Walking to the end, never looking back
I’ve wanted to write something about Final Fantasy XIV for this blog for a while now, but I’ve been kind of struggling to find the words. It’s a bit ironic considering FFXIV has been a part of my life for almost a decade and I have spent over 8000 hours (a number that makes me wince) exploring the world of Eorzea with my friends. If you’ve spoken to me in the last few years, I’ve definitely talked about it with you. And for that, I am deeply sorry. But here I am, trying to figure out what exactly I want to say about this game.
Umm... tee hee! (And this isn't counting the hours on my PlayStation)
Originally I wanted to write about my thoughts about the current expansion Endwalker and the lead up to the newest expansion Dawntrail that’s launching in about a month. Then I realized I don’t really have thoughts about it besides just wanting it to be good.
My hot take is that I thought FFXIV Endwalker was kind of bad. FFXIV is a game that’s filled with weird quirks that you just get used to because when the game is good, it’s really fucking good. I will excuse a bunch of annoying fetch quests because I’m chomping at the bit to see what Emet-Selch does next. But my biggest issue with Endwalker is that the quirks are starting to be actively detrimental to the experience of actually playing the game. The story had a lot of pacing and tone issues, classes are becoming too homogenized, content is getting sparser and there have been more and more technical issues with the game. I wrote a review on my backloggd account if you want to read my thoughts in more detail, but for the sake of the sanity of my readers… I’ll just leave it at that.
To be honest, I think the real reason why I’m falling out of love with FFXIV is that I’m just finally getting bored of it.
During pandemic lockdowns in 2020, FFXIV quickly became a replacement for my real life that was put on hold. It was the same for many other people I know. I’m an officer in a pretty massive guild and I remember 2020-2021 as probably our most active time ever. Socialization moved from offline hangouts to online hangouts where we would park our avatars next to each other and talk on Discord until 3 in the morning every night. I even met really awesome people that I’m still friends with to this day and have met up with in real life. Despite the world feeling like it was ending, my life in Eorzea was flourishing.
Friends :)
As I look back though, maybe I went a little too deep into it. MMOs are designed to keep you coming back every day, completing long-term goals. When I was working a full office job pre-covid, I would play for maybe an hour or two a night, balancing going to the gym, other hobbies and hangouts with friends. I remember it taking me a long time to catch up to endgame, which at that point was during Stormblood. When the world shut down for a while, all of that went out the window. I could play at home while working, so I would very often be logged in all day, even if it was just to chat or look at my character and not actively play. I was completing goals very quickly and being able to do side content I normally wouldn’t have been able to do on my old schedule. Beyond that, it was easy for it to be your whole social life when you don’t have to leave your room to talk to people or hang out. It extended to social media, Discord servers… my whole life was FFXIV.
Best in slot, everything at max, and looking fresh too.
This went on for a few years but it wouldn’t be forever. The excitement of the Endwalker launch turned sour as we were given months of lackluster patches. My friends gradually stopped playing as they got tired of the game too and moved on to other games. I quickly fell out of love with raiding as things in the real world slowly got back to normal and I realized how much time I was spending dying to raid bosses instead of going to concerts or seeing my friends. Last summer, I even unsubscribed from the game for the first time in 5 years. I think I really knew I had to step away from the game when I had to describe what the Rain Nightclub billboard was to my therapist when I told her about FFXIV during a session.
Do I regret it? Yes and no. I regret the amount of time I spent playing FFXIV during the last few years when I probably should have been doing more constructive hobbies. Hell, even playing other games too - I have a big stack of JRPGs I need to finish. But I don’t regret the connections I made in game and in the community. That’s been the best part by far - I’ve been grateful to have met so many awesome people through FFXIV. I’m at the point now where I’m starting to finally be able to meet them in real life which has been amazing. I spent Christmas in New York City with some guildmates and I have an annual meetup with friends in Maine every summer too. You may have read my post about how I feel about video games as a social thing and that was the real endgame for me when I decided to dive headfirst into the FFXIV community - making long lasting friendships. And I’m happy to say that that part was very successful.
So I guess I will play Dawntrail when it comes out next month. But I’m excited to go back to my ultra casual roots of only doing the story, doing my dailies, and playing big green bald man dress up. I genuinely hope it's good! I want a reason to keep playing, and it sounds like the dev team has been taking player complaints to heart. I’m optimistic. But we’ll see.
I know many of my FFXIV friends will be reading this so I am genuinely curious to know how you all feel too. Are you excited for Dawntrail? Do you also kind of regret how much time you sunk into the game over the last couple years? I’d love to know your thoughts.
Until then, if you see this man slap his bald head for me.
Brock Motherfucking Hampton.