This is a forum post from Blue Gartr which is one of the premier end-game forums on FFXI in the world.  Recently there was a decision to merge Advanced and Standard together, resulting in a lot of questions about the reasons behind the move.  Specifically the most major difference between the two forums is that Advanced threatens to ban or delete posts that are not “Advanced” while Standard protects posters from those same “Sharks”.

I felt the mods made a bad decision in maintaining the Advanced forum (and its entire philosophy).

Enjoy!

It’s my personal belief that the “BLM, INT, vs. MAB” thread somehow, shockingly, became the gold standard for Internet message boards with informative posts and lively discussion. For those of you that missed it because it was yet another retread about how magic damage formulas actually work in the game, here’s the short version: An honest, but fairly clueless, guy tried to match up his nuke results in Ronfaure with the way the game is supposed to work according to the wiki formulas and established knowledge.

I hope everyone reading realizes why that guy would never even think to post his thread in Advanced due to the realities of old OR new Advanced. Because no, it’s not Advanced. And therein, almost to a painfully palpable degree, lies the opportunity cost of Advanced’s “spam protection.”

This guy (Lahan) posts his question (along with some data showing how the numbers he’s getting don’t always line up with the information that posters point to as gospel) and he gets a response from someone named Suiram. I’ll be honest, I didn’t recognize Suiram’s name, though I’d like to think I’d recognize most of the people around here who have useful information to share, but if my ignorance kept me reading curiously, to others it was an invitation to offer their own opinions, informed or not. Again, this is important, because the Standard forum doesn’t discourage open discourse from its members with threats of banning or ridicule.

Some people respond, and eventually (stick with me, you’ll enjoy this) someone tries to win the argument by quoting someone else with a more recognizable name (specifically a blog writer of some repute). And the original responder questions the authority of such a source, to which the person responds with typical Internet logic something along the lines of he’s got a name, and you don’t, so you must be wrong.

And then the blog author shows up.

*shock* I know, right! Who knew these guys actually read the forums like the rest of us. I thought they had little smart people conventions and laughed at us and wrote blogs like that Robonosto guy where he makes fun of everyone all the time for being hideously stupid.

So blog author responds and says to his champion, “I’m sorry sir, but the person you’re arguing with is the true authority on this matter, and you should in fact heed their word not because of who they are, but because of the work they’ve done and the knowledge they possess.” Or something similar.

And what results is a fairly short, but rather amazing, little bit of elucidation as people hear very smart people explain how their formulas and understandings actually interact with how the game really works when we hit “/ma Thunder IV <Wild Rabbit>”. And maybe they learned something, and maybe they didn’t (or maybe they followed the cheat sheet which had been turned into an Internet app) but the point is very simple — this thread actually accomplished something.

A person without knowledge but with a desire to learn got into contact with the people who understood the game mechanics behind their issue, and learned a little bit about how their theories (which they had created, studied and mastered or some combination) interacted with the real game to produce the real results he was seeing in Ronfaure.

Someone actually learned something on the Internet.

—

That little story is why (in my opinion) the very next day or five we had a New Advanced, because that thread would NEVER, EVER have had a chance to exist, or blossom, from its <strike>newb</strike> innocent beginnings into the little treasure trove of information it became [in the old Advanced, the 'main' forum].

And now I get to read this frustrating thread (“so we have to be nice now?”) in which mods argue what is and is not Advanced all over again all the while knowing that the New Advanced would kill that thread just as dead as the old. And I fear that even the honestly frustrated people like Cadsuane are missing the forest for the trees at this point so I wanted to explain very simply what the mods are missing (again, imo):

The main forum of this website shouldn’t be the New Advanced, it should be the New Standard.

Advanced is the last vestige of the elitism that has choked the life out of this forum. And though it has been earned with the successes of those years, it results in a forum that does not encourage discussion, but rather stifles it. It results in cliques, and bans, and trolls, but worst of all, it results in stagnation and a dwindling membership, and a complete absence of the Game Designers in their new found attempt to reach out to the playing public. That should be the ultimate proof of failure, however lofty the ideals, that Zam in all its mind shattering idiocy should house Elmer’s blog and get direct discussion from the Game Designers. That Zam should establish itself as a beacon for reasoned thought and open discourse is a travesty, but it is the ultimate validation of the democratization of information that is the ideal of the Internet.

tl;dr:
The reason Standard became more useful than Advanced was because it protected those who wished to voice their opinions, ask their questions, post topics, or give answers that were wrong only to be proven right by the very people that are intellectually curious enough to have researched the answer adequately.

The “New Advanced” is a sad, almost pathetic, vestige of an elitist attitude that is perceived negatively by almost all and serves no real purpose except to occlude information behind a veil of “Been there, done that” ennui. Instead the “New Standard”, with a complete rescinding of the awful question of “Is this Advanced?” and its entire attitude, should become the flagship forum of this website in order to encourage more threads like “BLM, INT vs. MAB”; a shining example of the ultimate function of this forum and others like it.

But I’m too tired to get to it tonight.

reminder: Career Goals.

I realized that titling this post the time since I last posted made sense (in that I’ve rarely posted twice in a row in a while) but the new title makes more sense.

I began Chains of Promathia last October (possibly September but I don’t think so). Rajas Ring (though originally it was Tamas Ring) has been a goal of mine for a long, long time.

1-3 : “Static” with original friends playing the game for one Promy. Pickup Promys (many failures) finally led my own Promys after my friends left for good (though Draethor remained). This was definitely still a part of my newbie phase and I played a lot of follow the leader. Ironically I would revisit this later as a leader myself.

