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Need honest advise
berenim
Member UncommonPosts: 162
Hiya!
I'm considering playing a new game. Not sure if I will change or when. Depends on the next few weeks/ next month. Right now I wouldn't have time anyway with Christmas and New Year around the corner. 
But since consideration is there and a nagging "check what you could play" feeling I look around. 
So far my post in the LF Game section didn't lead far. Vanguard and LotRO were suggested, but I heard/ read things that turn me off so far. Looking into the list that's stickied there FF XI gets the most matches so far, so I'm around to ask for details.
First of all I look for a game. A game is played for fun, I want to play with others, have fun with others, a nice chit-chat and so on. I hat being reduced to a statistic number, like XYZ DP/S or so. Or people not taking others with them, just because the party setup would reduce efficiency (Oh my. We could kill one mob less in 5 min). So what is it like in FF XI? Also I don't like "oldtimers" (sorry, no better term at hand) shoving down "their" rules and setups down newcomers throats (don't mix up with giving advise/ help, I mean things like raid-bots where you have to join to get some items and bit points and everything setup so they are in favor). I actually left ANarchy Online beacause of that. It turned a fun raid into a grind you have to do. (I hope this opening wasn't too harsh)
So after complaining and whining about what I do not want here is what I seek. ^_^
I look for a game that actually gets me immeresed, downright draws me into the gameworld and makes me feel part of it. I want the fascination of P&P RPG on my PC so to say. Coming from p&p RPG I'm kind of an old-schooler. I want things to do, monsters to kill and explore a world. I was disappointed noone in Anarchy Online liked to explore the world. The awe in some areas and the little details I looked at really made me feel like seeing a world of its own. But I had to do it on my own, as exploring doesn't give you XP or is efficient in any number crunching part of the game. I want ot play and have fun, no e-sports guy here. I have enough lists at work to keep up-to-date sometimes.
Seeking a living breathing world I also look for different things to do. Crafting that means something (and hopefully is more than just stare at the monitor while your char is harvesting for hours and then "poof" craft-fail or a mere bleep, here's your item that is no good anyway), crawl through dungeons, kill mobs, see cities or perhaps even roleplay (yup, several years of mmoRPGs and almost no RP in any of them *sigh*).
But due to work social life, girlfriend and so on I can't always play, so I'm no hardcore gamer. It can happen I can't play for a week or two even. So you could rather call me a casual player. This makes me go solo sometimes, or at least not always having the time to setup a team if it would take hours (I remember spending an hour or two to get a healer and a tank into one team in Anarchy Online. Tanke loged of, doc joined the team and vise versa). So to say I either sometimes need something to do solo, or teams gathered quickly. So what's there to do in FF XI?
Any advise, hints details about the game itself would be nice. I need honest advise from players, no "just play" or "of course it's great, we play it". 
Thanks in advance
Comments
Hey there!
to answer some of your questions about FFXI, ummm... i know what you mean about not wanting the game to turn into a math problem and how to tweak as much dps out as possible, i myslef have never had to worry about that in FFXI as in other games like WoW. Things to do? Well theres more than i could tell you here, i've played for well alomost 4 years now off and on, and i havent gotten max level on a single job yet.
The class system is very nice, switching between jobs whenever you want without having to create a whole new char is extremely awesome! start out new without having to lose all your fame/rep and wealth you've acquired thus far, but still get to try a healer/tank/dps job all on one char. It is very nice.
Crafting is a grind for the most part, but not like other games, you get alot of the mats by just going out and playing and if you do a little research you can know what your looking for to save for crafting and what you can vendor off. pretty much everything you craft is useful to someone and some of the richest people in the game are crafters that dedicated enough gil and time to go far in it. Crafting is really not for the fient of heart here, you wont be maxing out and crafting skills anytime soon, also if im not mistaken you can do all the crafting skills there is, not having to choose 1 or 2 is also nice.
This game really is BIG, i mean BIG! personally i havent exlpored close to everything yet. Im quite casual with this game myself but really this is the best MMO i've played and i've tried most of them. Even exploring is a challenge, considering not many mobs are soloable and will kill you quick =D, but if your someone the likes a little meat to your games you'll like the hurdles you face, just traveling to the next city or dungeon is epic. you have to be on your toes and organized to even make it to the entrance =D
Now as you said you don't have much time to play and sometimes can't put groups together. I don't want to turn you off but this game is entirely group based, after level 10 there isn't much you can do alone to get EXP or do missions ( which is where the story line takes place with ingame cutscenes and all! VERY COOL!) but there is alot you can to solo but the game is very focused on group dynamics.
