Storytelling via Clothing

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character customization, character development, ffxiv, final fantasy xiv, MMO, mmo character customization, mmo cosmetics, mmorpg, mmorpg cosmetics, mmorpgs, mmos, no promises though, roleplay, roleplayers, rp, this will maybe be the last time i talk about this topic, xiv

This will probably be my last post about MMO outfits. Maybe.

Before I begin I should update you all on the personal goings-on of my Final Fantasy XIV character. She recently has had a couple of character breakthroughs involving an in-character fight with another member of my guild, some introspection about how good that fight felt, learning how to harness her combative strength and come to grips with it by learning how to use a gunblade on the sly, and slowly sinking deeper into a life of underground crime and debauchery as the person she fought with takes her under his wing to learn how to be a contraband smuggler.

All of this has been a delight for a number of reasons. It’s finally allowed my character to have some progression; it’s finally seen some character daggers actually get used by people; and as a writing exercise, it’s given me the opportunity to finally challenge myself by writing a character that can be soft, alluring, and loving as well as a badass without falling into edgelord traps. On top of that, though, it’s allowed me the chance to create new outfits.

Style Matters in MMO Classes

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city of heroes, class, classes, coh, doing it wrong, ffxiv, final fantasy xiv, MMO, mmo class, mmo classes, mmorpg, mmorpg class, mmorpg classes, mmorpgs, mmos, roleplay, tera, xiv

One of the Discords that I’m a part of featured a conversation among some players of Final Fantasy XIV who were discussing the different tank classes in the game. It was interesting to watch unfold, as the tete-a-tete mostly featured one person who was all about the DPS numbers and skill potency figures while the other was about how the class felt, and it’s not often I get to witness two disparate viewpoints discuss things (let alone in a rational matter).

It got me to thinking about my own experiences with classes in FFXIV, and then with other classes in other MMOs, and throughout the little bit of navel gazing, one common thread stood out: When it comes to MMO classes, style will always trump substance for me.

I Love Sprouts

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community, ffxiv, ffxiv community, final fantasy, final fantasy xiv, MMO, mmorpg, new arrival, new player, new players, sprout, welcome to eorzea, xiv, xiv community

Once again I’m going to talk about Final Fantasy XIV. And once again I’m going to stand on the shoulders of giants here — specifically, Eliot Lefebvre’s newest Wisdom of Nym column where he offers some advice to new players and veterans alike. That said, this topic was also on my mind pretty recently, both in terms of Discord chatting, Twitter scrolling, and the overall conversation topic of the FFXIV community:

Sprouts.

When Home Games Become Fortresses

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community, ffxiv, final fantasy xiv, gatekeeping, MMO, mmo communities, mmo community, mmo games, mmorpg, mmorpgs, mmos, white knight, white knighting, xiv

I’m going to have to thank MOP’s editor in chief and my awesome boss Bree for this prompted post. We were talking in the work chat about how sad and dangerous it was when people wrap their entire identity around a single MMO or single game, and that got me thinking a lot about the topic.

If you’ve been even near gaming discourse on any platform or website, you pretty much know the type. They’re often referred to as “white knights” and usually charge headlong into keyboard battle to defend the honor of their favorite game and, by extension, their home. And while I can certainly appreciate the desire to battle back against misinformation or misconception, or even the need to argue online (in good faith, ideally), there’s also a point where it becomes clear that a home game — a place meant to escape to in comfort — turns into a fortress that must be protected against all comers.

A Shortlist of Long-Term Gaming Goals

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dauntless, elite, elite dangerous, elite dangerous odyssey, ffxiv, final fantasy xiv, gaming, gaming goal, gaming goals, goal, MMO, mmorpg, mmorpgs, multiplayer, multiplayer gaming, xiv

Yep, I’m pretty much ripping off other bloggers’ post ideas for today’s posting. In my defense, I don’t make this a regular feature on my blog, so I think that gives me a free pass. Also, like, it’s Blaugust 2021, y’all. Sometimes post ideas are hard to drudge up.

