There’s a very poignant scene at the end of the movie Casino where Robert DeNiro’s character, Sam “Ace” Rothstein, reflects on the hubris that eventually brings down the Tangiers casino, a big portion of Cosa Nostra, and the eventual eradication of mafia influence over Las Vegas. The implication is that once the mafia was thrown out of Vegas, corporations filled in the power vacuum and completely decimated the once sinful mecca. Rothstein speaks with utter disdain and regret of this change, stating that the city was never going to be how it once was and will never be the same way again. The implication is that the way the mafia ran the casinos made going to the middle of the desert worth the while, and that the corporations don’t really give a shit about the experience the way the mafia did.
That feeling is pretty much how I feel about Astral Burning.
My First Job has always been Paladin. Nonetheless, I took a certain amount of egotistical pride when I leveled Warrior. You can probably look back at some of chronicles in this blog about doing so. I had hated leveling the job to 30 as a subjob for PLD, and I hated it even more when I leveled it to 37. So when I was told that PLDs don’t get invited to merit parties, I was furious. What did they expect me to do, level another job? Even more harrowing was the suggestion that I should level WAR to 75 because of the gear overlap with PLD. Warrior? Are you fucking kidding me? Nobody takes that job to 75! It’s a subjob-only job!
As I leveled it, though, I fell in love with the job. I loved dual-wielding, and I loved Rampage (THE weaponskill of choice for axe users). I loved calculating how long my attack round was between how much dual-wield trait I had and the amount of haste I would get. I loved leveling it with my friend, who was leveling corsair at the time, and having amazing 15k/hr exp parties, which were unheard of at the time. It was truly great.
Nothing lasts forever, though, and my love of dual-wielding was replaced with a need for using a great axe, ruined by a bunch of crybaby Dark Knights and Samurai who felt that they didn’t do enough damage. Suddenly, my swift dual-wielding and Rampage spamming was replaced with a dulled need to try and manage a six-hit build. Even then, I took pride in trying to understand game mechanics, figuring out what was the best combination of Store TP, Double Attack, and Haste.
These days, shit like that doesn’t even matter. There is no need to take pride in any job you level, or even care about how something might affect something else. Now you just sit in Korroloka Tunnel, gather all the mobs, sync to level 15, and let the Astral Flow fly. People are winning Earthen Abjuration: Body abjurations without even having any of the necessary weapons skilled up, just because they Astral Burned their job to 75. In fact, many of them are now better warriors than I because they have leftover gear from other jobs they can use on WAR; gear that I don’t have. Then, once you get bored of the job, then you just level up another job and reloot all kinds of new shinies. And why wouldn’t you? EXPing has never been easier. 40,000EXP for 45 minutes of work. You can’t beat that rate.
Granted, part of the problem is how utterly formulaic and predictable the game has become. Nonetheless, that might just be a testament to how archaic the game is in 2010. I doubt a level increase to 80, and eventually 99, will alter the predictability of the game.
Nonetheless, the real cause is the playerbase itself. The desire for the adventure will always lose out to the desire to Get Shit. These days, it’s never been easier to Get Shit, and quality of the player matters even less.
I certainly agree. While I do enjoy the chance to “Get Shit,” I also feel that the journey there is just as important, if not moreso. You can’t reflect back on the good times you had leveling jobs anymore. No more laughing at the time you and your friends died to a Goblin, or the silly things you did while waiting for the enemies to be pulled.
Some people say that this game is dead, and Astral Burning doesn’t matter because it’s easy enough to skill up or read wiki to learn the job. This might be true, but no amount of reading can replace practical experience.
Also, one day I’ll have to tell you the tale of a 75 RDM who didn’t know they could cast Cure.
Every time I see someone trying to sell spots in an Astral Burn party for gil, a little part of me dies inside.
I hate Astralburning with a passion. We used smn for something recently, think it was VNM and one of the guys in the shell had astralburned it. God knows how low his skill is because to my 270-330 siphons, his were doing 170-180. That’s seriously undercapped.
I see peeps astralburning every job and do exactly what you’ve mentioned – try and grab gear for jobs they barely know how to play. Being asked by someone who had BRD if he could bring his astral burned SMN to a non-Odin Wing III Einherjar was entertaining…
Adventuring is a lost art. The journey to the top is half the fun, but a lot of people seem to forget that.