Anniversary time!

May 16th, less than a month away now, marks the 9th year FFXI has been in service. Having only played in 4 or 5 of those years, it seems like such a long time now that it's been in service. Aside from Everquest, it's currently the longest running commercial MMORPG, and that seems impressive looking at the variety of them that exist today; Guild Wars, WoW, Lord of the Rings: Online, Rift, the list goes on.

In celebration of yet another anniversary, Square-Enix is hosting another fan art contest to match the occasion. I wish I had two things: art talent and a current subscription to FFXI (which is a requirement for submission).

The prize is unknown as of now, however, last year's prize was primarily an in-game item of little to not value, which was likely supposed to be just a status symbol.

Last year's winning entry. Click for enlargement!

Official details and rules can be read here.

Sitting Around the Mog House, Looking For Party

"{Party} {Join up?} {please}" is something I want to hear the real world equivalent right about now. Even "{Experience points} {Party} {level} {Up}?" is something I wouldn't mind. Just ... SOMETHING. Life is incredibly boring right now in the lame duck period in my college life, waiting for summer. People are too busy because they omitted their finals earlier, and school club activities get in the way of hanging out with people constantly. It sucks having to have to wait around for things to happen, when you know exactly what it is you want. The problem is that nobody else wants to do the quest you want to do.

Way before the present, you could only gain levels with people one or two levels away from yourself, or by killing monsters by yourself. It made things very difficult, because if you want to group up with other people, you had to have people almost the same level as you, and the jobs to go with it. You couldn't have six WARs gather together and expect an efficient leveling party. You needed a tank, a healer, support, damage dealers, etc, not six jobs that are the same. In the present, there's a system called "level sync" which scales down higher level players to a chosen member of the party. It scales equipment, stats, job abilities, traits, everything you have to that of the average leveled person of the chosen level.

You could have this at level 15! Too bad you'd only get about 8 defense from it.

It's very handy for being able to do a lot of things with lower level strangers and friends. Perhaps too easily. You get jaded and bored of it after awhile, since you have to lower your standards and your power. It would be handy in real life to occasionally lower your standards, but that makes what you do just ... empty.

Some People Kind Of Suck

If I've learned anything over the last few days, it's that some people need to be beaten with the sharpest side of a Morgenstern. Over the last few days, I've dealt with my roommate of two years betraying my trust on an epic level, and someone being frustrated with me because I talked to her like I always do, and how she encourages me to, which is blunt and straightforward. The latter ended in me verbally destroying him, and the former ended in her--much to my surprise--ignoring me. However, what I'm also not surprised about is how apathetic I am about the whole situation. I've lived my life catering to other people, and I've never gotten anything I really want. Last weekend, that stopped. I thought of myself and acted upon what I wanted, which in my roommate's case, was social justice.


I wish social justice was easy anywhere. In the real world, it's difficult to achieve true social justice because of people making incredibly bad moral choices. Even on-line, where people are much more opinionated and willing to open their mind about people being stupid because you can be anonymous, it's difficult. Not only can you just not care about your moral character on-line, but you can change it almost at will. Making a new character is going a little far in FFXI, but you can just up and get a name change and consider it good. More than likely, though, you're going to let somebody know, and that can lead to other people knowing, making your efforts useless. Even if you don't care THAT much, people like-minded to you will always be there to experience game content, even if you're all just a bunch of jackasses to each other.

Mugshot of Every Internet Jackass

The Internet is a very scary place. Some might argue real life is scarier--and they're right--but the Internet has real life by the balls in one category: a jackass who's a jackass to everybody is always the last one laughing, instead of being arrested or shot and killed.

Awkward Dragon

Just about everybody has that friend they love to hate. It's usually not just you, either; it's a group of your friends. It's almost like you keep them around just because you happen to dislike them so much that they make you laugh. I have one in real life, and I'm the only one of us who will dislike them to the person's face. Meanwhile, the rest of the group don't. She left campus a year or so ago, and every time she says she may come back, people rejoice on Facebook (where she announces it) and then laugh their butts off in real life and joke to each other about it.

