Vacation starts in < 24 hours

Whee... almost time for [taking a break]. Some months ago I decided that I really needed a break from RL. This is actually one of the weirder vacations I'm taking because:

1. It's not attached to some other event... I don't remember the last time I took a vacation that wasn't an add-on to something... relative's graduation, someone's wedding, school activity or an add-on to a work trip

2. I'm going alone instead of either a) meeting up with someone, or b) bringing someone with me and having to coordinate everything together, compromise on places to go, etc.

3. It's mostly unplanned. My previous vacations had virtually every single hour planned, or at least every day, with tickets pre-purchased and everything down from the exact schedule for every train, backup routes, traffic, physical maps, GPS, all prepared and planned for. This time, all I have planned are my plane rides, hotels and one Broadway ticket xD

So... why so unplanned? Well, for once I wanted to take a vacation that wasn't... stressful... Strangely, in the past, when I did vacations it was all along the lines of getting things done instead of actually relaxing. I always had a goal of things to see, things to do, etc. This time I just want to take some time on my own, spend it in a strange town, get to see the town and just relax a bit.

Partly, I'm also looking at what to do next in my life. I'm at an interesting crossroads where I can finally make some moves that aren't constrained by my environment. I'm out of grad school, finally, FINALLY done with 90% of that bloody pain called the US INS which severely constrained my movements both in terms of location and career. (I'm still stuck to staying in the US for the next 4 years unless I want to give up the right to stay here, but at least the US is a lot larger compared to staying at one job/city)

In many ways, this is more of a time for me to be alone to reflect. In my usual day/life, I have virtually every hour of my life scheduled right now... wake up, work, lunch, get home, FFXI event, TV, sleep... weekends add in my 2nd job + time at the pool/gym, with the occasional side social or professional event that isn't regularly scheduled. That's one reason why I've been trying to cut down on FFXI events and hand things off to other people. It's taking too much time. (Ironically, DRG50 now... that's going faster than I thought it would thanks to Zurar being on break).

With so much going on, I haven't really had time to think about myself even though I'm out of school. I really should be considering my next career steps, what I want next in life and more. Among the things I'm hoping to reflect on are:

- What sort of field/career path do I want to change to? How can I change given my current background/knowledge/connections? What else am I good at that I can change to easily?

- Do I want to step things up for something even more high-paced with high rewards down the line? Am I comfortable with my current level? Or do I want to take a step back and move out of hi-tech/hi-stress and to something more basic and simple?

- What's my risk tolerance? I have the training, knowledge and connections to launch a startup... but is that something I'd want to do or be happy doing? And of course, where am I going to come up with the idea?

- Do I want to keep my MMO commitments at the current level? Or cut back even further? FFXI is a big time drain... do I even want to look at the next MMO?

- How do I want to manage my investments? Time to get back into the market? Or should I be looking more into passive income streams?

- Where do I want to live for the next 5-10 years? In this area? Move out to another place?

- Is it time to buy a house? What are the market conditions? Do I want to be tied down like that?

Going to New York for this vacation wasn't by accident... I'm also going there to see what it is like and to determine if it would be somewhere that I'd like to stay for a while. I grew up in large cities and I always felt more at home with using public transportation instead of having to drive everywhere. Of course, being a tourist is a definite bonus!

So yes, next week is very much "me" time. Hopefully I've passed on the various event site information to the right people so FFXI events can continue as normal. Traveling alone will give me lots of time to think and reflect. I'm also considering whether I want to update my blog during that time, though it would be entirely off-topic, non-gaming posts and may include pictures, or musings from my journal. Any interest from people out there?

Funny SE news

Wow... not sure how, but there is a lot of funny SE news today!.

RMT activities

First up, the obvious... Chocobo Chicks went on sale today. More details at http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/topics/special/090917.html and you can buy it fro the SE Online Store at http://ssl.square-enix-shop.com/usa/category.php?cat=9

The 3rd mini-expansion has a new trailer: Shantotto Ascension Trailer

Doesn't tell you much about it... expect more fetch quest, rare/ex drops again. Sadly, they did not include any information on what item you will be RMTing this time.

Interestingly, the trailer says that this will go on sale in October, but it also says that the expansion will go live with the next version update, which is scheduled for November... Another case of SE trying to get your money before delivering product.

Again, pure electronic product, no incentive to pre-order. Don't give SE your money before they earn it.

FFXIV footage

With the Tokyo Game Show currently going on, SE released yet another trailer for FFXIV... lots of FMV, which isn't really impressive as we've known that SE is good at CG and has been good for at least the last 10 years. No gameplay footage (or at least, I didn't notice anything) and the text overlay seems... generic... I don't feel any large story or plot behind what's going on here.

SE: "Next Gaming Innovation will be Billing

I'm... really... not sure what to say about this... The next big innovation is... BILLING! Forget gameplay, forget plot, having fun, cinematics, hardware, controls... the next big innovation is how the hell we are going to charge our customers money, money, money!

