A question for those who no longer play.

[Feba]

Simply; what would it take to get you to return? No, or lower, monthly fees? Some new job (Time Mage, for instance)? Something more?

Personally, I'd probably return if FFXI were made for some platform I have (or would want to have)

Things that would bring me back, going from most likely to least likely,

1- FFXI running without problems on linux; be it a native port or running under Wine.
2- FFXI running without problems under a PS2 emulator.
3- My somehow obtaining a PS3
4- FFXI ported to DS (I still say this is possible, even if it's laughably unlikely!)
5- FFXI ported to Wii (While far far more likely, this just wouldn't interest me as much, as I don't really want to hook my Wii up to a computer monitor, and I can't imagine playing FFXI on a TV, odd as it may sound.)

[Jei]

If I get my character back, I would play again.

[Telera]

I guess I'll go in a similar order. Those that would have the most impact down to those with the least.

1- More soloability that doesn't have to be 'earned'. I don't have to earn the right to party, I don't want to have to 'earn' the right to solo. This is the only game I've ever encountered with this bullshit implemented. I also want the ridiculous ass 'penalty' on it gone. Make the exp decent and more efficient. I don't like PUGs. Or people in general, and don't play enough to make it worth my time to party. And 6+ hours with 5 silent people is not my idea of an entertaining evening.

2- Fixes to summoner. I have no specific ideas on what needs to be done, just that there need to be some.

3- No fee. I'd come back if I didn't have to pay. (See the Private Server thread.) I like this game, but not enough to play it that often. And that's $13 a month I'd be saving to treat myself to lunch a few days or something.

4- A way to make decent cash off Mob drops just by NPCing them. Really. The NPC sell prices fucking fail. When I was out farming I was better served just dropping most of the 'garbage' drops to keep inventory space free, as at most all you'd net is maybe what? 1k gil? lawlz.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

1- More soloability that doesn't have to be 'earned'. I don't have to earn the right to party, I don't want to have to 'earn' the right to solo. This is the only game I've ever encountered with this bullshit implemented. I also want the ridiculous ass 'penalty' on it gone. Make the exp decent and more efficient. I don't like PUGs. Or people in general, and don't play enough to make it worth my time to party. And 6+ hours with 5 silent people is not my idea of an entertaining evening.

I seriously don't understand why the WoW "Bait and Switch" approach is so preferred. You can solo all the way to max level and then, they pull the switch on you - you can't do anything without anyone. At least FFXI and the old school MMOs don't bullshit you from the start like that.

And really, to level fast in any of these new, inbred MMOs, its still more efficient to PT. I should also point out that solo MMOs tend to foster piss-poor endgame alliance play. Its worse than the "every man for himself" meritpo situation in FFXI, in fact, it makes that horrorifically broken mess look preferable.

Then there is gear balance, or a complete lack of it in WoW MMOs. New Expansion? Har har har, all that cool endgame stuff is obselete now, gain 10 new levels and start from the bottom, your 1337 gears are now noob trash.

2- Fixes to summoner. I have no specific ideas on what needs to be done, just that there need to be some.

SMN just got two huge boosts to main and from /SCH and new avatars on the way.

3- No fee. I'd come back if I didn't have to pay. (See the Private Server thread.) I like this game, but not enough to play it that often. And that's $13 a month I'd be saving to treat myself to lunch a few days or something.

Not happening with any real MMO, ever. Those fees pay for content updates and keeping those servers running.

4- A way to make decent cash off Mob drops just by NPCing them. Really. The NPC sell prices fucking fail. When I was out farming I was better served just dropping most of the 'garbage' drops to keep inventory space free, as at most all you'd net is maybe what? 1k gil? lawlz.

Sounds like you just failed at farming. Selphiie's farming guide shows a lot of worthwhile returns from NPC-able drops, its just they're not all equal. I'm not rolling in the gil on this game, but i don't I don't see the struggle people are having other than poorly managing thier time and in-game resources.

[Feba]

Not happening with any real MMO, ever.

Plenty of real (and extremely popular) MMOs beg to differ.

Those fees pay for content updates and keeping those servers running.


