Rak'tika? I hardly know 'a

27/F/Whm/pictomancer/savage casual

[yesiknowlahee]

About the player behind the account:

HIIII I'm Bel! Lore enthusiast and "long" time player! I joined in early 4.0 which is actually almost 8 years ago now!

I love housing, glamour, island sanctuary, and I will do the harder content but lately I haven't had a group I jive with to run it.

Ochlys and Bel are the OCs that live here!

Ochlys is a slightly older, sin-eater experiment, like a certain Light Warden, but nowhere near as powerful and a lot more susceptible to issues as a result. She is not a WoL oc.

She's also just me having fun. I'm very unserious and just enjoy playing around with stuff from time to time.

Bels lore is WoL stuff and I wrote it almost a decade ago. I should redo it.

Personally, im not interested in arguing or fighting with anyone. Please assume interactions with me are in good faith. I'm not here to make anyone's day worse.

[johnnylandslide]

Get behind me, kitten!

(Couldn't think of anything to gpose tonight, so I just did Dulia-Chai aura farming.)

[blucifer08]

happy Neil banging out the tunes day!

[fandaniel]

people were upset with this person in the comments but honestly truth nuke

[meowww-ffxiv]

When you know you're not gonna survive this raid wide.

[theoriginalsupermodels]

Louis Féraud - Fall 1992 Couture

[moment-live]

Meanwhile at the pendants

[yesiknowlahee]

[yesiknowlahee]

[thegreatyin]

kids these days don't even know how good they have it. they don't even know about the final fantasy 14 artificial housing crisis

[thegreatyin]

the final fantasy 14 artificial housing crisis. did i stutter.

[thegreatyin]

TLDR; ffxiv has had player housing for years. it's a very popular feature, and it's one of the most popular ways to personalize your account in the endgame.

it's also an expensive trainwreck built on RNG, artificial scarcity, and subscription retention metrics.

see, final fantasy 14 works on a residential district system. this means every single player-owned house actually exists as a physical location in the world. all you need to do is tell someone your in-game address and they can go there and see your house, no instancing required.

in many ways, this is really convenient! you don't need to be online to host house parties! you can guarantee people coming around to see your decor! you can have a bunch of neighbors and match houses with them (or wildly contrast houses, for comedy's sake) as much as you please!

the problem is that because every housing plot is a real physical location players can claim, open plots become extremely scarce extremely quickly. everyone wants a house, and everyone wants a good house. but because there's a set number of plots in each district, not everyone is able to have one. you want that spiffy grade mansion in ward #16? too bad, someone already owns it. unless they decide to pack up their bags and leave, you will never get an opportunity to roleplay as a landowner. housing is first come first serve, and if you didn't come first, tough luck to you.

and before you ask, yes, this means a vast majority of ffxiv characters are homeless.

so what happens when a housing plot does go on sale? well, first and foremost, you need to have the money to buy it in the first place;

and then. you need to enter a lottery.

lotteries are usually extremely competitive, and extremely costly. you get your money back if you lose, but there is never a guarantee that you'll win. you can camp out at an open plot for ages, saving up money across hundreds of hard-earned hours, just to have everything snatched out of your grasp at the last possible moment because the random number god said it hates you in particular.

and then- assuming you do find an empty plot, and do win it, and do own it- then you have to retain it. monthly. with real world cash. to the tune of approximately 15 US dollars.

aka, the standard ffxiv subscription fee.

you see, if someone owns a house without logging in at least once a month, that house will be automatically demolished and their ownership will be automatically revoked. all of that gil, luck, blood sweat and tears, all of it is wiped away in an instant if you don't keep track of your monthly housing timer. this means- unless they want to lose everything they worked to achieve- in-game landowners are categorically unable to take breaks from the game.

there's been many, many, many a tale of people growing disillusioned with ffxiv and only keeping their subscription to keep their house. this is a common occurrence. it's a predatory tactic used by square enix to keep people paying for as long as possible, no matter what, just so they don't put all of their time and effort to waste.

which is where we are now. houses are always in demand, but there's never enough open plots. houses are also always locked behind insane amounts of money and RNG, meaning it's very very difficult to buy one even if the plot is suddenly on sale. even then, you must constantly retain your house, else all of your work will be pointless.

to put it another way; housing is an artificially scarce RNG system that taxes you $15 per month so you don't lose everything you own. square enix holds your house hostage even if you're lucky enough to own one in the first place.