Considering how SE can't even stabilize their billing system for FFXI... I'd recommend that they first get the fundamentals of billing fixed before they talk about innovation. You know... credit card, charge credit card ONCE for the product purchased, once a month?

And yes... innovation in billing ~.~ So they want to come up with all sorts of innovative ways to get money from people... not to make interesting or compelling games. I guess XI is where they are being innovative, charging $9.99 per quest, charging another $9.99 for storage.

Who knows... maybe FFXIV will have micropayments! Can you imagine? $2.00 for a chocobo ride, $5.00 for airship? Telebots can charge $1.00 for a Teleport-Holla! RMT would love it!

I guess Microsoft is wasting their time with Project Natal. Billing is where the future of gaming is!

Random stuff + FFXI quotes

So, I wouldn't say it was a boring week last week... but nothing too much happened. Here are some highlights, followed by random musings and ending with some fun FFXI quotes! (Hopefully no quotes as incriminating as a certain penguin-lover)

First up... various things about FFXI

- Big thanks to Rooks & Tasya for helping me craft the materials for my Etoile Tights +1 upgrade. Also, big thanks to Vanh for helping me with the last of the materials for this, and to Zurar & Teia for helping me farm the memories. I spent about 5 hours in Promy-Mea just killing random mobs over and over and over and over again to farm the necessary memories so that Rooks could help me craft anima. And even after all that I still didn't have enough. If not for Vanh finding some fleeting memories, I might still be in there... Got my Etoile Tights +1 yesterday morning at long last. Too bad nobody ever makes Smooth Velvet, or else it would have been a lot smoother x.x;;

- DRG33 now, though I went from 30-31 in Promy, and 31-33 in a Maze level-sync party, so my polearm skill is slightly out of date. I was also able to reclaim one piece of inventory since I can now use my Peacock Charm and sold my Spike Necklace back to the AH. Slow leveling as usual for this side job

- Sunday afternoon "gil farming" events seem to be doing alright... Did two ENMs this time, the one in boneyard gully, and the one at the top of the mountain. Both are a bloody pain to set up, requiring at least 40-45 minutes of just running around before we enter the fight. Both are also really short fights, though we've been having issues with the hagun fight, always aggroing the non-NMs and having to kill them. As usual, no gil from ENMs, but at least ISNMs gave us two Khroma ore this time around. Brought me to about 1/4 of the way towards a Roundel Earring :)

This week it looks like it's business as usual... nothing special in XI. I really should take some time to finish my sword merits. Just need 4 more merit poitns to finish the last two upgrades, then I'm done with that and can go back to concentrating on HP upgrades.

Random other stuff

Here's some random other fun stuff xD

Aion Online has started

Remember this? At least one person who reads this blog has expressed interest in Aion Online. Well, looks like the "early-start" has started up and it's the usual launch chaos... long lines to get on, all lowbie mobs/quest mobs are wiped out, and people crowded everywhere. The game doesn't officially launch until tomorrow, so I guess the servers are going to get even more crowded soon.

I was still considering picking this up even as recently as last week... But I just can't do it... from what I've seen, it's a very pretty MMO, great graphics, but from what I've read, it's seems to be a WoW clone with more grinding. The trailer/intro movie that they put up last week didn't do much to inspire interest in the background/lore of the game either. It sounds like some random fanfic that someone wrote and didn't connect me with the characters or universe. Didn't see any interesting game mechanics, lore or even characters to distinguish this from WoW.

Still have higher hopes for Star Wars...

Other games

Kuraikaze, Vanh and Ghiren have been gushing with praises for the new Batman game, Batman: Arkham Asylum. I downloaded the demo on Sunday and tried it out... seems like fun, though I'm not very good at the sneaking-around type games xD Still... it seems to be doing very well with over 2.5M copies shipped, so it might be something I pick up...

Halo ODST comes out tomorrow... which is another big reason why I'm hesitating picking up Batman, and dismissed Aion. Reviews seem to indicate that it is an okay game, which is good cos I pre-ordered it xD Mindless entertainment should be fun for a while~

SE Gaming News

Picked up two bits of interesting gaming news recently:

1. Reportedly, Square Enix recieves 86.6% of its sales from Japan. This is a side note in an article about Koei, but this certainly explains a lot. Why bother spending effort in other regions when you can get almost 90% of your sales and revenue by focusing on one country? I wouldn't bother supporting NA/EU customers either. It wouldn't really hurt the bottom line, and getting rid of them as customers would allow them to cut support costs and probably raise the % profit

2. In a recent interview, FFXI developers revealed that they still have around a YEAR to go before the story for Wings of the Goddess will be completed. This means... it'll be three years since WotG was released before they complete the storyline. Seems to me like a blatant grab at keeping people subscribing until they release XIV.

3. New RMT! Chocobo Chick! OMG Cute! And cheap too at $16! AND comes with an in-game version... Would prefer a plushie, but this is cute enough xD Goes on sale on the 24th!

