Three Downloadable Expansions Announced For Final Fantasy XI

Square Enix has announced plans to release three expansion chapters to Final Fantasy XI. Their blog post provided some details about the new content: "The first installment, A Crystalline Prophecy — Ode of Life Bestowing, is slated for release for all languages and platforms in Spring of next year. Subsequent installments will then follow, being released in intervals of every few months. These expansions packages will only be available through online purchase via PlayOnline. The projected cost for each installment is around $10.00. ... Up until now, expansion packs have generally been developed from a perspective of 'lateral expansion,' focusing namely on the introduction of new areas. These three new expansions, however, will deepen the storylines running through pre-existing areas by ushering in all-new plots and intrigues. While not necessarily containing as much content as traditional expansions, these episodic scenarios are designed to take anywhere from one to two months to complete."

Comments

Hey

[Anonymous Coward]

That's pretty neat.

Re:Hey

[aussie_a]

Agreed. I don't subscribe to FFXI, however I have played a free demo and I would consider subscribing in the future. The main barriers for me are:
1) I've got 16 games (on the PSX, PS2 and DS) I want to finish. As such paying a monthly subscription for ANOTHER game is difficult to justify.
2) Its pretty expensive for Australians who have to pay American prices.

However anything that continues to breath new life into FFXI and keeps the servers online increases the chances I'll subscribe to it sometime in the future.

So I'm glad to hear they're doing new things with FFXI to keep it fresh.

Re:Hey

[ByOhTek]

the problem is, you may not get to the point where FFXI starts to suck in a free trial. It's a fun game from level 1 to 10 or 1 to 15, depending on your class. After that point, it start to be as fun a game of 'wait in line at the supermarket' You sit around for three hours, waiting for a group to play, and that group usually only lasts half an hour. It's a fun game if you have a good number of friends who also play it and tend to stick around well, or you find a decent guild. Sadly, most of the guilds I've found act like ADD five year olds.

Re:Hey

[Psmylie]

Respectfully, I disagree. I've been playing for 5 years and have loved every minute of it. Not to mention they've added in many more lower-level XP options, like the signet bonuses, and cranking up XP received from critters of a lower level than you. Not to mention, Level sync expands the number of people who can play with you.

The main problem these days, with low-level leveling, is that people are so fixated on getting a "full" party, tank, DD, healer, support, that they'll just sit around Selbina/Qufim/Kazham/wherever just waiting for all the right elements. With the bump to XP you get for lower level monsters, not to mention the bonus you get for having less than 6 people in a party, you can get just as much if not more XP with a 2-4 man group, killing stuff at your own level or lower in rapid succession. From my own experiences pre-30, a monk and a puppetmaster duo can get faster XP than a full party.

Also, if you find yourself in a shell (guild) with people like you describe, then leave. There are plenty of more mature shells out there, though it might take a little looking.

Re:Hey

[Reapman]

That argument probably woulda worked several months back, but not now. I was shocked that the level 30ish leveling area, Yhortanga Jungle or w/e it's called, was actually overcamped. For a game that's been out for what 5 years, to still have a lot of people leveling at that area I found rather suprising. They've made some amazing progress in the game recently, it'll never ever come close to WoW, but I think it's got a good hold on it's niche. Shame the North Am. market never really noticed the game.

I love FFXI!

[Anonymous Coward]

I think this will be great.

Moogle Kupo d'Etat???

[dancingmad]

I caught this on Joystiq and Kotaku and one of the titles really caught my eye:

A Moogle Kupo d'Etat - Evil in Small Doses

Now, I don't play Final Fantasy XI and I don't even play MMOs.

But the idea of killer Moogles?

Oh your god. ...

Excuse me fellas, I have to go wash up.

Re:Moogle Kupo d'Etat???

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember with FF3/6J came out? Look at the box art. See how pissed off Mog looks?Look at him. It's like he's saying "Make a joke about the ball on my head one more time. I dare you."

No, sir, I fear for the day when that gets unleashed upon the earth.

Re:Moogle Kupo d'Etat???

[CableModemSniper]

ARG, now I just want to play FF6 again.

Re:Moogle Kupo d'Etat???

