Premature reinstatement of auto demolition

[Penthea]

But it was those real life relationships you created with people you met that really changed your life and not the digital "property" you acquired in the game, correct?

If I didn't play the game I probably would not have met them at all. The only person in my circle of friends in the game that I would have met anyway is an irl friend I knew since long before I played. I'm from the Republic of Ireland which shares a border with only a small portion of the UK. Anything else our border touches is water. Everyone dear I met in the game live in a place that would require a plane ticket for me to visit. Some of these people don't even live in Europe. The likelihood of meeting them anyway outside of the game is microscopically small given my disability very often prevents me from leaving my own home, never mind travel a lot. I wouldn't have met them all in another game because FFXIV is the only online game we all play. Certainly I wouldn't have met my boyfriend at all because the only overlap in online gaming we have is FFXIV.

Because my disability keeps me at home so much, even without a pandemic, gaming is the only real outlet I have to express myself and meet people. I can't do many of the other things I love very often because my body just says "no". This isn't easy to deal with, but gaming makes it more manageable by allowing me to still engage in something enjoyable without my disability constantly getting in the way. I started playing FFXIV during a very dark period in my life and for quite some time it was the only thing that kept me from breaking down. Sure someone could criticise this and call it escapism, and say I should have dealt with my problems instead of game, but my disability has no cure and at the time doctors were struggling to figure out what it was so the treatment I was getting just wasn't working. My problems were beyond my power to tackle.

So no it's not just the people who changed my life, the game did. I understand not everyone has the same experiences and that's fine. But for me FFXIV isn't just a bunch of pixels. It's the reason why I didn't fall into a spiral of despair, and the reason why I met so many people I treasure.

Things in a game are just that - things - and they can be replaced if lost. Not necessarily quickly or with little effort but they can be replaced. Getting too attached to a thing, whether physical or digital, is not healthy.

Sentimental value is a thing and if you don't extend it to a digital plane that's fine. That's how you live your life. But it's not how everyone else does.

Also not everything is replaceable. I own some items that were crafted by family members who died before I was born. The only photograph of my paternal grandmother and I is in my possession and if it got lost it cannot be replaced because she died a long time ago. I would be devastated if I lost those things.

As for FFXIV, yes a person can maybe get another house. But is it the same house? No. I don't value my digital house as much as the above items, but I still care about it a great deal.

And as someone else said having some normalcy after or during a horrible chapter in your life can really help people to cope, and for some people part of it are the things they acquired in a game.

In my opinion, having a sense of normalcy after so much has hypothetically changed is just as important in the process of moving past a horrible event. The little things matter. I'm speaking from experience, though not exactly related to housing in a video game. But the same logic applies.