As the first on this thread, a serious question...

[Lamer]

I changed to Leviathan by making a new character. The people there are so much nicer. I am very happy with this game now bc I have a support system in case I need it. I joined a linkshell and they gave me gil to buy scrolls, helped me with 2nd job items, and answer any of my silly questions. It's very different if you have a linkshell. I like the game even more now.

edit: if you are new like me, don't pick Cerebreus server. The people there are (mostly) into themselves and dont even talk to you. Those who do are rare and if u ask too many questions they get annoyed and ignore. Not so on Leviathan. It has good people.

[katz]

love being invited to party and when you check they are level 7 and you are level 90. Hang about in the "just out side the city" areas and you will find new players wandering about telling you you can get to Jeuno they will take you but they dont have a chocobo or airship pass or even ops lol. This is one of the reasons why I dont go to Abyssea until I have reached 75. Who needs another 90 that quick any ways. You find lots of nice players still outside having a blast.

[Littlesinger]

I have read a couple pages of these posts and decided I did want to comment. I have found that the AH on Ifrit has been strongly declining on whats available.. and part of that is where end game players spend all their time anymore..

It used to be you would see people crafting everywhere.. now its a shock to see someone do a craft.. even if it is holy water or a water tank for a nm fight in abyssea. I currently have 2 jobs at 85.. I dont have the merits for 90..

I rarely see parties anywhere.. most of the players I see are heading to abyssea. I can usually look on my ls and see 3/4 of everyone on in an abyssea zone.. some doing nms some doing exp.. some working quests.. but I see few partied outside there.. and on whole server I only know of one person who consistantly crafts.. and he has complained multiple times at the lack of simple cooking ingredients available at ah..

I really think the 75 cap for abyssea is going to help.. but people will just burn and pl themselves to 75 to get back to abyssea.

As for standard end game events.. I currently have no assault wins.. no nyzul runs complete.. and not a single set of missions complete.. as my two 85s are whm and blm.. kinda hard to solo anything as a taru whm..

When even someone as high as myself asks for help for a mission, the ones who bother to respond are usually just telling me they are headed to abyssea or killing nms in abyssea..

to me.. YES abyssea has done damage to FFXI, it hasnt destroyed it.. but it is damaged.. hopefully with the cap of 75 some people will leave and start leveling the old way..

and maybe with the exp boost.. people will level in old areas.. before toau so less blm are stuck soloing or burning to 75 after parties move to toau areas...

[Carth]

Echoing that Abyssea did some significant damage to the rest of the content. As a returning player (who was level 80) I was surprised at the extreme lack of people doing previous endgame content. I knew it would water down but I never expected it die. Worst part is almost all linkshells are dedicated to Abyssea or VNMs (which eventually go into Abyssea).

I also invited a friend into the game, and I had to make a new character on another server due to the merge. I can say straight-up that it is atrociously hard to make a dime, and the world just feels barren. Thanks to my experience I know how to make money (rule of thumb: if it stacks, put it on the AH), but I can't say the same for new players. Fortunately they're mergering the AHs into one system, which'll make this tons easier on the new players, but then there's the issue of no one crafting since you need money to craft in the first place, and with the Synergy update to augment old items this'll alienate crafting even further.

I'm usually one to say that expansions and new content should be catered to high levels since newer players have the old content to go through, but this really isn't the case anymore. There needs to be some catering to lower levels, and it doesn't need to be something like boosting EXP. A good first step is pushing the level restriction in Abyssea to 75, but I'd take it a step further and put new low level equipment that can be NPC-bought or quested.

[Jassik]

I'm fairly new as well, started an account about 4 years ago when I bought the game and got bored really fast because there wasn't any kind of easily found tutorial. I came back in January and got really lucky. I ran into a guy while running from a pair of goblins and he added me to his LS. They have been really helpful and I try not to abuse it.

But, I have noticed one thing, rather than help you accomplish something, a lot of veteran members will just drag you around. Go click this, lot that, wait here, etc. There's a lot of really tedious stuff to do early on, and it's nice to just get it over with, but I had subjob items in my inventory before I was even ready to use them. Looking back, I'm glad I was able to just get it done, but I think I missed out on a lot.

I have noticed it being a lot more populated since the merger, and a lot easier to pickup a party at almost any level. As long as you're in an area where people party at around your level with your flag up, you'll get a party pretty quick.