I'd love to play FFXI with a few people from this site, it sounds like great fun!
If so, do we have some form of ventrilo we could use? I've played the game before and remember a few things, but I'd prefer to learn via vent than text, it'd make things easier.
Not sure if anyone else has noticed, but the reformationls.tk website has been changed into a movie-trailer site? I went back to see the sackholder list a couple days ago and EVERYTHING about the site redirects to there.
I've been looking for active users of Reformation on Phoenix but have yet to locate any. I'm on as Damaris and I'm a 24MNK/12WAR. [:
Pretty much the same thing happened that always happens to linkshells. People have changed now adays. Certain members of the shell decided that I wasn't playing enough for their liking, althought when I started the shell there were no "rules" on how much or little anyone played including me. What they don't understand is that I spent most of my time recruiting and posting on forums so they'd have other people to play with.
Someone started some drama on our shoutbox, which led to me taking that down initially. The bigger we got the more problems we started to have. The whole "classic" idea I originally had in mind for the shell went down the drain as we somehow wound up with a big group of people who didn't want to do anything but sit in Gusgen and leech. I had alot of good folks leave over that.
Anyway, I let it go and the shell sort of ran itself.. although not anywhere close the direction I originally intended. I tried to schedule fun events, but unfortunately, unless there's a level or some shiny reward in it.. noone is interested. Thus is why I haven't played anything since I have left FFXI.
I logged on one evening to find I had a PM from a member saying that one of my officers had booted a few people, and turned around and created a whole new shell, and invited EVERYONE who was in Reformation to it. That was sort of the straw that broke the camels back, because I know there was some "underhandedness" to the whole thing and I don't want to be apart of that. So I figured if having the linkshell to run for themselves was so important, they wouldn't have issue rebuilding and maintaining a website a forums themselves.
I think the name of the shell is Phoenix Pinions or something, but If your looking for what Reformation was originally about.. I doubt you'll find it there. I'm not bashing them, it may be a good shell.. but its not what I envisioned.
The movie trailer you see is because I make indie horror films, and I was hosting the shells stuff on my movie's hosting. So once I took it down, it just all went back to showing my movie stuff. Sorry about that!
I apologize to anyone who joined or had wanted to join, who DID want to experience the game the old way. I really wanted to as well, but unfortunately, too many people still want to "do it fast, and do it boring". I just don't see the fun in sitting in one zone for 90 levels.. but hey.. what do I know?
Hope that clears things up.
Most of what you said was true Ray. IMO too many people got invited to the shell without knowing what kinda shell it was. There should have been zero LS invites unless you applied on the forums.
However the reason a new shell was created was because we had no leader. You were rarely logging on. Apparently there was an officer that left the LS but would periodically kick people just to be an ass. The only person that could kick him would have been the LS leader, you. Everyone decided it was best to make a new shell that would have a dedicated leader. I realize real life comes first and all, but being a leader of a LS the size of Reformation means you gotta be on more often than you were.
Anyway, PhoenixPinions is the new LS. A lot of the same members. Still fairly big and a good shell, but sadly it's just a normal LS like most others.
raystantzFinal Fantasy XI CorrespondentMemberUncommonPosts: 1,237
Originally posted by Rpro
Originally posted by raystantz
Originally posted by TempRonin
Not sure if anyone else has noticed, but the reformationls.tk website has been changed into a movie-trailer site? I went back to see the sackholder list a couple days ago and EVERYTHING about the site redirects to there.
I've been looking for active users of Reformation on Phoenix but have yet to locate any. I'm on as Damaris and I'm a 24MNK/12WAR. [:
Pretty much the same thing happened that always happens to linkshells. People have changed now adays. Certain members of the shell decided that I wasn't playing enough for their liking, althought when I started the shell there were no "rules" on how much or little anyone played including me. What they don't understand is that I spent most of my time recruiting and posting on forums so they'd have other people to play with.
Someone started some drama on our shoutbox, which led to me taking that down initially. The bigger we got the more problems we started to have. The whole "classic" idea I originally had in mind for the shell went down the drain as we somehow wound up with a big group of people who didn't want to do anything but sit in Gusgen and leech. I had alot of good folks leave over that.
Anyway, I let it go and the shell sort of ran itself.. although not anywhere close the direction I originally intended. I tried to schedule fun events, but unfortunately, unless there's a level or some shiny reward in it.. noone is interested. Thus is why I haven't played anything since I have left FFXI.
I logged on one evening to find I had a PM from a member saying that one of my officers had booted a few people, and turned around and created a whole new shell, and invited EVERYONE who was in Reformation to it. That was sort of the straw that broke the camels back, because I know there was some "underhandedness" to the whole thing and I don't want to be apart of that. So I figured if having the linkshell to run for themselves was so important, they wouldn't have issue rebuilding and maintaining a website a forums themselves.
