FF14 glamour hunters: the sneakerheads who kill god in the name of fashion and friends

polygon.com:

I assumed Final Fantasy 14 glamour hunters — the players who devote hundreds of hours to collecting pieces of gear and in-game wardrobe pieces in Square Enix’s MMORPG — were an unapproachable group of players. From the outside, they seem capable of clearing any and all raids, no matter the difficulty level. They are lone ranger hunters out for blood, and extremely focused on grinding for their goals. They have the patience of great white sharks stalking their prey (which, in this case, would be a shirt or pair of pants — known in the game as “glamour”). I was wrong.

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When I reached out to a handful of glamour hunters on Discord, Reddit, and Twitter, expecting pushback, I was greeted with excitement. When I asked for the highlights of their glamour hunts, expecting to hear something akin to an ESPN anchor play-by-play, I discovered “sport” wasn’t even the right metaphor for glam hunting. For players in deep, the hunt is something closer to language.

This makes sense if you think of glam hunting as a true part of the fashion conversation — these players are right there with sneakerheads, Vivienne Westwood acolytes, or dedicated Fragrantica reviewers. Because lurking on Grailed or Depop for limited edition items, the equivalent of leaping into difficult raids like Savages, is only part of the experience. “Being into fashion” is also about chatting about why you’re into Ann Demeulemeester or exchanging tips on what to wear with a gorgeous top or platform boots. The same goes for glam hunting; despite taking place within the realm of FF14, the style-forward hobby has more to