FFXIV – First Year of OCE Data Centre Materia

Everyone has their favourite MMORPGs, and most have servers and data centres in the US/UK and Asia. We here in Australia have had several MMORPG utilise OCE servers like Ultima Online, World of Warcraft and recently Wild Terra 2: New Lands. This time last year, Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV) had their first OCE data centre go live, called Materia, containing five servers/worlds for OCE players: Bismarck, Ravana, Sephirot, Sophia, and Zurvan. Today marks the one-year anniversary of Materia launching and the OCE community has enjoyed much lower latencies, but more importantly it has made communities come together much easier.

Some local players gave their thoughts on having a local DC to play on:

Mark Withers: “I started running a regular glamour contest on the Materia DC when it opened and met a bunch of mad lads in-game. We got to meet up in person at PAX AUS and fight Zodiark together. It was an absolute blast seeing everyone and hanging out IRL as a result of my events on Materia.”

Janet R.: “The first night on Materia was so special, waving and saying hello to everyone. There was also a lot of stopping to laugh and congratulate people on their choice of some great Aussie and Kiwi names!” Some great names of note were Maccas Run, Crocodile Bundee, Fandaniel Ricciardo, Dan Murphys and Sausage Sanga.

John Benedict T. Gabitan (pictured above): “Ever since the new DC opened, FFXIV has been more recognisable in NZ. I’ve met some players locally after they recognised my Yshtola car at a local convention!”

Lyn: “Because we’re such a localised DC, I actually recognise names when I end up playing with people again. Everybody remembers mine, so it’s nice to recognise others too!”

To help celebrate this anniversary, FFXIV collaborated with local cooking creator MissMollyMakes to create two Aussie-inspired recipes for the game, the Chocobo Lamington and Cactuar Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream & Vegemite Salted Caramel. Be sure to check out the video links and get your hunger on for more FFXIV.

With more than 27 million total registered players, there has never been a better time for newcomers to begin their adventures in the critically acclaimed Final Fantasy XIV Online saga. The expanded Free Trial now includes all content from A Realm Reborn and the Heavensward expansion (and updates through Patch 3.56), as well as an additional playable race (Au Ra), and three additional playable jobs (Dark Knight, Astrologian, and Machinist). Free Trial players can enjoy hundreds of hours of award-winning gameplay and story experiences equivalent to two full Final Fantasy titles, without limit on playtime. More information is available here.

New players looking to get up to speed can dive into the Final Fantasy XIV Online Starter Guide Series, a seven-part online video series which provides novice players with tips and tricks to get the most out of their adventure. The YouTube video series follows the journey of new player Kaz and his mentor Mayra, who guides him through his first steps in Eorzea. Watch the video series here.

For more information on Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker, visit the official site.

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