I think the name of the shell is Phoenix Pinions or something, but If your looking for what Reformation was originally about.. I doubt you'll find it there. I'm not bashing them, it may be a good shell.. but its not what I envisioned.
The movie trailer you see is because I make indie horror films, and I was hosting the shells stuff on my movie's hosting. So once I took it down, it just all went back to showing my movie stuff. Sorry about that!
I apologize to anyone who joined or had wanted to join, who DID want to experience the game the old way. I really wanted to as well, but unfortunately, too many people still want to "do it fast, and do it boring". I just don't see the fun in sitting in one zone for 90 levels.. but hey.. what do I know?
Hope that clears things up.
Most of what you said was true Ray. IMO too many people got invited to the shell without knowing what kinda shell it was. There should have been zero LS invites unless you applied on the forums.
However the reason a new shell was created was because we had no leader. You were rarely logging on. Apparently there was an officer that left the LS but would periodically kick people just to be an ass. The only person that could kick him would have been the LS leader, you. Everyone decided it was best to make a new shell that would have a dedicated leader. I realize real life comes first and all, but being a leader of a LS the size of Reformation means you gotta be on more often than you were.
Anyway, PhoenixPinions is the new LS. A lot of the same members. Still fairly big and a good shell, but sadly it's just a normal LS like most others.
If an "officer" can periodically come online and "kick" people.. then other "officers" can kick the offending "kicker". If I was the only one with the ability to kick anyone, then noone would be able to kick anyone but ME.
Thats why I said, I know there was some shadyness. I know exactly who it was, and its not worth my time to bother with it. They got what they wanted, and I'm glad I can sleep at night.
I'm moving to KOTOR with some friends, so anyone who was apart of reformation who DID like playing games without rushing, or leeching through them.. your more than welcome to join me over there. I miss some of you guys. I never thought FFXI would get to the point where its more fun to sit in ONE place and do nothing for 10 hrs... but hey to each his own right?
www.facebook.com/themarksmovierules
Currently playing:
FFXIV on Behemoth, FFXI on Eden, and Gloria Victis on NA.
raystantzFinal Fantasy XI CorrespondentMemberUncommonPosts: 1,237
Originally posted by Leucent
Originally posted by raystantz
Originally posted by TempRonin
Not sure if anyone else has noticed, but the reformationls.tk website has been changed into a movie-trailer site? I went back to see the sackholder list a couple days ago and EVERYTHING about the site redirects to there.
I've been looking for active users of Reformation on Phoenix but have yet to locate any. I'm on as Damaris and I'm a 24MNK/12WAR. [:
Pretty much the same thing happened that always happens to linkshells. People have changed now adays. Certain members of the shell decided that I wasn't playing enough for their liking, althought when I started the shell there were no "rules" on how much or little anyone played including me. What they don't understand is that I spent most of my time recruiting and posting on forums so they'd have other people to play with.
Someone started some drama on our shoutbox, which led to me taking that down initially. The bigger we got the more problems we started to have. The whole "classic" idea I originally had in mind for the shell went down the drain as we somehow wound up with a big group of people who didn't want to do anything but sit in Gusgen and leech. I had alot of good folks leave over that.
Anyway, I let it go and the shell sort of ran itself.. although not anywhere close the direction I originally intended. I tried to schedule fun events, but unfortunately, unless there's a level or some shiny reward in it.. noone is interested. Thus is why I haven't played anything since I have left FFXI.
I logged on one evening to find I had a PM from a member saying that one of my officers had booted a few people, and turned around and created a whole new shell, and invited EVERYONE who was in Reformation to it. That was sort of the straw that broke the camels back, because I know there was some "underhandedness" to the whole thing and I don't want to be apart of that. So I figured if having the linkshell to run for themselves was so important, they wouldn't have issue rebuilding and maintaining a website a forums themselves.
I think the name of the shell is Phoenix Pinions or something, but If your looking for what Reformation was originally about.. I doubt you'll find it there. I'm not bashing them, it may be a good shell.. but its not what I envisioned.
The movie trailer you see is because I make indie horror films, and I was hosting the shells stuff on my movie's hosting. So once I took it down, it just all went back to showing my movie stuff. Sorry about that!
I apologize to anyone who joined or had wanted to join, who DID want to experience the game the old way. I really wanted to as well, but unfortunately, too many people still want to "do it fast, and do it boring". I just don't see the fun in sitting in one zone for 90 levels.. but hey.. what do I know?
Hope that clears things up.
My wife and I had become members of Reformation, and we loved everything about it. Until one day, we saw the writing on the wall. We had since left, only to want to come back. I had kept in touch with a few members, but they had all said things are turning for the worse. It s too bad, because we really wanted to play the game it was meant to be played. So many people are in such a rush, and into only what they need. The FFXI community used to be the best, but it s followed the same path as any MMO, and SE screwed the pooch on this one. Oh well, thank god it seems like a good batch of MMOs are out soon.
