1465: Day of Peace

Today didn’t quite go according to the sort-of plan I made yesterday, but that’s all right; aside from sorting out some urgent personal matters that I won’t go into here, it was the opportunity for a much-needed, stress-free break from the daily grind.

I know, I know, it’s not long since Christmas, but there’s a difference between taking a day for yourself and the obligations that come with holidays such as Christmas time. Christmas is stressful, in short; taking a day for yourself is not. Usually, anyway.

Right now, it’s silly o’ clock in the morning and I’m still awake. On this particular occasion, it is, as usual, Final Fantasy XIV to blame. As I type this, our party is in the middle of some dowtime between “turns” of The Binding Coil of Bahamut, the main endgame dungeon and the hardest challenge in the game as it stands right now. (It’s also home to some of the best music in the game, as any good “final” dungeon worth its salt should be.)

I’ve been finding it interesting to compare the teamwork required in Final Fantasy XIV with popular online game Dota 2, which my friends and I have been tentatively dipping our toes into recently. For sure, the two games have a certain amount in common with one another — a reliance on true teamwork being the main aspect — but it’s interesting to compare and contrast. I wasn’t altogether convinced I’d like Dota 2 after our first outing — in which I hadn’t done any of the tutorials and didn’t know anything about how to play — but it’s grown on me a little bit since I’ve learned it a little better. I still think I prefer the purely cooperative nature of Final Fantasy XIV, but ultimately they’re both very different games that can coexist quite happily; both will happily eat up your life, but in different ways — Final Fantasy XIV sessions can go on pretty much indefinitely if you have plenty of things to do; Dota 2 sessions, conversely, are 45-60 minutes at a time, but there’s never any shortage of opponents to take on.

Anyway. I’d better wrap this up as it looks like we’ll have our final party members ready to go shortly. Wish us luck as we delve into Turn 2 and beyond — there’s 5 altogether, but we’ve never made it beyond 4 as yet. It’s hard!