[ShakaUVM]

>> A Moogle Kupo d'Etat - Evil in Small Doses

Heh, I always thought the Moogles hanging out in *every single adventurer's room* had to have some sort of shady purpose.

My guess was they were stealing the office supplies, but a coup d'etat sounds much cooler.

Re:Moogle Kupo d'Etat???

[CronoCloud]

You might remember those 2-page magazine ads for the game. On one page there's Mog surrounded by bosses with a caption that says something like "It doesn't seem fair." and then the next page, shows Mog surrounded by smoking Boss remains.

Re:Moogle Kupo d'Etat???

[CronoCloud]

And considering that you had to give them things to upgrade your storage....what were they doing with all that stuff.

Going to USA Fan Fest and now I REALLY cant wait.

[Ifandbut]

Wow...I RTFA and more on the S-E blog and I am very excited about going to USA Fan Fest next week. They plan to announce Dancer Group 2 merits at Fan Fest and I wonder what else they will be announcing. The new Goblin Dungeon sounds cool, I hope I get to play with it.

The story (and the way that it is conveyed) is the main reason I have stuck with FFXI for the past 5 years and I do prefer to pay a little extra every few months to get a nice dose of new story.

And here I was starting to get bored with FFXI and went out and got Litch King....guess I'll have to get my Hunter and Death Knight to 80 before spring.

Hurray for downloadable expansions!

[dannycim]

I for one am happy because while my PS2 still plays FFXI fine after five years, the disc reader doesn't work anymore.

Re:Hurray for downloadable expansions!

[b1t r0t]

It might be an easy fix... you might have to do nothing more than turn the white gear a dozen or so clicks. I've repaired a broken PS2 that way.

Final Fantasy XI has a story?

[Anonymous Coward]

I wasn't aware that there were any story elements in FFXI, at least none that the players cared about. When I played it a few years ago, it seemed that no one cared about going through story driven quests, it was just "group up, pull a big mob, get phat XPz, rinse, repeat".

Re:Final Fantasy XI has a story?

[Zeros]

The story lines from Chains of promathia and up have been amazing, even the original story lines are great. If there is an MMO with good story is FFXI.

Re:Final Fantasy XI has a story?

[Ifandbut]

Actually I thought the story peaked with Chains of Promathia and has gone down hill since then. It was a major disappointment when I got to the East and I found out it was not Tenzen's East. I liked how they continued the story from Rise of Zilart to Chains of Promathia and I was hoping they would continue it with ToAU. I'v been disapointed with WotG story so far, maybe it will pickup after the December patch.

Re:Final Fantasy XI has a story?

[RogueyWon]

As somebody who quit FFXI after about 6 months of ToAU, but who looks back into the game intermittently, I'd second that. In fact, I'd go even further and say that FFXI as a game peaked with CoP.

In story terms, CoP was great and is about as close as you will get to the classic Final Fantasy experience. It fit in well with the story they'd built up in the original game and Zilart, while adding sigificantly to the background lore and mythos. It had well developed characters and actually drew the player-character into a significant role in the plot other than "person who does the dirty work" (although that's how it feels early on, until you get past "Three Paths" at least). Moreover the design of the CoP areas really fit in well with the plot and highlighted the "epic" nature of the storyline. Riverne was beautifully designed (and I can't help but feel that Nagrand in WoW was Blizzard's attempt to copy it). Al'Taieu was probably the most attractive area that anybody's yet put out in an MMO.

By contrast ToAU's storyline felt a bit lightweight and silly. Moreover, as you highlight, it didn't feel as though it was connected to the rest of the world. Sure, the odd character from the "old" world shows up, but I could never quite fathom what they were doing there. Moreover, the area designs were hideous. Whitegate was just a mess put together with recycled textures, and the less said about the endless tedious swamps outside it the better.

I've not really dipped into WotG much. While I bought it, it was released after I'd virtually stopped playing the game. The fact that the plot involved time-travel, however, did not seem to bode well to me.

