Quote Originally Posted by Xtrasweettea View Post
In FFXI, there is no DF or PF. If you wanted to group for something, you had to either:
  • /shout in a zone that had a good amount of population and get /tells in response.
  • Inquire your Linkshell
  • Wait in the popular town zones with your "Looking for Party" flag up and add to your comments the purpose and what you can offer.

So, for example if I wanted to get EXP, I had to set up an exp party with the purpose of killing enemies that are high enough level for me to kill and to get EXP efficiently. Enemies were not really solo-able in FFXI (with the exception of two jobs being able to efficiently) A level 75 Rabbit can solo a level 75 PLD. So you had to group to get EXP.

Eventually they added some quicker ways to get EXP: such as repeatable hunt books that gave you EXP when you killed X enemies. When they added Abyssea, that was the best EXP/hr you could get. Abyssea has many similarities to Eureka, but didn't have an independent leveling system. Quests (main story and side) did not grant EXP until quests that were part of the last expansion were added.

Also, there were no instanced dungeons minus a few instanced dungeons that had limitations for access (either number of times for entry, length of stay, or both). Those dungeons also didn't grant EXP.

The story-line for FFXI, most people solo'd most of it as possible and only grouped when they were forced to. Unlike the FF14 MSQ, there weren't that many instances that required grouping up. This practice was done prior to Abyssea coming out.

Story is not re-playable, unless you do the forced group content with people who are doing it for the first time. There's no benefit nor reward for almost all of the main storyline quests... maybe some paltry gil.
And I absolutely loved the game. Took me almost a solid year to hit my first 75.
Abyssea killed XI for me. Made a lot of good friends. I still have my account, I get on it here and there, but it's pretty well a sunken ship for me.