FFXIV: Free Company Frenzy, Friends and Fun
Things have been interesting in our FC the past week or so. You’d think that with Stormblood on the horizon people would be chilling out and taking a break until it drops. But that’s not what’s been happening in KoM at all.
The Frenzy
Our FC has been growing by leaps and bounds the past two months, and we’re actually trying to put the brakes on that a bit. We’ve always been a quality over quantity type of community, and I’m keenly aware of how one or two people can drastically change the whole group dynamic.
We try to recruit carefully, asking people to read and agree to our Charter and place a full application on our website. We take our family-friendly and no drama rules seriously, and for the most part, we’ve attracted the kind of people who want and uphold that. Our roster is very active, and while we have over 130 members now, due to diligent pruning of inactive people over time, only a small number of those are absent.
What I’ve seen a lot of this past week in particular is people who are in a frenzy to hurry up and grab a FC before Stormblood. They see KoM folks around town, toss out an in-game application, but don’t really know who we are or what our rules are. This has happened so often lately that I’ve had to close our in-game recruitment in an effort to funnel all our applications through the website.
Even there, I’ve let people know our recruitment is limited. We’re letting friends and family in, naturally, but really scrutinizing the unknown applications, even more so than before. We’re actually rejecting applicants, though mostly because they don’t take their application seriously or just don’t give us enough information to make a judgement call on whether they’d be a good fit or not.
We’ve had a few cases of growing pains lately, especially where I’ve had to sit down and reorganize how our Discord works now that it’s grown to over 80 people. Our Discord was never intended to be what it became (or maybe we didn’t realize the potential of it), a major hub of communication and discussion for our members outside of the game. It’s begun to require as much moderation, maybe more, than things in game. But it is what it is, and I’m working (with lots of member feedback) on embracing this.
I know that the population will shake itself out after Stormblood. So, I’m just waiting for this frenzy to calm down again.
Fun and Friends
However, this is mostly behind-the-scenes stuff that doesn’t effect our members. As I said, the typical KoM member is here to have a pleasant time in a clean and helpful environment, and they don’t need too much guidance to maintain that. If people stray, I hear about it, or members themselves try to take care of it. I really couldn’t ask for a better group of folks.
We have lots of great memories, such as the bonding ceremony that took place this weekend. This one was special, because this couple has been married a number of years IRL. And they planned their in-game ceremony on the day of their actual anniversary!
So neat!
We’ve also welcomed friends from afar, including Syp! I was excited to meet him in game, and he didn’t know that as he was taking a screenshot of meeting me, I was doing the same for him! Welcome aboard!
I think the majesty of Amon’s Hat earned some notice (as it should). 😉
Other Stuff
The wait for Stormblood is getting real. Thankfully we have E3 announcements and other interesting news to help keep my mind off of the thought of Red Mage in just a handful of days.
I’ve been clearing up a few lingering quests in my log in the meantime. I had one fishing job quest I hadn’t finished in about a year, despite being level 60 for a while, so I finally knocked the rest of those questlines out last night.
I still have a few more things I’d like to get done between now and the down time on Thursday. It’s fast approaching!