Of course; that doesn't mean it's the only way to get that money.

Really, BBQ, most of your points were actually valid, why do you always have to undermine yourself?

[Jei]

being able to solo isn't a bad thing. I for one don't think I can commit 20 hours a day to party like I used to anymore with jobs and everthing. Maybe 30 minutes a day lol :P And if I can get 100-200 EXP soloing during that time without stressing myself with fear of death, I'm happy. It doesn't have to be the best way of leveling up nor give me acceptable amout of exp at all. It's just nice to be able to do something in our limited time. That might actually make the game become relaxing to logon...

Then again you can argue, if I don't have time, FFXI isn't the game for me heh?

[Death Note]

Before I quit I played for about four to five years. (Three on the PS2 and Two on the PC)

I would come back if I could get a 360. That's all it would really take. lol

[little ninja]

I seriously don't understand why the WoW "Bait and Switch" approach is so preferred. You can solo all the way to max level and then, they pull the switch on you - you can't do anything without anyone. At least FFXI and the old school MMOs don't bullshit you from the start like that.

And really, to level fast in any of these new, inbred MMOs, its still more efficient to PT. I should also point out that solo MMOs tend to foster piss-poor endgame alliance play. Its worse than the "every man for himself" meritpo situation in FFXI, in fact, it makes that horrorifically broken mess look preferable.

Yes you can have parties on other mmo's and make way better exp then you can solo. Then again in those same mmo's you can solo and actually take a chunk out of your TNL bar. Here we struggle to take down even the lowest of mobs to only see 20-45 exp. Which is fine if your a couple 100 from your next lvl. But when your staring at 10k+ tnl its a huge drawback.


I Then there is gear balance, or a complete lack of it in WoW MMOs. New Expansion? Har har har, all that cool endgame stuff is obselete now, gain 10 new levels and start from the bottom, your 1337 gears are now noob trash.

Well Wow may have an issue with gear balancing. Then again look at what the face as appose to S.E. S.E has job vs mob thats it. Doesn't seem like it be that hard to address. Yet its taken them the games span to try and touch it.While WoW on te other hand has job vs mob and job vs player. An if that wasn't bad enough. Then you throw in the different servers PvE, PvP, RP, Norm. It makes handling gear and job balancing allot harder.

We can always point out that Wow jobs are always trying to be balanced for all the different servers. Which makes it hard enough. Now throw in trying to balance them for the different raid lvls makes it allot harder. S.E took 2 years to give Bst snarl other jobs are still waiting for upgrades while Sam has gotten how many more abilities?

Sure there will be more lvls added to Wow. But that doesnt make the current gear obsolete. An sure there will be added gear that is far better. But isnt that part of the whole process in the game. Why should players have to rely on gear thats over 4 years old. Look Sky drops are still the main sought after items ingame and Zilart is how old? Sure you can point out salvage gear, assault gear. But then you'd just be contradicting yourself.



Sounds like you just failed at farming. Selphiie's farming guide shows a lot of worthwhile returns from NPC-able drops, its just they're not all equal. I'm not rolling in the gil on this game, but i don't I don't see the struggle people are having other than poorly managing thier time and in-game resources.

Most of the guide does point out allot of worthwhile camps. The main problem is if you don't have the proper job to farm the mobs or the proper lvls. Then most of it might not be useful to them just yet. On that note depending on their server Auction Housing might not be an option to them as well either. Bastok with 50 stacks of bee chips does not make it a worthwhile farming idea.

[Raydeus]

I'm on a break right now, does that count Feba? :P

Probably the thing that bothers me the most and why I don't play sometimes even though I could is that muling takes so much time that I can't really do anything meaningful right away.

I just wish I could just log in, change jobs and go do whatever I wanted to do without having to mule for half an hour and up to an hour (which amounts 1/3 - 1/2 of the time I usually have to play :wasted:)

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Yes you can have parties on other mmo's and make way better exp then you can solo. Then again in those same mmo's you can solo and actually take a chunk out of your TNL bar. Here we struggle to take down even the lowest of mobs to only see 20-45 exp. Which is fine if your a couple 100 from your next lvl. But when your staring at 10k+ tnl its a huge drawback.