But more than just in terms of plot and appearances, I think CoP was the high point of FFXI and the closest it ever came to having a unique selling point to set it aside from other MMOs. I liked the focus on small, level capped battles, requiring intense concentration on the part of all participants and plenty of tactical choices. I mean, make no mistake, CoP was hard, especially if you were doing it before they nerfed half the fights, and at times I was ready to throw my keyboard out the window. But it was also fun and gave an incredible sense of achievement after certain fights (Ouryu, Snoll Tzar, Airship and the final boss, in particular).

Of course, most of the player-base hated CoP, because you couldn't cheese your way through it on the basis of gear and numbers. I know plenty of end-gamers with multiple 75 jobs, who did the hardcore HNM scene, who just couldn't get past certain missions because they'd never actually worked to develop the skill at playing the game they needed. So what we got after that was an expansion with ridiculously easy missions, with some insane gear-give-aways and an end-game that became more and more biased in favour of having more and more of the "right" jobs. Sadly, because it added new jobs, which is what the crowd always clamoured for, ToAU is probably still seen as the better expansion by most players.

These days, I've switched over to WoW. I wasn't willing to tolerate the insane amounts of time it takes to get anything done in FFXI if the game isn't going to reward me with fights that challenge me and a storyline that holds my attention. I've yet to encounter anything in WoW as difficult as some of the CoP fights (and back before Wrath of the Lich King hit, we had Kil'Jaeden, the "last boss" of the previous expansion, pretty much on farm), but it does have a generally better escalation of the skill requirement in its end-game.

This is news?

[Anonymous Coward]

Online game to release content online. News at 11!

I suppose the big news is that they're charging for what other more successful MMORPGs usually give away for free. Good for them, I guess. Monetize that content.

Not a peep about Sony deleting LittleBigPlanet content left-and-right for no discernible reason, but news of three minor content packs for one of the smallest Asian MMORPGs.

Online-only content? Not new. Online-only paid content? Also not new. What exactly is the news here? That some third-rate MMORPG still exists? There are hundreds of MMORPGs out there. We don't need to know about minor content updates for the least popular ones.

Re:This is news?

[Anonymous Coward]

Third place, not third-rate. After WoW and the WoW clones, and disregarding free MMOs, FFXI is holding steady. The game is very much still a wild success, WoW's ridiculous numbars have just blinded people to the reality of what the MMO market really looks like and how success is measured. Also, these packs are not what other MMOs give away for free; what you are thinking of are seasonal patches which ffxi does as well, and for "free" (in quotes because you still have the monthly fee). These microexpansions are done by a different team and don't step on those patches in any way; they are in addition to them.

That said I have to agree that this probably doesn't belong on slashdot. But I suppose it was only a matter of time, what with kotaku posting any FFXI "news" they can get their hands on for some wacky bizarro reason; looks like slashdot is joining the bandwagon too now.

Re:This is news?

[Anonymous Coward]

After WoW and the WoW clones, and disregarding free MMOs, FFXI is holding steady. The game is very much still a wild success, WoW's ridiculous numbars have just blinded people to the reality of what the MMO market really looks like and how success is measured.

Wait, so essentially, after discounting the entire competition, FFXI is doing great?

Somehow, I'm underwhelmed. That sort of seems like saying that Linux is taking the world by storm, if you ignore Microsoft and Apple and any other UNIX-like OSes.

Also, these packs are not what other MMOs give away for free; what you are thinking of are seasonal patches which ffxi does as well, and for "free" (in quotes because you still have the monthly fee).

Oh. Well, OK, then. I'm not sure how I was supposed to figure that out from the vague release, but these sounded like additional for-pay raid dungeons.

Re:This is news?

[Anonymous Coward]

We still talk about old third-rate operating systems like Unix. Think of it as Solaris with better graphics, if it helps.

Re:This is news?

[Anonymous Coward]

WoW is not "the entire competition"; that you think it is is a symptom of what I described in my post. WoW is an anomaly, before it was released FFXI's 500k users was far and away the best the market had ever seen; and even after WoW, the only MMOs that don't end up plateauing there are clones of WoW and MMOs that don't cost any money to play. FFXI's competition is games like EQ, which it continues to do better than (they still have 500k users, which may be growing if SE's allegations of an "influx of players" are to be believed).

captcha is "factual"... how fitting.

Hm...

