Time Machine: FFXI JUN 14 2003

As we ponder the state of FFXIV, with hopes for a spirit of new life to overcome it, I was thinking of what FFXI looked like back in it's initial arrival to the scene. What did it look like? What was the 'pitch' as to how special it was? How did they outline the classes?

So I dug up one of the most important sites on the web... web.archive.org as it features the WayBack machine. This site has been taking snapshots of the web for a LONG time... and guess what... FFXI is included.

Site Root (click show all cuz hitting enter is a bug):http://wayback.archive.org/

FFXI on Jun 14th 2003 (it may take like 10 seconds to show up as it pulls from storage): http://web.archive.org/web/200306140...t_is_ffxi.html

enjoy friends

Pretty cool. I remember FFXI in 2002 though!

Sigh it makes me wish I could go back to the old days of FFXI :(

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Neptune

Pretty cool. I remember FFXI in 2002 though!

---

ya... the time machine has been working since the 90's so for what ever reason they ffxi just wasn't being crawled. Whats funny is looking at the first google.com page.

Hey look! they were looking for beta testers lol....

http://web.archive.org/web/200308010...ws062303.shtml

This stuff really brings back memories. You get that feeling like they stumbled upon something great even if it started out rocky.

Makes me really miss XI.

I was so hoping XIV would be XI +3, but instead the synth blew up...

A trip down memory lane is always welcome. Thanks so much for posting this.

R

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Xeak

Sigh it makes me wish I could go back to the old days of FFXI :(

---

Heck yeah...those were the days! I even had the Japanese PC version imported a week after it launched there, {I think I paid nearly $200} and damn was it a bitch to set up, but it was awesome.

Seriously SE, what happened to you since then....le sigh

I love the spec lol but ya i remember most of 2004 and some info on how it was before.

Wow nice thread, thanks

I haven't been to the site just yet, but did/does it have that old commercial/short story Square made where a male and female Japanese player end up bonding through FF11 while occasionally playing with the young American boy? (Emphasis back then was "community")

I don't remember any propaganda / websites for the mainstream English release tho.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Khalus

Heck yeah...those were the days! I even had the Japanese PC version imported a week after it launched there, {I think I paid nearly $200} and damn was it a bitch to set up, but it was awesome.

Seriously SE, what happened to you since then....le sigh

---

People turned into habitual complainers.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Khalus

Heck yeah...those were the days! I even had the Japanese PC version imported a week after it launched there, {I think I paid nearly $200} and damn was it a bitch to set up, but it was awesome.

Seriously SE, what happened to you since then....le sigh

---

They fired most of the square soft members.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Khalus

Heck yeah...those were the days! I even had the Japanese PC version imported a week after it launched there, {I think I paid nearly $200} and damn was it a bitch to set up, but it was awesome.

Seriously SE, what happened to you since then....le sigh

---

they started to think herp derp was better than slapping someone in the face and making them work toward something

This thread has made me think about this video again ~ "A Little FFXI Story"

Its stuff like this that I miss the most. I had met so many great players during the early years, many I lost touch with and then reconnected with similar to this story. The best parts were when we'd gather together in various locations and just talk about our adventures, the locations we discovered and the tribulations we went through to safely travel the world and to just PT.

It honestly brings me to tears thinking about those days, and how MMOs are now. No longer about community, but rather a rush to the cap and just grind for sets of gear, and it still astounds me how much this new generation of gamers complain, when its so damned easy...

People have no choice but to forge lasting bonds when you force them to group just to make any sort of progress.

You will not find that kind of force in MMORPGs anymore because they are all being designed with the casual player in mind. It's something that is both fortunate and unfortunate at the same time.

Nooooo! Don't remind me of FFXI before they ruined it... ; ;

LOL "What is MMORPG"

OMGee, that's back when I was too cool for MMOs, spent all my money drinking in bars and hooking up with one idiot boy too many. If only I had seen the light and partied my heart out in FFXI instead... /oh sigh

*tears*

fml.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Khalus

This thread has made me think about this video again ~ "A Little FFXI Story"

---

That reminds me of an FFXI video I can't find anywhere and can't remember the name. It was about a linkshell that was abandoned when most of the members reached end game and only a white mage was left, she wasn't at max level yet and was still wandering around Vana'diel. She was the only left in the shell and still holding on to pearls in case her old friends wanted to come back to the adventure. Anyone know what I'm talking about? D:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ferth

Nooooo! Don't remind me of FFXI before they ruined it... ; ;

---

Actually they fixed it. It wasn't aall that fun before.