There have been nifty ways to fill that TNL bar faster well before ToA or WotG. There were ENMs and multiple EXP scroll quests you could have done to scam some extra EXP. Now there are even more options.

All these complaints about how hard it is to level are, quite frankly, tremendously outdated. Soloing might not be fast, but those who play it smart know how to do it faster and others. Those who play like lemmings will just have a harder time for it.




Well Wow may have an issue with gear balancing. Then again look at what the face as appose to S.E. S.E has job vs mob thats it. Doesn't seem like it be that hard to address. Yet its taken them the games span to try and touch it.While WoW on te other hand has job vs mob and job vs player. An if that wasn't bad enough. Then you throw in the different servers PvE, PvP, RP, Norm. It makes handling gear and job balancing allot harder.

SE has been known to balance jobs for PvP, in fact, some of the "nerfs" were for the benefit of job balance outside and inside of PvP in FFXI. March 2004 TP nerf was just as much about ballista as it was about killing a brainless exploit.

And you're right WoW has the PvP and PvE servers, the game has also been out for almost three and a half years now and its just as slow - if not slower - about balancing jobs that FFXI has been. How long did they let Shaman be gods in that game?

We can always point out that Wow jobs are always trying to be balanced for all the different servers. Which makes it hard enough. Now throw in trying to balance them for the different raid lvls makes it allot harder. S.E took 2 years to give Bst snarl other jobs are still waiting for upgrades while Sam has gotten how many more abilities?

Sam has gotten a grand total of two updates in a year and a half. The 2H adjustment was unversal to jobs that used 2H. DRK, quite hoestly, has gotten more updates in the last year than any other job in the game. I don't really count SCH's update as an update, just a completion of the job. It was incomplete.

BST has had numerous updates to reward, then there was the update to jug pets and most recently, the addition of Snarl.

COR, BLU and PUP all got thier tweaks too, and I would be disappointed with SE if they didn't round out the newer jobs first. In fact, SE still has A LOT to answer for the ToA jobs and soon the WotG where RoZ and CoP content is concerned.


Sure there will be more lvls added to Wow. But that doesnt make the current gear obsolete. An sure there will be added gear that is far better. But isnt that part of the whole process in the game. Why should players have to rely on gear thats over 4 years old. Look Sky drops are still the main sought after items ingame and Zilart is how old? Sure you can point out salvage gear, assault gear. But then you'd just be contradicting yourself.


There's no contradiction, I don't think you even know what that word means.

Old content should remain relevant, even be updated to continue to be relevant because new players will come along and want to experience it and will require gear from it. WoW takes the easy way out and raise the cap to obselete the cotent, directing the kids to a new ride.

WoW endgame gear ceases to be endgame gear by the raised level cap that comes with each expansion. FFXI doesn't raise the cap - the subjob system is treadmill enough and raising the cap would completely subvert how subjobs worked and result in unbalancing the game compeltely - no job would hold anything unique if the cap was raised.

Since the cap won't be raised, SE instead makes endgame gear with different specializations.

Just as an example, there's no question that RNG gets some of its best gear in sky. But in that regard, we're just talking about netting +25 STR/AGI/MND/DEX. These are most certainly great stats to have, particularly for maxing out your bow damage, but if you want to max your potential with Crossbow or get best attack stats, gotta do a bit more work.

Skadi, Pahluwhan Denali and Scout's Set all have things a RNG could make use of as well, but none of it takes away from the Sky gear entirely or each other. And not all of it is exactly simple to get. Rarity does give a lot of this gear meaning.

Most of the guide does point out allot of worthwhile camps. The main problem is if you don't have the proper job to farm the mobs or the proper lvls. Then most of it might not be useful to them just yet. On that note depending on their server Auction Housing might not be an option to them as well either. Bastok with 50 stacks of bee chips does not make it a worthwhile farming idea.

The point is, the gil is there. You're not supposed to start out a millionare in this game. A new player will farm different things depending on where they start, but only a complete fool throws everything away.

[little ninja]

There have been nifty ways to fill that TNL bar faster well before ToA or WotG. There were ENMs and multiple EXP scroll quests you could have done to scam some extra EXP. Now there are even more options.

