FFXI does anyone even play it anymore?

[toddex]

I just started back up on Ifrit was wondering if anyone here plays this game? I havent touched it since 2004 no idea why I bought the vanadiel collection and gave it a go again. They definitely started following in wows footsteps as ive solo'd my way up to 16 already that kind of **** would never happen back when i first started playing FFXI. Not unless you like taking 2 weeks to get there.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Nope. Brevity

[RPGuru1331]

Yep. It's actually going pretty strong still. However, I don't know if AMERICANS still play it.

Also, soloing to 16 isn't a stretch, unless you did it on Toughs. Monks, in particular, can do it. Now if you can solo your Subjob quest..

[Jimorian]

I still play (on Garuda server, same nick as here). I've basically soloed all 20 jobs to 16, some before the xp adjustments on easy prey, most after. Ghelsba orcs are generally good for 1000xp+ per hour from lvl 8 to 16.

As a "mature" game (in the sense that it's been around a while and isn't attracting new players as much as keeping around old ones), it makes sense to decrease the grind so that when somebody does join, they can find it easier to reach the level of their friends.

Another cool feature they just added is "level synching" where you can pick one player as the base level, and anyone higher than that is temporarily brought down to that level for the party (with all weapons and armor pro-rated down to that level as well). So there's no longer an issue of trying to keep level with your friends when some can play more than others. Everybody still gets full XP, the only issue the higher players have to worry about is skill leveling later for their true levels.

[toddex]

I will say your americans not playing comment is sort of true. Other then my buddy whos been playing since I quit most people in my LS or I meet are usually from the UK or JP. Although I tend to play late nights.

[JadedDM]

I still play on Cerberus, as does my roommate. We often party together.

[ocato]

This is one of the half-dozen MMOs I've considered playing. Lately I've felt sort of blah and wanted one to play. However almost every single thing I hear says FFXI is god awful to the point where unless I want to grind and try to divine insults from Japanese people, I might as well pick something else.

EDIT: I don't want to sound like I'm saying it's a bad game or that you shouldn't play it. I'm simply saying why I never got in to it, despite having some interest. Is it more fun than I've heard?

[RPGuru1331]

The insults from the Japanese can be true, unless you have a JIS-script enabled keyboard and can insult the dumbass gaijin with the rest of them. I exaggerate though; The Japanese and AMericans are *******s to each other on FFXI, so both sides have earned what they've gotten by now. It is a grind, but all MMOs are. That said, I don't recommend new people walk into FFXI. It's a good game, but it's so incredibly settled and inflated. It's just hard to enter now. If you can get a good foothold wth a friend, it can be worth it, though.

And yes, I had a good deal of fun on it, way back in the day.

[ocato]

Yeah, that seems to be the skinny with most MMOs these days. If you didn't start some time ago, it's kind of a pain to try to get into it now. This means I can wait for a new MMO that seems fun or go back to Wow. Bleh.

[Qanael]

I played FFXI all the way to endgame (THF75 on Odin, with reasonably pimped out gear). Let me tell you right now, the grind never, ever ends. It only gets worse, particularly when you get to merits. That said, it's a pretty entertaining game. The different storylines are very nice. Just be ready to devote several hours every time you log on, if you want to achieve anything.

[Setra]

I alternate between FFXI WoW and City of Heroes.

However I'm broke right now so... Guild Wars.

[Khanderas]

After playing WoW since start basically, I gave FFXI a try about 4-5 months ago.
I was severly shocked at how terrible I found it. Granted I did just start it up out of the blue, without RL / Internet -friends to level me up or such, but making first a Thief, then a Monk and finding the fights slow, boring and downright devoid of any tactics. Smack a newbie-bug until it or I died. Press the rest button, have a snack, run to next bug, press attack, check what was on TV, come back, press the rest button, alt-tab and websurf alittle, come back and attack a bug and so on and so on. And then repeated.