2-3 (Minotaur) – Pick Up alliance. Was interesting, I have a screenshot here, that was in June (6/9/07)when I came back after playing WoW last winter. 1/1

2-5 (Mammets) was with a CoP static that I joined, an offshoot of the Minotaur alliance I believe. We absolutely kersmashed this fight with a Nin, Nin, Blu/nin tank trio. I went Red Mage and screwed up my first ever usage of Convert to die, but we still won (I had RR). I believe Kiaara was here, Dragonking, it featured my meeting Bobandtom and Draethor helped out (he was already ahead of me at this point, he surpassed me during the WoW phase). This was completed in July. 1/1

Chapter 3 (Diabolos) – I did this with my static as well, Kiaara (as Dimitrii), Draethor, Bobandtom … I think that was it. We also 1/1′d this. Debonair was probably there too (as well as at 2-5?). This was completed in August of this year.

Chapter 4 (Ouryu) Death of the 2nd static. We couldn’t beat Ouryu as we were and this took a long time. I think I actually ended up PuG-ing this mission as BLM. We bursted Aeroga II as per my strategy with a PLD and Samurai skillchain. It worked beautifully as there were 2 BLM. It was still very close but we 1/1′d.

Chapter 4 -> Chapter 5 was a long time. Though I completed Chapter 3 in August and Ouryu soon after, I wouldn’t actually bother to receive the Chapter 5 cut scene until 9/11/2007, almost a month later. You can see in this screenshot Alukards and Trindane, two of my real life friends. I actually ended up running Trindane and another ex-friend (we won’t mention him here) through ALL of the Promys again to catch them up, but we never got to the Minotaur battle before they both quit.

(in case you’re wondering, we’re talking about Royal Jelly. It was really easy. We got a ring that day!)

Chapter 5 was the new static, consisting of Sagari, Sephrin, Sklyar, Altimaomega, myself and Ferien. That was a great static. Sagari was the leader and was just amazing. We banged out missions of CoP multiple times a week, rocked Pso’xja, destroyed all the fights of Mission 5-3 (the longest chapter)…it was grand. That static lasted to 6-4 (the first airship) and sadly died before we could complete it. We 1/1′d every fight we fought.

Chapter 7 greeted me here a few weeks back after 1/1′ing the Airship (assuming a 1/1 counts as the first time you actually see Omega =P). It was a complete PUG, and a bit of a mess, but we did have 6 (yes, 6) CCBs. We still had a fairly tough time with Omega, but Ultima was a blur of CCB stuns. Chapter 7 itself wasn’t bad, the Tenzen fight was a fairly unspectacular zerg and that was done Saturday of last weekend. We did wipe about 6x in a row on the Carpenter’s Landing fight (yay for bad kiting lol). I met Pierro here again, who I met for the first time in an XP party in Mount Z on Samurai, and then later we did 6-4 together too. 1/1 on Tenzen.

And finally Chapter 8. 8-2 was the longest walk ever, Pierro was there, even Draethor showed back up! He went missing from my journey after Ouryu! I was happy he was back as he had taken a few weeks to play FF: Tactics, plus it was good to finally be caught up to him in the Missions. He got the map during 8-2, but I screwed up and didn’t (frowns). We pushed on to 8-3, which was one of the few missions I can’t say we 1/1′d. It was everyone in the Promathia screenshot though some were different jobs. I actually am responsible for this failure (reminiscent of the Convert disaster of 2-5) as I ES+Sleepga’d the pots before they woke up (I saw them change forms and panicked). We still won with ease on the second go around, as I sleepga’d correctly. Also the 8-3 maze wasn’t really that bad, thanks to Appreciation picking up the slack. I was able to lead us once I finally understood the path and what was happening on Erecia’s guide (simply, amazing guide). I was surprised by how easy the 8-3 path was to the pots (after the obligatory wipe through the pot room), after 8-2 and 8-3’s race towers I really expected to get destroyed fighting our way there.

And of course, 8-4, below. So all in all, 13 months. It really accelerated in June for me, but then paused in September for Promys, and then paused again for a few weeks last month before 6-4, but it was well worth it. Easily the greatest accomplishment in my Final Fantasy career to date. The ending cutscene definitely affected me, the music, the full screen cinematic, the Cardinal alone on the hill as the sun set … this was everything I want in a game.

It was amazing.

Bushinomimi.

Wish I had screenshots but was so out of practice doing the blog I totally forgot.  I’m getting back into it I think…

There’s an amazing sense of clarity right before, that’s what they tell me.

You stand at the edge, and you look out, but not down. You gauge that last step with your mind and look out over the empty expanse of steel and glass-coated towers baking in the afternoon sun.

You try hard to feel the wind, and sun, the way buildings might remember their makers resting upon their giant shoulders. You try to make yourself sad but can’t, awed simply at the spectacle, happy to be there.

The last step brings the wind to full force, as if it can feel that you are nearly within its grasp, and it reaches out with an insistent embrace.

You beseech it in silent ecstasy. The cacophony is all.

So why, you ask — I wanted the wind to catch me.

Need to do Automaton Assault to get the Waetoto Earring.

@3.7k xp to 50.

Shinimusha haidate

Enk. Bracers (not even trying)

SOBORO SUKEHIRO

Must…get…level.

ps /wave I’m not dead! So busy playing the game that I’m too tired to write at work lately. As is pretty obvious from the sidebar, I’ve been levelling. A LOT. And it is awesome.

Ugh. Not looking to finding that tonight. Dear god please let the chocobo vendor be back!

In related news picked up my first ever Assault item that I’m actually wearing, an Antivenom Earring! Yay for +hmp.

But the best is after the jump…

I am my fucking Okotes.

So long, Oztroja.