Indeed! You two were just a few of the many people I lost in the shuffle because of what went on. I tried my best to not have to impose strict rules on alot of things, but it just doesn't work like that anymore.
I wil never agree with leeching, regardless if its an intended "Game mechanic" or not. There are shells out there that cater to that.. Reformation, was never intended to be that. but we got so many members who had NO clue what the shell was about.. it lost its direction and pretty much fell apart. Many people will tell you the leadership was the reason, and I'm not doubting that this was true to a point. I do know I tried to plan events, and I tried to keep the "right" people in the shell.. and we just always wound up with more leechers/rushers. Thats just the way it is now I guess.
www.facebook.com/themarksmovierules
Currently playing:
FFXIV on Behemoth, FFXI on Eden, and Gloria Victis on NA.
Not sure if anyone else has noticed, but the reformationls.tk website has been changed into a movie-trailer site? I went back to see the sackholder list a couple days ago and EVERYTHING about the site redirects to there.
I've been looking for active users of Reformation on Phoenix but have yet to locate any. I'm on as Damaris and I'm a 24MNK/12WAR. [:
Anyway, I let it go and the shell sort of ran itself.. although not anywhere close the direction I originally intended. I tried to schedule fun events, but unfortunately, unless there's a level or some shiny reward in it.. noone is interested. Thus is why I haven't played anything since I have left FFXI.
Sadly, that's the kind of gameplay SE is outright encouraging these days.
There have always been people who were only concerned about leveling as fast as possible 'til they burned out, got bored and quit. The thing is, the game didn't cater to that playstyle for most of its time online. During those days, I think your idea would have worked out much better, because people still *needed* help to do those things, and still wanted to. There was still value in most of the old-world content. People still made a serious effort to do it.
However, SE changed all that.
Starting with, arguably, Aht Urghan (the higher xp rate, etc), but for sure with WoTG and Campaign Battle, SE started turning that nozzle. With FoV, they clearly took a turn toward supporting soloing or duo'ing, turning the nozzle a bit more. Removing the cap from CoP areas, rendering them practically a joke was another step in that direction. With Abyssea, however, they turned the nozzle on to full and pretty much went all out on "leveling as fast as possible" being their new direction.
I didn't think the level cap increase was even necessary, in the first place and was skeptical about it. But then I imagined all that they could do with another 25 levels of content. Sadly, they did extremely little, turning those 25 levels into a speed-level run called Abyssea. Allowing people to enter at level 30, where they could level even faster, only underscored the new focus SE had taken.
SE officially jumped the shark in a big way. They gave up on making FFXI the epic experience it was, and have turned it into just another level grinder.
I'm sure it's not at all coincidental that the game's population started to show signs of slowing at around the same time they started making all those changes. While FFXI maintained focus on its steep curve, difficult encounters (even if you used a guide) and myriad tasks to undertake, it maintained a strong playerbase of ~500k players - upwards of 7 years into its life. They start introducing more soloability and faster leveling into it, and suddenly... they're doing their first server merge... and then another one sometime later. The timing may not perfectly coincide, but there's definitely overlap. Though only anecdotally, I know many people who played loyally for years who left the game around that time 'cause they didn't like the direction it was going. I knew others who were reaching the end of their rope. They couldn't have been the only ones.
Considering how badly they botched up FFXIV, and how they have destroyed what FFXI was... who ever is calling the shots at SE needs to be either replaced, or bound, gagged and shoved in a closet somewhere so they can't do any more damage.
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Really? That's how it all ended with Reformation? I am so sorry Az, you had something really good and its sad to see that some creeps wrecked it. I don't think I never had a chance to formally thank you and apologize for leaving the way I did. This was the thread were it started, I guess I will end it here too.
The reasons why I left the LS so abruptly? Well, mainly for the same reasons that you mentioned. I became part of an ad hoc upper management called "The Barber Shop", who was viewed as a clique of sorts. That's something I do not like to do is be in cliques. Things were great for awhile, I leveled blindingly fast because we grouped up every night and leveled the old school way, while other mulled about and complained. It was awesome, unfortunately, my desire to do everything I missed in the last go round blinded me to why I was there. It was to experience the game and have fun with friends. I had a falling out with a few cliquemembers and I plain didn't like one of them from the word go. So, I just left. My apologies.
I understand you had RL responsibilities, we tried to pick up the slack as much as we could, but the LS was growing faster than anticipated and the players were leaderless and grumbling. Everyone had their own agenda, my agenda was simple, I wanted to do it all, every sky god, every rank mission, every boss...everything that I missed out on in 2007. Then the merge came and I decided to go with an Abyssea focused LS. I never leeched, it was way too boring to do that. Due to the stellar amount Exp I was getting, I did nail 90 from 75 in a day and a half. Leveing that fast is addictive and I quickly got wrapped up in the Abby endgame scene, then I found out what FFXI had really become.
