To: Mr Akihiko Matsui

[Eyeballed]

Hmm.... nevermind.

[Luvbunny]

Point is, I can no longer log in, do a /sea all XX-XX inv and know that every person with their flag up is looking for what I'm looking for. I now have to assume that people don't want that, and I should just go back to soloing and forget about it.

LOL - if I recall correctly in the old days you do exactly that and wait for hours for invite if you are not VIP jobs. This is why FoV was a huge success when it was created since people can solo while LFG and not waste their time sitting in Port Jeuno or Whitegate. XP party was a huge mess in the past and real inconvenience. Between travelling time, overcrowded camp, difficulty finding jobs xyz, it was just pure explosion of hot mess. As the game mature, you no longer have many new players, hence SE shift the grind to endgame now and give people options to speed level. Guess what muffin? 99% of the players took the bait and never look back.

[Eyeballed]

What you need to understand, is that a lot of those people you were finding when you did /sea, were just as unhappy as you are now.

Then I have to ask, why did they choose to stick around? And before you ask me the same, I'm struggling with sticking around myself.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Eyeballed, you need to stop thread camping and go play the game you're arguing about.

[Eyeballed]

Eyeballed, you need to stop thread camping and go play the game you're arguing about.

I'm at work. And yes, I'm doing my job as well.

[Luvbunny]

Then I have to ask, why did they choose to stick around? And before you ask me the same, I'm struggling with sticking around myself.

Eventually they will relent, since 100% of all the fun can be found at endgame and SE pretty much shift the grinding phase to endgame as well. Magian trials is your new xp party grind. Most people hate this and would rather get others to speed up the process. Empyrean seal farm and Empyrean weapons are also the new grind, you need all the normal tank, healer, dd, nuker set up. Just accept it that the level grind is pretty much gone, and jump in to the new lvl 99 grind and you will be fine. Stop fussing over dead horse, and get with the program.

[scaevola]

Then I have to ask, why did they choose to stick around? And before you ask me the same, I'm struggling with sticking around myself.

I won't say you shouldn't quit, but at least give the new max-level pre-endgame pug stuff a shot before you cash it in.* If that doesn't do it for you, seriously: Aion.




*I would warn you, though, that by playing RDM you're going to get a nice taste of all the old-school job favortism you're currently content to handwave~

[FrankReynolds]

Then I have to ask, why did they choose to stick around? And before you ask me the same, I'm struggling with sticking around myself.

Honestly, I played out of a desire to improve my character (and there wasn't a lot else going on at 4 in the morning). I felt very limited in what I could do on a low level character and it was infuriating that the amount of damage I did / took had very little to do with how I played. I really wanted to get to a high enough level that I could use real strategies beyond the one or two moves / spells I had at low levels and I wanted to fight something more interesting as well. It took me a really long time to finish my first job, because to be honest, it wasn't that fun leveling.

When I got to 75 and begun killing NMs so I could gear myself, and doing missions I was having some fun. Then I found out that I had to have X job leveled to get through X mission / bcnm / etc. and it was back to the grind for a little while, but I endured it because I had that carrot dangling that I really wanted. I leveled a few jobs, based on what events / missions I could get into with them. Not how fun they were to play. For example, I leveled red mage specifically because I could use it to solo NMs and get into events that dropped gear for thief.

I spent an enormous amount of time doing things that I did not enjoy so that I could get to do things that I liked.

In a nut shell, it started off as fun, turned into a focus for my OCD and now seems to dance back and forth between the two.

[Merton9999]

I spent an enormous amount of time doing things that I did not enjoy so that I could get to do things that I liked.

Me too. I liked experience parties for a while. But the blandness of the same household-pet mobs and repetitive procedures hit hard fast. I finished one job more for the sense of completing what I started than continuing with something I enjoyed.

But that wouldn't have been enough. I justified the continued experience party blandness because it wasn't bad enough to knock out the parts of the game I liked. For example, I loved story missions and I needed to level to finish them.

More potently, this game offered a unique opportunity to interact with friends, family and coworkers in a Final Fantasy world. It wasn't so much a great MMO I cared about. It was reliving old times when I used to play the single player FF games with these people in my home and dorm room as a kid. After we all moved away from each other, I was elated that we could actually still enjoy a Final Fantasy world together via FFXI, hundreds of miles apart. The Final Fantasy part is important in terms of the nostalgiac mythos and imagery.

When the stories were done and my friends and family quit for other things, I no longer had a reason to endure the experience parties. I quit for several periods of several months, re-subing when new expansion stories were added, and when friends decided to give it a go again. Abyssea was the first time I actually enjoyed 100% of what I was playing. Now I'm in the same boat as Frank. There are a couple OCD things I just want to finish because I started them, and a few times when I hang with RL friends and family in game and just fool around.

There is one aspect of the old leveling grind I miss now that I think about it. In VW or Abyssea the progression is gear centered, and what that does for your character is only about numbers. There is some satisfaction about that. But it's not as enjoyable as progressing in abilities and job role. For example, building up on RDM, getting Convert, Refresh and Haste are a big deal when you've leveled so long without them. This kind of progression was better to me than just gear potency, on a single job.

But, here's the good part. Like everything else there is a replacement for that. Although current leveling shoots you through ability and thought-process progression on one job, it gives you the opportunity to grow your overall character across multiple jobs. So now instead of getting convert 40 levels in, I look forward to getting to 99, playing a while with all the skills one job has, then moving to the next stage for my character by moving on to another job. That has actually proved much more enjoyable to me.

I'd highly suggest trying that before you quit, Eyeballed. Gear, seal and +2 hunting with a couple friends at 99 can be a blast. With Abyssea and VW gear hunts, you can get some repetitive fights with tougher and cooler looking mobs in a party setting where everyone has to participate. Of course there are differences from old xp parties but much of what I liked about those at first is present in these fights, which to me are more fun and better designed. You can get your sense of old partying, just in the gear hunt across multiple jobs vs experience points with one job.

[Eyeballed]

Honestly Merton, I came back to FFXI with the explicit purpose to relive some old memories and then leave again. I have no real intention of devoting any serious time to the game. I already knew when I left FFXIV what state the game was in, and as such had planned to solo everything. This, at least until 14 is overhauled and 2.0 launches, then I'll dabble in that again and see if it's worth my time. Doubting it.

I looked at Aion, and it looks pretty drab. Maybe I'll just /shutdown and go outside again, lol.