Thinking of coming back. Have a few questions.

[Zalius]

Heyas, I used to play this game way back when it first came out (had a 65 paladin and most jobs above 50 when i stoped playing) I am wondering how is the economy in the game? is it more new player friendly? Which is a high population server to join that has people on at all hours of the day? Also.. Anyone have a buddy pass for that free trial they willing to spare. :P. Me and a real life friend of mine is thinking of both picking FF11 up, and bascally I am doing the research for us.

[Neomage]

By, "New Player Friendly", do you mean easier to make money from NPCs, or easier to make money from AH? Due to the massive RMT bannings, the FFXI economy has experienced a massive deflation. NPCs still buy things at the same price, but since an individual gil is worth more, it seems like you can get more from them.

On the other hand, the AH fees remain unchanged, so you have to be smart about what you sell to the AH and what you sell to the NPCs. An example of this are Earth Crystals. In [Jeuno anyway], it costs 425 gil to put a stack of Earth Crystals(A very popular item for new players to sell, since it's easy to get) on the Auction House. That nets a 75 gil profit, in addition to having to spend time {a) getting a full stack, and b)waiting for someone to buy.} On the other hand, if you sell them to an NPC they will pay 15 gil each, for a total profit of 180 gil.