I'd like to complain a little bit about this game.
I'd like to begin by saying this is my favorite game. It's got a very interesting armor system, fun jobs to play as, and enough content variety to keep me coming back. I've also made new characters multiple times just to play through the story. It's one of the best storylines featured in an MMO, if not in all of video games that I have played. Problem is, the community is one of the most corrupt communities out there in any game. Players openly cheat. They encourage others to cheat. They spend real money buying ingame currency from Chinese money farmers. They then encourage others to do the same. They'll then tell you to take the money you bought and spend it on mercenaries to clear content. Long gone is the spirit of helping people out just for the sake of helping, they only help if you offer to pay for their services.
To make matters worse, the community is very ugly in their behavior towards the developers. They constantly trash talk them, spam the forums, and do everything in their power to make their lives miserable. It's such a shame because they're honestly doing good work, but the players are just so bitter over very trivial things.
I assume I'm not the only one who feels annoyed by all of this, but lately I've seen less and less people who play the game because they enjoy it. Even less who play the game without relying on cheats.
I realize nobody cares, thread's probably gonna 404 within minutes, but I just wanted to complain.
How many years have you been playing, OP? Thanks for complaining.
Josiah Davis
I want to say mid to late July of 2004. But it may have been August, now that I think about it. Memory's gotten a little spotty with things that far back.
I never really stopped playing the game, either. There were months where I didn't play, but was still subscribed. I'd treat it just like anyone would treat IRC or Discord. Keep it on in the background, chat with friends while I did other stuff.
David Adams
Also no FFXI thread would be complete without music, so here's a track that's been stuck in my head after wandering around in Wings of the Goddess.
It's the only FF I have yet to play. I really want to try it.
Bentley Martin
I could never get into MMOs or multiplayer games in general so I can't really relate.
Something about your thread made me want to post in it, and I like FF so whatever.
Jonathan Miller
it's cyclic on the mercing content: they themselves rmt the gil for cash and newbs in turn buy that sold gil for cash.
problem with cheating and exploits is that they hang around for a long ass time before getting patched. was like a year or so for the crafting exploit, year+ for the dyna-d medal exploit, and probably a few others left to some mercs/rmt not talking about it.
you can play it almost like a single player game now, though that's not too fun. with some shouts you'll probably wind up with some help along the way for the things you can't easily solo, or just hang out with folks for stuff. there's a few hundred hours of content to do, plenty of story and stuff before seeing its ending. as a long time player, the ending was worth it, you'll cry ugly tears. as a new player it's probably just a cool FF ending.
Elijah Miller
its a shame they killed this game after raising lvl 75 to 99. one of the best games out there and sometimes I hit the soundtrack up for some nostalgia feels
Isaac Cruz
>Players openly cheat. I only did this after they implemented sparks and other Adoulin shit to try and turn it into FFXIV lite. Fuck SE, I'm not farming sparks for ilevel shit.
>spend it on mercenaries to clear content. I've always hated this and the gil farming BS. Bad players shouldn't be able to clear content by rulebreaking. Not to mention the amount of shifties in late FFXI was pretty bad. There's so many ESLs out to screw you over by pretending not to understand English when it's time to divvy up loot. Fuck you Randolf and Freelancer of Bahamut
>but the players are just so bitter over very trivial things It's pointless and wrong to vent at the long time staff, but there's plenty of reasons to be mad at the company. Deliberate decisions were made to encourage and incentivise players to play XIV instead, before, when it was badly made (although I maintain that with some work, 1.0 could have been a much better mmo than ARR) and after. So much foreign and intrusive content was added, that showed they had learned after Abyssea, they just didn't care.
Nathaniel Rodriguez
I recommend it if you can find a group of people to play with. I'm lucky enough right now to have my best friend playing with me I've also met a few really nice players on the server I'm playing on now. Word of advice, don't play on Asura. That server is an amalgam of all of my complaints. Any other server is gonna be a much better time because you're not dealing with all the idiots of the English speaking community.