This post has gotten a little longer than i wanted there is just so much to this game and trying to explain it all would take pages and pages, but from someone who has really enjoyed this game for years and is still enjoying it at my own pace, i am very happy. The community is also the best in any MMO, you'll never find a more helpful bunch of people in any other MMO.
Hope i helped you make a decision either way but, you know for $20 you can get the game and all 4 expansions, either download them or goto gamestop and get the box, either way you can't beat the amount of content for the money plus with 30 days free sub you'll more than get a chance to see if you like it. $20 to see if this game is for you is very nice considering if you like it you'll more than get your money out of it over the years!
I have an admittedly retarded reason for not playing all of my FFXI trial. I couldn't get the game resoloution to change which frustrated me to no end. Sure make the gameplay different, and put your own twist on it, but for the LOVE of GOD Square, please make your menu screen idiot friendly!
If you want immersive, it depends on your imagination. I can immerse myself in anything, because I like to write books, therefore I have an overactive imagination. Hence I can play WAR and somehow be immersed. But if you really want my two cents, choose this or Lord of The Rings Online.
Hi there!
First of all, I'll try to be completely honest. What I say is my opinion and may not reflect the actual truth, as in it might be biased, I don't know. I'll try to avoid that though.
One word that I'd use to describe FFXI would be an "unpolished diamond". I think FFXI is one of it's own kind. It really can't be compared to more mainstream MMO's like WoW or LoTRO or Warhammer. It doesn't have as many players, because it's aimed for a different kind of audience. It has also lasted for so long because no MMO that would rival FFXI has never been released yet (and most likely won't be in the near future).
The game has it's good sides which can't be rivaled by any other game, but it has it's bad sides that can drastically affect the overall gaming experience. The game is Heavily >group based<. As of now not much can be done without some kind of group, and the general gameplay like exping is almost always done in parties with 2 to 6 players. This means that people have to look for group to gain exp. Sometimes it takes 5mins, sometimes 3 hours+ to get a group. This is something that one has to get used to if you're not playing with RL friends. For now there hasn't been any other way to gain levels, but SE is releasing an event for people at low levels who want to party but don't have time/can't get an invite. Nobody knows how good it is though, so I cannot say how much it eases the worst part of the grind, waiting. But one thing is for sure, this game will <never> be as solo friendly as others. There are good sides to this however. People are "forced" to be considerate to each other which results in more mature social atmosphere. As SE has dumbed the game down more retards have started arising but it's really not as bad as in other MMO's.
You will have a lot more social interactions with people, in good and bad. The game is international, which means there are the English and the Japanese playerbase. Japanese don't want to speak english so they hang around with each other and only join with English people to exp. However if you say few japanese words they really change their attitude and might even start chatting with you in english.
If you can find a helpful linkshell and make many friends you're good to go. Friends liek to help each other, random people not so much. I'm sure they can answer your question if you happen to have any (and I'm pretty sure you will have, there's so much to learn from the level1 it might be almost too much).
Some people go for efficiency, others don't really care. In exp situations as long as you can do your job well not many care about anything else. There are elitists who will be rude and arrogant towards you, but it's really hard to avoid these kind of people in any game I guess
. If you can make friends who don't really care about maximum efficiency and play for fun you'll have a good time. Of course the opposite can happen too!
Now I might be biased here, but I feel that FFXI has the "depth" that many games are lacking these days. There are lot of details put into the areas. There is almost too many things to do. This game is over 6 years old, there have been so many content updates I can't count them all. This game is really old school. It's hard. Because this game is old, many have a capped level character by now, so you're in a kind of minority. Of course there are people who like to explore, and the games quests really encourage you to do so. The quests aren't simply there for exp, almost everything has a story included and while rewards may not be as good as in other games, the stories really bring depth to the game.
I like crafting. It's not as profitable as it was, aside from fishing, but it's fun way to pass time. There's no button smashing minigame included, but researching recipes, getting the ingredients and then seeing 5 0.3 skill ups in arow really entertains me, I don't know why. Fishing has pretty cool minigame included, but it gets old fast I guess. Roleplay is in no favor in XI, but of course there are certain guilds specifically for that kind of playstyle.