What really bugged me however was
1) the complete lack of quests to give a story framing the world in or just explaining how the combat system works (There was one quest, gained at level 1, that you had to be like level 20 to be able to complete, and that was the only one I found)
2) that there is NO way to escape enemies / bad pulls (I tried to outrun them and zoning out, both failed. Can't switch zones while in combat, the mobs follow you forever (or atleast longer then 20 minutes))
3) and that a simple healthpotion (youknow that the normal 1 player FF games you usually have a couple at start and is the cheapest item in the game) costs more then I could grind in 3 hours time. Nevermind anything else I may need. The newbie mobs I killed dropped an antennae once per 20 mobs or so, that sold for next to nothing.

I don't generally have a problem with games I have to muscle myself into but FFXI was too user-unfriendly even for me.

The time allotted that followed the set (I got the one including the wings of the goddess, thinking may as well have em all neatly packaged), included 1 month subscription.

After a frustrating 9-10 days (including a weekend), where I accomplished nothing but grief (all that time played.... and I still did not get any plot-hooks, no quests and not enough money to buy fishbait ! ) plus an astounding lack of other players (and those that did exist, only one actually replied. He was logging off so he couldnt talk to me).
So I summoned a GM. Proceeded by typing my fingers raw with the immense flaws of the game in a frenzy that basically amounted to a rant, uninstalled the game and have no intention whatsoever to try that game again.

Maybe... MAYBE... FFXI is a fun game at higher levels with a good clan/linkshell to play with. But until then the game punishes you like nothing I can even find an analogy for. Do. Not. Touch. This. Game. (unless you got a friend who can give you enough cash to be able to buy a FRIKKIN potion atleast. And even then I cannot see myself reccomending it).


Edit, I just CAN'T write a short post ever. I really tried to stop myself.. I really did. I could rant on for much longer then this really... :smallmad:

[Thervold]

I played for two months on Gilgamesh earlier in the year. I found since there are very few true new players in the game, you had better recruit a friend or two to play with you or else you'll be quite alone in the early parts of the world. One thing that bothered me is that many quests give you absolutely no direction how to accomplish it. Yes, you can look online to learn how to complete them, but that kinda takes a lot of the fun out of them. Also, on the PC, the game looked horrible until I looked online to find you could hack the registry to force the game to use a decent resolution (there are no in-game options to do this). To enabled windowed mode, you have to use a utility that comes with the game but is not mentioned anywhere (without looking online). And when in windowed mode, the mouse starts doing weird things. I still enjoyed my experienced in spite of these factors, but it was enough to drive the friends who started with me out of the game. Thus I quit when I had nobody else to play with (and it's extremely grindy to level on your own with the standard classes past 20)

[Qanael]

Oh, it's a very, very hard game to start out in. Also, basically, past level 10 you will need a party to achieve anything in a reasonable time frame.

I don't know about the lack of quests though; the main storyline quest-givers are right by the city exits. They'll get you started in the storyline.

[JadedDM]

The thing about FFXI is it isn't for newbies. It tosses you into the game with no explanation of how things work. The idea behind this was to create community. Ideally, you ask around for how things work, make new friends in the process, etc.

In reality, though, people are very quick to snub you if you don't know everything ahead of time, by doing vigorous research online. Like every MMOG, the worst part of FFXI is the community. They are, at best, elitist snobs who expect everyone to act in a very specific manner (if you are a warrior, use a great axe. You have to. Sure, you can learn any weapon you want, but if you do, nobody will ever talk or party with you. Ever.)

That being said, let me address a few of the things Khanderas said.


the fights slow, boring and downright devoid of any tactics. Smack a newbie-bug until it or I died.