Ascy's Random Stuff

Some other random stuff... I'm taking a vacation in October, so I'll be pretty much dropping from events for a while.

TV season is starting up! Heroes starts tonight with a 2-hour season premier! Mmmm... I guess... ZNMs... can... do.. without me... right?

Also, I hear that handegg season is starting up too. I guess some people will be watching that? I really hate how it pre-empts other shows though -.-

Finishing off... random FFXI quotes & pics!

Tasya: have you ever thought of how weird it is that we change gear so much?
Tasya: it's like fighting in a locker room where everybody is an exhibitionist on meth

Routine week, trouble with relic +1

So, last week was fairly routine with nothing too special to write about. No fun pictures from the last week either since everything was routine. Only variation from the normal stuff is that I did the Brothers ENM with Tasya, the Antlion(Hagun) ENM with Zurar & Fuuji, and some ISNMs. Got SOME drops, which did help increase my gil supply to a point where I'm slightly more comfortable. Before this, I was running at near empty and could almost not afford to buy food xD

Some EPIC FAILs during the week in Dynamis(so I hear, I missed Wed's run) and Limbus (shortest limbus evar with 2 minutes 15 seconds in zone!) However, we made it for it on Saturday with a successful Dynamis-Tavnasia, followed by a routine, successful Omega (congrats Tassy & Kasan for their new pieces!)

Sunday night, we went back to Nyzul for some farming... been a while since the last one, so I'm pretty happy that we managed to finish all 4 runs successfully. Even better that we got 2 drops out of the 4, even though they weren't exactly the pieces we were hoping for. Still, getting some armor is better compared to none!

Dragoon

Dragoon is proceeding slowly but nicely. Level 26(almost 27) now, so I have access to Spirit Link. I think I'll be one of those annoying DRGs that make healers go crazy from using that ability to keep Lumiere alive xD

I'm still amused by this job... I've gone out soloing a few times as DRG/BLU, but I'm not very good at it. The low HP trigger (33% of max HP) needed to trigger healing breath is low enough that I can tackle one EM and a couple EP at the same time, but if a Tough or 2nd EM aggros, I tend to die... so far, I've died about 4 times from just aggroing extra mobs either by not seeing them, or HP aggro. Pretty sure soloing isn't for me for now. Maybe I'll try it again after I get my AF helm which raises the healing breath trigger up to 50%.

In a party situation, DRG is just too simple... Jump, Double Thrust. I guess it gets a little more complicated later when I get High Jump, which would change the routine to Jump, Jump, Double Thrust. Still, it's a nice, relaxing change from the busier jobs that I've been playing. I'm still debating which DD job to take to 75, DRG or SAM. DRK is currently out of the running just cos... I... don't... want to... slowly... kill 100 mobs one at a time with a super-slow Great Sword.

Comparing DRG to SAM:

- DRG is less work. SAM I had to tank all the way to 37 as SAM/WAR. DRGs aren't expected to tank

- DRG cannot pull since we don't have any Ranged Attack

- DRG comes with a cute pet!

- DRG is cheaper and easier to gear compared to SAM! At least for me that is... I think I already have most of the needed DRG gear for a decent DD-type DRG at level 75. The only thing I'd need to pick up is a good polearm, which can be had for under half a mil gil.

- DRG/SAM gets most of the benefits of SAM anyway. The only things that SAM main would get are sekkinoki and the full 100% TP of Meditate

- I don't have to level extra subs for DRG xD /WAR, /SAM, /NIN and /mage are all that are needed

- There is only one weapon to skillup xD

Looking a little ahead to if I finish DRG, besides AF & relic, I was trying to put together a list of gear that I might want from various events... So far, I've only come up with:

- Dragoon Earring (T1 ZNM mob Chamrosh)

- Love Torque (JoL drop... on my list anyway since it's used by DNC)

- Love Halberd (JoL guaranteed drop... nobody wants anyway xD)

- Valkyrie's Fork (Odin drop... probably a long line for this, but whatever xD)

- Some expensive polearm that I need some gil for... still, no matter what this won't be as bad as the Hagun xD

Gear wise... I'm still kinda wondering if my current PLD "DD" set is the right combination. Right now, I'm using Askar Head & Body, Homam hands, legs and feet while I go DDing in campaign, or during boss fights where there is no chance of me holding hate on PLD anyway. Any comments on that? I'll probably end up with the same combination on DRG for TP.

