Has anyone played or is playing FF XI?

[DaytonaUSA]

I know it's not the newest of games, but I figured I'd give it a shot. Since 360, PS2, and PC players all play together, I figured it would be still played and might be worth trying. I just ordered it on ebay, so I'm curious what people had to say about it.

 

Thanks

[Tempest]

I used to play FF XI. I played for about 2 years, but I eventually got tired of the gameplay issues and quit. The main problem was that you had to play in a party or you'd get slaughtered and unless you were the 'correct' job class you wouldn't get a party invite. After awhile I spend more time waiting around looking for a party than I did actually playing. I enjoyed the game while it lasted though, but eventually it became a huge time sink I just didn't have time for. I don't know how many people still play, but when I was playing there were about 500,000 people on a dozen servers. I hear there's another MMORPG coming out to replace FF XI called Rapture.

 

Tempest

[DaytonaUSA]

I used to play FF XI. I played for about 2 years, but I eventually got tired of the gameplay issues and quit. The main problem was that you had to play in a party or you'd get slaughtered and unless you were the 'correct' job class you wouldn't get a party invite. After awhile I spend more time waiting around looking for a party than I did actually playing. I enjoyed the game while it lasted though, but eventually it became a huge time sink I just didn't have time for. I don't know how many people still play, but when I was playing there were about 500,000 people on a dozen servers. I hear there's another MMORPG coming out to replace FF XI called Rapture.

 

Tempest

 

Thanks man, I figured since I had the hdd in my test ps2 anyway, i'd pick up this game. I think I might like it. I like community games, and I'm hoping it won't be like a traditional FF which always seem to bore me. Something with human players might keep my attention better .

 

If anything, you get the 30 day trial period. If I don't like it, I'll just sell it.

[Tempest]

The nice thing about FF XI is that there were some INSANELY challenging quests to do that were nearly impossible, even for a maxed out character. Even the best player was humbled by the game eventually. Then again, some of those quests were just plain unfair to the point of being cruel.

 

Tempest

[Linkz1]

I used to play FF XI. I played for about 2 years, but I eventually got tired of the gameplay issues and quit. The main problem was that you had to play in a party or you'd get slaughtered and unless you were the 'correct' job class you wouldn't get a party invite. After awhile I spend more time waiting around looking for a party than I did actually playing. I enjoyed the game while it lasted though, but eventually it became a huge time sink I just didn't have time for. I don't know how many people still play, but when I was playing there were about 500,000 people on a dozen servers. I hear there's another MMORPG coming out to replace FF XI called Rapture.

 

Tempest

 

Indeed.

 

I played FFXI off and on a few times since it came out. What I ultimately got turned off by was the fact that you have to group in order to advance at all in the game. You can solo up to about level 10, but after that you have to find a party if you want any hope of leveling in a moderately quick manor. I just could not stand logging in, setting my LFG tag, and walking around the big city aimlessly for nearly half an hour waiting for a group invite. Worse yet, whenever I was in a good group, someone would need to leave while we were deep in monster territory...and once one person left the rest would leave then it was every man for himself on the way out. It may have just been the server I was on, but I really did not enjoy the game too much.

[Tempest]

Worse yet, whenever I was in a good group, someone would need to leave while we were deep in monster territory...and once one person left the rest would leave then it was every man for himself on the way out. It may have just been the server I was on, but I really did not enjoy the game too much.

Nope that was pretty much every server.

 

Tempest

[Linkz1]

Worse yet, whenever I was in a good group, someone would need to leave while we were deep in monster territory...and once one person left the rest would leave then it was every man for himself on the way out. It may have just been the server I was on, but I really did not enjoy the game too much.

Nope that was pretty much every server.

 

Tempest

 

 

How could you stand it?

[Tempest]

Worse yet, whenever I was in a good group, someone would need to leave while we were deep in monster territory...and once one person left the rest would leave then it was every man for himself on the way out. It may have just been the server I was on, but I really did not enjoy the game too much.

Nope that was pretty much every server.

 

Tempest

 

 

How could you stand it?

If you got in with a good Linkshell (guild) then it wasn't so bad, but then you ran into a different problem of having to spend hours upon hours doing stupid quests for other LS members so the leader and his lackys could get all the best equipment while you got the shaft. But this is still one of the main reasons I left, it took waaaay too long to get a party together, and then they fell apart about 10 mins later. Don't even get me started on fighting over camping spots and people perma-camping all the rare monsters. Remember FF XI isn't instanced, so you have to deal with the entire servers population all the time.

 

Personally I'm hoping the Rapture is a mix of FFXI and WoW. We'll have to see.

 

Tempest

[Bruce Tomlin]

I just wanted to mention that it's not quite as bad these days. I've been playing for a while, and over the past six months or so they've made a lot of changes to make groups much easier (you can temporarily cap everybody's level to one person in the group, usually the lowest, and gear will scale down more or less), and solo a bit easier (minimum XP per kill is higher, and once per hour you can get bonus XP for defeating a list of targets), plus regular FvF battles in the latest expansion (players vs baddies). I took a WHM to 75 and only played in a very few traditional XP parties, which I decided I did not want.

 

But for what it's worth, I have no plans to get involved in that weekly endgame hamster wheel crap. There's plenty to do without going there. Hell, they've added a whole expansion apparently since you quit (if you don't know what "Retrace" is, you've never been there), and are still one or two updates from finishing its content.

 

I mostly play it because I had the PS2 HD unused for so long, and because tarutaru are just damn cute.

Edited May 17, 2009 by Bruce Tomlin

[cimerians]

I played for about 3 or 4 months back when it came out and quit for the same reasons. Solo adventuring was impossible and nobody invited you into the group if you were a specific type of class. Lots of waiting\running around which to me became a big time waster.

 

Nice to see its been improved but I may never go back. I have the PC version.

[Tempest]

I just wanted to mention that it's not quite as bad these days. I've been playing for a while, and over the past six months or so they've made a lot of changes to make groups much easier (you can temporarily cap everybody's level to one person in the group, usually the lowest, and gear will scale down more or less), and solo a bit easier (minimum XP per kill is higher, and once per hour you can get bonus XP for defeating a list of targets), plus regular FvF battles in the latest expansion (players vs baddies). I took a WHM to 75 and only played in a very few traditional XP parties, which I decided I did not want.

 

But for what it's worth, I have no plans to get involved in that weekly endgame hamster wheel crap. There's plenty to do without going there. Hell, they've added a whole expansion apparently since you quit (if you don't know what "Retrace" is, you've never been there), and are still one or two updates from finishing its content.

 

I mostly play it because I had the PS2 HD unused for so long, and because tarutaru are just damn cute.

Yeah there was one expansion that came out since I quit (something of the Goddess IIRC). The big time sink when I was in it was Dynamis and the super version of it (I forget the name).

 

Tempest

[Mord]

I used to play FF XI. I played for about 2 years, but I eventually got tired of the gameplay issues and quit. The main problem was that you had to play in a party or you'd get slaughtered and unless you were the 'correct' job class you wouldn't get a party invite. After awhile I spend more time waiting around looking for a party than I did actually playing.

 

So this would be fun reading then?

 

[Tempest]

I used to play FF XI. I played for about 2 years, but I eventually got tired of the gameplay issues and quit. The main problem was that you had to play in a party or you'd get slaughtered and unless you were the 'correct' job class you wouldn't get a party invite. After awhile I spend more time waiting around looking for a party than I did actually playing.

 

So this would be fun reading then?

 

Dear lord! That about sums up FF XI to a T.

 

This one hit particularly close to home (replace Thief with Paladin): http://www.vgcats.com/ffxi/?strip_id=5

 

Tempest