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What's good about FFXI.
サーバ: Asura
Game: FFXI
Posts: 3113
By Asura.Aeonova 2021-10-22 03:32:19
Radical is right about the store stuff except its just glamour to be honest who cares about gpose just the casuals, But than again we have a new scheme in FFXI the new mog bonanaza every 1-3 months they keep you subbed to get a chance on getting one of the weapons without adding new stuff to the game lol, on top of that they literally *** the players who play ninja, FFXI has good ***but the bad ***outweighs the good ***now they may as well be a cashop items.
Just buy 1,000 characters over 63 accounts and buy marbles on them all for a 100% shot at a rank 1 bonanza prize, go ninja weapon (or whichever you want; but you said ninja got screwed) and then make the winning character your new main. Duh. That's how it is supposed to work.
First 64 characters cost $629.37 during the 9.99 discount campaign. Remaining 937 chracters cost... $937 as addition $1 mules on the main 64 accounts. They have to be 40 days old so another $1,000.00 to get them "old enough". The difficulty would be in organizing the logins/IDs and making up 1,000 names.
That's $2,566.37 for the sure shot at a rank 1. The FINAL FANTASY XIV Stratocaster® is $3,499.99.
I'm certain that there is someone out there that would pay that much (look at prices of 14's gift shop stuff like listed above) and be that OCD about time invested for e-peen.
No wonder Asura ran out of character slots.
...and /that/ is whats good about FFXI. The secret cash shop of rank 1 bonanza items.
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By Draylo 2021-10-22 04:15:27
The good old days of finishing an empy stage with the login campaign. We wont forget... bring it back SE you know you want that pay to win cash
By RadialArcana 2021-10-22 04:35:48
Radical is right about the store stuff except its just glamour
Glamour is pay to win, the developers pretend now it's not because they want your cash.
If Adaberk looked like level 1 gear, barely anyone would of wanted it.
The greatest argument that proves that, if it didn't really matter they would'nt make so much damn money from it.
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Asura.Vyre
Forum Moderator
サーバ: Asura
Game: FFXI
Posts: 15653
By Asura.Vyre 2021-10-22 05:22:13
Hell, I still want an Adaberk because I got passed over for one by officers who literally didn't let me lot on the last pair of Byakko Haidates before that particular Nidhogg... they then gave it to a Monk main and a Drk main, because, "Oh you don't have Haidates so it'd be a waste going to you."
Monk main quit post 2handed update, and the DRK main took their stage 4.5 Apocalypse funded by the LS and left. Yes, the grudge is gonna burn in me forever lol.
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By RadialArcana 2021-10-22 05:35:19
Hell, I still want an Adaberk because I got passed over for one by officers who literally didn't let me lot on the last pair of Byakko Haidates before that particular Nidhogg... they then gave it to a Monk main and a Drk main, because, "Oh you don't have Haidates so it'd be a waste going to you."
Monk main quit post 2handed update, and the DRK main took their stage 4.5 Apocalypse funded by the LS and left. Yes, the grudge is gonna burn in me forever lol.
One thing I hated about old FFXI was how much power leaders had because of really low drop rates, and how corrupt they were. You had no alternative either cause there were only a handful of HNM shells.
So much better now.
Asura.Vyre
Forum Moderator
サーバ: Asura
Game: FFXI
Posts: 15653
By Asura.Vyre 2021-10-22 05:53:49
Hell, I still want an Adaberk because I got passed over for one by officers who literally didn't let me lot on the last pair of Byakko Haidates before that particular Nidhogg... they then gave it to a Monk main and a Drk main, because, "Oh you don't have Haidates so it'd be a waste going to you."
Monk main quit post 2handed update, and the DRK main took their stage 4.5 Apocalypse funded by the LS and left. Yes, the grudge is gonna burn in me forever lol.
One thing I hated about old FFXI was how much power leaders had because of really low drop rates, and how corrupt they were. You had no alternative either cause there were only a handful of HNM shells.
So much better now.
It was an especially egregious rub, because the LS had just merged like two months prior, and I wasn't even used to these new officers telling me what to do as I hadn't had a choice in the merger either.
Oh the idiocy of youth.
