Well im not sure if the posts above this helped you at all but I'm going to try and answer your question the best I can and not get involved with others opinions of the game.

There is an auction house, each starting nation has there own auction house and each of those auction houses is connected to an out lying village. The main auction house where you will find most of the gear for later levels is in Jeuno and Aht Urghan the two major cities where most of the people are.

Well there is PvP in this game and it comes in two forms. There is a game called ballista which can be fun at times and a game called brenner which can be fun at times. I won't go into much detail about how they are played it should be easy for you to find the rules. There was a time when I played in every ballista I could and when brenner was released it was the same but these don't really provide any advantage in the game and are more as a side game that not many people are involved with these days.

Yes there are raids but in FFXI they are not usually referred to as raids. You have Dynamis which is huge and can have up to 52 people involved. Limbus which can have up to 18 I believe. Einherjar, salvage, assault, and campaign ops are other types of raids you can get into more detail about all of these if you go to http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Main_Page and click on the links they will give you a description of what each of them are in great detail and what the rewards are.

There are also gods and HNMs you can fight with large groups. Gods are faught by gaining pop items from certain mobs in Sky then using those items to pop the God. These drop some good gear and can be really fun battles and its not hard these days to find linkshells that do this. The HNMs on the other hand are mobs that pop threwout the world these are the monsters where you need to know what time frame they will pop and can endup sitting and waiting for them to pop, but you can get very rewarding items and great battles from these monsters and there are a ton of them out there. I don't particularly participate with HNMs because the competition to claim these monsters can be insane and with the new expansions I don't think the time and effort is worth the reward.

For me though ffxi is all about the missions there are currently many storylines and mission tracts. You have the 3 nations storylines from bastok, sandy, and windurst you will need to complete most of the missions for your starting nations to get some things, like airship pass, and access to zilart missions. Zilart was the first expansion for ffxi and has a great storyline with some fun mission you will need to complete most of these missions to acquire access to sky. Chains of Promathia is a series of lvl capped missions and some uncapped missions completing missions with grant you access to new areas and sea. Treasures of aht urghan has a long list of missions which i am still working on so you will need to look some info up on it at the link i posted above so far the storyline seems like its interesting and will become very good. The new expansion Wings of the Goddess only has a few missions with a few side quests involved which seems like its going to be awesome but they need to release more content at this time.

I don't know much about WoW but i don't think the gear has tiers but there are many pieces of armor and weapons available from all of the things ive talked about that serve there purpose in certain situations. The cool thing is there is generally no item that is the best all the time depending on what you are doing so there is always the need to do all of these activites and let me tell you its not something that can be done easily getting all the Relic, AF+1, Salvage, adjuration, god, and assault sets of armor is almost impossible I have not completed any of these sets and most people havent. So there is a great sense of accomplishment with just getting one of these pieces. Its kind of a rare experience to see people with full sets of these as well its not like everyone is running around with them and if you dont have them you are a noob or something.

There are also BCNMs  and KSNMs which are somewhat instanced battles that have caps at lvl 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 and uncapped. These can be a great  source of income as some of the better gear is obtained threw them and can be sold on the auction house or as a way to acquire the gear you want by completing them yourself. All of these thing ive mentioned are discussed in great detail on ffxiclopedia this is just a little overview I hope will help you understand that there are tons of things to participate in while playing this game. On top of that I'm sure Square Enix will release even more content and maybe some new armor sets with there new expansion Wings of the Goddess.

Well I think Ive rambled on enough I hope this helps you out a bit but if you are thinking about playing ffxi Id suggest getting it and giving it a try but keep in mind this game just gets better and better the more you get into don't get discouraged or concentrate solely on lvling or you will miss all the things this game has to offer and it might leave a bad taste in your mouth like it has for others. Good luck and I hope to see you in Vana Diel

There are no EU servers, all the servers are used by people from every region whether it be the US, EU, or JP. I like it this way because no matter when you are playing there are always people on. I live in the UK atm though im from the US and it hasnt effected my play much except for the fact that I see some old friends less and some friends a lot more.

Im not sure what nation you started in but its easy to make decent amounts of money at low lvls by fishing. you can start out by fishing moat carp around towns with a cheap rod and some worms. Windurst would be the best for this since thats where the fishing guild is but you can manage it at the other three nations.

Here is a link to a more detailed guide www.finalfishing.com/

Well Asura Doesnt exactly have the worst economy out of all the servers but currently its not the greatest. You can check out how servers prices are at this website. www.ffxiah.com/

It has a point system kinda like the stock exchange with average to high. Asura comes just above average too bad my server caitsith is 6th most expensive

These kind of posts have to be my favorite kind there are on this website. You can go into any other games forums and see a ton of posts just like this one. Sometimes I think thats all this website is good for, but it's not the websites fault its the need of people to bash something and feel good about themselves. Well kudos to you, you don't like ffxi go join all the others that have played and quit i'll still keep playing until I find something else but isnt that how most MMOs are I mean jeez I'm not playing EQ anymore but it was a fun game it was just time to move on when i did.

I know my LS uses Teamspeak. I tried to convince them to use vent but oh well Teamspeak serves the same purpose. I do know for a fact that most Linkshells don't use vent or TS I don't know if that because of what wsimike said or because you cant use those systems if you're on xbox or ps2. FFXI is a different MMO in the fact that most people I know that play have never even played another mmo but play and started playing because they are fans of the Final Fantasy series. The thing is some have tried other MMOs but do to the fact that this mmo is setup so much differently then any MMO most return and don't like the others. Anyways to re-answer your question I'm gonna say no most do not use VOIP systems but there are a few out there.

