Random Passing Thought...

Saw some talk about Final Fantasy XI. Whether the game is nearing it's end or not is uncertain, I've not played since the introduction of Delve during Seekers of Adoulin. With Rhapsodies of Vanadiel coming around, I'm certainly curious how they will tie all expansions stories together when I always considered them being separate to a degree.

But that's not the point..If FFXI were to announce server shut down, would anyone go back just for those final moments? I feel like I would despite the fact I haven't played for so long.

I can't remember the details to my account, so probably not. There's a part of me that would want to just so I could get one last look and log out at my favorite spot, but then there's another part of me that would much rather remember it as it was back when I played.

If I had my log in info, yes absolutely. FFXI is more than just a simple game to me, it was my first MMO and where I met some friends that have stayed with me for over ten years, including my better half.

Personally I kinda wish FFXIV would do an FFXI themed event. Maybe as simple as giving us vanity gear that looked like FFXI's AF1 for the jobs from that game. Though something as extravagant as a FFXI themed zone (think Guild Wars 2 style event). Tarutaru and Lalafel mages from two sides inadvertently tear a whole in the fabric of reality creating a dungeon styled after FFXI zones or something.

Glad to know I'm not really alone in that sense. FFXI has its faults in retrospect, but it was still fun given the time put into it. The grinds were long. They were tedious. They were hard sometimes. But some good friends were met there and even more. Challenges were presented and effort to get everyone through to reach the end, getting that satisfied feeling of triumph each time. For my actual first MMO that I played and dedicated a lot of time to, it would definitely be sad for me to see it go. But all things come to an end eventually!

I feel like I would find myself just ending my time there whenever it happens standing in Ru'Aun Gardens.

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Originally Posted by Lorielle

Glad to know I'm not really alone in that sense. FFXI has its faults in retrospect, but it was still fun given the time put into it. The grinds were long. They were tedious. They were hard sometimes. But some good friends were met there and even more. Challenges were presented and effort to get everyone through to reach the end, getting that satisfied feeling of triumph each time. For my actual first MMO that I played and dedicated a lot of time to, it would definitely be sad for me to see it go. But all things come to an end eventually!

I feel like I would find myself just ending my time there whenever it happens standing in Ru'Aun Gardens.

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Oh there's no denying FFXI had problems. It had a lot of problems. It had volumes of problems. Truth be told in many ways it was not a good game. I played on PS2 initially and eventually on 360, it was a terribly janky game. What it did have however was a really good story (one of the only MMO's I've ever played that actually does), a substantial amount of depth in every aspect of it (something I miss in many ways in FFXIV which has removed a good deal of that depth), and a great deal of charm.

Most importantly XI had probably the single best player community I have ever had the pleasure to be part of. My first day logging into Windhurst, a random Tarutaru came up to me, showed me around the city, showed me how the AH worked, suggested where to level, gave me 2,000 gil, a stack of crystals to sell and suggested what to farm for money. He never asked for a thing and this was long long before the Mentor system existed. Just a random guy deciding to be nice to a newbie.

People casually tossed you heals and buffs while passing you in the world, mages would come out of their way to res you if you died somewhere nasty. I'll never forget doing my first Limit Break at level 50, shouting in Jeuno for help farming my items. I offered gill, but not a single person took it. By the end I had assembled a full alliance, some were people who also needed LB quest, most were people that had nothing to gain from it. Took several hours, some people left and others joined. It was the kind of thing you would never see happen in another MMO in a million years.

Then there was the day they released the companion quest to get your adventuring npc. People formed an orderly line and waited their turn to farm the mob for the quest drop. holding conversations with strangers as we waited. Sure it had it's share of bad apples as any game does. Early on Japanese player xenophobia, if not outright racism, was a real issue and the douchebaggery associated with HNM link shells was notorious. But for the average player, the game was simply a pleasure as far as fellow players were concerned. Even the newbie Pug nightmare that was Valkurm Dunes wasn't so bad compared to other games.

I think a lot of that was simply due to the games mechanics being so entirely group dependent, ontop of the fact your character was not disposable. It took a lot of time investment to bring up a character, if you developed a bad reputation on your server your progress could well and truly be screwed.


Also, and I know people would never tolerate this in a modern MMO, but in some ways I miss how difficult travel was in XI. While it is unquestioningly more convienient to get around in XIV - the world feels so much smaller and so much less.. real for want of a better term. I had numerous "war stories" that ranged from hilarious to terrifying just from taking the ferry to the Dunes thanks to pirate attacks and kraken spawns.

For all the archaic difficult things XI had. It had built a awesome community of players overcoming these hardships together.

People laugh when they hear about stuff like difficult open world content. It's just one of those things that while inconvenient it was indisposable to the game.

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Originally Posted by Quixotica

Then there was the day they released the companion quest to get your adventuring npc. People formed an orderly line and waited their turn to farm the mob for the quest drop.

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Oh god, I do remember that. Really, I didn't think much of it then, but thinking back, it's surprising to see people actually did this and waited. But certainly can agree, I do miss all the difficult things the game offered. Perhaps not even just that, more along the lines of how it would immerse you into the world.

I know what you mean from War Stories though. You can never forget the times trying to outrun a Rabbit you thought you could take on, to the next zone across something like... La Thiene Plateau.

