Dammit!  I have been waiting for this game for almost two years, and now I find out it's not an MMO?  I really wanted a perpetual world, but player hosted battles of capture the flag?  This sucks man.  I was hoping for something more like Planetside in terms of gameply, and the world it takes place in.

Oh well ... at least I still have Star Wars The Old Republic to look forward to.

Originally posted by KaitarBesh

And it couldn't POSSIBLY be because all those "hardcore" people from 10 years ago are now older, have full time jobs and families and other important things to do rather than dedicate 8 hours a day or more to a bunch of pixelated loot, right?

 

The player base is changing. They'd be stupid not to adjust their games accordingly.

 

I will agree the MMO genre is a bit stale atm with all of them having the same "flavor" but saying that only "core" players deserve to play is pretty ...well. Stupid.

Well said!  I used to be a Hard Core SWG player back in the day, now i have three kids, with another on the way ... a full time career, a home to maintain... etc.  I don't have the time I used to.

It was an interesting fusion of Shooter, and third person MMO.  I liked the story as well, but something about it just kept it from being fun.  I tried it more than once, but always ended up quitting becuase it didn't meet my expectations.  I really wanted it to be great.  I really wanted a good Sci-Fi mmo to play (I'm so sick of frickin Orcs, and Elves), but this just wasn't it.  There were lots of little things I could name that I didn't like (PvP was terrible, no personal vehicles, no personal residences, the crafting system wasn't so great, repetative Mobs, etc), but like I said before ... the biggest thing was the lack of real fun.  I'm don't have much confidance in PlayNC.  I tried this, and Assault  ... both were pulled,  I tried City of Heroes/City of Villians ... too repetative,  I like Guild Wars mostly because it's free (it looks great though), although I don't really play it anymore.   

In a nutshell ... Ghost training did not deter anyone from playing, but it did  bring in revenue on a cyclic basis.  most of the ghost trainers I know have accounts running that they normally play, but periodically re-sub their ghost train character to bring up their skills ... OR they take turns playing one account, or the other.  In the end this will cause a loss of revnue for CCP.  They just lost money imo.

BTW ... I just canceled my account today.

I understand totally.  I have always been disapointed at the lack of roleplaying in the MMOs I haave tried (SWG, pre-NGE being one of them).  Sometimes you get a good group who will facilitate it, but more often than not ... nada.

I recently uninstalled my WoW from my PC for just that reason.  When WoW came out I wanted to be part of the world.  I love the history and lore of the world of Azeroth.  The relationships between characters like Arthas & Lady Sylvanas.  The history of the Orcs and their time with the Demon driven burning crusade.  I wanted to be a character in that world.  I wanted to play an Undead Warlock who recently broke away from the Lich-King's control and was trying to find a new existance in unlife, a noble Orc warrior trying to make a name for himself among the tribes, a Human descendant of those betrayed by Medivh, who was trying to cleanse the world of the unclean forsaken...

I'm sure you get the idea.

Instead ... I was surrunded by people discussing the mathematics of the combat modifiers in open chat, constantly challenged to duels by 12 year olds who do nothing all day but play the game and scream "Noob!" , and insult your mother when you'd rather actually READ the text of the quests your taking instead of fight their Rogue...

Again, you get the idea.

And yet, I am now trying Warhammer: Age of Reckoning.  Will it be any different? ...probably not.  Why do I still try?  Because I have hope ... I have hope, and I'm hopelessly addicted to the MMO experience.  I have literally been waiting for MMOs since I was a kid.  I remember coming up with the idea for a computer based virtual/perpetual world where you could play your (at the time I was playing pen & paper games like  D&D, R.I.F.T.S. and Shadowrun) character among thousands of other players.  Now here it is, and I have gone through more than 20 MMOs to find my favorite one.  SWG (pre-NGE, although I didn't mind the Combat Upgrade too much ... no more robotic doctor buff lines!), WoW, and EQ have come the closest.  Now I'm trying W.A.R. for my fantasy fix, and I'm waiting for Stargate Worlds for my Sci-Fi fix.

I still have hope...

I think it's bad form to put a question into the title, if you're not going to answer it outright ... even if you do call yourself out on that.  Problem is, you don't call yourself out on it until the last section.

Alrighty ... I have been reading the above replies and I have decided to actually try FFXI yet again.  This is the last chance I give it though.  I'm even going to buy the new expansion just so I know I'm not missing anything.  BUT THIS IS IT!!  Lol.  If I don't have a good time, I will have to exact retribution from you ALL!  Therfore I will need all of your names, addresses, and phone numbers so I know where to find you if things go awry.  Please responde with all your personal AND financial information in your next response.

j/k, But I'm serious about giving it another shot.  I am going to wait until the Vana'diel collection 2008 ships on the 15th however.  I might as well right?

I will say to JohnD212 that this proves that the only way to know, is to try it for yourself.  So at least install it and give it a fair shot.  Also, be prepared for a weird floating mouse thingy ... unless they changed it.  I remember that the mouse sort of floated a bit when I steered around.  I didn't like it.

FYI:   lextaliones@lakshmi.ffxi.pol.com  <-- this will not be activated until I reactivate my account after the 15th of April, so don't send me mail now.  If I remember correctly, I deleted my first character(s) and restarted with a warrior naed Lextaliones on Lakshmi server.  Again, I won't know until I reactivate.  I could check the FFXI site, but I'm lazy.

Originally posted by Miner-2049er

It all depends on if you enjoy a real levelling challenge or are in a rush to maximum level. 

I was never in a rush to lvl, but the grind in this game is so monotonous!  Who wants to spend a few hours killing onions and sheep?  Whether alone, or with a group.  Also, I love exploring and checking new areas, but I thought it was too easy to wander to an area in this game where you suddenly aggroed something way too tough for your level.  i also found the quest/missions to be a little confusing.  Trying to figure many of them out without a guide was frustrating.

Originally posted by Satimasu

I'll just say, if you want to solo in an "MMO"RPG, what is the point? At least play a normal RPG and kill all of your party members so you can be solo. Also, if you're expecting to solo in a series that is based off of partying (yeah, you're controlling them, but it's still a group), well, yeah you're gonna be disappointed. No, it's not hard to group as old as this game is. At least on my server anyhow. I have low level friends that have gotten parties without much difficulty.

I like to go back and forth between soloing and grouping.  That always seemed impossible to me in this game.  i'm not sure what server you're on, but the last time I logged in in was like a ghost town.  The few people I did see on were way too high in lvls to group with me.

You are.  I bought this game a couple years ago since I am such a fan of the series and I was sorely disapointed.  I have even reactivated my account a few times (as well as try the XBox 360 version) to TRY and like it (if that makes sense),and each time it was a waste.  You won't get very far past lvl 14 without grouping almost constantly.  AND it can be really hard to find a group now since the game is so old.  You're better off trying something else.

Believe me, I really wanted to like it.