Once you get beyond the later levels, strategy becomes a very big deal. Particularly party tactics. Level 10 and lower, though, yeah...fighting is just hitting stuff until it dies.


the complete lack of quests to give a story framing the world in or just explaining how the combat system works (There was one quest, gained at level 1, that you had to be like level 20 to be able to complete, and that was the only one I found)

Although not without its flaws, the one thing you can't say about FFXI is that it has no story. It has one of the biggest, deepest plotlines of any MMORPG I've ever seen. However, usually only missions deal with the main story. Quests usually don't. And there are tons of quests in the starter cities, you probably just missed them. (First time I ever played, I just wandered around Bastok trying to get used to things, and by accident accepted at least a dozen quests just running around, talking to people.)


that there is NO way to escape enemies / bad pulls (I tried to outrun them and zoning out, both failed. Can't switch zones while in combat, the mobs follow you forever (or atleast longer then 20 minutes))

Sure there is, you just have to know how. If a mob follows based on scent, you can escape it with a Deodorize spell (or item) or by running through water. You can switch zones, you just have to disengage from the enemy first. You can't run at all while engaged with a mob.


and that a simple healthpotion (youknow that the normal 1 player FF games you usually have a couple at start and is the cheapest item in the game) costs more then I could grind in 3 hours time. Nevermind anything else I may need. The newbie mobs I killed dropped an antennae once per 20 mobs or so, that sold for next to nothing.

Healing potions aren't that big a deal, as long as you have a healer in your group. (If you're soloing, you can rely on resting to heal up). Making gil is hard in FFXI, but I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts you sold anything you found to NPCs and not the auction house, right? I did the same thing when I started, and couldn't make any gil that way.

Honestly, I'd consider buying healing potions kind of a waste. Maybe for an emergency, but you can't enter FFXI with the same mindset you would use for any other single-player game.

[RPGuru1331]

Making money is done in MMO fashion, not Final Fantasy fashion. Find what people want, get it, sell it. That's going to be Raw Mats, if my memory properly serves.

[JadedDM]

Yes, essentially. Supply and demand.

[Khanderas]

Thanks for responding to my post, I feel I should do the same :)

The thing about FFXI is it isn't for newbies. It tosses you into the game with no explanation of how things work. The idea behind this was to create community. Ideally, you ask around for how things work, make new friends in the process, etc.

In reality, though, people are very quick to snub you if you don't know everything ahead of time, by doing vigorous research online. Like every MMOG, the worst part of FFXI is the community. They are, at best, elitist snobs who expect everyone to act in a very specific manner (if you are a warrior, use a great axe. You have to. Sure, you can learn any weapon you want, but if you do, nobody will ever talk or party with you. Ever.)

That being said, let me address a few of the things Khanderas said.

Yeah, tried to get in contact with everyone even remotly near my level and zone (that ment everyone in the area, levels 1-30). Only one answered in that week, and that was to say he was logging off so he couldn't help me.


Once you get beyond the later levels, strategy becomes a very big deal. Particularly party tactics. Level 10 and lower, though, yeah...fighting is just hitting stuff until it dies.
Although not without its flaws, the one thing you can't say about FFXI is that it has no story. It has one of the biggest, deepest plotlines of any MMORPG I've ever seen. However, usually only missions deal with the main story. Quests usually don't. And there are tons of quests in the starter cities, you probably just missed them. (First time I ever played, I just wandered around Bastok trying to get used to things, and by accident accepted at least a dozen quests just running around, talking to people.)

So the Wiki (that I read quite thoughly before buying I may add) led me to believe. The only quest of any kind I found was one to find some old mage tower or something, thinking it was somewhere in the newbie area as the questgiver said to go to X, to the east. Apart from increasingly difficult bugs I found nothing, looked it up and found that the place was quite a bit further, with level 20 nasties that had to be killed. That was the first and only quest I found. Ran all over (I felt) winhurst (I think, the catpeople/midget town), talked to everyone atleast twice. No...thing.



Sure there is, you just have to know how. If a mob follows based on scent, you can escape it with a Deodorize spell (or item) or by running through water. You can switch zones, you just have to disengage from the enemy first. You can't run at all while engaged with a mob.

