UPDATE: Not sure why this is getting down voted, but if I posted this wrong or offended anyone, I apologize.
Hi everyone,
You may know me by another username, as I posted here under an alt a while back. An alt that had nothing to do with pop singer Carly Rae Jepsen, I might add. (It did.) Anyway, I'm a totally blind gamer and I play FFXIV with my spouse, who can see. She does navigation and reading, and I get to do all the fun combat stuffs. So yeah, that's me. I just wanted to tell my story really quickly, so here goes.
I started FFXIV last year. My spouse and I both are avid gamers, so to be fair to both our gaming passion, we each pick a game to focus on, play together, and time ourselves to ensure each of our games of choice gets a fair share of time. Her main focus for the last 400 days exactly has been Warframe, and I have jumped around a lot. My first stint with FFXIV saw me as a Warrior, clearing ARR and reaching level 56 before getting burnt out.
I went on a hiatus then. I focused on my pro-gaming career in the fighting game world. I also 100% cleared Dragon Quest XI, and don't get me started on how much I still miss that game. But FFXIV's siren call beckoned me back, and after a quick and dirty slurp of that body-changing elixir, my character was reborn as a lovely catgirl. And a samurai. On a motorcycle. I f'ing love this game.
Anyway, cleared Heavensward and hit level 72 or so with Samurai kitty girl. Then my burn out came back and I went drifting again. I'd pop back in for dailies, or to say hi to my FC (shout out to Eikons for Hire!) But my heart wasn't in it—I was missing something. I tried other games: XCOM 2 was great until Sergeant Nikki LaserTits watched her whole squad gunned down by Advent forces, Dragon's Dogma adventures with my lovely Carly Rae Jepsen pawn (Jepsi) were a rip-roaring good time marred only by somewhat dated interfaces, and Tales of Berseria had me hooked by Velvet's tale of revenge and her ability to eat demons alive. Lucky demons. But nothing stuck.
On a whim, my spouse suggested checking out the machinist class in FFXIV. I shy away from ranged classes in games since I can't aim—which is especially weird because I can shoot real-world guns just fine; just ask the feral hog in my freezer. (You can't, his lungs were obliterated by my long rifle.) So I was hesitant to try out this gun class, because I felt like I'd be surrendering my control of Azra Duskthorn, my catgirl WoL. Don't get me wrong, I love copiloting characters with my amazing partner. She is my guiding light and the spark in my soul. But I, as all people, value my independence and self-sufficiency. And she understands and respects that. I'm a tough girl and like to do things myself.
But heeding her advice, I tried machinist. And I'm in love all over again. I am only level 31, because I just started, but I am in absolute love with this job. I, as a blind player, can pop off with wicked shots at range, tearing down monsters like any sighted player. Thanks to the way tab-targeting works, aim is not a factor. Just situational awareness, skill management, and a fundamental understanding of my rotation and its respective values and contexts. And I don't need working retinas for any of that!
So, what's my point in all of this? I'm not entirely sure. Maybe it's just to say I love Machinist—now I'm a sexy catgirl with a big-ass gun! But no, it is more than that. So much more.
FFXIV has given me so much. I can fight alongside sighted players with relatively little aid needed; just navigation, really. I can commit so much lore and meta knowledge to memory and really sink myself deep into this world. In FFXIV, I'm not just a bored blind girl battling with depression and PTSD. In FFXIV, I can succeed or fail without my blindness being a-factor. No one here judges me for being disabled, for being Mexican, for being transgender. No one says what I can't do, because if it is in the game, anyone has an equal chance of doing something. We may not all succeed, but we all get to try.
I keep coming back to FFXIV because it gives me a world I need to be in. When I get burnt out, it's not the game's fault. My own mental health issues cause me to struggle to maintain enthusiasm for anything, even things I love, like gaming, reading, lock picking, and Warhammer. But whatever I struggle through, wherever I wander, FFXIV is still waiting for me when I return, with open arms and a new adventure over every horizon. So thank you FFXIV, and thanks to all of you here on the subreddit. We are all so lucky to share this wonderful world. Adventure awaits us!
PS: To answer a common question, yes I am totally blind. Have been since birth. I use a screenreader and a braille computer (BrailleNote) to read and write online.
submitted by /u/SightlessSenshi
[link] [comments]
Continue reading...
