A FF14 Project: As Someday It May Happen (I've Got a Little List).

If you're just here for an update on the road to many 70s... 34.5%. Lots of ways to go. This post is for a different project.

To truly understand and appreciate this project you'll need to at least be familiar with FF14. Familiarity with Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado" would not be remiss.

This is a FF14 take on "As Someday It May Happen," or more commonly known as "I've Got a Little List." So, first. Lyrics. Second. Music.

Below, you'll find Draft 3 of the lyrics. I'm right now trying to find people with a better ear for music to see if I'm clipping syllables too tightly in places or if I could reword to make it easier to sing. I've got no talent for music or lyrics, so this is the Peer Review stage of this project. Hi Peers.

Protect Your Mecha: A Rival Wings Primer

Let's talk about the Mecha of Rival Wings.

The Hildibrand quest chain is probably the best written of the quest chains in FF14. For spoilery example....

Design Problems With Legion/MMOs in General

Not even a few weeks into Legion's release, normals were no longer relevant content. At this point, if not at the same time, Heroics were no longer relevant content. As it is, for players who started on release day and pushed, regular Mythics are no longer relevant either. Which leads to players complaining they have nothing to do, and developers complaining that players blow through their content too quickly.

I Want to Like FF14, But...

I want to like FF14, but it has all sorts of little annoyances common to most JRPG/FF games. Multiple confirmation windows. Multiple loading screens between areas. But, the last quest chain is probably the worst example.

World of Warcraft's Trade Chat Has a Problem

This public-facing part of the WoW community is ugly and not something I want people to associate with me when they think "WoW Gamer." When I tell people I'm a level 100 Protection Warrior, who dabbles in Monk Mistweaving, I don't want them to think, "Is he one of the people joking about anally raping children? Because that's what they do in WoW."

Toxicity in Games

I've been playing more MOBAs and MMOs lately. One problem in both of these genres is the other people I play with. Not the people I personally know; the random people. If you're a non-toxic player, then, you can probably stop reading here. If you ARE a toxic player, then please keep reading. The "you" from here on in is to be understood to be toxic players. This is my attempt to explain why I want them to stop being toxic. So, if you aren't part of the intended audience, this isn't for you.

WAR -- What Was It Good For?

Now that WAR is ending, let's look back on the good, the bad.

Candy Stores

If the White House candy store is open, does that mean tours have resumed?

NANOWRIMO is in November. The blog is slow as I prep for that.

And play Final Fantasy 14.

... and World of Warcraft.

Look people, I'm just weak.

Guild Wars 2: I Am Playing It

Not right this exact second, but in the grand scheme of seconds, it is an activity that takes up many of them. You could say, GW2 is now in my rotation of games to play. I am a Sylvari Elementalist as my main. This is a new departure from my normal play style, as I am playing a sticky melee-ish burst DPS. My world, it is being rocked.

One thing I like about GW2 is that it is simple, yet complex. It is a lot like the Secret World (and Guild Wars 1) in that regard. Expect to get some more specifics about team building and character tweaking as I get more familiar with the game. For now, all you need to know is that I'm on Sea of Sorrow and that you can ask for my account name if you want to play with me.

From what little I played over the weekend's pre-release, here are a few things I really like:

1. Weapons give you an identity. They mean something to your character and define what you do.

2. Traits and utility skills shape that identity.

3. Each class can be competently played in many ways with a variety of tweaks, without each class just feeling like a hodge podge of abilities. Class hit their theme well and feel like they flow in combat.

4. Events are fun, quick to join and dynamic.

5. Playing with your friends is painless.

6. You can fiddle around in PvP with your character then return to your PvE progression without falling behind in PvP.

7. The game world is laid out well and logically (you know where you should be going next.)

Those are the big things; go play.

New Concept of End Game

Part of the problem with MMOs, I think, is that there needs to be a new concept of "end game." Everyone (including me!) wants "end game" gear, this is reasonable. Not everyone (including me!) wants to do end game raiding. The main catch, I think, is that we need to define end game the same way we do in a single player game.

Star Wars: Free to Play

Everyone seems to be piling on Star Wars for going free to play. I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing; though it is clearly not what people trying to keep making money off it wanted. Subscriptions are down. With competition for free to play coming from Guild Wars 2 in a few weeks (and The Secret World taking their slice of niche, story-seeking players), Star Wars needed to stop the bleeding.

That's before we even look at the panda in the room.