TLDR^2; buying a house in final fantasy 14 is a scam. don't do it. save yourself while you still can.

[hiroi-kikui]

World of Warcraft is finally introducing housing in a very similar style to ff14s housing but they directly address the main issues and even kinda call out the shitty housing practices that ff14 does

the only requirement that isn't listed here is that you need to purchase the new expansion that the housing releases with, which can be seen as a downside but since it's essentially a feature of the new expansion its not a very tall ask for the player base

[athena-ishnuala]

~Symphony of the Past~

Inspired by the Scions symphony painting, I have to do one for my beloved ancients T_T

[deathflare]

day 7: our fate ☺️

[anneapocalypse]

Not gonna lie, analysis of Minfilia that rests on a reading of her as some kind of hiring manager at a company really doesn't sit right with me, not just because it lends itself to some particularly uncharitable readings of Minfilia, but because it seems to me like a pretty inaccurate reading of what the Scions actually are in ARR.

The Scions of the Seventh Dawn are the union of the Circle of Knowing, a group of activist academics who accurately predicted the apocalypse but failed to prevent it and lost their beloved mentor in the process, and the Path of the Twelve, a group for Echo-bearers to help them better understand and make use of their gift--all doing their best to pick up the pieces and protect the realm in the wake of said apocalypse. Minfilia, formerly the leader of the Path of the Twelve, has now been thrust into the position of leadership over both at the late Louisoix's behest. The Scions in ARR aren't a company, they're an activist group, and in ARR still a very small one without the massive web of political connections they fall into later. They don't have a lot of financial resources. They're largely working quietly and behind the scenes. They have a secret code phrase to identify friends of the organization. Being recruited into this group in ARR is closer to being recruited into a resistance cell than being interviewed for a formal job.

Minfilia's role prior to the Calamity was as the leader of a support group for people experiencing a frightening, isolating, and as-yet poorly-understood phenomenon, a group where they could find others like them, understand what's happening to them, and learn how to use their gift for good. And to some extent, this is still a part of her role. The Warrior of Light is brought in because they were witnessed experiencing the Echo, and Minfilia is reaching out to them as a fellow Echo-bearer. I think it's a mistake to interpret her words and actions without that context, particularly her expressed hope that this most recent Echo-bearer she's invited into her group will find something like family there. I mean, listen to the joy with which she says, "I too possess the Echo." She's telling the WoL that they're not alone, that there is a name and an explanation for what they've been experiencing, that they can find others like themselves here. Yes, she's also asking for their help. But this is a pretty far cry from a job interview. However flawed the Scions may be as an organization, I can only see Minfilia's overtures here as offered in the spirit of friendship and camaraderie. And framing that as her trying to build loyalty she can exploit in a corporate manner feels extremely ungenerous given what we know of her character.

I don't want to sound like I'm here to defend the Scions in ARR against any and all criticism--I've discussed my own in the past, from their concerning tendency toward self-sacrifice to the attitude they develop toward the WoL (which is kind of up for interpretation based on your character's relationship to them but which can come across as a cavalier attitude toward the WoL's safety, taking advantage of their unique abilities, etc). In particular, the Scions' experience as a small activist organization, and Minfilia's particular experience as Echo support group leader, has ill-prepared any of them to be thrust into an international spotlight following the defeat of the Ultima Weapon. The attack on the Waking Sands has already revealed the weaknesses in their opsec, and certain scenes in the ARR patch quests reveal something of a power struggle between Minfilia and Alphinaud--one which Alphinaud ultimately wins, because Minfilia lacks the kind of confidence in her position to stand against the force of his personality, and she, like most of the other Scions, starts to fall into the trap of seeing Alphinaud as the second coming of Louisoix and lets him push her around accordingly. Minfilia is simply not equipped or prepared to lead the kind of organization the Scions are turning into. (Urianger, incidentally is one of the few who seems to notice this and remark on it, but also seems to feel that he can't directly object.) The cracks begin to show, and then it all falls apart, and when the Scions finally begin to put themselves back together post-Heavensward, I think they all understand that they can't go back, that what they rebuild will be something new. Over the next few expacs I think we see them developing a new group identity, recognizing that that old model no longer serves them and doing their best to adapt to constantly changing circumstances.

The Scions in ARR have plenty of problems, but they're not a for-profit company and they're also not the same organization as the Scions of later expacs. I think that context needs to be taken into account when interpreting their actions, especially those of their leader.