>it's cyclic on the mercing content: they themselves rmt the gil for cash and newbs in turn buy that sold gil for cash. It's such a vicious cycle, too. They merc content, sell the gil they get, and new players buy it to repeat it over and over. But at the very least, it's fun when they get banned. There was some drama a while back over someone cutting himself because he got banned for poshacks. These people are not normal. They're troubled and need help, but they keep digging into this game they supposedly hate. What a bizarre community, honestly.
>long ass time before getting patched That's true. Developers aren't entirely innocent here. But they're a small team of leftover staff members working on an old video game. They've talked countless times about some of the issues they've run into with the game. With the players, however, all they do is complain while botting everything. They cheat, they lie, they steal. When they get caught, they cry foul and say everyone else was doing it. It's easy to see why I'd complain about the players before the developers, when shit like that happens.
Brayden Kelly
>I only did this after they implemented sparks and other Adoulin shit to try and turn it into FFXIV lite. You really shouldn't. There is genuinely no excuse. If you've got a problem with Square Enix, take it up with them. Cheating in any game is only going to hurt your own enjoyment. So rather than cheat, you should've just taken a break. Come back months later, see what came of their decision. I did that with Abyssea. I still fucking hate Abyssea. But I'd never stoop to cheating just because of it.
Landon Williams
>These people are not normal. They're troubled and need help, but they keep digging into this game they supposedly hate Not him, I'm , I definitely agree with you there. I met someone on Bahamut, who was a great person, but she made friends with really weird left wing people, and they bullied and gaslit her for not being feminist enough, and she took it out on me.
I've met some other actually nice people who I hope are living well. There was a tarutaru couple, I must have been 12 or something at the time, this was over a decade ago, and the memories I have of them playing with me after school are something I'll cherish forever. Meeting people like that, who are that kind, leaves an impression on you. And it shows how well made a game it was at that time, that you could have meaningful relationships in that world. Not just people casting heal, protect and shell on strangers, but deeper lasting bonds.
Brody Sullivan
The community is truly shit, but it's not because they're all bad people, it's just the only people still playing this are the type of people with 12 REMA, and are 6-boxing, with each of their bot characters having REMA as well.
It's just pointless, if you're looking for help with anything don't expect it, at least not on Asura as the community there is so entitled.
Lucas Young
It was "just" skill training enhancing. I decided if everyone was going to become a half assed blue mage overnight in spite of my large time investment, I was going to try red mage. It's not like I didn't have the gear sets or anything, apart from most of the af gear.
Thomas Peterson
>So rather than cheat, you should've just taken a break. And you're right here, but I was a grouchy young adult by then, with noone to disappoint with my behaviour but myself. I obviously know now.
Asher Bailey
what the fuck do you mean by cheating in ffxi, using windower4? using multi-box setups? I honestly don't understand. Also, sparks, from what I can remember it was very inefficient to make money off sparks, it was much faster to make gil by waiting for events such as the voidwatch ones to farm HMP or other ultimate weapon upgrade items through merit point battles, since you could refill your merit points in like 5-10 minutes.
Samuel Wood
There was a Japanese player I used to play with long, long ago that told me that you should draw the line between your real life and your ingame life. Probably the best advice I've ever been given. I don't share my views on religion or politics. I keep it all to myself and just talk about the game. It has saved me a lot of annoyance.
Honestly sad to hear about your friend. No one deserves that kind of bullying.
>I've met some other actually nice people who I hope are living well. There I keep running into people from the past. The other day I ran into someone I haven't seen since 2006. Many laughs were had remembering old goofy things we did back then.
>It's just pointless, if you're looking for help with anything don't expect it, at least not on Asura as the community there is so entitled. Yes. I already suggested people avoid Asura. There is a good group of players still on there, however. But you'll have to sift through a lot of the shit I complain about. A lot of people accept because they enjoy seeing them make asses of themselves. But I've never been one for Schadenfreude.
