Off-screen diary of my foray into a 2013 FFXIV account.
- Day 1
- Update 1: Introduction
- Update 2: Some images, Level 9 commentary
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- ..
- Day 2
Not interested in minor things like pre-order minions? Check out this post about Creating your Adventure Plate in FFXIV, and how to customize your Adventurer Plate Portrait.
The least final of fantasies: Despite failing to get into FFXIV, I pre-ordered the game back in August 2013; I owned the game on PC and PS3 (somehow, at some point? it’s a boxed edition in any case – no pun intended). This is my replay of my first time playing a game I couldn’t get into until I replayed it 5 or 6 times over 10 years….
I started numerous new accounts, but the one I started in 2020 is the one that stuck. I didn’t play consistently, and I believe I’ve only paid 3 or 4 months of the subscription in that time, plus 1 or 2 free months. That being said, in those 2 years, progress, on one hand, has been slow: only finished Final Fantasy XIV ARR, and made a small dent in Heavensward. On the other hand, I’ve got every Job to at least level 30, my main job (SMN/ARC) is level 59 (I’m around 7 levels out-levelled, as my MSQ are around 52 – the nature of doing lots of sidequests, exploring, achievement hunting). So, slow progress, but I’d say fairly substantial progress, in a completionist sense.
So, why would I invest time in hunting through old e-mails, trying somehow to retrieve an account that may no longer exist… not to mention my 2020 account has all the expansions except Endwalker, so time and money have been invested….meanwhile I’m looking for an account with a total of 1 month subscription time, but it holds the prestige of being a pre-order legacy account….that comes with a Cait Sith Minion. It only took a couple of forum posts with people declaring their desire for this elusive minion for me to start to crave a completely useless minion, in exchange for essentially starting again…kind of.
At the time of writing, I picked Lancer, I DIDN’T pick Au-Ra (which pleases me greatly) – I understand the game far more, I enjoy the game now, key binds, inventory sorting, HUD scaling and arranging, autorun on 90% of the time, and no longer confused about “classes” and “jobs” (being a 17 year+ WoW veteran is the reason I couldn’t get into FFXIV…yet the things I found prickly about it previously, I now appreciate, and at times I’m in awe of….a great MMO, and an even greater game).
Level 9
The main goal is pressing through the MSQ, avoiding too many distractions, not levelling alt-jobs, not bothering with DOH/DOL (yet, maybe) and having the experience to take advantage of exp boosting opportunities. That being said, I’m still a complete FFXIV noob….I’ve discovered the little trophy icon: a vendor that will exchange achievement points for some fun items. Given that I’ll be gaining AP’s organically, and deliberately in the case of the Hunting Log etc.. my first new experience on the old account will be buying a Fat Chocobo Head. Exciting! (like, genuinely).