General Discussion

Hi

Well I see it's on sale on Direct 2 Drive..It's one of the few Of the older ones..Two years or more I haven't tried yet..Mainly due to no free trial...

I am a 62 year old gamer so how is this for us mature types?..and how is the community?

Need some feedback before I invest

Tom

community is helpful and mature.

However, its the forced grouping that kills me. After lvl 16ish you cannot solo at all. You MUST be grouped in order to further your lvling.

I played it about three years ago. It is really hard to get in a group...well...not HARD per se but it can take up to a couple hours to find a full group....unless your a white mage.

But if you love 0% solo after lvl 16 or so, you'll love this game.  If you always like to play solo every once in awhile, youll have fun at the beginning but after that itll get frustrating for you.

Also, a bad thing FFXI does is..lets say you unsubscribe for about 4 months.  You simply cannot resub to play your characters. You MUST buy the game all over again.

MMMMMMMMMMMMM..the waiting for a group and no solo after 16 doesn't sound so great.

Oh yes! finally, Sorry but I kinda been waiting for some one to post this, After having played FFXI for almost 4 years I can tell you almost all there is to know about it, you ask if the community is mature, For the most part it is. It is not full of kids like WoW is for sure. Lots of people from lots of places in the world, about 1/2  the server is usually JP,  Ill just make a list of some important things you should probably know about FFXI

More mature community than lots of mmos out there.

hmm man what next, sorry its just there is so much I can tell you about the game, if you need more Info PM me but here ill keep going with the list loll...

It can be very easy or very hard depending on what class you choose to play. Example. Most people who level a Mage class can usually get a party quite quickly compared to those who level melee classes. White mage and Bard are quite popular along with Corsair and I believe now they use scholar as well.

If you level a melee class, Back in 2004 you were in for torture, especially a dragoon, (Which was my first 75 in 2005) :) People would not invite you to the party simply because of your class. Now its gotten a lot better, people are more accepting about everything and more chill.

The end game is quite exclusive in FFXI, God fights and God armor drops in HNMLS is something that I got into but got out of it as soon as I found out how things are, Picture World of warcraft Dungeon raid system...now picture you have to camp monsters...against other elitist people. And you can spend about 1 hour -2 hours waiting for a spawn and then loose it, all for a minor chance at a good drop which probably 1/2 of your linkshell wants....I would say the end game in FFXI is something worth avoiding, avoid the elitist personalities of alot of the HNMLS's and avoid the drama that surrounds them.

Now dynamis get into that! its fun, its casual and you get some cool looking gear.

FFXI is very story driven as well, unlike most mmorpgs FFXI has  cutscenes however not cinematic, you can youtube alot of the story cutscenes for yourself when you have time to check it out...a good one is CoP intro. In qufilm island it wont spoil anything. However to get the story done, you need to have the right job/class, combo for people to take you into those areas...so its kinda lame

Overall FFXI would be the game where your experience is half determined by yourself and half by the people around you. Unlike other mmorpgs you can't really solo well enough to consider it a main form of progression. Unless you are a beast master or have tons of cash.

Starting FFXI right now you would be in trouble my friend, There are not many new players in the game, and most of the players are out in ToAU or in WoTG (The expansion areas) So not many people to party with before level 60, and you NEED people to party with after level 18 with most jobs.  (Yes you can solo to 18). Once you get into a party or find the right people the game can be great though.

I recommend giving it a shot...its not an easy game, dont expect a cakewalk or to have an easy time getting established into the community...right now its kinda tight because most servers have around 3000-4000 active players on peek times..about 1/2 of those are JP alot of people know each other. You will find a mature, well behaved community for the most part... (lots and lots of people looking for love in a video game as well in FFXI (rofl)  But GIve it a shot man and if you need to ask ANYTHING just send me a PM and I will be happy to respond. This is probably one topic After all my years on it and having just quit a few months ago, having lvl 75 whm lvl 75 drg lvl 75 war and lvl 75 drk I can probably tell you about most of the game quite well.

I would only recommend this game for people with A LOT of time on thier hands, and that have a great degree of patience. 

Originally posted by SoulSurfer

I would only recommend this game for people with A LOT of time on thier hands, and that have a great degree of patience. 

This should have been the first thing on my post..... /slaps self

You do need ALOT of patience to wait for hours and hours sometimes days, for a tank around your level range..or a  healer in your level range to show up. It was not that bad before but over the years the lack of players made it so you can't even form a party that easily anymore..sometimes all day there will be 1 tank level range 50-53 and he will be afk in bastok...

the waiting would sure get old....The toughness of the game i can handle but waiting to group that long ..i' think i'll pass..thanks for great feedback though.