Trial of the magians starts at level 75. So that would be a pretty stupid way to level up from say level 20, wouldnt it. Plus magians are soloable, and are for weapon-building for lvl 75+ people. They are not XP parties which is what I was talking about, although I've noticed you do wriggle around a lot and grasp at any straw available. Please try harder.
No, again you are grasping at straws. I wasn't talking about people sucking, I was talking about how the game has changed.
With the addition of Level-synch ( a great idea) and xping in the glamorous old areas, far easier to keep an xp party going for ages. We never had any problem inviting people with level synch, despite your false and absurd claim ;"The pool of people with whom new people could party with was almost nonexistent". Thats nonsense. The reason people dont do old areas XP anymore, is that they can key in dolls for 69 levels instead. Its the 'path of least resistance'. Its the lazy option, so people will most times take the easiest option, but miss out on the actual game in the process. That is SE's biggest FFxi mistake of all time, not the players mistake. Most people will take the easy option if it is laid out for them, even if it deprives them of 99% of the fun xp content in the process. SE should not have allowed 69-lvl gaps in Aby xp parties. We had 2-3 lvl gaps in old xp parties, which we were able to augment with level synch. That prevented AFK leeching, and no-skills 99s running around wondering what 'provoke' does.
LOL. Thats funny. Lets go farm some capes in Marjami. Or some gear with built-in obsolescence, that gets outdated next week. Pebbles anyone?
In 2009 we had all the old areas xp camps still busy, and fun, and we had campaign battles where you could fight enemy generals on hilltops with thunderstorms in the sky above and crumbling castles around you, and waves of enemy soldiers storming up the hill, and NPC Heroes talking in /chatmode as they helped you pwn the enemies. Our xp options at level 10-60, we could form a legit party and learn our jobs and skill up same time, and see interesting places in vanadiel as we did so. And have some fun memories, and make friends. Then at like 60+ we could stay in the Toau xp areas or go to campaign. Both options had atmospheric scenery, and exciting mobs.
I have HAPPY MEMORIES from xp parties 2004-2010. I don't have ANY happy memories of dom ops. And while you are quick to point the finger at me and say its because im a horrible person so ppl in dom ops will hate me, I'm the same person I was in the xp parties those last ten years where I got friend invites, and made friends with ppl who are still friends after 10 years, and some of those Vanadiel friends became friends IRL. I havent changed, or turned into an ogre, but FFxi has.
A lot of people enjoyed travelling to the rock in W.Altepa, for beetles, with the sandstorms and the danger lol. And I loved troll parties at 74. Up on the battlements, fighting trolls! Aydeewa and MZ crawler parties, diremite parties, imp parties, torama parties in the labyrinth etc.etc. Excitement and variety, and you bonded with people because a lot of the time it was life/death battles where you survived by being a competent player.
What happy memories are you gonna tell ppl about your 69 lvls of sandsweepers? ;
"Oh, I remember that one time, I was putting a key into a lock, and a brown doll was getting oneshotted <over there>, then I ran to the Dom Ops NPC again (and he introduced himself to me again for the 1000000th time with the same 'getting to know me' speech, which I really had SO MUCH FUN spamming through his introduction-speech AGAIN) and I selected the same dolls page again (even though I wouldn't actually fight any of the dolls or cure the people who were fighting the dolls, and who dont need curing anyway coz the mobs die in 2 hits and atmas keep you on 90%+ hp the whole time.) Great times, wish you could have been there with me! Go go gaming!"