Posts tagged the-mog-log 
The Mog Log: One year, two courses
Today does not quite mark the two-year anniversary of The Mog Log. That was back on January 24th, but I decided to run just a wee bit late with annual retrospectives. We're now close enough to the year mark for argument's sake, which gives me a chance to look back at how the past year of the ...
The Mog Log: Weakness is strength
If you think about characters in the online Final Fantasy games compared to the console-based equivalents, you have to come to a kind of demoralizing conclusion: Your character online is pretty weak. In Final Fantasy XI, you can cap out your Black Mage and you'll still never learn Ultima. In ...
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XI classes, round four
One of the funny things about writing a regular column is that sometimes, when you start out writing a series of connected columns on a topic, you have a point you want to make. Other times, you find a point making itself as you go, and you realize that it's a pretty good point. After our first ...
The Mog Log: Adventures equal battles
One of the big selling points of Final Fantasy XIV before launch was that there were many classes devoted to doing things other than fighting. The promise was made, more than once (if memory serves), that even non-combat classes would get to take part in the main story, and it was also stated ...
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XI classes, round 3
There's a certain brilliance to the fact that the first six classes in Final Fantasy XI mirror your selections back in the first Final Fantasy game. Once you hit 30, you can start transferring into the more iconic and frequently bonus-laden advanced jobs, but your initial selection is meant to ...
The Mog Log: The 2012 forecast
As we enter the twilight of 2011, I can say with absolute certainty that my predictions for Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV were wrong, which is fine, since when I made them last year I seem to recall saying to myself that I was predicting more on the basis of "should happen" than "will ...
The Mog Log: Eye of the earthquake
This has not been a normal year. Not for me, certainly -- I certainly didn't expect back in January that I'd be facing a week without power later in the year -- but not for Final Fantasy XI or Final Fantasy XIV either. None of us was expecting both games to be shut down for a while in response to ...
The Mog Log: Forward impressions of patch 1.20
As I write this, patch 1.20 is not actually live just yet. All I have to go on is a monster list of patch notes and the various previews we've been given thus far. Of course, by the time you're reading this, the patch will have released, and I have no doubt that some people will have played ...
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XI classes, round 2
It's time for the second batch of Final Fantasy XI classes to be examined under a set of criteria that have absolutely nothing to do with their actual power level. (Those change too often, and frankly I've never been a fan.) The first time around, we took a look at the three physical classes, who ...
The Mog Log: Narrative voices
One of the things that I've said for years about both Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV is that these are MMOs that love story. Other MMOs have a narrative, sure, but it's in Vana'diel and Eorzea that story is really a big part of the game's appeal. There's a definite push in both games for ...