Not being able to play for week or 2 is just fine. It's not a race to 75, and I believe you can get stuff done even if you have to take extended breaks. Just prepare to be playing this game for long time though
. The good thing is, when you finally hit the level cap it feels GOOD. Like you've really achieved something. And you don't have to play just one job. You can change anytime you like. If you dont like to play Job X today, go to your mog house and change to job Y. And believe me jobs are what this game has. 20. That should be enough for every taste known to human.
There's lots of stuff you can do alone, well, to some extent. Like I said they're releasing a soloable way to gain exp, gil, and maybe even certain items. Quests can be soloed, crafting can be done solo. Even some missions. But the main focus is group.
Hints: Getting gil is hard. Don't stress about it, if you can get to 30, some quests that can make you money become available. My RL friend that started playing a while ago didn't have to farm at all after getting to 30. You just gotta be good at researching. Most of them quests can be done solo, or with LS friend if you happen to get lucky. At first it's gonna seem like an impossible task, but with few tricks you'll be fine. I can tell you one of mine that will net you even 100 000 gil per week by just logging in 5mins a day if you want. Not in public of course, I don't want my secrets revealed to anyone
.
Also remember that this game will be frustrating at times. Parties dont work out, you die just before finishing a quest and delevel. But there are the days when everything just locks in and you get lots of stuff done. In bad times it's better to just take a break and come back later, kind of like a new start. One can't rush this game through, it'll make you insane if you compete to get to 75.
There's more stuff that I could tell, but I can't remember. There's too much. One final tip is to try to avoid thinking that this will be like WoW or the likes, because the ruthless start might scare you away too easily then. Don't hesitate to ask for help from strangers, be polite and enjoy the world of Vana'diel!
There is a config tool for the game.... /sigh. You can also change your registry files or get windower to fix your problem.
@OP.
Since there are some good posts already no need to type a big write up on this, look around on these forums, lots of information lurking in replys.
Just a heads up, The game takes a Huge time investment....if you can not dedicate at least 2 hours a gaming session dont bother with it. When you get Higher level, yeah there are things you can do for shits and giggles if you dont have a lot of time to play that day, but at the lower levels theres not. (hopefully the Field of Valor thats coming in next update will help with the stagnation of the lower levels).
~HappyGaming
I did config. Couldn't make the resoloution work. Anyway that's beside the point. I was jesting.
My point is that for immersion MMOs you want mainly PvE based games, with good, well structured storylines. Such as LoTRO and FFXI. FFXI has the advantage of tons of neat features because of years of expansions, whereas the universe of LoTRO may appeal to you more and the graphics are superior. Unfortunately, there's no 'Magic' per se in those games and you may therefore find it hard to connect with your character.
FFXI have better graphic then lord of the ring if you play on xbox360.
Heck, i don't even think FFXIII going to get better graphic then FFXI.
Anyway if you are here asking, you already know your answer. FFXI is not a game you can just say "oh its another clone"
I personnally can't stand another Turbine game anymore. Asheron call was amazing... but any works after that turned to shit.
And funcom sucks! Don't even think about Age of conan. You will quit after 1 week and your credit card will belong to funcom forever and will be charge every month forever from now on. (they enjoy keep your CC information and always charge you even if you cancel.)
Anyway for one, if you count the "amount of "i am back post" you will notice there is no MMORPG like FFXI always make player return.
none
FFXI is unlike any other game out there. I loved it. "to much."It was a four year Time-sink. I have been away for a few years, are gil sellers still a problem?
Not really, SE is prolly the only Company to ever wage a real war against RMT. They do banning waves now, and have a task force dedicated to catching and banning RMT. I think the last wave of bannings was a week ago and 1.3 BILLION Gil was removed and 10,660 accounts banned. This happens regularly, at least once a month.
~HappyGaming
http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/polnews/news14739.shtml if you happen to be interested in the details.
I'm sorry to say but I like FFXI a lot but it does not have better graphics then LotRO IMO. Plus I have both 360 and PC version and it is night and day. PC version looks WAY better when cranked up. Although my PC stomps my 360
@OP
A friend of mine is looking to come back so i thought i'd look some prices up for her. The Vana Collection 2008 is 20 bucks at gamestop.com. That's the original, Zilart, Chains, Treasures, and Wings games. All for 20 bucks. I nearly passed out. I dont know how they are doing this for 20 bucks but there it is. So you have a couple options. You can spend 20 bucks on a game and 4 expansions and get the first month free or try the 14 day trial. Personally, 20 bucks for all that would be my suggestion.
