I recently was thinking about how long I’ve been playing the game, and I’m curious about you lot.
I haven’t done an official /playtime in a while, but this year being the 10th anniversary of A Realm Reborn, I recall my days and nights early in 2013 playing the beta tests on my PS3. At the time, I was living with a friend of mine, and we had two TVs in the living room going as we got our temporary characters up to level 20 over a weekend only for those characters to be wiped out.
But it was fun running through that early game, learning the systems, getting reminded why leaving WoW was a good idea (not a single person asked about my DPS! …in maybe my whole time in this game, actually.).
So after ten years of playing my favorite little Lala, I look forward to seeing where this story goes from here.
How about you all? What’s your story?
I started in January of 2022, so about a year and a half. I had long written off MMOs as not being for me, but I quickly got sucked in and absolutely adore the game. So glad I gave it a go. Picked Viera and have played a Bard the whole time, dabbling in some other jobs here and there.
Nice!
I’m a semi-recent player. I picked up the game about two years ago during the 2021 Make it Rain. I’ve played a couple of the side FF side games, but this is my first numbered game in the series. I had been a long time WoW player (since late BC) who was becoming increasingly dissatisfied and basically just holding on because of my guild friends. Then everything hit the fan and I started actively looking for something else to play instead of just passively. I had a few friends who played FFXIV on the side and figured I’d give it a chance.
The cursed knowledge of /playtime tells me I’m up to 210 days, 16 hours, 55 minutes.
One of my favorite early memories is the first airship ride. When I made my character I decided to go with the pompadour hair style. That airship cutscene confirmed I made the best decision when my hair folded down over my face. This continued happening many times through the story and it never gets old. Another was seeing the giant Sabotender statue in Limsa for Make it Rain when I first started and one of my friends joking it was a “welcome WoWfugees” and me believing them thinking “wow the devs really went all out for us”.
As far as jobs go I am very fond of SMN. My friends thought it’d be a good fit for me for various reasons, but they weren’t prepared for how strongly I’d adore Carbuncle. I pushed through ARR fueled by the need to get petglam at 50 so I could get my buddy back. When I started trying to get a house I got a Carby house ahead of time that sat in my chocobo bag waiting for it’s plot. Screenshots always included Carby. Now that I’ve finally started leveling other jobs my friends have had to listen to how the biggest downside is no Carby. One of my friends ended up gifting me a Carby mount for my birthday back when you still could. Carby is everything.
I’ve been working on leveling the other jobs one at a time. Mainly just until 80 for the mount reward. PLD and DRK are the last jobs I need so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. After that I might work on getting BLU skills as my next big project. I think my biggest surprise was WHM becoming my second favorite job what with my responsibility allergy. I’ve managed to find jobs I can enjoy for the role quests going forward. SMN, WHM, GNB, MNK, MCH.
I, too, like summoner a lot being a Scholar main. It’s fun for me to swap over and make some big explosions from time to time.
I’m glad to hear you’ve tried some healing. I think it’s so fun in this game; I like having that responsibility, and throwing down a well timed LB3 to save a run is sooo good.
I started playing around 3.3 when I was dating a guy who introduced me to the game. I’ve always been a Final Fantasy fan but I hadn’t taken the plunge on 14. It totally kicked my old school RuneScape addiction for a few years. The guy is now long gone but I am still going strong with my one true love, Graha Tia.
You misspelled Y’shtola (😎), but I’ll let it slide.
About a year, most of it on the free trial. I am currently playing through Stormblood. I got distracted a lot on the free trial. I spent weeks just crafting things for fashion, leveling all of the jobs, and making relic weapons.
Crazy to think about how much content there is available for free if you take your time
There is a lot but I am also super slow at doing story stuff. I get distracted by side content very easily.
Fashion is the real endgame, so you’re doing it right!
I hear that about almost every MMO. It’s fun, even if my character probably looks basic. I ended up replacing my looks with stuff from the market when I finally ended the free trial, making the distraction somewhat pointless. My retainers and squadron get to wear it at least.
Make sure you get familiar with the glamour dresser if you haven’t already. Save all those good looks!
Started with the open beta of ARR, haven’t dared to look at my /playtime lately, but I have let my sub lapse here and there (mostly during end-of-expansion lulls, and for a while during the Endless 5.2). I can’t really say that I have one particular main (especially because it seems like every time I do find a job that I want to call my main, the developers take it as a personal offense /hj)
I’ve been playing on and off since Stormblood. I made my account before Shadowbringers came out, though I only ended up actually beating ARR after the Shadowbringers hype bubbled up and got me to give the game another shot. I’ve been playing regularly since. When I type it out, it doesn’t seem that long, but it felt like a long time while playing it! I’m super emotionally invested in the game at this point.
I started at the just after 5.0 was released. It will be exactly four years this weekend.
I don’t have a /playtime to hand but my account’s been about since the 1.0 days, I have my legacy characters over on the USA servers while I play in the EU, Picked up ARR on launch, took a break in the middle of ARR and came back for 2.5, took another break around 3.2 until 3.4, and I’ve been back since!
Played Pugilist in 1.0
Mained Paladin 2.0 to 4.5
Been a DRK main (for static reasons) since 5.0’s launch, but my true main is MNK which I do everything else with!
I’ve always been a little envious of the 1.0 people (even though everything points to that game not being that great).
I would have loved to have been there when they shut the servers off to watch the world die.
Edit: I should also add that I’ve been a Scholar main since 2.0. It always felt right for my character, even though they’ve made so many changes over the years.
Alas I didn’t go much further than 1.0, I didn’t even get out of Gridania! It really wasn’t great. :(
The first time I played it was in May 2021. I was a Black Mage at first. I sucked at Tanking and Healing. After a few more months I learned how to Tank and Heal. I also switched to Red Mage mainly but Summoner has huge damage output so I temporarily switched main.
I like that the game makes it so easy to try out the different classes, so it’s not so tough to get better at the stuff that you might not initially think you’d like or be good at.
I started playing in the beginning in this year, but I have been aware of the game for a while. Because of the Ost that I’ve heard from the game(Ultima, Under the weight, Rise, eScape) . Tried the trial a year ago when I saw the trailer for Endwalker and it caught my eye but I didn’t get far into it. Decided to commit to the game this year and now It has become one of my favourite game I’ve played in years.
That’s awesome. I’m glad you are enjoying it.
It’s probably my favorite game of all time…that’s an mmo. I like to say that my ultimate favorite is FF6. But 14 is just so good.
Funny that you mentioned ff6, it’s regretably the only other FF I’ve really put time into. (I haven’t even finished it yet but I’ll have to another day) But even then catching the references to ff6 in FFXIV really was a cool experience
I have been playing since around May 27th 2020, so a little over 3 years now. I was losing my mind dealing with customers during the pandemic and decided to take a chance on the game when they offered the Starter Edition for free on PlayStation 4. Been hooked ever since.
Nice! I bet that was a good time to start while we were all shacked up inside.
Been playing since beta 1.0, back when the game was an absolute mess. Braved it through with friends I made by exploring and making our own fun. Glad I did because ARR was leagues better as was HW.
Since 1.0. I don’t play as much these days cuz baby, but I’m one of those bastards sitting on a medium house. =P I’ve gone to every Fanfest and I’ll be going this year as well~ See y’all in Vegas!
P. S. Lala for life =P
If I didn’t already have a medium house I’d be mad, but I do so 🤝