[Zekasu]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Sony try this with Everquest II? I can't say whether EQ's downloadable content was just a bunch of titles and other things, but nonetheless, adding downloadable content to FFXI really makes me start to think that Square Enix is trying to resuscitate a dying game.

I mean, being an ex-fFXI player myself who has played on-and-off since six monthes after it was released in the United States, I can attest to the fact that the last expansions brought welcomed changes, like the additional classes, PvP (roughly, because I can't recall the name at the moment), and some other mission-related fun created periods of playing that I found intriguing enough to resubscribe. The amount of gold farmers dropped after S-E took measures to reduce them (which subsequently royally effed up the rate of inflation. Never buy Crawler's silk in a highly inflated economy and then try to sell it later). And while that's all and very well good, I doubt I'll be paying $30 to download three expansions, or $10 for one.

Hasn't changed in five years

[Alzheimers]

I just picked up this game recently after a few years away, and I have to say I'm extremely disappointed that most of the reasons I quit continue to plague the game to this day. The interface is still terrible, the config STILL requires registry hacking to up the resolution, and most of the content is heavily guild-based making solo playing difficult. In game organization is terrible, the item limits are definitely geared towards making you pay for mule characters, and the quest system is vague at best.

In fact, the one thing that HAS changed has actually made the game worse -- the areas in the early part of the game are barren, deserted, devoid of any players at all. While areas like Valkurm used to be camped to hell, now it's impossible to find a gang of more than 2-3 to play with. Because so much of the content requires you to complete group quests to access, this severely handicaps newer players who aren't playing with friends or aren't quickly sucked into large guilds.

And those that are around don't speak English.

In fact, I've only seen ONE PERSON talking since I started a few weeks ago. One person. It's a decent game and deserves a chance, and has a TON of "end gambut good luck in finding anything more than a single player experience

Re:Hasn't changed in five years

[Megane]

While areas like Valkurm used to be camped to hell, now it's impossible to find a gang of more than 2-3 to play with.

That's not a general problem with FFXI, that's just your server sucking. Valkurm's awfulness is enjoyed by a healthy number of players on Fairy. Well, a healthy number of San d'Oria and Bastok players, anyhow. Windurst hasn't had Zulkheim for months. Seriously, tell us which server you were on so that the rest of /. can know to avoid it.

And those that are around don't speak English.

Assuming you aren't just on at the wrong hours, again, that's just your server sucking.

Re:Hasn't changed in five years

[Alzheimers]

Garuda.

And the ironic part is that I actually picked it because of the low server pop. I just didn't realize it would be going from overcrowded hell to an empty void.

Re:Hasn't changed in five years

[Anonymous Coward]

...most of the content is heavily guild-based making solo playing difficult.

Though I can't find it now, the rationale I've always gotten as to why the game was built around grouping so much was 'why would you want to play a massively multiplayer game by yourself?'

Re:Hasn't changed in five years

[Anonymous Coward]

Pretty much every problem you listed exists in every MMO. Off-hours, uneven server population and a dated interface. The only thing you really got right was the crappy quest system. But then again, the quests in FFXI aren't like WoW where you NEED to quest just to fight mobs your own level.

Re:Hasn't changed in five years

[Renraku]

They really should do something about the soloing. Later it takes a full group to kill equal/slightly higher enemies. Granted, the xp is good for the effort, you can't get anywhere solo or even duo. It takes too long and you get an experience penalty for killing things below your level..

They should make it to where there are 'elite' type areas where groups can kil, and 'solo' type areas where people can solo..

I can't go back and play FFXI because the early areas are devoid of players thus making it nearly impossible to get low-level gear or decent experience. And even in areas where there are many people, you'll spend an hour after logging in trying to find a group...

Re:Hasn't changed in five years

[Alzheimers]

It's not even so much that the game is geared towards groups, but that there are specific tasks that absolutely *cannot* be soloed.

Areas that cap your level or count how many are in your party before allowing access are the biggest pains, especially on low-pop servers.