Healing potions aren't that big a deal, as long as you have a healer in your group. (If you're soloing, you can rely on resting to heal up). Making gil is hard in FFXI, but I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts you sold anything you found to NPCs and not the auction house, right? I did the same thing when I started, and couldn't make any gil that way.

Honestly, I'd consider buying healing potions kind of a waste. Maybe for an emergency, but you can't enter FFXI with the same mindset you would use for any other single-player game.
Well the only reason I wanted a healing potion was for the times I had used my 2 hour cooldown and was attacked by (or attacked) something that was slightly greater then my ability to solo. Since.. youknow, I found you couldnt just run away from anything.
Oh I tried to find someone to play with, but the only healer I saw, was a guy who already was in a group with some high level guy and they completly ignored me. Playing with a group, I knew before I started that at level 20 and up, nothing gets done alone, from the wiki.
Fair enough I thought, it is an MMO, not a solo with bots you can talk to, this is good. They need me as well so some social interaction should be fairly easy. Not so.


And who the *bleep* needs broken insect antennae ? Apart from 2-3 "beast seals" or something like that and those I did keep.

[Khanderas]

But the question, after derailment (but please do continue, the doctors say it is good to vent frustrations), was "is this game worth to start playing ?"

Sure it is not for the newbies as you guys say (although I feel after playing WoW since open beta, and MUDs twice the years before that, and comp games in general for 15 years, starting on computors that used tapes, finishing such patience testers as Ultima 4, I should no longer face up to that title. New at FFXI, yes, but I did read the wiki quite exensivly before buying), my evaluation was it is not worth it as a new player.

I did not find it worth my time to grind up to mid levels so I could find out if the game was all it promised when it failed so horribly already at the startline.
I gave it a full week in pure spite and stubborness and I regret even that.
WoW was fun from the start. Warhammer was fun from the start, even Age of Conan was satisfying from the start (if lacking eventually).


FFXI jingles a bag before you, says it contains great fun but kicks you in the face when you try to reach it, then laughs at you. You are not level 30 yet... You cant have it.. Hah-ha /nelson.

... and frankly, I think he is lying. The contents of that bag is problebly not all that fun, it problebly is just a locked box marked "for level 75 only" followed by kicks in the nads instead of the face.:smallannoyed::smallannoyed:

[JadedDM]

Yeah, tried to get in contact with everyone even remotly near my level and zone (that ment everyone in the area, levels 1-30). Only one answered in that week, and that was to say he was logging off so he couldn't help me.

Yeah, sad to say, it's really hard to make friends. Or maybe that's just me. In any case, the Japanese won't have anything to do with us (they see us as being unwelcomed to the game), and on the rare occasion we meet an NA or EU player who will speak with us, they tend to be raging idiots. On the bright side, though, FFXI recently introduced the new level sync ability, which allows you to party with people of any level. That makes finding a party a little easier.


Ran all over (I felt) winhurst (I think, the catpeople/midget town), talked to everyone atleast twice. No...thing.

Windurst, actually. You aren't the only person to add an 'h' in there, I don't know why people like to do that. :p

Did you check your quest log? Seriously, only the one? That is kind of odd. I don't know what to say about that, there should have been dozens of level 1 quests.


Since.. youknow, I found you couldnt just run away from anything.

A very important survival skill of the game is the ability to avoid aggro. Once you master that, you usually don't have to worry about running away.


And who the *bleep* needs broken insect antennae ? Apart from 2-3 "beast seals" or something like that and those I did keep.

Alchemists, probably. I'm an alchemist, and let me tell you, we collect some pretty strange things. :D

The Beast Seals actually are very important. You save them up for later. You can use them to enter special boss fights called Burning Circle Notorious Monsters (BCNM).

