Why was FFXI so great?

[Shika]

I wouldn't personally say that FFXI was "so great", but there are definitely a few things that I miss from it.

* Party search function - people actually used this in FFXI. I find (at least on my server) that I can set myself to seeking party and put a comment, e.g. looking to do Ifrit or Moogle, and no-one at all pays attention. When I look at the seeking party list I either come up with no search results, or at the most 2-3 other people. I also miss the seeking party flag next to your name as an easy indication for people in town to see who is seeking an invite to do something.

*A huge amount of content (although not all of it good) - there was a lot of stuff to do in game to keep a lot of people very busy for both casual and "hardcore" players. FFXIV is getting there though with this, just a shame at release all there was to do in game was level, craft or gather.

*A bigger sense of achievement - finishing the CoP storyline and getting my Rajas ring (before the nerf) was the biggest sense of achievement I had in FFXI. It actually meant something because it was a big challenge requiring the help of others; although I did this with an EST group and we did not finish until ~2/3am in the morning! I'm not saying that I necessarily think FFXIV content needs to be this difficult, but so far I haven't really been proud to have finished/done something in game. Speaking to the Little Ladies Day NPC and being handed 20 achievement points, being able to be ported to any camp without having been there first.... these are just a few of the things that I don't particularly like. (There are lots of others, but this is turning into an essay already!)

*Large scale events - Campaign, besieged, dynamis etc. But Hamlet defense is on the cards shortly in FFXIV, and I am holding out a lot of hope for this to be fun and invoke a sense of community and random people working together.

*Level cap areas - dungeons that scaled down your armour and weapons because going in at a certain level was a requirement. Personally I liked this added challenge in certain areas/dungeons.

There are a few things that I think are better in FFXIV than in FFXI.

*Gathering - I prefer being able to use abilities to pinpoint roughly where a mining/logging spot is rather than running around an area randomly trying to find a ???

*Crafting - there is a firm progression in FFXIV by using the exp gaining method. In FFXI you could go through stacks of materials and gain 0.1 skill to your craft. At higher levels especially this was pretty disheartening, hence why I only ever got one craft to 100.

*Not having to skill-up for every job - every weapon and magic ability in FFXI had to be "skilled-up" in order to be effective (i.e. not "whiff" - miss - in party). I always kept my skills capped but it was an added pain in the game that I did not wish for when I moved to FFXIV. That's just my personal opinion though

As for Abyssea... well I found it fun for a short while, but then many of my friends dwindled away. Leveling became a lot easier and the gear that everyone had been working so hard to achieve wasn't so special anymore. Sure, I can see why new gear needed to be introduced with the cap raising. But, as someone has already said in this thread, I think the thing that really annoyed people about this was the amount of time/effort required in comparison.

[Evoker]

I played FFXI since PS2 release in NA until shortly after abyssea launched. The second the so called "Brown Mage" was introduced in order for my character to poop an egg instead of some epic quest in order to increase my level cap, i quit.. It was an extreme insult from what i knew FFXI to be and did not want anymore than that to be part of my memories of the game. Not to mention i was leveling with people in abyssea that needed constant explanations on what stat did what for their character was horrible. Black Mages that did not have warp or sleepga II, etc....The fact that level 99 mobs were weaker than their outside counterparts was a big demotivator. The fact that people no longer knew the finer workings of their jobs or the fact that the population seemed to considerably drop in mentality was disturbing.

I liked FFXI for the player base, the required cooperation, especially my LS on the Titan server (Edeasorphans, "fear the green" ^^), The story quests, city missions, zilart, CoP, even Aht Urgan, was not to fond of wings of the goddess though. The boss fights that required strategy to be implemented and an accurate execution from everyone or the fight would fail, whether it was the stun cycle, healing, tank changing, etc.... I still remember sky gods, Bahamut V2 fight fondly, AV hatefully, Pandomonium after it was nerfed( limited to a certain amount of time). I especially remember the extremely hard Airship Battle in the CoP storyline when it was level 60 cap, before it was nerfed. Failed that fight so many times i was yelling obscenities when we wiped with only 5% more health left on the last boss, lol. When my group finally passed i was smiling for over a week. First time i set foot in "Sea" and how different it was and how few got that far. Epic stories and immersion. Skillchains and Magic Bursts knowledge and timing was a must for any exp party before Aht Urgan.