From what I gathered, its not about just your gear anymore, its about how many jobs you have at 90 and what pieces of paper you need for them all to get your gear. Players leeched because if you were in a group for NIN paper, and they needed a WHM, then you had to get on you WHM or vice versa. The whole thing stank to high hell and I remember saying, "I don't want to play or gear another job, I love this char and I'm damn good at it."
So there you have it, Inktomi is sitting in Jeuno wearing a Kirins Osode, with a pair of sick Katanas in a hodgepodge mix of AF1 and Aby gear. I quit soon after the merge when I found myself once again sitting in Jeuno waiting for a group because I don't have the right job people are looking for just for little pieces of paper, I had a 100 in my bank, just not the right ones, seemed like it was 2007 all over again. I had quit back then and always regretted it, I felt that it was a loose end that always nagged me when someone pressed me for my street gamer cred. But I have my closure now and I've got you to thank for it Ray. FFXI is a closed case to me now, my gratitude.
Good luck in all you do.
Play safe,
Inktomi
PS:
To anyone who wants to try FFXI or relive it, do it, its a really great game and SE has added some really awesome feature. Its better with a group of like-minded people who want to experience some of the older content and areas. Leveling the old way is still faster than it was and some of the new jobs are really fun. Just whatever you do, take your time and enjoy the journey. DO NOT and I repeat DO NOT RUSH IT! There is plenty to do before you get to Abyssea.
This is a real shame and is indicative of the state of the genre, at the moment.
I was potentially interested as I have never played a FF game before, and am somewhat of an old-school player i.e. I might play casual hours, but my play is never casual - no twinks, PLing, no leeching, yada yada yada. Original content with a good group of players around the same level, all with the right attitude.
The last attribute is the most important: a realisation that the world doesn't revolve around you. It's not the phat loot, power-levels, or any other superficial status symbol but other people and relationships that matter.
I believe that the original vision can still work in ANY game - on the basis that: 1. All members abide by a few, simple rules 2. All members understand their responsibilities 3. All members understand that failure to abide by the rules is dismissal 4. Group responsibility is shared - everyone pitches in and helps
Membership by application only, which is then reviewed. Subject to passing the application, there should be a getting to know you period, to make sure that potential applicants are the right fit for the group (linkshell). Followed up by a 2 week probation period and review.
All sounds heavy and intense, right? Sadly. It is the only way to sufficiently vet people to prevent drama. If people's views and feelings change, then they are free to leave the linkshell without acrimony or malice.
The problem with a democracy is that everyone thinks that their 'rights' trumps the 'rights' of others, and doesn't entail any obligations.
If this linkshell idea is reformed, then I'd be interested in starting probably at the end of Oct. Otherwise, it's SWTOR.
Cheers!
"If you think I'm plucky and scrappy and all I need is love, you're in way over your head. I don't have a heart of gold or get nice. There are a lot nicer people coming up. We call them losers."
I registered an account on this site just to post on this thread, which I saw as I was browsing and looking at MMO's to try since the one's I've played so far only kept me entertained, like many others I'd try a game for a little, grow tired of it and off to the next one.
After reading this thread, and seeing that things aren't the same. I'm wondering and want to ask, where did you all go off to? Is there a group from this thread that's doing what they did with this game, on another? If anyone still checks this i'd greatly appreciate an answer, I've lost touch and faith in many, many MMO's which have become shallow after playing past the glamour and am trying to find one with an at least decent community to restore my faith in the online gaming business, otherwise I may just recluse to console gaming for a while until I hear word of a new game with extreme hype.
Unfortunately I can't really seem to find an MMORPG that I'd really want to get into, except Monster Hunter Frontier and that isn't westernized, and may never be. It'd be great if someone could fill me in, to give you an idea of the range of games I've tried, which some of you may or may have not ever heard of : Of course there are the big ones like WoW, Rift, LOtRO, then there are plenty of other ones that I've played over the years, like MS, Vindictus, Mabinogi (All three of these from Nexon), which were slightly enjoyable but all of which I lost interest in rather quickly. As well as a shooter or two such as S4 League, and some odd online robot game called CosmicBreak, and the WoW/Rift/LOtRO all had me bored by level 30 because I was usually solo'ing and no matter how hard I tried the community was just sad and I gave up on them. So now here I am searching for a new MMORPG, or at least a new MMO in general that might catch my interest, and I've been browsing and noticed Atlantica but realized it's a title under Nexon (which if you haven't played a game that's under that company, their CS is absolutely horrible) so I passed on that, and then I came to FFXI and it perked my interest since I've always enjoyed FF games on consoles. And noticed this thread about players debating playing the game, and read it. But as I've seen time pass on I notice everyones moved on or it's lost momentum.
