Why did you start playing FFXI?

[philmacraken]

I was heavy into SOCOM II on PS2 and bought the hard drive to access a map pack that required it. Looking back, that was one of the earliest map packs on a console and a huge waste of money (the PS2 HDD sold for $100...). When I preordered the HDD I grabbed a little pamphlet for it that included some information about FFXI, which was packaged with the HDD. I had played FFIX, FFVII, and FFX previously (FFIX was probably my favorite game of all time) so it piqued my interest. I was also just getting into the whole online gaming thing, and an MMO sounded really fascinating. Gave it a shot, and got hooked. I've been off and on (restarted completely several times), but here I am about seven years later.

i used to play socom 1 and 2 all the time also..i was a heavy poster on the sony forums and got a beta invite for ffxi...and since they gave you a copy of the game and the HDD for free for beta testing...i was hooked lol

[Etrigan]

I had been playing Anarchy Online and been getting bored with it, mainly because for some reason Ruby-Ka 1 always showed as down on my home connection, and thats where all my friends I had made played. FFXI came out and a group of friends and I all picked it up, somehow without world passes we all but 1 ended up on Fairy. We had the group all set, I wanted to be a paladin so I leveled warrior when I found out I could not start out as such (and to this day still have not really leveled paladin all that much). a white mage, a red mage, a black mage, a monk, and a second warrior who upon hitting 30 opened and solo leveled dark knight to catch up with us.

Even when my friends slowly dwindled off because of various reasons, two of which could not defeat Maat, I now am the last of the group to still play to this day!

[Murphie]

A lot of my friends started playing back at NA launch, and it looked like fun. I've "quit" several times over the years to try other MMOs, or because I was burned out, or whatever, but I've always come back.

[Eiyoko]

I had been thinking about it for a while and toyed with the idea of what I might do, but finally I decided to pick up a copy when I went to EB games one day (as well as the brady guide...lmao XD). I was a somewhat late started, playing a few months to a year after the initial release (before CoP came out...ah, the good ol' days). The story is awesome, and I had some great first experiences. Needless to say, I've been hooked ever since :3

[Cylla]

A friend had told me to give it a try and so I picked it up along with my husband and for the first year we didn't really get in to it very much...but by the 2nd year, we started playing full time with friends.

[Siros]

Due ta the fact that its FF i hadta play it,ive played all FF games cept for game cube an ds versions.Im a FF addict.I started on Everquest where some of u may recognize me from,then switched ta FFXI as soon as it came out for ps2 and ive been hooked ever since.Then got both my brothers,Echoslashar an Khellendrose,hooked too.

[lowkey]

I had a gift certificate, and Media Play didn't have anything else that interested me that day. I didn't like the idea of a pay to play game, but it came with the free month trial, and I figured I'd surely be able to beat the game within that amount of time.

[Dragen]

My roommate at the time was playing the Japanese version and it had piqued my interest for when the NA version was released. I'm still playing 7 years later but he left for WoW and never returned.

[bungiefan]

I started in 2002, while taking college Japanese classes. I thought it would be a practical way to practice the language, and there were a bunch of importers that spoke English organizing to all be on the Ragnarok server. Homework and work kept me too busy to play as often as I wanted though, and I didn't get above level 12 before American release of the game.

I also got it because it was the only way to play an MMO, since all I had were game consoles and a Macintosh from 1995. I wouldn't have played any MMO if FFXI hadn't have been released on PS2.

[sungaga]

ive been playing final fantasy since no8 came out many years ago and played it since came to ffxi as a beta tester for the xbox