Aside from my very first month of playing the game, I have not experienced what it is like to play Final Fantasy 14 without being a member of a Free Company (the FF14 version of player guilds). The friends who got me into the game were members of one already, so I was already predisposed to joining that particular group from the get-go, but the warm welcome I received while I was still a new player on a free-to-play account solidified my decision to join. Since then, I have not regretted my choice. Almost everyone in the FC has been a warm and welcoming person who has done what they could, sometimes at mild to moderate inconvenience, to help me out as I’ve gotten further and further into the game. From free level-appropriate gear when I was reached the tough middle of my crafting journey to tons of free collectibles (music for the in-game jukebox, minions, clothing items, mounts, and more) more or less constantly, I would not have made the progress I have without the support of this FC. Nor would I have made as much money since everything I know about crafting to make money has been learned from people in the FC and almost all of the money I’ve made in the game has been made via crafting and gathering jobs for the FC’s leader (often as part of deals he has brokered with other very wealthy players). Joining this FC immediately upon becoming a paying subscriber to the game has irrevoccably altered my experience in ways I rarely stop to think about now that I’ve adjusted to it.

The biggest impact is that I spend so much time around the FC house. Back in my free-to-play days, I used to log out at my “home” point in the game. I’d end the day by teleporting there and then sitting down on a bench before logging out. I think I maybe went into an inn once at that point, but I had very little reason to spend much time in an inn since I had little I could use to create glamour plates and I didn’t have retainers yet. Instead, I mostly spent what spare time I had in the public area around the teleporter, people-watching and hanging out. Now that I’m a part of an FC, all the time I used to spend there is now spent at my FC’s house, though I’ll also say that I spend a lot less time hanging out than I used to since there’s just so much stuff to do now. Levels to gain, quests to go on, things to craft, currencies to spend, weeklies to do, and so on. Unless I’m actively talking to another person in the game, I really don’t stand around much anymore. Nowadays, I just log off instead. Do something else entirely. I don’t exactly miss my days of hanging out in public spaces and people-watching. but it’s undeniable that a staple of my free-to-play life has been drastically altered.

I shouldn’t over look the money aspect of things, though. I might not spend my in-game money that frequently (though I also don’t shy away from reasonable purchases either), but the feeling of walking through the game with fifty million gil (the name for the in-game currency) in your pocket is incredibly different from not having that much money or being restricted to only three hundred thousand (which is the maximum you can carry as a free-to-play account). Just like in real-life, the knowledge that you can just buy whatever you want, within reason, is incredibly liberating. While it isn’t impossible to make money outside an FC or without tons of crafting and selling things to other players, it is much more difficult until you’re playing recently released parts of the game (at which point you’re mostly just selling stuff you get from that segment of the game to people). I doubt I’d have more than a couple million in my pocket if I didn’t have access to this FC and the money-making opportunities it has provided, and I definitely wouldn’t have as much stuff as I do right now. I don’t think my experience would be that much worse, though I’d definitely have done different types of content than I have and I’d have probably made a lot more stuff myself, but it would definitely be very different. I’d be even more of a hoarder than I currently am.

Beyond that, there’s all the activities I do with the FC every week, the easy-access the FC gives me to other players for doing dailies with people whose abilities I can trust, and the relatively relaxed socializing I get from being a regular member of a group of people I have been slowly getting to know over the months. I remember how isolating my initial month’s play was, how I had to talk in public since I couldn’t send private messages, how I had to collect everything myself since I couldn’t trade things with people, and how I felt so intimidated by this massive world full of hundreds of other people. Half the reason I spent so much time people-watching was because I felt so cut-off from the world. I was never a part of the crowd of people killing time, I was an outside observer. I was isolated by my inability to initiate contact or start a party or even create an outfit with the kind of coherence that everyone else could because they could buy and sell stuff on the marketboard. The instant that ended, though, when I could finally fully participate in the game, I was a member of this FC. It was one of the first things I did as a full-featured player. So all my memories of the game without being in an FC are memories of being a limited, free-to-play user who was also isolated by design.

Part of me wonders what it would be like to experience Final Fantasy 14 as a solo player, or with an FC that was too big to really be a part of or so inactive that they might as well not be there. Would I still feel as isolated? Would I have figured out how to make money via guides and started doing that on my own? Would I still be holding myself back, socially, and not as willing to entertain the idea that people might be fun and friendly and actually good? I don’t know. It’s hard to say. A part of me wants to experiment with it. To go back to the way I used to do things, to stop leaning on the FC so much, just to see what it’s like. I’m not sure that’s a good or healthy thing to do, though. Half the reason FF14 has come to dominate my life as much as it has is because of the social connections it affords. I’m not sure I’d want to do anything that would jeopordize that. Not that I think any of the members of my FC would hold it against me or anything, just that I’d lose the casual access I have. Which would be a huge change. I don’t know where I’d go to replace that other than another FC and that would defeat the whole purpose of flying solo for a bit. Good thing this is all just a mental exercise rather than a decision I’m seriously contemplating. It’s worth thinking about, though, even if I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want to actually do anything to follow through on it.