One of the things that I love about being a fairly prolific blogger, is that it also makes me a fairly prolific “screenshotter”. I like using images to break up blocks of text, so it means that I am always looking to capture moments in games. At last count, it also means that I have an archive of somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 GB worth of images recouting my time in various games. This means that with some measure of accuracy I can usually pinpoint exactly when I started playing a game. For example with my most recent return to Final Fantasy XIV, I know without a doubt that it happened on June 26th or 2021 and the above image is the first screenshot that I took. I started playing again on a Saturday which allowed me to get in, buy a jumbo cactpot ticket, and then cash that in after the podcast and I took a screenshot of it because I got a prize slightly greater than the default. It isn’t always a moment of huge significance that causes a screenshot to happen, but I do enjoy the fact that I do this regularly enough that I can use it as a visual journal.
This puts me slightly ahead of the curve when it comes to the recent wave of players trying out the game. It also has me still playing catch up for all of the content I missed since I last played around the release of the 5.3 patch. Something I had never participated in for example was the Bozjan Southern Front which is like this interesting halfway point between a Deep Dungeon and something like Eureka. To get it unlocked however I had to run through the entire Ivalice Alliance raid series that I never actually got around to doing in Stormblood. I’ve not spent a lot of time in there, but what limited time I have has been enjoyable. I mostly bounced from FATE to FATE and then signed up for all of the boss fights that happened while I was in the vicinity. I’ve unlocked the second area of the zone and I think at last count I was rank 6 of 15. Every time I can put on a new rank I pop back into the base and upgrade because I had been warned that often times this opens up new quests which unlock new things.
The bulk of my week was spent working on my machinist job, and I have to say right now at this very moment it is probably my favorite DPS class in the game. This is weird given how much I did not like Machinist when it was originally released in Heavensward. We’ve lost track of how many revisions to the class this has been, but right now they have a really enjoyable mix of a gunner class and Edgard from Final Fantasy VI. One of my friends Erry mentioned that she was not digging the class at all… and then she got Drill and that changed everything. I have to agree with this sentiment, it is really when you get the gadgets and the upgraded “heated” versions of your base attacks that it really starts to come alive. I hit level 80 with the class a few days ago and as is usually my pattern, once I got some basic gear I flipped out and started leveling something new.
There was one job that was completely greyed out for me, and I decided to remedy this. Otherwise, all of my battlecraft jobs are at least level 50 or higher. Dancer was introduced with Shadowbringers and I have to admit it is not traditionally what I would consider my jam. The first thing we had to remedy was getting rid of the default appearance which looked a bit goofy on a Lala. Instead, I went with this whole pirate lord sort of theme and I think it works nicely. Shocking to me is how much I am enjoying the class because it feels like playing a melee… but all of your attacks work at range. This means that like Bard and Machinist it is a class with a high degree of mobility since I don’t have to wait on any abilities to cast. What really pushes it up there though is the group support it provides with a bunch of interesting AOE minor heal abilities. I am learning the ropes but definitely a job that I dig. I think ultimately I am on the path to level everything to 80, but I sincerely doubt that happens before Endwalker.
Grace and I were joking that somehow I was replaced by the version of the player that they were in 2017. I have been throwing myself at all sorts of random group content and am even doing the daily Alliance Roulette for fun and experience. Sometimes it works great and we get a nice easy Syrcus run, and other times it does not… and you get Dun Scaithe that has so many wipes that I eventually had to bail out and go to bed. All the time however I find myself enjoying doing content with random players and how generally awesome everyone has been. Even in the cavalcade of wipes that was that Dun Scaithe run, no one was really hostile at least not the levels of hostility that I would have seen in other games. Like I can take passive aggressiveness because I grew up with plenty of that, it is the downright hostility towards other players that I think has driven me away from random group encounters in other games.
I had built this mental block up against doing things with strangers, and it makes me wonder how many opportunities I had missed out on. For example, I happened to be doing clan hunt logs in the Lochs when I noticed the Ixion this big mega FATE was up. Shortly thereafter folks started flocking to the zone and grouping up to prepare to kill it. They sat there and waited a good solid 10 minutes for folks to filter in from other zones and when there were 20 minutes left on the FATe they pulled. You can see the grouping of players that already had their mount, but were super happy to help out and do the FATE just because it was fun. I was in that camp as well, because I got the mount through another source and was just there to experience the event. It wasn’t particularly difficult but also wasn’t a trivial face stomp either. I walked away with enough Ixion horns to be able to pop over to Rhalgar’s Reach and get the minion version of Ixion to show for my effort.
Thing is… there is a version of me from not too long ago that would never have signed up for an event with a bunch of strangers. I know this is corny, but it feels like this game and its community have summoned forth a version of me that I thought was long dead. I used to be a group organizer and constantly slamming my face against impossible obstacles with strangers. That is more or less how I survived all of Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, and because of it I had long lists of friends and was in my maximum number of social channels that I used as a reservoir of people to do things with. Then the community changed, or at least I became fearful of it and I stopped grouping with anyone that I did not know personally… or at least were not vetted through one of my friends. Coming back into this atmosphere it has revitalized that part of me that is willing to talk to strangers and even lend a helping hand again. I’ve missed this version of me.
GW2 is just perfect for grouping with strangers because all the open-world content is entirely designed around that concept and the game gives you al the tools you need to be helpful and co-operative without really needing anyone to organize it. That said. lots of people DO organize things just because they like to do it and since there’s no real downside to someone thinking they’re in charge even when they’re not, and some upsides to having a nominal leader if they aren’t really leading anyone, it rarely causes any friction.
Of course, no-one really talks to each other much buit a lot of people talk AT each other so it feels quite jolly. YOu can easily pass an hour or two feeling you’ve been very sociable and friendly without actually having expended any social capital at all.
Stop tempting me to return!!! 🙂
Do iiiit.
(I felt it was about time I returned the favour of being the devil on your shoulder. ;))
Yeah, I know what you mean about grouping reluctance. I have found a similar vibe in recent public or open world events in GW2 lately. People are pretty forgiving. Of course, maybe the events themselves are pretty forgiving.