Re:Hasn't changed in five years

[jollyreaper]

This is what I anticipated happening when they announced the game and why I thought it made so little sense -- FF games are single-player oriented and fans can pick up and play any game they want in the series, no matter how old. FFXI changed that with the whole MMO thing -- it has to have a finite lifespan due to the nature of MMO's growing, evolving, and dying. Ten years from now, it will be extremely difficult for fans to experience this game. Should have stuck with what works.

Re:Hasn't changed in five years

[Ifandbut]

Just come coments about your proublems with the game, not trying to be mean here.

Yes, it sucks to have to hack the registery to get good looking game, but you do it once and your set till you have to reformat, also the newer version of the windower (www.windower.net/) has a easy to use GUI that changes it for you.

I am a BIG fan of the interface. It helps with the immersion factor, my screen is not cluttered with ability icons/minimap/large health bars. Everything is hidden till you need it then it is right there unlike WoW where you have 50 abilities on your screen and you only use maybe 10 all the time.

Every game has end-game content that is almost entirely guild biased. They have been introducing some new solo content like Campaign but it has been slow comeing. A big reason why FFXI is so group biased is because of where it came from. Americans have the mind set that they can do any task set to them, the Japanese are more group focused.

I agree with the other posters in that your server must just suck or the time most people play on your server is different then the times you play.

You can communicate decently with the auto-translate feature. I really wish some more games would include one so it would be easier to communicate with other people, at least when talking about boss strategy.

Re:Hasn't changed in five years

[brkello]

I don't think it is a problem to deviate every now and then. People down the road won't get to experience the game...it really isn't a big deal. What is a problem is that people who DO play the game can't experience the game. It takes too long to get a group together and then go somewhere and level. By the time you get there, use lose someone or it breaks up and you are out hours of time just trying to find a nice group so you can level. Not end game content, level. It is more a game of frustration than fun. And not having instances is horrible. People just time/bot/camp all the things that drop the good items and sell them for ridiculous prices. And I am someone who loves the FF series. I think their cut scenes for major quests was the one thing they did right that added to the immersion. WoW pretty much does everything else better. FF is more for the hardcore, I enjoy leveling down when I die types.

Re:Hasn't changed in five years

[Anonymous Coward]

By "recently," I presume you mean "before September," as there were two major changes made in the most recent update that directly address your complaints:

1) Level Sync. It is now possible for a high-level player to join a low-level party, after which the leader can "sync" everyone to the lowest-level person in the party. For example, if you have a party with members of levels 75, 42, 21, 15, 15, 14, you can sync everyone down to LV14, and your skills and stats will be adjusted to that of a LV14. All members will gain the same amount of experience points (or merit points, if you are LV75) per kill as the LV14 does, and the level you are synced at will rise with his.

This makes it possible for friends to party with new players, and has greatly increased the number of people in the low-level zones; if you are a job that has a rough-patch of levels (e.g. WHM from 40-60), you can level-sync back down to a level-range where your job is still in high demand, and gain levels that way.

However, the main objection to the many level-capped zones in the game was that you have to maintain many sets of gear for each particular level cap (e.g. LV40 cap, LV50 cap, LV60 cap), which can be a problem with the limited inventory. This is addressed by the following:

2) Gear scaling. Now, a job that is under the effect of a level-cap can still wear their high-level gear; the gear's stat bonuses are scaled down to be comparable to that of normal quality craftable gear.

The low-level FFXI landscape has changed dramatically for the better in the last 3 months.

Re:Hasn't changed in five years

[CronoCloud]

Praise Cid! I quit FFXI some time ago because of many the issues others have stated, for me it was waiting for hours as a RDM/WHM or WHM/RDM for a group and not being able to keep up time commitment wise. But these fixes are things I wish would have happened while I was still playing. That level cap (and the associated item limit) kept me from finishing a few quests because I simply didn't have the storage.

mmm

[Anonymous Coward]

ben kendimi seviyorum yaaa sen kimi seviyosun söylesene bana ben başka kimseyi sevemem

Major Bug Fixed?

[mxmissile]

Have they fixed the bug that makes the game bring up "immersive" loading screens? In other words, does it still have zones or have they made it seamless? How is the WASD movement?

Re:Major Bug Fixed?