All these complaints about how hard it is to level are, quite frankly, tremendously outdated. Soloing might not be fast, but those who play it smart know how to do it faster and others. Those who play like lemmings will just have a harder time for it.






SE has been known to balance jobs for PvP, in fact, some of the "nerfs" were for the benefit of job balance outside and inside of PvP in FFXI. March 2004 TP nerf was just as much about ballista as it was about killing a brainless exploit.

And you're right WoW has the PvP and PvE servers, the game has also been out for almost three and a half years now and its just as slow - if not slower - about balancing jobs that FFXI has been. How long did they let Shaman be gods in that game?



Sam has gotten a grand total of two updates in a year and a half. The 2H adjustment was unversal to jobs that used 2H. DRK, quite hoestly, has gotten more updates in the last year than any other job in the game. I don't really count SCH's update as an update, just a completion of the job. It was incomplete.

BST has had numerous updates to reward, then there was the update to jug pets and most recently, the addition of Snarl.

COR, BLU and PUP all got thier tweaks too, and I would be disappointed with SE if they didn't round out the newer jobs first. In fact, SE still has A LOT to answer for the ToA jobs and soon the WotG where RoZ and CoP content is concerned.



There's no contradiction, I don't think you even know what that word means.

Old content should remain relevant, even be updated to continue to be relevant because new players will come along and want to experience it and will require gear from it. WoW takes the easy way out and raise the cap to obselete the cotent, directing the kids to a new ride.

WoW endgame gear ceases to be endgame gear by the raised level cap that comes with each expansion. FFXI doesn't raise the cap - the subjob system is treadmill enough and raising the cap would completely subvert how subjobs worked and result in unbalancing the game compeltely - no job would hold anything unique if the cap was raised.

Since the cap won't be raised, SE instead makes endgame gear with different specializations.

Just as an example, there's no question that RNG gets some of its best gear in sky. But in that regard, we're just talking about netting +25 STR/AGI/MND/DEX. These are most certainly great stats to have, particularly for maxing out your bow damage, but if you want to max your potential with Crossbow or get best attack stats, gotta do a bit more work.

Skadi, Pahluwhan Denali and Scout's Set all have things a RNG could make use of as well, but none of it takes away from the Sky gear entirely or each other. And not all of it is exactly simple to get. Rarity does give a lot of this gear meaning.



The point is, the gil is there. You're not supposed to start out a millionare in this game. A new player will farm different things depending on where they start, but only a complete fool throws everything away.

Enms, Well unless I am mistaken. 1. You need a certain lvl requirment. 2. Advanced the story to a certain part. 3. Have 3-18 people. Yeah this is a wonderfully great way to narrow the exp gap. Ohh sure you can do pulling the strings. But thats not to lvl 60 and the only solo thing going.

Escort quests are just like the above noted. You must have advanced the storyline, You must be a certain level, or you need a group. Once again there is no solo there unless your highend, or have highend help. Of course there is the chicabo version. But thats once a week for 500ish exp.

Sure you can solo. But you have to have to right job to do it, the right subjob and depending on the route you go the gil to keep it up. Not to mention dealing with loads of downtime.

S.E balanced jobs to rid the game of exploits before it was ever about Ballista. Penta and Guilie to almost 100tp was causing to fast of a boost to exp. They dumbed that down to avoid this thing plus give other jobs help with party invites. It was never about Balista. Speaking of Balissta how are those doing nowadays. Thats right they are dead. An to be honest on my server they have been dead a long time. It helps to have S.E abandon it. Its not only this S.E abandons everything. An doesnt come back to them until years later. Besides Wow might be 3.5 years old. But FFXI is 6-7 years old.

Wow is always trying to be balanced. The problem arises because in PvE Warrior might be the be all end all. But when the same geared War is on a PvP server everyone owns him. I have no clue why this hapens. But thats what it does. Not to mention they try to balance them from lvl to lvl. In a 39 battleground a lock is a joke. But in the mid 40 battlegrounds lock destryes all. Thsi is what they constantly balance. But this doesnt effect the battlegrounds. But the raids on town and the numerous duels.Throw in trying to figure out how a job will spec in the 3 catogories and how it will fare against another specced job takes time to balance. Its not like S.E's 1% merit which we never really see trigger.

