Thoughts on Returning to Final Fantasy
XI

So as many of you know, either because of my Twitter stream or because you know me personally, I’ve made a return to Final Fantasy XI along with my friends Ryan, Will and Jim. I began playing FFXI when early 2002, when I was accepted into the beta for the PlayStation 2. At the time I really didn’t have much faith in the game, or interest to be honest. I was more excited about getting a free hard drive unit for my PS2 than the game itself. That’s probably why I never made it past level 8. That and the fact that I was trying to play it on my tiny, shitty television at the time.

Fast forward to November 2002, and I’m over in Arizona visiting Jim. He wasn’t very interested in the game either, but my consumer whorism got the better of me, and I talked him into trying it by buying him a copy. We headed to EB and picked up FFXI, and the rest, as they say, is history. Jim’s girlfriend Stephanie joined us, and together we started a guild. In time, the guild grew and grew, thanks almost single handedly to great efforts of Stephanie and Jim. The guild eventually grew to become one of the better known linkshells on our server, and we made a lot of friends during the time we played. But all good things must come to an end, and ultimately the guild was disbanded.

Recently the idea of returning to FFXI was brought up. I had tried to load up FFXI several times since the guild, but as I expected I couldn’t get into it. With the exception of Ultima Online – which was to thank for my meeting Ryan, Will and Jim in the first place – I’ve never played an MMO by myself. Or, I should say, I’ve never seriously played one. I load them up and then get bored. So I was very pleased to hear that the guys wanted to go back to FFXI and jumped at the opportunity.

My View of the Game

FFXI is a brilliant game, really. It’s challenging and damned frustrating at times, but it’s brilliant. The graphics are somewhat aged, but there is something about the world that is so appealing. The environments are so immersive, the party dynamics so challenging, the storyline so interesting. The depth of the world is, in my opinion, unmatched in the MMO realm.

FFXI: The Rest

It’s these aspects that draw a certain kind of gamer; an interesting breed not afraid of a challenge or set backs. As such, the player base of FFXI is a unique and fascinating culture. The vast majority of the players are incredibly friendly, and will welcome you to a party or a guild with open arms, and think nothing of helping you. But there is a small percentage of elitists at the higher end of the game that truly show contempt for anyone below their perceived tier of skill.

Like most things in this world, things are not judged by their positive attributes but rather generalized by the negative. People complain that the game takes too much time, that it’s too difficult, that the players are jerks. All of this is true to some degree or another, but it is not an absolute fact, and it does not truly reflect the reality of Vana’diel. I’m reminded of the saying, Life is a journey, not a destination. People seem to forget that games are a source of entertainment, and get too caught up in ideas of grandeur. You’ve got to take Final Fantasy XI for what it is: an aging game with a stubborn development team (though it’s clear this is changing), but with a community and world second to none. There’s plenty of challenge ahead of you, so take things slow. Get into your parties, be pleasant and make friends. Don’t complain when you’re not getting the maximum amount of experience points imaginable- you’re still making XP, and you should be having fun doing it!

I suppose what I’m saying is: Life is too short to be so negative. Entertainment should be enjoyed, so have fun. Don’t get caught up in the bad things and get burnt out and bitter.

Our Experiences So Far

Our group has grown a bit. Ryan, Will, Jim, Reid and Andrew are now playing together, and we’re having an absolute blast. We’ve started from square one and taken it nice and slow, really enjoying ourselves along the way. In the few weeks we’ve been back at it, we’ve all got our sub jobs unlocked and most of us have just got our chocobo licenses unlocked and began partying together in Qufim.

FFXI: Chocobo Circuit

What’s struck me the most about returning to the game is how little things have changed. The game is now 5 years old, and it’s relatively hard to find on retail shelves (the PC version, anyway.) Yet, the community is still very much alive, and there are new players everywhere. Jueno is as alive as ever, even with the introduction of Whitegate, and even while starting fresh with rank 2 and no subjob I never had any problems finding parties in the dunes. I met a lot of other players who were new, and got plenty of good advice about my new job choice (White Mage, which I never played) that I don’t believe I ever got back in the early days.

Coming back to the game and missing a whole expansion, there’s a lot of new content to absorb and it only seems to be growing with each patch. Earlier I said the development team was starting to get a clue, and my reasoning behind this is the sweeping changes they’ve been making to some of the fundamental experiences of the game that have plagued the new player base. They boosted experience points, removed the experience point reward cap (250 used to be the maximum amount of XP you could get from a single kill), they pratically revamped several of the jobs (most notably Beastmaster, which is now far more pleasurable to solo and can fit nicely into parties; dragoons are now a worthy class as well), made most NM drops Rare/Ex (which has all but killed of gil seller rare camping), removed “MPK”ing (where assholes would drag a monster into your camp, let it kill them and then the monster would turn on your party; now the monster just despawns) and even added timer-based experience bonus rings. They’re really making an effort to open the game up to a wider audience, and it shows. Honestly, my only remaining complaint with the game is deleveling. No other game out there allows a player to lose levels after they’ve gained them. I’m OK with XP loss on death (though I think “debt” systems like EQ2’s is far more intelligent), but deleveling is a major design flaw that needs to be resolved.

So, what’s next for us? We’re looking forward to blazing through Qufim and unlocking Kazham, one of my favorite leveling points in the game. I’m excited to be getting into Alchemy as my craft again, and finally reaching my goal of attaining those snazzy looking glasses. We’re all pschyched to unlock Beastermaster and starting a BM static (how awesome is a group full of beastmasters going to be!)

Wings of the Goddess is going to be released soon along with at least two and maybe three new jobs, one of which will almost certainly be “Time Mage”. It’s sounding like Wings is going to be taking us back in time or at least to the ruins of the battles of the old crystal war. If you’ve seen the opening movie to FFXI, that battle is apparently the cornerstone of this new expansion. That’s the word, anyway.

Most of all, I’m looking forward to continuing to have a good time with my friends, and enjoying ourselves in Vana’diel.

° Top     # Permalink to this article