It’s about time our sunburnt country got some attention.
Exciting many Australian fans of the series, Square Enix announced that they would be launching a dedicated Oceania Date Centre for Australian and New Zealander players of Final Fantasy XIV Online. Considering our internet services down here are less than savoury compared to other countries, a dedicated Oceania Data Centre is just what players of the game have been waiting for to get the full experience of the game. We were able to get an interview with the director of the game Naoki Yoshida about the announcement, which you can check out here.
The Oceania Data centre is accessible for new character customisation, with Home World Transfers now permitted allowing existing players in Australia and New Zealand to transfer their characters over to the Oceania Data Centre. With five Worlds being available and all these Worlds being designated as ‘New Worlds’, this means players who transfer to or create new characters on them get special bonuses such as double EXP up to level 80, gold and silver Chocobo feathers exchangeable for special in-game rewards, and more.
The Connection
With the Oceania Data Centre releasing on January 25th and the transfers being available from the 26th, many players have already poured into the new worlds. Users on the r/ffxiv subreddit have reported that their connections to the server have been miles better than when they were restricted to other countries servers.
However, the lovely Kotaku Australia users have informed us that the walloping demand for transfers has resulted in the Mog Station facing issues. According to a post on the Final Fantasy XIV Online website, this has been confirmed.
“We are currently experiencing a high volume of applications for Home World Transfer Service, and it’s causing major congestion.
If you are experiencing congestion when accessing the Home World Transfer Service page on Mog Station, please wait a few moments and try again.”“In addition, we are experiencing a large amount of errors in Home World Transfers to the Oceanian Data Center. As announced in the news and when applying for Home World Transfer Service, you will need to have accessed the data center you wish to transfer to at least once. If you are planning to transfer your Home World to a data center you have never visited before, please be sure to access it once beforehand.”
Despite these issues, users have reported that the servers themselves have been running quite smoothly, with queues for dungeons being faster than Australian and New Zealander’s players’ experiences in the North American servers.
The Character Names
Since the release, a Twitter account has been created called People of Materia, which has been documenting the goofy names that players have given their characters in the new Oceania servers of Final Fantasy XIV Online. Here are a few favourites.
Spotted in Ul’dah, Sophia: Woolies Shelfstacker
Thank you for your tireless work, we salute you#FFXIV #PeopleOfMateria pic.twitter.com/0aBofUDIUV— People of Materia (FFXIV) (@peopleofmateria) January 26, 2022
ah yes, just when i needed my booster shot #peopleofmateria pic.twitter.com/1n78r9GIjL
— alastor iriq (@ZEN0SYAEGALVUS) January 26, 2022
— Claire ???? estrogen burger indulgence (@CDefal) January 26, 2022
Think I found him over in Thanalan pic.twitter.com/3WbG5v3iLd
— Ari ???? (@FinalFantaCee) January 26, 2022
Spotted in Limsa Lominsa, Sophia: Daniel Andrews, fangin’ for a Four’n Twenty
(submitted by @rakhmana_ffxiv) #FFXIV #PeopleOfMateria pic.twitter.com/7BfgLGE1oX— People of Materia (FFXIV) (@peopleofmateria) January 26, 2022
Spotted in Western Thanalan, Ravana: a LNP meeting between Domicron Perrottet, Scotty’from Marketing, and Gladys Bin’chicken
(submitted by @sfmgallery1)#FFXIV #PeopleOfMateria pic.twitter.com/E68DfOXoL8— People of Materia (FFXIV) (@peopleofmateria) January 26, 2022
Very important to note that apparently user Scotty’from Marketing was reportedly running around Ravana shaking people’s hands. Doing what he can, of course.
So there it is folks. If you’re an Australian or New Zealander that has had trouble with your connection to the Final Fantasy XIV Online servers, this might just be the fix to make it better. I personally played a lot of the game myself back in the day, and this might just be what drags me back into it.
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