EDITORIAL
I've been an avid Final Fantasy enthusiast since I was twelve years old. And, while I wish I could claim that I was a fan of the series long before the arrival of the monumental giant that is Final Fantasy VII, I really can't seeing as it was the first one in the franchise that I played. Final Fantasy VII holds a special spot in my heart not because it's what got me into the Final Fantasy series, rather because it acted as the springboard into my insatiable passion for gaming as a whole. Final Fantasy, and particularly VII, has, as strange as it sounds, shaped me into the person I am today and for that, I'm eternally grateful. That being said, it should come as no surprise then that when Final Fantasy XI (or as some call it, "that online Final Fantasy") hit store shelves the better part of a decade ago, I was indescribably excited.
At the time, I had never really played a massively multiplayer game, at least not like Final Fantasy XI. I had had a short run with Everquest and Dark Ages of Camelot, but nothing substantial. Moreover, what I had experienced in those games was almost totally irrelevant when it came to XI because of the vastly different take on the genre Square-Enix had with their online Final Fantasy. Needless to say, with not much of a point of reference, I dove into Final Fantasy online without hesitation, and while the game had its low points, at the end of the day, I felt as if the pros far outweighed the cons. Thus, for the next six years I'd have an on-again, off-again relationship with Final Fantasy XI, logging hundreds of hours, yet never actually reaching the end-game content, or even the level cap. But that didn't bother me – I had forged so many great memories in all those hours that the sentiment I found in my time as a TaruTaru White Mage was exceedingly profound and, still to this day, do I look back on my time with FFXI very fondly.
So, that being true, one can only imagine my level of energy when I heard another Final Fantasy was making its way to the MMO arena. This time, it would bear the name of the series' fourteenth installment, and would offer a more streamlined, accessible, and enjoyable experience than its sometimes too-hardcore-for-its-own-good older brother. It would resemble Final Fantasy XI in some ways, yet try to carve out its own path in another. It was to be an MMO that'd be comparable to the progress and development made in the genre since FFXI's launch, and try to more closely resemble a game that the MMO'ers of today wanted to play. And now, after having the game for about a week and clocking an impressive amount of time, I can say that I think Square-Enix have hit their mark in some aspects, and missed it in others. Though, seven days is far too little time to judge a game that has as much content as Final Fantasy XIV does, I would like to discuss a component that I believe is holding the title back from being everything it could, or even should, be.
Final Fantasy XIV is unique in a number of ways, most notably being its capacity to allow players to change their character's class on the fly. With the ability to change from one class to another by simply equipping a specific weapon, one can go from damage-dealer to healer to tank with just a few clicks of the mouse. I can only imagine Square did this to maximize the player's overall enjoyment of the product by keeping the gameplay refreshing and dynamic. After all, who doesn't want to be able to go from mage to warrior in the matter of seconds, right?
In most other MMOs on the market right now, a player begins a game by creating their character and picking a class, whether that class be an archer, assassin, necromancer, or what have you. It's often thought that picking a class in an MMO is the most difficult part of the game seeing as you will be leveling that particular avatar for hundreds, or perhaps even thousands, of hours. Players want to be sure that the class they've chosen is the one that will provide them with the most fun over their lengthy journey. MMO players usually refer to this first character as their 'main', or the one in which they will primarily be trying to understand and play the most. Their friends and guild-mates will know them by this character and will call on them in situations in which their particular 'main' is needed. That is to say if your friends are playing and need a healing character in their group and you just so happen to 'main' a healer, they will first and foremost associate you with that class and ask for your assistance given your specialty in the area of healing.