Anyway, I can't really defend the game. Some people don't like it. You're obviously one of them. Me, well...I guess I mostly play it because I'm used to it. And I like the challenge. Maybe I'm a masochist, though. :p

[Khanderas]

Did you check your quest log? Seriously, only the one? That is kind of odd. I don't know what to say about that, there should have been dozens of level 1 quests.

A very important survival skill of the game is the ability to avoid aggro. Once you master that, you usually don't have to worry about running away.

The Beast Seals actually are very important. You save them up for later. You can use them to enter special boss fights called Burning Circle Notorious Monsters (BCNM).

Anyway, I can't really defend the game. Some people don't like it. You're obviously one of them. Me, well...I guess I mostly play it because I'm used to it. And I like the challenge. Maybe I'm a masochist, though. :p
I did check my questlog, found the one quest. It was alone. I THINK there were two kinds of quests, Story quests and normal quests (been a while). The other type of quests I looked for as well but that list was completly empty.

Not getting aggro... well as solo monk, any fight I get aggro on, but I assume you mean pulling one bug at a time and not get extra while fighting another one. No problem there most of the time. The times a bug did wander too close, I died. No exceptions and that is what made it so painful, when a bug wanders to you when you are fighting another, aggroes you and you will die. No escape. No fun.

Yeah, looked up the beast seals on the internet when I found them, and that is why I kept them.

[RPGuru1331]

The trick is to maintain a good view of everything and move away from links. Especially since, at the level you were at, you shouldn't have been seeing aggro, but rather, linking, so you can take your time to scout.

[Traya]

After playing WoW since start basically, I gave FFXI a try about 4-5 months ago.
I was severly shocked at how terrible I found it. Granted I did just start it up out of the blue, without RL / Internet -friends to level me up or such, but making first a Thief, then a Monk and finding the fights slow, boring and downright devoid of any tactics. Smack a newbie-bug until it or I died. Press the rest button, have a snack, run to next bug, press attack, check what was on TV, come back, press the rest button, alt-tab and websurf alittle, come back and attack a bug and so on and so on. And then repeated.

What really bugged me however was
1) the complete lack of quests to give a story framing the world in or just explaining how the combat system works (There was one quest, gained at level 1, that you had to be like level 20 to be able to complete, and that was the only one I found)
2) that there is NO way to escape enemies / bad pulls (I tried to outrun them and zoning out, both failed. Can't switch zones while in combat, the mobs follow you forever (or atleast longer then 20 minutes))
3) and that a simple healthpotion (youknow that the normal 1 player FF games you usually have a couple at start and is the cheapest item in the game) costs more then I could grind in 3 hours time. Nevermind anything else I may need. The newbie mobs I killed dropped an antennae once per 20 mobs or so, that sold for next to nothing.

I don't generally have a problem with games I have to muscle myself into but FFXI was too user-unfriendly even for me.

The time allotted that followed the set (I got the one including the wings of the goddess, thinking may as well have em all neatly packaged), included 1 month subscription.

After a frustrating 9-10 days (including a weekend), where I accomplished nothing but grief (all that time played.... and I still did not get any plot-hooks, no quests and not enough money to buy fishbait ! ) plus an astounding lack of other players (and those that did exist, only one actually replied. He was logging off so he couldnt talk to me).
So I summoned a GM. Proceeded by typing my fingers raw with the immense flaws of the game in a frenzy that basically amounted to a rant, uninstalled the game and have no intention whatsoever to try that game again.

Maybe... MAYBE... FFXI is a fun game at higher levels with a good clan/linkshell to play with. But until then the game punishes you like nothing I can even find an analogy for. Do. Not. Touch. This. Game. (unless you got a friend who can give you enough cash to be able to buy a FRIKKIN potion atleast. And even then I cannot see myself reccomending it).


Edit, I just CAN'T write a short post ever. I really tried to stop myself.. I really did. I could rant on for much longer then this really...

