FF14 Honeymoon... is it worth it?

I’ve wanted to blog lately, which is nice, but I’ve actually been busy. Oddly enough my free time at home is very limited so unless work is slow I don’t blog. Work is normally slow, as I work in the IT field, so it often leaves me time to blog and do school work. (I’m taking online courses for a BA)

I’ve been starting to follow Final Fantasy XIV more. I always had half an eye on it and an ear out for when it would launch and if it had an open beta. Well it does. The problem is no one can seem to get in the beta, so I’m waiting in line like everyone else. No big deal though, this post isn’t a bitch fest.

What I started thinking about, and what got me excited about FF14, is the Honeymoon Phase. With every MMO you start to play there is this brief moment of awe during the first few weeks. It is often called the Honeymoon Phase because like in a relationship, you ignore all the negatives and just enjoy the wondrous newness. (Side note I was watching the History of Sex last night on History and the Honeymoon wasn’t always as fondly regarded as it is today)

No matter how bad a game, well almost, the Honeymoon Phase still exists. It’s the explorer in us. We get to discover the new UI, how to control your character, interact with people. You get to explore a new starting city and combat system and more often than not you get to fight new kinds of monsters… or rodents. The only MMO that I did not play for at least a month was EVE, and that was partially because it was a free trial and that it was simply too complicated to ever reach the Honeymoon Phase.

So the more I think about it, the more I wonder if I should just preorder FF14. I currently haven’t preordered it for a few reasons. One being I’m still playing StarCraft 2 every night, another is my computer failed the bench mark test; the biggest though is I haven’t heard anything good about it from friends in the beta. However I got to thinking, if I know I will have a Honeymoon with it, I may as well pick it up.

Now the cost benefit analysis. FF14 will cost $49.99 to buy, so roughly $54 after taxes. 1 Monthly fee at roughly $15 will get me 2 months of play time. So for $70 I can play for 60 days, that is $35 a month or roughly $1.16 a day. I average a 3 hour play time 7 days a week so that turns into $0.38 an hour. Realistically I would probably get tired of it by the end of October but then re-subscribe next year.

In a little over a week I’m going to be in a class for 30 days for the Military. I’m going to stay at my Mom’s so I don’t have to drive 1 ½ hours every day and I’m planning on taking my computer. We will see how bored I get with SC2 while I’m there. Right now I think it’s 50/50 on me buying FF14 but time will tell.