If only 2% of the player base enjoyes 100% of the game.. then there is an issue. Just people are so stuck up they do not care.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fated

People have no choice but to forge lasting bonds when you force them to group just to make any sort of progress.

You will not find that kind of force in MMORPGs anymore because they are all being designed with the casual player in mind. It's something that is both fortunate and unfortunate at the same time.

---

Not really the casual. But single player. there is a difference.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by danny52844

they started to think herp derp was better than slapping someone in the face and making them work toward something

---

Work as in spending 13 hours killing 1 pain in the butt mob the size of a 2 story house. (kirin)

Games are ment for fun not work.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kilta_Firelotus

Actually they fixed it. It wasn't aall that fun before.

If only 2% of the player base enjoyes 100% of the game.. then there is an issue. Just people are so stuck up they do not care.

---

2% enjoying 100% of the game is amazing! i mean even if u bched about 11 it still had alot of ppl who played even with the bad stuff

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kilta_Firelotus

Actually they fixed it. It wasn't aall that fun before.

If only 2% of the player base enjoyes 100% of the game.. then there is an issue. Just people are so stuck up they do not care.

---

Sadly only person who thinks Abyssea fixed it just you, maybe you didn't have fun like others did, it was a hard game and after the challenge is completed, it felt like something was accomplished. People working hard toward something for months and leveling for months(Properly), than they bring in gears that are far better than the gears that took months to get, and these gear only took weeks to get. Oh and don't even mention leveling lol

-

I seen that FFXI Story video like years ago, it was originally Japanese. I want another place likes Vulkurm Dunes, it threw in all the new/noob players and made them into good players. Combination of 1 shotting monsters, Ghosts/Skeleton at night, Limit break items, where you HAVE to do as group in order to kill the mobs(this is b4 ppl had multiple level 75 and starting bringing in there 'other' accounts), you learned hate control there, man that place was like a training camp. lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Synapse

Sadly only person who thinks Abyssea fixed it just you, maybe you didn't have fun like others did, it was a hard game and after the challenge is completed, it felt like something was accomplished. People working hard toward something for months and leveling for months(Properly), than they bring in gears that are far better than the gears that took months to get, and these gear only took weeks to get. Oh and don't even mention leveling lol

-

I seen that FFXI Story video like years ago, it was originally Japanese. I want another place likes Vulkurm Dunes, it threw in all the new/noob players and made them into good players. Combination of 1 shotting monsters, Ghosts/Skeleton at night, Limit break items, where you HAVE to do as group in order to kill the mobs(this is b4 ppl had multiple level 75 and starting bringing in there 'other' accounts), you learned hate control there, man that place was like a training camp. lol

---

talking about the dunes being like a place to slap noobs into players brought back nostalgia of when i went thier as rdm and always had to main heal .... many of partys have wiped because of that lol

As others have stated abyssea took all sense of accomplishment out of playing the game.

Grind/solo til 30 then spend 6 hours in abyssea and you are at the level cap.

That's awful, no matter what.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cendres

That reminds me of an FFXI video I can't find anywhere and can't remember the name. It was about a linkshell that was abandoned when most of the members reached end game and only a white mage was left, she wasn't at max level yet and was still wandering around Vana'diel. She was the only left in the shell and still holding on to pearls in case her old friends wanted to come back to the adventure. Anyone know what I'm talking about? D:

---

Hi Cendres,

I think you quoted the link to the video you were looking for. (^_^;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARghlVjBab0

Loved that video about FF11. ;_;

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ferth

As others have stated abyssea took all sense of accomplishment out of playing the game.

Grind/solo til 30 then spend 6 hours in abyssea and you are at the level cap.

That's awful, no matter what.

---

Hell, it's not even just the going from 30 to 90 via Abyssea. It's everything.
I returned to and played XI for a couple months recently, got my DRG from 62 to 73 in Abyssea, 73-75 solo on regime pages and the rest via Abyssea due to lack of outside, non-level sync parties. Even that felt cheap.
After that? Merits. The process now is cap out merits in a matter of 2~3 hours or less, go dump them into whatever you feel like, go back to zone, rinse, repeat. For those who don't know, they upped the unspent Merit limit from 10 to 20. Even as a DD who was actually killing things rather than leeching like a good third of the alliance, it all felt shallow and effortless, something that I never felt while leveling before.
People are getting jobs to 90 with the respective AF3+2, just because they can and have nothing else to do. Best shout I've seen post-Abyssea? "I just got BRD90 what instrument should I use?"
MP management inside Abyssea? Gone, thanks to Minikin Monstrosity (10MP/tic refresh). Got a RDM in the group? Enjoy an extra 10ish/tic via Refresh II.
Some people might say "Oh! Abyssea NMs are hard!" but really, they aren't. The only reason they seem that way is because you're essentially letting them beat on you until you proc whatever weaknesses you need. Just because you're holding back from killing them doesn't mean they'll be doing the same for your party. After you proc? The NM is dead within a minute in 90% of cases. End up wiping somehow? That's fine, just zerg it with Atma of the Apocalypse! Permanent RR3!
Simply put, yeah. The current XI isn't the XI we knew and loved. It's over simplified and way too easy now.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kiara