Whining notwithstanding, I actually am beginning to find that putting down some long-reaching gaming goals is pretty helpful for keeping motivated in multiplayer and MMO titles. So with that in mind, I felt that I should share a few of the things I’m reaching for in my favorite titles.

Finding Fun Despite the Doldrums

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actiblizz, activision-blizzard, blizzard, community, ffxiv, final fantasy, final fantasy xiv, mmo community, mmorpg community, square enix, warcraft, world of warcraft, WoW

Honestly, I was kind of hoping to avoid any topic related to the hellscape that is Activision-Blizzard’s treatment of its employees. Mostly because far smarter and better people have written about the matter than I have and I don’t have anything of worth to really say on the subject without just standing on the shoulders of those giants. However, a recent event today spurred this post. Specifically, a tweet from someone I follow which read that, despite their best efforts, they couldn’t really get invested into Final Fantasy XIV and decided to return to WoW.

This is in spite of some best efforts and some found delight by this person, I should point out. I’ll not go into detail but this player really did try to dig in. Of course, this attempt was spurred on by the aforementioned issues, and I suspect that this particular WoW player wrestled mightily with their long-standing love of the game and the unveiled misery many of its developers have had to suffer through — something that I’ve written about before on this blog. And despite my feelings about Blizzard and its games, I get it.

Latent Friendship is Magic

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community, ffxiv, ffxiv community, final fantasy, final fantasy 14, final fantasy xiv, friendship, MMO, mmo community, mmorpg, roleplay, roleplayer, roleplaying, xiv

Recently I’ve gotten back into Final Fantasy XIV a lot more than I had previously. This wasn’t kicked off by recent awful events, by the way, and it wasn’t necessarily spurred on by the larger Endwalker expansion reveals (though that did have a small part to play in things). Mostly, my return was fueled by friends. Friends that I sometimes play with and people that I’m not necessarily friends with.

Allow me to explain

FFXIV 5.1 and Self-Exclusion

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community, ff14, ff14 5.1, ffxiv, ffxiv 5.1, final fantasy 14, final fantasy xiv, MMO, mmorpg, patch, patch 5.1, raid, raiding, raids, update

So Final Fantasy XIV has put out its sizzle reel for Patch 5.1, and almost immediately I felt pretty much excluded. Most of it was about content tiers I don’t care about, styled after a game I am worn out about, with only a couple of nods to parts of the patch I’m interested in.

To be fair, this feeling is mostly self-inflicted, but it brought up a whole lot of sour thoughts all the same and I felt the need to talk about them. About how this patch seems to be about folks who need to be at the bleeding edge of content tiers at the repulsion of all else who don’t feel that way.

This means something to lots of others, but not to me.

Stormblood Squee Week Extra: SAM and RDM Thoughts

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classes, ffxiv, final fantasy xiv, final fantasy xiv stormblood, jobs, MMO, mmorpg, rdm, red mage, sam, samurai, stormblood, stormblood squee week, stormblood squee week extra

So we’ve had quite a few days to gnaw on the neck of the last Live Letter and suck out all of the infojuices from it. Translations of Japanese tooltips have been made, videos created, and threads on Reddit springing like horny flowers in early Spring.

Also, this dummy’s entire week of blog posts about the whole thing.

So, in the interest of said information, as well as to close out the dummy’s blogs for Stormblood Squee Week Extra, I wanted to cobble together my impressions of the new Samurai (SAM) and Red Mage (RDM) Jobs arriving with the expansion.

Stormblood Squee Week Extra: Ready to Jump

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boosts, ffxiv, final fantasy xiv, final fantasy xiv stormblood, jump potion, jump potions, max level potion, MMO, mmorpg, stormblood, stormblood squee week

In my last post, I mentioned that I was in love with the new Paladin moves. One in particular, Passage of Arms, has me excited simply because it’s something I see my character doing. She’s the kind of person who would leap in front of people if it means they wouldn’t come to harm.

And I know I keep repeating myself, but come on. Pretty wings. Come ON.

Getting to that point, though, requires that I muddle through another six levels of mindless grinding. I don’t want to do that. Thankfully, I won’t have to with the addition of Jump Potions, and I couldn’t be happier. Allow me to explain why.