Thanks for the info, though it is sad news indeed. It's hard for me to imagine playing through this game without constantly grouping. I guess it isn't as much a successor to FFXI as I had hoped for. I was looking forward the old "stumble across a good group get invited to join a linkshell and create a strong bond that leads to good memories" way of leveling up. Maybe that kind of MMORPG has died or something.
Oh well, ill keep an eye for some shouts and check out the dungeon, hopefully i'm not far too late and something turns up.

Cheers.