Brushing off the dust

Hey, remember when I blogged here about games and stuff? It’s been three whole years since my last post, and boy howdy has there been some STUFF that’s gone on in my life.

• I moved to Austin, TX in summer 2007
• I met my now-husband shortly after that
• We got married in a tiny perfect ceremony
• My 5 1/2 year old son went to Kindergarten
• We are expecting another baby in two months!
• I switched jobs and now work as a Sr. Producer at Blizzard on Heroes of the Storm
• We moved to Irvine, California

I’m sure you can imagine how little gaming has taken place through all this. It’s been pretty sad how little I’ve been able to commit to any single game, but I’ve embraced that my adult gaming lifestyle. I flit back and forth between my comfy favorite games (WoW, FFXIV, League of Legends, random indie stuff) and try out the blockbuster hits (we have an Xbox Series X and a Playstation 5) but rarely can commit the time to finish them. And that’s okay. I’ve adjusted to the fact that I have a lot of other life priorities (comfy TV time, lots of outdoor family time, house chores, work, gardening, exploring) that often come before gaming. I love games, but I love a lot of other things too, and there’s a whole lot competing for what little “free time” I actually have.

Back in Eorzea

For the past few months, my MMO of choice has been FFXIV. I played WoW’s Shadowlands to level 120 and did a little bit of end game content but found myself wandering. Like many others, I’ve been lured back into FFXIV. It’s a game I’ve played several times since launch, but my highest job was actually only level 33. I’ve since hopped back in with gusto and finally finished the ARR MSQ (main story quest) which was fantastic. I hear it only gets better from here throughout the expansions, so I’m eager to dive into more. I’m in an awesome Free Company (guild) with a bunch of game industry folks on Aether-Gilgamesh.

FFXIV is such a “cozy MMO”. It’s almost entirely a solo experience for me with lots of riveting quests, but I’m even enjoying the dungeon content because the community is just so stellar. I’ve typed more in chat to random strangers in the past couple of months than in the years I spent in WoW, because people just connect with each other more in FFXIV. It feels like such a low pressure game, no racing to end game targets, no worrying about my DPS numbers. No pressure to make alts (since you can play all jobs and crafting classes on one character). The community is lively, the costumes are outrageous. The game ticks all the boxes for me – it has story, pets, housing, crafting, dungeons, costumes, casual pace, lots of playstyle availability. It took me a long time to get past the beginning “slog” until I discovered the magic but now I can’t get enough.

Currently I’m doing the post-ARR patch content, including the absolutely ridiculous Hildibrand questlines (Japanese slapstick humor FTW) and hoping to be into Heavensward in not too long. I’m at about 45 hours played so far, which isn’t much for a lot of gamers. But for me, it’s always a standout if I play a game longer than 20 hours.

Anyway, I just wanted a place to dump screenshots and talk about games again, so here I am. We’ll see how long this lasts.