Final Fantasy XIV

We're going to sample Final Fantasy XIV (14) in the very near future.  I'll be posting information as it comes available.


http://www.finalfantasyxiv.com/

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Server


You will need to create a Square Enix account (link from their pages)

There are 6 datacenters, some in the US, some in japan
Players are free to create characters on servers tied to any datacenter, regardless of its geographical location; the new datacenter in Montreal, Canada was simply made for western audiences as a lower-ping alternative to the Japanese datacenter.

At the 2014 London Fanfest, it was announced that plans were underway to set up a dedicated datacenter in Europe for European players. Currently, while the Chaos data center is recommended for European players, it is still located in Montreal.

Servers on the Chaos data center are recommended for European players. This is primarily to ensure the serves are most active during that region's prime time, but also to alleviate some concerns about language barriers. However, like anyone else they are welcome to make characters on any server they wish.

Currently lists 7 servers on the Chaos data center
Cerberus, Lich, Odin, Shiva, Moogle, Phoenix, Zodiark

Decent beginners guide to picking race/class/server etc

Any single char can, in time, learn all classes and crafting skills fully.

http://www.ffxivguild.com/ff14-the-ultimate-starters-guide-power-levelling/

Played around a while on a sample char, not too bad.  Asian flavor, much like Archeage.  Bought the full game + the 1 expansion, Heavensward, which came out about a year ago, for $60 (game $20, expansion $40) and which unlocks more levels and another race and several more crafting jobs.  30 days full game before subscriptions kick in.

Humans are reasonably 'human', other races are elf and dwarf styles, aside from new race in the expansion.

Some housing info:

http://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Housing

**********

Personal Housing

   No Private Chambers
   No Company Workshops or Airships
   You can share your estate with up to 3 friends through the tenant system. You can allow them to use your stables, garden, or move and place furniture.
   If the owner doesn’t enter the house in 45 days, it’ll be automatically demolished.

Requirements

   Character with level 50 in 1 of the classes.

   Second Lieutenant in 1 of the Grand Companies for Personal Housing. Rank 6 or higher Free Company for Free Company Housing.

Small plots go for 2-5 mil while mediums go for 15-37 mil and larges for 35-87 mil. Prices depend on the current server economy, the location of the plot and how long the it's been on the market; the price goes down the longer it's for sale. Waiting too long in hopes of getting it cheaper is risky, though, since there are limited amount of plots and, you guessed it, the demand is high.

Building House

After you've bought the land, you need to buy the Housing permit from a vendor NPC to actually get a house on the plot you just bought. You have 45 days for this (if you don't build in this time, you will lose the land due to reclamation of inactive housing). Examine the placard again and choose to get it for

   450,000 Gil for a small cottage
   1,000,000 Gil for a medium house
   3,000,000 Gil for a large mansion

It appears you can get 'housing' of a sort very early, in the form of a free room at the Inn in the hub city you started at.  I have a lvl 11 char who had been working the main questlines and the initial NPC contact there (not the class trainer) gave me a room to use when I please, as well as access to some wide range of quests I haven't looked into yet.  

Room has several things, including a sort of bank, and a bed (for logging out).


Edit: Found the wiki entry for these rooms:

http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Inn

About 30 quests to go to finish the 'Realm Reborn' content and the on to the 'Heavensward' expansion content.

Oct 27th, 2016


・Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT advertising: 1,543
・Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT/illicit activity: 14,567
・Action Details: Permanent ban from FINAL FANTASY XIV

======================

They post these notices about every 2 weeks. The numbers have skyrocketed since they added a feature in a recent patch to allow for easy flagging of goldsellers and assorted bot chars roaming about the game.

And the next 6 days they banned 25,000 bot chars, lol. Bots are annoying but not really stopping us from doing anything, just a fair amount of vicinity RMT spam.

Otherwise, we're grinding thru Heavensward content, everyone is lvl 56 or 57 atm. Some long cutscenes with things like rather large dragons.

Dai will be on vacation for much of December, but the rest of us have plenty of stuff we can work on besides the main chars doing the storyline.

I just remembered this article from last January, mentioning an actress who did voicework for FFXIV having been murdered, along with her children (apparently by the boyfriend):

http://massivelyop.com/2016/01/14/ffxivs-yoshida-remarks-on-the-death-of-voice-actress-sian-blake/

Back then we didn't know any voice NPC's from FFXIV, now we know who Yugiri is, her being the first of the Au Rau race we meet in the game, not long before Heavensward content begins.

And we are back in FFXIV, having done a spin in Minecraft and Conan Exiles. We'll keep revisiting Exiles as they add content.

The FFXIV Stormblood expansion is out a week now and hopefully we'll have the full crew diving in this week.

Everyone is back in action now, and we also jumped to a new server, along with much of our old FC (guild).

And Touarella is subbed to ffxiv!

We finally finished the primary expansion storyline, but lots of stuff still to do.

Diving back into FFXIV with the arrival of patch 4.2 after a January hiatus in Minecraft!

Due to the guild we were in depleting in members, we split off and made a new one, 'Babel Fish'!

Got a FC house up by Sunday evening.