Buyer's Remorse

I don't often fall prey to the whims of my crowd, but I'm beginning to suspect that's what's happened here. I've returned to FFXIV, and picked up the new expansion.  Everything is exciting and new, and I should be happy as a clam.  Except.. it isn't, and I'm not.  So.. what's going on here.

Lightning Strikes! Again!

Yesterday kicked off the next event in Final Fantasy XIV's one year anniversary round up - which sees one of Final Fantasy's most cherished characters - Lightning, visit the world of Eorzia.  Similar to the other anniversary events, this is a repeat event as well - it first came around in November of 2013, so technically I suppose it should be called Lightning Re-strikes.. or maybe Lightning Strikes Returns Again.. or.. something. Now as I've mentioned before I'm not terribly well versed in Eorzia lore, but I am a fan of the Final Fantasy series, and was quite familiar with the lore of this character. I wasn't playing FFXIV at the time this event came around the first time, so I was really looking forward to participating in it this time. And let me just say, if you're a fan of franchise crossovers and of seeing your character participate in events side by side with a signature series character - the event does not disappoint!

A Night of Celebration!

So right now Final Fantasy XIV:ARR has a variety of in game events going on to celebrate their one year anniversary.  When it comes to seasonal events in MMO's, I'm very hit or miss. Occasionally I'll endeavor to do them just to see what they're all about, but quite often I'm just as happy to skip them altogether. Especially when the activities they would have you participate in trend towards monotonous. But as I'm still relatively new to FFXIV, and as these were the first seasonal events that have occurred since my return to the game, I decided to give them a go. And I'm glad I did. Seasonal events in FFXIV for me hit just exactly the right mix of fun, polish, and length!

Why are there no tanks?

So this line of thought got kicked off actually a few weeks ago, when I saw this blurb, from the letter from the producer for Final Fantasy XIV - ARR, in response to the question What can they do about the continued lack of tanks in the game?

We review player data every day, and recently there are actually a significant number of players leveling tank classes. When participating in the low level duty roulette, for example, you'll encounter players leveling their tanks and even players that just started a tank class. The number of tanks around level 40 is growing as well, and I believe this number will continue to increase. However, as you all know, there are also a number of players who are simply leveling a tank class because it's easier to queue in the duty finder, so whether or not these players will continue to play as tanks in the long term is still an issue. As things stand now, however, the number of tanks is growing, and I'm sure there are many players who will find tanking to be fun and continue leveling them up, so we're going to keep an eye on how many decide to use their tanks as their main class. If tanks are still in short supply, we would like to consider adding various bonuses such as a specialized mount.

And quite honestly this just flumoxed me.  The need for tanks is so great in Final Fantasy that the producers of the game are considering bribing people to roll up tanks with specialized mounts.  And Final Fantasy XIV certainly isn't alone in this.  WoW has stuck with a strong role combat model (that is, a model that incorporates the oft referred to trinity of tank, dps, and heals) for over a decade, and it still struggles with a lack of tanks in random group play.  And if it's not tanks, then it's healers. And it struck me - we've been doing this for over 20 years.  Why isn't this a solved problem yet?

Final Fantasy XIV - A Server Rebooted

It's been a rough couple of days for the Final Fantasy franchise.  What was originally intended to be a couple of days of early access turned into a couple of days of no access, as the North American and European data centers were plagued by problem after problem.