This system creates a sense of belongingness and purpose for players. And, while many hardcore MMO-players will make characters called 'alts' (secondary characters they may play when they're bored with their main or for some other specific reason), most will exclusively identify with that first, or 'main', character. So, ultimately, if the player wants to play their alternate character, they will be required to log out of the game, pick the desired avatar, and jump back into the game. Final Fantasy XIV does away with this system and allows players to change classes at the drop of a hat by merely unequipping one weapon and equipping another. In other words, if an individual chose to play as a tanking class, say a Gladiator, at the beginning, but wanted to play as a wizard later on, they could easily open their inventory, unequip their sword (the weapon that defines their Gladiator role), and equip a staff or wand to become a magic-wielding badass. Once they have changed out their weapon, they are now whatever class that uses that weapon, and are open to all the abilities and skills that that class has to offer (that was a lot of "that's"). Essentially, this system cuts out the need to log out and log back in under a different character. In theory, this sounds like the perfect idea to help streamline the experience, considering logging out and logging back in can be a hassle and a waste of time. BUT!…but, but, but, I believe the players loses something by doing this.
As I touched on earlier, I think most people like the idea of picking a class in an MMO because it gives them a sense of meaning and value. They are able to be proficient in an area that not all other players will be. This concept gives players a feeling of being a master of something – having a niche that not everyone will have. This niche of theirs will allow them to be called upon when their particular craft or trade is needed. In doing this, players are given a sense of belongingness; they feel unique and needed at times insofar as others are dependent on their trade just as they are dependent on others' areas of expertise in certain scenarios. Much like the real world, a doctor must consult a plumber when the pipes in his bathroom are not working properly, and a plumber must visit a doctor when he is ill. This system creates a balance in the world – and if you really think about it, it allows for each person to be especially proficient in one area, making them just as valuable as the next person no matter their job title. This system is put into play in nearly every MMO out there right now.
So, how does this relate to Final Fantasy XIV you ask? Well, it's simple; being able to play as any class at any time eliminates that feeling of being the master of something. Instead, players may be left feeling more like a jack-of-all-trades rather than someone who understands one particular vocation inside and out. Moreover, in this newest Final Fantasy, when you change from one profession, or class, to another, you can carry over skills from whatever class you changed from. Therefore, this makes it possible for warriors to be able to heal themselves. This design creates conflict amongst players in that those individuals, who would normally play a healing-based character, may suddenly feel as if they aren't valuable anymore. In essence, their job has been liquidated and their sense of belongingness in the game world is almost terminated completely. In other games, if you want to play as a different class, you have to actually disconnect yourself from the character you're playing by logging out. I think that by having to go through the sometimes bothersome task of logging out and back in, players are reminded which of their characters is their main one and which is their alternate. They can still feel as if their 'day job', if you will, is healing, and their part-time job is tanking with their alternate warrior character. But, by making it so easy to swap between the two, the line between their full time and part time job is almost entirely erased.
The very idea of a class, or job, in an MMO is what makes playing with friends and linking up with other players so exciting. You have a defined role in a group of people and you are responsible for something no one else is. And, at the end of the day, I think we, as humans, all want to be responsible for something. In the game world, it's no different. We want to feel special, needed, and even important. We want to be praised for a skillset we've fine-tuned to near perfection. We want to be able to express our uniqueness by the class in which we chosen to play. It takes a certain type of person to play a tanking character in an MMO, just as it takes a specific kind to play a character that does not engage in combat, but rather heal those that do. Whether if it's in the real world or the game world, we all want to feel like we are different from others – that we have qualities others don't. By giving us all the ability to excel at any class at any time takes this factor out of the equation almost entirely. What would happen if someone came to us one day and said, "I will bestow upon you the knowledge and know-how to be anything you want to be in life,"; more than likely, you would have an overcrowding of prestigious job types, making those prestigious jobs, not prestigious at all anymore. Rather, those once sought-after-by-many-but-acquired-by-only-a-few kinds of jobs wouldn't be as meaningful to society anymore. I think as soon as this happen, individuality and personality becomes uniform across the board, and we are no longer one of a kind.
I believe what makes MMOs so popular is the fact that they give players the ability to role-play a character they don't get to in real life. They can assume a position that is thoroughly opposite or entirely synonymous with their real world job. They can become proficient at something not possible by real life, and it's that sense of being bound to a duty that makes them coming back for more. Making players choose a class at the beginning of a game, that can stretch for thousands of hours, grants them the opportunity to find their niche and become well-versed in an area not all others will be. Thus, taking away a player's ability to be an individual, giving everyone the chance to be anything, actually limits what we can be in the end.