It's really cruel if you think about it. If they weren't doing this (and instead were straight with her), she may not come back, find out she wasted thousands of dollars going to a school of people who hate her, and would instead do something worthwhile. And I'm not saying to have her not come back because I hate her (the only reason anyway), it's because it's just being unnecessarily nasty.

In the linkshell I used for social times (I also had one for game events, since most social linkshells don't do events except for 2 person adventuring) had people like that as well. The only problem with doing that sort of thing in linkshell chat (as opposed to whispering to someone in-game using the /tell command) is that when you go to the list to view whom is currently on-line, the list is lagged behind by about a minute. So someone who you didn't think was on might be on when you send a nasty message over linkshell about them. In this case, it was directed towards a member whom had a ... very hard time trying to stay alive during a certain event because he made stupid decisions (such as doing too much damage, which makes a target more likely to attack you, or standing in the wrong spot where he could be hit by attacks that effect an area, such as a cone shape in front of the monster). Paraphrased, somebody had said something to the effect of "*member* can't seem to stop getting screwed in the *expletive* by Bahamut and his {staff}."

Yeah. *HIS* staff. Image courtesy aleczan.com.

He logged in just in time to see that, said hello, and dropped his linkpearl.

I've Got Plenty of Energy; Japan Doesn't

Ahh ... Spring break. Full of beer, topless women, sand in your shorts and getting arrested.

...

Or sleeping, if you're a normal college student. That's what I did for the past two weeks; sleep, eat, sit on the Internet for hours watching my favorite gaming vlog on YouTube and sleeping some more. The only times I left the house were to help my handicapped mother do the groceries, and when I went outside on the 19th to watch the supermoon.

Contrary to my uneventful Spring break, a lot happened in the world. Japan had a 9.0 earthquake, Libya had a major revolution, and FFXI's servers had to be shutdown because of the energy crisis in Japan, which was linked to the previously mentioned earthquake, and a tsunami/volcanic eruption/nuclear meltdown (that's a mouthful, huh?). It's been shutdown since the 13th, and there's been no word yet on when it's actually going to be put back up.

The thing is, I've heard reports of people wanting to unsubscribe their accounts just because they've been down for a week--because of a national energy/humanitarian crisis in the country of their game's origin. Do they not realise that they were essentially told by the energy companies in Japan to shutdown the servers in favor of a more essential use of the limited energy they have? The infrastructure of the electricity system in Japan had been basically doing rolling blackouts to save energy, so even if Square-Enix didn't shutdown their servers, they'd be turning off for hours at a time, several times a week. What's the point if you're doing a major event, and at the boss's hit points are at 1%, and all of a sudden *BAM*, server shutdown? I wouldn't want to deal with it. Just go outside or play something else.

This is all, of course, not mentioning the whole thing about them not wanting their employees to be at work. They have families and they're worried about them, and I'm sure at least one employee had a death in their immediate family to deal with. Why aren't people on the Internet nice sometimes?

But it's strange how your personal life can conflict with the world around you, huh? I wish something would happen, and millions across the world in Libya and Japan wish things would stop happening.

If I Did Dynamis All Week, I'd be Just as Exhausted

Dynamis had to be one of the few things that took ages way back that was just exhausting to do.

Dynamis is a series of events that are parallel universes of the present time in FFXI. There's a Dynamis area for every major city, including other places, such as that glacier area I had mentioned earlier that had hundred foot high snow drifts. The alternate reality is based around The Great War, in which the opposing side, the Beastmen, had succeeded in taking over Vana'diel. As such, instead of friendly shopkeeps and children greeting you at the auction house, you're instead greeted by insanely powerful foes that would rather eat your innards as opposed to selling you merchandise, or giving you directions around town.

