Welcome to the submissions thread for our *monthly Community Playdates> * ! Community Playdates will be a monthly get together of our community, where we will *choose a game, movie, TV show, music album, etc> * . to experience, and share our thoughts with one another in a designated thread for the duration of the month.

In our February poll, we voted for Final Fantasy XIV as our February playdate, as suggested by @tale! Thank you everyone for voting, and remember that you can submit your ideas for future playdates in this thread. We’ll use this thread to chat for the remainder of the month about our experiences in…

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A third-person action MMORPG. As a fresh new adventurer in the land of Eorzea, you are chosen by the goddess Hydaelyn to become a Warrior of Light, bringing peace to the land as it recovers from an apocalyptic war.

How to Play

Ordinarily, FFXIV requires the purchase of at least the base game, A Realm Reborn, a monthly subscription fee, and a stable internet connection, as it is an always online experience. However, Square Enix offers a free trial of the game that allows you to play every job up to level 35. There are some other limitations (listed below), the most notable of which is that you will not be able to use chat functions or manually party up with friends. You can still run dungeons and raids by queuing in the Duty Finder.

The following terms and conditions apply to players who use the Free Trial (“Free Trial Players”):

• Free Trial Players are not required to purchase licensed software to use the Free Trial.
• One (1) Free Trial account may be registered using a Square Enix account so long as that Square Enix account has not been previously registered with any version of the game.
• Free Trial Players cannot make in-game micro transactions during the Free Trial.
• Free Trial Players can create only eight (8) playable characters, restricted to one (1) playable character per world.
• Free Trial account characters have their level capped at level thirty five (35).
• Free Trial account characters can obtain only a capped amount of in game currency (GIL).
• Free Trial Players cannot use the “shout”, “yell” or “tell” in-game chat options during the Free Trial.
• Free Trial Players cannot access the in-game market board during the Free Trial.
• Free Trial Players cannot trade items with other players during the Free Trial.
• Free Trial Players cannot use the Mogletter service during the Free Trial.
• Free Trial Players cannot hire a retainer character during the Free Trial.
• Free Trial Players can join a Linkshell if invited, but cannot create a new Linkshell during the Free Trial.
• Free Trial Players cannot create or join a Free Company during the Free Trial.
• Free Trial Players can join a party if invited or by using the Duty Finder, but cannot assemble a party during the Free Trial.
• Free Trial Players cannot login to the Lodestone and or any other game forum during the Free Trial.
• Free Trial Players cannot progress past Floor 10 in the Deep Dungeon during the Free Trial.

https://support.na.square-enix.com/rule.php?id=5382&la=1&tag=freetrial

Sign up for the free trial here: https://freetrial.finalfantasyxiv.com/na/

Paying the monthly subscription fee will remove these limitations, but also make you ineligible for the free trial on that account in the future. Quite often, when you purchase the game, it will include a 30 or 60 day time code.

Purchasing on PC

Note for PC Players: FFXIV is available on Steam, but once you purchase the game on Steam, you are locked into the Steam ecosystem. This means that any future expansions must be purchased on Steam as well. In my personal experience, the base game and the expansions go on sale on other platforms much more often.

• Square Enix Store: Starter Edition (includes base game and 30 day time code) for $19.99; Complete Edition (includes base game, all three expansions, and 30 day time code) for $59.99
• Steam: Starter Edition (includes base game and 30 day time code) for $19.99; Complete Edition (includes base game, all three expansions, and 30 day time code) for $59.98
• Humble Bundle: Starter Edition (base game and 30 days) for $19.99; Complete Edition (base game, three expansions, and 30 days) for $59.99; both eligible for Humble Monthly discount

… and elsewhere; shop around on your preferred retailers. Do note that GameStop sells Steam codes last I checked.

Purchasing on PS4

• Free Trial: https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP0082-CUSA00288_00-C000060000000000
• Starter Edition: https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP0082-CUSA00288_00-C000010000000000
• Complete Edition:: https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP0082-CUSA00288_00-COMPLETE20190000

For those who have played before or are currently playing, what server are you on? We can probably still play together through the world visit system (as long as we’re on the same data center), but it’s also probably easier if new players start on the correct server.

@nicknames and I are on Siren, provided he hasn’t moved since I dropped off

I’m still on my free account; my main character is on Exodus and I have another Lv1 character on I think Ultros? And of course I can make new characters on six other worlds.

Cool, all on separate datacenters lol

Although since you’re on the free trial, we wouldn’t really be able to play together anyway. So how do we think we want to approach this? I imagine everyone will be at pretty different points in the game and can dedicate different amounts of time. I think it might be fun to share general impressions and accomplishments and stories–like “I just finished Copperbell Mines and it was AWESOME” or “the Gridania music is the best and I will fight anyone who disagrees.”

Just some examples.

Here’s my info and yeah I have not moved from Siren lol. There’s also a callback campaign happening atm that will last until Feb 17th.

As @Cassie right now we’re all probably in wildly different points in the game (because boy do I have thoughts on current content lmao) So even sharing our current experiences would be nice, especially in terms of reminiscing for players further along. As well as encouraging for players that aren’t that far into it.

So in the spirit of sharing current experiences, I just hit level 80 with the Gunbreaker class. Gunbreaker is fun to play. It has a bigger focus on damage rotations than the other 3 tanks but it’s Invulnerability ability will probably cause your healers heart attacks. Superbolide makes you invulnerable for 8 seconds buuuut reduces your HP down to one. Which can lead to some situations where you mistime it w/ your healer if they pop a oGCD heal on you before lol (I’m definitely not guilty of this, nope).