By Mattelot 2021-10-22 06:02:23
Hell, I still want an Adaberk because I got passed over for one by officers who literally didn't let me lot on the last pair of Byakko Haidates before that particular Nidhogg... they then gave it to a Monk main and a Drk main, because, "Oh you don't have Haidates so it'd be a waste going to you."
Monk main quit post 2handed update, and the DRK main took their stage 4.5 Apocalypse funded by the LS and left. Yes, the grudge is gonna burn in me forever lol.
One thing I hated about old FFXI was how much power leaders had because of really low drop rates, and how corrupt they were. You had no alternative either cause there were only a handful of HNM shells.
So much better now.
Our old LS had a few leaders, luckily. I still have screenshots of when I had to tell one leader NO, he was not going to give Nidhogg rare drops to his clique friends that have only been in the LS for a month vs people who had been in for 2 years. Man, how that clique hated me.
That type of thing (debating over rare drops from rare spawns) was memorable but when you think about how much time you wasted in all that only for them to later raise the level cap...
I do still keep a handful of old gear I earned back in the 75 era that has a particularly good memory behind it.
By RadialArcana 2021-10-22 06:03:48
If I could of spent $100 to buy the dalmy skin, I would of done it and never joined a HNMLS. Following that I probably would of quit soon after cause HNM kept me chugging away for years.
This killed Warframe for me, spent too much money on stuff and ended up killing my desire to play it.
I hate how they make you convert cash to their special currency too, just so you forget how much money you're spending. "Oh it's only 100 fruit loops!..oh wait that's $10"
By Mattelot 2021-10-22 06:06:54
If I could of spent $100 to buy the dalmy skin, I would of done it and never joined a HNMLS. Following that I probably would of quit soon after cause HNM kept me chugging away for years.
This killed Warframe for me, spent too much money on stuff and ended up killing my desire to play it.
I hate how they make you convert cash to their special currency too, just so you forget how much money you're spending. "Oh it's only 100 fruit loops!..oh wait that's $10"
I'm ok with cash shops to an extent but when they start marketing the stuff like Fortnite used to, where if you didn't have this skin (that is 100% pure aesthetic) that came out today, you're a complete noob... and next week, it would start over. Kids begging their parents for v-bucks. Kid who stole his dad's credit card and bought over $1000 in v-bucks.
By RadialArcana 2021-10-22 06:16:20
I hate cash shops, I prefer to play sub games to get away from them. Now they have them too, cause the companies are greedy. I'm pretty sure XI is the only mmo without a proper cash shop at this point, and the only reason for that is cause it would cost too much to add it.
The sad part is, players make excuses for it like "it's only cosmetic", when they know cosmetic matters to them and everyone else or "but they spend the money on the game" when they obviously don't and even if they did, that's not answer anyway since it ruins the game. What's next loot boxes, cause all that gambling cash goes in the game tho!
I loved Warframe, and felt it was kind of similar to FFXI in terms of working for gear and lots of stuff to do. Then I started buying stuff out of impatience and before long I had no reason to login anymore.
It all started with horse armor...or so the legend says!
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By Mattelot 2021-10-22 06:20:17
If people want to blow a bunch of money on aesthetics or mounts that do not affect gameplay what-so-ever, go ahead. A fool and his money are soon parted.
It only gets to me when it actually dives into the realm of P2W. This is a big discussion on the WoW forums about using tokens as a middleman for buying gold "legally" and people (including the company president) selling raid completions. That's the stuff that hurts the game. The sad part is, when so many start doing it, laziness becomes the norm. Watch our grandkids grow up to MMOs that say "click here to buy instant all achievements, all rare gear, etc"
By RadialArcana 2021-10-22 06:29:01
If people want to blow a bunch of money on aesthetics or mounts that do not affect gameplay what-so-ever, go ahead.
Yeah but it does impact gameplay at a developer mindset level, for everyone. The people who make armors make the cash shop stuff too, so they spend less time on the ingame "free" ones. Since visual appeal is linked to doing content that's bad.
People are driven to do content by the look of armor in many cases, and when that falls away to promote cash shop sales the endgame content becomes far less important.
This is what has happened to ff14, it's a dress up sim now and an endgame mmo second. The endgame content that is there is all pretty faceroll, and becoming easier with every patch. Even the jobs are being nerfed into oblivion, look at tank and healer on there. It's not a raiding MMO at all, and nobody promotes it as such.
