Yes, they're referring to me as a 'she'. The Final Fantasy online community still lives in some happy, slightly dated universe, where people assume that only female gamers play female characters. Nobody actually cared to ask me. Thing is, with my trademark name and everything, playing the cat race is the only logical option. And since there are no male cats on FFXIV, well... guess I'm just gonna roll with it. They're in for a fun surprise when we get on voice chat!
Something weird is happening here. In most MMOs I've ever played, I avoided guilds and all responsibility. I played most online games by myself or with friends and family and only until I had managed to get as far as somehow possible without being part of a larger ingame-community, who takes part in raids, world pvp and what have you. Get to the level cap, grab some welfare-epix, score a rare pet and/or mount, get bored, move on.
On FFXIV I'm actually training to become one of the main tanks. I'm fully aware of the responsibility, the schedules and, most of all, the severe punishment for fucking up. One of the endgame boss battles comes with fun tactics such as 'save your defensive buff for exactly this special attack or you'll die and kill the entire raid'. But hey, no pressure!
I'm not entirely sure why the hell I would do this kinda crap to myself. Maybe for nostalgia's sake - the one and only other game where I seriously tanked a lot and made a bit of a name for myself was Final Fantasy XI. Maybe it's because there isn't much else to do on there. Those 4 quests per 12 hours aside, there isn't any actual solo content. And maybe it's because the game has a community, much unlike any other MMO-communities I've ever seen.
Heh. Yeah, I know. I paused for a second when I wrote that sentence about the community, asked myself if I'm biased, because I kinda like the game. But I still think the game is shit. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone but people, who actually enjoyed FFXI (aka nobody outside Japan and the US). But the community is fucking nice! Yes, those guys are helping me, because they're hoping to get a powerful tank out of this. But they're still being friendly and helpful, selfish motives and all. Everyone is. Because that's just the thing - in a game, where you constantly depend on the help of others, you only have two options: Be nice and supportive like everybody else or GTFO. Can you imagine me being nice? Of all people? HA!
If you've played WoW, especially after Cataclysm, you'll know that you don't actually depend on anybody, unless you're planning on fighting your way through endgame raids on hard mode. The game has abandoned elite ('group') quests a long time ago and everything else comes with an automatic group finder. Click one button and there's your heroic dungeon, your pvp team or a whole fucking raid group. You don't have to be nice to receive help. In fact, the game rewards you for being an asshole: Ninja-loot everything, need-roll your way through the dungeons and don't give a fuck about anybody else. You'll never see those suckers again! Pandaria will put loot right into people's bags to stop the very assholes that have been created by WoW. A nice idea, but the game still teaches people to be dicks. Quest-monsters with crappy spawn rate? Tag it before the other guy gets it. Shiny, glittery quest-loot? Shift into travel form to grab it before that other dumb fucker gets it. And keep pushing that DPS and make fun of everyone you top on the charts!
FFXIV doesn't allow for most of that nonsense. When you start a quest to kill or loot stuff, other players cannot interfere with your shit. They can't even see your quest monsters until you tag 'em. They can't click your shiny, looty objects. And with a lousy 4 soloable quests every 12 hours, you'll want to group up with people and share whatever you've got, rather than piss them off for no reason. It's a weird system, which borders on virtual bullying, forcing people into being honorable and respectful, but it works. That's Japanese game design for ya.
And I'm seriously enjoying it, warts and all. Plenty of wards, really. The UI is still shit. Lots of people talk about how good the new UI supposedly is, because the original one sucked so much more in comparison. But having over a dozen buttons for basic interaction like trading, summoning mounts or opening a god damn door isn't good. Having a shitload of skills spread over three action bars, yet being unable to see more than one action bar at any given time isn't good.
Then there's this:
Look at this shit! This picture maps a small fragment of one of the game's outdoor areas. Can you imagine how incredibly fun it is to try and navigate a maze like that? Yeah, me neither. Whatever idiot came up with this kind of thing for a leveling and questing area deserves to be crucified. And thrown in a lake. A lake of boiling cat piss.
I could go on. About how NPCs repair your gear to 99%, but you can't auction shit until it's repaired to 100%. About how every single quest suddenly rewards me sauerkraut. About how I'm forced to grind so much more than is healthy in any game. But strangely enough, most of that stuff doesn't bother me enough to make me stop playing.
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| The game knows! It knows everything! |
On FFXIV I actually like playing with others. They help me kill some paladin quest boss baddie, I get new gear and abilities for a reward and they get nothing. But I'll be sure to help them with their quests in return. And it turns out that when there's no griefing, no trolling and no harassment, it becomes so much easier to get over some of the most awful and stupid game design of this century. Fascinating stuff!
-Cat
As you well know, I used to be of the same conviction - 95% (a rough gestimate based on a horrendous collection of personal memories to haunt even my great-grandchildrens' nightmares) of all people playing online games are assholes. This, incidentally, is a direct consequence of 95% of people everywhere being assholes.
AntwortenLöschenI don't play any of the Final Fantasies - and secretly hope that one day, Square will be true to the title (I just cannot bring myself to love Japanime-style settings ever since Breath of Fire III).
Still, I have found a way to overcome my inherent misanthropy - guilds. My standard procedure of operations is as follows: Find a smallish guild with a core of friends, either from RL or from another game, hook up with them. So far, so good - then it's time to cut the crop. If they ever invited other random people like you, invariably, some of them will be assholes.
Problem is, even though most people will be aware of that fact, people hate conflict. The only way to get rid of assholes is by playing their game better than them - be as nice and helpful as humanly possible (being a generally nice and helpful person helps some) to the core group and its close affiliates and use every angle and opportunity to make the asshole's various shortcomings painfully obvious.
Once the atmosphere is sufficiently hostile towards the asshole, time to pull the trigger - but don't hold the gun yourself - make someone of the core group do the execution.
Once the assholes have been sorted out, get into a position where you have some say in who gets recruited next. A lifetime of having to deal with assholes makes spotting them easy enough.
From that point onwards, the stage is set for a pleasurable pastime for all - do whatever needs be done, blend into the background or be active and organize stuff, whatever the group lacks.
This is easily the most manipulative, evil way of playing MMOs I ever could conceive - but it fucking works. (And if it doesn't, the guild blows up and you try anew)
After nearly burning out on MMOs and online play in general altogether, that practice has revitalized my playing fun. I basically am striving to be better at what assholes do than they themselves are.
When you don't need random players on a regular basis, MMOs in general are much more fun. (And if you need one or the other from time to time, again, make sure you are in charge and err on the side of heavy-handedness when dealing with them. If a swift, decisive, but courteous boot with a reason given is needed to make a group work, don't hesitatem don't bitch, don't discuss. Enough people are wanting to participate. Offering aid and counseling lateron to the inept person usually earns you bonus points.
Baseline is: I don't think such a restrictive system is technically needed as long as you don't wallow in self-isolation and a general loathing of the whole playerbase. As long as you are willing to play it rough, I'd bet you're able to play every single MMO the way you want to play it. :)