Originally posted by Cyris

There is a bunch of us on the Asura server.

It is the largest server in ffxi. We created a ls and and all so we could help each other out. Unless you have friends who can help you out. That's what i would recommend.

I'm curious where you can get this information about server population or if that's just speculation. I've been wondering where I could find that info if you could post a link that would be awesome.

I'm not sure how things are on Asura but from the sound of Dippy that would be your best bet. I personely play of Caitsith have since I started the game. I wouldn't go and recommend caitsith for new players according to ffxiah.com its one of the more expensive servers higher then average, and to be honest I don't see a lot of new players joining this server its mostly full of L33tist people or ones that think they are. I don't mind though I have a good shell and usually party with 2-3 people from it when I xp so I don't have to deal with them.Thats just my opinion of the server I actually thought about moving but I just can't leave my LS friends behind and make new ones.

Oh man did I just read that you thought ToAU was boring and not challenging? Man oh man you need to re-think cause Nyzul Isle is the hardest thing in ffxi these days. Its fun and challenging and you get a real sense of accomplishment from completing just part of it. I havent completed it yet but my ls is working on completing all 100 floors. Check out the link wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Assault_Mission_-_Nyzul_Isle_Investigation

Well that's a good question. Many many MANY people that play ffxi want this question answered but the problem is there is just not one answer for this question. You just have to find something that you enjoy doing like if you like to fish then fish, if you like to indulge yourself in crafting try out a few and see what you like. I personally fish and cook. They go well together as some of the fish I can catch I can use to make food with so it works out well for me almost 100% profit minus a few cheap crafting items and crystels. I know a lot of people that take advantage of treasure hunter a thf ability to help drop more items and be able to steal. This works really well if you use goldsmithing or smithing. I knew a 75 thf that would run around fei yin killing gobs which he could steal beastcoins off of and they dropped keys for chests which contained life belts which at that time were worth quite a bit of money and still are decent. On top of that he could craft the beastcoins into steel of iron ingots i cant remember. He was making over close to a mil in around 3-4 hours time but id guess now with the prices that itd be closer to 200k-300k but thats a pretty decent amount of gil these days. My main point that I want to get across is figure out what you like to do and just do a little research the market is always changing so find something that works for you and stick to it. Hope this helped at least somewhat.

I have played L2 in the past but never got that far. First time was in open beta and then I tried it again when they released a new server about a 1.5 years ago. My question is I remember playing running around gathering new gear sets and weapons but I never remember there being any storyline to the game. Did I miss something? Or is there really a lack of storyline or is the game that overrun with PvP content?

you know to be honest i never thought about duel boxing with ffxi. I did it with L2 and it was really easy but dueling in that game always has been. Im not really sure what jobs would do well duoing. I know a lot of bst duo with eachother but im guessing you dont want to play two of the same jobs. I have heard that bst can duo well with smn and with blu at later lvls but I myself have not tried this. If you find any more info and find that duel boxing works for ffxi let us all know im sure a lot of people would love to try it with ffxi.

Thats really strange because ive re-activated in the middle of the month and they sort of pro-rated it and only charged about what half a month would cost.

Looking back at my ffxi experience I wish i had the forsight your friend had while he was playing. Though I have experienced much of the game there are many things I over looked at lower lvls like crafting early on and just doing some of the silly missions that seem like a waste of time now.

This is my suggestion to you. I would continue doing what you are doing and enjoying the game and exploring everything you can just to have fun but go ahead and seek for a party while doing at your current lvl. Eventually someone will invite you to their party once you're in the party hopefully someone there will get you into their linkshell and from their you should have plenty of help and guidance as to what you need to be doing from here on out. The greatest thing about this game I have experienced is the willingness of others to help out people especially when its and easier like the things you will need help with in the near future like obtaining subjob items, and obtaining keys so you can take the airship to kazham and then maybe some help unlocking some new advanced jobs if thats what you are wanting to do. Around that time you should have a pretty good feel for the game and know what you need to do or at least know who to ask. Well I hope you enjoy your experience in vana'diel don't get too discouraged though this game only get better and better the farther you dive into it.

Well i chose 3 on your little poll but I have to say when i want to pt i look to see what jobs are seeking constantly and if there is the right amount of people and jobs i go for it and start a pt but sometimes it just ends up being a pld, rng, and nin i get an invite before the right people are on seeking.

This game is still very viable for the new player. I would on one hand suggest a few things to think about when you start the game though. If you are worried about skills as you mentioned i would suggest a mage type job because they tend to get new spells almost every lvl or pretty close to it. The melee jobs don't necessarily get skills that often but as you go you unlock new traits which can change your playstyle and new weapon skills which are a huge part ffxi and add an interesting dynamic ive not experienced in other MMOs. Like the previous person stated yes many  people are at high lvls but people are always lvling low lvl jobs because you can switch to a different job whenever and go lvl it. Also people lvl different sub jobs for their characters depending on what their main is and what type of endgame activities they do. Like for instance with my pld i subbed warrior all the way to 75 but then I had to go back and lvl nin to 37 for certain endgame events. I hope this helps you out but I would suggest doing just a little research before making a decision or just try it out and see what you think cause i tell you this game is not for everyone but the ones that it is like me and a lot of people i know wouldnt play any other game cause this one is so unique and can't be compared to other games in this genre.

22 here  just an added note most people i know that play ffxi are between the ages of 18 and 30 with a higher concentration in the 20-25 range

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Originally posted by Coldday
that's the shit about having divorced parents, and my mother got a fucking pentium 3 with the crapiest video card... heard about it, it's called voodoo 3. Sure you didn't, the compagny just di bankrupt... Anyway.

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