So excuse the long-winded post, but tl;dr is : Are you all on another game now? I'm mainly trying to find a good community group to stick with that I could enjoy a game with, I don't focus on gear or leveling hard much, I'm just a really relaxed individual so casual play is my style, and I dislike rushing games, I enjoy great thorough storylines but I also really enjoy have friends to constantly chat with about anything really as I play, that's part of why I enjoy MMO's, just being able to simply sit and chat and make jokes with people I would've never met and become friends with if it hadn't have been for whatever MMO I decided to try.
I'm playing EVE Online now, but it's not a game I'd recommend lightly. Otherwise, City of Heroes just went free-to-play and I enjoyed that one a lot. (:
Eh, after all the looking around i did, the only one asides froms MHF that really caught my eye was Guild Wars 2, for now..I'll just distract myself with consoles/rl stuff until they release.
Hey, I'm also a former Reformation member. I must have quit right before the drama really started. It was clear there was going to be some serious issues soon enough when I left (mid July). It's too bad, the mission of the shell was really great. I had realized I hadn't canceled my account, and I got a new computer so it was hard to get it all figured it out. But today I did and figured I'd get on to see how everything is going. I can't believe it! I wasn't gone that long haha.
Well, Az, we never played together (at least I don't think..) but good luck! Maybe I'll see you around in ToR sometime.
People thinking about giving FFXI a shot, go for it, but make sure you find good people to play with. Ending up with the wrong people can really ruin it.
Not sure if anyone else has noticed, but the reformationls.tk website has been changed into a movie-trailer site? I went back to see the sackholder list a couple days ago and EVERYTHING about the site redirects to there.
I've been looking for active users of Reformation on Phoenix but have yet to locate any. I'm on as Damaris and I'm a 24MNK/12WAR. [:
Anyway, I let it go and the shell sort of ran itself.. although not anywhere close the direction I originally intended. I tried to schedule fun events, but unfortunately, unless there's a level or some shiny reward in it.. noone is interested. Thus is why I haven't played anything since I have left FFXI.
Sadly, that's the kind of gameplay SE is outright encouraging these days.
There have always been people who were only concerned about leveling as fast as possible 'til they burned out, got bored and quit. The thing is, the game didn't cater to that playstyle for most of its time online. During those days, I think your idea would have worked out much better, because people still *needed* help to do those things, and still wanted to. There was still value in most of the old-world content. People still made a serious effort to do it.
However, SE changed all that.
Starting with, arguably, Aht Urghan (the higher xp rate, etc), but for sure with WoTG and Campaign Battle, SE started turning that nozzle. With FoV, they clearly took a turn toward supporting soloing or duo'ing, turning the nozzle a bit more. Removing the cap from CoP areas, rendering them practically a joke was another step in that direction. With Abyssea, however, they turned the nozzle on to full and pretty much went all out on "leveling as fast as possible" being their new direction.
I didn't think the level cap increase was even necessary, in the first place and was skeptical about it. But then I imagined all that they could do with another 25 levels of content. Sadly, they did extremely little, turning those 25 levels into a speed-level run called Abyssea. Allowing people to enter at level 30, where they could level even faster, only underscored the new focus SE had taken.
SE officially jumped the shark in a big way. They gave up on making FFXI the epic experience it was, and have turned it into just another level grinder.
I'm sure it's not at all coincidental that the game's population started to show signs of slowing at around the same time they started making all those changes. While FFXI maintained focus on its steep curve, difficult encounters (even if you used a guide) and myriad tasks to undertake, it maintained a strong playerbase of ~500k players - upwards of 7 years into its life. They start introducing more soloability and faster leveling into it, and suddenly... they're doing their first server merge... and then another one sometime later. The timing may not perfectly coincide, but there's definitely overlap. Though only anecdotally, I know many people who played loyally for years who left the game around that time 'cause they didn't like the direction it was going. I knew others who were reaching the end of their rope. They couldn't have been the only ones.
Considering how badly they botched up FFXIV, and how they have destroyed what FFXI was... who ever is calling the shots at SE needs to be either replaced, or bound, gagged and shoved in a closet somewhere so they can't do any more damage.
Your entire post is spot on. I'm an old beta tester of FFXI and can't stand the direction this game has taken. I played up through ToAU, but when WoTG came out I was playing off and on..then Abyssea killed it for me. When that came out it wasn't FFXI I was playing anymore it was a whole nem game entirley. So I quit. I just jumped back on yesterday to see what was in store for the game and what I saw was mind numbing. The server had 2-3k people on it yet there were only 7 people I could see that had there flags up. I was glad to see Jueno was more active then Aht Urghan, but all for the wrong reasons. Qufim had all but 15 people there and the rest of the lvling zones that were normally bumping were completely empty.
Its sad what this game has turned into.
They should do a progression server similar to what Everquest is doing.... I would gladly restart completely on a server like that.