I thought sam got hasso, seigan, an sekkikoki or something like that As for Drk they got 2 spells and stuff they have to merit it for. Bst got snarl 2 and a half years late. But that only works if your using a jug pet which is rare. Certain jugs got a time extender. Which was what 15mins on some and 30mins on those never ever used. Regen on pets which is basically what they did when you left them. An reward regen which isnt that much. An then we got reward timer reduced which is basically the only good thing. Funny though about these updates for Bst not only where they around 3 years in the making from the mpk patch. These were things S.E and players said would break the game. An make Bst to much of a powerhouse.

Actually if you look at it Wows endgame gear becomes normal gear. An there will be something better to intice the masses. S.E is the same way, Af > Af2 > Af+1 > Af2 +1. Both games gear is a pain in the ass to get. Both games have gear that is useless and worthless, or becomes worthless a minute later.

S.E could easily raise the cap. Would it really break endgame. Stats really wouldn't go up that much to effect the game. As it is things like Kirin are killed in under 3 minutes. The cap being raised wont worsen it. We can argue that subjobs would imbalance things with abilities and spells. Then again we can always treat them like WS and make them Exe to the job being main. You can always move spells around. S.E has already done this in the past. The door is open. Its the refusal to walk thru it.

Though I dont ever expect to see cap raise. The game is to far along to have it implemented now. But this is something they could have easily been done before or during CoP.

As for money. I was going off of 1 example I used to farm when I was young. Id list other things but most fo those nms have been gimped. I am not to sure which things young guns farm now.

[Omecle]

What would it take for me to come back to Final Fantasy XI?

Perhaps if all my close friends that I made on the game, came back and played frequently. Also it'd be nice if I didn't have to spend five hours a day to work towards anything worthwhile in the game.

Oh, and perhaps to have more community involved in low-level activities. Before I left the game last year, I felt so lonely levelling one of the most popular jobs at around level 25 and up (Bard), and used to wait hours on end for party invites.

They're pretty much my only reasons for not coming back.

[Telera]

Nah, I was good at farming, BBQ, I just find it idiotic in the extreme that NPC buy and sell prices are still so bizarre. They charge an arm and a leg for potions/gear, and they don't give you very much for anything you bring them. The AH being the be all/end all of money making (for the most part) is my real problem with the economy. I quit long before Selphiie graced us with her guide, or at least before I ever saw it here, or I would probably have made use of it. It's a very nice guide. It would just be better if the NPCs actually gave us a non-insulting amount of money for drops. That way if you had something you couldn't move on the AH, you wouldn't have to take such huge losses.

I farm much more efficiently on LotR in either case. As in I don't have to spend a week+ to get enough money for good gear. Have better things to do with my time. Mostly I'm just sick of games that take lots of time. The end. I've become a casual gamer and until XI becomes that I'd not come back. Not saying it isn't fine how it is. It's peachy for a more dedicated style MMO. But that wasn't what Feba asked. He asked what would bring us back. And that's what would bring me back.

If he'd asked if I think the game actually should change, my answer would be no. Why should it? It's doing rather well just how it is.

And I've never played WoW, so the bait and switch goes over my head. LotR doesn't bait and switch, I practically duo'd my way to 50 and never had to raid in my life, unless I really get bored enough to do Rift. And really, not interested in the lore-rape that is killing a balrog, so I don't do Rift. I raid in the Ettens only because solo Creeps are cannon fodder. If we weren't so pitifully weak compared to the Freeps, I'd stay solo or small group there, too.

When the cap goes to 60, Matt and I will go up to Angmar, finish that quest hub we have waiting on us, and move on to the new quests and continue duo/trio'ing our way to cap. I like it better that way. We can RP, we can actually talk. And it's just more amusing all around. If we need a party for some odd reason, we have a huge ass kin we're in to hit up. I don't PUG anymore.

