Kotaku Game DiaryThe final thoughts from a Kotaku employee on a game we are playing.Talking to people online can involve miscommunication, but a recent interaction in Final Fantasy XIV made my week. A much more experienced player, out of nowhere, dropped a few thousand screams into my pockets to upgrade my wardrobe.
I started playing Final Fantasy XIV on the last day of my vacation, after some friends said they were messing around with it. Picking up a massive multiplayer role-playing game the night before you go back to work is probably one of the worst ideas, but I’m nothing or inconsistent in my bad decision-making. Soon enough, I’d rolled over a cute magician from Au Ra (read: horned dragon), hoping to eventually become a white magician.
Final Fantasy XIV is neat, but I’d be lying if I said I’ve treated it as more than just a way to waste some time, while my anxiety keeps me clinging to social media. My friends and I all work vastly different hours, so I’ve been stumbling through the game’s early quests on my own for the past week or so. While the different cities are filled with different players, and I’ve gotten to the point where I search for dungeons with other adventurers, it still feels like a very personal, isolated experience.
That’s why, when a higher-level player tried to get my attention in the forested region of Black Shroud, I was totally unaware. It wasn’t until I absently looked at my chat log that I realized someone was talking to me.
At first, the simple message asking me if I was new hit my face. Unfortunately, my social anxiety spreads to online interactions, and I toyed with the idea of shutting down Final Fantasy XIV all the way down instead of reacting. But after some struggling with the chat window, I let them know that, yes, I was a new player. What follows is my best memory of how the conversation went.
Player: “I’ve noticed your gear is a bit below par for what you stand, so I wanted to give you some money to buy stuff from the seller.”
Me: “Oh okay!”
Player, who trades me 25,000 gil: “Someone helped me when I first started, so I wanted to pay for it in advance.”
Me: “Thank you very much! That’s so nice!”
Player: “Don’t worry. Is there anything else I can help you?”
Me: “No, I do not think so!”
Player: “Okay have fun.”
Me: “You too!”
And then the mysterious stranger flew off on their winged mount, never to be seen again. I’m still kicking myself for not writing their name because this was one of the most beautiful interactions I’ve had with anyone else in my entire life.
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After completing my scavenger hunts in the area, I went back to the city-state of Gridania to rummage through the market and finally settle for a variety of new items that have served me well so far. Obviously, I had to go through the trouble of learning how to dye clothes to change the sickly yellow color of the equipment to a beautiful deep purple – which meant fleeing to a whole different part of the world and getting orange juice for a seafaring NPC – but such a thing is life.
Final Fantasy XIV and other online games can be daunting at first, especially for someone like me with very little experience with MMORPGs aside from simple things like Maple Story and Runescape. It’s people like the player who helped me who really realize the genre’s potential, and I’m happy to learn that experiences like this are not rare in the Final Fantasy XIV community.
Wherever you are, mystery adventurer: thank you. I will definitely do the same for someone else if I stick with the game long enough.