Trouble with relic +1

During Saturday's Dynamis-Tavnasia, I became the owner of a pair of badly damaged Etoile Tights -1. So, this goes into the queue for the many +1 pieces I have to ask Sagheera to upgrade. However, I ran into a critical snag with this piece. It turns out that the material needed to craft this item is a square of Smooth Velvet, which according to the AH, is *never* sold ~.~

Even worse, the items needed to craft it(Wind Anima and Light Anima) are also virtually never sold, so I'd have to find someone to craft them in the first place. Aaaand... the materials to craft these two anima are RARELY sold... not never, just... very rare since they are stupid Promy drops -.-;

So... right now I'm looking for:

1. Someone to sell 4x "Remnants of a Fleeting Memory"on the AH. I managed to snag 4x Radiant Memories from the AH so at least I'm ready to craft Light Anima

2. A level 75 or higher Alchemist

3. A level 47 or higher Clothcrafter with Cloth Purification

All that... before I can craft the material needed for these tights ~.~ I took a look at the other materials for the other Etoile +1 pieces and none of them are as much of a hassle as this x.x

Anyone out there on Hades who can help me? xD

8th GM call this week

Strange week... Previous to this, I had only 1 GM call for... I think I was stuck somewhere xD

This week I've started receiving the infamous /tells from random /anon characters saying that I've been accused of a) hacking a character, b) illegal GOLD selling, c) illegal gil selling. I guess there are still stupid people out there who fall for this sort of thing.

Normally I don't bother with the GM function. I haven't bothered with the selling gil, or buying gil tells out there... They're kinda fun to watch the market fluctuate, but impersonating GMs went a little too far so I've been reporting every single one of them. I'm kinda amused that there's a stock message that they send to you if it's a character that they've already investigated.

Then last night I started getting harassing /tells and emotes from a level 1 galka in Bastok Mines. Lots of tells asking for gil while I was selling stuff on the AH. Then he started overlapping my character with his, and followed me around doing /wave emotes at me -.-. I didn't reply at all, and put in a GM call for harassment just before I OP'ed out to Qufim for more exp.

Sad part is that I'm not sure if this galka was a RMT or not. He didn't have a keyboard-smash name, but he definitely wasn't a new player if he knew how to overlap characters, send tells and use emotes. Are old players using these stupid harassment tactics now? Who actually gives gil to newbies they don't know? ~.~ This time I actually got a response from a GM about 5 minutes after I put in the call, so I guess this galka wasn't spamming the whole server. I /blisted the Galka, and the GM said that he would investigate. I also asked the GM about other obviously RMT tells.

So... turns out that the GMs seem to be handling RMT /tells manually? The GM told me to report any RMT /tell I received with the GM function ASAP so that they can put a stop to the character. So... given how easy it is to do a report, and the automated message that they give you doesn't take too much time to read, I'll probably be reporting lots more RMT as they send /tells. It's ALMOST as easy as WoW's "report spam" function. There are a few more clicks, and you actually have to type, compared to WoW's simple "right-click->report spam".

Dragoon 24

So... leveling a little faster then I thought I would... went 1-12 on Wed night thanks to a short limbus, 12-14 Thurs morning during a boring phone conference, and 14-24 Thurs night in a maze->Qufim PL'ed session. Mostly in my Christmas outfit xD I was really gimp and only had a level-appropriate spear and my leaping boots. Well, I'm properly equipped for a level 24 DRG now, so maybe I'll outdamage my Wyvern now ^^;

What I've learnt from DRG so far:

- Wyverns are really weak All it takes is a couple of AoEs, or worse, a few /pokes from the mob to kill Lumiere ; ; I don't know how DRGs survived before they made Call Wyvern a 20 minute job ability

- The "Status Parameters have increased" is actually a "level up" for Lumiere as she always gets her HP reset to 100% whenever this happens. I guess that does help keep her alive a little longer

- DDing is boring~ And simple... at least at this level... Jump, Double Thrust... Jump... maybe a Provoke here or there. Then again, I also found PLD boring at this level... and SAM... THF was slightly less boring since I went out to pull. Hopefully things will pick up somewhat in a few more levels

- Spirit Surge is a really good "oh crap" 2-hour. I really didn't know much about what Spirit Surge did... except that the DRG eats their Wyvern and they're supposed to do damage more xD Well, since leveling DRG, I've used it 3 times so far to get out of sticky situations. The HP restoration, additional TP and resetting of Jump was more than enough to keep me alive and deal out enough damage to kill what should have been killing me!

Still need to try out some DRG/mage, probably DRG/BLU soloing to see what that is like. I've been DRG/WAR so far and it's... well, just a straight DD job really. I hope the later job abilities will make things a little more interesting.

SE RMT Activity

This is kinda amusing... SE's latest RMT activity is... a "Silver Dog Tag". For... $106.99 -.- Choose whichever nation you are most loyal to for the design, and they'll also engrave your character name and server on the back.

I guess it will be useful for when FFXI players take on WoW players in some LARPing? However, being outnumbered 22:1 does not make for good odds, so chances are you'll need these dog tags to identify all the dead FFXI bodies!

