FFXI Crafting Video

Recorded a video willy nilly while crafting in FFXI and thought I'd share what I think is a neat system!

Who's Fault Is It?

I just inflamed myself over forum posts two seconds ago and instead of posting there and assuring I'm going to get flamed to well done I'd thought I'd post it here and unload. :)

Basically people were discussing hype over new MMOs and how it's basically the developers' fault because they announce things too early and lead the community to wonder about every possible feature and how they will be implemented, imaginations run wild and before you know it there's no way the game will ever be as good you yourself pictured it to be.

What really drives me crazy about this notion is that in a capitalist society where everything is about how you sell your product (or in some cases yourself), it's the game companies' job to let us salivate little by little, revealing a few things here and there, to market themselves and make people want to play their game. Every commercial company out there does this, and yet when we fall into it and buy the product and it doesn't match to our expectations we fault them for 'lying' to us, instead of owning up to the fact that we made a mistake, or we're just disappointed and maybe it's no one's fault but our own.

I have a problem with the severe lack of responsibility in people, especially the younger generation. Are we really teaching ourselves that everyone can be blamed for our disappointments except ourselves and our own skewed perceptions?

Now I'm not talking about out right lies that some companies have been guilty of, but I am talking about the usual marketing and especially the peer to peer hype that goes on every time a new MMO is announced, are we really going to be blaming people who make games for our own loose tongues and over excitement?

I know I got crazy hyped for Aion, I know it disappointed in some ways and in others it was what I had hoped. I don't want to throw stones at NCWest or swear to have their babies for the sheer fun Aion can be. They are a company and they do their job as best they can according to what they have to work with and the decisions made within the company. They're not worse or better then you, they are people trying to make a living and sometimes making good choices and sometimes making poor ones. I'm not targeting Aion, it's just the example I have right now.

For my part I think we let ourselves get over hyped and have only ourselves to blame for getting too excited over these things, just calm down and move on and next time you'll know to read between the lines and take a more neutral approach. I'm not going to blame companies for doing what our society is programmed to do, if you want to make that change it's something you have to get involved with politically and if going by all these comments on forums things are going to change drastically in some years if our children have anything to say about it. :D

And enough of that! Peace be and omg quit getting hyped!

Jump into it!

I have a question for the blogosphere, what do you think of the jumping mechanic in MMOs? It's something I've come to take for granted, every new MMO gives players the ability to jump right? In some of the games it looks ridiculous and in other ones it looks rather stylish. In PvP games it can be a serious source of annoyance and in PvE it can be used as part of a strategy.

But what if your favorite MMO was launching with no jumping? Would that feel restrictive? Immersion breaking? Or would you not even care? Or perhaps thank the Gods of gaming that for once you don't have to put up with bunny jumpers?
I ask because I have been getting in heated discussions with the FFXIV community, I think they really should have jumping while the majority thinks it's both unnecessary and would even contribute to things like lag (really now? O.O) and generally is a nuisance.

So I'm really curious to see what you think because honestly I'm baffled by the anti-jumping movement.