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As things continue to progress, Everquest 2 is still a great experience and a delight to play (The Enchanted Lands: Why aren't they enchanted? Hopefully Everfrost will be frosty...) but I've recently been thinking a lot about Final Fantasy XIV. I still haven't actually, like, progressed to Stormblood though. Oops.
In part that's because I've been busy with smaller things than the main scenario questline. The Saint Endalim's Scholasticate questline is a small thing, meant to kill time between patches when it was first released. It's the quiet little tale of the various students enrolled in a religious college, and the Warrior of Light (in my case, catgirl of high luminosity Xao Xizee) gets called in to help uncover what's going on.
It's a small story. There's no world-shaking consequences, except maybe for the next generation of scholarly focus. It explores the themes of classism, belief and truth at the heart of the Heavensward expansion.
(It doesn't really explore the theme of huge awesome dragons, but dragons don't really go to religious colleges. Certainly not the ones I've met, anyway.)
I love small stories like this, about the people at the heart of the virtual worlds I play in. It's why I loved the Homestead stuff in Assassin's Creed 3 way more than ... like, anything else at all in that game, for example.
I love MMO combat and all, but there was basically no combat at all in this questline, and I was FINE with that. I don't play MMOs because I can plunk down and run a dungeon with other players. That's cool when I want it, but I play them because they are large, sprawling, persistant worlds. They're the openest of open-world RPGs. They're filled with NPCs doing their own thing and giant zones to explore top to bottom.
Speaking of wanting it, though, I also did my first raids this week.
First I did some "unsynched", which means I was at level 63 with full equipment bonuses while the raid content was back at its 60 peak. I did this as part of a group that advertised on the Party Finder: They were gonna run the raid unsynched for people who wanted to see the storyline/cutscenes and hear the (amazing) music but didn't want to... y'know, RAID.
It was fun, but I wanted more. So I put myself in the finder for a synched 24-person raid and went off to run the Crystal Tower raid series. That was... exciting! And the raid wipes weren't even my fault. (Someone got real drunk and pulled a Behemoth King. Even if you don't know the game, does that sound like a good idea to you?)
I feel like I want to run these more too, to build some confidence and prove to myself I can handle that level of MMO mechanics and all. Also for fashion gear and soundtrack reels.
I'm never going to be a Hardcore Raider. I never really want to be. But I'm starting to realize that I'm capable and competent and I -can- clear this content if I genuinely try. I want to try, and I want to keep trying. MMOs are one of my favorite genres, and I've always kinda held myself back: "Nobody's gonna want me running this with them, I'm just gonna die, I can't memorize all those mechanics, it's too stressful"... well, I'm sick of telling myself that kind of thing.
I want to see all of the games I love, big and small, epic and personal... and while it might be an MMO, the only person who can really dictate whether I do that or not is me.
(and maybe that jackass in raid alliance B who won't stand on the thing, but I can always queue again when he's gone.)
In part that's because I've been busy with smaller things than the main scenario questline. The Saint Endalim's Scholasticate questline is a small thing, meant to kill time between patches when it was first released. It's the quiet little tale of the various students enrolled in a religious college, and the Warrior of Light (in my case, catgirl of high luminosity Xao Xizee) gets called in to help uncover what's going on.
It's a small story. There's no world-shaking consequences, except maybe for the next generation of scholarly focus. It explores the themes of classism, belief and truth at the heart of the Heavensward expansion.
(It doesn't really explore the theme of huge awesome dragons, but dragons don't really go to religious colleges. Certainly not the ones I've met, anyway.)
I love small stories like this, about the people at the heart of the virtual worlds I play in. It's why I loved the Homestead stuff in Assassin's Creed 3 way more than ... like, anything else at all in that game, for example.
I love MMO combat and all, but there was basically no combat at all in this questline, and I was FINE with that. I don't play MMOs because I can plunk down and run a dungeon with other players. That's cool when I want it, but I play them because they are large, sprawling, persistant worlds. They're the openest of open-world RPGs. They're filled with NPCs doing their own thing and giant zones to explore top to bottom.
Speaking of wanting it, though, I also did my first raids this week.
First I did some "unsynched", which means I was at level 63 with full equipment bonuses while the raid content was back at its 60 peak. I did this as part of a group that advertised on the Party Finder: They were gonna run the raid unsynched for people who wanted to see the storyline/cutscenes and hear the (amazing) music but didn't want to... y'know, RAID.
It was fun, but I wanted more. So I put myself in the finder for a synched 24-person raid and went off to run the Crystal Tower raid series. That was... exciting! And the raid wipes weren't even my fault. (Someone got real drunk and pulled a Behemoth King. Even if you don't know the game, does that sound like a good idea to you?)
I feel like I want to run these more too, to build some confidence and prove to myself I can handle that level of MMO mechanics and all. Also for fashion gear and soundtrack reels.
I'm never going to be a Hardcore Raider. I never really want to be. But I'm starting to realize that I'm capable and competent and I -can- clear this content if I genuinely try. I want to try, and I want to keep trying. MMOs are one of my favorite genres, and I've always kinda held myself back: "Nobody's gonna want me running this with them, I'm just gonna die, I can't memorize all those mechanics, it's too stressful"... well, I'm sick of telling myself that kind of thing.
I want to see all of the games I love, big and small, epic and personal... and while it might be an MMO, the only person who can really dictate whether I do that or not is me.
(and maybe that jackass in raid alliance B who won't stand on the thing, but I can always queue again when he's gone.)