Hi Cendres,

I think you quoted the link to the video you were looking for. (^_^;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARghlVjBab0

Loved that video about FF11. ;_;

---

I never played FFXI. And that video sums up all the things I've wanted to do while playing a MMORPG since I watched .hack//SIGN. Sadly, most people just want to level level and then level some more. I really doubt FFXIV will give me something like that, but I don't lose anything by trying.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kiara

Hi Cendres,

I think you quoted the link to the video you were looking for. (^_^;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARghlVjBab0

Loved that video about FF11. ;_;

---

Rofl.. way for me to fail. I thought the white mage was a hume for some reason... Such a great video <3 <3 Now I'm bookmarking it. ^^

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kilta_Firelotus

Not really the casual. But single player. there is a difference.

---

It doesn't matter, the terms go hand in hand for the most part. Less time spent in a group, viability of logging on for an hour and then logging off, doing content on your own terms, etc.

I agree with pretty much everything in here except the person who likes Abyssea. FFXI was a challenge in many aspects, ranking up for airpasses and divine might, CoP, Sky gods, etc. The threat of failure was always there so it made accomplishments that much greater. I remember failing "a moogle kupo d'etat" so many times and then finally getting a pick up group and winning...and getting that equip for my RNG was amazing. Hoping there will be content like this in FFXIV in years to come.

One of my all time favorite videos (music is amazing too): FFXI Recollection: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov3-K2aRwQY

After all this reminiscing over FFXI and watching several dozen videos on YouTube, I think I'm going to get back into FFXI starting in Aug once the account merger is avail/complete and there are finally new payment options. Stupid 3D Secure has kept me from playing for the last year, and SE won't do anything to bypass and accept my money...I don't get it. Still though, XI is an amazing game even with the rushed mode changes. {I have 10,000 Crysta collecting dust from when XIV launched}

I just wanna get my Blue Mage to 90 then go back and solo/duo all the storylines I've never been able to start or complete due to not being able to find help, or friends not at the required level/part to help! The story and lore is the most important part of FFXI to me ~ I don't really care about having the best gear or merits capped out, even though I'd like to someday, but my main priority is working through every storyline as I've sadly enough never finished any of them yet.

All of these storylines are on YouTube, and I could have watched them at anytime already, but I just can't do that. I want to earn the right to see them...its more fun for me!

Ive seriously thought about going back to XI but didn't want to have to do it all over again. I thought to myself that I'd just wait for XIV so I can stay on top of the changes.

I had no idea being on top of the changes/new content could be so ... exciting...

This is precisely why I'm staying. FFXI started out like pure total and complete crap. But after a year or two the game finally had the basics, and it continually got better from there. Likely it was Tanaka's plan all along, yet perhaps he didn't take into account the audience's changing expectations.

Eitherway, FFXIV will be good if we allow it to be and will be better if we help contribute as well.

Granted I wasn't there for the what... 8 months the FFXI was out before it released in NA? But even at the beginning of the NA launch the problems the game had were pretty minor in the overall scope of the game. The combat was balanced, the UI was great, there were plenty of quests and things to do beyond leveling up jobs. The game was mostly fun and engaging.

The one real thing that needed to be fixed was Travel times. And that one did take about a year to do.

FFXIV has so many, so so many minor problems that shouldn't have survived this long. Part of that can be explained by the whole crew shift... it's not easy going through another team's coding.

But I don't think anyone would plan for this amount of mediocrity. Whatever past merits Tanaka may have had, I think the biggest problem was that to him FFXIV was too personal.

Like with the game Too Human. Denis Dyack had too much of an emotional investment in the game to realize that alot of his ideas were bad ones.

Tanaka wanted things to work a specific way, and instead of realizing that not all of them were ideal, he instead wasted time and energy trying to make them work.

I do agree that FFXIV can be great. And I think the condition it launched in was unfortunate. I just hope the new team can get the worst of the kinks out before everyone loses interest.