Goodbye to Final Fantasy XIV?

I'm almost come to the point to completely stop with the game Final Fantasy XIV. This game is a so called MMO: a massive multiplayer online game. A game that never ends. I play it for more than four years now. I like the idea of playing a game that becomes a part of you, that you can play 'for ever'. That you invest so much time that you know all ins and outs of the game. But as a completionist this game sucks. No matter how much time you invest in the game, you will never be able to get all the achievements in the game. And because I still want as many of them I'm doing stuff over and over again.

The game has many jobs. You can play as a black mage, as a white mage, as a red mage, and since the last patch even as a blue mage. And as a dark night, as a ninja and many more. You can change into a fisher too, I did many many hours of fishing. You can craft stuff as a carpenter, as a weaver et cetera. I crafted everything you can craft (all things you receive a check mark after crafting it). And you have relic weapons. For every fighter you have these kind of relics. And there are 15 or so different fighters. These relic weapons, can be upgraded. How to do this is: grinding. Doing the same stuff for many many hours. Right now, you have to be in a place called Eureka to grind. No one likes this Eureka. But people still do it because many people are trying to be a completionist. They want it all.

Because of this repeating stuff, the game has much of this, I cannot do what I want. I cannot learn all the skills of all the fighters properly. I don't have time to specialize these skills. And you have also many so called extreme fights in the game. To learn these fights you need to practice. But if I do so, I don't have enough time for all the other stuff. And when you enter a fight unprepared, people immediately start to complain if people don't know this fight. They just want to do the fight quickly for their achievements. Because there is a small chance that a special mount drops, or a special card. They need to do these fights a lot, to collect everything. Many people who are not so good, or do not have time to invest in these fights skip the difficult fights. They do them later unsynced. You can 'cheat'. When there is a level 60 dungeon and later on the highest level to achieve is level 70, then you can do the dungeon also unsynced at level 70. Doing so makes it much easier because the enemies are still level 60. So you can, later in the game, still get the achievements, but without knowing the fights properly. Many people do this.

Money

Square Enix, the company that makes the Final Fantasy games wants to make as much money as possible. This is very irritating. When you want to collect all mounts, you need to buy some of them for 25 euro's or so. The game is already expensive: you pay every month like 13 euro's and when a large expansion comes out: every two years or so, you need to buy this also (60 euro's). In the game you have many items. But you will find out quickly that you are out of storage space. You can buy, for real money, extra retainers. These retainers can store stuff for you. One euro a month for one extra retainer. Two of my friends that I know in real life also intensively played this game. You also have game friends in Free Companies, and in linkshells you can create. My two friends don't play as often anymore as they did. One decided to quit for ever. He played this game for many years. The other one did not play for months, but he wants to start playing some day again. He needs to log in though once a month not to lose his house. His house in the game. If you don't play for a month you will lose your house. So you need to pay for the game even while you are not playing it. Square Enix says it is that they want a real housing community: not that many houses as spook houses. But I just think it is only about the money. If you pay every month 13 euro's that should be it. Otherwise it feels like they are using you.

Beautiful game

The game looks very beautiful. It has many nice details. The main story though, is not very impressive. It's all about war. Not much about relationships. My favorite character, Alphinaud, is a beautiful boy. Everyone believes this character is gay. But there are no gay characters at all in the game. Most characters have no relation at all. You can get married in the game with another player. And you can have a gay marriage. And there are gay linkshells: all gay people in a chat group. You can dress very sexy if you like (both male and female). There is very much clothing in the game. Hundreds of clothes you can wear. And many gay players are in the game too. This because it is a fantasy game and not a hard core bloody shooter. Also it is in upper class English. I had to use my dictionary on my smartphone many times to look up words. This upper class English filters a bit some lower class people out of the game, but at the same time it is hard for not native English speakers. What I also don't like is that many texts in the game are just that: texts. Only in main quests the characters speak. You have to read so much texts that it is just too much. When you skip a text another one comes up, you skip that too, sometimes you need to skip ten or so text balloons to continue. What do these characters say: 'thank you for helping me.' 'Without you it couldn't be done.' 'You are the true hero.' Many, many times you read the same kind of texts. So much that you don't wanna be thanked at all anymore.

Knowing all ins and outs of the game. Being able to help others. It is only possible if you skip some stuff. And many achievements are just like insane. You can only get them when you concentrate on those ones only. Getting all of them is impossible. I had as a goal to get so many achievements that I needed less than one hundred. But I still need 365 (out of 1800 or so). Just before every expansion I had less achievements to do. But this time I played not much and I am getting behind already. Should I stop, or just play different?

I also play a game called Red Dead Redemption 2 and Dragon Quest XI. These games you can finish. And you can play when you want to. A game like Final fantasy XIV is a game that you feel you have to play. Like an addiction. When you visit your family or friends for a few days you get behind. That is what the game is about. This year a new large expansion is coming. More of the same I am afraid. Keeping you busy, keeping you paying for something that is not that much fun anymore.

But like an addiction it is hard to stop. I came so far, have spent so many hours, and of course had a lot of fun also while doing so. It is difficult to decide. I think I can spend more time working on my website: www.brongersma.info. And do some gaming if I really feel like gaming. Not that it is a must. Working on my website is more satisfying. Spreading information, so the evolution or even a revolution on child sex can take place...

I will miss my Alphinaud...