Don't you just want to pinch his cheeks?

During midterms week, I've begun to fry. It's not just classes, either. Even social situations are becoming too much to handle. I recently stopped going to a club on campus that I've been going to for the last two years, because people don't realise when they should shut up. There's one thing people are missing nowadays in club; tact. You know what makes a functioning group? When you don't talk about stuff that isn't conflict as though it was conflict. It makes me want to tear out my enlargened Tarutaru ears so I don't need to listen to it anymore.

Do your friends a favor. If you're going to call somebody on something they "did", then make sure it's actually worth mentioning. I'd hate to see a building go up in flames because people thought a maniac was inside causing trouble.

Never Thought I'd See Keyboard Warriors in Real Life

Keyboard warriors are terrible to encounter on-line. A keyboard warrior is someone who constantly berates people through the Internet just because they can, and try to act tough while doing it. It was really present back in the day in FFXI, and it sure as heck still exists now, I imagine. Kind of like how it happened in high school, only, people don't use keyboards anymore.

Look at those tough guys. Courtesy of kumah.org.

Even in college people are still doing it, and they're not even anonymous. It's been a huge problem in the club I attend on campus, which is just a ridiculous situation all-around. A group of freshman had swept in, guns blazing, and trying to do things "their way", and then once the excrement hit the oscillation, they complained, saying "This is just one big high school!"

I'll never understand some people. When cancer begins yelling at other cancer, calling it cancer, stuff gets really silly.

/sigh

As most of you know, yesterday was Valentine's day. Mine was rather lackluster, so I hope those of you reading this fared much better than I did. It wasn't necessarily the fact that it's "singles awareness day", but because I had a talk with one of my friends yesterday about how she had just mutually broken up with her boyfriend--the day before Valentine's day. People were already going around her back trying to get her back with someone else, who was already dating someone, and what's worse, the guy's girlfriend was in on it.

I miss how simple it used to be. Valentione's day, the FFXI equivalent, was very simple and it was even slightly heartwarming. All you did was you went around your respective hometown (or, really, any of them), went to all the men and women, and tried to partner together them based on whom they had requested, and asked you to give them a half of a chocolate heart to the person you chose for them. For example, say a Hume male decided he wanted a feisty Tarutaru woman, and gave you his half of the heart. You run across a Tarutaru woman who says that she wishes she had a kind Galka as a partner, and gives you her half. You can either give her the half the Hume gave you and subsequently dash the Hume's hopes (because the Tarutaru doesn't want him), or you can go look for another Tarutaru woman who says something to the effect of "I really want a sugar-daddy of a Hume! Now go and find him for me!", give her the half the Hume gave you, and have it fit perfectly, creating a perfect couple.

Fitting in two halves of the same whole is always the best way to go about it, too--even if it's chocolate. If you have two halves that are the same size, it's boringly symmetrical. If you have two halves that are very different sizes, your heart is ridiculously unwieldy. But if you have two halves that are just different enough so that they don't match perfectly, but aren't completely different, you've found what I consider to be the perfect match, even in chocolate.

©Square-Enix

And Here I Thought The Character Creation Screen Was Final

I just ran into an old friend from FFXI on facebook, and it was weird because the name I had seen in screenshots she uploaded was different. Her name was Paliki, with blonde hair and orange highlights. Today, I saw a character uploaded onto her photo albums named Kadesia, also with blonde hair and orange highlights. I know it's the same server because of people also in her screenshots (Who could forget a Mithra named Mishymeow?), so why the change of identity? It makes me wish we had nameplates like in FFXI, where we could just go get a change and people would be none the wiser, just so we could re-create a reputation. But what makes people think they have a reputation for no reason?

I had quite a reputation on Flag, and I would never change his name. He's too sacred to me, kind of like a foster child.

