Huckleberry Saloon was distinctly un-saloon-like when I stepped into what was once the inviting and familiar foyer. Now decorated from top-to-bottom to look like a pirate ship, Huckleberry was transformed into an exhilarating, immersive experience.
Standing in the center of the new below-deck floor was Doc Laladay. He proudly gestured around the room, doting on Alzabet Smallberries’ superior decorating work that prepared his sharp saloon into a venue fit for their upcoming Princess Bride-themed bonding ceremony.
Later, Doc would muse: “The Huck (sic) started off as a small [plot] on Empyreum. The first floor was a Lala living space; the basement was a little tavern watering hole. The entire idea behind it was just to have a place where friends could occasionally gather and hang out.” How far things had come.
The set dressing of the ship was adorned in clutter, rustic accouterments, creaky wooden flooring, and a lived-in feel that melded something edgy and cozy about the entire experience. However this was hardly surprising. Doc Laladay and his crew didn’t do anything halfway.
“Before I became a Lala about two-and-a-half years ago, I had been playing FFXIV for about three years as a Highlander,” Laladay said. “I ended up getting a little bored and wanted to do something different, so I [Fantasia]’d into a Lala. It was the first time I had ever Fanta’d!”
Like most who take up the mantle of popoto-dom, Doc realized he didn’t want to go back. “I believe the Huckleberry was started about six months or so after I Fanta’d,” he said, trying to recall the timing. “And then after that, it was about a year or so of just hanging out and spending time with lots of Lala friends.” It was the community that anchored the former Highlander to Lalafellan culture.
Doc Laladay was born the same day as the Lalafell. “Being a huge Wild West nerd, I wanted to riff on that a little bit by being a Lala cowboy and just thought the name sounded really fun [...]” Laladay admits some of the inspiration was from his favorite movie Tombstone.
John Henry Holliday, also known as Doc Holliday, was an American dentist, gunslinger, and gambler who migrated from Georgia to the West and then eventually dying in Colorado in 1887. He was both a man revered for his fight against outlaws and considered one himself. Doc Laladay has a similarly sordid past. His Huckleberry Saloon biography follows his life as a pre-med student at an Eorzean university, later wasting it on whiskey and gambling. Wherever Doc Laladay goes, so does his gil—and his desire to bet it all on a crisp deck of cards. But what of his reputation as an outlaw?
That’s an interesting answer. Give him a glass of his favorite whiskey at any tavern, and he’ll tell you he’s a reformed outlaw. But he would never seal those swinging doors on anyone still caught in the ropes of ale, gamba, and gunslinging themselves. Any given night at the Huckleberry Saloon is full of just as many scallywags as there are friends.
“One thing I really like about the Huckleberry is how its goals have always been the same, even though we’ve evolved a lot over the past couple of years as a venue,” Laladay said. “It started off with a small group of friends just coming together, and then evolved from there.
“But the goal has always been the same: to have fun in a safe space with great people.”
Whether it’s a crowd following the music and drinks at the saloon, or it’s a crowd gathering for his cult of personality, Huckleberry wouldn’t be the same without Laladay.
“Honestly, I feel that the character of Doc Laladay—while directly riffing on Doc Holliday—has developed into a character that differs considerably. For me, the aspects of Doc Holliday from the movies that I like trying to bring to the character are primarily his charisma and energy—and the absolute die-hard loyalty and support he always gave to his friends.”
Fictionalized or not, that energy and sincerity keeps the saloon full.
“I would say that Doc [the Lala] is just a super big-hearted person...”
"...who loves being there to encourage people, have a good time with them, and always tries to see the best in people,” Laladay said. “He also loves whiskey.” Or Tennessee Apple Juice.
Doc, the player, is no stranger to MMOs like FFXIV. He’s been embroiled in immersive worlds since his years as a teenager, playing everything from Everquest, ESO, WoW, Guild Wars 2, Age of Conan… You name it, Doc has been there.
“Lots of MMOs out there are really amazing… The developers put so much into them. [...B]ut it was in playing [FFXIV] where I felt that the community aspect of a MMO was more fully realized than in any other MMO out there.”
When I asked if he thought that was a product of the development team or something that happened organically with the player base, Laladay answered pensively: “Perhaps both? A game’s developers have to put the right things in place to allow for a community to really grow and develop organically.” He posits the housing system plays a key role in immersion and quality time with others. “What really attracts me to a community is discovering how positive, helpful, friendly, kind, and welcoming it is. The Lala community, for example, is so incredible in these ways.
“Same for the bard community and many bard venues, [...] clubs like Ley Lines, Titania, the Eorzean Metropolitan Museum of Art, and other venues the Huckleberry is partnered with.”
The Pardners, as Huckleberry refers to them, is a wide variety of everything from taverns, bard performance venues, coffee slingers, concert halls, and even niche joints like Femboy Hooters. In all his traveling as a pseudo-outlaw, Doc Laladay has made friends with just about anyone you can in this business. When he laid down the brick for his own saloon, most of the friends that joined him on those basement blackjack nights still help run the big venue he has today. From just a few regulars every opening to a bustling business, the steady growth helped Laladay build something substantial in the community.
“Because we were learning as we grew, that really helped us add to the venue little-by-little instead of all at once,” Laladay said. “Never being in a hurry, but committed to continuous improvement.”
“For me, I know that our slower growth helped us really develop our ability to ‘venue’—if I can use that word as a verb.”
Doc doesn’t take for granted what the saloon (and he) have.
“[I]t's not about foot traffic or the size of our weekly turnouts. Those things are nice, but what matters most to me is just offering the best possible time we can to people when they visit, regardless of whether it's 10 people or close to 100.
“It's a huge compliment when someone chooses to spend their time at your venue...”
“...and I want to respect the time our guests and our staff offer to the venue by creating the best possible experience for them week after week.”
The cool and collected cowboy manages to let all extraverted energy out on saloon nights, while the player maintains a more introverted lifestyle. “I think Doc is very much an alter ego in which I can explore being a major extravert within the setting of a video game[...] I’d love to be more like Doc ‘IRL’ when it comes to being a little more of a people person. For me, I want the character to of course pay a little homage to his Wild West inspiration, but the longer I play him, the more I want the character to be a presentation of my best possible self.”
Doc’s other characters, such as Catgirl Doc, Doc Auraday, or Betty Boops aren’t nearly as rounded out, but they represent his sense of whimsy and overflowing creativity.
“If you are putting your heart into something you are doing for the community, it will show. In that same vein, if your heart isn’t in it, that will also show.”
Huckleberry, dressed so pristinely as a sailing ship could almost have convinced me that I could feel the salty breeze while I sat at the bar with Doc Laladay and absorbed the atmosphere. This kind of brilliance isn’t a one-Lala pursuit or something that can happen in a vacuum. It takes a staff working together to bring together Doc’s greater vision.
“Relationships are vital for a venue. Relationships among the team, among your partners, with your guests, and with the wider community. I sincerely mean this in the sense of trying to build authentic ones that go beyond just feeling like you are networking—making real friendships with the players behind the characters.
“I think it's maybe not mentioned very much in the virtual world, but people crave connection. I'm sure I do. If you can create a space in which real connections can happen and memories can be made within the confines and limitations inherent in a video game, well that is a very fulfilling thing for me that makes working hard [to run] the saloon very satisfying.”
With his rapscallion tethers to his past, other outlaws, and statesmen alike, I’d say Doc Laladay is far more than a whiskey-loving outlaw. He’s a guy with a lot of soul and desire to bring people together—gunslinging totally optional.
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