Add icons to macro buttons?

[Rhianu]

And which do you recognize faster? A, or Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis?

Neither one, actually, because the letter "A" all by itself is too short to mean anything out of context, and "Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" is a word I've never heard before in my entire life.

This game doesn't have any abilities called "Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis," or any other words even near that length, so it's not a realistic example, sorry.

A good example is something like this:
Which is easier to recognize and understand quickly? The letter "A" or or the word "Aspir"?

The answer, clearly, is "Aspir." Sure, you could memorize that "A" stands for "Aspir" in a particular context, but that doesn't change the fact that the full word is quicker and easier to recognize. The human brain is programed to read word-by-word, not letter-by-letter.

Except in extremely rare cases (such as words that are 45 letters long), full words generally do not take longer to read than single letters, so therefore you do not save any reading time whatsoever by using single-letter abbreviations. Single letters may take less time to type, but not less time to read.

the "Look and Say" method of teaching reading has been thoroughly discredited.

I'm not sure what you're talking about. I never mentioned any so called "Look and Say" method of teaching, and I don't see how that has anything to do with the discussion at hand.

I hate having to use the mouse, even on games with a nice mouse control system like wow. I far prefer the XI control system where everything is done via the kb.

Also keep in mind Squares latest work on XIV with the control system, lets not mess too much with XI controls please.

Not sure what you have against the mouse. The mouse is a wonderful tool and provides precision accuracy that simply isn't possible with a controller or keyboard. I think the only reason you say you don't like it is because you've simply become accustomed to working without it.

And the mouse controls are just as clumsy in FFXIV as they are in FFXI, so that's not really a good example if you're talking about mouse controls.

Rhianu, I'm sorry but you're wrong. I do NOT want to memorize over 1000 different icons for numerous different abilities, spells, traits, whatever you want.

Have you ever played any other MMO besides FFXI? Learning icons is much easier than memorizing often abstract 4 letter abbreviations. FFXIV's action bar is a huge improvement over FFXI's macro pallet.

Besides, you won't have to remember a thousand icons. There aren't that many abilities in the entire game. In fact, I don't think any game has that many abilities. Seriously, you sound like you've never touched any game that uses icons in your life. Sure, the macro system works, but there are other systems out there in other games that work better. You need to play more MMOs, man. Get more experience.