Ninja edit: To save you some trouble, BBQ, I will sum myself up: Lazy Telera is lazy. :D

[Ameroth]

And if I can get 100-200 EXP soloing during that time without stressing myself with fear of death, I'm happy. It doesn't have to be the best way of leveling up nor give me acceptable amout of exp at all. It's just nice to be able to do something in our limited time. That might actually make the game become relaxing to logon...

Campaign Battle. You'll actually get a little bit (read a lot) more than 100-200 exp in a half hour.

[Shadowneko]

when did this become WoW debate? The more I read about that game the less I understand why it's so popular. I quit FFXI for like a month and came back because I missed it.

Mostly I think the casual RPG thing is ruining MMOs to a certian extent. Using what I keep reading about things like WoW...well someone like me who can play 2-4 hrs a night can get to lvl 70(current top lvl) in it in less than two months. Then all there is to do besides pick up gear(which you can mostly ignore[to a certian extent]untill endgame) is a few raids that really aren't that hard to run through compared with things I've done in other RPGs. Dynamis is our raid system and everything in there is basicly a boss...and I've seen people die there on inocennt looking mobs..even wipe!

I like this crazy hardcore game....but maybe you don't? I just don't get those casual MMOs at all....and I probabaly never will...

[Kittyneko]

I play both FFXI and WoW.
I never quit FFXI, meaning never cancelled my account. But it has happened that I didn't log on much for a month or two in a row.

The only reason I decide to boot up a different game than FFXI, is because I want to.. I never really put much thought into it. Most of the steady players, when they get behind their computer the first thing they do automatically is boot up FFXI, without thinking about it much. They just log on and then see what they want to do. While I do and have done this myself a lot.. sometimes I just feel like playing something else, and so I do. :P If I end up playing it for months in a row, than that's that.

I swear, not once have I seen the term "FFXI" on the WoW forums or ingame.
Everytime some mentions WoW, you're advertising the game and showing how small FFXI community is compared to WoW, and I'm sure you don't want that. :P
It's like people from some small country, lets say Farawayslavia, always talking about USA being the land of miracles, but 99.9% of USA hasn't even heard of Farawayslavia.

[Feba]

Everytime some mentions WoW, you're advertising the game and showing how small FFXI community is compared to WoW

Calling FFXI small is more like calling Japan small. It's not small, you're just comparing it to titanics in the same category.

FFXI is still, last I checked, in the top 5 MMOs in terms of subscribers-- it's definitely in the top ten. To look at it another way, assuming there are 32 servers with 2000-4000 players online at any given time each, that's a total of around two hundred thousand people online simultaneously. That is huge-- EVE online; not counting chinese servers; has pushed around 40k at their peak times (oddly enough, the figures I've seen point to them having similar subscriber numbers, although I could be confusing total accounts with active subscribers)

[Kitalrez]

Well, as someone who left then came back, I guess I could pipe up on here as to what it was that did make me come back to play. That would be nostalgia. No matter how bad the game is, I've still had a good time here. I came here back at the NA release after about 3-4 years on Everquest. I hated EQ at this point, it was a pain to log on. Everyone min-maxed the living daylights out of every encounter, Verant Interactive and Sony rarely bothered to let players in on things they were changing, or even seek our input on how things were working. Events were mainly excuses for the GM staff to massacre players, pretend every GM in this game is GM[Dave] and they write the content of the event. It felt like working a degrading job by the time I got to endgame. So I came here. My first day in the game I got a pointy hat for my caster, something I'd been asking for in EQ for years. After that, I enjoyed a wonderful cathartic release from running around in a pumpkin shaped hat and whacking things with a little bat on a stick. I met nice people, and I had fun. Most of them are gone now. I started on WHM, and hated partying, so I found my own way to make it to the 20s. It was slow, but I enjoyed myself.

After awhile, I blew up at a few ls's... I put a buttload of work into one, and the leader decided to punish people for not promoting his own agenda better. He booted my friends, and I went with them. On my own, I grew more and more distant from the people who were enjoying the endgame, and after retreating as far as I was comfortable with, struck out for other games.

