WARNING - New Players or Players thinking of coming back - Consider this first.

[Tokiro]

I have to agree with Vyhakeyo. The server you are on really does make a difference. I was on Gilgamesh before it merged with Carbuncle. After the merge, the general feel of the server didn't change much, but everyone was either in an Abyssea Linkshell or doing stuff within their linkshell in Abyssea. I also moved to Lakshimi and was pleasantly surprised to find people levelling their jobs and the endgamers. The endgamers are not 'in your face' endgamers either and seem to just be well into the game for the fun. There are still some weirdos as in any community, but Lakshimi is great.
As for your 'warnings' to new players, I don't think you should generalize quite so much. I help people whenever they ask me to, so long as its not 'Hey, be my biatch for a couple of hours, will ya?' I'm trying to enjoy myself in-game too, and having to race around collecting things for a newbie who has not had the foresight to find out what he or she needs beforehand is not my idea of a pleasurable afternoon. Send me a tell saying you're stuck in a mission/quest and can't find out how to move on and I'll spend as much time as it takes getting you through it. I have also had the 'give me gil' tells and even some moron who spammed trade on me while I was levelling clothcraft. Introduce yourself, tell why you are in a fix and ask whether you have missed something. Just the other day, a player shouted for help with Nyzul and I sent him a tell with various troubleshooting solutions. He kept up the convo for as long as he needed my help and then suddenly, once he had got where he wanted to go, nothing. Ignored my tells asking whether he'd made it. I checked where he was and found him in the right place. No thanks, no acknowledgement. If I were to judge all newbies by him, I would never send a tell again. But I don't. I still send tells. I like people. I just like polite people. Call me old-fashioned.

[Winrie]

I have to agree with Vyhakeyo. The server you are on really does make a difference. I was on Gilgamesh before it merged with Carbuncle. After the merge, the general feel of the server didn't change much, but everyone was either in an Abyssea Linkshell or doing stuff within their linkshell in Abyssea. I also moved to Lakshimi and was pleasantly surprised to find people levelling their jobs and the endgamers. The endgamers are not 'in your face' endgamers either and seem to just be well into the game for the fun. There are still some weirdos as in any community, but Lakshimi is great.
As for your 'warnings' to new players, I don't think you should generalize quite so much. I help people whenever they ask me to, so long as its not 'Hey, be my biatch for a couple of hours, will ya?' I'm trying to enjoy myself in-game too, and having to race around collecting things for a newbie who has not had the foresight to find out what he or she needs beforehand is not my idea of a pleasurable afternoon. Send me a tell saying you're stuck in a mission/quest and can't find out how to move on and I'll spend as much time as it takes getting you through it. I have also had the 'give me gil' tells and even some moron who spammed trade on me while I was levelling clothcraft. Introduce yourself, tell why you are in a fix and ask whether you have missed something. Just the other day, a player shouted for help with Nyzul and I sent him a tell with various troubleshooting solutions. He kept up the convo for as long as he needed my help and then suddenly, once he had got where he wanted to go, nothing. Ignored my tells asking whether he'd made it. I checked where he was and found him in the right place. No thanks, no acknowledgement. If I were to judge all newbies by him, I would never send a tell again. But I don't. I still send tells. I like people. I just like polite people. Call me old-fashioned.

^ Decent people do exist.

[geekgirl101]

You're on the wrong realm, come to Leviathan. :P

[chubrocka]

You're on the wrong realm, come to Leviathan. :P

I agree Pipps.

[Inafking]

I didn't think jumping servers would help. I have one character that has been on 3 worlds. They were all prety much the same. Then I found this page:

http://www.ffxiah.com/database

It could be posible that these are good server jump destinations:
Lakshmi Valefor Bismarck Cerberus Quetzalcoatl Sylph Leviathan

[Zatias]

Do NOT come to Asura. Most of the people there are complete dumbasses. Port Jeuno is a nest full of hungry trolls waiting to pounce upon new players at the slightest need for help.

That's not saying the whole server is bad, but there are faaaaar too many people like this. I guess it's like chat roulette, there are a few nice people waiting if you don't mind wading through all the dicks to find them. XD

That being said I really enjoy helping struggling players. I don't enjoy handing them money, however. I have done that a few times and am 10M poorer than I should be. ^^;

[Aeonk]

FFXI is still accessible to new players, but they have to be motivated to actually get things done on their own rather than wait for it to be handed to them.
I'll generally help or give advice to anyone who asks for it (provided I'm not busy), but I don't enjoy holding their hand throughout the whole thing.

Even with other lvl 90 players, there's a big difference between "Can anyone help me get THF seals? I need 8 still" and "hey I'm going to kill this NM, <player1>, <player2> are you guys busy?"

This applies to newbs and veterans alike: Be direct, be motivated, don't abuse other's help all the time, use wiki or some other reference so you're not clueless about what we're doing, and 9/10 times people will help you.

[Solonuke]

I think being new at this game has always sucked. You don't have a lot of gil, you have a lot of missions to do, a lot of subjobs to level up, a lot of magic to learn and that the game doesn't tell you anything whatsoever. I thought starting over sucked because of I spent most of my time leveling up jobs with either one or two strangers (if a zone had any) until I could do more interesting stuff like missions, quests and endgame.

I personally wouldn't recommend anyone to start playing FFXI probably because of it's the greatest timesink in the world.

[Meyi]

Bismarck has a very... large social linkshell called TalesofVesperia. Not the brightest or best players, but there are a few gems. Wizkid is extremely helpful and there's never a time I go in there and he's not helping someone. You two should quit your characters, delete them, and move to Bismarck. I'll even help you get back to where your last character left off.

[Inafking]

FFXI is still accessible to new players, but they have to be motivated to actually get things done on their own

<sarcasim>Yeah, I know lots of people who soloed G1-8, AF, Missions, Quests, etc.</sarcasim>

I don't have the words to describe how badly you need to go away.