Sunday 12 August 2012

What's in it for me?

My RL friends and I have put many hours into discussing why FFXI is so "addictive".

I just read this blog post and I wanted to share my thoughts.

I came back to Vandiel because I love the world.  I have yet to find another world like it and there is no MMO experience better than discovering a new world.  Whether it's your first time in a new MMO, the release of a new expansion or even a new update; the buzz of going to new places and even just discussing new features is unbeatable.

For me, I came back for Seekers of Adoulin.  I wanted to get myself in the best possible place to enjoy that experience.  When I think of SoA I think of new areas, mobs and stories to experience.  I don't think of what cool armour or weapons will there be to get.  Don't get me wrong, I love cool armour and weapons but I have never enjoyed getting a piece of armour as much as I enjoyed fighting along side Excenmille and the Young Griffons or the time I crowned a fellow Puppetmaster Empress of the Empire.

I find FFXI compelling not addictive.  It's a page turner; I want to discover.

That's me.  There are others like me but it's a sliding scale; we're all a bit different.  I have, in the past, been like the adventurer who wrote that blog post.

When I read that blog post, I see the state of the world we live in reflected back in a game.  I see people who treat their friends as rivals and far from not wanting to miss out on an experience with friends, it's that they don't want their friends to get something they want and/or miss an opportunity to get it themselves.

Enter the FFXIAH.com achievement ranking system.  Now there is a way you can directly measure yourself against your friends!  What could be better for that sort of player?

Well, I've been that sort of player and do you know what you get out of it?  Nothing but bitterness.  When The Beatles said that "money can't buy you love" they could have just as equally sung "gear can't buy you friends". Oh, sure, people flock to people with gear thinking it will rub off on them, but they just as soon flock off when they realise it won't.

I can name a handful of people that I know for a fact are levelling crafts and jobs and completing missions for no other reason than they want their FFXIAH.com score to go up.  They're doing that right now, I can see them on my Guildwork feed.  I sometimes wonder when they will overtake me but do you know what? I'll never know because I switched that off months ago*.

These people aren't addicted to Final Fantasy, they're addict to the illusions of success that running the Rat Race brings and as such they can't help but make what should be a gentle pastime, and a break from real life, into a competition.

Personally, I don't need Scragg's algorithm to tell me what I have and haven't achieved.  I know exactly in my mind's eye what it is I want: there's a character I want Dibble to be and, although I haven't fleshed out all the details, that's what I am working towards.

That's what an RPG is all about and that's why I enjoy the game.

* You can switch it off too. Look:


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