{Teleport-Bangor (S)} {Can I have it?}

Now before you get too confused about what my title means, FFXI has an auto-translator function to aid the language barrier between English, Japanese and German speaking players in the game. Players like to use them for joke sentences, such as using the phrase {meat dishes} for the word "sex", or to keep with the maturity, the phrase {meat} {rod} for the word "penis".

Also, the (S) after Bangor refers to the past. I really miss two years ago here in college in Bangor. Things were a lot simpler; I was happy and I had a lot more to look forward to. Plus, I hadn't yet realised that a lot of college is just a scam for your money.

It isn't even really just about the money. Spring Break two years ago is when I had actually found the first person from college who I'd want to be around for the rest of my life, and it felt glorious to finally feel that. I had heard a lot that people you meet in college are going to be lifelong friends, but judging by first semester, I had thought it was all a farce. At least I finally did find someone, and although she and I will likely be nothing more than friends, I'm okay with that, because I'd rather have her in that capacity than nothing at all. I've met a few more now, so I suppose that scam money goes toward finding people you'll want to know for the rest of your life.

I Wish /blist Worked in Real Life

Consider this "I wish" entry a series. This would be the second in the series, preceded by the weather effects one earlier.

/blist (blist is short for black list) is a command in FFXI that lets you not see any chat, actions or otherwise in your chat log from characters on our black list. Ever. At least until you take them off.

For example, let me show you this chat log: 

Click on this to see the text. Note: >>Espadas is me talking to Espadas, and Espadas>> is him talking to me. He asked me to join a leveling party.

Click on this one, too!

 After all the traveling I did (through time and space, literally. Where I started was present day and where I was headed was in the past), and knowing where my starting point was, he thought I wasn't coming? That's a crock of shit, obviously. /blist is a handy command for people like this that you'd just rather not associate yourself with.

Imagine, if you will, you had the ability to completely remove any hint of someone's actions affecting you in any way. You can't hear them, you don't know what they're doing, what they're motioning or anything like that.

All you can do is see them.

How to Survive a Vana'dielian's Blog

I mentioned in my first post that one of the next couple posts would be one containing a list of lingo I may use, or have already used. If I think of something I've used, but didn't post on this list, I'll update it.


Vana'diel-- The fictional "earth" of Final Fantasy 11 (FFXI). Pronounced "van-ah-deal."

Quetzalcoatl-- The server in FFXI where my character, Flag, is located. Prounounced "queat-zal-coat-ul".

Tarutaru-- Flag's race. They're not children, despite their childish appearance. They're just short and smart. Pronounced "tar-oo-tar-oo".

 

Hume-- The human race in FFXI. Pronounced as it's spelled.

Elvaan-- The elves of FFXI. Elves are tall, noble, arrogant, live in the forest and as such are hippies. Pronounced "elv-en".

Mithra-- The "cat-like" race in FFXI. Consider them tan humans with cat ears and tails. A matriarchal race. Pronounced "Mee-thra".

Galka-- The monstrous race! They're tall, strong, muscular, asexual and all male. Pronounced "Gall-ka".

 

Aggro-- When a monster attacks you. Either it detects you with its sight or its hearing, or you attacked the bloody thing! Pronounced "agh-row".

Link-- When a monster attacks you because it saw you fighting something else. Consider it bestial loyalty to its own kind.

Tank-- A character who takes the brunt of a monster's attacks in group combat.

/tell-- A command used by typing "/tell *character name*" that sends a personal message to the named character. In your chat log, messages marked "Majestica>>" were received from a character named Majestica, and ones labeled ">>Flag" were sent from Flag.

Linkshell-- A shell that produces pearls that you attach to your ear that enables you to talk to anybody whom currently has a pearl from the same shell equipped. It's FFXI's guild/clan system.

Other things, such as jobs, I might also mention. Jobs are different occupations your character can change into in order to make use of different abilities, spells, traits or equipment.

Warrior (WAR)-- The philosophy of "I smash, you die."

White Mage (WHM)-- A healer of wounds and status effects. Can also use some divine magic damaging spells.