This game is not solo friendly. There are a few jobs you can solo on but then you're just limiting yourself and the subjobs for those jobs, aren't solo friendly. Like stated, there is an "event" that SE is putting out that will make getting exp while LFP easier but noone has any details on that yet. They are, however, adding a few things that are bringing in new players and old players alike. My friend was sold on Level Sync because she quit and i continued on. I now have 2 jobs at 75 (2 more on the way) and she'd be starting over. But now it's not a problem as we can sync.
I do reccomend this game but if you are looking for something that you can play for a few minutes and log off then check out Lord of the Rings. I played it during beta and for a while after initial release (and a few days a few weeks back during a "Come back" campaign) but wasn't my cup of tea. Crafting was too simplistic and the game just seemed like "Easy mode" after playing FFXI for so long. FFXI makes you work for stuff and makes you work *hard* for the good stuff. But when you sport that piece of armor or weapon, you can raise your head high knowing that others will see it and now "Damn, he busted his ass for that".
EVE - Sharvala
FFXI - Shazamalicious
Guild Wars - Xavier Lucifer & Charlize the Necro
"Ranged...stuck...tree...15 random words... suck... noob fanboy... I MAKE GUIDE!"
I say why not get both? The 14 day trial and collection. That's what I did. I first downloaded the 14 day trial and played free for 2 weeks with no expansions. The day that ended I went out and purchased the collection for 20 dollars and recieved my free 30 days. So in the end I do not have to pay a monthly fee for 44 days
For the Op like i said before FFXI is a really good game but this is not for casual player or solo player. People say the game have change and this is not hard as before to get a group but i tried it las month again and it was the same as before. Dont take me wrong i like this game but sit before my pc and waiting for a group for 2 or 3 hours that sucks, Maibe this is because i play a monk and god know there a lot of them but well anyway try the trial you will see by yourself.
I guess its everyone's preferrences on graphic, i never see how "age of conan" being great in graphic (with max setting) so i don't lotro being even that good.
none
I had to lawlz at this. You really said FFXIII had worse graphics? Come on man, share some of what you're smoking/injecting/snorting. Both LOTRO and AoC have better graphics, because they're much newer. And before you flame me for being a fanboy, I'll have you know I'm currently subbed to FFXI, and neither of the other two.
Anyway, OP, didn't read your whole post, but if you're looking for casual, FFXI prolly isn't for you. It requires a LOT of time to be successful. Other than time investment, it matches your other requirements. Basically forced grouping (which I prefer) lets you meet lots of peoples, and there's always some downtime so you can chat with everyone.
I'd say go for the trial, and see if you like it.
---
He said to me, "On your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that going for me, which is nice.
I will be honest with you FFXI as long as you AVOID the elitist end game community like the bubonic plague you will find the great majority of the players are there to have a good time, help out enjoy the world adventure explore and level up new interesting classes!. The community is great, again avoid the end game community they are really just scary sometimes, I know a LS that had all its members log in at 3am to camp a NM so that the Linkshell leaders (IN GAME ONLY) "Girlfreind" if you can call it that, would be happy with him and play with his virtual meat rod... pathetic people~
This is why I avoid End game LS in FFXI a good number of them are pathetic and just plain insane if you expect your members to long in at those times to simply camp a mob. Ether that or they have no real life.
Once you avoid the end game community Make friends with Paladins and Ninjas.... Trust me..
This game has a lot of what you are looking for in a game, however if you do not like to grind, or spend many months just to level to max level you will probably not like this game. You need to take it slow, one step at a time, FFXI there is way to much to do and it is NOT a race to max level. At almost any given level there are quests, missions, rankings, Ballista, exploration, hell even Garrison (Which people dont do anymore but is fun as hell) To do, This is not your typical Grind grind grind MAX LEVEL NAO! game.
you will regularly find players who simply wait at level 50 or 60 for many weeks sometimes months enjoying the content that is available to them before continue leveling. There is just a lot to do, and people are usually willing to help you do it.
