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Spare buddy pass?
Dryze
Member Posts: 34
Hey everyone, just another burnt out WoW player looking for a new game to play, wondering if anyone has a spare buddy pass to trial this game with.. I love grinding games and I hear this one is top notch and not as easy as World of Warcraft.
If anyone has any spare key, PM me with it or send it to my email adamwolting@hotmail.com,
Thanks in advance!
Comments
You can buy 30-day trials at Gamestop for $1.99!
In terms of difficulty, be warned though that FFXI is like advanced calculus as WoW is like preschool addition.
Kemih ~ 13 Red Mage | Currently playing FFXI & LOTRO, awaiting Warhammer Online & Aion...
If you're defining difficult in terms of how it takes hours (sometimes days) to find a party at the lower level and how quests require a strategy guide to do them in a reasonable amount of time, then yes, the game is "difficult".
WoW is easy to learn and hard to master. FFXI is hard to learn and a waste of time to master.
Thanks for the help and advice guys, i'll just purchase the $1.99 thing. Thanks for trying to scare me, but that just made me want to play the game more haha, WoW was so easy to play and full of too many noobs, can't wait for a difficult game.
Thanks again.
Not trying to scare you, just trying to help you make an informed decision. It matters not at all to me how you spend your money.
I just don't think that the words "difficult" and "time sink" are the same thing.
Thanks
I'm pretty surprised they would have this "starter pack" at all given FFXI's age.
Also, you have to sign up for Play Online to even begin to play this game, which means that any starter disk would have to include all of that crap.
Can't find this $1.99 thing either, so back to lookin' for a BUDDY KEY!
I'm in the same boat. This is one of the MMO's I never played and now that i'm interested there's no trials available from gamestop. After Dryze get's a buddy key if somone has another to spare could you please pm me with it? Thanks.
I'm not even sure that there ever was a buddy key attached to this game. Though I'm pretty certain you can go to the main website and get a trial game.
Has anyone gone to the official website and looked for a free trial download, or something at severely reduced cost?
Just a warning- FFXI is NOT hard.
It's hard to level up - because you need a balanced 6-man party with a lot of specific requirements (healer, tank, DPS, mana rejuvinator). It's hard to find said parties. Once you have one, it's hard to find a spot that isn't over-camped. Once you find that, it's hard to go more than 30 minutes without someone dropping and needing a replacement .. The gameplay while leveling is not hard - the grind of getting there is.
"Quests" are hard. Not because there is anything challenging about them - but because they give you little or no clues where to go or what to do, so you either read up on them online or you could literally run around for hours trying to figure out who/what you need to do. I guess that's fun for ... some ... people.
Melee classes auto-attack to save "TP" and then use moves in a predictable order to do extra damage. It's fun
... and then it is predictable.
End-game in FFXI is NOT hard. Everything takes place at about half the speed of modern era MMOs. Most spells take 3-5 seconds (or MORE) to cast.End-game is grinding. You grind tokens (that take a group an hour or two to get a lucky drop on a good day) to spawn bosses. You grind trash mobs to pray for a super mob.
100 days /played and I found nothing "hard."
Nothing in FFXI touches WoW's high level raids (which the OP was obviously never a part of) or arena at 1800+. Nothing comes remotely close.
Time sink and difficulty are not the same thing. I'm so sorry for people still wasting their lives on this horrible game.
Do yourself a favor and do some more research. This game was OK by 2003 standards. Its BAD by 2008 standards.
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Played - UO, FFXI, WAR, WoW, EVE
Currently - Bored.
WoW High level raids hard? Is that spose to be a joke or something. The only hard thing about any WoW raid is getting the 20+ people to follow directions. Theres nothing hard about the raid after that. Click a button at X time, move to Y location when this happen. There is nothing challanging other then following directions.
If you want something challangeing then try logging into DaoC and playing in a BG and take a keep when the population is equal on all three sides. Now that is challangeing.
You can't judge WoW raids by the one raid you once saw your friend go to ... Funny since you don't even seem to know how big they are.
Amazing when someone from FFXI tells someone from WoW that the hard part is getting the people ... Oh the old days and that "realyl hard" quest tog et my L60 AF piece ... "/sh [Please! Can you help me] [ Red Mage ] AF" in Lower Jeuno for three hours ... and then 10 minutes to get there and tank n' spank the mob.
