Please read and dont hate

[Niwashi]

Free Company: Called FC for short, these are lasting groups of players who game and socialize together. If you're familiar with other MMOs, these are known as "guilds" in several other games.
Linkshell: A private chat channel you can join with other players. These lack many of the features of a Free Company, providing only (text) chat, but have the advantage that you can join several of them, while you can only be in one FC.


When you first start the game, there won't be much interaction with other players right at first unless you join a Free Company or Linkshell. The first several levels worth of content are designed for teaching everyone how the game works and introducing you to the world it's set in, and that part is primarily solo content.

At level 10 you get the first sort of group content, which are short (and optional) mini-dungeons called Guildhests, designed more for teaching you how to work with a group rather than providing a real challenge. (And they're generally too short to provide much in the way of social interaction either.) It's at level 15 that the first real dungeons are unlocked, and the game becomes significantly more social after that, as you'll need to complete group content to follow the storyline. You either get together with people you know from your FC or linkshell to complete them, or else you meet other players through a tool called "Duty Finder" that puts together players needing that content.