[[ Why do we miss the old FFXI community ]] What made it special ??

[Aegis]

still retains a lot of the great things about oldschool MMOs that made them great

I must confess I don't see any oldschool elements in XIV ARR (except for quest grinding which is older than mob grinding).

When I think old-school I think open world dungeons, open world grinding, roles more diverse than tank/DPS/healer (think dedicated buffer, debuffer, crowd controller, soloists), competition for resources, PK'ing, craft-led economies etc

[Doo]

I must confess I don't see any oldschool elements in XIV ARR (except for quest grinding which is older than mob grinding).

I think she means old school as in WoW. All the new school mmos are action mmos.

[Ralemont]

The only "community" from FFXI I cared about - my core LS members - are playing alongside me in FFXIV, so as far as I'm concerned the community is great.

[Cailae]

No, Ifrit server.

It was not that way on Fenrir.

That they could have been competitive and screwed each other over, but instead they worked out an equitable system between themselves so that everyone got a turn at a congested event. That's an example of an excellent, functioning community, was my point.

Which is funny, as I was about to post, on my server time stealing happened ALL THE TIME. There was one NA LS in particular that would visit the schedule site and grief another LS that angered them in some way by camping the zone. All but 1 JP LS also completely ignored it. My favorite was when we had to stop using the bazaar method of distributing hour glasses because we had an entire run griefed. That was the best day ever.

Well, JP/En only or whatever exists even more in this game. Not even did they split up the servers, they also gave people the option to choose never to play with JP/EN/DE/FR through the Duty Finder options. As far as camp compeition went; it was very heavily frowned on to camp over other parties so people found alternate camps. Remember sending people to scout Bhaflau (or was it Wajaom?) to see if any of the Colibri parties were clear? Or the Puk/Mam/Dragon camp? If they weren't clear, people didn't go.

You were too late then to watch someone take your KRT bones party, or massive MPK trains if you were in "someones spot" in Garliage's basement. Or even just random Grief trains in Crawlers' Nest. I remember going down there on my DRG to clean out a train and getting angry tells from the BST that was doing it. He was planning to shut the zone down the whole night.

Party composition favouritism is an area I kind of agree with you on, having said that, my first job was DRK, followed by THF and BLU none of which were FOTM in the entire time I was playing and I kept up with my friends just fine. Probably because (perhaps I flatter myself here) I built up a reputation as a solid party member, always using food, keeping gear up to date etc. Being able to build up a reputation as competent was one of the benefits of having a functioning community.

One of the few things you've said where I've had similar experience.

I certainly never saw it in 4 years of endgame in Sky/Sea/Ein/Nyzul/Dyna/Salvage. In fact, the memory that stays with me the most strongly were times when players who willingly gave up lots on gear they needed to help gear the less well-geared members out in dynamis. And a THF not lotting on Homam pants because they were more useful to the PLD even though the Thief had lotting priority. Even in Sky there was a spirit of friendly competition, /cheering on other linkshells when they got claim before you (while preparing to take claim if they wiped).

I remember when camping Charybdis (after getting ToD from a competitor), losing claim to a NIN+BRD duo, /cheering them as they fought, taking claim when they wiped after only knocking Charby down to 85%. Did they rez, come back and cuss me out as I killed Charby? No they /cheered as I fought too.

My LS had times like this too, but that was only in our insular group. It was ALWAYS need before greed, and we always passed things to people that would use it the most. The problem was never with ourselves. When that LS dissolved (Mostly because we could not stay competitive enough to maintain an endgame presence, and we kept losing members) was when I found the majority of endgame linkshells were not anywhere near as co-operative.

I remember the JP player who switched to 75 WHM after dunes exp party and got all of us our magicked skulls.

I always did things like this myself. If I had a dunes party dissolving and there were members that needed SJ items I'd switch over to DRG or PLD and Farm them up for them.

I remember the NA player who lent me a Bronze Bed to start the mog-house quests and taught me about the secret exit quests.

I did this until one newbie I knew walked off with my Bed.

I remember the NA players who would donate hours of their time to help complete strangers through Prommies just to help them get tavnazia access.

My LS had weekly Promy runs to help people get caught up. I was always a staple as I had leveled SMN just for doing them.

I remember my linkshell helping me through Genkais, AF fights, attestation farming etc and me paying it forward to newer members of the shell.