"In the immediate future, we have this one, and then weve got another one that is actually going to be so were going to have, what we want to do, is in January, what were targeting to do, this may or may not happen, so you cant hold me to it. But what were targeting to do, is have a fun anniversary to the Ilum shenanigans that happened. An alien race might invade, and they might crash into Ilum and there might be some new activities that happen on the planet." ~Gabe Amatangelo
I agree with the people that in recent years the game as taken a turn for the wore in regards to veteran players. Many of the things that made the game enjoyable and challenging to me are gone or more accurately pointless to participate in.
I hope one day in the future ffxi will have some kind of "classic" server available with everything up until level 75. While abysea was fun it has made everything else almost pointless. Where in the past I used to do a myriad of activities and all were beneficial to either me or members of my LS. You could do something different every night of the week. One night sky, next night nyzul isle, next night dynamis, next night some HNM somebody claims, then einherjar, sky, limbus, ZNMs, salvage, the list goes on and on. Now it's just abysea, abysea and more abysea. So I stopped playing and many of my friends have either stopped or play 1/10th of the time they used to.
you know.. its not often i jump at the chance to join into forum discussions, but this thread has honestly renewed my interest in FFXI when i thought it couldn't be. Prior to about 10 minutes ago i was actively thinking about and planning a route through Rift although it honestly didn't sound all that fun to me. So after a fairly long break of a year (due to the almighy ban hammer of stupid) i think i would very much like to attempt to redo all of FFXI. If anyone is still doing this or is willing to do this I obviously have tons of time into this game prior to my banning i was 90 NIN/BRD/BLM/DRG with NIN and BLM be my best and BRD just being my favoriteHell i would even be happy to do ToAU again even though i hated it with a passion. So if anyone is interested please feel free to reply back here or send me a email. my info should be in my profile here. thanks
oh and i will be starting back up come next tuesday. so i'll start into leveling ASAP
you know.. its not often i jump at the chance to join into forum discussions, but this thread has honestly renewed my interest in FFXI when i thought it couldn't be. Prior to about 10 minutes ago i was actively thinking about and planning a route through Rift although it honestly didn't sound all that fun to me. So after a fairly long break of a year (due to the almighy ban hammer of stupid) i think i would very much like to attempt to redo all of FFXI. If anyone is still doing this or is willing to do this I obviously have tons of time into this game prior to my banning i was 90 NIN/BRD/BLM/DRG with NIN and BLM be my best and BRD just being my favoriteHell i would even be happy to do ToAU again even though i hated it with a passion. So if anyone is interested please feel free to reply back here or send me a email. my info should be in my profile here. thanks
oh and i will be starting back up come next tuesday. so i'll start into leveling ASAP
Looked at your profile, I'm also in Fayetteville,AR. I just bought the game, tried playing it a few times before, never really got into it, hoping to get some help this time around. Maybe we can start on the same server and help each other a bit :P though I doubt I'll play as much as you (work a full time job).
I'm so sad to hear what has happened to my favorate game of all time. I feel so lonely in every other game I played. It feels like a vast over-reaction to a dwindling playerbase. People are going to leave for greener pastures, but you don't want to cater to the WOW crowd - they're not going to join your game anyway (they wrote it off on day 1 when they learned they had to group to level and couldn't understand where the 900 quests to get to level 2 were).
They went a step in the right direction when they let you cap your group to a specific player's level.
But they should have gone a step further: Change the system to allow you LFG on multiple jobs at once, and let you LFG on missions & quests at the same time. (LFG on 75PLD/37WAR, 75BLM/37WHM, 50WHM/25RDM, 60BRD/30WHM, Mission3-2 -the lists all the jobs you could attend as for mission3-2, etc) Whoever gets the /tell first, you flip to that character and you're done.
Also, a great addition would be to let you contain all equipment on your guy. Make it so your house and safe were all for non-equipment items. You could set up general sets for each job, set 0-9 for each job then you could just '/equip set 3' instead of changing all 15 peices of gear to cast a single spell. And your inventory wouldn't be full of equipment you need for your job.
Every game I've played since hasn't been FFXI, if that makes any sense. It's like your first love, you compare everybody in the future to that first. The AH on other games is a joke, the economy is ridiculous, the social aspect is non-existent, the fact you need new characters for each class is eye-rollingly silly.
But all of those features I loved about FFXI centered around a difficult leveling process and the sense of community. It seems like you all are saying that SE has abandoned the things I liked best about FFXI.
I'm so sad to hear what has happened to my favorate game of all time. I feel so lonely in every other game I played. It feels like a vast over-reaction to a dwindling playerbase. People are going to leave for greener pastures, but you don't want to cater to the WOW crowd - they're not going to join your game anyway (they wrote it off on day 1 when they learned they had to group to level and couldn't understand where the 900 quests to get to level 2 were).
They went a step in the right direction when they let you cap your group to a specific player's level.