I have learned something from other MMOs out there. They, by and large, suck. Content isn't great, or if it is pretty good and has potential it's rare that that potential is realized. Take Saga of Ryzom for example, it was founded on a great set of ideas, the original parts of the game are fun to play. However, Nevrax went under due to poor marketing or market variations very soon after it was released. It never got a real US following, and now it's sort of stagnant and unpleasant to play. D&D Online suffers from the opposite problem, they had a horrible set of ideas based on a pretty decent module. They had great game structure and development, but that was all lost when you realized it had about the same level of story arc as Everquest had. It just wasn't fun to play after a week or two. Which was a shame since you had a month free and it took less time than that to get to or close to max level and realize how empty the content was.

The people that play MMOs fall into two categories. Ruthless min/maxing dipshits, and the types of people you actually enjoy being around. In my tour of Ryzom, D&DO, Corum, and Rappelz, I found that these two types of players usually were distributed in about the same amounts across the sphere. If I really applied myself, I could easily find someone who's worth to me was so incredibly low that I could easily see myself driving across country to forcibly sterilize them. By the same token, I could find people I really wished I could meet IRL and hang out with. Relationships can be forged anywhere, it doesn't matter how odd the backstory is. If there's a chance to group with people, or join their guild, you can meet worthwhile or worthless individuals.

So, I came back here. I was only intending to stay for a month or so, see my old friends and regroup a little. That was January. Since my departure my old friends are largely gone or no longer play enough to really stay in touch. I'm still here. I guess if I had to say why, it'd be because I've met new people who I like just as well, and if they leave I know I can always find someone else to play with. The story is good, the content is enjoyable, and the idiots leave in roughly the same amounts as the good players. Its all a matter of patience, really. On my return, I got into campaign, which I was pleasantly surprised to find a viable way of soloing my way up on several jobs. I can solo WHM again and I can't believe how much fun I've been having doing this. I made the last 4 levels of summoner doing this as well. As for my relationships? Well, I know I can build them anywhere now, it's just a matter of choosing where to start. I like this place at the moment. If the people I need aren't here, I know which types of people can grow into them, and I'm more than willing to start building.

[Rain_Blade]

Well...if there were a much lower population of idiots and greedy people(which popular online game DOESN'T have that?) and a better Summoner fix, then I could have a change of thought. I also left because of the Auction House craziness with the prices going extremely low making many things nonprofitable in Asura (didn't wanna change servers either).

[dirtyclown]

I like this crazy hardcore game....but maybe you don't? I just don't get those casual MMOs at all....and I probabaly never will...

If your idea of hardcore is wasting 5+ hours just to get a cool new hat, then you need to get your head examined.

[Jarre]

I just lost the spark i got when I first played the game, levelling was much harder with the reduced time I could play the game expecially when people didn't want you unless you could spend 4 hours+ in the party. When you work for a living, want to spend some quality time with some special person as well as having other commitments, that time gets very short and I was rejected from parties because of it. One guy told me I was weak for not having enough time to play" translated he was telling me I was weak for having a life?

I love computer games and still play them in my short time I can, but the MMO game in gneral is time consuming and doesn't fit my lifestyle anymore. I don't want to spend RL money to just fish, craft or farm all the time, to me that was boring. Granted SE has put a bonus on smaller parties, in my experience not many of them existed and when they did they wanted to do a long time or just didn't want to know.

The spark has gone for me, so rather than bitch and moan about the game all the time, I left, put the boxes and books into protected storage in my cupboard and moved on.

[Kitalrez]

This is kind of why I got so heavily into campaign when I came back. If I only had an hour or less to play today, I could log on, feed the chocobo, and run a campaign battle or two before I had to leave. I'd net between 2 and 5k exp off that, and could at least say I was making progress towards my next goal. This is probably the best new change they've made since I took the year off.

[Telera]

Mostly I think the casual RPG thing is ruining MMOs to a certian extent.

I don't. The people who like MMOs but aren't hardcore need somewhere to go. MMOs shouldn't be only for the die-hards. That's a good way to fuck over the genre. There should be a healthy mix of hard-core and casual MMOs, and at the moment, there are. I do wish that some of those who played the hard-core ones would stop pretending like they're oh so much better gamers, though.

