Originally posted by Helsing78 lol, good to hear, FFXI is always lookign for new, good players. And don't worry, you'll find that there are more than a few people who play FFXI who seem to develop stupidity based migraines
As for lore, perhaps one of the best sites for that is here:
It compiles almost every bit of history of the world that you will eventually stumble across yourself in one form or another. While the number of quests in FFXI isn't near what WoW has, 95% of the time they are backstory driven/plot based quests that help give color to the world. FFXI in and of itself is a game that relies very heavily on grouping and making friends/social connections and story.
Well, I won't read it then. I would rather learn it through the game like in other FF games.
Okay, now I am excited to try FFXI out. I want to play 2 characters. One a Paladin/Warrior and the other a Blackmage/Whitemage. Both of these characters will suit my playstyle, but switching between the two will add variety to the game that I will desprately need to keep me from getting bored with one class.
Only thing I feel guilty about it that I just subscribed to Station Pass to play EQ2 and SWG a week ago. I might wait till the sub runs out to fully give EQ2 a chance to capture me. But right now, EQ2 is a bore fest since most just want to solo and I hate soloing. I thing a quest based leveling system encourages soloing, whereas having to grind mobs makes you want to group more so that you can kill faster and get more xp per hour, not to mention it is more pleasant to talk to people while grinding than it is to solo.
Oh dude, I don't know why anyone would wish FFXI on you but it is a horrific game. The character design is painfully bland, everyone wears the same armor at the same levels, the grind is horrendous, combat system is tedious and very monotone, and the community is a rough mix of younger gamers, foreign console/pc gamers, and farmers.
I understand your desire to try it out since the single player FF games are epic, but that mythology doesn't transfer well into the MMO universe in my opinion.
I wish I could find it, but a while back I read an article that compared MMORPGs to drug addiction! The first taste is always the best and no matter how many times you try, the subsequent tastes never rival it.
So F****ing true..............
Just like we spend 9 months trying to get out of our moms belly, and the rest of our life to try to return into it....
What deserves to be done, deserves to be "well" done...
Originally posted by Smirch Oh dude, I don't know why anyone would wish FFXI on you but it is a horrific game. The character design is painfully bland, everyone wears the same armor at the same levels, the grind is horrendous, combat system is tedious and very monotone, and the community is a rough mix of younger gamers, foreign console/pc gamers, and farmers. I understand your desire to try it out since the single player FF games are epic, but that mythology doesn't transfer well into the MMO universe in my opinion.
I've found that there are a lot of people who like the game, just like there are a lot of people who hate it.
It doesn't bother me that I wear the same armor as everyone else. I'm not the type that feels I need to worry about what others have compaired to me.
In essence, isn't the word grind indicating something horrendous? What's most important to me is not how long it takes to get to max level, but how much fun it is getting there. To me, grinding with a group of people is fun. I found it a lot of fun in DAoC and that is what I miss.
The videos of the combat don't look bad at all.
I guess I will just have to try it out for myself to see. I'm counting on there being community problems, but people have to act like decent human beings in order to get a group. People don't like to spend their time grouped with a jerk.
Originally posted by Smirch Oh dude, I don't know why anyone would wish FFXI on you but it is a horrific game. The character design is painfully bland, everyone wears the same armor at the same levels, the grind is horrendous, combat system is tedious and very monotone, and the community is a rough mix of younger gamers, foreign console/pc gamers, and farmers. I understand your desire to try it out since the single player FF games are epic, but that mythology doesn't transfer well into the MMO universe in my opinion.
Not entirely true. While, admittedly, there isn't a million different appearance options to choose from as far as physical appearance, it's hardly a detriment to the game. As far as everyone wearing the same gear at the same levels, well I'm going to assume that first you mean everyoen of the same class wears the same gear at the same levels. Second, that's a pretty gross generalization. Most MMO's are like that, but I still don't see every melee class in the game running around in a Scorpion Harness. As for the community comment, sounds to me like you had a bad experience and are just making broad brush accusations on the players. No matter what MMO you play, you are always going to have those groups of people playing, as to what degree of maturity they act, there's no real way to gauge that, considering that the FFXI community seems to be far better adjusted than someof the other ones out there (e.g.: World of Warcraft).