WoW raid fights often involve multiple mobs, tanking, location, interesting encounter specific buffs and debuffs, enrage timers, ability timers, and a dozen other things all going on at once. Please try something in new WoW SSC/TK up or in old WoW AQ40 up. Never mind ... you'd never get into a guild that good.
------
Played - UO, FFXI, WAR, WoW, EVE
Currently - Bored.
Right, cause no one cares about the storyline, only what's at endgame. You can have your 2008 standards then. I'm fine where I am.
To be the best, you must help each other become the best.
FFXI Character: Satimasu
FFXI Server: Valefor
FFXIV Character: Tamorae Fonteil
LOL comparing WoW's "hard" raid instances to FFXI?? You are joking right?
I mean if you want to go there than by all means let's; Illidan has been downed by how many guilds now? And it took a Chinese guild less than 60 days of having Burning Crusade to do it? First of all thats pathetic for U.S. players you should all /quit
Now take one of the hardest encounters in FFXI, Absolute Virtue. It has taken some of the most powerful NA and JP guilds working together to try to bring this thing down, and SE still had to make a video to prove it could be done.
So please don't pollute the ffxi boards with your WoW trash talk. Thanks!
P.S. : If you are trying to find the starter pack, its usually in a small cardboard cd package near the register since its 1.99. Most of the people in Gamestop don't even know where it is so just use http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=647088 and type in your zip to find out if a store near you has it. Every gamestop around me has 1-3.
You can't compare FFXI to WoW. WoW actually has active accounts that aren't Japanese players and farming bots.
Seriously though, FFXI and WoW are about as far away from each other as you can get in terms of game mechanics and play style. If you're looking for something different from WoW, FFXI is that game, though it requires a completely different mentality to play it. You can argue that one is "harder" than the other until you are all blue in the face, but the games are too different to really call one "harder" than the other. My problem with FFXI is that I don't have 6 hours in a row on most days to play an MMO. With WoW, I can log on for 30 minutes and get a quest done in the mornings before I have to go to work. It's not much but it's something. In FFXI, 5 minutes alone would be spent just getting into the game from PlayOnline.
So for anyone thinking of playing this game, here are some basic facts that you should keep in mind about FFXI:
1. After about level 18, you have to group in order to level in a reasonable amount of time. Provided you can find these groups and that they stay together for a couple of hours, the game is fun. However be prepared to have groups randomly fall apart or just plain not be able to find groups, particularly at the lower levels.
2. The combat in FFXI is very different than most MMOs. This isn't a bad thing, but you should be aware of it. It's very much a take on the FFXI style of combat from the console games. I think it's fun at times, but very different.
3. Crafting is this game is incredibly time consuming. If you collect your own resources, it's even more time consuming because you have to find harvesting points. If you buy this game, online guides are your best friend. Even the Spring 2004 version of the strategy guide is good for doing quests.
4. Quests in this game are very difficult only because they are time consuming. You will need a guide to make reasonable progress in this game. Otherwise you WILL spend hours just running around trying to figure out where you are supposed to go. Don't think for a minute that you can do most of these quests without some help. That's just not how this game works.
5. You're going to have to learn to use the game's translation ability. Unlike most MMOs, a lot of players do not speak English well or at all. Also, a friend of mine learned the hard way that saying things like "chink" will result in a three day ban on your account. Just FYI
6. FFXI has been out for almost 5 years now, and it shows it. The graphics aren't bad, but they're not great either. You also do not have anything close to the freedom of movement that you have in WoW. The mountains are pretty, but you won't ever get to physically climb them, nor swim in the water.
7. Money. Money in FFXI is very hard to get. The only way to make money reasonably quickly is to use the market to sell goods you find in the wild. Crystal selling is your best bet, but then you can't craft because you need those crystals and materials for crafting. I've never fully understood the FFXI economy, but from what I can tell, the currency is both inflated and yet unavailable to new players who don't understand the system. Quests do not give you money much of the time.
Ultimately though, and this is the kicker, you need a lot of time and preferably a good guild to really do well in this game. The storyline is fantastic and the gameplay is unique, but it's incredibly time consuming. I honestly don't understand how people make time to play this game with day to day responsibilities of life pressing on them. But that's just me.
And the bottom line is, you spend a lot of time just going from one place to another, or from one activity to another. I just can't put that much time into doing something that yields no payout for the time spent.