Some of us want to play an MMO, but get sick to death of seeing people who started a year or two after us hit cap before us. I played FFXI 4 years and never got a single job to 75.

Blah, blah some people who work 60 hours a week pull it off. Whatever. I tried and couldn't. Not from lack of funds, but from lack of time. My work schedule isn't a nice, regular 9-5 office job with holidays and weekends off. I work all over the place, and most often during the prime-time afternoon/evenings when the rest of the world is off and partying in game. And when I had a day or evening off, spending 2+ hours seeking and another 6 hours just to ding wasn't the most exciting prospect in the world. I'd much rather have been out with friends, or at least socializing in the game.

Especially because I am at heart more of a socializer/roleplayer/explorer than an 'achiever'. I cannot stand - nor justify - something in the realm of 6 hours to gain one level. Killing 23094823423423 crawlers is the most boring thing in the world to me. 24+ hour respawns on an NM with R/EX equip that still isn't a 100% drop is yet another glorious waste of time I could never justify.

I get my sense of 'achievement' in a MMO not from gear or levels, but from exploring and helping others. (Also roleplaying, if you can even find any going on.) Leveling up is arbitrary at best, to me. And only useful so far as it allows me to help out my friends or guild/clan/linkshell/kinship. My thought on finally hitting cap on LotR wasn't 'Oh, wow, I did it.' It was 'Good frickin' lord. Finally I can stop worrying about this boring shit and have fun role-playing and messing around.'

And I personally like a game that lets me still advance without having to dedicate a 6-8 hour block to do so. Leveling is not fun to me. Even on LotRO. Unless someone is talking quite a bit, or even better, we are role-playing our way through it, I'm falling asleep. And by advance, I don't mean get 3k exp out of the 20-some oddk I need. Advance to me means to at least get half of the bar out of the way. Not 1/10th. I prefer to get a level each time I set out to level, but I'd settle for even half. (Note: this applies only to lvls 60-ish+. Of course you can ding lots of times earlier on. :p)

[Asmodai]

I'm still paying for 4 eve accounts as i've had a 3 week hiatus from EVE-online and counting. I've been playing it for 2 and a half years. Lately, I've been looking for something else to do besides log into eve every day when I wake up. Now im logging in to ffxi..lol. We all need a change of scenary every now and then to spice it up a lil.

I have all four Guildwars expansions and only played the last one for a lil bit till I was bored with it and went back to eve-online. I bought tabula rasa and played it for 2 months and was totally bored with it and went back to eve again. I don't know how long ill play ffxi till i get bored with it but im having fun every night with friends that play it. Will I go back to eve, more than likely yes. I'm almost done training marauders lvl 5 which will make running lvl 4 missions a whole lot easier..lol. but for now im still having fun with ffxi. So see you around.

[Bluecat]

I get bored very easily with games, so if I ever get bored with FFXI someone please shoot me in the head. Because at this current moment I am not bored with it. Also, just because you get bored with a game doesn't mean you have to cancel it I hate when people do that. Then they get mad that there account is gone when they want to play it again. Just keep your account, and don't delete it lol.

[neighbortaru]

/em pokes head in
if they made traveling around MUCH shorter... dare i say maybe instant

/ninja

[Murphie]

I get bored very easily with games, so if I ever get bored with FFXI someone please shoot me in the head. Because at this current moment I am not bored with it. Also, just because you get bored with a game doesn't mean you have to cancel it I hate when people do that. Then they get mad that there account is gone when they want to play it again. Just keep your account, and don't delete it lol.

Wait, you get bored very easily, so if you get bored with FFXI (which you claim happens pretty often), we have your permission to kill or at least seriously wound you?

Kickass.

[Feba]

Wait, you get bored very easily, so if you get bored with FFXI (which you claim happens pretty often), we have your permission to kill or at least seriously wound you?

They know what I like.

[Jei]

progress quest : / It's almost like a fancier stop watch. I wanna play my character myself.

[Yellow Mage]

Hey, Jei, have you tried recovering your account recently?

[Jei]

no. I don't really care anymore. Surprise I'm still hanging around this forum heh.