[rourin_bushi]

Disconnecting me from Linkshell/party chat channels during zoning is perhaps my single biggest gripe with FFXI. Seems counter-productive to make the game revolve around group activity, then make it difficult to stay connected. I don't use the compact keyboard layout much myself, but I tried it for a while, and couldn't stand it. Mostly because of the context switch required to type into chat.

Re:Major Bug Fixed?

[Yosho]

Keep in mind that the game was designed around the PS2. The Japanese PS2 player base is still huge, and they won't make any changes that they can't implement there.

Seamless transitions between zones would be nigh-impossible, unfortunately, simply due to technical limitations -- the PS2 doesn't have enough RAM and can't load the data fast enough to make transitions seamless. This is on top of the fact that different zones aren't necessarily on the same server, either; for example, mog houses run on their own server, and during the "loading" screen it hands your connection off to the other server, which would be very difficult to do seamlessly without any kind of glitches.

As for WASD movement... well, it's not a limitation, but just another example of how the game was designed around the PS2. The movement and menu systems were designed under the assumption you'd be operating them with a PS2 controller and only using a keyboard to chat; the PC version of the game copied the control scheme perfectly.

Story?

[Taulin]

So does FFO actually pull off being an MMO and having a story? So far the closest thing for me has been Warhammer, as it actually has chapters you progress through, and the quests pertain to that story. However, even though I was enjoying the story, and tried my best, I still ended up not reading most of it just so I could level and become stronger in the RvR areas, and not be left behind. In single player games there is time for story, but I find MMOs not really to be the case. That is why I am surprised they said the expansions are just about new story elements. It's just like McDonalds saying they have new types of condiments. Sure, they are needed, but they are not the reason people go there.

Re:Story?

[Psmylie]

While there are quests that are the "go bring me X number of drops from such-and-such critter", there are plenty of quests with lots of dialog and story, that lead to other quests with more story, which leads to other quests... etc, etc.

Also, the mission arcs are fantastic. Many people rave about the CoP story line, deservedly so. It really was an incredible journey.

Re:Story?

[Reapman]

FFXI has a very good story I think, but it's not one you can easily fully understand. There's several story arcs, each around an expansion. The Zilart missions start off weak I think, and don't really start taking off until most people stop working on them, the ending is great. Chains of Promathia has an amazing storyline I think, probably the best in there, with some truely epic battles. The final battle is actually a cool combination of Zilart and Chains and requires you finishing both to see. Treasures of Aht Urghan is pretty good as well with some interesting tie in's to the original nation / starting areas, and Wings of the Goddess is so far quite interesting (haven't released all the missions for that yet) Being able to travel back in time to the Crystal War is quite cool.

I love FFXI but it's not for everyone, it's hard, and does have it's frustrating moments.. but if you get in with a good community it can be some of the most fun out there. Also you should know there isn't any (real) Player vs Player combat in the game, a deal breaker for some.

Re:Story?

[Ifandbut]

A resounding YES!!! Final Fantasy 11 is the ONLY MMO I have encountered that included cut scenes as a normal part of game play. Unlike WoW when you down the final boss and you and all your friends are seeing the event at the same time, the cut scenes make YOU the center of the story. The NPCs realize that there are other adventures in the world, however to them YOU are the only one that matters. The final cut scene in the Chains of Promathia missions have your shoot a beam of divine light from your body to finish the boss. Instead of seeing 5 of your friends do the same thing you only see you with all the NPCs that have come with you along the way watching you, knowing that you are their last hope. Next to the ending of the Rize of Zilart final boss fight it was the best cut scene in the game.

However, make no mistake. You will need a linkshell/guild to get through the missions however there are some fights where you will want lots of Red Mages or Summoners, there is also on fight that is optional near the end of Rise of Zilart mission chain that you need a full alliance for. I dont know how hard all the missions are now with all the nerfs but I did the first 3 boss fights of the Chains of Promathia after the first round of nerfs and it was still really hard.

I dont want to scare you off but I was only able to get through the missions because I was in college and did not have anything but time on my hands, now that I have a full time job I dont think I would make it through them. I am having a hard enough time finishing the original rank 1-10 missions for the 2 other nations.

