Blue mage and why I like the idea

[Ramesses]

Full disclosure... I am excited and thoroughly looking forward to playing the Blue Mage job exactly as it has been designed by the Dev Team.

Since it's announcement, I've been very amused at the general amount of negative uproar generated from the fact that it is a limited job with its own unique approach to solo play. Thus, I've generally steered away from making comments on the issue, maintained a comfortable seat on the sidelines with my popcorn and have been watching the drama unfold.

I also continue to find it incredibly fascinating how there are extremely few people who understand that there is a massive demographic of players around the world who prefer aspects of solo play for a multitude bevy of reasons.

In fact, I personally have a couple friends (who I have met since my FFXI days) who are thrilled about the possibilities that BLU's solo play brings because they are dealing with aspects of social anxiety... one is in Amsterdam (she absolutely hates raiding), the other is in Japan --he got me into the dot.hack GU games back in 2007 and helped me understand what his life was like as hikikomori, which is now a global issue.

There are times that the human condition makes us oblivious to the struggles of our fellow human standing right beside us... I keep learning a lot more about my staff at work just by interacting more with them; not just by hanging out with them at the pub now and then. This was also true for me even back in grad school. Thus, I admire the fact that the Devs seriously sat down to develop a concept that would cater to one of the ideals of solo play while also emphasizing a method for people to interact more. That is just gold.

So yes... bring on Blue Mage as it is and let's all test drive it thoroughly before making judgement... let's have fun with it first and work together to work out any future kinks we find. Heck, I might even create a linkshell called "Blue Man Group" when it releases. Phenomenal show by the way.