We've all been there. We've all been angry. You're a good person. If I seemed rude in my previous post, I apologize.
React. Gilbuying. Multi-boxing with the help of scripts/addons/etc.
Ian Ross
i want to play again but then I realize the game I once played is gone, and not really the game, but the people I played with a decade ago, they're not there anymore, moved on with their lives, and so have I. It's just pointless for me. FFXI was never really about the game, it was about the friends we made along the way and for most of us that no longer exists.
Levi Howard
I don't disagree with you, but I also feel like it's not just the community. FFXI has a strong storyline. The weakest parts are probably Abyssea and Rhapsodies, but the rest is very consistent and connected in ways you wouldn't expect. Gameplay is in the eye of the beholder, I guess. There are certainly some parts that many might find unappealing. But I do enjoy FFXI's combat and equipment system. There's fun in min-maxing with what you have available. There's a very enjoyable journey in pursuit of efficiency and strength in this game. And this is from someone who primarily plays mage jobs and support roles.
I've been thinking about playing it again, but I really don't like the level cap raise. Thought about joining a private server, but I'm not sure.
What was the crafting exploit?
Adrian Long
I had some issues with the original level cap raise back near the end of Wings of the Godess that carried onto Abyssea. It was a horrible mess that threw everything out of whack. But Adoulin introduced item levels. A lot of people complained about it, but I feel like it's worked out pretty well. Currently the "Item Level Cap" is at 119. There's no intent to raise it further, according to the developers, but you never know. They said 75 was the cap for the longest time, after all. But the game is very clearly balanced around 119. You can get 119 gear really quickly and just solo all the story content, if that's your thing. You can get basic gear to join endgame events and "capacity points" parties (the replacement to merits, job points.) But the idea is that they've transitioned into a new period for the game and they're doing a good job of balancing around it.
The crafting exploit was around being able to synthesize new items without losing materials, if I'm not mistaken. You could cancel out of a synth that would break and repeat it endlessly. Market got flooded with High Quality crafts, mainly the new Divergence neck pieces and weapons, among others.
Sadly not a lot of cool remixes or arranges of FFXI songs out there.
Wyatt White
Merc culture and overt cheating is why I quit
Charles Gray
Yeah, it's often the most cited reason for why people quit. But luckily it's not so common on the smaller servers. Get out of Asura and you'll be free of it, for the most part. There are still gilbuyers, there are still 6bot RMTs, and there are still dual/triple/quad boxers who do everything on their own. But it's a handful of them among a population of 1000 people. Not as bad as Asura's population, where every other person tries to merc.
I probably wouldn't have a problem with mercing if they weren't so bad at it. Someone I knew spent 400+ million gil on a linkshell that merc'd Divergence Wave 3 clears. He paid once per clear, but it took them 3-4 tries each time before they could actually clear it. I, on the other hand, cleared it with a group of friends without any cost beyond what one would spend on food and meds.
Carson Wilson
So if I want an MMO like FFXI in its golden era of actually having to form parties and not just doing everything by myself what would people recomend?
I recommend FFXI. I still form parties, have an active linkshell, and work with others to achieve goals. I don't solo anything and I'm usually playing with friends. I'm against all the stuff I complain about in the opening post, so the group I run with are very similarly minded people. They exist in this game, just don't expect them to be majority. There will be people who will tell you to pay them (or their friends) for help, but you just ignore them and find the similar minded individuals to play with.
Benjamin Jackson
>Recommending any FF game after X Into the trash it goes.
Jonathan Howard
I think MMOshills are the worst
Jose Nguyen
Do you have access to a time machine?
Aiden Thomas
>barbarians pleb
Zachary Collins
Give it a try before you knock it. FFXI was in development around the same time as X. Many of the people who worked on 1-10 ended up working on it, too. It's got a lot of the classic Squaresoft flair, and was actually put together and released before the Enix merger. It's easy to dismiss it, but it's honestly got a lot of strong points.
