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Winter sucks.

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8 Comments
by
Loony BoB
, 10-29-2010 at 12:31 PM (5968 Views)
Because I get tired so much earlier than usual. I hate that! I'm falling asleep before 11pm, and that's just weird for me. I'm not enjoying it one bit. Time I'd usually spend going online and playing FFXIV or chatting with people has lately been spent watching TV instead. I'm barely remembering to have dinner. This never happened in NZ, it's just the Scottish winter... it gets dark so early and having to close your windows to keep the heat in also means you get a real lack of fresh air circulating into the flat to keep you awake. For anyone who says it's not winter yet, Scotland only has two seasons, and it's definitely not summer anymore.

In FFXIVland, I've not spent as much time on it lately mostly due to the above, and also due to the lack of people who are actively playing during UK hours. I'm considering getting random people into our linkshell or at least partying up with random people a bit more often instead of sticking mostly to those that are already in our shell. I think is something that, in FFXI, I would only do because others encouraged me to do so because they already knew others anyway, and were used to it. This time, I'm the most experienced (FFXIV-wise) person in our shell and it's a foreign position to me. I find myself really wishing that Murd, Miriel and Ouch! were already playing so I could pass the leadership role onto them. Either that or else if Shawtiie was playing, since she had a real gift for getting to know random people and starting parties and all that.

It doesn't help that either I don't understand the party system or nobody else is really using it at all, meaning there are no parties to join. I'll have to read up on it. From what I've heard, it's a brilliant system but at the moment mostly it's only used during Japanese peak hours - which are the opposite of mine! D'oh. Maybe people are also avoiding parties due to soloing being so easy, which is what most people think. Personally, I think it's mostly down to the completely different way of working parties in FFXIV. At the moment, fishing enemies isn't really a done thing... parties roam around, finding enemies and taking them on where they stand. Also, it's still largely unknown where the best leveling spots are, which means that parties are hard to please. The lack of level sync also forces people into leveling at slightly different rates, which at the moment doesn't seem to be dramatic but it could become an issue. We'll have to wait and see.

Despite all of this, I still do enjoy the game. I think it's just a case of it being so new that not everyone is on the same page right now when it comes to how to go about getting parties, and that can cause problems. Obviously.
Categories
Final Fantasy XIV , Miscellaneous

Comments

  1. Yeargdribble's Avatar
    I love winter, but that may be owed to the fact that I live in Texas. My wife and I have been seriously considering moving for years. We hate the heat but love rain and cold. My personally internal clock seems to be counter the darkness anyway and I normally don't get tired until quite late which is already 5 or so hours after dark so I just enjoy the dark cool evenings for taking walks and the like.

    Don't have much to add about FFXIV as I don't play and you've already heard my general thoughts. However, I will agree that early on in MMOs the community just doesn't coalesce well. Usually it works out. There are some where it never does, but most of those die quickly. Then there are those that get a little too tight to a fault. FFXI started to get that way that everyone who was left knew so much that it was hard to not know everything.
  2. Psychotic's Avatar
    It was smurfing weird this morning man, drove to work at 9 and all the streetlights were still on.
  3. Loony BoB's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Yeargdribble
    I love winter, but that may be owed to the fact that I live in Texas. My wife and I have been seriously considering moving for years. We hate the heat but love rain and cold. My personally internal clock seems to be counter the darkness anyway and I normally don't get tired until quite late which is already 5 or so hours after dark so I just enjoy the dark cool evenings for taking walks and the like.
    I'd suggest not moving too far, maybe try somewhere cooler but not totally cold as eventually, you'll end up hating the rain and cold over time. I find the best place to be is somewhere that has a healthy balance of the two. Still, the cold doesn't bother me so much as the darkness does. I need some sunlight in my day to feel awake.
  4. The Last Illoran's Avatar
    I love the winter, it's the only time I ever get to see snow
  5. Yeargdribble's Avatar
    You see snow? I've lived in Texas all my life and seen snow twice in those nearly 30 years.

    As for moving, we'd really thought about Seattle because we love rain. Rain fills me with awesome. I even close the curtains and put on ambient rain noises in the house when I'm doing housework. We've also considered moving to Canada for political and social reasons. Liberal, atheist, bisexual (wife) teachers in Texas don't do so well. We have to lie about pretty much everything to live here.

    While I'm sure I might get tired of the cold, I really like dressing in layers; it's something I get to do so rarely here. You can always put on more clothing when it's cold, but you can only take so many off when you're hot.
  6. The Last Illoran's Avatar
    I live in DFW area, yes I was snowed in for 2 days last year
  7. Yeargdribble's Avatar
    Yeah, but last year's snow was such a freaky thing. The last time before that that I remember serious snow fall was when I was like 10. Though I do remember a freak snow in San Antonio (I was there on business) one year. I was shorts, a tropical type shirt and mandals. Suddenly... SNOW WTF? Of course none of it stuck and it was gone in an hour, so that doesn't really count.
  8. Christmas's Avatar
    Old people are vulnerable to everything.