May seem weird but i think losing experience points for every death made the game that much better, you strive that much more to not lose the progress you worked hard to obtain.

I think ultimately was the community, i seriously can't find the same camaraderie in any other game. Once Abyssea destroyed any sense of difficulty it also destroyed that need for a serious community and was going in the way of WoW.

[Enfarious]

A lot of people like myself hated the sidegrade nature of FFXI doing sky for 5 years ring a bell. So when abyssea did come out it was like a breath of fresh air, probably the greatest thing to happen to FFXI, most people who currently still play FFXI agree on this. Finally we got some upgrades and a new level cap to level up our jobs to keep us busy.

Its the people who quit because their gear wasn't the best anymore are the ones that kept bashing abyssea. Most people who still play FFXI really enjoyed it.

I quit because 1) it got boring and w/ 99 alot of content became too "easy" and also the drops from that content became antiquated and 2) player skill dropped thru the basement and past the first sub basement shortly after the advent of abyssea and the marketing campaign to bring 13 year olds to FFXI and get 1~99 in 1 week so they could do EG content w/ "friends", did you ever end up in a +2/Empy Weapon pick up only to realize that your whm only had cures up to 4, didn't have and skills above 100, and then asked if your melees/tank should be hasted? Come on.

....
Don't even begin to tell me how this game is unbalanced when I proved to every person I ever partied with that the *worst* perceived job in the game was actually one of the best

Yay PUP, I loved my PUP, and proved on more than one occasion that it is a useful job for more than just soloing. Not to mention it was fun, useful pets that don't swallow your mp or turn on you at the worst possible moments are fun.

1 person to pull mobs, 1 person set to assist and 1 person calling the desired form of death (physical/magical/etc) for exp bonus/time bonus and gear chests. You still needed to maintain the party with healers and buffers ofcourse. Exp parties + dynamis = abyssea, thats how it always seemed to me anyway. Abyssea was one of the only times i managed to be a melee rdm without much complaint though.

6/18 players active the rest watching t.v. or napping or at work, noobs come back to a job that went 30~99 and say, "Oh what do all these skills do. I'm gonna go shout for a seal party before I get the rest of the spells cause I don't need them anyway."

There was that much to it? With abby buffs people pretty much did whatever the hell they wanted to do>.>;

WHM/NIN dual-wielding clubs because s/he's bored ... need I go on.

yeah no one skillchains why would you want to do more damage on the monster thats just stupid

Rapidly declining team strategies, not to mention that now it's more of a blu/ dnc/ sam/ or /sam just solo chaining, and getting pissed when someone else WSs during their chain. Yeah all mine were 99 and there wasn't anything more fun than dnc/sam doin 3peice dark skillchains for hahas. But yeah DDs stopped working together ages ago.

Those last 3, they sum up the player skill level plummet that abyssea brought to FFXI.
I missed skillchains when they for some reason went out the window, well some people, old school types, still realize that a chain for an xtra 25~150% or more "free" dmg added to the last hit of the chain, and the mages getting to boost their dmg for magic bursting is "smart" playing.

[Firon]

I loved FF XI cause it was well FF, that's what drew me in that's what kept me playing. I had fun with friends and everything else I did with them. The story line in XI was amazing and fun to do with friends, it also had a lot of content to do. That was fun but after the years passed by the time sinks started to be come annoying , then that's when it lost it's touch for me, cause my life was getting more busy and i could not get things done.

Did i love FF XI? Yes

Was everything great about it? No

Did i have fun playing it? Yes

That's all i can say about the game atm. It's hard for me to get immersed in a game world and feel connected to it so maybe that's why i don't get all googly eyes over XI, and don't remember every little thing as some type of grand adventure. I just play Ff's for fun.