All anyone seems to care about is standing around town looking like a clown, in their cash shop outfits and paid animations.
Lakshmi.Avereith
サーバ: Lakshmi
Game: FFXI
Posts: 1214
By Lakshmi.Avereith 2021-10-22 06:32:22
Can people buy gear with real money in FF14? Sorry I've never played it. If so, that must make crafting kind of worthless :x
By Mattelot 2021-10-22 06:39:34
I don't think it's quite so cut/dry. As long as they're releasing relevant material, it's fine. And in WoW and FFXIV's cases, they do release relevant material. There are some developers who are only there and schooled to create things like this. The company just ends up looking for more.
I think what you're thinking is that with more devs who just make skins, there are less who make quality gameplay. It's a matter of opinion this day on what is and isn't quality. Players of this generation will say it's all good as long as they keep releasing skins.
People can play dress-up all they want. It doesn't make them better players. At the most, it highlights that they spend X amount of dollars on aesthetics. Yes, many only care about standing in town showing off their glamour/transmog. That just goes along with people who like to show off online, no matter what it is. People in this game will buy gil or bot so they can up their AH point score. Before this, people would buy gil and stand around in town wearing a bunch of expensive items conglomerated together, even if they made no sense.
As far as FFXIV endgame, I do agree. While it can be a fun game at times, the dungeon content is now tunnel linear and bosses are easy. I've played a lot of MMOs in my life and FFXIV is by far the easiest. I honestly feel bad whenever I see someone talk about how challenging it is. It would be interesting to see them to play something else.
サーバ: Valefor
Game: FFXI
Posts: 139
By Valefor.Furyspawn 2021-10-22 07:00:46
... and stand around in town wearing a bunch of expensive items conglomerated together, even if they made no sense.
I used to get so many fun tells intentionally AFKing as SAM/NIN with a Ridill + Kraken Club in Whitegate. Definitely went well with a cup of tea.
By RadialArcana 2021-10-22 07:32:50
Wow is a really good example because it's old enough where you can see the change from no cash shop at all, to cash shop.
I have a friend that used to collect mounts on wow, it's pretty much all she did. She started off just saying she didn't care about the cash shop mounts and ignored them, then they started getting more and more fancy and having a lot of work put into them and it started bothering her more and more. She wanted them, but didn't want to sink to either buying them or doing the 6 month payment thing.
Then it progressed to the point where she was putting tens of hours or more into recolors of mounts she already had or they were obvious visually B tier mounts.
Then she stopped working to collects mounts, then she stopped playing altogether. Most players like this just give up and buy the mounts, but again there is nothing to do then but stand around on your mount looking pretty then either.
By RadialArcana 2021-10-22 07:35:33
Valefor.Furyspawn said: »... and stand around in town wearing a bunch of expensive items conglomerated together, even if they made no sense.
I used to get so many fun tells intentionally AFKing as SAM/NIN with a Ridill + Kraken Club in Whitegate. Definitely went well with a cup of tea.
Half my shell used to line up opposite the mog house in whitegate with their best gear on during down time. They loved it.
It helped the shell too tho, from the moment they started doing that we had a big spike in applications.
By Mattelot 2021-10-22 07:39:15
WoW has morphed so much over the past 17 years, it's hard to know what WoW really is.
I was a huge mount collector too. I don't care how fancy any of the store mounts were, I never bought one. I preferred riding around on a very hard-to-get mount. The only thing that made that a little less prestigious was the release of the black market.
I'm sorry about your friend. I guess everyone's priorities change. As long as they're not hurting anyone else and they're happy.
Leviathan.Isiolia
サーバ: Leviathan
Game: FFXI
Posts: 468
By Leviathan.Isiolia 2021-10-22 08:18:42
Can people buy gear with real money in FF14? Sorry I've never played it. If so, that must make crafting kind of worthless :x
Generally, no, not functional gear. The vast majority of what the cash shop there sells are cosmetic items - mounts, emotes, glamour sets, that sort of thing.
The exception to that are skips, which do allow you to pay for completion of older expansions or to level a particular job up to 70 (of the current cap of 80). Those do include some sell-for-gil items and/or gear, but, to be fair, actually completing that content would net you a lot of rewards along the way too.
