FEATURE

    Friendships and Final Fantasy: A Tale of Two Aussie MMO Mates

    Nick HollidayBy

    July is a special month for multiple reasons. It boasts notable Australian events such as Dry July, JulEYE and National Desexing Month. But there’s one day in particular that promotes peace and kindness with those around us. International Day of Friendship has been celebrated on July 30 for the past 10 years after being designated by the United Nations in 2011.

    While it’s not exactly a day that’s overly celebrated, it’s still an opportunity to reflect on our friendships. Which, in my honest opinion, should be celebrated every single day. As humans in the 21st century, we make friends in multiple ways. Whether it’s a schoolmate, someone you met one night at the pub or through an MMO.

    If you’ve kept up with GOA’s Final Fantasy XIV Online content, you’ll most likely remember my fondness for the community at large. But obviously I’m not the only person with such experiences as making new friends in the online realm. There are many Aussies players who’ve also made friends with others in the online world of Eorzea. Some have even met IRL.

    Just like Aaron and Ben. Two Aussies who met in Final Fantasy XIV Online back in 2017. Living in Hervey Bay, Queensland and Newcastle, New South Wales respectively, the pair met in-game after Ben called out for help with an instance. Since then they’ve met in person on multiple occasions and together run the Australian Final Fantasy XIV Online Facebook group.

    In celebration of International Day of Friendship, I had the chance to speak to Aaron about how a simple yet random encounter in-game turned into such an important friendship.

    Nicco: Aaron, yours and Ben’s experience sounds a lot like mine back in 2015. Except the roles were reversed as I was the one screaming for help in Party Finder. Was it a case of Ben looking for help clearing a raid like I did or to get through the story?

    Aaron: Ben was looking for help to clear Thok ast Thok Extreme, (Ravana). It was Ben’s first time attempting Extreme difficulty content. We cleared every Extreme primal and most savage content together after this!

    N: How long have you been playing?
     
    A: I’ve been playing FFXIV since Heavensward Expansion, Heavensward release in June 2015, i started playing somewhere late in 2015, if i had to guess i’d say November.
     
    N: I hear you spent every night playing together for a few weeks, but what’s the longest you’ve gone without playing together?
     
    A: Hard to say to be honest, unless one of us is away on a holiday or something else then we generally play multiple times a week, to put a number to it i will say 10 days at most. though that is very rare. We are gamers, we work to game haha.
     
    N: Do you two share a static or FC?
     
    A: We have always been in the same FC, we had our own FC a while ago but we decided to join friends in their FC, these people are also from FFXIV ANZ community, People we’ve met in game or on the FB group. We have also had static raid teams together as well, we do Savage content and Ultimate content.
     
    N: What was it that made you pair click? Was it just a shared love of gaming or were there other interests?
     
    A: Definitely a shared love of gaming, We have very similar interests in gaming not just regarding FFXIV but a multitude of other games as well. That and we just got along well, always a laugh, good fun, banter, everything you look for in a mate. Never a dull moment in our Discord server.
     
    N: Between Newcastle and Hervey Bay is a bit of a stretch to travel. Do you organize an annual meet-up or just whenever you’re able to?
     
    A: I guess you could say the organised Annual meet-up was PAX Melbourne, We represent Square Enix as Ambassadors to help run their FFXIV Stormblood and Shadowbringers Booth, outside of that we meet-up when ever we are able, I have travelled to New Castle and Ben has travelled to Hervey Bay, Unfortunately since the pandemic this has obviously slowed down a bit, but won’t be long till we catch up again hopefully.
     
    N: Any plans to go Fan Fest together when things go back to normal?
     
    A: We have always spoke about going to Fan Fest, not just ben and myself but also our other mates who i might add have all met via FFXIV and our FFXIVANZ Fan page. There’s 6 of us in total. One year it will happen definitely.
     
    N: How do two Aussies who met on a whim through Final Fantasy XIV Online go from forging an online friendship to running THE Aussie Final Fantasy XIV Online Facebook group?
     
    A: Ben actually created FFXIVANZ Facebook group about 2 years prior to our meeting. So he was well on his way in that space prior, when we met the group had about 1500 members now we are almost hitting 10,000 members. The friendship didn’t take long to forge, we got along very well instantly, Thok ast Thok Extreme (Ravana) was the fight Ben needed help with, its safe to say i helped him and got the win, however at the same time i may have purposely failed to mention a few mechanics that could somewhat be harmful to his avatar just for a laugh, he took it in good spirits and gave some banter back as easily as i could give it. It was just good fun, Gaming is about having fun, so from there on it just grew, He told me about FFXIV ANZ and naturally i joined up, not long after, i’d say about 3 months he asked me if i’d be interested in helping him run it, naturally i said yes!
     

    N: Through running the FB page together, have you heard of similar stories to yours? Have you found our community to be mostly positive?
     
    A: There are many stories like ours. I know so many people that have met and forged powerful friendships with wonderful stories of their own through FFXIV. The FFXIV ANZ community as a whole is a very positive and welcoming community. Like all gaming communities though there has been negativity and toxicity within it, but that’s a part of the internet isn’t it? In regards to FFXIV ANZ our main goal is to create an All inclusive safe place for all FFXIV gamers. we have a zero tolerance to any form of bullying, harassment, belittlement etc, its a zero strike system, its not acceptable. The culprit is instantly removed from the community.
    N: Do you or have you played other MMO’s? If so, how do they shape up in comparison to Final Fantasy XIV Online in regards to community?
     
    A: FFXIV is my main MMORPG, i have only dabbled in WoW, ESO and BDO, honestly i have not spent enough time in those worlds to formulate a fair comparison.
     
    N: Over time, have you started playing games other than Final Fantasy XIV Online together?
     
    A: We play a huge variety of games together, always have. Game like Call of Duty, PubG, WoW Classic, Among Us, Conan Exiles, Day Z, We’ve raced in sim racing games like IRacing, Assetto Corsa Competzione, We bought PGA Tour 2021 so we could have our meetings regarding FFXIVANZ on the golf course (100% true), Lately we have been playing a lot of Escape From Tarkov. The list of games is huge,there are much more! I think you can see what I mean though haha.
     
    N: What’s a memorable moment that you’ve both shared in-game?
     
    A: Honestly, the most memorable moment would of been when we first met, completing Ravana Extreme, Thok ast Thok, that was the first Extreme trial Ben tried, after that he was hooked and i managed to drag him into savage difficulty raids then into ultimates later on. that’s where it all started so thats definitely the most memorable.

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