[Vaer]

I liked FFXI because of the social aspect. Pretty much one of the reasons I would "quit" then keep going back. Friends make everything better. I even knew some players who would pay for their sub just to socialize and didn't even really do anything. Well, until they forced us to use the SE account thing with no renewing credit card option which has since been fixed but took them a longggggggg time.

The time-sink nature of the game led you to make a lot of friends who were probably after the same goal.

I feel the MMO genre nowadays is lacking any real social interaction when you can solo 75% of the game and only party when you really need to.

Another thing is player patience has fallen off a cliff. Once something goes wrong, such as the party wiping, people leave instantly. It's quite sad.

[Onidemon]

Well first, nobody ever said you have to do that fight, and most people didn't. Second, we've already established that our opinions on what is masochistic are different. Third, I do very occasionally have that much time to spend on a game. It's not something I'd ever do regularly. I work 60 to 70 hours a week but that doesn't stop me from enjoying the odd binge. But really, nice assumption, I'm sure you think I live in my parents' basement, too.

I'm not even sure why you think it's a problem that someone would spend a single free day in a month playing a game for long hours when we have kids basically being raised by their Xbox and people spending more time in WoW than reality.

Playing any video games for 18hours straight is a sign you might need help. It's just 6h short of being awake for 24h standing in front of your PC. If you think that is normal then i rlly dont know what else to say.....

[charlemagne]

Where to begin? There was so much of it. Vanadiel was huge and it was varied and there was so much to do. And it was an adventure. A great big adventure. Taking what seemed like the first big step that first party in Valkurm I was like a five year old playing with a wooden sword. It was big and bright and it was exciting. That fear as you went through Jugnor for the first time. The hustle and bustle of Jeuno. There was just something about that world that captured my imagination. The adventures I had. Growing as my little guy overcame obstacles, fought in parties and learned from experience and other players.
I moved to xiv the day it came out and never went back, not because the game wasnt awful at release but because I knew Vanadiel was the past and xiv would grow to eclipse it. I hope I turn out to be right because everyone deserves that big adventure. Saying goodbye to Charlemagne on Ifrit server wasn't easy. I did almost cry, we'd been through so much together in that great big world.

[Tigercub]

Playing any video games for 18hours straight is a sign you might need help. It's just 6h short of being awake for 24h standing in front of your PC. If you think that is normal then i rlly dont know what else to say.....

I don't know what to say to you or OJ if you're ignorant enough to think it's dangerous or unhealthy to do this once in a long while. I never suggested it should be done regularly. It's not something I do even remotely regularly myself. But having done it before does not mean you have issues or that you're risking your health. I can't take anyone seriously who thinks this is life threatening or that you're mentally unstable for ever in your life having played a game for a single 18 hour period. I really don't think I'm the one who needs to get a grip here.

If you don't like an extreme minority of content being very time consuming, that's one thing; you're entitled to that opinion. But implying people are crazy for having done this content or outright stating that it's life threatening is just ridiculous.

[Tureni]

I think we have room for both quick casual (we have a lot of that. Most of the content takes no longer than an hour per task.) and hard long term content (we have some of that in Grand company rewards and achievement rewards).
To deny the validity of one or another is a little selfish as I see it. Regardless, at this point, I think we could use more long term content.

Agreed. I also hope they intend to add or modify content so I can't take down a mob or boss with 2 spells. I want EPIC BATTLES... not small skirmishes. Even when it comes to regular mobs and bosses. More challenging content is needed to keep me satisfied in the long run, but also add rewards for this content. Give me something to work towards always.

[Heavell]

To put it simply :

Final Fantasy XI made me want to stay in the world everyday.... if i remember correctly maybe took 7 rest days from 365 days (or a year) my play time.
Final Fantasy XIV made me rest 2 months total from 6 months my play time.

Whenever i think about FF XI, it makes me smile because i've a great time in Vana Diel. Very memorable.
Whenever i think about FF XIV, it makes me ask myself what should i do after i got all 7/7 ifrit or moogle weapons or AF