I did check my quest log, found the one quest. It was alone. I THINK there were two kinds of quests, Story quests and normal quests (been a while). The other type of quests I looked for as well but that list was completly empty.

Not getting aggro... well as solo monk, any fight I get aggro on, but I assume you mean pulling one bug at a time and not get extra while fighting another one. No problem there most of the time. The times a bug did wander too close, I died. No exceptions and that is what made it so painful, when a bug wanders to you when you are fighting another, aggro's you and you will die. No escape. No fun.

Yeah, looked up the beast seals on the internet when I found them, and that is why I kept them.

Really I have to disagree with most you say. FFXI was actually the first MMO I ever got into and it wasn't that hard at all. People think they can just jump into the game and know everything without doing anything and that is false for most games. Not even WoW tells you how to play. You need to read the manual before playing as that tells you how things work. I read it and I was fine first starting as a Elvaan warrior in San'doria.

The game gets extremely tactics based after level 10 (out of 75 levels) as you have to coordinate skills and abilities to make a successful party. Until then levels 1-10 is to get you used to what you are playing before you start playing with other people.

This game is also hands down the best story MMO ever released ,it rivals the best console RPGS on good storyline. When you supposedly talked to everyone in windurst you should have gotten around 10 quests , all of them easy to complete , even the one where you have to go passed level 20's (which I don't even remember being a actual quest from windurst) since you can evade the monsters to the destination.

A lot of the quests flesh out the world and give you information , although its the missions from the gate guards that start you down the path of the true storyline. Those however start off like they are normal missions as you are gaining standing with your country.

You can escape enemies , although your options are limited at early levels. You can actually run away from them , you should use terrain and the such to hinder there movement towards you. However you can altogether avoid certain monsters , eliminate the sense they follow you by (Sight,sound,smell) , stun them, sleep them, case escape , etc.

The game also does not work like a console RPG giving you potions you can spam to keep living. Potions are really only used at higher levels of play as resting is sufficient until you start partying.

Also on the part where a beetle teamed up with the beetle you were fighting (linking) just like any other game (especially WoW) you want to pull the monster to a safe spot to fight it , away from other beetles and such. Its really common sense.

This game is nowhere near as bad as you make it out to be. It is difficult yes, that's because its not a game that babies the player till 70 and slaps you in the face when the next expansion comes out (I'm looking at you WoW).

I'm about to start the game up again , I usually alternate FFXI and another MMO (Right now I was trying Warhammer which is a pretty awesome MMO) but I'm ready to go back to where the real fun is at. There's only so much fetch quests and raiding I can take before I need to actually have more than one thing to ever be able to do. FFXI is not repetitive aside from leveling like any other game. You have crafting , fishing , actually fun quests that aren't "kill 10 sheep", missions from each expansion. Then once you hit higher levels you can do campaign , besieged , assault, salvage , campaign ops , ballista and brennor, etc etc. Also if you really want to you can always do the "end game stuff" that's essentially raiding but thats not my thing

Traya of Alexander signing off.
-edit there's about 7 of us where I live in the states playing and we all enjoy it. We have played numerous MMO's City of Heroes , World of Warcraft , Warhammer, Maple Story, Rising Force online(dear lord what a train wreck), Lineage 2, etc etc. and we all prefer FFXI over the rest. Its just a lot more fun , and sure the player base has a lot of elitists but so does every game. The good thing is the difficulty curve of the game roots out most of the whiny kids you see in other games like WoW that gave "The Barrens chat" its name. Yay for an extremely less amount of stupid people.

-edit 2-
I would also like to add for all the new people that theres is a system in FFXI called "level sync". This enables all your higher level players to essentially delevel you your level (if you are over 10) and party with you on the fly. Utterly bad ass.
Also in the upcoming december update Square-Enix has said they are going to be releasing all new never before seen content with low level players in mind, so chances are theres going to be some really cool stuff coming out for those who arent level 50+. Not that there isnt quite a bit to do already. :P