XIV's progression is very linear. Unlike in XI where you can do bare minimum requirements here and there to progress to endgame(ish) level, you have to work through all of the storylines, in order, to get to the current content. Buying skips is discouraged for first characters/etc, but for some it may make sense for alts.
That said, yeah, crafting is a different thing. Not because you can just go buy gear, but because the general model is to basically hand players gear up to a certain item level, for little or no effort, that'll be sufficient for normal content. If all you're doing it playing for story, you probably won't need to buy much of anything.
By Fribbit 2021-10-22 08:22:23
Can people buy gear with real money in FF14? Sorry I've never played it. If so, that must make crafting kind of worthless :x
Not really. The FFXIV shop is MOSTLY cosmetic items. Emotes, level 1 gear with no stats that's intended for "glamour" use(which is basically "lockstyle" or "transmog" depending on what game you first became familiar with the concept), mounts, orchestrion rolls to play different music in-game, etc.
There are, however, MSQ(main scenario quest) and "level" skips that were created with the intention of providing people ways to catch up with their friends who were already at max level and stuff. The level skips come with gear, which is to be expected since you're jumping from 1-70 and you'll need some gear to do anything.
But no, there is no gear for purchase as a means to just buy gear from raids, for example, rather than completing them.
By Fribbit 2021-10-22 08:22:58
Leviathan.Isiolia said: »Can people buy gear with real money in FF14? Sorry I've never played it. If so, that must make crafting kind of worthless :x
Generally, no, not functional gear. The vast majority of what the cash shop there sells are cosmetic items - mounts, emotes, glamour sets, that sort of thing.
The exception to that are skips, which do allow you to pay for completion of older expansions or to level a particular job up to 70 (of the current cap of 80). Those do include some sell-for-gil items and/or gear, but, to be fair, actually completing that content would net you a lot of rewards along the way too.
XIV's progression is very linear. Unlike in XI where you can do bare minimum requirements here and there to progress to endgame(ish) level, you have to work through all of the storylines, in order, to get to the current content. Buying skips is discouraged for first characters/etc, but for some it may make sense for alts.
That said, yeah, crafting is a different thing. Not because you can just go buy gear, but because the general model is to basically hand players gear up to a certain item level, for little or no effort, that'll be sufficient for normal content. If all you're doing it playing for story, you probably won't need to buy much of anything.
I was beaten to it. This.
Ragnarok.Jessikah
サーバ: Ragnarok
Game: FFXI
Posts: 3833
By Ragnarok.Jessikah 2021-10-22 08:33:15
I dunno what it is about FFXI, but I always find everything just so satisfying. That's another thing worth mentioning about this game.
Maybe it has something to do with the more grounded combat visuals, or maybe it's the sound effects, or some combination of a million correct design decisions. I honestly don't know. But every time I fire a bullet, loose an arrow, cast a spell, use a weapon skill, it all feels like it's got such gravity to it. (This is also why I'm not a big fan of Requiescat and a few other WS's, because they don't have that punch to them)
This in addition to the satisfaction of a hard-fought victory or the payoff of that awesome new piece of gear you were seeking. It just feels good.
By RadialArcana 2021-10-22 08:58:06
I think developers learn from their "mistakes" in the past, that made the games harder to create content for for made it harder to run. However I think many of these things make the games better for players.
On FFXI gil is very important, but this causes RMT and economy issues so most games avoid this by reducing the value of ingame currency. Gil on most games is mostly for cosmetic reasons, transportation or housing.
On FFXI Crafting is very important to the game and economy, on most games it's has no real value and just exists mostly for fun.
On FFXI races have different body types so this makes new armor sets and cosmetics much more work to create, however it makes each race more unique. Every single race has a big difference in the body on XI.
All races have different animations, so this means it's more work to create new spells or effects. Much easier for all races to have very similar animations.
On FFXI endgame is very diverse, instanced endgame is far easier to control and work with. So modern games are 99% instanced.
On FFXI they learned over the years that inflation sucks, so modern games are made to have alternative avenues of income already in place.
FFXI has a very real filter, this means it does lose a lot of players but it allows them to create a tougher experience because of it.
You could list more stuff but I think developers learn how to make their jobs easier and create a more watered down game because of it, there are lots of genuine reasons older games are better than newer games if you value these things.
