Bleys's Round Three Rubbish

[Citizen Bleys]

Well, this round is going to be easy. I never look at the front site, so until this assignment was handed out, I was unaware of just how pitiful EoFF's FFXI content was, and I think about FFXI about as often as an 18-year-old thinks about sex. Perhaps a bit more. I am more chuffed than I could possibly have imagined before this round actually started and I saw the opportunities to do some writing. I haven't really written any fiction since my last session at tGA. True, this isn't fiction, but it's still writing with lots of room for enjoyment.

Like the FFV Revisited! thread, this will be a task that long outlives the contest. In addition to a Level 1-50 Beginner's guide for this round, I also intend to do a 50-75 Intermediate guide and an Abyssea guide. After those 3, I'll have to send an update to the article I'm doing for the contest, because getting ready for Aby starts at level 30.

It's too bad there's no Save Draft function for PMs; I'm not going to do my article in one sitting; I can't make much progress while at work, since gaming sites (except, oddly, EoFF itself) are blocked at work and I'll have to link to various wiki pages containing information related to, but outside of the scope of, my articles. Yes, I can tether my Kindle Fire to my phone and get URLs and content that way, but with 15-30 seconds of available time per session, I won't have enough time to even load the pages I need on a tablet, let alone copy URLs over by hand. I'll just have to PM each update to myself and CC Frey when ready. Seems workable.

I know I could just write up one quick article in 15-30 minutes and submit it in one day before work and still qualify, but that's not how I roll. If I do this, I'm bloody well doing it right. I'll PM each draft of the article as soon as it's finished just in case real life intervenes and causes me to miss the deadline before I have a proper article. I'd rather get judged on a proper article with slightly less polish than I might like than three or four paragraphs of pure dreck that nobody will ever care about or bother reading as anything other than a punishment for some terrible crime.

I'm operating under the assumption that the articles we're writing will be published on the front site. If not, it's a complete waste of the monumental typhoon of awesome that I will soon be stirring up. I'm also confident that at least WesLY, Sephex, and krissy will be doing articles that need to be published. Don't tell them I said that.

On the competitor front, I am legitimately gutted that we lost Lynx, but there is still enough talent arrayed against me to keep things fun. I'm a bit disappointed that my team's effort so closely parallels Shorty's, but the teamwork was enjoyable, and I got to know a couple of cool people that I never paid much attention to before -- to wit, v22 and Quin -- but will subsequently follow with more interest because they're much more awesome than I previously suspected. If you're actually going to be promoting a couple of Knights after this competition, Vivi22 and Quin have the Bleys Seal of Approval. Yes, I promise I will refrain from saying nice things about my competitors where they can read it. In public, it will be all trash-talk and mockery as the gods intended.

I'm quite glad I signed up for this contest, even though it was initially on a whim and I originally, bluster notwithstanding, expected to be cut after Round One. It's a lot more rewarding than I thought it would be.