Mmm... well, for over $100, most people are complaining that it's overpriced. However, this is actually about right for Japanese trinkets ~.~ SE sells their "nation rings" for $116.99 per ring, and apparently they are popular enough that they've actually sold out of them in the past. If you go down to Akihabara in Tokyo, you can see tons of expensive anime/game trinkets for sale at around that price point. When I was there, I spent waaaaaaay too much on my Marimite Rosary just cos it was identical to the one in the anime ^^;

I'm not too surprised that this customized dog tag costs that much. In fact, if I were to market it, I would have sold it later, maybe just before FFXIV came out and marketed it as a "buy a keepsake of your former character before you quit" xD Assuming even a 10% attach rate, 50,000 people spending $100 = $5M. Even a low 40% profit that's a nice addition to FFXI's contribution margin.

Soo... I don't see any issues with this new "collectors item" piece... might get one myself if I feel like it when they release it... What would cause me to have an issue with it is if they tie an in-game item to it again like the Tidal Talisman.

Now THAT would be blatant RMT ~.~

Minorish update

Just a few more minor things that did not get included in the previous update...

WoTG Missions

Went just a little further in the Bastok questline for WotG... a little too much CSI in this storyline for me to really develop much empathy to any of the characters, though they do have quite a bit of humor here with the goblin side characters. Looking at the nation questlines separately from the main WotG story, it seems to be really... tacked on... There seems to be little integration between the story of the dancers and the minor side stories from each nation.

On Monday, Tasya, Zurar and I went and did one of the Bastok fights. I've gone ahead and finished the quest that followed that (and picked up yet another costume item) and I'm now ready to take on the last Bastok fight "Honor Under Fire" whenever people are ready for that. Looks like this fight requires at least a small party of 3-4 people.

So... one fight away from finishing all "new" content... Then the only main FFXI content I haven't touched yet would be the original nation rank quests xD

Winding down

So... my "operation wind down" seems to be succeeding. After we finished with Spengler's awesome denali/goliard double drop night, we haven't actually gotten together for a single Nyzul since then. Not too surprising since I think we're all burnt out for a while now. We might get the crew together again sometime in the future once we've had a break to go for the final missing pieces that people want (but don't NEED) or to help friends climb.

My secret plan to slowly hand off Limbus to Tasya seems to be working. Following previous leader tradition, it is my responsibility to find a sucker after completing full homam to take over the shell! It happened from Toku->Utaru->me/Vanh/Fuu, and now we're passing that on to Tasya. She's already doing a good job in leading us through the Temenos runs (which I really never researched) and figuring out which floors to pop for items people want, when to pop time chests and giving people instructions during the run. I've already given her access to the site so she can update the points list and stuff if I'm not around. This way, all us "old timers" can take a night off and know that Tassy will take care of things!

I never really ran ZNMs. That's Fuuji's job. But I did do a lot of the paperwork, keeping track of who got what, etc. Well, I've offloaded the bulk of the tracking work to Zurar a couple of months ago, leaving me to keep track of the wishlist & pop items. Still, the pop item order can still give me a headache as I try to keep track of which pop items people have, what they're supposed to have and trying to schedule mobs so that we can get all the items needed to pop T4s.

Finally... Einherjar. Well, I've pretty much given up on making the Thursday runs. Having last week and this week's scheduled Thurs runs be Odin helped solidify that since I lacked a Tier 1 feather to go fight Odin anyway xD I still attend Sunday though, so I guess that makes me a "Sunday-only" person.

So... that has officially freed up Thurs completely, and lessened my load during events. I've actually been trying to show up earlier at Sea on Tuesdays, but work/traffic usually makes it difficult to make it on time. At least I've been making it for some of the farming/exp sessions now!

Oh, and... I'll be taking a small vacation at the beginning of October, so there's a high chance that I won't be at any events during the first two weeks... or if I do show, I won't be taking on any critical roles due to me using a slow computer without my controller. I won't be anywhere near as effective as I normally am, and most likely be SCH-onry.

Dragoon

So... this is the first DRG tagged post. I've spent some time reading up on the job, checking out equipment overlap as well as general tactics for the job. It seems like a very basic job compared to everything I've done so far, but like PLD, how it's used depends a lot on the subjob.

Going to pick up a polearm and start poking things with it... If I decide I don't like it later, well... at least polearm will be skilled up for SAM & PLD! A simple straightforward job might be a nice change from everything else I've done so far.

A quick look through what people consider to be decent gear for DRG shows that I already have most of it just from gearing up BLU, DNC & PLD. I already have the necessary subjobs leveled, so just about all I need to do is poke things and level up.

Also, I think I'll probably be a lot more relaxed on leveling this next job compared to the others. For SCH & PLD, I pretty much rushed both jobs to 75 since I had clear ideas on how I wanted to use both jobs at events. For a DD job, I'm pretty sure that I'll be using it rarely for events since there are so many better equipped or "DD-onry" (/stare Zurar) so I'll be continuing to come on my original jobs. High chance that I'll rarely seek for a party and only come out with people if/when they want to go exp.

So far, Tasya has mentioned wanting to put together a lowbie party tomorrow night (Thurs) starting at level 10, so I guess that's when I'll start poking things!