Hi everyone,
You may know me by another username, as I posted here under an alt a while back. An alt that had nothing to do with pop singer Carly Rae Jepsen, I might add. (It did.) Anyway, I'm a totally blind gamer and I play FFXIV with my spouse, who can see. She does navigation and reading, and I get to do all the fun combat stuffs. So yeah, that's me. I just wanted to tell my story really quickly, so here goes.
I started FFXIV last year. My spouse and I both are avid gamers, so to be fair to both our gaming passion, we each pick a game to focus on, play together, and time ourselves to ensure each of our games of choice gets a fair share of time. Her main focus for the last 400 days exactly has been Warframe, and I have jumped around a lot. My first stint with FFXIV saw me as a Warrior, clearing ARR and reaching level 56 before getting burnt out.
I went on a hiatus then. I focused on my pro-gaming career in the fighting game world. I also 100% cleared Dragon Quest XI, and don't get me started on how much I still miss that game. But FFXIV's siren call beckoned me back, and after a quick and dirty slurp of that body-changing elixir, my character was reborn as a lovely catgirl. And a samurai. On a motorcycle. I f'ing love this game.
Anyway, cleared Heavensward and hit level 72 or so with Samurai kitty girl. Then my burn out came back and I went drifting again. I'd pop back in for dailies, or to say hi to my FC (shout out to Eikons for Hire!) But my heart wasn't in it—I was missing something. I tried other games: XCOM 2 was great until Sergeant Nikki LaserTits watched her whole squad gunned down by Advent forces, Dragon's Dogma adventures with my lovely Carly Rae Jepsen pawn (Jepsi) were a rip-roaring good time marred only by somewhat dated interfaces, and Tales of Berseria had me hooked by Velvet's tale of revenge and her ability to eat demons alive. Lucky demons. But nothing stuck.
On a whim, my spouse suggested checking out the machinist class in FFXIV. I shy away from ranged classes in games since I can't aim—which is especially weird because I can shoot real-world guns just fine; just ask the feral hog in my freezer. (You can't, his lungs were obliterated by my long rifle.) So I was hesitant to try out this gun class, because I felt like I'd be surrendering my control of Azra Duskthorn, my catgirl WoL. Don't get me wrong, I love copiloting characters with my amazing partner. She is my guiding light and the spark in my soul. But I, as all people, value my independence and self-sufficiency. And she understands and respects that. I'm a tough girl and like to do things myself.
But heeding her advice, I tried machinist. And I'm in love all over again. I am only level 31, because I just started, but I am in absolute love with this job. I, as a blind player, can pop off with wicked shots at range, tearing down monsters like any sighted player. Thanks to the way tab-targeting works, aim is not a factor. Just situational awareness, skill management, and a fundamental understanding of my rotation and its respective values and contexts. And I don't need working retinas for any of that!
So, what's my point in all of this? I'm not entirely sure. Maybe it's just to say I love Machinist—now I'm a sexy catgirl with a big-ass gun! But no, it is more than that. So much more.
FFXIV has given me so much. I can fight alongside sighted players with relatively little aid needed; just navigation, really. I can commit so much lore and meta knowledge to memory and really sink myself deep into this world. In FFXIV, I'm not just a bored blind girl battling with depression and PTSD. In FFXIV, I can succeed or fail without my blindness being a-factor. No one here judges me for being disabled, for being Mexican, for being transgender. No one says what I can't do, because if it is in the game, anyone has an equal chance of doing something. We may not all succeed, but we all get to try.
I keep coming back to FFXIV because it gives me a world I need to be in. When I get burnt out, it's not the game's fault. My own mental health issues cause me to struggle to maintain enthusiasm for anything, even things I love, like gaming, reading, lock picking, and Warhammer. But whatever I struggle through, wherever I wander, FFXIV is still waiting for me when I return, with open arms and a new adventure over every horizon. So thank you FFXIV, and thanks to all of you here on the subreddit. We are all so lucky to share this wonderful world. Adventure awaits us!
PS: To answer a common question, yes I am totally blind. Have been since birth. I use a screenreader and a braille computer (BrailleNote) to read and write online.
submitted by /u/SightlessSenshi
[link] [comments]
Continue reading...