A Decade of FFXIV

I was doing some post clean up on the blog and realized, wow I never actually wrote my 10 year anniversary post for FFXIV. Actually I never wrote one for 9 years either. I think my motivation for FFXIV kinda died over the years but I wanted to write something because well…it’s been 10 years!

I remember when I first started the game I was trying out the Beta test and I was so frustrated at the camera because it was my first RPG that truly used a real battle system and it wasn’t some point and click Korean grinder bullshittery.

FFXIV is this amazing game where you don’t have to constantly be playing and you can take breaks for a year and still manage to catch up on most content. (Don’t look at me Eureka and Bozja you’re a lost cause.) Unfortunately because of that, a lot of my FC friends tend to take long breaks for months and even I will sometimes take a months break before coming back for a seasonal event, or to make sure my house isn’t demolished. 😅

So because of that things have been super casual and disconnected for me. After they added DC travel, I was able to do things off peak hours like hunt trains and what have you. So now I would just login at weird hours of the day, cap my tomes and then basically log out for the week. They added a lot of new side content like Island Sanctuary but ultimately it became like a daily chore where you login, set off the automatic stuff, pick up your rewards and log out. While I don’t raid, I now understand raid logging and how once people did their few hours they would just log out for the week.

FFXIV definitely taught me a lot about human relationships, even online. I learned a lot about being taken advantage of and realized that a lot of people come online to victimize themselves so that they get enablers for their toxic behavior. Not everyone toxic is gonna be the guy telling you to DIAF in duty roulette. Sometimes the toxic people are hiding in plain sight in your friend circle. It’s a weird lesson to learn, but honestly it was truly an eye opener thanks to FFXIV. 😂 Unfortunately this also took a dramatic effect on my trust of people and honestly lately I’ve just been quietly playing with my husband and I haven’t bothered to make any new friends in game while slowly drifting away from my existing friends there. I had a dedicated Twitter account to FFXIV but from the effect of the above I decided to just shut it down and I’ve kinda ran off to Instagram where I only interact with a handful of people I barely know outside of Instagram. I think I’m at a phase in life that I just want to fade into the background with the few close friends/followers I know and let the kidders take the spotlight when it comes to fandom activities.

Sometimes I think I want to go back to doing FFXIV blog entries again – not once a week since that’s too much, but maybe once a month?? Once a quarter? But I’m also starting to run low on space so I’m not sure if it’s viable to do anymore. I think at this point it’s just easier and cheaper for me to upload stuff to Instagram and let it get buried in a sea of irrelevant advertisements.

At this point I don’t really have much else to say. FFXIV used to be a huge part of my life and while it still sort of is, it’s definitely not as much as it once was. I feel like I always had to be part of something in FFXIV, keep up with friends and tweets and always be up to date on the latest community drama. Now I guess with age it’s just kind of a little side thing I do when there’s a new update – like playing a new game with every patch. Once I “finish” with the patch I just step away and take a break. I wish they’d improve housing in the game so I could take breaks longer than 30 days but here I am forced to come back. (;^ω^) I honestly get amazed seeing some friends logging into the game every day for years, but I noticed a lot of them do stuff with their friend group/community which I don’t really have. The game has too many dead periods and if you aren’t doing social activities in game, there’s basically nothing to do after a certain point. I know, I know, it’s an MMO, why aren’t you being social? I guess because at this point I treat it like a single player game that I play every few months instead because the social aspect burned me out and turned me off completely. 😩

So while I’m going into Dawntrail with a bite of lukewarm enthusiasm towards FFXIV, I hope it can rekindle the fun and excitement I once felt for the game. And if not, it’s alright, I think I’ve put enough time into the game and it can just be a little side entertainment from time to time…like this blog. 😏