No sense of fear in this game.

[FinaSel]

I didn't read all the posts, but I agree with the OP.
Getting to 60 and being 60 is just really too easy.

One reason I liked FFXI was because you had to actually avoid mobs at times. You had to be in groups to have someone help you get somewhere for a while.
And dying was something avoided at all costs.

Eventually I had that feeling in FFXI too, where everything was becoming too easy.
So I made a second character and imposed perma-death on myself. The first time I died, I would delete the character.
I only grouped with people I trusted. It changed the way I played the game completely! And it was really fun!

I think I got into my 40s when I finally died.

[Kurogaea]

I didn't read all the posts, but I agree with the OP.
Getting to 60 and being 60 is just really too easy.

One reason I liked FFXI was because you had to actually avoid mobs at times. You had to be in groups to have someone help you get somewhere for a while.
And dying was something avoided at all costs.

Eventually I had that feeling in FFXI too, where everything was becoming too easy.
So I made a second character and imposed perma-death on myself. The first time I died, I would delete the character.
I only grouped with people I trusted. It changed the way I played the game completely! And it was really fun!

I think I got into my 40s when I finally died.

That actually sounds genuinely fun lol, but it'd be something I'd be willing to do with friends only though. It'd make for some interesting survival stories. X)

[Welsper59]

That actually sounds genuinely fun lol, but it'd be something I'd be willing to do with friends only though. It'd make for some interesting survival stories. X)

That's the old school way of doing things. Using your imagination to make a game the way you want to play it (even if just temporarily). Hell, people still do it these days with things like that Nuzlocke challenge stuff for Pokemon. The beauty of it too is that if you end up failing, you still have the option to continue on with the designed game or just move on. A lot of folks can't do that on their own though and need to be forced into it by the games design itself, which is unfortunate in many ways, but that's how things are now for most. Need to have our hands held to find ways to have fun lol.

[vp_cmc]

If you chose to carry on crafting in a market area knowing an A rank could suddenly appear you'd deserve to lose that HQ i170 BSM main tool

What's problem with crafting in a market area?

[Corfish]

snip

Isn't it possible that some people just have different ideas of fun? Everytime I hear about FFXI, it always sounds like more time was spent trying to avoid random mobs because of how absurdly dangerous they were rather than fighting them. That sounds... Cumbersome. I don't mind a challenge, but in an MMO where you just want to get from Point A to Point B to gather, or complete a quest, it just gets really annoying when things constantly aggro against you.

[ThirdKeyOfSun]

I am not sure they would even be able to do it at this time. They have painted themselves into a corner by making us out to be god slayers and almost gods in our own rights.

Dangerous special enemies for sure exist (NM, Savage,Void Ark) but the idea of general open world zones posing any real threat to us does not fit the narrative until they inevitably drop us down a peg (or 20) to create tension for 4.0 D:

[Kurogaea]

That's the old school way of doing things. Using your imagination to make a game the way you want to play it (even if just temporarily). Hell, people still do it these days with things like that Nuzlocke challenge stuff for Pokemon. The beauty of it too is that if you end up failing, you still have the option to continue on with the designed game or just move on. A lot of folks can't do that on their own though and need to be forced into it by the games design itself, which is unfortunate in many ways, but that's how things are now for most. Need to have our hands held to find ways to have fun lol.

Oh, don't even. This isn't Atari where everything looks like a crappy pixelated mess and dots are symbolized as bullets and health and you can't tell what the flip your fighting. If I have to use my imagination to have fun with this game I pay 15$ every month then hell yeah I want the game to be designed the way I find fun. If I made a game where you jump bridges and walk an old lady across the street 13 times would you wish it was a better game or use your imagination to make it fun? Yeah, I wouldn't either unless your drunk and had friends to play that crap with, though just about anything is fun with friends. :/

[Kurogaea]

I am not sure they would even be able to do it at this time. They have painted themselves into a corner by making us out to be god slayers and almost gods in our own rights.

