Do you remember your first time playing FFXIV?

[Solace]

I remember it was brand new and no one wanted to be mages.. Like usual. XD.
So I went CNJ then THM.
It was not easy.
GUI was laggy and made little sense, transportation was.. {HuH?!}
XP was horrible, parties were virtually non-existent.
I like to think I had a hand in changing that. I shouted everyday in towns and organized people, made things happen.
It was a dirty job, but someone had to do it. XD
It's like being a virtual settler, trying to bring a world to life..
Interesting times..

[MiNuN]

I kinda missed the days when all I did was chop trees and I didn't know anything about the battle system and I had no idea how much the game was being panned.

"What? They're saying the game is free now? Awesome!" *chop*

"What you mean the game gets bad reviews?" *chop*

"Battle system? Boring?" *chop*

"Hm. What are they talking about? This game is awesome!" *chop*

Hilarious, you remind me of a person I knew who only fished

[MiNuN]

"I Remember" A Final Fantasy XIV to A Realm Reborn Story

[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]

^LOL

I was actually scared of picking of crafting leves because I thought I had to gather mats for them...20 levels later, regrets ;.;

[Kinseykinz]

I remember our Lord and Savior Pookie Poo.

Honestly, I remember trying to set controller settings and not being able to target ANYTHING. It got better.

I remember being outside Gridania, watching the first CS and then when I needed to walk forward and fight, being like 'I don't know how...wth?' and stumbling through that whole scene until i could get to my menu...searching for that and logging out....

Quick drive to best buy for a gamepad and I logged right back in and was set.

Keep in mind, I had a brand spanking new laptop just for the game and reaaaaallly wanted to play even though I never played a PC MMO and it had been years since my Xbox/PS2 FFXI days. I was afraid of the keyboard back then what can I say. (and now it's all I use lol). The gamepad solved my problem (thankfully).

As to the gameplay, once I got in:

I remember 15+btn's all chopping away on the very same tree...I remember making my first friend....and being so sad when he later stopped playing. I remember walking into the market wards for the first time...OMG is all I can say on how overwhelming I found those to be originally.

But I learned it, and I made good friends. I secretly think that is what kept me going. I got overwhelmed by something...or disappointed (really, casting cure on my party won't =SP on cnj but hitting the goat with my 'stick' will?), or was lonely (none of my RL friends, including hubby played)....and everytime, I'd figure it out, achieve something else, meet someone new, have a silly day with a friend, or be able to help someone else, and those early months, even though amazingly difficult and uphill at times, were still fun, and worth logging in for.


I don't miss the beginning phases, but I'm glad I had them...i don't think I'd have my awesome weaver friend who I use to gather mats for by the backpack load, or had a friend i could duo almost anything with to be silly, or even would have been fortunate enough to take over as LS master(old master stopped playing and the LS asked me to step up) and get to know such a good group of people for over 2 years w/o the bad launch. Nor do I think I would have learned to be a decent player capable of holding my own in endgame content. (Leading a LS, and having to be the boss forces you to step out of the 'shy' shell pretty quickly...it also forces you to up your gameplay to keep leading the pack forward)

[Leowilde]

I remember! My very first character was a Hyur girl named Juno Harbarre, and I remember how she looked too, even though I just played with her for a couple of days.
I started out in Limsa, and really liked the way she lifted her head from her knees in the cutscene aboard the ship, while a voice said "Hear, feel... etc." And then how well the music fit the cutscene with Leviathan.
After that, I remember running around outside Limsa, fighting bats for air shards, and fighting alongside some random guy. Who said to me: "You know, you're my first friend in this game." We were all fresh starters at that point, I lost contact with that guy after rerolling on a different server.

Oh yes, and I remember crafting for the first time. I didn't understand that some recipes required a higher lvl to succeed, and went for the tough stuff at lvl 1. lol.... It botched time after time, until I got so frustrated I vented in chat, something about what a horrible crafting system it was that failed all the time. XD