I read this blog this morning, and one statement really stood out to me:

But back in the early days, we were given a set of tools as players and subscribers to craft our world.  If you think about that, it’s a very special thing to be able to do.  We were the ones, collectively, that were responsible for “making the game work.”

With my static having ended, I’m in a funk about Paladin — so I decided to level Dancer for awhile.

It’s not the job this post is about, but the party I was with from 20 to 23.  This party was so much like my static.  When this party ended I found myself both satisfied and wistful.

Satisfied because, this group played with the tools SE provided to make XP’ing interesting and engaging.

This group knew how to Skillchain and Magicburst, and used it to great effect.  When Fusion landed the Paladin and White Mage would Magicburst Banish, the BLM (yes, a Black Mage! In a party!) and Red mage would Magicburst Fire.  it was marvelous to see the monsters (Gigas) go from healthy to dead in just a couple seconds.

There was communication in the party to set up skill chains.  In the event something unexpected happened, we were all able to talk out what would happen.  And when things were running smoothly, we chatted each other up, bandied faux insults, and generally tried to be raucous.

Wistful because it reminded me static was wasn’t just good, it was great.

I dig this style of play, and my static did it well.  It bothers me when I see players trying to bring high level [TP Burn] mechanics down to lower levels [where it just doesn't work].  It removes a component of play that keeps the game engaging.  I also want to tell players that complaining about “part chat spam” when the party members are socialization to “go die in a fire.”  FFXI is a game you get to play with a few thousand other people — and you want quiet?

So the party last night was wonderful.   It’s encouraging to see players that played the game to be fun (all aspects of the game, including run-o’-the-mill xp’ing), instead of playing Final Fantasy XI like an Excel spreadsheet.

“The search for the mot juste is not a pedantic fad but a vital necessity. Words are our precision tools. Imprecision engenders ambiguity and hours are wasted in removing verbal misunderstandings before the argument of substance can begin.”

— Anonymous Civil Servant

Don’t do what you sincerely don’t want to do. Never confuse movement with action.

Ernest Hemingway said that to Marlene Dietrich. Like Marlene, I find those few words to be an excellent razor to apply to everything I tackle — including FFXI.

Lately, I find myself perpetuating a great deal of movement in the game. Amongst all this churn and turbulence I create, I see little headway made on any front.

Now that my static has disintegrated ( it’s not a bad thing, as many of the static members have positive RL events that keep them from the game ), I have time to pursue other options.

Grow the linkshell? Level my other sub-jobs (Thief, Dancer, White Mage) to 37? Forge another static? Go solo with Paladin to 75?

My static mate in game and good friend Ardra has made the decision to stop playing the Elvaan Samurai Ardra and pick up their previous character again — Naal. I understand the reasons behind this decision, but I find myself feeling an odd emotion of seperation, and very much like a sulking child.

With Ardra we had essentially set out on our jobs together from level one.  My choosing Paladin, Ardra going with Samurai, and Darrian eventually going with White Mage.  We hunted NM’s together, farmed, made our way through teh d00nz o’ d00m not only with our mains, but also our sub jobs, and our sub job’s sub job.  Occasionally we reached back to our higher level character to help out in impossible situations (my using Gentoo, Ardra using Naal), but for the most part we forged our way through by our own grit.  As we did this, we became a force to be reckoned with, and to my surprise, I formed a bond with these characters as much as I did with the players behind them.

With Naal being 75 or nearly 75 with 3 jobs (plus merits), I find myself both pulled with the desire to do things with my friend, but also pushed away because there is no more challenge or feeling of accomplishment.  So long as I trail along behind Naal saftey or achieving whatever goal is never in doubt.

Playing FFXI is a nice way to decompress from my real life of looking at and fixing other people bad code, or creating some myself.

However, the day-to-day life of Suquamish can get a little hum-drum.  Offing Puks is great fun the first one hundred to one hundred-fifty times, but after that the excitement wears off a little.  Plus, there is only so much of time wasters one can take that supports life in Vana’diel.  Farming, Crafting, Harvesting, Fishing, Logging, Minning, Clamming, all get a bit grindish.

So a couple weeks ago I decided to book Brenner match.  The allure to Brenner was that it had no arbitrary limits set on it, no silly side quests to complete, thus allowing anyone in the LS to join [if they Chains of Promathia installed].  Most of us (including myself) had never done a PvP tourny inside FFXI.  Our collective knowledge about Brenner ended at knowing it as a complex version of capture the flag.

There are some nice nuances that PvP allows for.  For example, moving can cause your opponent to not be able to hit you, or not allow that Thief (or /thf) to be able to SA you.  Likewise, if your opponent moves, you can still strike him given he’s not to far away and there’s not any terrain blocking you.

Since it was PvP and we had a blast killing one another while figuring out the game. We had SO much fun, in fact, then and there we unanimously decided that it should be a regular fixture of the lolCats LS.

Last night was our second Brenner night.  A few new members came along, and were struggling to figure out the gist of the game, but with a core group the knew how to play and what to expect, Brenner took on a whole new level of excitement.  Not only was it a blast putting the smack-down on fellow lolCats, we had a few close games where the score was decided in the last several seconds.

Lessons learned:

• Damn those Paladins and their high DEF.. they’re impossible to kill quickly.   That is, unless..
• Samurai/thief with SA+WS can ruin any job in a terrifically short amount of time, unless…
• A level 75 Thief/ninja is just this side of impossible to hit.

I have to hand it to SE on this one.  Brenner is great fun. It both enforces the team-oriented spirit the game tries to foster, and allows for some seriously great head to head fun.  I’m already looking forward to our next Brenner event.