FFXIV: Stormblood Alt Intimidation
Congrats to FFXIV Stormblood. It’s done something that no other MMO has done pretty much ever… It’s intimidated this alt-aholic to the point of not leveling alts.
Let me start by saying this is not a bad thing. But for someone like me, who is known for rolling up characters over and over just for the fun of having different races, classes or aesthetics, this is not a feeling I’ve felt before.
I kinda knew that 4.0 Dragoon wasn’t something I wanted to pursue. Reading feedback from players on the job, I feel my hunch was justified. So, I switched to Red Mage on my main, and decided to give Samurai a chance on Tai.
Only… I’ve had exactly zero motivation to actually play Tai or any of my other alts. Yes, I am engaged in moving through the story on my main, and I’ve been kept busy with that. But even back in Heavensward, I was leveling both characters through the story interchangeably. Both characters have several level 60 duplicate jobs, and finished the expansion in full. Heck, there was a point where Tai was more my main.
However, something about the scope of the Stormblood storyline is stopping me from wanting to go through it a second time. I know this sounds strange… but the story is so vast that I don’t want to spoil the experience by committing it to memory just yet.
I have this strange thing where if I run something in a game 2 or 3 times, it becomes ingrained in memory. This has one of two effects: either making something more sentimental or fun due to familiarity, or making it rote memory and dulling the experience.
Seeing how many alts I’ve run through some MMOs in the past, there are some starting areas I could still run through like the back of my hand, even if I haven’t played the game in 5 or 10 years. XD
Xaa on several occasions has asked me how I remember so much about where FFXIV NPCs are, which dungeons are which, and all the boss mechanics. I laugh and tell him I’ve just done it so many times! It’s like I just inadvertently absorb all this silly and needless MMO information as I play. I wish I could do that with other things in my life!
For this moment in time, I don’t feel like absorbing Stormblood and committing it to memory. I’m playing this a different way, and going into most of the dungeons blind, even. (Not primals, just dungeons.) I might pick up my alts at another time, but for now, I just want the pure experience, straight through to the end.
Sorry, Tai. 🙁