But they should have gone a step further: Change the system to allow you LFG on multiple jobs at once, and let you LFG on missions & quests at the same time.
Every game I've played since hasn't been FFXI, if that makes any sense. It's like your first love, you compare everybody in the future to that first. The AH on other games is a joke, the economy is ridiculous, the social aspect is non-existent, the fact you need new characters for each class is eye-rollingly silly.
But all of those features I loved about FFXI centered around a difficult leveling process and the sense of community. It seems like you all are saying that SE has abandoned the things I liked best about FFXI.
it's deffinatley not what it was, and it's hard to imagine anything like it every coming again. People really try to bring ffxi down by saying it was just a big grind, but to me they are totally missing what made ffxi so great. because you spent so much time xping, and forced to party to do so the leveling i feel evolved into something really unique. to me xp party's weren't a monatonous grind they were a ballet that taught you how to play your class extremely well. I think most people who played the game for several years will agree that it was a grind to level your first job cause it took so long, but it was also so magical. your second or third job would only take 2 months and beyond that it was normally only a month to level up a job. I ended with 15 jobs lvl 75 before i quit, and the xp parties were some of my fondest memories.
The constant challenge of maxing out your xp an hour and watching how your play evolved and got better every party was amazing. the people who didn't like the game were obvious when they were in your party. they played bad, they weren't motivated, and they didn't understand how to cooperate with the other jobs. I think most people that really enjoyed ffxi see every other game as more of a grind then it was. I play games like wow, rift, and swtor with these quest systems and i feel like it's a worse grind then anything i've ever experienced.
ffxi wasn't a grind it was a highly skilled ballet where the good players became better players, and the bad players went to wow. because the good players were able to crank out xp and level faster then you could in any of those quest driven games.
Your entire post is spot on. I'm an old beta tester of FFXI and can't stand the direction this game has taken. I played up through ToAU, but when WoTG came out I was playing off and on..then Abyssea killed it for me. When that came out it wasn't FFXI I was playing anymore it was a whole nem game entirley. So I quit. I just jumped back on yesterday to see what was in store for the game and what I saw was mind numbing. The server had 2-3k people on it yet there were only 7 people I could see that had there flags up. I was glad to see Jueno was more active then Aht Urghan, but all for the wrong reasons. Qufim had all but 15 people there and the rest of the lvling zones that were normally bumping were completely empty.
Its sad what this game has turned into.
They should do a progression server similar to what Everquest is doing.... I would gladly restart completely on a server like that.
Thanks!
My post might come across to some as bitter ramblings from some "old-timer" wearing "rose-colored glasses" and longing for the "good old days" that "weren't as good as I remember them", blah blah blah.
It's not.
The fact of the matter is, I do remember those days exactly as I experienced them. No rose-colored glasses required. I would do it all again in a heartbeat. If SE started a 'progression' server without Abyssea, with a level 75 cap and, perhaps, even stopping at Aht Urghan (as WoTG brought a lot of elements which also changed the game for the worse)... I'd be right there. Enthusiastically. No question.
To this day, what FFXI used to be remains my standard for any new MMO I play. They don't have to "be just like FFXI". But they need to at least come close to capturing that same sense of adventure and challenge and wonder that FFXI used to provide. Sadly, none have really come close.
I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to write and mail a letter to the folks at SE, directly to Tanaka (whom I believe is the producer of FFXI... or was anyway) and say something along the lines of,
"What were you thinking?
You spent 7+ years developing and nurturing and expanding this beautiful, massive, dangerous and memorable experience that was unlike anything else on the market in so many ways. You crafted an immense world with volumes of history and lore represented in seemingly every nook and cranny, which upwards of 500,000 players loyally stuck with despite all the newer, shinier games coming out. Those players remained loyal *because* you were offering them something different; something almost no other MMO was offering: a massive, persistent, diverse and vibrant world with a *soul*. And then in 3 fell swoops, what you called "Abyssea", you managed to destroy, undermine or trivialize all of it.
Again, what were you thinking?"
The only thing that stops me from sending such a letter is that it would likely never reach its intended party/parties and end up being filed away, or tossed away and so the thoughts and effort would be wasted. If there was any way for me to confirm that it would get to those to whom it would matter - even though it would ultimately be for naught - I would at least feel better having gotten it off my chest.
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
I quit the game once Abyysea came out and ruined the entire game, it changed it from a nice journey/advenmture to a get max level in 1 day world of warcraft wannabe, needless to say I canceled my acct and have not gone back since. The slow lebveling provess that forces you to be social was what drew me to the game, once it lost that appeal I gave up on it. The game will be missed, it was one of those very VERY few mmorpgs where I actually felt some sense of accomplishment when I got something done, whether it be another level, or camping a item for a drop I want and getting it and such. Most mmo's don't offer this because the stuff is a total joke to do/get compared to ff11 was.