Patch 5.2 is coming on Tuesday so I’m just capping some tomestones and preparing other things for patch day. It’s a meaty update and I honestly can’t wait to dive into it.

I haven’t gotten around to dipping back in to the game. I’m a little wary of resubbing just because it is such a time commitment… and also I got addicted to Satisfactory, but that’s a different story for another thread.

One way I kinda maintain my relationship to the game, though, is through the music. My grad program is totally online, so I spend a lot of time sitting in front of the computer reading and writing. I like to listen to music when I do, but anything with lyrics can be distracting for me. I love FFXIV’s soundtrack for this. I’m super fond of the Gridania field music, just because I spent so much time there as an archer/bard. I’ve also hesitated in downloading the soundtracks to Heavensward onward because I haven’t experienced that content yet. I don’t think it would be as powerful because I haven’t had time to develop a relationship with it yet.

I think a lot about too – in the context of this game and in general – the way we tie emotional memories to sense: in this case, the way listening to the music from the game can evoke memories of me playing it or the story content surrounding it. This can happen with any game, of course, or even an album that we were listening to a lot during a particular time in our lives. Maybe it’s because Final Fantasy games have such amazing music, but I find it particularly strong with XIV.

Just some reflections. I think this song is my favorite.

show us the beautiful glamour that I’m sure you spent hours designing for the class

Gear:

Head - Scion’s Rogue Bandana
Chest - Weathered Bodygaurd Coat
Arms - Valentoine Acacia Gloves
Legs - Scion’s Adventurer’s Bottoms
Feet - Crystarium Greaves

It’s honestly a bit boring because I decided to just use the Level 80 Job Gear for the Chest piece. I want to find a nice coat for it because, unlike the other 3 tank classes, I don’t think armor loos very good aesthetically will the mobility/effect of the class. Plus it’s nice to have a tank that isn’t just armor everywhere.

You might like the new crafted tank chest piece that came out with 5.2 then! I can’t see how it is for dudes because I play a femroe, but it looks mostly cloth-based from the tooltip.

But anyway, I’ve been playing XIV continuously since 2.0 launched, and I’ve had my share of good and bad experiences. I started on Ultros by myself and got a few friends into it, but after running into some FC drama we decided to swap servers to Cactuar, where we’ve been for the past…five years? The story has been awesome and I’m really happy to see it progress in the way it has. Shadowbringers was one of the best video game narratives I’ve ever played. I even liked Stormblood, and while I acknowledge it wasn’t the strongest story, there were still good elements to it and some REALLY fun fights.

One of the most meaningful things about the game to me has been literally watching it grow - from the 2.0 days to now with 5.2, watching the world grow with each update makes me feel this weird sense of pride? It’s hard to explain, but for perspective - when I started 2.0, Mor Dhona was hardly more than a little encampment, and over the years of 2.x it grew into a full fledged and walled city. Exploring new zones in the expansions is always amazing to me - nothing will ever feel quite like the launch of Heavensward, where a pack of about 20 misplaced enemies awaited you as soon as you got through the entrance to the Dravanian Hinterlands, who would proceed to aggro you and vulnerability stack you to death.
Other fun community moments were Eastern La Noscea’s Raptor Jesus and the Flying Bear of Coerthas (Raptor Jesus was my personal favorite - they had to do emergency maintenance on our server to stop it from happening, and then did the same change to other servers).
All of this is also not including all the things I’ve done with my friends and our FC, which would probably end up being a 10 page long post. A lot of people in game tend to recognize me because of my content creator friend, which can be a little overwhelming, but for the most part they just say hi and are respectful to our group. XIV’s got a great community and I am super thankful for that.

I’ve been a warrior main since the start, and I only switched with Shadowbringers because gunbreaker was just. So much fun. Warrior is still fun to me in some ways, but it got very simplified with ShB. Still, I love tanking, and I do a little bit of everything in this game except heal and dedicated crafting/gathering. I raid on Friday nights but aside from that I’m usually around to play after work! I don’t have a fancy profile so here’s my Lodestone.

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Yeah! I haven’t gotten around to crafting the latest sets yet. I’m not a super avid raider as I don’t really have a static and PUGs are hit or miss so I take my time trying to get through content lol. And also while it is armor, so not really something for my Gunbreaker, I really love the look of the tanking set for the latest Eden tier. My rolls have been terrible though so as of right now I no body pieces and just accessories lol.

This is something I sort regret missing out on. I started playing 2.0 and basically stopped at around…I think 2.1? I then didn’t pick up the game again until the summer of 2018 (Thank you @Cassie). So when you jump in on a game like 5 years later you miss a lot hah. I think it’s really only something you can do with MMOs because, financials aside, MMOs are designed to go on for years and years so you can see worlds change and characters evolve over the years. Hell the Crystal Tower raids from ARR became super relevant 3 expansions later! It’s part of what draws me to the game I think. Being part of an evolving world and seeing where everything ends up a few years down the line (both in terms of the in-game world and characters but also the actual players of the game itself)

Side note to all this I’ve been heavily debating about going to Fanfest this year. It’s down in San Diego this year which would just be like a $50/$60 train ride from LA. Plus I can get free accommodations down there that isn’t very far from the Convention Center. It’s just a matter of if I want to pay the entrance fee. I have a bit of time before tickets go on sale so we’ll see lol