Black Mage (BLM)-- A wizard who primarily uses elemental magic to defeat enemies.

Red Mage (RDM)-- A cross between a WAR, WHM and BLM, a jack-of-all-trades. Can do moderate melee combat, and use moderately powerful white and black magic.

Thief (THF)-- Just like it sounds.

Monk (MNK)-- A melee combatant who uses his fists, typically wearing spiked knuckles and the like as well.

Paladin (PLD)-- A tank class that can use white magic.

Dark Knight (DRK)-- A damage-dealing melee class, typically using scythes or two-handed swords.

Beastmaster (BST)-- Makes use of charming monsters to make them fight for them.

Bard (BRD)-- A class that boosts its allies' parameters by playing songs.

Ranger (RNG)-- Uses bows, crossbows and guns to deal damage from afar.

 Samurai (SAM)-- A damage-dealing/tank class that uses great katanas to deal damage and quick reflexes to instinctively dodge incoming attacks. Flag is one of these primarily.

Ninja (NIN)-- A primarily tank class that can also damage deal if equipped properly. Uses ninja tools to cast ninjutsu to confuse and damage an enemy.

 Dragoon (DRG)-- A damage-dealing class that wields a polearm as well as the aid of a wyvern in battle.

Summoner (SMN)-- Through the aid of celestial avatars, a SMN can destroy foes and help its allies by boosting parameters or healing them.

Blue Mage (BLU)-- Obtains the knowledge to use monster abilities after observing them.

Corsair (COR)-- Pirates who use Lady Luck's touch by rolling the dice, boosting its allies' parameters in different ways while firing at opponents with its trademark "hexagun."

Puppetmaster (PUP)-- Making use of automatons, they control their every  move in combat. By adding different attachments to their machine, they can increase performance..

Dancer (DNC)-- During  The Great War in Vana'diel's history, troops of dancers were sent out as a way to boost morale to the troops to fight back invading enemy hordes. Aids its allies with curing abilities and ways to weaken enemies, they're quite handy to have behind you in battle.

Scholar (SCH)-- By studying magic, they've learned how to wield the most powerful white and black magics.

Image courtesy of http://www.holidayls.net/Archives/. Most of the jobs in FFXI!

I Wish There Was a Weather Effects Button For Real Life

Today where I go to school (Bangor, Maine), we've gotten about 18'' of snow.

Taken outside of my school.

I remember when I traveled to the Beaucedine Glacier for the first time, my thoughts were exactly the same: "Where the heck am I walking? I can't see past the snow!" It's a good thing there was an option to turn off the weather in the menu, or else I would've walked right into the claws of a Tundra Tiger or something similar, and had to walk all the way back. The dang place was just a ridiculous blizzard 24/7. I don't know how we didn't fall through the snow, since the drafts would surely be about fifty feet high.

Being a Taru would've definitely not helped me to prevent getting buried in the snow.

Welcome to my Mog House, This is my Warcry.

Hurrah!

Hello, and welcome to my humble rantings, which also might be called my experiences. I used to be a citizen of Vana'diel in Quetzalcoatl myself, alongside my 'little' friend here Flag back when the level cap was still 75. I had about 250-300 days of total time logged to him, all which was accrued in high school. Nowadays, Flag is in a temporal space of retirement eating some rice dumplings 'fresh' from the auction house, and sipping some chai tea straight from Aht Urhgan (pronounced ought err-gone).


It's been about two or three years since I last logged in for anything other than a "hello" to my former mates (my brother accesses the account daily on his character on the same server, so it's not like I spend $13 to say hi). I remember a lot of fond memories from this game, but on the flip side, I also had a lot of crap happen to me, either through bad luck or malice from Internet trolls.

But yeah, as far as intros go, I don't intend to go too far. You'll learn enough from future posts, and one of the next posts will be for those who don't know much about the lingo of the trade.