If they ever did remake FFXI I'm a firm believer they will totally ruin it.
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Bahamut.Dajjal
サーバ: Bahamut
Game: FFXI
Posts: 67
By Bahamut.Dajjal 2021-10-22 09:04:18
On FFXI endgame is very diverse This is very true, sometimes it is a Warrior and Dragoon Savage Blading, sometimes the is Cor Savage Blading, sometimes even Rangers are Savage Blading. Such a wonderfully diverse endgame.
Seriously though apart from a handful of fights like Ongo, endgame is buff the DDs so they can Savage Blade real hard.
By Mattelot 2021-10-22 09:05:40
Double-edged sword. While instanced content is easier to control, it's a lot more entertaining when a bunch of people from the server are around for something. The flip side to that (and Mireu is the best example) is congestion. My PC is far more powerful than it was back in the 75 era and it handled 3 LSs camping an NM. Go to Mireu and you won't even see it appear until it's nearly dead if you did not get there at spawn.
WoW's system with it's in-game currency still blows. While gold is not AS important as gil is here, they go on a roller coaster with it and once there is too much in the economy, they make huge gold dumps (brutosaur, etc). It's like they cannot find that happy middleground.
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By alzeerffxi 2021-10-22 09:08:48
i really just want a official 75 FFXI server i know people will bash me for saying that, you barely socialize in this game, and 90% of yells are Mercenary's or RMT that's one of the bad things about it right now.
By RadialArcana 2021-10-22 09:09:52
This is very true, sometimes it is a Warrior and Dragoon Savage Blading, sometimes the is Cor Savage Blading, sometimes even Rangers are Savage Blading. Such a wonderfully diverse endgame.
I mean a mix of open world, instanced etc
I hate games where everything is entered via dungeon matching or similar.
Asura.Vyre
Forum Moderator
サーバ: Asura
Game: FFXI
Posts: 15653
By Asura.Vyre 2021-10-22 09:14:55
Can people buy gear with real money in FF14? Sorry I've never played it. If so, that must make crafting kind of worthless :x
No, but each level skip for actually skipping a job to level 70 currently comes with 500k gil in addition to the i400 gearset. The skips cost $25 so the return is clearly awful, but you could technically keep creating characters and buying skips, and if you had someone who could invite them into your Free Company where you could transfer the gil through the box(or just through your middleman friend), this would be a very expensive way to legally buy gil which you could then buy i510 crafted gear with.
Alternatively you could just buy a skip for every job that you didn't have at 70 already, except BLU, and that would net you every job 10 levels away from level cap and 8.5 million gil... for $425.
Depending on when you did that, you could use that gil for the highest end crafted gear. Cheaper if it's towards the end of a Savage raid tier or mid patch lull.
Ragnarok.Jessikah
サーバ: Ragnarok
Game: FFXI
Posts: 3833
By Ragnarok.Jessikah 2021-10-22 09:16:22
If they ever did remake FFXI I'm a firm believer they will totally ruin it. I agree. There's a very fine line between "improving the quality of life" and "removing the heart and soul of the game", which I don't trust Square-Enix to find at all. That's why whenever I do mention a remake, I cross my fingers and wish that they only make changes to things like graphics and accessibility.
It would be great if, as Mattelot said above, Mireu would show up on the screen. It doesn't matter how powerful your PC is because the game's engine itself is at capacity.
Fix the engine, give us some updated graphics, remove PlayOnline, maybe tweak back the game so Lv.99 plays a little bit more closely to Lv.75 (so it's not all Savage Blade spam) and call it a day.
Asura.Vyre
Forum Moderator
サーバ: Asura
Game: FFXI
Posts: 15653
By Asura.Vyre 2021-10-22 09:21:20
As far as FFXIV endgame, I do agree. While it can be a fun game at times, the dungeon content is now tunnel linear and bosses are easy. I've played a lot of MMOs in my life and FFXIV is by far the easiest. I honestly feel bad whenever I see someone talk about how challenging it is. It would be interesting to see them to play something else. The challenge in XIV's dungeon stopped being a thing really after they nerfed Pharos Sirius in 2014. Too many crybabies about the difficulty. Me, Shiggles, Dameion, and Kalila did it with x3 DPS and SCH prior to the nerf.