[anneapocalypse]

#also ppl sometimes forget that minfilia was ascilia the miner and daughter of resistence member ( @kp2brukgaming )

Couldn't leave that in the tags.

[domesticatedanimal]

This is possibly the best reading of the ARR Scions that I've come across.

[anneapocalypse]

Not gonna lie, analysis of Minfilia that rests on a reading of her as some kind of hiring manager at a company really doesn't sit right with me, not just because it lends itself to some particularly uncharitable readings of Minfilia, but because it seems to me like a pretty inaccurate reading of what the Scions actually are in ARR.

The Scions of the Seventh Dawn are the union of the Circle of Knowing, a group of activist academics who accurately predicted the apocalypse but failed to prevent it and lost their beloved mentor in the process, and the Path of the Twelve, a group for Echo-bearers to help them better understand and make use of their gift--all doing their best to pick up the pieces and protect the realm in the wake of said apocalypse. Minfilia, formerly the leader of the Path of the Twelve, has now been thrust into the position of leadership over both at the late Louisoix's behest. The Scions in ARR aren't a company, they're an activist group, and in ARR still a very small one without the massive web of political connections they fall into later. They don't have a lot of financial resources. They're largely working quietly and behind the scenes. They have a secret code phrase to identify friends of the organization. Being recruited into this group in ARR is closer to being recruited into a resistance cell than being interviewed for a formal job.

Minfilia's role prior to the Calamity was as the leader of a support group for people experiencing a frightening, isolating, and as-yet poorly-understood phenomenon, a group where they could find others like them, understand what's happening to them, and learn how to use their gift for good. And to some extent, this is still a part of her role. The Warrior of Light is brought in because they were witnessed experiencing the Echo, and Minfilia is reaching out to them as a fellow Echo-bearer. I think it's a mistake to interpret her words and actions without that context, particularly her expressed hope that this most recent Echo-bearer she's invited into her group will find something like family there. I mean, listen to the joy with which she says, "I too possess the Echo." She's telling the WoL that they're not alone, that there is a name and an explanation for what they've been experiencing, that they can find others like themselves here. Yes, she's also asking for their help. But this is a pretty far cry from a job interview. However flawed the Scions may be as an organization, I can only see Minfilia's overtures here as offered in the spirit of friendship and camaraderie. And framing that as her trying to build loyalty she can exploit in a corporate manner feels extremely ungenerous given what we know of her character.

I don't want to sound like I'm here to defend the Scions in ARR against any and all criticism--I've discussed my own in the past, from their concerning tendency toward self-sacrifice to the attitude they develop toward the WoL (which is kind of up for interpretation based on your character's relationship to them but which can come across as a cavalier attitude toward the WoL's safety, taking advantage of their unique abilities, etc). In particular, the Scions' experience as a small activist organization, and Minfilia's particular experience as Echo support group leader, has ill-prepared any of them to be thrust into an international spotlight following the defeat of the Ultima Weapon. The attack on the Waking Sands has already revealed the weaknesses in their opsec, and certain scenes in the ARR patch quests reveal something of a power struggle between Minfilia and Alphinaud--one which Alphinaud ultimately wins, because Minfilia lacks the kind of confidence in her position to stand against the force of his personality, and she, like most of the other Scions, starts to fall into the trap of seeing Alphinaud as the second coming of Louisoix and lets him push her around accordingly. Minfilia is simply not equipped or prepared to lead the kind of organization the Scions are turning into. (Urianger, incidentally is one of the few who seems to notice this and remark on it, but also seems to feel that he can't directly object.) The cracks begin to show, and then it all falls apart, and when the Scions finally begin to put themselves back together post-Heavensward, I think they all understand that they can't go back, that what they rebuild will be something new. Over the next few expacs I think we see them developing a new group identity, recognizing that that old model no longer serves them and doing their best to adapt to constantly changing circumstances.

The Scions in ARR have plenty of problems, but they're not a for-profit company and they're also not the same organization as the Scions of later expacs. I think that context needs to be taken into account when interpreting their actions, especially those of their leader.

[anneapocalypse]

#also ppl sometimes forget that minfilia was ascilia the miner and daughter of resistence member ( @kp2brukgaming )

Couldn't leave that in the tags.

[domesticatedanimal]

This is possibly the best reading of the ARR Scions that I've come across.

[forgiventruth]

Hades as text posts ━ 1/?

[moment-live]

Guys don't run Free_eletrope_generator.exe this has been popping up on my computer since 😭

[forgiventruth]

Hades as text posts ━ 1/?