The biggest problem I see in FFXI is the low number of population, It may just be my server but in seraph US peek times we NEVER see more than 1200-1500 people online... JP peek times IV seen up to 2400 people online. Which is the highest iv seen my server in the last 6 months.
Regularly we have 900-1100 players online. Which is honestly not enough to easily find groups or do lots of content, Its possible but its not easy by any means, it takes time... and sometimes the only thing you can do while you wait is farm which is not very fun...
I would say buy the game and give it a shot, its only 20 bucks at Bestbuy if you buy the 2007 collection which a lot of stores around here still have left, sure you don't get WoTG but you don't also have to pay 30 like you do for the 2008 collection. And if you don't like the game you don't loose as much money.
I also think a better option is a Free trial. Although to be honest FFXI does not really pick up until after level 30.... so It may not be a good way to try this game.
Give it a shot, buy the game and play your free month, if you are enjoying it if anything just a little bit, and you are not 30 yet, play until your 30 if by level 30 you are still not enjoying the game at all, then its a sign its not the kind of game for you.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
I dont know where you live but i paid the coolection 2008 with ALL expension include WOTG for 19.98$ at Ebgames.
Hm, some people seem to mix up "being able to spend time solo"/ "Do something solo" with "solo friendly".
It's not I want to run around solo all the time, it's just I want to be able to do something if I don't have much time at hand (Usually I don't even bother logging on if I have less than an hour time). Take Anarch Online for example. When I got to a certain level range sometimes I waited for hours to set up a working team with tank and doc. It's just I don't have time for that anymore. 
Also about the race to the max level. That's exactly what bothers me most of the time. People calculating the best group for max DPS and killspeed. Jeez! I'm playing a game not taking part in some race/ fleeing from the mafia or something like that. Before I quit I didn't even have one 220 char in AO, which is Max Level there. I had 8 chars ranging from level 10 - 210 and enjoyed the different playstyles they offered, enjoyed exploring,l doing missions, trying what things I could handle, even if someone told me "you can't do it" (which more often than not was true XD). Occasionaly I even enjoyed running around two days to twink in that weapon, seeking buffs begging guildmates to lend me that one piece of equipment to get that one last skill point to equip it (AO is skill based, so a weapon had XXX Skill A, YYY skill B to equip, sometimes also level reqs).
I'm there to explore, be part of a living breathing world. See what things are done. I'm one old school gamer remembering how he played with his Atari 2600 console, Ultima IV and Pahnatsy I on his Atari 800 XL and years of P&P RPG.
The population may be an issue sometimes, but AO was small on the German server. You could even think a few hundret tops sometimes. This is only a problem when the com is elitist and "follow our rules or stay out". But if the wolrd feels empty and sterile because noones talking and you can't see any person for miles/ screens that takes away a whole lot of immersion for me. The starter area of AO was rather small, so you were guaranteed to meet people (at least when I started, later it was empty). Then you went on to one of the major cities instantly seeing others running around, asking for buffs in the OOC channel and so on. The mobs made their noises, squeeking and chirping, you just felt immersed to the world. But later it was pure grind, once you explored most parts you the "max XP gaining efficiency wall" of the high levellers, running through a mission you could do in one hours at a relaxed pace in 15 - 20 minutes. Kill -> run -> kill -> run -> kill as fast as possible. I was exhausted after wo or three of those, even though they were not hard (oppesed to thrilled when I beat a much higher level mission). But people I liked left, I didn't want to grind in high speed and experimenting/ exploring was out, so I left.
In fact if I had four or five of my firend to play with me i would definitivly still playing FFXI but they are all playing WOW, well they dont like to think to much when they play i guess
It's not the grind that turns me away. Or better... To me grind is a felt thing. I remember "heck-sessions" that were exhausting and time consuming, even with max efficiency or a high tank. I had some slow groups that were pure fun. We were pulling jokes, chatting between the runs, had a wipe or two before it all worked out, but still could laugh about those deaths, or were cursing for some bugged mob. In a good group there is no felt grind, since you have a good time talking. Mission grind in AO... Well with one org mate there was no grind. We had fun, we were playing half in character poking at each other for small mistakes and had a little roleplay in downtimes we had to rebuff/ regenerate.
So to me it'*s all about the people I'm running around with. All alone it's boring after some time. All alone on the map if it's not a teeming living world, that makes you want to see what's around the next corner and what mobs will be like even more boring, add a silent chat and *yawn*.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops