[Macht]

So far my experience in FF11 has been a great one. I'm surprised about the person on here saying that it was worse then EQ, so far it's been far better to me. The problem I tend to run into is frequent conflict in plans to do stuff with each LS and my friends, I just don't seem to have the time to get it all done and do everything with everyone as planned.

Sometimes I'll end up blending events coordinating my time with 1 LS for a set time on what they are doing to the next LS or even bring friends along with the LS event if what my friends are planning to ties in similar with it.

Even as crazy as it can get though I still get a lot of time were I can go adventuring around solo if I wanted. The biggest thing I came across in the game is it can get boring farming if you do it alone, but with a party you can trust and 2 or 3 of the party members being completly bare you can gather a huge crapload of items to sell to NPC or AH for a very nice amount of money.

Anyway the shouts are usually very seldom with the exception of Lower Jeuno. The worlds design and play just has such a well done feel to it, they spent a great deal of time detailing it. So much so that if you are paying close attention you'll even spot a leaf or two gliding down that has just fell of the tree, to even spoting a bird or two flying in the sky, or even other small details to give that world a living essence.

[Tukka]

I'm not trying to "make others not like" Final Fantasy XI. If you read my review posted on gamefaqs I call the game "enjoyable" and do outline a number of it's better points. I'm glad you enjoy the game and continue to enjoy it, and hope the game continues to improve. I like a lot of things about the game... the exp grinding is actually pretty fun in FF11 (overall more fun than EQ's exp grinding), which is important since exp grinding is at the core of most MMORPGs... in EQ it's probably what you do most until you're in a raiding guild (though unfortunately, in FF11, where grinding is actually pretty fun, you spend proportionately more time gil farming and doing other stuff--so the game is not ideally designed in that the better parts of the game do not make up the lion's share of the player's overall time spent playing). The missions and things like BCNM are quite cool... EQ didn't really have anything that could compare to that except at the very high levels for raiding guilds, until the Lost Dungeons expansion, and I still think FF11 executes a little better in that regard. FF11 has a better story (it has a better story by default almost, since EQ's story/lore is an utter mess now, even there are isolated pockets of coolness... but FF11 actually as a good storyline, so in that regard it totally trounces EQ), better music, better atmosphere, style, ect. Final Fantasy elements are integrated well, which may not mean much to some people, but it's cool for the FF fan. The job system, though not as flexible as one might imagine, is still cool and lets you customize your character to a greater degree than is possible in EQ and many other MMOs.

However, it does fall short in several categories and it's stuff that people really should know before they invest hundreds of dollars buying and subscribing to the game, and invest dozens of hours of precious time trying it out. Ultimately each person has to decide for themselves whether they enjoy the game or not, but I think if the reviews and such I had read of the game were a bit more objective in depth, I probably wouldn't have tried the game out (most magazine reviews and such of FF11 are terrible--you can't get a real feel for an MMORPG in a month, and most reviews aren't focused enough on the things that are important in an MMORPG in the long term). So that's why, given the oppurtunity, I'll go on a bit of a rant like this, because it can be difficult to find a relavent "linkminded synopsis" that is truly honest and objective (and I think I'm pretty honest and objective, but then again, who doesn't think that about themselves? heh).

If someone were to ask my opinion of EverQuest, I would be just as critical (even though I still play EQ), the points of criticism would just be different (though I feel you have less to lose with EQ--like I said, at least if you quit that game and several months later find out they made long-awaited improvements and got rid of some of the stuff you hated, at least you can come back and pick up right where you left off).

[csBahamut]

Sorry if my one statement seemed directed at you there Tukka. I was implying that some people try to distort facts and make thier point of view more important when evaluating a game. All the points you make are quite valid. There's the good and the bad, bt that's half the fun. Finding a way to cope with the bad gives a true sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. All I need to do now is find a way to group farm. I know my bro, my sis, my rl friend, and good ingame set party member would love to do some group farming. We just haven't found anywher to do that. Have any suggestions guys?(sorry, I don't mean to change the thread topic)

[Karinya]

Last night one of the members of my static pt was out of town, so the other 5 got together our higher level jobs (rdm51, thf51, whm50, mnk 42?, rng 40-something) and farmed in Pashhow - some in the NW corner (Bloodpool Vorax spawn plus leeches, crawlers, water elementals, crabs and when we ran out of those, wasps) and the rest near the thunder elemental and Jolly Green spawns (malboro, goobbue, beastman, and all the other stuff).

We got Vorax 3 times (two fiend blood, ugh) and didn't see Jolly Green. At the end of about 4 hours (the RNG had to leave partway through), we had two stacks of silk, two and a half stacks of beastman blood, about a dozen malboro vines, one tree cutting, 30 or so water clusters, maybe half a dozen lightning clusters, a couple dodge headbands, a stack and a half of beehive chips, most of a stack of crab meat (which they generously donated to me since I am PLD in the static), a couple stacks of salt (ditto), a couple pieces of moss, a few dahlias (pretty worthless), and some crab shells and quadav fetich parts (plus gil drops from the quadavs/goblins, which I think were about 1k per person - we didn't focus on beastmen mainly). We haven't computed the total value yet but I bet it'll be over 100k.

I recommend picking one person with plenty of inventory space to lot on all stackable loot, and let clusters, vines etc. auto-distribute (or have that one person pass on them). That way you don't have each person have 4 blood, 3 silk, 2 beehive chips, etc. unnecessarily cluttering up inventories.

At one point our monk basically soloed an elemental (which monks are normally pretty bad against), so you don't need to be as high level as we were to succeed there - people in the 30s could probably do well if they worked in pairs instead of wandering around independently. TH2 probably helped a lot though.

[Rougtan]

It really depends on the server you get on. My Server, for example, has TONS of really cool and really nice people. People who are jerks seem to get weeded out by the mid 20 to early 30's. Every party i get in seems to have very high quality players in it, each player good enough that, it one person isnt doing so hot (IE they dont know their job) the rest of ther group can easily make up the slack and continue to level at a good to resonable speed. The only real problem i see with my server is our Economy which is really wacked compared to the other servers.

Overall I love my server.