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

[Karbuncle]

The first part is not true. You have obviously never been on Titan / Ragnarok / Phoenix. From what I hear, Asura is prety bad too. So Asura isn't as bad as everyone says it is, you've never been to Jeuno or you don't know what it's like to be a new character without friends nowadays.

I guess the second part is true, it might take a couple days, but someone will respond eventually. But why should we have to wait days when people will do it for a reward now?

Back in the old days you had to shout for a long while too... Like doing CoP events, It was hell finding people for Bahamut V1 and things like Divine Might as well.

I can't adequately speak on what its like to be a brand new player in 2011, But neither can you, but i do know its been rough from the beginning, and as a new player to a nearly decade old game it wouldn't be wise to expect to jump in and have dozens of people waiting to hold your hand through the game.

We're not saying that the system is fine, what we are saying is that you can find help if you try, a lot of people are still out there helping new players, the only thing you really have to do is make it to port Jeuno to shout.

Your bulleitn board idea, . I think you should flesh the idea a bit more. I tried reading the OP to get a good feeling of what you were proposing but I'm afraid i don't understand.

You say a player can put put a request for help at a cost (i.e gil? or an item) and hope players chose it?

How would you make a request/
How would rewards be handled?
What types of Rewards are there? Exp?
Could you leave messages on these boards if you're say, in a different time zone but still want to help?
How would it handle Different languages (i.E would it translate it? or would there be JP/EN requests separately/Together?)
What Items do you mean when you say "Sign up using items"? Do the players who help get this item? is it lost?
How long would the request stay on the board? would you get a refund if no one took it? Could you cancel it?

I'm not saying its a bad idea But explain it to me like I haven't played the games you suggested its like. Because its very confusing to me.

[Inafking]

I can't adequately speak on what its like to be a brand new player in 2011, But neither can you.

the only thing you really have to do is make it to port Jeuno to shout.

Your bulleitn board idea, I'm afraid i don't understand.

Yes I can, I just did g3-8 in a few weeks worth of work. If I didn't dual box, would have been months. A lot of that time would have been days waiting for people to respond to shouts. I'll be happy to respond to your questions about the board in it's thread. (Please give me time to formulate my response.)

-- edit --
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...l=1#post155975
there ya go

[Karbuncle]

Yes I can, I just did g3-8 in a few weeks worth of work. If I didn't dual box, would have been months. A lot of that time would have been days waiting for people to respond to shouts. I'll be happy to respond to your questions about the board in it's thread. (Please give me time to formulate my response.)

When did you create your account? I have trouble believing you've only been playing the game for 6 months... (note i did say Brand new, not "I played back in xxx and quit and no i play again")

and i'll bring it up there in a bit so formulate away. i'd actually like the idea fleshed out a bit, Might actually catch some Rep attention

[Komori]

Collect yourselves on Bismarck, it seems to have alot of good helpful players (: I would be one of them if it wasn't for this new payment method.

Just watch out for like Mitsurgi (SP?) and Kuroganashi.

[Inafking]

When did you create your account?

Batmanxi has been around sience 2004. Never used him for anything other than a mule. I SMN burned his DRK to 56 just before Abyssea and FCed it 85 this month.

[Meyi]

Collect yourselves on Bismarck, it seems to have alot of good helpful players (: I would be one of them if it wasn't for this new payment method.

Just watch out for like Mitsurgi (SP?) and Kuroganashi.

Ahaha, seconded.

I must admit I got a taste of what beginning players are experiencing the other day. I decided to level up my bard sub a bit more -- I'd like it to be level 49 for an appropriate sub level, although I can already use all threnodies now -- and was struggling for the longest time to get a party! Let me tell you, brd/whm and a healing npc are not the fastest killers in the world. I would constantly do a /sea "Crawler's Nest" and /sea "Gusgen Mines" for invitations, but the two zones were empty for hours.

Could have been because I was playing during Japanese prime. As Americans started waking up around 7 A.M. PDT and the Europeans were getting off work, the Mines filled up decently. But I felt kind of... hopeless as I staggered through slow xp. So if you feel down because of soloing, do try to get into a GoV party when you can. If there are no GoV parties up, then do try to solo.

[Amador]

This is a bunch of crap. Stop posting negative things, and go make some friends.

[Defiledsickness]

ya simply putting your flag up wont cut it anymore and its a bit hard to find enough members for a typical 6man party (even harder to find a tank -good dd's -whm). but leveling goes REALLY quick now (12-45 rng in 3days and i work 8hours a day). only the level-break quests would be hard but you can find someone who will help you. you dont have to have the greatest gear leveling up to 75+ but you should already be trying to be the best you can at level 1. there are plenty of guides on wikia.

[Inafking]

This is a bunch of crap.

And you're a sack of crap. So it's like the pot calling the kettle black.

[Andreja]

Wow, this is probably one of the most fail threads ever. Jesus Christ, its not hard to get started into this game at all if you put some research into it to begin with. Before joining any server at all, look for a beginner friendly linkshell that is currently accepting members. It'll help increase the enjoyment of the game tenfold, and you'll have a place to ask questions and perhaps obtain some help with parties and quests.

There are areas in the game where beginner parties/alliances are pretty much always running, such as the dunes and gusgen mines, with the latter pretty much always having an alliance whenever I go in there. I've put up my party flag around lvl 10, and have gotten tells for the dunes within not long on Phoenix. If you're not getting any tells, the player search function is your friend. Someone needs to be somewhat social to get parties started, so if noone is breaking the ice, start doing that yourself. If you head for the gusgen mines, all you really need to do is put the party flag up and you'll be picked up usually within seconds if its not full. As long as you read up on the game with various wiki sites and are willing to ask questions from your linkshell, you should be able to do fine. I just started a couple of months back, and I'm already lvl 75 about to start on abyssea content, so it's definitely gotten easier on the new player these days.