Random items, merits, next job?!

No pictures this week since I didn't actually do too much that was picture worthy last week. I have a few smaller shots that I might combine with a post next week.

Instead, this is a more text-heavy post xD

Random items

Seems like last week was the week where I picked up various random items. First was Valor Gauntlets -1 from Dynamis... basically since I already had the NQ hands, I picked this up last Wed. Seems like not many people are going for the +1s anyway as they want to be able to store their relic.

So... obviously since I already had one item for Sagheera to upgrade, I'd pick up a few more xD Later that Wed night, I picked up both the PLD & DNC AF+1 upgrade pieces from Temenos, finishing those sets -.-; I wasn't able to find the DNC material for upgrading, so this week I upgraded the PLD AF feet piece for some extra shield skill. Next week will be DNC AF+1 feet for extra evasion, and the week after that I'll FINALLY be able to upgrade my Valor Gauntlets x.x

On Sunday, Tasya took me to go... basically manaburning all day in sea. We went hunting for all types of mobs, even Yorva(UFOs) for organs. In the process, I completed both my Korin Obi(light weather) and Soil Gorget (Weaponskills). The improvements from the Korin Obi were easy to see, especially with Aurorastorm forcing light weather. I managed to push Cure IV up to around 650HP cured together with Rapture. The Soil Gorget, on the other hand, I couldn't tell the difference in Dancing Edge or Vorpal Blade between using it and my Peacock Charm or Chiv Chain. It's in my macros for DNC WSing, but it might take some time before i see how good it is.

Ironically, all these random items are depleting what little gil I have in my Roundel Earring fund x.x Between the chips, gorget, obi and the AF+1 materials, I think I'm down almost 100k, and no source of income to replenish it. My only source of income, ancient beastcoins, is also being used up for the AF+1 upgrades, so I'm very definitely poor again x.x

Merits

Since picking up my Joyeuse, I've been highly focused on getting merits through any means possible and dumping them into sword. This has meant a lot of campaigning since none of my jobs really fit in a merit party. I'm currently 5/8, with 9 merits left to go before I finish sword. Like most things, this benefits mainly Dancer as it should help overcome the D rating on sword, and hopefully put that "occasionally attacks twice" function to good use. In theory, this should make DNC/NIN even better compared to DNC/SAM for TP gain if I can hit enough with the Joyeuse on my off-hand.

Oh... PLD & BLU just happen to benefit from sword merits too :)

After this... need to finish my HP merits. I'm 6/8 right now, so just two more upgrades left at 5 merits each. So... basically, 19 more merits to go in the short-term, or 190,000 limit points to get x.x Only other category I can consider meriting would be Dex, which is sitting at 1/8 at the moment, and looking like it won't be going any further x.x;

Next job?!

Fuuji, and some others, have been /poking me to go level another job... like... a "real" DD or something for a zerg. I guess people don't consider BLU a "real DD", which I don't blame them since BLU has the problem of stamina. It's good for shorter things, and highly flexible, but not for longer battles and does not gain much benefit from Soul Voice Bard songs.

The job that I've been taking to "zerg" fights so far has been DNC. With Saber Dance, a full Reverse Flourish and if I'm /SAM with Meditate up, I can usually get off at least 2, sometimes 3-4 Dancing Edges off before the mob dies. I'm also using at least one Box Step for some defense down on the mob (reportedly 5% for the first level). Of course, this pales in comparison to the 5-6 that a SAM can pull off using their job abilities, but I think most mobs that are handled through zergs do not last through a full 2-hr. The downside is that daggers are simply a weak weapon to begin with so damage output isn't that high.

Anyway, now that summer is coming to an end, Fuuji has been talking about bringing back the "Sunday static exp" time that we used to do some time ago. It was pretty fun, and supermules + level sync makes it a lot easier to actually pull off. Hence, I'm sorta considering leveling a 5th job. However, merits and gil making are still a higher priority so I really want to do those first xD

Still... it makes for a fun exercise to consider what jobs I'd level up... figure that I'd post my thoughts behind this and let people make their own comments.

Now, in no particular order, the jobs!

Ranger

- Expensive... see gil problem where I don't have any gil... I doubt I'll level this just for that reason. Also, I haven't unlocked it yet xD

Dark Knight

- Emo... ok, that's not a good reason. I haven't unlocked DRK either

- Leveling it might make for some interesting applications as SCH/DRK with Stunga. Plus SCH can shorten recast timers, so SCH/DRK might make for an interesting stunner

- Can think of nothing significant against DRK, but nothing for it either

Monk

- So Rooks, Weap & Rizon took me out UFO hunting using a MNK with a Subtle Blow setup to demonstrate what the job is capable of. I never considered the implications of Subtle Blow before and was quite impressed at how using just one MNK it was possible to do a significant amount of damage to a mob over time, plus keep the mob under control, preventing it from using too many TP moves since you're just not giving it that much TP

