“On Playing the Game”

For a little while circa 2022, I got into playing the first (and so far, only) MMO of my life, Final Fantasy XIV. At one point while running the quest chain for my class, I realized that another player was doing exactly the same thing just ahead of me: dressed in exactly the same armor, he was going to all the same NPCs I was and presumably having all the same conversations.

I gotta say, it really undercut the sense that my character was achieving anything unique, no matter what the story said. But I got a poem out of the experience! And it will be published in Penumbric, likely some time in late 2027.