˙uɐɔ I ʍouʞ I ¿sıɥʇ op I uɐƆ

One of the major benefits of Square Enix being a Japanese country is that all of the testing periods, and early access beginnings, and emergency down-period maintenance in Final Fantasy XIV have been happening at ideal times for European players. The Japanese 6pm start time has translated nicely into 10am start times in the UK.

For some strange reason however, the Early Access period which began yesterday morning has so far been afflicted by much more frequent downtime and maintenance breaks than ever occurred in the last two Beta phases. There has of course been much discussion across the Internet as to whether or not Square are really ready to launch A Realm Reborn, since crucial gameplay elements keep getting hit by overuse.

This is absolutely nothing in comparison to Diablo and Simcity so far. And hopefully come the official beginning of the game there will be no serious issues. The game so far is incredibly busy despite technically being pre-release - so at the minute there does not seem to be any gap in player numbers.

Being able to play on either the Japanese or NorthAmerican/European servers also means you get a tiny insight into the culture of the players. The NA/EU servers are filled with players shouting out things across the entire region, whereas the Japanese servers are much more reserved and quiet, without people having conversations across the country. And mostly trolling each other.

I have to go to work, so this is a blog post cut short. Eh.

"Good morning early access, it's been too long"