Very interesting...

[Jericho]

Biggest point of interest for me.

Launch: 5/16, 2002
Sky NMs: 12/16, 2003
Dynamis: 2/26, 2004

End-game events weren't released for 19-21 months.

[JackDaniels]

Zilard mission.

No good nor bad, typical expantion. Using same model mobs on most areas. Lack of progression and improvement were part of the dislikes in the FFXI comunity. But what worse were those countless nerfs Square made post the launch of Zilart expantion, the inflation in economy (limited stock items), untuned areas. And many have quitted when they saw the horrendous exp table that you needed to get in order to advance, the level difference, the accuracy problems...
Promathia seemed not much of an improvement to the game. However, from the storyline that gives the expantion, it could be said that the expantion itself was descent. Several improvement on spells, tradeskills, NM and weapon skills and so on can clearly see that it is trying to focus on what FFXI is built. (and further more explains what NA release has in its disks and so on)
New areas added 35+ 4 expanded existing zones.

This scares me. Let's hope they don't screw us out of different mobs.. i swear if theres 3 kinds of dodos in the expansion areas, i will not be ammused. The least they could do is bring back colibri, I like pink..

[Holy_Dragoon]

It only seemed like a short time because in NA we got sky barely 2 months after release. The game had 11 months of polish before we even saw it.

[JackDaniels]

GM giving information to an illegal user has been punished. It was to demonstrate how strict Square deal towards those who break the regulation. However, since everyone knew about how corrupted the Gms were they had more suspicious views towards the GM rather than respect.

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

[Kilta_Firelotus]

Interesting points Kilta. Very cool to see some of the differences from your point of view.

your welcome. I played ffxu from ps2 launch day till last mnth (due to money) I first started just able to play 2 hrs a day then after my second year 12hrs+ (i hate tv and nothing in my town to do) minus a few mnths to 1/2 year off due to some system issues. I enjoyed the game both good and bad. I wish I had a better time for end game as I did like sky and dynamis. Just ppl attitudes made me go meh... see imo the japanese are a very strict culture. Their school year is like 200+ days. 99% of the time their in uniforms. Work same thing. So when they get on a game they want it to be fun. Where most na see it differently. They spend monwy on it, and don't want that money wasted. They see death as a waste of time and money. I personally don't like that mindset. It makes the game work. And work isn't fun.

[Kilta_Firelotus]

I say no one has a right to tell you how to play. I personally hated getting told how to play rdm. With the excuse of... you need to do stuff for end game. I was very good at rdm in the sence of I knew my timing an was quick with dispel. If i needed to rest I rested. If I needed to convert I converted. I played rdm best when I meleed. As thats how I had fun with it.
I mostly played mnk with mnk/thf cuz I like doing crit dmg since i was mithran. but ppl again told me off about it saying go "/war go /war. then go /nin go /nin. You don't play mnk properly if you not stealing hate from the tank" << this is the only thing I hated in ffxi. I just hope in ffxiv Ima be able to play my own style, and that as long as i'm a team player that should matter.

[Kilta_Firelotus]

kinda funny the lvl 80 showed up on gear. Also That i forgot that cop came out before WoW. Thats funny.

[Isaaru]

I say no one has a right to tell you how to play. I personally hated getting told how to play rdm. With the excuse of... you need to do stuff for end game. I was very good at rdm in the sence of I knew my timing an was quick with dispel. If i needed to rest I rested. If I needed to convert I converted. I played rdm best when I meleed. As thats how I had fun with it.
I mostly played mnk with mnk/thf cuz I like doing crit dmg since i was mithran. but ppl again told me off about it saying go "/war go /war. then go /nin go /nin. You don't play mnk properly if you not stealing hate from the tank" << this is the only thing I hated in ffxi. I just hope in ffxiv Ima be able to play my own style, and that as long as i'm a team player that should matter.

The thing about this is there will always be the current "ideal" playstyle or setup for every class. Personally I have fun with these ideal playstyles because I know I am performing as best as I possibly can, but we will see what happens when the class system is reformed.

[Kilta_Firelotus]

The thing about this is there will always be the current "ideal" playstyle or setup for every class. Personally I have fun with these ideal playstyles because I know I am performing as best as I possibly can, but we will see what happens when the class system is reformed.

sometimes being "the best" isn't what is best for the team/party. Like i find it against the party to purposely take hate from tank then get bad about dieing. I found the end all be all is flawed. The best should only be what the player feels is best for them. As not everyone can or will be the same. Nor should be forced to be the same. Like being forced to lvl nin, even though tanking is not something your good at. Players will not be good at everything, nor should be forced to.
But i digress

i loved the gimp pld thing XD i met alot of pld who wrere like that. like some plds I ran into just b4 i had to quit last mnth. They wait for ages to cast cure and they end up 1/2 dead. and use up to much mp.

[Seif]

Who cares about end-game at this point?!

Even the basic missions that were in the beginning of XI offer a variety of ways to complete them the storyline is better written and every mission is better than XIV ones. Not to mention there are a LOT more of them to boot.

So far I've seen nothing like the rank 3 dragon fight in XI gameplay-wise.

Most of the starter missions are better too. In XIV most of the starter missions can be done with little to none player interaction and yet they have rank-locks that XI didn't have.

I had to grind for a month to reach a mission where I basically just had to watch an admittedly stunning cutscene (yeah one of the few in XIV since quests are leves) with no gameplay whatsoever! Next mission had a fight going on but I didn't need to participate in it to "win" it. The storyline makes absolutely no sense and it's written like a fantasy 101 amateur would do it.

Quests don't have any story to them nor cutscenes