They released the pizza emote again. I’m not pressed to get it.
Two years ago, before the release of the main Endwalker expansion, the Final Fantasy 14 team ran a GrubHub promotion during The Game Awards. If you ordered during TGA, you’d get a small discount (enough to cover at least delivery fees for non-subscriber GH customers), plus a new in-game FFXIV emote: “Eat Pizza.” It shows the character… well, eating pizza. It was nifty, and, of course, the loyal fanbase couldn’t get it fast enough.
That eagerness caused the codes to run out in hours. Those who used the code but didn’t get the code were promised one, though it seemed to be iffy on delivery. It’s not the first time in recent memory, either, as Butterfingers had a similar promotion, where buying $5 in Butterfingers products would qualify you for an emote. Sadly, that also ran into issues, as the distributors quickly ran out of codes. At least these ones lately can be chalked up to volume of demand.
When things boil down, I’m grateful I’ve removed myself from the various types of FOMO (that is, “Fear Of Missing Out”) that comes from being a FFXIV player because, oh boy, I’d be broke and a hermit if that were the case.
This may be a good problem for the game itself. As much as some players complain that there’s not much to do, it’s definitely a matter of perspective, preference, and experience.
In regards to Endwalker, at least it’s a valid criticism, as there’s something of a ceiling on grindable content via the Variant and Criterion Dungeons, plus Eureka Orthos. In Shadowbringers and even Stormblood, at least Bozja and Eureka Pagos could respectively occupy players for many, many hours. You can technically grind Endwalker content over and over, but not terribly much changes.
Still, even without recent content, the game gives plenty of ways to occupy players, without counting particularly social community things like DJ nights and roleplay; my first piece on here was, in fact, about the density of social content on its own, though I recognize that that’s not everyone’s cup of tea. There’s PvP content, the Hunt (and helping to organize community hunts), FATE farming, Gold Saucer, fishing (which is updated oddly regularly), leveling up every class, endgame raiding, and, with the most difficulty, Doman Mahjong (the real-life equivalent being riichi mahjong).
In the midst of these things are a slew of achievements and glamours that many spend endless hours chasing. Except… I’unno, I don’t feel any profound need to get them.
Don’t get me wrong: if someone drags me into The Omega Protocol for that Black Mage staff on a schedule that works for me, I will prog. I have progged an Ultimate before. I will do it again. (Inevitably.)
However, I don't carry the burden to collect everything. I don’t know what it is that makes me like this. Maybe it’s resignation from my ADHD? It’s the scrap left of mental health that also drives me to close out all my tabs when I’m done browsing the web? Or maybe I’m just overwhelmed and/or exhausted?
Regardless, I’m free from the “need to do it” fever that many of my friends have. And I’m gonna be honest: it's a healthy way for me to approach a game with a lot of content that I really like.
Again, there's a LOT I want to dabble in. But I can take my time with it. I’m not making charts for the casual content or anything. Hell, I’m not even far into Island Sanctuary. It's there for me! And that means I can come back and not complain that there's nothing to do, because I didn't crunch everything the second it arrived… which is a huge issue a lot of players have, to be frank. Seriously, do you eat a Triple Whopper and complain there wasn't enough burger? This stuff literally has measures to stop that from happening…
While we’re here, at least it’s worth mentioning that FFXIV openly has sort of an “anti-addiction” approach to its most intense content, mostly by way of loot and tombstone caps. It even exists for Island Sanctuary! That means that the “fever” people get to accomplish everything could be a lot worse from players. But they're still gonna push the limits.
And it doesn't mean burnout doesn't happen! In fact, I was pretty burned out this summer, honestly, and only had about enough energy to do my weekly raids. In the meantime, I went out to touch grass quite a bit. It was nice. But it's also really good to return to a game and know that there's something to do.
“But wait, you opened by talking about the cash shop and promotions!” Yeah, you know what? That lack of FOMO keeps me from indulging in optional shop items. Because let's face it: one of the biggest collective complaints is the spiking of item prices for things that only go on one character. $14-25 for one outfit? No? I’ll even go so far as to say that many of the orchestrion rolls feel overpriced, since it really only includes in-game usage rights.
Now, to be fair, my roommate and I both participated in the promotions that I mentioned at the start, but that's because they were already sort of meshed into our lifestyles. We regularly use GrubHub and the like since we're in NYC with a minimal kitchen, and I took frequent stops to the convenience stores near me as part of my routine. But I actually messed up my pizza code when ordering my food, so I didn't get it, and I'm not overly hurt about it.
And now, I'm also not one of the people overly hurt about an emote from a hassle being widely available. It is what it is!
So now, like much of the other things in the game, the pizza will be there if I ever really want to chase (or buy) it. It's no rush. I’m not missing much.
