Made in Japan instead of America: Things happened (not at my end)

Here's a bit of what's happening either recently or not recently. Firstly, the Andrew Tate incident got me thinking. The reason is that my smartphone (i.e. not a pseudo-smartphone without internet access) has Google. That thing would always tell me what is trending currently. As weird as it sounds, Andrew Tate happened to be one of those moments with search terms like Paige Spiranac and SG road rage.

Recently, I finished the level 50 quest for Dark Knight. It gave me a real taste of what is coming from level 50 onwards. While I'm not going to play the judge and jury on the Andrew Tate trial, Slavic girl or no Slavic girl, seeing the reactions from his supporters made me ask a rhetorical question: What is a man? It's interesting to see in the quest Our Answer how accepting the dark side of the self doesn't equate to a moral compromise. Like the WoL, we all have a dark side. An inner Fray, if I want to put it this way. Denying its existence is like a sinner calling him/herself a saint without proof. But if we accept it, would that challenge how we see ourselves? Everyone likes to be called a hero, the protagonist of a story. No one wants to be called a villain, but there's bound to be one for a reason. Are we more of a hero or more of a villain? In a real sense, the level 50 quest felt more Tolkien than Miura despite Berserk's influences on the Dark Knight class. This I've said on Facebook, but I don't mind repeating it.

Disclaimer: I'm not responsible for this WoL having a name as Slavic as Vlad.

Too often, we're so obsessed with how we see ourselves that we ignore the things we should do and those we failed to do. We mistake calling ourselves morally good for actual moral resolve. Thus, we risk becoming monsters fighting against those not so different from us. It's not my truth. It is the truth. If there is a lesson the WoL can teach us, it would be this: There's nothing wrong in accepting that every person has a dark side. What is truly important is having the moral resolve to do what is good. We are born sinners, but the choice between good and evil remains.

Thou shalt not use add-ons (or so commanded Yoshida)

FF14 players would have known this by now. For me, the information came about it much later. Thanks to my Samsung A31, I learned about Kugaon's vid.

 

To put things in an overview context, it's worse than a bunch of players getting the stick for using the mods. It's like three unwanted events in one letter, with two of the three possibly linked. To put things in a clearer perspective, here's the producer's letter.

It's yet to be determined for sure what's happening. But the fact that we have two instances of intentional leaking isn't a good thing. One is bad enough. Two would be ten times worse. Yoshida was careful with his words on the post-clear cutscene leak but pulled no punches for the illicit footage leak. As a person with a job, this is playing with fire. If you have a problem with the work environment, you either try to solve it or quit. There are two ways to leave your job: You walk away before things escalate, or you can escalate things before walking away. I hope things don't get worse, but I'll pay attention to this for the next few days.

And now, let's go onto the Omegagate scandal. It isn't good. At the same time, it's a pity to see people disappearing from the internet over this. The punishment was clearly severe enough. Unfortunately, Japan is still stuck in a sakoku state. Not physically but attitude-wise. Honour remains a significant issue. And it shows in Japanese libel laws where you don't need to be the Prime Minister to sue the person until his pants drop.

 Disclaimer: Above scene didn't happen in the National Diet Building.

As you can imagine, what happens in real Japan is bound to spill over into online Japan. But what about accusations of harassment against non-Japanese players where Japanese raiders are concerned? Naturally, we're bound to get counter-accusations that the Japanese first started it. This is never about who started what or who harassed who. It's about the fact that people need to be responsible for their own actions. Unfortunately, we're living in an era where nihilism is pervasive. Let's see things this way: If your purpose in life is to make miserable wretches out of others, what does it say about the meaning of your existence? Let's be honest: Suppose we believe it's our human right to dehumanise a fellow human being. Would letting go of the said human right make us less human?

 

The stupidity in the whole tit-for-tat is the hypocrisy that if others do it, they're wrong, but if we're the ones doing it, there's nothing wrong. Basic common sense, however, would point out it's a matter of whether you're guilty of using add-ons. That's all. Making things sound sophisticated may be cool, but all show and no substance isn't the intelligent thing to do.

It'd be terrible if I can't find players to run the Pandemonium raids if my fellow Asians are harassed out of the game. I won't hate the non-Asian players responsible, but I'll say it's their fault.

Throwing the (G)Shade

As if the Omegagate scandal wasn't enough, we have news of an add-on infected with malware. The catch? It's the developer's doing. Let me say that I don't use add-ons in FF14. Yes, I did use them in ESO, but that's because stuff like Bandits UI and Raid Notifier are certified legal.

So why did the G cause such a stir on the internet? Was it because it's an add-on? Was it because people now know their G can be infected by malware? If this was done by a random programmer working for Facebook Japan, I doubt the news would be that infamous. Unfortunately, it was done by none other than the add-on developer. There's a difference in the extent of the impact. It's like comparing a random Colin in Singapore committing voyeurism with the Andrew Tate incident. Both are serious, but one has more impact than the other.

I will not create a moral mountain out of this molehill blog of mine by calling myself an Asian saint. But we're all responsible for our own decisions. In the ideal (i.e. this is sarcasm) situation, we don't have to care. Yet, the world can and will burn if everyone sees responsibility as another person's truth. If you use add-ons, I'm not going to ask, regardless of whether you're Japanese. But if something happens, you have to understand this is what accountability looks like, be it getting banned or affected by malware. It's that simple. There's nothing else for me to say.

You take umbrage, I take umbrage, everyone takes umbrage

You know the thing about taking umbrage? Everyone is taking it. It's only a matter of why instead of fanciful words before the press from Nikkei Asia. I'm using the fanciful u-word because of what Josh "even he knows how to take umbrage" Strife Hayes said in what I'd call a good video.

Recently, Square Enix announced that FF14 won't be giving us a new expansion in 2023. This created some awkwardness where Yoshida was concerned. Just a few days back, he teased a level 100 cap. Much earlier, preparations were already underway. For such a statement to be fired straight from the hip, the boardroom did something unilaterally. To put things in proper perspective, however, FF14 expansions were always released within the June-July period. Endwalker was the sole exception since it was released in December 2021. The next expansion could either be released in the November-December or December-January period. In this case, the next expansion may be released in February or March next year, if not January. So what does this mean for the players beyond the stated intent of retaining players?

This goes back to Josh's 100-hour video. While I agree with him in terms of taking umbrage at people saying you need 100 hours to decide whether a game is good, the challenge faced by FF14 lies in what to do after clearing the MSQ. I only took a few hours or so of free play to purchase FF14. That's how good it is. But what am I to do once I manage to clear the MSQ? This is what Square Enix was talking about here. As someone playing in the Kujata server, Japanese gamers are outstanding in group instance content. That may explain why there's only one raid server (i.e. Chocobo) in Japan compared to North America and Europe, where raid servers exist on a per-data centre basis. As a result, I'm willing to give standard Pandemonium raids a go once the time comes. At the same time, a one-year delay means I have more time to clear the MSQ content.

But not every player is willing to try raids as their end-game option. Beast tribe quests alone wouldn't be able to cut it for them. So what can we expect for the remainder of 2023? Content-wise, additional criterion and variant dungeons is a possibility. But what else is around the corner? An article in Game Rant may give us a hint.

Class identity has always been a significant part of FF14's appeal. This is also why streamlining, while having its merits, does have its challenges and criticism. This is not to say the developers will definitely work on addressing the class identity issue, but it's possible. Will it be tricky? The answer is yes. But considering we're talking about a few months before a likely 2024 expansion release, anything is possible.