It’s not actually Final Fantasty 14’s patch day. Well, you might be reading this on patch day, but I’m writing this ahead of patch day and my frustration with needing to work when I could be playing whatever new, exciting content is available has reached bad through time and left me feeling grumpy and frustrated before I’ve even been denied access by my busy work schedule. So annoying is it that time has violated causality and I am preemptively upset about events not yet come to pass! Which, to be honest, is because it’s quite easy to anticipate how busy I’m going to be next week and how much I’ll want to play the new patch despite being stuck at work for ten hours a day (eleven, if I include my commute), which means I probably won’t make much progress through any of what it has to offer unless I stay up late every night. I am trying very hard to break that habit, and that is more important than playing this game, but I am still frustrated that I can’t really take it easy during the release week for this patch because of all my work obligations and my need for overtime (since I haven’t gotten much at all so far this year). The decision I must make is clear, I’m just… I’m just annoyed about it. I’ve been excited about where the story is going, and all the new features they’re adding for months now and I’ve been too burned out to get myself stable enough to take a light week. So I must work and figure out if I’m going to take off friday for the May Day protest thing going on (still trying to figure out if it’s legit and a part of any of my existing networks).

The past seven months have all been preparation for this. I got caught up to the Main Scenario Quest line in version 7.3, was ready to craft everything that dropped in 7.4, and now I’m almost all caught up on every other thing I could be doing from this expansion other than Allied Society Quests as patch 7.5 nears. I’ve still got raids I want to do, better gear to get, and some relic weapon steps to wrap up as of writing this, but I should be finished with the relic weapon stuff by the time this gets posted and that’ll be enough. It’ll mean I’m at least mostly poised to start the next outdoor zone, the North Horn of the Occult Crescent, whenever that drops, be it patch day or some tuesday further down the line. Then there’s the big Alliance raid that’s dropping its third part at some point, the new MSQ quests, dungeon, and trial (presumable dungeon and trial), whatever dungeon/challenge comes out of North Horn, tons of quality-of-life updates, a new specialized job, and more. I mean, I barely even know what it all could be since I’m writing this before the Fan Fest announcements and who could say what might come out of that. It’s entirely unpredictable given how much has already been revealed. According to the more experienced folks, a fan fest would typically be used to announce stuff that’s just been posted on the website as part of the pre-patch preparations, so it is likely that there is some new huge announcement that might go beyond just previewing the next major expansion. Or they have something even bigger than what they’ve announced for 7.5 coming between that and 8.0. I’m very excited to find out and adjust my expentations for today accordingly.

All of which is contributing to my grumpiness at being stuck at work all day. Unless that protest involving a cessation of economic activity and work is legit, I’m going to be having a normal week. If it is legit, I’ll be taking a day off and, since I’ll have spent PTO, there will be no reason to work more than 8 hours a day, which is exactly why I’m so focused on that protest. I’d love a reason to not work another intense week. I’d love a reason to rest a bit and enjoy some game time with my friends. Which is why I need to be certain that it’s legit. I want any excuse to take a planned easy week, but I need proper reasons, not excuses, and shouldn’t lean into any half-baked ideas that provide me with what I want to be doing rather than what I should be doing. Because, even with additional announcements, it’s mighty tempting to take the day off and shut myself inside my apartment regardless, just so I can rest a bit and enjoy my video games and online socializing.

Alas, good sense must rule over impulsive desires. Even if I want to take as much time as I can to grind in the Occult Crescent so I can do the dungeon thing from there before the expansion so I’m ready to be in the thick of the new area the instant it gets opened up to players. It’s fun to be on the bleeding edge of a game, to be right up there with everyone else, figuring things out before there’s guides or best practices or even suggestions for how to proceed… That’s very fun for me and I’d really like to experience it since I kinda missed out on all that last time since I didn’t have a raiding group and spent all my free time doing crafting stuff for that first week. Not that I’ve got any of that stuff this time around, either, but I’ve gotten a certain degree of flexibility established now that I could probably make an excellent case for myself should any group find themselves short a player. It would be quite fun, even if I don’t much care for strangers… I just really want to be diving in to this major part of my life. I want to let myelf enjoy something for once. I REALLY want to be able to experience this stuff at the same time as my friends who all just caught up. So maybe I will take the time, even if the protest is bunk. I should let myself enjoy things more. And I sure as hell could use the rest, even if I haven’t done many long weeks in a while. Not like I’m getting any less tired as things are.