Do you remember your first time playing FFXIV?

[Mikita]

Same as before payment started.

Still having fun every day with lots of things to do.
Most of my friends are still playing, so things are good. ^^

[Seig345]

Started in the beta at some point... guessing it was open beta, 'cause I don't remember the feeling of "winning" access by chance. It was new, fresh, didn't feel like all the other theme parks I'd been through, and it was Final Fantasy! So I got the CE, and that first week where everyone was wearing the Onion Helm... not to mention the hermes shoes and the Asuran Armguards, which I still sport from time to time.

What started to get me down was the limit of 8 leves for what felt like more than 24 hours, and how they seemed to be the only interesting way to level up. Seemed like just grinding got you nothing. You had to pray you could find what you wanted in the mess of wards that were simply named different (not for what types of things were to be sold in that ward), everyone wanted like a bajillion gil for the next level range of gear, anima came back like, 1 every 24 hours or something.

Absolutely loved fishing though. :3

Came back shortly after subs started since I had 2000 crysta left over, and I'm lovin' it still today! With high hopes for the improvements we'll be seeing this year.

[Denmo]

I remember the first couple days of beta, there were like 200 people at Camp Bentbranch. It was so laggy that you could barely do levequests. They took several minutes to spawn for you. And you could see everyone else's levequest mobs so the major areas got pretty crazy. Shouting and chatting galore. So much confusion. And hundreds of crafters spamming Rapid.

Exploring the forest was exciting at first... Then you trekked your way up to Camp Emerald Moss and you suddenly realized what a horrendous dark maze the place was. Felt more like a giant dungeon than a forest.

Probably the most fun to be had was gathering and crafting. And that's sad because Gathering got tedious, and crafting one piece of equipment was a downright chore.

In the first few months after release, I played it very casually. The battle system and levequests weren't any fun at all. Behests were a giant spam fest of 15 people nuking one mob at a time. And you could only get exp if you attacked the mob in some way, so until later EXP fixes, they weren't very rewarding. When I realized that it was much the same at 30-50, I gave up on giving any serious effort to reach level cap. Instead I just focused on what I thought could be fun and/or crafting.

I would leave the game for months at a time, only keeping up with the website news. Patches came and went. Each one reignited some interest in the game to try out the new changes and content. None kept me around for long. It wasn't until the major combat changes came around that I started playing more seriously. I even remade Denmo and rolled Gladiator (a move that cost me my summer heat gear and santa hat). Joined an LS, got to 50, finished the story, beat Garuda, and finished up Hamlet. Then the servers shut down for good.

I've put so much time and energy into this game, and it's still not as much as most others have done. Even if XIV flat out bombs with its release next month (unlikely), I'll be satisfied at least having had this experience.

[Deli]

In the first few months after release, I played it very casually. The battle system and levequests weren't any fun at all. Behests were a giant spam fest of 15 people nuking one mob at a time. And you could only get exp if you attacked the mob in some way, so until later EXP fixes, they weren't very rewarding. When I realized that it was much the same at 30-50, I gave up on giving any serious effort to reach level cap. Instead I just focused on what I thought could be fun and/or crafting.

/think I didn't know we have "I remember" since that long ago

I actually confused with the time of when did these happened ⇙

I remember the giant party at tam-tam deepwhatever place. Everyone was around lv15(?) and we fighting lv33 elf. People back then still have no idea how to dodge ws. So, Mrd and Gla die a lot. I was pug then I tank for whole party most of the time. There were always silly new Gla joined then will die very fast cus they just stood there. Only in the very end of 3+hours party, finally, someone else experienced with Gla came and tank for us... Then I left to lv craft. I always craft with my battle job (lv up to the area I can supply DoW gears), so after 3 hours insane exp, my crafters are really behind.

[little silly crafters from the country side]
back then...I never exited the forest, so I always sell my cotton gears for 1000 gils. It's always gone instantly once I put up bazaar. To me, gathering cotton bolls cost me nothing. earning gil, each mammot drop 540 gil/hide, so this cotton biz was just for lvling weaver. In the end, people even fight for it or offer me 10,000 gils to make something. I was still naive that, "no I always sell 1000. you gave me too much."

[repair biz]
Then, I exit grid to ul'dah... the material world...any decent crafted gears started with 30k... latest cotton gears started with 100k... after a few nights selling, gears at 10k, I eventually quit selling stuffs and repairing gears for people.