I should also briefly add that Square Enix is not a friend to people who go back and fourth between MMOs. After about 3 months, they delete your account and all your characters from their database. It does no good to yell and scream at a technical support person (I've tried), your work is just plain gone. Even their newsletter is not your friend. If you cancel your subscription you can't sign back up with the same email account. Basically the company is like that hot girl you broke up with so you can play the field. Once you leave, she's found someone else and forgotten you, or become a lesbian (The dike kind of lesbian, not the good kind). Either way, you lose.
The rest doesn't matter, as that is your opinion. The red is wrong though. We know WoW has farm bots just the same. Although, XI's RMT has been dwindling. I have seen that first hand. They are taking serious steps to get rid of it.
On my server, prices on the AH are as low as when I started when the game first came out in NA for PC back in '03. Mostly because of them taking out the gil sellers. New players can manage if I was able to back when I started.
It's a year or longer now, not three months like it used to be. Plus, they have a "Return Home Campaign" every year. I used that to restore a friends character that he deleted over 3 years ago. Had all the gear and everything. So yeah. That's all I wanted to say about that.
To be the best, you must help each other become the best.
FFXI Character: Satimasu
FFXI Server: Valefor
FFXIV Character: Tamorae Fonteil
No, the rest is hardly my opinion. Some of it is my observation, but not my opinion. For example, you're really going to tell me that you can solo this game past about level 18 and that the quests don't take hours to do unless you have a strat guide in front of you telling you where to go and what to do? Or that the combat system is different from most MMOs, or that the crafting system is more time consuming?
Yes, WoW has farm bots like every other MMO out there. Hence the "seriously though" starting the first paragraph. My point was that WoW has 10 million plus active accounts, and I'll bet that FFXI struggles to hold a few thousand.
Prices on the AH don't have anything to do with the availability of currency. Most games give new players a fair amount of currency in the quest rewards. FFXI does not. If you want to make money in this game, you have to sell things on the AH. In a way, the low prices are bad, because that means that new players will make even less money from the items they want to sell.
Glad to hear they changed that stupid policy about account deletion after three months. Too bad it's been so long that no one is going to come back, at least not in any real significant number.
No, the rest is hardly my opinion. Some of it is my observation, but not my opinion. For example, you're really going to tell me that you can solo this game past about level 18 and that the quests don't take hours to do unless you have a strat guide in front of you telling you where to go and what to do? Or that the combat system is different from most MMOs, or that the crafting system is more time consuming?
Yes, WoW has farm bots like every other MMO out there. Hence the "seriously though" starting the first paragraph. My point was that WoW has 10 million plus active accounts, and I'll bet that FFXI struggles to hold a few thousand.
Prices on the AH don't have anything to do with the availability of currency. Most games give new players a fair amount of currency in the quest rewards. FFXI does not. If you want to make money in this game, you have to sell things on the AH. In a way, the low prices are bad, because that means that new players will make even less money from the items they want to sell.
Glad to hear they changed that stupid policy about account deletion after three months. Too bad it's been so long that no one is going to come back, at least not in any real significant number.
That's still your opinion again. That's not fact. Anyway, let me correct you on the red text again.
More like 500 thousand. They've kept around the same numbers for years. You can't compare the games by active accounts because they are different styles. One completely caters to instant gratification, while the other you have to work for what you get and feel accomplishment. Of course the one with instant gratification is going to have more active accounts.
You don't have to make money by selling things on the AH. There are quests that do pay decently and are repeatable. You could also buy equipment from NPC's to use and after you're done, sell it on the AH for a profit. I don't use the AH all that much for making money myself. I use the NPC's to make most of my money. I don't see how it's harder to make gil if the quests give the same gil back in the beginning. First, you said it's hard for newer people to make money because of inflation. Then, you say it's harder for them to make money because of deflation. Well, if that's how it is. New players just can't win, or anyone else for that matter.
Plenty of people have come back through it. They do the "Welcome Back Campaign" because people ask for it. So, must be some sort of significant number. I've had a couple use that to come back. Okay, that's all I wanted to say.
To be the best, you must help each other become the best.
FFXI Character: Satimasu
FFXI Server: Valefor
FFXIV Character: Tamorae Fonteil
All of the hard facts in my last post were in the first paragraph. You don't need to highlight the places where I'm obviously giving my viewpoint. Maybe I need a disclaimer that my posts carry facts combined with opinions.
