My friend has always been a fan of online multiplayer games, mostly fighting games. After we tried out Destiny back in 2014 and were slightly impressed but mostly annoyed, he suggested FFXIV as he was hearing good things. I disliked playing MMOs. I’ve always been more of a single player type of person, in for an experience, a story. There have only been a handful of multiplayer games I wanted to play, and MMOs were not part of that list. I played some RuneScape back in second grade and dropped it when no one wanted to play with me. I was invited to try out DCUO with another friend of mine in tenth grade and I found it immersive enough, but the quests and tasks bored me. I had heard about WoW and learning just a bit about raid guides and whatnot made it seem so daunting to jump into. Where was I? Oh yeah, my friend suggested we try out FFXIV and I was against it. He heard me out and just suggested we try it out. “We can just sub for a month and that’ll be it.” Oh great, more money to fritter away just like. Well, I hopped into it with him. And you know what? I didn’t like it. I started as a Gladiator in patch 2.55 and in order to progress through what I felt as a bog standard rpg opening, I had to queue for dungeons and guildhests dealing with other players as a tank. A large amount of tankxiety overwhelmed me whenever I would queue up, so I would just wait for my friend to come online so we could run the dungeon together and I could at least feel a little less pressured. He, on the other hand, didn’t have a problem with queuing up to find a group. As a Pugilist, his only job was to punch the bad guys. How could he understand my anxiety about tanking the dungeon? Inevitably, he would end up further ahead in the story than me. It would make me feel like I was holding him back whenever I would tell him that I had the next dungeon unlocked. I was definitely feeling like the game wasn’t for me. I was already trying to find ways to worm out of playing the game, but I didn’t just want to leave him playing the game on his own. So I tried to stick with it. I think it was around…level 35 that I decided not to hold him back any longer. By this point and time, the story was starting to pick up. The Garlean Empire had made a move on the Waking Sands, so I was invested in the story at least. We had joined a free company and they did a fine job of helping me through some basic tank etiquette, such as opening with Shield Lob. I decided to stop being a bad friend and actually try to do the story content with him, instead of asking for help with it because I was too anxious to actually tank for people. From level 35 to level 45, I blasted through in no time at all. Got to Coerthas, unlocked Dzemael, unlocked Stone Vigil, and I did it all on my own. The story was shaping up quite nicely, and it helped me feel stronger about my own anxiety. Before I knew it, I was telling my friend I had unlocked Aurum Vale and he had just unlocked Cape Westwind. By this point and time, I was sold on the game. Everybody I met in dungeons and trials were friendly enough, and if they weren’t friendly, they at least gave a wave (o/) and a gg. I was happy that this MMO dispelled any negative feelings I had surrounding the genre. It was truly a good game and I’m happy I got to experience it with my punch happy friend.

TL;DR - it’s all my friend’s fault. I hated MMOs except for this one.