FFXIV Nico 01
©2014 Craig Ashby
Screen Capture

FFXIV Nico 01 is quite the oddity. A shot of my character from Final Fantasy XIV in the beach in Costa del Sol. Dressed in my Crystal Tower bard gear.

I know I suddenly started speaking an unknown language of MMORPGs. Maybe unknown to those of you that don’t know that anagram stands for Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. Hell, people half my age sometimes don’t get that anagram.

I started in World of Warcraft but quickly tired of the community. It grew less fun when I realized it was as though I was black, gay and transgendered and had shown up to a KKK rally. I know sometimes I exaggerate but I am really being quite forgiving of Warcraft.

It wasn’t all bad. I loved some people I met even though the relationships didn’t last. Mostly though it infected my dreams and to this day there are certain area I think of regularly. After the Burning Crusades launched I decided that I was being affected in all the wrong ways.

I took a long break and then a couple of years back they announced  the fusion of two things I love dearly. MMORPGs meet Final Fantasy. It was like a gift from the universe.

I was there the first weekend of beta. Still living there on Gilgamesh. If you want to come visit send me a message and I will send you my full character name.

So why post them here? It is another life I live. A life I photograph. It is a portent of things to come for this reality. A metaphor of the best kind. Plus it is beautiful and I fucking look killer.