blogger.com (Hikaru Kazushime) — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 15:46:00 +0000

PlayStation Vue, Sony's alternative TV service, is shutting down come January 30th, 2020 as announced on the PS Blog.

Today we are announcing that we will shut down the PlayStation Vue service on January 30, 2020. Unfortunately, the highly competitive Pay TV industry, with expensive content and network deals, has been slower to change than we expected. Because of this, we have decided to remain focused on our core gaming business.

The service has run about 4 years since its initial launch in 2015, as Sony has worked to innovate live and on demand television while helping users discover new content. The post mentioned,

We had ambitious goals for how our service could change how people watch TV, showcasing PlayStation’s ability to innovate in a brand-new category within the Pay TV industry.

The blog says that fans can continue to access TV and movie content through the PlayStation Store and the applications available on it from their partners, and that they will continue to focus on their other services, PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now.

They gave it a great shot though. Sometimes these types of ventures into new avenues can go one way or the other, and its actually great that PlayStation Vue lasted this long in such a competitive new arena for cordless TV services.

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