As for the gameplay, for some people it works, for others it doesn't. It's very true, when compared to some of the other MMO's out there, FFXI moves at a snails pace. Combat is not a twitch-style gameplay at all, and it can get repetitive. But, once again, that can be a symptom of any number of MMO's, and not apurely FFXI thing. As for the mythology/lore/backstory/plot elements. While it may not be winning any literary awards, at least it has one, and one that the developers try to work within instead of changing on a whim. That and FF has never had a single, continuous mythology, it's usually completley different from game to game. But in that scope, the mythology that they create is still fairly rich.
Originally posted by nthnaoun Originally posted by Smirch Although its not out yet, you should look into Vanguard a bit. Its very group-centric and has an older lean to its community. Something that is already out but has similar qualities is Dungeons and Dragons Online. My friend plays that religiously and swears up and down that it has a great community even though its HEAVILY instanced.
EDIT: I wish I could find it, but a while back I read an article that compared MMORPGs to drug addiction! The first taste is always the best and no matter how many times you try, the subsequent tastes never rival it.
I'm waiting for Vanguard while playing EQ2 and SWG and I have played DDO. DDO was great and the server I was on (unofficial RP server) had a great community. The downside was that it wasn't what I was looking for. I thought I could get into the whole instanced only gameworld, but I couldn't. I quickly got burnt out with the same scenery.
As for your "EDIT" comment, I believe that is true and I also read that article. I realize that I will never get that exact same feeling that I did in the beginning days of DAoC, but I know I can get close to it by analyzing the things that brought me that feeling and seeking it out.
I have always wondered how to get that feeling back too. I had that feeling with Everquest and DAoC. I started playing Everquest about a month after it came out. It was my first MMO. Then I moved to DAoC.
I think I may have figured out where that feeling comes from. It's a feeling of not knowing what's around a corner. And it has to be in a game that has a certain degree of complexity that makes you wonder if you really know what you're doing.
I'll try to explain.
A lot of the newer games do a lot of hand holding. To me that takes a ton of the adventuring aspect out of a game. I don't know if you played Everquest when it first came out, but I used to get lost all the time. It was cool. I felt like I was taking a risk stepping out of the safe zone and not knowing what was out there. It was the same when I started playing DAoC. On top of that if you add in complexity to the game it makes it even more scary. Like with DAoC and all the classes and class options. I never knew if I was screwing up my character or not. And there were so many different ways to build your class. It seemed like everything in those games was something new because of the big uncertainties.
Nowadays they give you simple classes, a very limited number of classes to choose from, maps to show you where everything is, and hardly any degree of difficulty or adventure.
Do you think that could be what we're looking for? I'm not sure, I'm just guessing. It's a hard thing to figure out.
Comments
Well, I won't read it then. I would rather learn it through the game like in other FF games.
Okay, now I am excited to try FFXI out. I want to play 2 characters. One a Paladin/Warrior and the other a Blackmage/Whitemage. Both of these characters will suit my playstyle, but switching between the two will add variety to the game that I will desprately need to keep me from getting bored with one class.
Only thing I feel guilty about it that I just subscribed to Station Pass to play EQ2 and SWG a week ago. I might wait till the sub runs out to fully give EQ2 a chance to capture me. But right now, EQ2 is a bore fest since most just want to solo and I hate soloing. I thing a quest based leveling system encourages soloing, whereas having to grind mobs makes you want to group more so that you can kill faster and get more xp per hour, not to mention it is more pleasant to talk to people while grinding than it is to solo.
Oh dude, I don't know why anyone would wish FFXI on you but it is a horrific game. The character design is painfully bland, everyone wears the same armor at the same levels, the grind is horrendous, combat system is tedious and very monotone, and the community is a rough mix of younger gamers, foreign console/pc gamers, and farmers.