Dungeons were never where FFXIV's challenging endgame lay though. It's in the raids and extreme trials. At first the raids were a tailored experience. Then the development team got mad that Second Coil got beaten in a week by world first hardcores, so they invented Savage specifically with fight design made to counter the strats they'd beaten Second Coil with. Talk about dev salt.
Come Heavensward, they decided there was story mode raid and Savage mode raid. Savage mode raids are not facerolls at all. They takes statics several weeks to months at a time, depending on raiding frequency and player skill. In particular, the Heavensward Savage raid tiers nearly killed raiding in FFXIV because they were too hard. You can't really speak to the difficulty of FFXIV endgame unless you're talking about at least Savage. Now they've got Ultimates though, which means they pretty much put less work in Savage. Every Savage has been easier than the last, starting in Stormblood, with some fights taking exception to that.
Things I think are good about FFXI, people tend to ask why are you still playing that game so I thought I would write some things down.
Basics: I like that I can play any job on one character, this instills a greater connection with your character and a greater feeling of community because people are always on that character, so you always see them on it. The gear swapping system is great for many different reasons, from the aspect of adding some complexity to play to just having so much gear to chase. I like the skillchain/MB system, that is still relevant today at near all levels of play. I like that the game has a massive wealth of different things to do and they are all deep enough to get involved in them, crafting, mog garden, pet rearing, monstrosity etc. It's so annoying to me when I find a game I really like and it's 90% just dungeon variation spamming.
1. No Cash shop (muh "optional" items), I know exactly how much I'm spending on FFXI and I can't spend anymore. The issue with playing an MMMORPG is that you spend large amounts of time in these games, and it's very easy to spend money on "optional items". You think you would not cause you're good with money, but you will and you can spend a lot. You get attached to your characters, you're feeling tired and mentally worn down after playing for 4-5 hours, it's 1am, you're bored and there is that fancy $30 mount you just saw someone run past you. Cash shops are predatory and the company manipulates you, you're not immune. On FFXI it's not "optional" at all, they don't have one.
1a. I like the subscription only model, not only for the reason above and because it creates a kind of unwritten contract where they make content regularly (I have another f2p game I enjoy but they very rarely add anything new at all, and it's infuriating because I do spend money on it) but also because paying a monthly sub encourages you to actually play the game. I have lots of f2p games installed that I can play any time I want to, I never play them because there is no mental imperative to do so.
2. I fit into the community in the game cause they are near all over 25+, I don't like playing games with a social foundation where I feel completely out of place. On games like Overwatch or whatever it doesn't matter, you're just shooting people but these games are community based. Not to say everyone on 11 acts like a civlized individual or anything but it's trolling, drama or jokes that gel with me and that I'm used to. Talking of which, you can actually tell jokes or be a troll/drama queen free from being banned for hurting somebodies feelings. The GMs ignore most reports about silly issues like this and just tell you to blist, cause the developers set these rules down long ago before current culture took over. Many modern MMORPGs are played by people who were brought up on social media, they think everything is toxic and many modern games are simply fake friendly because of fear of being banned.
2a) I like that due to the nature of the party building system, some of the most highly respected players of this game are the party builders. People who make groups and become admired for not only doing this but doing it well and being very knowledgeable. On modern games there would be no status in this, because it isn't needed.
2b) I like that the game still tries to force players to interact with others to a greater or lesser degree, there are still roadblocks like mission fights, gear unlocks or whatever where you have to reach out to others. Even new players can be totally lost in how to play and ask for help, and people can and do offer it. It's good that players are still the most important force in the game world, when you need help other players are there and not some UI button to insta match you with others. It actually does feel good to reach out for help and someone to send a tell and offer to help you with something you've been struggling with for hours or days, even if it's harder to get that help in the first place.
In my first year of playing I was on the verge of quitting, because I could not get my limit break 1 item in Eldieme. I played completely solo as a BST and so had nobody to ask for help, upto this point I could do everything alone so needed nobody. I struggled for 2 days and died over and over (I even had to go relevel and come back and keep trying), even if I did manage to down a Lich with my weak jug pets and reraise / dia the drop rate was so bad it seemed impossible. At the point of near just giving up a 75 BST checked me and sent me an invite, he spent an hour getting me my item and i remember feeling guilty he was wasting so much time on me. That simple action that really probably meant very little to him, changed my entire outlook on ffxi. I felt as if I was part of a community after that, the next day I carried on leveling WHM and would spend a lot of time helping other players (eventually on my main BST 75 too, wanting to do for others what he had done for me). I went from a complete solo player not caring about helping anyone to spending almost all of my time outside of a XP parties doing just that. Even today, FFXI still has this system in place for different things and most other games do not.
