I've been working out how I record my reactions to Dawntrail, since I don't do well with streaming, but do recognize that a lot of people really like hearing what people's responses are to big parts of the story. Dawntrail's inevitably gonna have those moments, even if we don't know where, and I do recognize people like those sorts of reactions! I don't think I'm good at the sort of performance needed for streaming, though, so rather than do that I'm angling for 'end-of-day' response recordings.
But I want to find out something: would people want those videos on the day, or would uploading them later be just as good? Later would mean more polish, but perhaps polish isn't actually needed.
So, who's enjoying the FFXIV live letter? I am, it's pretty great! But there's been slow parts.
And in those slow parts, I decided to write a blog post about the FFXIV players trying to organize a healers' strike. Specifically, why it won't work, from the perspective of actual political organizing.
cohost.org/Cleretic/post/6433380-the-ffxiv-healer-…
(New video should be tomorrow, by the way.)
Pretty far out from my usual subjects, but news about a remake to one of my favorite games compelled me to write out my feelings on Cohost.
Twenty years of my own history just reached out to show me that what I most want in trans stories has been there the whole time. ...in a MARIO game.
cohost.org/Cleretic/post/6062016-a-mario-character…
Lore can be useful! It turns out the Sil'dih Subterrane's lore was hinting at a fish that's just been sitting around hidden for who-knows-how-long, and I helped @FruitySnacks piece together what it was trying to say.
Honestly, I thought we were fools for not finding it earlier!
I held a panel on Fish Lore at the 2024 FishFest! I consider it a bit of a continuation of my Ultima Thule fish video; the same focus on the weird little stuff slipped into FFXIV's fishing guide, but this time with an eye on the highlights for almost the whole game, rather than just one zone!
So, this milestone snuck up on me! And at least for me, this is a big one.
I know that on the internet, one thousand feels like a small number; I open the Youtube homepage and I see people with five, six digits regularly. But I went to a school with about a thousand students; I know what a thousand people looks like. And that's a hell of a lot of people.
I'm not going to promise that I'll do anything different or special, although if anyone feels like shooting some questions, I'm always happy to answer. But I do want to say: thank you. It means a lot that a bunch of people are here for me nerding the hell out on the regular.
Tomorrow (or at least, tomorrow by an Australian clock), come join me for a premiere of fellow FFXIV player @gamer_debbie's podcast where I'm interviewed about the ways video games have changed my life!
Come here me gush about games that AREN'T FFXIV! ...and also FFXIV!
So, I'm sitting on a bit of a challenge with making my next few videos, and I'd love some input.
I feel like I want to do some Dawntrail-prep videos, talking about speculation, existing background info and the like for everything we're looking at. And I feel like that's something people like from my videos; giving some grounding and explanation to stuff that's current right now.
But Dawntrail provides a weird problem: we actually don't have a lot of it! Our existing info on 'The New World'/Tural is pretty scant, and evidently already blown out of the water by what else we've seen; a lore guide to Tural would tell us very little, since clearly there's a lot else going on. So any video I do on that would inevitably delve into a lot of speculation, which I try not to do too much of.
So, what would people prefer to see: Dawntrail vids that are definitely gonna be fairly lore-light and speculative, or vids on more existing concepts, that won't exactly be hot-off-the-presses?
I wanted to have this up in time for the Twelve video, but I left it too late: Here's my transcription of the entire creation myth of the Twelve as found in the Encyclopedia Eorzea volume 1.
cohost.org/Cleretic/post/3498842-the-twelve-s-ludi…
It's almost stunning how inaccurate it is; it's got inconsistencies with the descriptions of the gods mentioned on the page directly before it. So it's kinda hard to tell how much stock we were ever supposed to put into it; it was wrong right out the gate.
It also doesn't mention Llymlaen throwing a knife at Oschon, so what's even the point!?
If you happen to see this within like 45 minutes at noon PT, you can come see me on Mrhappy1227's stream as I come to Talk Lore Stuff with other Known Lore Talkers! Come join in, It'll be great fun!
I make a whole bunch of lore videos, mostly on Final Fantasy XIV. It's too much fun, but I've still never managed to explain it to anyone I know in real life.
I'm also a trans woman, my pronouns are she/her, if you needed that clarification.
If you want to contact me personally, I'm cleretic on both Twitter and Discord, and my email address exists, but be aware I'm gonna be a bit wary of social media friend requests out of nowhere!