New MMO player, and I have some questions!? (WARNING: Longish?)

[Minute0]

Hey guys!

I've been a FF fan for a while now, but never a MMO person. MMO's always seemed outside my play style and seemed like it takes too much dedication, however when I heard about this game I wanted to give it a try (Didn't know about XI). I tried the beta and enjoyed it! I bought the game when it came out and played until school started then stopped (Only got to lvl 12). I was thinking about giving it another go and subbing for a month to see if I can really get into it and it wasn't just the hype that made me like it.


So I had a couple of questions,

1. I'm an extremely casual gamer, does this game take alot of dedication?

2. After the beginning hype, are the servers still active?

3. Is it a friendly community?

4. In MMO's do you NEED to be in a guild or clan?

5. Recommended server for NA?

6. Can I have your opinion of a positive and negative about this game?

7. Whats the most fun you've had so far?

I really appreciate the future feedback guys!

[Kuwagami]

1) depends on your objectives. You can do a lot of things for a long time with 1-2 hours a week, or a lot of things for the time of a patch with 5-10 hours a week. 1-2 hours a week may be short to try the raids though.

2) There are many servers still actives. I think Ultros is still fairly active now

3) Depends. find a few friends and it will be good. Party with strangers and you can get bullied pretty hard if you don't meet their standards.

4) In MMOs you used to. Not anymore, and even less in FFxiv. It helps though.

5) Balmung I'd say, but ultros should be fine

6) positive : graphics
negative : sometimes I feel like a bot or in a solo game due to the mechanics

7) When my static was still existing, blind runs in the new dungeons at every new patch. Saying crap, dieing to stupid stuff, and joking about it.

[tsunderehatter]

I'll try to answer as best I can, being an MMO player for most of my life.

1. It depends, if you want to do Coil, you'll need a lot of dedication, but you can do a lot without a ton of dedication, like run dungeons, level different jobs and classes, level trade classes and gathering classes - lots of stuff to do, and you can do it casually, it'll just take longer.
2. They're still active.
3. I haven't seen anyone actually mean. Everyone I've run into has been pretty friendly or quiet.
4. Nope, but if you like talking, it can be fun to join one!
5. I don't think there is one, some, like Balmung, is best for roleplayers, since they have a large roleplaying community, but it's also very populated. I'm on Coeurl and it seems to have a population that I'm comfortable with.
6. Originally, my opinion was really negative. I was so used to action combat MMOs and dodging and moving while casting, and my computer was pure crap so I lagged out a lot in this game and eventually quit due to that, blaming it on the game. I recently returned and gave it another chance since I just quit another action combat MMO and I'm getting tired of them for the most part. I like the mechanic-based fights and thinking through with a strategy of what to do and what attacks to use before I have to move. I'm still new to 50 though and working on gearing up, but I'm enjoying it greatly right now.
7. The most fun I've had is just running dungeons with random people, it's fun and you never know who or what you'll get and I've met a lot of really nice people who have been extremely helpful with helping me re-learn some fights in lower level dungeons and just learn higher level ones.

[kram]

I'm new to this game, I'll try to answer since I want to be part of the community.

1. I'm also a casual gamer, but only play 2hrs a day during weekdays and 5hrs during weekends. I think that is fine.

2. No idea

3. Yes, right now I have a FC which helps me and chats with me.

4. I think you need to for extra help. Maybe future contents will maximize the use of FC.

5. Hmm I don't know.

6. Positive - there are many things you can do in this game to make you busy, and you can try almost everything in one character. Still can't judge the negative part because I'm still enjoying. To avoid getting bored, make friends to chat with.

7. There was this dungeon (copperbell?) that we can't figure out on how to kill the green monster. All are beginners and we asked 1 of our members to google on how to kill it. Then we kept running around while looking for the way to kill it. In the end I laughed bec. it was very simple to kill the monster. For me that's fun

[Theodan]

well....

1. I'm an extremely casual gamer, does this game take alot of dedication?

Not really, I play solo 99% of the time and I can do what I want to do when I want to do it, and party up with friends whenever, the point is to enjoy the game and just put in as much as you want to

2. After the beginning hype, are the servers still active?

Yes

3. Is it a friendly community?

I believe so, obviously you have to make friends in game and ignore the idiots out there, but generally the community is what you make of it.

