What do you want to do?

Its... funny... when blogger says "blogger is down, do not attempt to post your draft, or you may loose it." actually means..."do not post or you will loose it." CURSE YOU BLOGGER FOR MEANING WHAT YOU SAY!!! Ah well.. maybe... I'll remember most of it.

I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

The words "What do you want to do?" "I dunno, what do you wanna do" always brings to mind a couple of cartoon birds... I think there was some disney cartoon with two characters that said that. But truely how often have you said such a thing. I know for myself... I hate doing NOTHING; I just don't sit still very well. Even last night, I was making bloody bolts and accepted an invite by a solo white mage who needed a kazham key (cost me a party invite, but..meh..I always keep my word--I accept the consequences of giving it).

Our little obsession provides for us a great deal of posibilities to have fun. Content like nothing else, yet each step of course, requires a bit of work and sometimes a lot of work. Quests, Missions, Cut Scenese, Notorious Monsters.. its all designed to make things interesting. Sometimes its so intertwined and difficult beyond belief (like unlocking sky or finishing the Promy's) but many argue that it can be worth it. Yet it still is sometimes a bit of work to find things to do, and most of it ultimatly leads to .. XP parties.

People's attitudes to XP parties has always amused and astounded me. The general accepted idea of the party is to earn Experience Points above and beyond what you can earn alone. They go on for hours at a time, and are sometimes very repetitive by nature. Heck.. its a formulae as good as any pulp fiction novel. Pull, kill, scamper, win. Wash rince repeat. But does it really HAVE to be work? We are here to have fun, right?

I understand the idea that people fall into that "I have a lot of XP to earn and not much time to do it" so they say "shut-up and dance." I've been in these parties; fast...so fast that I actually feel an adrenal rush. But I am not always in the mood for such a thing; ESPECIALLY when it comes to the little fustrations that come with it. As a tank, I continually found these a problem to be effective and fast at the same time; and I rarely see any benefit from it except that you do in fact kill more in less time. But really.. doesn't that sound like "work" to anyone other than me? If you are not having fun, then what the heck are you playing the game for?

I think that people fall under the misconception that the others in the party are actually computer controlled sprites, and treat them as such. Why invite a dragoon? Why worry if that person might object to loosing XP for the sake of others? Why should the party mind if I go away from my keyboard during this fight? The key point that I keep finding is that no matter what the XP result, the funnest parties I've been in are ones that had people who respected each other as actual people, and cooperated as a whole to do what was needed.

My favorite story to date was one occasion when I was tanking against those evil imps, and I was silenced, low on mp, flash was not up, and I had amnesia. And of course, they pulled a fly. I have to say, imps are not that bad if and only if I have plent of MP and I can cast magic. Yet that whole party, I could spam "Silenced" over and over without any response. And I could not get Mage Balad or Refresh with any regularity at all. But the mob came, and I had no hate whatsoever. The dragoon died fast, and of course the healer was next since he cast strong cure spells. "Get it away from the mages!!" was the cry and I (with not too much glee) said "How? Silenced, Flash isn't even up, no MP and amnesia." It was amazing how fast Silena came after that.

Of course, cooperation isn't the only composition; being able to have fun with the whole ordeal is really important. I had two parties where in one, I had a real problem getting anyone willing to cast cure on me with any regularity, and a lot of really grumpy people (sometimes, it is actually important to impress upon the healers that the tank should have more hitpoints than the maximum damage that a monster can deal. Should have to, but even after being spammed with 500-800 points on single attacks, I still get one-shotted by monsters). The other, I had people having fun, everyone cooperating and nobody was afraid of making jokes. Which one gave me more XP? I have no idea.. just guess which one I would love to do again.

I've rediscovered some of my old latin literature, and there was one phrase I wanted to share:

If you were well and chose not to come, I'm glad both your body and judgement are in good shape.
--Cicero, Ad Familiares, VII, 1