Dangerous special enemies for sure exist (NM, Savage,Void Ark) but the idea of general open world zones posing any real threat to us does not fit the narrative until they inevitably drop us down a peg (or 20) to create tension for 4.0 D:

Thats a good point. Funny when I mention our godhood then comment about Haurchefant's (idk how to spell it) supposed "sacrifice" when I'm sure if we got shot with that light arrow we'd faint, appear at the nearest aetherite, repair our gear, and kick that guys teeth in. We survive meteors, explosions, infernos, lasers, mega flares (I think that's what it was in t9) and just about anything in 14 we should be dead from.

[Ibi]

Everytime I hear about FFXI, it always sounds like more time was spent trying to avoid random mobs because of how absurdly dangerous they were rather than fighting them. That sounds... Cumbersome.

Yep, that's pretty accurate.

Non-casters (in particular DPS jobs that didn't typically use ninja at a subjob) had it especially hard. If you were WHM or RDM main or subjob, you could simply cast Sneak and Invisible on yourself for a small amount of MP.

If you were NIN main or sub, you always had the spell Tonko available (which functioned like Invisible) and eventually the spell Monomi (which functioned like Sneak) was added. Although those use consumables, ninja tools themselves had a default stack of 99, and later they added tool bags, each of which contained a stack of tools and could themselves stack to 12, allowing you to have up to 1287 of each (12 tool bags, plus a stack of 99) in just two inventory spaces each.

If you didn't fit into either of those categories, you had to either craft or purchase Prism Powder and Silent Oil, each of which had a default stack of just 12. Content like Sky was full of mobs that were aggressive to either sight or sound, and you could easily go through a full stack of consumables in a single event night, depending on how much running around you had to do and whether there was someone zoning in with you who could at least give you an initial Sneak or Invisible to help out.

Additionally, due to the high level of demand that created, prices for them could frequently be relatively high, especially at the start of an expansion.

[Welsper59]

Isn't it possible that some people just have different ideas of fun? Everytime I hear about FFXI, it always sounds like more time was spent trying to avoid random mobs because of how absurdly dangerous they were rather than fighting them. That sounds... Cumbersome. I don't mind a challenge, but in an MMO where you just want to get from Point A to Point B to gather, or complete a quest, it just gets really annoying when things constantly aggro against you.

Absolutely. I raged to no end wasting 30min just getting from one zone to another on multiple occasions lol. That difficulty though is what built upon the immersion of the MMORPG genre. Back then, the genre was far more about the RP nature of it, meaning that these games offered players means to be immersed within the game due to these intended hardships, be it you RP'd or not. I'd say a large amount of people didn't RP in XI, but nearly all of us that played and enjoyed it can say we felt a strong connection to the game (i.e. we were immersed within it).

The danger it presented you reflected upon you developing as a player. If you couldn't do it, you had options but they weren't good ones (like finding someone to help you take the trek that wasted 30min of their time). It was reflective upon the hardships we relate to IRL, so we could love and hate our second life a lot easier. If you get that "second life" bit, then kudos to you... you know your MMO stigma history lol.

You know how people complain about things being too easy? Back then, we would intentionally make the game harder for ourselves by wearing stuff that was intended to be worn for it. Even when the mainstream popularity of the genre started to emerge, people still did this sort of thing. Level capping themselves in WoW at 60 so that they could go and do old raids as they were designed... at least to what they realistically could achieve (abilities/spells had buffs/nerfs/changes over time). Note: The ease is a legit concern, I'm just pointing out what was the norm to get around it before.

The genre itself was only appealing to select crowds, and once it became a little more popular, it attracted more of those like-minded folks, gaining it the popularity it has in mainstream today. Because of that however, it attracted folks who would never EVER play an MMORPG back in the day. It was a bad thing that you played an MMORPG, despite other "normal" games starting to be more accepted. Today, the genre is looked at as nothing special besides it being required you be online to play. Meaning a lot of people we see in this game have certain unrealistic expectations of the genre... like complaints about paid subs, thinking they should be getting a full games worth with every patch/expansion that is reflected upon current games content (meaning next expansion, someone will expect it to provide us 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0's entire plethora of content at launch or sometime during), etc.

Not everyone liked it, especially had it been these days obviously, but that's the aforementioned old school mentality. We really did have to rely on our imagination to get the most out of things lol. There would be far less pointless complaints these days, and more constructive criticisms about overall design (rather than focusing on something small), if more people had such a capacity to think so broadly for themselves.