A new FATE called Brick by Stone Brick and Brick by Gold is coming starting January 21st (and ending February 3rd) that will give you a chance to win a Thug's Mug head armor piece as well as a Wind-Up Brickman minion! Check out the event page for details on how to join!

OH-HOHOHO! There are rumors of a huge, shadowy figure wreaking havoc in Eorzea. New FATEs called Embedded Spriggans and Tower of Power are coming starting January 21st (and ending February 3rd) that will give you a chance to win your very own Wind-Up Shantotto Minion! Check out the event page for details!

Discuss in the ZAM Forums!

Yoshi P will be answering live questions from Osaka Japan and will be previewing what is coming in Patch 2.2. Highlights include Leviathan, a new dungeon called the Ruins of Amdapor, additions to the Binding Coil of Bahamut, Hildibrand, game design, and a report on the PS4 version!

Discuss in the Zam forums!

This upcoming weekend is a good time to check out everything that is new in Patch 2.1, since Square Enix is going to allow existing account holders who may have not renewed their sub a chance to look at everything that was added. Check out the Crystal Tower, a 24 man raid, or the Wolve's Den which is the new PvP arena!

You can read the full patch notes here. Discuss in the Zam Forums!

Welcome to 2014’s first edition of the Eorzea Examiner, ZAM’s column on Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. For this issue we’re finally going to talk about something I was going to do before Lightning Strikes and the holidays interrupted me: crafting. We’ve already talked about what makes FFXIV’s gathering classes and mechanics unique and how I would improve them, so now it’s time to take all of those materials and turn them into shiny things.

Hello and welcome to 2013’s last issue of the Eorzea Examiner, ZAM’s column about Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. Normally in these columns, I’d find a specific aspect of FFXIV to discuss, be it ways to improve existing systems or looking into a world event and where they did well or poorly. As much as I’d really like to do that with FFXIV’s crafting system, we’re going to hold off on that for when everyone’s not on holiday travel. Instead for this week’s column, we’ll be looking back over 2013 for FFXIV, both the good and the bad.

The staff at ZAM has spent many hours debating which of the games we’ve played over the past year were most deserving of an award. In several cases the votes were neck-and-neck while others had an overwhelming victory. We had so much love to spread around that we expanded our voting categories from six to twelve this year.

Congratulations to the final six winners and runners up of 2013!

This past Tuesday Square Enix finally brought players one of the most teased features of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. From some of the pre-launch promotional info to the E3 trailers and developer posts, they've told us all about how we would be able to buy plots of land in neighborhoods with our fellow players, customize the interior and exterior to match our wishes and even get bonuses to things like crafting and gathering if we used certain decorations. Now we knew patch 2.1 would be Free Company (FFXIV's guilds) housing, so we all kind of assumed that they might be a little more expensive, but even smaller FCs would be able to pool  their funds and purchase a decent-sized bungalow for everyone to call home. Well... not so much.

The staff at ZAM has spent many hours debating which games we’ve played over the past year were most deserving of an award. In several cases the votes were neck-and-neck while others had an overwhelming victory. We had so much love to spread around that we expanded our voting categories from six to twelve this year.

Congratulations to the first six winners and runners up of 2013!

It's been nearly four months (moreso when you factor in Open Beta) since players first logged into Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. In that time dungeons have been cleared, primals slain and the schemes of the Garleans thwarted. Quite a few of you out there have even delved into the Binding Coil of Bahamut, FFXIV's only current end-game raid dungeon. Others like myself have mined/fished/logged the riches Eorzea has to offer and/or crafted our way to fortune and glory. After all those months though, you do start to get into a routine and look for something new to try. Next week should hopefully bring that change as FFXIV's first major update, Patch 2.1 A Realm Awoken, is scheduled for release on Tuesday December 17th.

Hello and welcome to the third edition of the Eorzea Examiner, our new column about Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. Last month we talked about FFXIV's interpretation of gathering classes and discussed ways to improve upon the design for Disciples of the Land. Logically the next step here would be to follow the materials from gatherer to crafter and discuss Disciples of the Hand next. Unfortunately, fellow crafters, that column will have to wait a few weeks as we have something a bit more timely to discuss.

Early Monday morning we saw the end of Eorzea's most recent world event, Lightning Strikes, starring the heroine of SE's Final Fantasy XIII and the upcoming title, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. It's been over three weeks since players first encountered the pink-haired adventurer roaming Eorzea. We've fought at her side and received our rewards, but now she's left our land for further adventurers (or till the North American release of her game in February). Looking back on the event as a whole, how did it stack up to the other FFXIV world events or to those in other MMOs?