Returning player looking for direction

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Originally Posted by BST

I recommend Asura because we have a huge active population, never mind the /yell for Merc and trash-talking, disable it as mentioned above!

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I don't think it is as huge as the "player" numbers in /sea all suggests.

It's good IF you find a good Linkshell that is on your level, and obviously active during your time zone.

Outside of that, it's a very lonely experience, especially for new players as the merc culture has pretty much destroyed the community aspect of the game.

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Originally Posted by Sirmarki

I don't think it is as huge as the "player" numbers in /sea all suggests.

It's good IF you find a good Linkshell that is on your level, and obviously active during your time zone.

Outside of that, it's a very lonely experience, especially for new players as the merc culture has pretty much destroyed the community aspect of the game.

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As I found out, this is very True, the Mercenary culture has Destroyed the Asura community.

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Originally Posted by Alphie

So, I'd like to address these two points.

My husband and I chose Asura for our server when we came back over an 11 or so year hiatus from the game. Looking up guides and other info, pretty much every one of them suggested Asura as the server to go to for activity/population.

As soon as I got into the game, I turned off /yell (I believe that is the channel that is used) and have not seen one gil/RMT seller since, nor has it affected our gaming experience.

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The problem is /yell is where people look for members and stuff. You can turn it off to blanket ignore RMT, but you'll also have a harder time knowing when people are looking for groups for stuff If you're on another server, most of the /yell activity you do see will be actual players rather than RMT as well. Second, there's more to a server than "activity/population." For one, Asura is actually overcrowded, and sometimes there can be a wait to get into certain things (though that has been improved with updates). It also means the game can be laggier sometimes. Also, other servers may have a smaller population, but it tends to be a higher quality population that does more to help each other out with fewer cheaters and RMT. Sheer player numbers is not a good metric to pick a server by. You couldn't pay me to move to Asura. I have friends here and most people help each other and tend to be far more friendly.

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Second, I had to look up what "mercs" are, and essentially they are what boxers are in EverQuest, one person buying multiple accounts to play at once. So what? Things like that have been going on for AGES, it's just now that programs and hardware make it easier to do now.

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Mercs are people who sell drops or content clears for gil so that people who don't want to do content can pay other people to do it for them. Multi-boxers are not necessarily mercs, nor are mercs necessairly multi-boxers. Mercs can be a party of actual people.

I can play with people on Shiva any time of the day even with a fraction of Asura's numbers. As a percentage I don't feel any other server's population is less "active" than Asura's. every one of them has their share of multibox accounts and bots., in fact Asura most likely has a larger porportion.

Just returned from a very long time away. Used to play on ps2 but now i need to set up on a pc. Do I need to purchase the game all over. I logged in and reactivated my old account on square enix. Would be more than happy to change worlds and join up.

ty

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Originally Posted by NathanHedera

Just returned from a very long time away. Used to play on ps2 but now i need to set up on a pc. Do I need to purchase the game all over. I logged in and reactivated my old account on square enix. Would be more than happy to change worlds and join up.

ty

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Welcome back!

You can download the installation media from the official PlayOnline website, so no need to re-buy anything that you already have registered to your account.

EU: http://www.playonline.com/ff11eu/dow...stall_win.html
US: http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/dow...stall_win.html

As noted earlier in the thread, I reccomend against changing servers, unless you have friends still playing who moved and you want to be with them. The game is perfectly fine and playable on any server and you'll be helping to make whatever server you're on a better place by being there.

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Originally Posted by Alphie

My husband and I chose Asura for our server when we came back over an 11 or so year hiatus from the game. Looking up guides and other info, pretty much every one of them suggested Asura as the server to go to for activity/population..

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No you been there based of Blue Gartr which has been always a more elitist group. They provide information but that is the only existing place that actually recommend Asura. Clopedia, ZAM, even Reddit don't do such thing.

I got baited into that and if you wish to really play the game and enjoy it, it is a mistake. RMT everywhere, bots in every zones farming endless and killing everything on sight. Competition in every zones, rude people doing mob stealing. Never any party invite unless you REMA, if it's for a quest, you still on your own unless you hire because Asura is a merc culture based server, either it players or RMT.

People who recommend Asura don't even do themselves a favor by constantly recommending it, FFXI is JUST not designed to have this much character in one place. Even in prime days it never had this many players by server. And above all, end up ruining the game for actual new players who may have legitimate question or are in need of real help.

So I ended up having to Move off of Asura after Six Months, the fact EVERYTHING is extreme-level Botted makes it really, really difficult to enjoy playing there.

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Originally Posted by BST

So I ended up having to Move off of Asura after Six Months, the fact EVERYTHING is extreme-level Botted makes it really, really difficult to enjoy playing there.

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My personal experience is that a greater porportion of the players on other servers are legit players and not RMT/other undesireables.

Of course, really SE should be doing more about these things, but it seems like they gotta get at least $12.95 out of every cheater before banning them or something because it seems like that's how long it takes.

Not everyone can enjoy the endgame content (included myself). Sure, voice chat is what makes the community great. Some people have to use a program to lower the stress from healing/buffing other players.

Best of luck, small servers! :)