A non-biased post about why I quit FFXI

Final Fantasy XI was an alright game, but that was the first few months playing it. It started out quite nice, actually, with the thought of PVP coming in the future, it was enough to keep me playing. The character template customization sucked, and I really do mean that. Of course, as any good argument is won, I must explain why:

You choose a species male or species female. Here you get an option of 8 faces (hairstyle comes with this face) with 2 different hair colors for each hairstyle. You then choose your size, which is either small, medium, or large. When you start the game, no matter how original you try to be, you meet 6 or 7 clones of yourself and as you keep trying to pick a face that you think no one would choose, you only find more clones.

The game is lag free, which is major coolness, but the quests are frustrating and boring. "Kill this monster several times until you get an item off of it, give it to me to recieve gil". Many say this game is bug free, but I have falled into numerous rivers and ships that are off-limit to players and had to get a gm to get me out. The battle system is great, I really do like it, but lets face it, Everquest is exactly the same as Final Fantasy XI, only Everquest isnt in a series of great games and Everquest lacks graphics. Final Fantasy, however, wins awards after awards, and to be honest, the gaming media rates Final Fantasy games mainly because of those first two words.

You might encounter 40-45 different shaped monsters. The rest are all clones of other monsters with different colors (sometimes they are exactly clones). Another major downside to Final Fantasy XI, is the toughness of it. Its a group effort, which is a good thing, but the community lacks this group effort and finding a party is difficult and frustrating, almost as difficult as finding a world pass. You might kill a Savhanna Rarab (this is an example, as it happened to me in my newb days many times) with ease the first time, and then you find another savhanna rarab that kills you nearly instantly! Monsters strength varies extrelely differently even between 10-12 levels different! The world is massive, which is a good thing, but the transportation is incredibly difficult. To ride an airship, you must complete a dozen missions for your country and another dozen for Jeuno. The only enjoyable ride for noobs is the ships, which are quite fun. Chocobos you have to be level 20 to ride, and they run off and cant go into towns (and cost 600-1k to rent one, yes rent, as in "You only get it for 30 minutes or so to ride" rent). PVP is only available, to my understanding, in this game called Ballista, the sport of Vana'diel. This is incredibly unfair, its worse then a dueling feature. You cant randomly player-kill someone in certain zones like in Ultima Online. I am not a player-killer myself, but I think it is a perfect idea for a battle. This game was a major dissapointment, and as I kept thinking it would get better, it only got worse.

The GM service is great, you go into a private chat with a GM, the only downfall is you have to exit the game. PlayOnline Viewer requires many loading screens which makes it very frustrating to have to log out. GM chat has a low que and the GMs are responsible and friendly and have answers to your questions.

The Auction house system is good because you dont have to sit around the town square selling your stuff. Think of it like a grocery store where you put your items and they sell them for you and you get the money delivered to your house (btw, players cannot enter your house, so what is the point of decorating it?)

+$1.00 a month per character and +$1.00 a month for a card game? This is a joke. We pay $12.00 a month already, that means if I want two characters I would have to pay $13.00 a month.

However, you might find some of the features I claimed "annoying" as great or original, but to those who have played other MMORPGs, be warned, this game might not be to your liking and the $50 is a major penalty for someone with a tight MMORPG budget.

I hope this helped you in your decision to buy this game or not, and I hope this post doesnt cause any flames, as it was not intended to. I am just warning veteran MMORPG gamers that this is like a bad version of Everquest with good graphics.

Thank you for reading this.

                                                           -Gargantroo