Anyone from 11?

[Kittra]

I have a running subscription to XI on the Asura server (although I rarely play these days).

If I had to choose what I liked about it back in the day (2002[late]-2008), I would have to say the awesome community and general comradery between players.

The sheer difficulty of the game back then literally forced players to make bonds with each other and make connections that were not easily broken. Even "JP Only" and overly excessive "requirements" for partying/raiding were the few or rarely seen negatives within the game. It's only very recently that it's become the norm in FFXI to be required to have a certain set/gear level for raiding, and that only started happening when the game edged closer to "solo play".

As for the Japanese, that whole "JP Only" is complete, and utter bull! I have partied with many Japanese people in the past, and even though I had to communicate with the auto-translator, we all got along really well. I even caught them off guard once while I was studying Japanese years later when I realized they were making fun of how "The THF (me) is pulling the beetles wrong. wwww" and responded with the auto-translator ((wrong way.)) ((pull back)) ((Understood.)). From there it was all fun, games and many "w w w w w"s.

What do I like most about FFXI today? The Trust System! Because with how many people have abandoned FFXI lately (and with how easy Abyssea made leveling from 30-99...), it is impossible to find players, let alone a "group" of players willing to level up with you (so much for level-sync). So Trust fills a void where your party members would normally have been (I find myself talking to the Trust NPCs because I'm lonely while leveling... they never talk back though -_-).

What do I hate most about FFXI today? The Trust System! Because it requires that you have no-one else in your party to summon even ONE NPC! When I want to party with that one lone player around my level in the zone, but doing so would mean we'd both have to rest for 5 minutes in between fights (They still haven't upgraded this since 2008!), I don't really feel like partying... Doing so would require I play the game 50% of the time instead of 100% of the time and enjoying it with an actual human being by my side. =(

So yeah, Trust is both a blessing and a curse, but only because of the restrictions they placed upon it and due to the fact that you are still required to rest between fights to heal your HP. =(