- 100-Fists is also a really good zerg-type move

- However, the annoyance/difficulty of obtaining a Black Belt would turn me off from this job, considering how many people out there who have been playing this for years longer compared to me do not have this piece of equipment xD Also... MNK1

Warrior

- Haven't seen anything for or against this job... I never really thought too hard about WAR, just considering it as a good backup Provoke, and just another damage dealer

- WAR37, but only 1H axes skilled up. I never considered taking it past sub so skilling up other things would be painful D:

Dragoon

- Come to think of it, this is really a hybrid class given your subjob choices... Probably not a good choice just cos I already have too many hybrids

- DRG1, unlocked, but never played

Samurai

- Seems like the obvious choice given how many job abilities SE has dumped on the job. I also picked up a Soboro a long time ago that Aqqy made me get when AP was getting them for real SAMs, so at least I'm setup for that

- SAM37, but no polearm or archery skill... plus if I were to level this, I'd have to go unlock and level RNG as a sub, so that would get expensive. Skilling up polearm would be annoying, but at least doable on PLD

- No gil for a Hagun, or for that matter, any other good gear... Considering how popular SAM is as a job, most good SAM gear is relatively expensive

Thief

- Weird choice for a DD... not really a strict DD, but I have a lot of equipment that overlaps with this job, homam armor, daggers from DNC

- Job abilities make this job more interesting, controlling the hate and flow of a party

- However, the main reason people bring THF to events is mainly as Treasure Hunter, so... while I have the gear for it, it doesn't seem like something I'd want to do x.x

Alternate choices... well, for job #5, I might be considering a DD, but I'm also considering:

Bard

- What makes a "zerg" fight possible...

- Be able to pull for merit parties. I actually like pulling ^^;

- BRD16 at the moment... unfortunately, Bard songs can get expensive, as can BRD gear... at least I have 20k Assault points in nearly every zone for that weird armor that BRDs like

Corsair

- Expensive x.x Dice are expensive, as are the bullets and everything... even if I do have a Coffinmaker, the cost of this job would be too much for me

- COR5 now xD

So... looks like SAM & BRD are currently the top contenders. The other bad news for any DD job I choose is that my combat merits will be capped at 8/8 sword & dagger, and 4/4 on evasion, so there isn't really any space to put into a weapon the job would use. Since my fun job is still Dancer, I'm unwilling to reduce merits in any of those categories, making only THF & BRD the two jobs that would benefit from the combat merits.

Thoughts? Of course, this is all speculation/random thinking since I still want to finish my 19 merits first... plus any job I level up will require gil, which is something I currently have very little of x.x Need to get some people together and do some gil gaining activities :(

"Executive Email Carpet Bomb" example

I talked to Wu briefly during his goodbye speech to ZeniBailout about whether he wanted to followup on his account and escalate it up to the next level. he seemed frustrated, angry and resigned, which is completely understandable. I offered to help him draft an "executive email carpet bomb" (EECB) if he decided to take this up further. While he said that it wasn't necessary at the time, I think that this is still enough of an issue that I wanted to draft something for him, or anyone else who is wrongly banned to use to possibly get some actual results.

An EECB is the last resort. It's what you use if you've exhausted every possible normal channel, including customer service, supervisors, phone calls, etc. It isn't to be launched lightly, and should only be used if and only if the company's own systems for handling complaints is not working effectively. The idea behind this is to contact people with actual decision-making power and bring a problem to their attention, as well as give them clear steps on what they can do to fix things. I've used this technique twice in the past, and in both cases I've obtained swift, and satisfactory resolution.

Again, this is to be used only as a last resort when you have exhausted all other means of resolving a problem.

Here is some information on EECBs:

- How to Launch An Executive Email Carpet Bomb

- Howto: How To Write A Complaint Letter

- EECB Convinces Best Buy To Pay For Damage To Car

SE EECB sample follows:

-----

Hello,

My name is $NAME. On $DATE, I was banned from playing the Square-Enix game Final Fantasy XI (Online) for suspected "real money transactions" or RMT.

On $DATE, I contacted Square-Enix customers service at $PHONE to obtain an explanation of my ban and to clear my name. I have not engaged in RMT activity and wanted to know the reason behind the ban and to lift the ban so that I can continue to play. I talked to $NAME (if you can remember) and the reason given was that I was playing from a suspicious IP address. There was no evidence of any RMT activity, just that the IP address I had connected from was considered suspicious. There was also no explanation as to what made my IP address suspicious, or how I could remove the suspicion.

I asked to talk to a supervisor and escalated it to... (put all formal steps that you took to try to resolve the issue) On $DATE, I was informed that this ban was final and that no further investigation would be taken. This is unacceptable as this ban was due to no fault of my own, and the reason behind the banning has no evidence at all.

