Earlier today, my Kotaku coworker Heather Alexandra posted what I am sure was expansion. An ending that I’m still a level and a half and a whole bunch of quests away from experiencing. I am so damn jealous.
It’s not just Heather. It’s Heather and the countless other players who’ve managed to get ahead of me since Shadowbringers‘ launch. It’s the people in my Free Company who hint at the cool things I haven’t seen yet (looking at you, Syg). It’s the people running by me in-game who are level 80 to my level 78. It’s folks on Twitter who respond to my screenshot tweets with posts like, “Oh neat, you’re getting near the end,” Brant.
I don’t hate these people. I could never hate them. We’re all playing and enjoying the same game. They’re just playing it faster than I am. And that should stop, somehow. I haven’t quite figured it out yet. Maybe progression servers where no one can play more than two hours a day? That seems reasonable.
I don’t get jealous when others progress faster than I do through single-player games. Hell, I never finished The Last Of Us, and I’ve never once felt like throwing heavy things at people who have. But when I am surrounded by living, breathing evidence of my personal lag, I get testy. It looks like my little World of Warcraft gnome is running through Mechagon Island having the time of her life, but behind the keyboard, I am loudly cursing at people who’ve gotten new mounts and equipment before I have.
All that these poor people are guilty of is having more free time than I do. Maybe I should be happy that I have such a full life that I don’t have as much time to dedicate to a massively multiplayer online game. That seems healthier than combining curse words with body parts that don’t go together, calling players that can’t hear me things like “shit elbow” and “fuck neck”.
Ultimately, my anger and frustration is with myself, and it eventually subsides. In a week, I’ll have finished Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers‘ story, and I’ll stop wishing serious internet and/or power outages on my friends and co-workers. Love you, Heather.
Comments
7 responses to “I Can’t Deal With People Getting Ahead Of Me In MMOs”
There will never be enough time on this earthly existence for me to play all the games that I want to. There’s so many that deserve (let alone demand) hours, weeks, months even, of my fleeting, finite time.
Priorities need to be set, decisions made. It sucks. A lot. Would that there were more time. All the time to enjoy everything. I just wanna be a Time Lord, I guess.
Ive long since given up on the social aspect should i ever dive back in an mmo… I just dont have the time to invest to keep up with other ppl on grinding.
Its always the same story with me eventually being left behind on gear and levels and then I just become dead weight for everyone else.
(Also, minus the goggles I really love the outfit from that gif.)
That same article is the one that made me pull my finger out and stay up til 3am last night to get the story finished.
HO DAMN it was worth it.
I can’t play MMOs or even most MP games these days because I just can’t invest the time to progress to a point where I can be competitive. It isn’t even just about skill levels anymore but so many games rely on progression with unlockables that quickly become essential items. I used to love playing online but microtransactions can get fucked and I’m not having fun playing games where everybody outclasses me because of their unlocked toys.
When it comes to FFXIV, being competitive comes down to who will be World First on clearing Savage… and if that race is lost, Server First. To be World First pretty much falls into the skill territory (as well as having crafters made for end-game). Microtransactions in FFXIV are only for cosmetic items. You cannot pay to win… via Square Enix. Paying (usually in gil. Rarely in real money for obvious reasons) to be carried by 7 other players is another story.
PvP also falls down to skill and coordination/cooperation. What you’re equipped with doesn’t even play a part in PvP. PvP gear is also just cosmetic fluff.
This issue was one of the first things that created fractures in my relationship with my first gf ever. I had recently started working (at an advertising agency, none the less!) while she was having a sort of a gap year after dropping off from her first major. We used to play Ragnarok Online and while things were fun at the beginning when she was a few levels ahead and was my “knight in shining armour” as we delved into places I had no business being around at my level, soon the addiction dug its claws in and she was spending most of her waking time playing.
One day, after a week of long nights at work, I was finally able to fire the game again to play with her, only to find out that she was basically a goddess, had insane gear and was one of the MVP of a guild that she joined at some point during my absence. She was also the token gamergirl of the guild so she was constantly showered in attention and gifts.
There was only so much insecurity that my 23 year-old arse could deal with so I made a bigger fuss out of it than maybe I should have had, but in all fairness, she was objectively spending way too much time in the game.