I decided I was going to try both. My plan was to get ESO all up and going, then when I got a bit bored/advanced, start FFXIV, already downloaded, patched, and ready to go.

Didn’t work out that way.

The main thing I want to focus on today is the first few hours’ experience: from deciding to play, to the initial steps of play. These games are different experiences, and different from what I’m used to.

First, I went on Steam, as one does, to check out ESO, and what options I had. Boy, did I have options. DLC, expansions, and so on. So, I went to /vg/ to the general to check out their newbie guide. Very first thing was DON’T GET THIS FROM STEAM. OK. So, off I go to the official (and rather Web 1.0-looking) site, give yet another organization all my personal and financial info, and then start downloading. I just got the basic pack; if I like it, I’ll sub; and if I really like it, I’ll get the expansion.

First download: 60+GB. Yikes. So I sit there for a while, browse online, do some Dragalia Lost. First download done, start the game. Whoops, now need to patch. Another ~60GB. Took quite some time, even though I have a gigabit connection. But, once that was all done, time to start the game!

Rolled up a STEALTH ARCHER, as is right and proper for an Elder Scrolls game. Well, not really, but I did roll a Bosmer not-ranger, and am focusing on the bow. Nice thing is, I can just change it up at any time if I get bored with that. Nice start to the game, once it started. I guess Bosmers start in Vvardenfel, so it was quite a similar start to Morrowwind, after the nice tutorial. Gets you right into the thick of things, sending you almost straight to Vivec, and right into the crafting and specialty guilds. And that’s where I am – some low-level scrub learning how to make gloves.

About then it was time for bed, so I figured I’d just get FFXIV downloading while I slept. Big mistake. Getting it off Steam was easy enough. Then, when it came time for the download to start, I needed my Squeenix account. I go to make one, and it turns out I already had one (I figure from FF: Record Keepers: a game that preys on FF nostalgia, which nostalgia I don’t have). So I have to recover my password; that meant trying to remember not only which security question I used, but which fake birthday I used, as well. Soon enough I have it all figured out. Ready to go, I thought.

Not so fast! I then needed a one-time passcode. Comes from one of those app thingys, like the Steam phone app (which I also needed to access, to put the product key in on the website). Another ten minutes fiddling with that, finally get it all working, and I’m downloading, and off to bed. Oh wait, forgot there was a subscription…and I have 30 free days. Starting now. So much for my plans to start later.

Wake up, and ready to play. Get started on a new character, and realize I don’t get the Viera; I’d need to pay twice as much again to get Shadowbringers for that. Tough call: what if I don’t like the game? Why pay full price for this? Well, the Viera were kinda what made me want to get the game in the first palce. I really, really like the Harvins in Granblue Fantasy, but the Lalas here just aren’t the same.

Well, I splurged, and spent my entire monthly gaming budget for Shadowbringers (hope there aren’t any suprise tickets in GBF or Dragalia Lost). Rolled up a Viera thaumaturge. I actually thought to take some screenshots from this game, so here she is:

It’s interesting how different the starts are between the two games. Here, you are hand-held through a bunch of fetch and kill quests. Typical MMO stuff. I still don’t really get how the ice/fire thing works for this class, just that doing fire while in ice mode is bad, and vice versa. Made it to level 8 so far, after a couple of hours. Also, Viera apparently can’t wear hats. You can equip them, but they don’t show up. Kinda sad; I was hoping to see some hats with ears clipping out of them.