The Mog Log: A million little topics

I promise you, this column is not an almost wholly fictional account of events that happened while my character was addicted to mithkabobs. (I just like working references in, if you haven't noticed.) No, this week is something a bit different for the column, since we're going to eschew our usual rambling manifesto style about Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV. Instead, we're going to be taking it piece by piece in the smaller scope.

See, there are topics that are worth talking about here that fit into an entire column (usually between 1000-1500 words). Then there are topics that aren't worth talking about in quite that much depth, but still worth bringing up in brief. And not all of them fall under the aegis of forum talks or question-and-answer sessions, either. So today, we're going to be hitting a few smaller points in rapid succession. You don't have to read it, but then you'll miss the fascinating deconstruction of nihilism in the middle. Also there's a button you can click on for free money. Your call.

Partly without Merit: I've probably just missed any "official" discussion on this, but thus far we haven't seen much hard information on how Merit Points are going to interact with characters raising through the next 24 levels. Of course, I'd be willing to bet that you're not going to have the option to just switch back and forth while still leveling, but I do wonder what's going to happen at the top end.

Put it this way: on a current 75, you're kind of pressured right now to earn and spend as many Merits as possible, because you aren't going to be earning any in a while, and a character with a full set of merits for their job is going to be at a significant advantage over someone with none. Are there any plans to address this, to expand the list of merit abilities at the top and give players a reason to reset?

Abilities and group strength: The whole "group strength" thing that's promised for Final Fantasy XIV intrigues me. I wonder, when it compares groups, how much it's going to weigh not simply size and level, but ability cocktails and group makeup. Part of me thinks that it's going to more or less ignore them, but part of me wonders if that first part is being too cynical. It might well match off what the enemy can do to you versus your defenses to change on a whim. It'd certainly be interesting to see how a change in skills could alter the playing field...

Stat buffers: Okay, a few people brought up the obvious question of what could happen when you raise your stats by choice in an environment with multiple classes when we took a look at some gestalt studies. While I don't claim to have absolute knowledge, I'd be willing to bet that a change in discipline brings an according change in stats, no matter how much you may have buffed the base stat.

To be more specific: even if you drop all of your stat increases into Strength, I'd imagine there's a reduction (probably percentage-based) while playing a caster. You'd still be weaker than other casters that focused on, well, caster stats, but you probably also played a Galka mage.

Nihilism: I really was going to put something here about nihilism, but there's no point to it.

Steal this idea: This is just something I realized during a conversation with co-workers -- Final Fantasy XI is the only MMO I've seen that lets you have different guilds on one character. And while having a few different shells for different things might seem normal for veterans, it's a huge boon to people when they don't have to choose between the hardcore progression guild and the fun social one.

In short: will someone steal this idea already? Because it's brilliant and it would make our lives so much easier in every game.

Racial questions: You raise the stats on your character in a way that you choose, without any sort of forced progression, as you play FFXIV. What does that mean for racial differences? It's nice to have a character who can play any job in practical terms as well as theoretical ones (see my earlier comment about Galka mages, and see the comments for the inevitable flood of people telling me that Galka can too be casters), but it does homogenize a fair bit if there aren't any salient differences.

PvP

: One of the odd elements about FFXI was always the way that they handled PvP. The earliest form -- the whole Conquest system -- was almost entirely passive. Every subsequent incarnation has been actively pitting players against one another, but it's been focused on a game framework, since in-universe it's just a bunch of heavily-armed people fighting over pretty fire burners.

We've not heard anything about PvP in FFXIV yet, but I'm really hoping they stick with the current system. I like PvP in a broad sense, but I can't say that it's a selling point for the game, and it seems the developers are well aware just hope much it can damage a game if not properly introduced. There's not much more to be said about it, though -- last time I checked, there wasn't a large PvP community in FFXI to begin with. (If I'm wrong, please, by all means correct me.)

Play night: One last thought amidst a sea of incoherent ideas: I'm wondering how much interest there is in doing a specific Massively play night in FFXI. We've done similar things for other games (Dungeons and Dragons Online being a recent one) and they've gone over quite well. Since those of you reading this are the most likely audience for some fun in Vana'diel, I thought I'd pass around the question.

Whilst I've not planned things out intimately, I'd want to see where everyone was coming from and what they'd like from such a group. I can't promise the world, but if y'all would like to do it, I'd enjoy running it.

That's all the assorted for this week's column. It's disjointed, but at least it's not another week of me complaining about obsolete content vis-a-vis the airship licenses, right? Comments, questions, and protestations that there was no button to click for money may be sent to Eliot at Massively dot com. Not to mention any interesting forum threads you stumble across, as that's our focus for the next installment.