Check out the hottest discussions from the previous week in the FFXIV General Forum.

Well mid-June is here, which can only mean one thing – Patch 1.18 should happen any day now! Okay, you caught me. We’re well beyond mid-June. In fact, we’re approaching mid-July, and still no word on the implementation of Patch 1.18 – the patch I touted not long ago as what could be the Golden Patch. By now, the only thing certain is that the Golden Patch may be more like a Tri-Force, as we’ve learned most of the game-changing overhauls will be split between patches 1.18, 1.19 and 1.20.

That said, right about now I’d be happy just to see a release date for the battle system patch. To say FFXIV players are getting angsty waiting for the patch would be a bit of an understatement, and I believe that’s been apparent in the increasingly cynical nature of forum discussions – not that people weren’t cynical already.

On with this week’s links:

Title: Jump has been confirmed to definitely be implemented.

Sadly, this poster is not jumping to conclusions – the development team has officially hopped on the jump bandwagon, which would be reason enough for people to leap with excitement if only the game didn’t give us so many things to worry about. As for me, this news doesn’t make me feel like bouncing around. I consider myself to be a very down-to-earth person (you could even call me grounded), and I’m not too excited about wasting a button so that my character can have an unrealistic 6-foot vertical leap while wearing full plate armor. Oh well. When in Rome, jump as the Romans do, I guess.

Title: What does FFXI have over FFXIV gameplay-wise?

Uh, everything? Several posters in this thread answer the question better than I ever could, but I think the word “everything” sums it up quite nicely. Hopefully it won’t be this way forever. I’ve been reading up on other new MMOs, and I’m intrigued by the emphasis on dynamic open-world content in games such as Rift (recently released) and Guild Wars II (looming on the horizon). If I could ask Yoshi-P any question about FFXIV, I would ask whether there are currently any plans for dynamic PvE content. Until the development team implements something “next-gen” like this, then FFXIV will struggle to crawl out from little brother’s shadow.

Title: Update on Instances by rep/Yoshi

What has two thumbs and loves being a buzz kill? No, not this guy – I’m talking about Yoshi-P! This certainly wasn’t intended, but Yoshi-P made the rare mistake of causing angst over entry requirements for the game’s first instanced dungeons. To me, what makes this thread stand out isn’t what Yoshi-P said, but rather how players reacted to his vaguely translated words. Seems pretty clear that we’re ready for Patch 1.18, and hopefully by next week’s Hot Read Thursday we’re still not sitting here wondering when it will happen.