FFXI does not have 500,000 people playing it. That's YOUR opinion unless you can provide evidence to the contrary. As far as instant gratification goes, stop the hyperbole with WoW. People have been hating on WoW for far too long, and it just amounts to jealousy in the end. I'm sorry that I don't have half a day straight to put in to an MMO, but I have a life outside of computer games. Everyone I knew who played FFXI had to practically make their daily schedule revolve around the game. No one gets to hold their head up high in a competition between who has to spend more time online before they get to feel gratified by the progress they've made.
I'm not sure what your idea of "decent" is for a quest reward, but I never found them to be worth the money. And the idea that you can sell NPC items to the AH for a profit is laughable. Who would buy items from the AH that they could get cheaper from the NPCs? Think about that for just a minute. Either your exaggerating, or there are a lot of foolish people playing this game.
Actually, both inflation and deflation have occurred in FFXI in all the wrong places. The things that new players need to sell, like crystals and animal components, are deflated in cost and therefore won't bring a lot of gil in. However the things these players need to buy, like new armor sets, are so inflated that new players can't afford them. It's a lose lose situation for new players all around.
I can't comment on the number of people who have come back because I don't have that information. Unlike Blizzard, most MMO companies don't advertise the number of gamers they have to the public.
If you enjoy FFXI, that's fine. But it's an old game with few innovative features, no PVP, and has probably more people playing it in Asia than North America. I don't think that I should ever have to use a translation tool to play on online game, particularly one that requires effective communication.
Just to comment on soloing, it is actually extremely effective now, I'm not sure when the last time you played was. If one chooses to there are several jobs that are very efficient soloers, and new exp bands like emperor band contribute to that even more. Also Campaign has helped the soloer out alot, one can spend a few minutes waiting before one starts and rack up xp fast once in the 50s. So while I would have agreed with you about the soloing roughly a year and a half ago, its not true anymore.
Also, Ballista on my server at least is extremely competitive still and is one of the most interesting pvp skirmishes I've ever played in any mmo, especially when going against organized teams.
I have to agree with the ability to make money takes work, but hard work vs. reward is what sets this game apart from others. Some may not like it, but many NA and JP players obviously do.
Try not to overexaggerate how hard it is to use the auto translate function, a child could learn to type in Hel and hit Tab and get Hello out of it lol. Plus, the jp players are extremely nice and more helpful than fellow Americans on many occassions ^^
Maybe the game has changed significantly since last I played about a year ago, but I still think there is a difference between "hard work" and "time consuming".
Quick question about the above comment....I played FFXI, a long time ago and like many found it unable to really solo. Im looking to get back into the game and this comment sparked my interest. What jobs are you talking about that would be effective in some solo play? Im not looking to only solo, but on the nights I can't find a group, I would like to make some progression in lvling and soloing would be the way to go for those nights. I originally left the game because I got frustrated waiting around forever to get a group.
All of the hard facts in my last post were in the first paragraph. You don't need to highlight the places where I'm obviously giving my viewpoint. Maybe I need a disclaimer that my posts carry facts combined with opinions.
FFXI does not have 500,000 people playing it. That's YOUR opinion unless you can provide evidence to the contrary. As far as instant gratification goes, stop the hyperbole with WoW. People have been hating on WoW for far too long, and it just amounts to jealousy in the end. I'm sorry that I don't have half a day straight to put in to an MMO, but I have a life outside of computer games. Everyone I knew who played FFXI had to practically make their daily schedule revolve around the game. No one gets to hold their head up high in a competition between who has to spend more time online before they get to feel gratified by the progress they've made.
I'm not sure what your idea of "decent" is for a quest reward, but I never found them to be worth the money. And the idea that you can sell NPC items to the AH for a profit is laughable. Who would buy items from the AH that they could get cheaper from the NPCs? Think about that for just a minute. Either your exaggerating, or there are a lot of foolish people playing this game.
Actually, both inflation and deflation have occurred in FFXI in all the wrong places. The things that new players need to sell, like crystals and animal components, are deflated in cost and therefore won't bring a lot of gil in. However the things these players need to buy, like new armor sets, are so inflated that new players can't afford them. It's a lose lose situation for new players all around.
I can't comment on the number of people who have come back because I don't have that information. Unlike Blizzard, most MMO companies don't advertise the number of gamers they have to the public.
If you enjoy FFXI, that's fine. But it's an old game with few innovative features, no PVP, and has probably more people playing it in Asia than North America. I don't think that I should ever have to use a translation tool to play on online game, particularly one that requires effective communication.
www.playonline.com/ff11us/guide/development/census/07/index.html
mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/168298
Those two links should be enough for you. So yeah, don't call me out on that. Cause I have no reason to lie about that.