Mages doing the casual healing and raises.. People seldom do it here, the latter for obvious reasons because there's no penalty. The community in XI was generous in that aspect because no one wanted to receive that EXP Penalty for dying. </3

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Originally Posted by Lorielle

Oh god, I do remember that. Really, I didn't think much of it then, but thinking back, it's surprising to see people actually did this and waited. But certainly can agree, I do miss all the difficult things the game offered. Perhaps not even just that, more along the lines of how it would immerse you into the world.

Mages doing the casual healing and raises.. People seldom do it here, the latter for obvious reasons because there's no penalty. The community in XI was generous in that aspect because no one wanted to receive that EXP Penalty for dying. </3

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I agree I miss the immersive nature of the world as well. It can be hard to pinpoint exactly what made it feel that way though, was just a little bit of everything. Monsters that only spawned during certain weather. The day of the week affecting how strong your magic was, or how weak/strong monster skills were. the general difficulty of just getting places as a low level.. knowing everyone had worked to overcome those challenges. I'm sure a lot of my feelings for XI are from nostalgia, but there's good reasons for it. Even just little unexpected things, like visiting Starfall Hillock at the right time of day to see the twinkling star lights come up around it, or the first time you see Light Weather on Qufim. I've got a couple hundred hours in XIV but I can't think of any such things in this world, possibly because you just teleport hop everywhere.

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I know what you mean from War Stories though. [B]You can never forget the times trying to outrun a Rabbit you thought you could take on, to the next zone across something like... La Thiene Plateau.

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Our LS had a saying: It doesn't matter how strong you get, somewhere there's a Rarab that will kill you and your entire party.

Also being from Windy, it was always amusing to see random newbies come stumbling into the city only to die of Crawler poison in the middle of the plaza.

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For all the archaic difficult things XI had. It had built a awesome community of players overcoming these hardships together.

People laugh when they hear about stuff like difficult open world content. It's just one of those things that while inconvenient it was indisposable to the game.

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Yeah, everyone that played knew how hard it was to accomplish just about anything even just leveling. Combine that with the fact the game encouraged co-operation (excluding NM's >.>) and the sheer difficulty just helped forge the community together. It's the reason I prefer co-operative focused MMO's to this day over ones that try to pointlessly encourage player conflict.

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Originally Posted by Sakuraluna

I can't remember the details to my account, so probably not.

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This!

each time I thought about logging in again, i am reminded of the torture the POL log in stuff was, trying to get a password reset, and the less than helpful support staff.

I played XI for close to ten year, met some amazing people that I am still friends with. Great memories were made; there will always be a place in my heart for XI. I would go back just to say goodbye to a game that has meant so much to me. I was a console player so with Xbox and PlayStation support ending in March 2016, I might log back on one more time just to put some closure to my character.

I dropped the game like a bad habit when XIV came out. My husband and I ended up going back to XI for events with our LS twice a week for a few months after the official launch of ARR. We then just stopped going with out any announcement to our LS, which I left bad about. The only thing keeping us in that game were the two events we continued to participate in. Once we realized there wasn't anything left for us there, we stopped paying our XI subscriptions. It would be nice to see Lufaise Meadows one last time before I no longer have the ability to log in.

Would it surprise you if I told you I was actually doing this when not busy with Raiding and Expac?

They did a live broadcast with the news that this year they are doing a 3 part content update Rhapsodies of Vanadiel, 1st part is out, and after the 3rd part there will be no new content, just balance and bug fix patches. Also next year they are dropping console support so will be PC onry.

How long it lasts after that, who knows, but as no new content, probably not that long.

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Originally Posted by Sapphic

They did a live broadcast with the news that this year they are doing a 3 part content update Rhapsodies of Vanadiel, 1st part is out, and after the 3rd part there will be no new content, just balance and bug fix patches. Also next year they are dropping console support so will be PC onry.

How long it lasts after that, who knows, but as no new content, probably not that long.

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I'd think it'd depend on how much they spend maintaining the realms. FFXI is a subscriction game still that (at least used to) charge extra for each extra character. Without development costs being an issue, and only the PC version being around to maintain they could keep it running for quite some time.

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Originally Posted by Quixotica

I'd think it'd depend on how much they spend maintaining the realms. FFXI is a subscriction game still that (at least used to) charge extra for each extra character. Without development costs being an issue, and only the PC version being around to maintain they could keep it running for quite some time.

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But they will lose a large chunk of the remaining playerbase when they drop console support. How long do you think the rest will stay around with no new content forthcoming, plus they are making everything much, much easier to obtain. EG, no lockout on Dynamis, assaults, Nyzul, which makes farming empy weapon a helluva lot faster. Even more lockouts will be removed with the 2nd and 3rd part of Rhapsodies.

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Originally Posted by Sapphic

They did a live broadcast with the news that this year they are doing a 3 part content update Rhapsodies of Vanadiel, 1st part is out, and after the 3rd part there will be no new content, just balance and bug fix patches. Also next year they are dropping console support so will be PC onry.

How long it lasts after that, who knows, but as no new content, probably not that long.

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Guess my XBox 360 disc will make a nice coaster.

I have bittersweet memories of FFXI. That same requirement for teamwork that forged friendships during leveling also proved to be a stumbling block for missions. The last thing I did in FFXI before fully commuting myself to XIV was finished CoP, and finally earn by coveted black belt. There are spots in FFXIV that still require teamwork, but at least those who can't get a team from their circle of friends can still get stuff done. EXP parties are just a matter of queueing for a dungeon. Despite all the ribbing they get, DRG of FFXIV have it better than the DRG of early XI.

Not really, I was only level 30 on Redmage with a level 12 Dancer I think. After going through all that and constantly being alone in the server besides my summoned helpers... :(