Greetings and salutations everyone!
This is one of the few occasions you will find me peeled away from my Playstation 4, partially because I have become utterly and completely addicted with it over the past month playing an MMO. For those of you not aware, Final Fantasy XIV is the second installment of online final fantasy games published by Square Enix, and despite being a separate game all on its own, it still holds true to what Final Fantasy XI introduced, and expanded much further.
To say I have been spending a lot of time playing this game would be a tremendous understatement. I average at least 6-8 hours a day playing the game, but this is all for a simple purpose. This Friday, the 19th, the new expansion is released for early access, making it necessary to reach the maximum level and complete the main story quest to progress! Within the game, there are multiple fighting classes, along with other gathering and construction classes, where each one starts at level 1 and has a max of 50. Through the past month, I have raised two of my classes up to 50 in anticipation of this expansion, of which my classes of choice are the White Mage (WHM), and the Black Mage (BLM)!
It was a long and arduous struggle to get there, but I figure I can go into a little bit of the mindset I had while I was doing this.
Normally, playing a game for this long of time across multiple days, if not weeks, would be deemed a little crazy, and I am certainly not denying this! The length of time I have spent playing this game has been extreme, especially across the days where I have been.
When I get out of class, I play Final Fantasy.
When I finish my homework, I play Final Fantasy.
When I'm waiting for dinner or clubs, I play Final Fantasy.
I feel that this mindset is adopted by many people, but I feel that it is really summed down to a couple feelings we have when we play these games, and why we do.
Games of this caliber have a tendency to have a set goal in mind. I knew that I wanted to reach the maximum level to continue on with friends, but this goal kind of escalated to the point where I NEED to reach the maximum level to reach the cap. It gave me a purpose to do something within the game, to become more powerful, to join the rest of the group at the high level areas, and to prove myself amongs the rest of everyone on the server as well.
The feeling of adopting the persona of my character is incredible. I have all the power to shape my destiny while in the game, all the while helping those in need and filling a purpose. It's an awesome experience, and playing it out can be rewarding among those that I know both in game and out of game.
There really isn't much of an explanation other than my drive to play as much as I do, but I definitely do not have a life and therefore I can play a lot! Playing games is my favorite pastime, of which if you ever need a Healer or DPS on Exodus, just find me and I'll carry you!
Until next time,
-Nicholas "TAE"