3. I like the way the auction house works, I like the economy where inflation and supply/demand are actually a thing and how everyone is interlinked more than on other games. I like that gil has real value for players and that to make gil you mostly have to get it from other players, farming items they want.
4. There is always something to do when you login. FFXI has so many long term goals and things to do that it's near impossible to have nothing to do when you login, on most modern mmorpgs you quickly run out of things to do becasue they are all aimed at casual players that complain about "grind" or "not respecting your time". As such they make the games now to appeal to non-mmorpgs players and I'm an mmorpg player.
5. I like that your server is your entire world and there is nothing outside of that. When I group up with some people, help some random person/get help or even just wandering around doing my own thing, I'll see the same names around all the time and I'll remember them from previous encounters. This promotes a heavy feeling of familiarity in your game world and world building, when I login and wander my home nation especially it feels good. It feels like "home" because I see the same people and have for years. When you play modern games you're mostly always playing with people off server, as such you're very aware you will never see this person ever again. So you have zero incentive to bother with them and they are instantly forgotten.
6. I like that the game does not tell you what to do at every moment, or that it's not completely linear (do this endgame, then this, then this in that order etc). Leveling is very open, endgame content has lots of routes to your goal (and those goals can be different).
7. I like that the game has long-term goals as standard. Whether it's getting +2 Ambuscade gear as a solo player, REMA or working on serious endgame gear with groups. Modern games are so afraid of people getting bored and quitting that everything is easy and short term. The problem with this is that gratification delayed is gratification magnified, so you will never get the immense feeling of gratification from anything on a modern mmorpg that you will get from achieving your goals on FFXI.
I remember none of the gear I obtained on most modern MMORPGS I've played, because it was easy to get and quickly replaced anyway. I remember every major piece of gear I've obtained on FFXI because I had to work hard to get them and there was emotion linked to that, from my Byakkos Haidate, Kirins Osode, getting my first Relic with the help of my linkshell, Dalmatica, my first Ambsucade +2 set after returning, completing malignance set etc.
8. I like that the game has more or less horizontal progression, there is always gear to go work for to improve but they don't wipe out your entire gear sets every 6-12 months. If you take a break for a year and come back, your gear is still good. Remember what they did with Abyssea with gear and how everyone was so mad? modern mmorpgs do that every major patch.
9. I like that they allow you to become really strong at endgame and that there is so much upgrade potential on your character (get to 99, get merits, get job points, get lots of gear etc), if you put a lot of work in it will show and you can become a beast. This is unlike most games where everyone is near enough the same and the cap is low to stop anyone feeling inferior. On FFXI the effort you put into your char/gear is significant and the game allows you to excel.
9a) I like that knowledge is important and you can't just overpower everything. For instance that Lillith can spike you to death and you need to turn, that a darkness skillchain heals her or how charm works etc. FFXI rewards hard work and knowledge, and that knowledge is figured out by the players and shared.
10. I like that FFXI does not have a single set of gear that you never take off, they have a macro system that lets you swap every piece of gear based on the situation or what you want to do. This means, you don't just work to get 6 pieces of BIS armor and a weapon and are done. You can get vast amounts of gear and swap between them. This builds into the "always something to do" system since there is so much gear to get.
11. I like the way the combat works, on most mmorpgs they have rotations of skills. So you're constantly pressing 1, 2, 3, 4 etc over and over forever. I hate this kind of busy work, because most of the time I'm doing casual stuff like farming or doing some daily activities while watching a movie. I feel like I'm wearing out my keys on most mmorpgs. Pressing 6 keys is no better than pressing 2 if the outcome is the same, it's just about fooling you into thinking you're doing something skilled when you're not. The combat also speeds up when it needs to (when you have buff jobs boosting you etc), and not always the same. Something else I'm really glad does not exist on XI is telegraphing, although this can be fun these games tend to overuse it and it becomes boring and very annoying. I don't want to endlessly move out of circles or red boxes while playing.
