Regarding FFXIVBlog

Why am I here?

FFXIVBlog was hosted with FFXIAH, a premier site for Square-Enix MMO. However, it is no longer maintained…. well there’s nobody behind it including myself. As a result of lack of maintenance, it has been infected with malware and such. I had to take it down :( I don’t want it to infect people with virus and such.

It was a very fun fansite to maintain while it lasted. It sparked a few fansites of their own after FFXIVBlog is no longer maintained so I’m quite happy :) I worked with quite a few fantastic people which I later on met them in real life :) FFXIVBlog was truly an amazing experience :) Now with crapware :< The site was born as soon as Final Fantasy XIV was announced (code name, Raptor). I was a hardcore Final Fantasy XI player and... due to dated graphics, many of my friends have since departed to other MMO while XIV was being made. Final Fantasy XIV was supposingly to be the gaming platform where my Final Fantasy Xi friends unite and play as a linkshell. Unfortunately due to some... bad planning in Square-Enix part, the game was not as successful as it should have been and had since then made many of my friends as well as myself, to lose interest of the game. I really really wanted it to be good but unfortunately, no matter how hard I try, it falls in almost every aspect of the game. I just can't ask myself to spend my precious after-work time figuring out how things work.

FFXIVBlog Staff

FFXIVBlog had an awesome team, a team which I would totally rent an office and work together… (if only we were that close!).

The original team consists of

• Maiev
• Xariana
• Calaera
• Orophen
• Strawberrie (which hehe, didn’t really showed up due to RL stuff)

It then expanded :O to quite some size :O Orophen was truly a designer, just makes things work :) he makes beautiful things for sure :) and the rest of the team was just worrying about content. We had a few bumps but was enjoyable and fun.

We grew to some huge size :P

During this time, we would just have sleep-less night where we’d hunt for information. Now due to us not being you know.. IGN style, its rather hard to get fresh information. We had FFXIVCore and Eorzeapedia :) being the premier site, so naturally they would just get info and we just kinda… repost from them :)

It was fun, we got to know a few peeps on the way and pretty much enjoy the process. We were so excited in just about any info that gets leaked, and even got into beta. However, once we do have access to beta, my view towards FFXIV significantly changed.

Beta of FFXIV

Upon playing FFXIV with 3 months till actual release, I realize how uncook the game it was. I saw copy-pasted terrain, hard to use UI, laggy, and content-less quests. Now as a beta tester, I posted on forum expressing my concern and all that time, I was hoping Square-Enix was actually testing 2 version of their game… and since it’s still beta testing, many stuff would be fixed such as clunky UI, more user-friendly and LAG.

I took a trip, came back early for XIV launch and bam, the release was same as beta. That just made me jaws dropped, of how Square-Enix release a half-cooked game. Even coming from Final Fantasy XI (which is quite notorious for its difficulty to play as is), I find FFXIV rather hard to pickup… and that is when I realize, other than graphics, the game has nothing to offer, and that is also when the blog breaks apart.

I couldn’t do it anymore… when the people who works on the fansite loses its fan… then fan and site really just breaks apart :x I just couldn’t find anything positive to write, so I rather not write at all.

Maiev and Otak both wanted it to be good. We were drolling over our TaruTaru’s and was hoping we could adventure in FFXIV together.. well that never happened :< and we stayed as TaruTaru's!

FFXIV as of Today

FFXIV has since significantly improved, listening many other quests and raids. I’ve been following many who still plays Final Fantasy XIV, like Calaera and her AWESOME podcast of Final Fantasy XIV (which I strongly urge you to check it out, she talks hilarious on podcasts)!! I met Calaera in real life too and she is jaws-dropping awesome!

Lemme advertise her online existance!

• http://zantetsuken.net (Calaera & Orophen’s FFXIV Fansite and Podcast)
• http://unimaginative.me (Calaera’s Personal Blog)

My 2c of FFXIV, to go back or not

I personally, even with the whole FFXIV welcome back or legacy member campaign, it wasn’t enough to get me to give it a try. There are many options out there BUT the important part is, I don’t play anymore so for anyone who is wondering, it is best to TRY IT OUT, then to give it an answer. I didn’t try nor play it recently so I can’t tell you if its good or not. Now everybody in FFXIV always tells you its good (just like a real-estate agent always tells you its good time to buy a house!). But nothing and no one gives a better opinion than you personally trying it. At this point, its either a hit or a miss. You either fell in love with it, or you give up and go play Diablo III.

However, if you can’t decide, tune into Sequence Break XIV – a Final Fantasy XIV Podcast :) I love the host and everyone there, and I pretty much crack up listening to it, even without playing the game. It provides me a good summary of how the game is improving as well as a SUMMARY OF THE FORUMS!!! :D without reading it ;)

I’ll be drolling over more Final Fantasy Xi artwork :O Commission more FFXI artwork from Petisu! (she’s good!!!!) and talk FFXI :O! until something attracts my attention :D

To Calaera & Orophen

Dear Calaera,

Sorry I let you down on FFXIVBlog. Thank you for everything Calaera & Orophen! I wish you all the best with Zantetsuken.net and TeamDerp :) I shall poke you when I’m near Seattle =) I really enjoyed hanging out with you :D (shhh Orophen!)

Best,
Maiev

PS: Orophen can read this too!