Each repair is 3k+ (3k is the cheapest player's offer back then...standard fix is 10k due to each gear was 100k...). so when I have extra time, I just walked at Ul'dah and repairing. I have pretty balanced crafting jobs lv up, so I can fix most of the things. I "walked" because the lag, when I walked closer then I see people started to pop out and their hammer symbol will show up. One night, I think 5 ppl were following me walked around. I think my Roe reminded them the red ghost or whatever galka at port jeuno back at 11. Then, they started to yelling :/ so from 5 → 20 → 50+ huge line of ppl walked behind me... / . \ but I was just repairing... so this continued like 30 mins... they were so happy I don't know why. (I know why later at Denmo's march tho ) Eventually, some old customer spotted me and popped out lots broken gears. I tried to move a little between fix, but eventually the crowd just left XD

oh well... so I was always blinded and think everything was super nice, from battle to craft since original 1.0 beta

[MiNuN]

@Mikita Nightsong

Ah, I wish I had you in my guild

[Mikita]

@Mikita Nightsong
Ah, I wish I had you in my guild

I'm just a simple Miqo'te, still learning and trying to make her way in the world.
But thank you! I'm flattered. ^^

[AreeyaJaidee]

Yay a thread...

I remember logging in to check out my Onion Helm and realizing the CEdition was just as crappy and broke as Alpha and Beta.

Then SEdition released and we all enjoyed the constant server crashes and login cues...

Ahh great times... So fun to reminence about it all... So fun...

*huggles* :3

[lackofwords]

After almost one month I'm still having a grand ol' time still with the goobbue c:

[Rhomagus]

It's been a rollercoaster from my first days in Open Beta to now.

1.) Okay with open beta. Impressed with the graphics, really frustrated with the slow UI. Looking forward to the community getting together and "figuring out" the market wards like they did with the "Rolanberry Markets" in XI.

2.) Hated the delay on the context sensitive weapons skills like Haymaker, Jarring Strike, and Fracture, but figured it'd be gone in standard release.

3.) Same issues with menus and combat delay still prevalent in CE release. Very upset. Felt that it was an intentional way to get us to waste our time. Still no auto sort for inventory added to that frustration. No /assist macro and other XI staples. Can't type in battle because I was too busy initiating manual attacks (still prefer it though love/hate relationship).

4.) Loved meeting new people and sharing their stories from XI. Loved leading my own LS and creating events every other day.

5.) Hated the dwindling numbers in linkshell peeps due to frustration with the game. I still shared a lot of their frustrations with menu UI. Market Wards were finally named correctly but punks would still just crowd the Battlecraft ward because it was the first on the list. Still takes two and a half hours to NOT find the droids.... swords you were looking for.

6.) Loved being able to play when I wanted for as long as I wanted but could still make feasible progress in short stints and opportunities to solo.

7.) Loved the Armoury system and multiclassing everything so I could choose whatever I wanted to create my own personal playstyle. Loved being able to wear whatever I wanted despite it "not fitting my class" at the time. Still wish we had optimal gear.

8.) Hated that nothing was represented accurately in the menus. Hated that food showed little to no effect in your menu. Hated the mysterious mechanics of food. Medicines were/are pointless.

9.) Hated that the elemental wheel was not only messed up (Wind chokes fire?), but even worse, it didn't work anyways.

10.) Loved that crafting was considered it's own class and a legitimate path to success and experience the main storyline. Didn't like that they had no purpose in a party or that there was no opportunity for them to even group craft. So much potential there thrown out.

11.) Hated that the main storyline scenarios were catered to classes that couldn't fight. Should've made classes that couldn't fight still contribute somehow to battle.

12.) Angered by the abolition of manual attack (I loved Secret of Mana and actually controlling my character). The incoming thought of 1.18 was fueling me with great vengeance and furious anger. Angered at class pigeonholing. Cried painful tears of mourning for armoury and optimal gear systems.

13.) After experiencing auto-attack for a bit and seeing the class changes, completely understood and began to see roles forming but still hated the pigeonholing of certain classes to certain roles. Entered stage 2 of the grief process for optimal gear system.

14.) In grief stage 2 for the armoury. Love the combo system, still miss battle regimens. Really looking forward to jobs and the prospects of 2.0. Weary of even more dwindling numbers.

I'm still torn to this day, but I still pay to play. It's still nowhere near the game I was advertised from E3 09' - present day, but I'm still anxious to see what 2.0 will bring. I can also dig the new management even though some key features that I absolutely loved were axed.

All in all I find ways to enjoy the game still, but it's certainly taxing sometimes to play. You can only ride a rollercoaster for so long.

[MiNuN]

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