I like that little jab you made on everyone that plays this game. Like all of us don't have lives outside of the game or something. I play whenever I have free time. Technically, I don't really have a life because of my job, not the game. So, you can say that about me, I don't care. I never said anything about hating on WoW. I said exactly what kind of game it is. If that isn't true, please enlighten me. I feel accomplishment for whatever I do in FFXI. Whether it's finishing a storyline, or obtaining certain items from quests. It tells others I worked for what I have. All of that is still mostly your opinion.
About the NPC thing, I guess you haven't actually played the game. These are one of the oldest tricks in the book. People are lazy, they won't check NPC's and rely only on the AH. That's just like with the new update that came out last week and people were selling items that could be bought from NPC's that were located in a town that's a little bit of a trip to get to, if even that. People bought the item for 6x the normal price on the AH. Just like there are items that people sell on the AH for incredibly cheap where they can sell it for more to an NPC vendor. So, yeah. There are stupid or lazy people. Don't tell me people like that don't exist in any of the MMO's.
Not true about armor prices being inflated. They can make money just fine. I have friends that just started out and they aren't having any kind of problems. They're doing better than I did when I first started. The money makers I used are still there as well. So that logic fails.
Few innovative features? Please tell? Let's see, Chocobo raising and racing, fishing, Besieged, Campaign, Pankration, ect. Need I say more? It does have PvP. It's not fantastic, but it's still there. Just because you can't sit outside starter towns and PK new people doesn't mean there is no PvP.
The whole point of FFXI is unity, across all nations. I've made friends on that game from people all around the world. Sorry if you want to stay in your little hole there, but I like making new friends. That's the whole reason for the auto-translate function. Plus, it makes it easier to type stuff using it. Of course, people like that try to keep to a clique is what makes things more difficult for the rest of us. I'm not going to call you out on that. I don't know you.
I'm sure you're a nice person. You probably just had some bad experiences. I won't fault you for that. But, it's still a fantastic game regardless. I try to help any new people that I can. I do that because I know that I started out the same way. We were all newbies at some point (unless you bought an account. Even then, you'd play like a newbie).
To be the best, you must help each other become the best.
FFXI Character: Satimasu
FFXI Server: Valefor
FFXIV Character: Tamorae Fonteil
Quick question about the above comment....I played FFXI, a long time ago and like many found it unable to really solo. Im looking to get back into the game and this comment sparked my interest. What jobs are you talking about that would be effective in some solo play? Im not looking to only solo, but on the nights I can't find a group, I would like to make some progression in lvling and soloing would be the way to go for those nights. I originally left the game because I got frustrated waiting around forever to get a group.
Most people would obviously point right to Beastmaster, as they are still the kings of soloing. However, Puppetmaster, Dragoon, and Dancer are all extremely good soloers. The ffxi wikipedia also has very dedicated fans to each of these jobs who have made guides on solo locations that are optimal depending on your level.
My recommendation would be to first pick a populated server so you always have a chance of getting a group depending if you want to group or play solo, I've seen Odin listed as one, and I play on Asura which is a very populated server ( I have to wait like 20 minutes while im soloing with seek up before I get a pt on my Dragoon which is now 53 ^^ lol but depending on the group sometimes soloing is faster when you follow a good guide on camp locations)
Then you will have to choose which job you want to be to solo. Beastmaster is like I said the best soloer, and you only really need War and WHM subs to level it up which are probably two of the easiest jobs to get groups on. Dancer is the newest job released with the last expansion, and I would personally recommend this one if you want a high group invite rate but also plan on doing soloing, as they can heal themselves, or their party, with TP. I've seen videos of dancers soloing VT damselflies in Valkurm and I duo'd with a PUP up till 45 its definitely one of the funnest jobs around.
Dragoon and Puppetmaster are good at soloing decent challenge mobs early on, as you will want to focus on mobs that will give you less downtime. Dragoon requires a mage sub like WHM to solo, while PUP tend to use either WAR or NIN, but mostly WAR since you will want to be able to voke off your puppet who is responsible for keeping you alive. PUP become highly efficient soloers around 40 when they get the WHM head for their puppet and Dragoons become killing machines on Tough rated mobs when they get their AF helm which increases the effectives of their wyverns healing.
Hope this helped ^^