I have been a loyal Square-Enix customer since $YEAR. I have been playing Final Fantasy XI since $YEAR, and I have easily spent over $DOLLAR on Square-Enix, Eidos and Taito games including (insert list of games you've bought... including Tomb Raider, Space Invaders, Kingdom Hearts, etc.) Needless to say, I am very disappointed in the lack of customer service I have received in this matter.

I would like to remain a Square-Enix customer. I would like to give your office the chance to rectify this mistake and show the professionalism and harmony that are the foundation of principles for your company. I am asking that a representative evaluate this case and arrange for the unbanning of my account. I have included detailed account information, including my POL ID, Square-Enix ID, (registration codes, etc.)

I look forward to your reply and a resolution to my problem and will wait until (set a time limit, no more than 2 weeks from when you send in the email) before seeking help from a consumer protection agency or the Better Business Bureau (or Consumerist.com., Kotaku, Alla, whatever you want to list. Don't overdo it, but do hit the major players.) Please contact me at $address, or by phone at (phone number, email address, etc.)

Sincerely,

Your name.

-----

Alright, that's the sample. Obviously the reason is tailored to Wu since that's the most recent example, but the general format stays the same:

1. Product & specific incident (FFXI & banning)

2. Steps that you have already done (Talking to customer service)

3. Why the company should help you (Loyal customer)

4. Specific action the company should take (Investigate and contact you)

5. DEADLINE (Very important. Make sure that they know that the clock is ticking)

6. Action that you will take if the company ignores the message (Contact media)

7. Contact info

Now that you've written the letter, you need somewhere to send it to. Unfortunately, SE has been very good about hiding the email address format that they use, so it makes it a little more difficult. What you can do includes:

- Sending email to variations of $first.$last@square-enix.com, such as $first$last@, $last$first@, etc.

- Calling the corporate number and asking specifically for an email address of a person, any person so that you can figure out their email address format

- Contact one of the "Premier Site" administrators and ask that they forward your message into the company... Personally, I wouldn't do this and instead, figure out the email format and send it in that way.

- Alternatively, send in a physical mail (return receipt requested) to their corporate offices. This is what worked for me when I had an issue with Sony. I had a resolution about 5 days after I sent my physical mail.

The people you want to direct this mail to are:

- John Yamamoto (US & EU CEO)

- Daishiro Okado (Vice Chairman US)

- Ron Scott (Senior VP of Sales & Marketing)

- David Hoffman (Director of Business Development)

- Ami Blaire (VP of Marketing)

- Yoichi Wada (President and Representative Director of the Board)

- Keiji Honda (Executive Vice President and Representative Director of the Board)

The last two are on the Japan side of things, so you'd want to find a friend to translate your letter into formal Japanese before sending it in.

If you decide to go the physical mail method, the addresses are:

- Square Enix Co., Ltd

Shinjuku Bunka Quint Bldg. 3-22-7 Yoyogi,
Shibuya-ku,Tokyo 151-0053, Japan
- Square Enix Inc.
999 N. Sepulveda Boulevard,
3rd Floor, El Segundo, CA 90245, U. S. A.

Addressing it to either the individuals should work. Alternatively, you can also try "Office of the President".

Why am I doing this?

So... why am I spending the time writing this up in the hopes that Wu, or someone else who is wrongly banned will use this? Well, the obvious reason is that I really hate it when someone wrongs my friends, and I'd want the problem fixed and my friends cleared. however, my motive isn't 100% selfless.

The other reason, and the main reason why I've been posting about the injustice and problems in FFXI as well as SE is that I want the company to take notice and change. I am 90% certain that SE's executive staff have no idea what is going on with their customer service division, what these bannings are doing to their actual customers and how disgruntled people are about the game. FFXI accounts for less than 10% of their total operating income (7.8% specifically) and it is shrinking steadily (revenue down by 12.1% over 2008, operating income down 47.5%)(Source: SE FY2009 Annual Report, published 8/21/09) I want them to become aware of it, and I want them to 1. fix FFXI so that this stops happening, and 2. make it so that this will NEVER be an issue in FFXIV. I want these online games to actually be fun to play, as well as worth playing instead of having to worry about whether I'll be banned next week.

So, hopefully someone will take up this charge and get in touch with SE. I can't do it simply because... well, I don't have a valid reason. I'm not banned. The person who takes up the charge needs to be someone who has a valid, unjust problem that needs to be corrected. I'm hoping that either the executives become aware of this problem and come down to fix the problems that they have with customer service and their JP-onry attitude, or this gets picked up by mainstream media outlets who will bring this to the attention of the masses. With FFXIV announced, SE marketing would jump on bad publicity about SE online gaming if it hit a major new outlet such as Kotaku or the Consumerist. We all remember what happened when the "18 hour fight" hit Yahoo!

Wu, I know you're reading this... It's up to you whether you want to take this next step! For the rest of you, I hope you never have to use this, but if you know of someone who needs help for an unjust banning, please feel free to refer them to this post. I guess you all also just got a sample of how I can pound out tons of MBA papers in a few hours :)