4. In MMO's do you NEED to be in a guild or clan?

Not at all, but as you make more friends you will end up being part of a guild/clan anyway, it's just part of being in a friendly community. You will inevitably join a Linkshell or two (or more lol) with friends that you make along your way.

[Theodan]

5. Recommended server for NA?

Lots of NA servers and everyone will have their own opinion as to what would be better lol.
At the end of the day, the results will be the same, you can do a lot of stuff solo so you dont have to interact much with other players if you dont want to, so any one particular NA server wont make much of a difference to you.

6. Can I have your opinion of a positive and negative about this game?

This is way easier to grasp hold of compared to the old FFXI, which is good for new players. Also you can do a lot solo or you can make friends guild/clan up and do a lot together. Either way, there are a lot less restrictions and you can accomplish more at your own pace.

7. Whats the most fun you've had so far?

Everything! lol, seriously though, I really did enjoy going through the story line and the new side missions, and I currently like getting all my relic weapons upgraded. (can be a little bit if a grind, but it isnt meant to be too easy now lol)


Hope you come back and give it another try

[ariannef]

I'm also a FF fan who made to leap to an MMO for the 1st time. I primarily play solo though I'm part of a small FC with friends of friends of friends - other than being able to chat, an advantage is having a small house with a garden and, as of next patch, a private room and chocobo breeding :-)

I play on average 10-15 hours a month - sometimes it's all in a single weekend, sometimes it's an hour a day for a week or two, I don't sweat it and don't set any goals or limits. In regards to your comment on dedication, I read somewhere that this game rewards more hardcore players for their effort, and more casual players for their patience. Needless to say, with my limited play time, patience trumps effort in my case.

So that's it's for question 1 & 4; for the #2, the answer is yes, for #3 I've found more negativity in the forums than in the game itself - you find more of a *very* vocal minority here - in the game I've had 2 instances out of hundreds (thousands?) where I thought to myself, this is not a very nice person, and I reported someone once. Otherwise people usually play nice and some are downright pleasant & helpful :-)

#5 - no idea; #6 I'm a FF fan & a story and lore fan - I love my custscenes and read all tidbits that I can find - I wish we had books like in Skyrim! - so the positive is the story itself and the absolute beauty of the world. The negative atm for me is the grind required in end game for gear/weapons, you name it - If you've read the forums, I'm sure you saw people complaining about the Atma drop rates, I'm waiting until they're better, even if it takes 3, 6, 9 or 12 more months - at 10-15 hours a month play time, I'd probably end up with the weapon at the same time as if I waited in any case :-), so I've decided to simply ignore everything after hard mode primals and play different classes to unlock their lore & quests. I've been able to level about 1 class between each major patch, which is fine with me, I go up 1-2 levels each time I log on so every 2-3 times I get a new class or job quest with lore and that makes me happy :-)

#7 Hildibrand! They are the funniest, most absurd quest lines ever!

[ruskie]

1. Not really. You can do fine with spending an hour or two per day. Even for raids.

2. People leave, people come. Most of the hype train I believe already left and that is mostly a positive.

3. For the most part. There will be idiots everywhere but best is to ignore them or if need be report them if they actually harras.

4. Nah. You can start your own linkshell and add your friends to that(I know a person that did that) then just pull from that. It's just for chat and asking for help.

5. EU here so sorry.

6. Positive: finding friends you can enjoy the game and the story with, that will support you with what you are trying to achieve
Negative: unable to find those friends and then being forced to DF stuff and get abused for wanting to enjoy the cutscenes

7. Most fun... hmm could be fun runs(unorthodox party setups to run dungeons(like 4 dps, 3 heals and a tank, 1 heal 3 dps, 2 dps and a heal - and such like), or blind runs(doing something for the first time... don't read it up... figure it out on your own), treassure hunting and having half the team be in DoH or DoL gear with DoH/DoL weapons of course(watch that epic DPS fly by hehe).

[Minute0]

I really appreciate the quick feedback!

I've read all of them and I'm really pleased with answers, so I'm easily going to give this another shot! I'm going to do a new character however. I forgot what I was doing on my old character haha.

Once again thankyou and hope to see you guys in game! (Same server maybe )

Oh, and if people see this after feel free to post still! It may help other new players make a decision