I have played so many other MMOs that I cant remember and they have all had something fun/cool to them (from The Matrix Online's combat system to Star Wars Galaxies' crafting system) Final Fantasy 11 is the only MMO that not only had a story but conveyed it perfectly and it truly was EPIC.

Re:Story?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, spoiler warnings.

You will never leave

[kieblerh]

We know the point of MMOGs is to keep us paying the $10 a month forever, but putting out expansions that don't expand the game and take 2 months to finish! Be a little more original guys.

Re:You will never leave

[SupremoMan]

$10 a month? I wish!

My FFXI experience

[Pancake Bandit]

I spent 3.5 years playing FFXI, and then moved to WoW for about two before realizing that I couldn't dedicate the amount of time that MMOs demand if I was going to keep a good GPA.

FFXI was an incredibly flawed and frustrating game. The grind was slow, and back when I played, I had to spend all my time coming up with 8.5 million gil for one piece of armor that I'd be fairly nerfed without. It took me several months, and I finally quit from burnout after I made the gil. This was before inflation, so sadly, that'd probably be worth less than a million today.

Anyways, for all its flaws and issues, FFXI was an incredible experience that I still miss a lot. I made friends in that game who I'm still close to now... you spend so much time working with all of the people in your linkshell (guild) that you form really close bonds. Also, since everyone works in parties, there's a real sense of community throughout the server, because you work with hundreds of different people. There was something really extraordinary for me to work with people who I didn't even share a language with, via the few words that you could autotranslate. You could chain your weapon skills and then finish them with a magic burst to do heavy damage in parties, so there had to be good communication. In WoW you can often get by playing really sloppily.

Because WoW was more punishing, there was more tension, and more of a fear of death (you lost sometimes large amounts of experience from dying). The boss battles were sometimes incredibly difficult... I remember finally clearing one after days of trying and feeling absolutely elated.

Lastly, the story is absolutely amazing for an MMO. While many of the quests are your usual "give me x number of items" or whatever, there were some that were really interesting and exciting. There was one that involved a ninja katana and had a creative twist during a cutscene. There were frequent cutscenes, and missions had great plots to them... they took a lot of time to complete, but watching the plot unfold was really rewarding. Another thing FFXI trumped WoW in was atmosphere - there were a lot of interesting and fleshed out characters. I loved the cute Star Onion Brigade of Windurst and all their adventures.

But God, I hated having to walk forever to get somewhere, or get slaughtered by impossible enemies if I didn't have invis and sneak, or put up with moronic party members, or spend my time making money so I could afford to buy ninja tools so I could grind in a party.

Re:My FFXI experience

[Yosho]

Just thought I'd chip in that I feel basically the exact same way as you about FFXI... the game had an absolutely beautiful environment, settings, and story, and the community was fantastic.

But I play WoW nowadays because I just don't have the 4+ hours in a row that were necessary on a regular basis to get anything done in FFXI. I can travel basically anywhere in WoW in a matter of minutes and I can easily solo quests if I don't feel like working in a group or if I just can't find one. I can log on and play for an hour and feel like I've actually accomplished something. Leveling doesn't feel like a grind, and if I get unlucky and die I don't lose hours of progress. Heck, leveling solo wasn't even possible in FFXI unless you were a Beastmaster -- and playing a Hunter in WoW feels like you get all of the best parts of Beastmaster and Ranger with the "easy mode" button turned on at the same time. (to be fair, I heard they made soloing easier since I quit FFXI a couple years ago, but still I doubt that it's yet as easy as WoW)

On the other hand, WoW's community is frequently very immature compared to FFXI's, and even at the max level there are a lot of people who don't understand their role in a party and don't know how to work with other players. People who think any of the instances in WoW are "hard" would go home crying if they had to fight something like Absolute Virtue.

If I could afford to devote 4 hours a day to FFXI I might still be playing it, but for now it's WoW for me.

I guess you could call this 'playing'...

[Vohar]

I played the first several months after FFXI's North American release. As a ranger I would sit in the main city fishing while waiting on a party invite. That could take from 15 min to an hour. After that it would sometimes sill be -literally- hours before a healer or tank was found and we could actually start playing.

I just sat there with a fishing bot running while reading books. I got a lot of reading done during my FFXI days.