Now I'm not saying my experience is any more or less typical than yours, but when someone tells me XI had a toxic community it absolutely jars with what I've seen. When someone tells me XI's community was the best they have ever experienced they almost always have stories similar to mine.

Everything you've experienced when it comes to low level play, Helping others with missions or quests or items, was pretty common. I don't know how many times I helped people with advanced job quests, and I know most people have done similar. But that content isn't competitive. If you were in a high traffic leveling spot, doing anything HNM or endgame, It was like a bunch of jackals. the harder core the content, the nastier things got. Perhaps I landed on a bad server, but I KNOW what happened on mine was not unique. When I changed servers to play with other friends, they had the same stories.

Late Edit: I just remembered another good community thing from XI which I know existed across servers: The BST code.

BST used to share a lot of camp sites near where parties used to exp (sometimes the same site even). The code was simply that you would put where you were and what you were fighting in your /seacom and whether you were amenable to grouping up. That way, when parties or other BSTs /sea the area (remember doing that so you didn't overcamp people? Good times) they knew whether or not the camp would be free and if they could party up with the BST if they were free. Overcamping was strictly verboten.

If there was a lone BST in a camping spot "for parties" 9 times out of 10, the got steamrolled out. on my server there was a BST linkshell that basically worked like the mafia. if you were a BST you would join and they would "help" you in situations like that. Usually by showing up in force to move the party. There was a "gentlemans agreement" between the server and the BST LS. We didn't bother them, and they didn't take prime party spots.

Overcamping, however, was a source of CONSTANT drama on my server when it came to lolibri camps. I had a lot of playtime as I was in college at the time so usually I would be in one of the first groups to arrive. by the time primetime rolled along there would be 4 or 5 groups camping in each spot, and verbal fights broke out ALL THE TIME. Not a lot of MPKing as this was well after they fixed that. it was ugly, and I was very glad I could do it earlier because after about 9pm it just wasn't worth it anymore and I'd go do LS things.

I enjoyed my time in FFXI, until my good endgame LS dissolved. but I encountered, over and over, the worst the game had to offer. It was extremely toxic. I have never encountered worse, and certainly have not in XIV.

[DwightParkman]

I miss the Pre-abyssea FF11, when the game was still balanced and fun. Honestly, mmorpgs are finished.

I feel like they are only gonna keep getting more like WoW each time another one releases... im honestly supprised they didn't just name this one

"Final of Fantasycraft"

[Orsnoire]

I miss the Pre-abyssea FF11, when the game was still balanced and fun. Honestly, mmorpgs are finished [for me].

I feel like they are only gonna keep getting more like WoW each time another one releases... im honestly supprised they didn't just name this one

"Final of Fantasycraft"

Fixed that for you.

Honestly, DP, why are you even still here with as much hate and vitriol you have for what the Genre is currently?

[Ralemont]

I miss the Pre-abyssea FF11, when the game was still balanced and fun.

Balanced? Do tell.

In any case, no thanks. Abyssea was the pinnacle of Final Fantasy XI, where groups both big and small could accomplish quite a bit on their own time, where jobs could exp without discrimination and black mages once more partied with physical DD jobs, where multiple NMs dropped the same seals - thereby alleviating clustered pops...you get the picture. HNMs are gone, and good riddance.

[Malamasala]

Yea, Abyssea was clearly the best part of FFXI. Before it I had 1 alliance exp party in the jungle that quit after it was bad exp, and never again did I have a fun alliance exp group until Abyssea.

I like MMOs, which means playing with others, and it sucked the entire design of FFXI was "the more you are, the less exp you get". This is why Fate grinding is so awesome because it is fast to join, always a big group.

I still remember having to skip doing Assault, because the groups where "full" at 3/6 because 4/6 would not give enough points for salvage entry permits. Great design to prevent people from playing with their friends. (Unless you are in that clique of 3 people)

[SynMaris]

Word. I gave up a Ridill. A fucking Ridill, to a WAR who was in my linkshell. In hindsight it was a bad move, though, because he quit the game a month later, haha.

I never gave up anything ever if it was my turn to lot on the gear, screw that.

[Tazo]

I never gave up anything ever if it was my turn to lot on the gear, screw that.

Iv given up loot to someone who is less fortunate than me BUT a Ridill? Thats cray cray