#so if i could trick myself into seeing ffxiv's monthly sub as just $10 to get a thing | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

caulo · 2 years

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@watchingforcomets

not to advertize the hyperfixation that consumed my life, but they've been adapting the game a lot over the past few years! they're slowly making all of the dungeons soloable (they have the main A Realm Reborn story done, and some of the later dungeons), and they've been adjusting quests in the early story to make it tighter paced and less of a slog. i've heard good things about it! if it's the gameplay you aren't into though, can't help with that sgjfkhsglsh. but maybe watching a movie would work! tho honestly... especially in the early story, ESPECIALLY with the english dub, cutscenes Aren't All That Great, and imo most of the impact of the game comes from like. getting invested in your little character - tho that's my personal take and i have friends who are just happy not caring about their toon.

but yeah, early english dub is.... rough. like, made me really really dislike a good few characters, because the acting was just... bad? i heard japanese is better tho! and there's a lot of fetch quests. but they've been tightened up. but yeah, the later story (from the first expansion on)... well, i have way too many hours on this game over the past three years. obviously i'm INTO it lmao. but if it isn't for you... that's fine too!!

my last attempt to get into ffxiv was summer of last year, so i think i was already playing when a lot of those changes were going through!

i believe i made it to post-heavensward, so i was definitely past the slog of ARR that a lot of people warned me about. unfortunately, given how far into the content i’ve gotten, i’m inclined to believe this it is simply a ‘not for me’ situation.

cut for rambling, if you’d like to read my long thoughts on it. but the tldr; the game has never hooked me for a number of reasons, but it’s hard to say if ‘stress from subscription fees’ isn’t the only one that really matters.

when i said that i can believe there’s a compelling story to invest into if you’re not distracted by everything else, the main ‘distracting’ things for me are:

1. the paid sub is unavoidably the largest issue for me, because i’d play the game just to craft and hang out with friends otherwise lol ( i love fishing in the game dkjalfj ). it’s a constant stressor and source of anxiety, where i feel like i need to be playing and getting the most out of the game, all the time, or i am wasting not only that month’s sub fee, but the money i’ve already paid before. this makes me feel like i’m wasting time if i’m not getting a fulfilling experience, which leads to me rushing through in an effort to find something worth investing in, which is a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts when the main selling point of the game is its story. i can’t really enjoy the pay off of long-term storytelling when i feel compelled to rush through the slower parts. so i’m basically constantly being pulled out of the world by this real-life factor.

2. that said.... i feel like the storytelling is regularly in conflict with its medium, as the flow of gameplay, cutscenes, and ‘cutscenes’ ( as in, events where you are clicking through people’s dialogue ) is very messy. i don’t mind the voice acting .....usually. but pacing and tension gets cut a lot by the way the game is constantly stopping for long periods of time to give you information. and while i have plenty of ideas of how that could maybe be improved on, i actually think this it is something that i could embrace easily enough if not for point #4, because i have enjoyed plenty of games that.... we’ll say struggle with the concept of being an ‘interactive storytelling medium’ lol.

3. i just don’t like the game balance. i don’t mind the gameplay itself - actionbar games aren’t my favorite, but i can enjoy them - and i don’t have a problem with the MMO holy trinity. but i am a support player in games like these, and ffxiv’s healing classes are..... not interesting or satisfying to play to me in that specific vein, because it feels like they kind of didn’t bother making them interesting in a supportive style, by just opting to make healers hybrid damage dealers instead. when i learned that, even playing a white mage, i’m responsible for a considerable amount of DPS in dungeons/raids, my interest in that entire aspect of the game died pretty much on the spot because that’s not...... what i play a healer for lsdkjflk

which isn’t to say i’m against min/maxing or anything. if there’s no supporting to be done in a moment, it makes sense to do damage, but the gameplay loop of even the most supportiest-of-support classes + the fights themselves in ffxiv are designed with too much expectation of focusing on DPS for my liking. and obviously the single player PVE is nothing special. SO, being unable to invest in the story, i find myself also unable to look forward to the gameplay content that unlocks from progressing.

4. is just that the all of the above are in one game. i’m inclined to believe i could enjoy ffxiv if i only felt two of the three points. because i enjoyed WoW ( which also has #1 and #2 ), and i enjoyed Guild Wars 2 ( which has #3 sortakinda in the sense that ‘everybody can do everything’ to such an extent that, at least last time i played, your choice of play style felt very impact-less in dungeons ).

as is, i entered the game excited for some of the late game content i’ve seen videos of, but lost that excitement when i realized there wasn’t a job with a playstyle i’d enjoy while doing that content. and i had a roleplay blog for ysayle, because i was invested in her character/writing with some friends . . . and then i accidentally skipped her death cutscene because i had so little patience for the game’s actual methods of storytelling at that point LOL

i could, maybe, try approaching the game with more investment in my player character, but i don’t think that would work for me very well. i’ve never found much to enjoy about how MMOs approach your player character’s ‘special-ness’. even when i was playing with the most patience for trying to embrace the game and taking everything at face value, seeing my ‘warrior of light’ as anything more than a filler character for things to happen to/experience the story through wasn’t something i experienced.

but it seems like #1 is the point that’s most likely to maybe change for me one day. it’s basically the opposite situation of how i’ve learned to unstuck myself from predatory mobile games LOL. every now and then when i’m playing a game with in-app purchases, i ask myself ‘if i had infinite money to put towards it, would i still enjoy anything about this game?’ and if not, then chances are i’m not playing out of enjoyment of the game itself. but with ffxiv, if i had infinite money to put towards it, i’d just enjoy trying all the features of the game without stressing about the subscription service skjfldf

if i’m ever in a financial situation where i feel like i can throw $10 a month at something and not feel like garbage for not wringing out every cent of that, maybe then i can give the game a more laid-back, patient approach that would allow me to get drawn into the story. and happily grind away at crafting alongside it LOL

#watchingforcomets #annoying high pitch ringing in your ears #the only thing i have a subscription for ( unless you count like ...... bills LOL ) is discord nitro #which i value for the practical purpose of sending files and all the 'fun' stuff is just a side bonus #i can very easily fall victim to individual micro-transactions but subscription fees send my anxiety into overdrive #so if i could trick myself into seeing ffxiv's monthly sub as just $10 to get a thing #rather than paying $10 to start a timer then maybe. . ... ....#OH wait i forgot i do have one other sub - i pay for the switch family plan thing for myself and my friend group once a year haha

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