I understand your desire to try it out since the single player FF games are epic, but that mythology doesn't transfer well into the MMO universe in my opinion.
So F****ing true..............
Just like we spend 9 months trying to get out of our moms belly, and the rest of our life to try to return into it....
What deserves to be done, deserves to be "well" done...
I've found that there are a lot of people who like the game, just like there are a lot of people who hate it.
It doesn't bother me that I wear the same armor as everyone else. I'm not the type that feels I need to worry about what others have compaired to me.
In essence, isn't the word grind indicating something horrendous? What's most important to me is not how long it takes to get to max level, but how much fun it is getting there. To me, grinding with a group of people is fun. I found it a lot of fun in DAoC and that is what I miss.
The videos of the combat don't look bad at all.
I guess I will just have to try it out for myself to see. I'm counting on there being community problems, but people have to act like decent human beings in order to get a group. People don't like to spend their time grouped with a jerk.
While, admittedly, there isn't a million different appearance options to choose from as far as physical appearance, it's hardly a detriment to the game. As far as everyone wearing the same gear at the same levels, well I'm going to assume that first you mean everyoen of the same class wears the same gear at the same levels. Second, that's a pretty gross generalization. Most MMO's are like that, but I still don't see every melee class in the game running around in a Scorpion Harness.
As for the community comment, sounds to me like you had a bad experience and are just making broad brush accusations on the players. No matter what MMO you play, you are always going to have those groups of people playing, as to what degree of maturity they act, there's no real way to gauge that, considering that the FFXI community seems to be far better adjusted than someof the other ones out there (e.g.: World of Warcraft).
As for the gameplay, for some people it works, for others it doesn't. It's very true, when compared to some of the other MMO's out there, FFXI moves at a snails pace. Combat is not a twitch-style gameplay at all, and it can get repetitive. But, once again, that can be a symptom of any number of MMO's, and not apurely FFXI thing.
As for the mythology/lore/backstory/plot elements. While it may not be winning any literary awards, at least it has one, and one that the developers try to work within instead of changing on a whim.
That and FF has never had a single, continuous mythology, it's usually completley different from game to game. But in that scope, the mythology that they create is still fairly rich.
I'm waiting for Vanguard while playing EQ2 and SWG and I have played DDO. DDO was great and the server I was on (unofficial RP server) had a great community. The downside was that it wasn't what I was looking for. I thought I could get into the whole instanced only gameworld, but I couldn't. I quickly got burnt out with the same scenery.
As for your "EDIT" comment, I believe that is true and I also read that article. I realize that I will never get that exact same feeling that I did in the beginning days of DAoC, but I know I can get close to it by analyzing the things that brought me that feeling and seeking it out.
I have always wondered how to get that feeling back too. I had that feeling with Everquest and DAoC. I started playing Everquest about a month after it came out. It was my first MMO. Then I moved to DAoC.
I think I may have figured out where that feeling comes from. It's a feeling of not knowing what's around a corner. And it has to be in a game that has a certain degree of complexity that makes you wonder if you really know what you're doing.
I'll try to explain.
A lot of the newer games do a lot of hand holding. To me that takes a ton of the adventuring aspect out of a game. I don't know if you played Everquest when it first came out, but I used to get lost all the time. It was cool. I felt like I was taking a risk stepping out of the safe zone and not knowing what was out there. It was the same when I started playing DAoC. On top of that if you add in complexity to the game it makes it even more scary. Like with DAoC and all the classes and class options. I never knew if I was screwing up my character or not. And there were so many different ways to build your class. It seemed like everything in those games was something new because of the big uncertainties.
Nowadays they give you simple classes, a very limited number of classes to choose from, maps to show you where everything is, and hardly any degree of difficulty or adventure.
Do you think that could be what we're looking for? I'm not sure, I'm just guessing. It's a hard thing to figure out.