12. I like that the game has proper varied jobs that fill specific roles, for instance a healer is a proper healer and your job is -keep everyone alive- and that's it. There are pure buff jobs that exist just to buff the damage dealers, this is near unheard of in modern games. You can actually run out of MP if your gear is poor or you're playing poorly, the tank can lose aggro easily or a DD can miss a skill if you don't gear or play correctly. Modern mmorpgs make all jobs easy to play and very similar so no matter what job you're on, you're pretty much playing the same role and/or have to be really bad to fail to play it effectively.
13. I like that the jobs are allowed to be different and have strengths and weaknesses, I like that some jobs are far stronger than others for pure damage and that some jobs are situationally better than others. The jobs all actually feel really different and have different uses. Some jobs like BLU are incredibly fun and rewarding, you can change how the job plays or what spells it can use (blue can be pure DD, cure, crowd control, AOE murder etc) based on which spells you equip. Summoner on FFXI is fantastic, the avatars all look great and it's very powerful.
13a) I like that there is far more customization with your jobs on FFXI than on many other games, ultimately you do still end up fitting in with the meta but there is still a lot of customization possibility than you are allowed on other games. Subjobs, gear, weapon choices etc.
14. The endgame content is very unpredictable and can be very difficult (unless you're geared out the butt). I like that failing has consequences and doesn't just warp you back to the front of the boss to try again, when you have nothing to lose winning feels hollow. When I came back a few years ago, I struggled so hard with Zitah NMs. Beating my first one after failing many tries felt so good. To most others it's nothing, but to me it was a major victory and FFXI is full of things like this.
14a) I like how endgame isn't just directly linked to spamming different dungeons over and over, there are so many different things you can go do that have meaning. There is also far less stress put upon you to be doing specific things, when I play modern mmorpgs I very much do end up just spamming dungeons in group finder over and over all day. I very much do feel pressure to be doing that too.
15. I like that leveling isn't via stupid mini story quests that you never read anyway. I like that they just give you kill count quests and do away with the pretense that you care about "Fred Jones the hunter needs 10 rat tails or his house will be repossessed by captain crunch, can you help them brave adventurer?" "ok"
16. I like the crafting system, not only is it very difficult to cap out but it's very useful and linked to the economy. It also gives avenues of long progression if you choose to follow them. Sub-crafts, sheilds, knowledge of how to make profits etc
17. I like multiboxing, this is a niche enjoyment but I really like that I can not only multibox without having 4 computers but that the gameplay supports you doing it without automating everything, cause it does not have rotations etc. On other games I tend to make lots of alts and end up swapping between them for dailies, on FFXI I can have them all logged in at the same time and doing stuff. It does give an oldschool FF feel to me in some ways.
18. I like the customization via windower addons, the limitaitons of the UI was the mother of invention here and so we have all these things that a game with a more modern UI would never have.
19. I love the game world and how the developers encourage you to explore it and also to goto certain places to do content and not just let you warp into whatever form wherever (if you wanna do Amb you goto Mhuara, if you wanna do Ody you goto Rabao etc), I love how there is a nice mix or open/instanced/dungeon content, I love the deep lore where you can find things out years later that you never knew while doing the missions, I love the stories (even if many are bittersweet), I love the respect the developers have for the game world. Vana'diel feels like a real place to me in many ways, and this is not only for the things above but also because of the community aspects I mentioned earlier in the post too.
20. I personally like that near everything can be modded on FFXI, it's almost like a mini Skyrim in many ways. Not only from the perspective of making your own mods but using others mods.
21. I like how the game scales to the players and there are different paths, one person can be working on Ambu +2 gear as their long-term endgame goals when they login every day and another can be grinding out Gaol gear/upgrades. Everyone isn't just doing the same thing, and you can be a more casual player with less elite goals and be fine with that.
22. I like the music style, I like the overall aesthetic, character and monster designs. It's not stylized in a way that alienates people, it's not overly flashy and gaudy. A huge turnoff for me with 14 is the anime music style, art style, overly gaudy flashy OTT effects etc
23. I like that the game will not be replacing pictures of mithra with bowls of fruit or pandering to modern day SJW issues, the developers just want to make content and not push an agenda.
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