Morning in Vana'diel: Some Things Are Universal.

Morning in Vana'diel is your daily dose of FFXI and all things Vana'diel. Give us your thoughts on the interesting topics of the day! Search far and wide, even go to different MMO's and you will find that some things, the most basic and fundamental things, are always there.

I was perusing the vast and infinite net and happened upon a list of the generic members of any group of online players. They were pretty humorous because they resemble something that I think everyone experiences online. The "drunk", the "girl with the foreign accent", the "overly sexual girl that hates the girl with the foreign accent"; the list goes on and on. Some may be closer to your personal experiences than others but the humor in them are indisputable. There was one that stood out to me though, and it stood out to me because not only was it humorous and true, but also because it is actually critical to how we play the game.

That member type was called the "backbone" and here is what the definition of the backbone said:

The Backbone - Plays a tank. Doesn't have much to say. Made an error once in SSC, or so you heard. Will disconnect when Gorefiend is at 30% and keep aggro while offline for the rest of the fight. Has never said anything negative to the healers. Ever. Good luck with your progression without one of these. Hates the prima donnas.

Now this is a WoW specific definition of the backbone but you can see how it applies. The backbone is your best tank, not the second tank, not the tank that wishes they could come as a DD, the backbone is the guy that you never have to ask to come on PLD and always has the right subjob for the event. They may die, but they don't screw-up, and if there is a chance they screwed up you know that someone else is going to take responsibility. They are the tank you don't ever have to worry about holding hate from your insane BLM or the WHM can't cast anything but Cure IV. And they won't even tell the WHM to stop casting Cure IV, because the backbone just does his job and does it well.

The backbone is everyone's key to getting things done. You don't have to worry so much about support, or healing, or if they know the strategy. You know they know the strategy without even having to look it up. And they have that little bit of epicness about them that just makes you happy they are around. Like "Remember that time when he took every single Citadel Buster without dropping to red HP?" and "Remember the time that he solo'ed the last 20% of Ix'DRG because someone screwed up the Wyvern pull?".

Our backbone is Izman, who is your backbone? Do you have a backbone? Do you wish you had a "backbone"? Do you even need a "backbone? Leave a comment and tell us what you think!