When players come together in online games to make something, the results can be surprising. This is especially true in hit MMOFinal Fantasy 14, where in-game communities put on concerts, playFinal Fantasy 10’s underwater rugby sport Blitzballfor charity, and host real-world cooking classes. But few things draw out the community’s creative flair more than housing.
Final Fantasy 14’s housing systemallows for some amazing designs but does come with some limitations. It was while discussing ways to work around these limitations that well-knownFinal Fantasy 14fisher Fruity Snacks stumbled on one of the most ambitious player-created projects in Eorzea: a sprawling aquarium showcasing all the fish in the game that can be put in tanks or printed on canvas. Fruity recently discussed this massive project and all the benefits it brings in an interview with Game Rant.
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Of course, theFinal Fantasy 14Aquarium is more than just a pretty place to visit. It regularly hosts events, including the Aqueerium Pride event on June 24. These range from tutorials on in-game fishing to so-called Fish Trains and many more. The game is no stranger to player-made events, with concerts, in particular, being a popular pastime.
“I think our very first event was about a year ago. We called it Sharkapalooza. Continuing with our work as a community resource, we realized we have a ton of fishers who are rather good at fishing and decided to host an event one afternoon where we would help players get their shark mounts. … We had the aquarium basement converted into a little presentation stage, I put up like wall partitions. I mimicked what the online resources look like in game and did, and before every before every voyage, I did a quick little presentation of ‘here’s what you’re going to do in Zone One, here’s what you’ll do in Zone Two, here’s what you’re going to do in Zone Three.’ And then they would be partnered up with aquarium volunteers who would basically tell them the exact same thing with a little bit more detail while they’re actually on the boat.
The Eorzea Aquarium has been open for a little over a year and has been such a smash success in the community that it’s expanded into an entire network of museums hosted by other players around the world, including topics like botany or the history of the game’s world. The network even includesa group ofFinal Fantasy 14actors and playwrights. The centerpiece of this Eorzean Museum Network is, of course, the aquarium.
“One afternoon, I realized that every house has limits on the number of fish tanks you can have, regardless of the size you can only have up to four, six, eight, and 10. I made a comment in the Fishcord–the Fisherman’s Horizon Discord is kind of the central discord for all things fishing andFinal Fantasy 14–I said something along the lines of if a FC was so inclined to be endeavorous, they could use the FC rooms to get around the limit of aquariums that you can have in a house. You could use that to display all of the aquarium fish. I think I even said it could be Eorzea’s first aquarium or something like that. And a bunch of people were like, ‘Alright, cool. You’re going to lead this and we’re going to do it.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, wait, what? And it took off.'”
Support for the project was instant. People came to support the construction of the aquarium using the crafting and gathering classes in the game, someone gave them access to a house free of charge, and within months, opening night came. Fruity tallied over 1,000 unique players passing through the aquarium on the first day. The Free Company’s message book, which can hold 60 entries, was full in half an hour. Becausetravel betweenFinal Fantasy 14’s data centerswasn’t yet possible, people made new characters on the Crystal datacenter to visit with names like “I’mhere Forfish” or “Aquarium Visitor” from not just across North America, where the aquarium was based, but around the world.
Quickly, Fruity and his team saw the need for copies of the Eorzea Aquarium in other regions. Currently, the aquarium consists of three main branches–Aquarium Crystal serving North America servers, Aquarium Spriggan serving European servers, and Aquarium Sophia serving Oceania. To logistically facilitate this expansion, the team assembled what they called “Aquariums in a Box,” packages of all the hard-to-get resources needed to establish an aquarium that could be taken to newer servers thatoffered free transfers toFinal Fantasy 14characters.
“We model the Eorzean Museum Network off of the International Council of Museums, or ICOM. Where they have a very clear definition of what qualifies as a museum, and you can submit your venue to the International Council of Museums, and they’ll be like, ‘Yeah, you’re a museum. Welcome to the club.’ We built something similar with the Eorzean Museum Network, where if you have a museum that you’ve built, you have a museum that you would like to build, or if you have something that you want help with that could be museum related, let us know. We will help you get that done. We’ll help you with marketing, we’ll help you with advertising, we’ll help you get the materials.”
The pride event, Aqueerium Pride, is combining their fishing trains and art parties to celebrate the LBGTQ+ community that flourishes inFinal Fantasy 14.
Final Fantasy 14is available now for PC, PS4, and PS5.
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