Being a pessimist is a win-win pattern of thinking. If you're a pessimist (I'll admit that I am!) you're either:
A. Proven right (if something bad happens)
or
B. Pleasantly surprised (if something good happens)
i'm very iterested in this proposal. i tried to play about a year ago but there were very few people doing the lower level content. i really want to get this goin!
I quit the game once Abyysea came out and ruined the entire game, it changed it from a nice journey/advenmture to a get max level in 1 day world of warcraft wannabe, needless to say I canceled my acct and have not gone back since. The slow lebveling provess that forces you to be social was what drew me to the game, once it lost that appeal I gave up on it. The game will be missed, it was one of those very VERY few mmorpgs where I actually felt some sense of accomplishment when I got something done, whether it be another level, or camping a item for a drop I want and getting it and such. Most mmo's don't offer this because the stuff is a total joke to do/get compared to ff11 was.
Indeed.
I remember interviews with SE where they stated, flat out, they would not change the game to be more "casual friendly" despite the success of games like WoW, becuase a game like WoW and its target market is not what they were after.
What the hell happened to that?
It's like they just decided.. "Yeah, nevermind that. We're jumping on the Casual Friendly bandwagon, and taking the whole game - years worth of painstaking design, implementation, story-crafting and epic experiences with it".
Also, the thing about the leveling being slower isn't only that the xp gain rate was notably less than in many MMOs these days. It's also that in FFXI leveling was more a means to an end, than an end itself. In fact, you could say it was a means to many ends. There was so much in FFXI that you had to do along the way, that you couldn't spend all your time leveling, or you'd be missing out on many key and critical aspects of the game. This is why I always raised an eyebrow when people would say it was nothing but a non-stop level grind. It most definitely wasn't. FFXI was many things.
If you were someone who did nothing but grind levels, then yeah... non-stop level grind. But that's the player, not the game.
Of course, now, I would say it definitely has become much more of a pointless/non-stop level grind because so much of what used to be part of the whole experience has been trivialized to the point of being almost superfluous.
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Comments
Is this still going on?
I'd love to play FFXI with a few people from this site, it sounds like great fun!
If so, do we have some form of ventrilo we could use? I've played the game before and remember a few things, but I'd prefer to learn via vent than text, it'd make things easier.
Most of what you said was true Ray. IMO too many people got invited to the shell without knowing what kinda shell it was. There should have been zero LS invites unless you applied on the forums.
However the reason a new shell was created was because we had no leader. You were rarely logging on. Apparently there was an officer that left the LS but would periodically kick people just to be an ass. The only person that could kick him would have been the LS leader, you. Everyone decided it was best to make a new shell that would have a dedicated leader. I realize real life comes first and all, but being a leader of a LS the size of Reformation means you gotta be on more often than you were.
Anyway, PhoenixPinions is the new LS. A lot of the same members. Still fairly big and a good shell, but sadly it's just a normal LS like most others.
If an "officer" can periodically come online and "kick" people.. then other "officers" can kick the offending "kicker". If I was the only one with the ability to kick anyone, then noone would be able to kick anyone but ME.
Thats why I said, I know there was some shadyness. I know exactly who it was, and its not worth my time to bother with it. They got what they wanted, and I'm glad I can sleep at night.
I'm moving to KOTOR with some friends, so anyone who was apart of reformation who DID like playing games without rushing, or leeching through them.. your more than welcome to join me over there. I miss some of you guys. I never thought FFXI would get to the point where its more fun to sit in ONE place and do nothing for 10 hrs... but hey to each his own right?
www.facebook.com/themarksmovierules
Currently playing:
FFXIV on Behemoth, FFXI on Eden, and Gloria Victis on NA.
Indeed! You two were just a few of the many people I lost in the shuffle because of what went on. I tried my best to not have to impose strict rules on alot of things, but it just doesn't work like that anymore.
I wil never agree with leeching, regardless if its an intended "Game mechanic" or not. There are shells out there that cater to that.. Reformation, was never intended to be that. but we got so many members who had NO clue what the shell was about.. it lost its direction and pretty much fell apart. Many people will tell you the leadership was the reason, and I'm not doubting that this was true to a point. I do know I tried to plan events, and I tried to keep the "right" people in the shell.. and we just always wound up with more leechers/rushers. Thats just the way it is now I guess.
www.facebook.com/themarksmovierules
Currently playing:
FFXIV on Behemoth, FFXI on Eden, and Gloria Victis on NA.
Sadly, that's the kind of gameplay SE is outright encouraging these days.
There have always been people who were only concerned about leveling as fast as possible 'til they burned out, got bored and quit. The thing is, the game didn't cater to that playstyle for most of its time online. During those days, I think your idea would have worked out much better, because people still *needed* help to do those things, and still wanted to. There was still value in most of the old-world content. People still made a serious effort to do it.
However, SE changed all that.
Starting with, arguably, Aht Urghan (the higher xp rate, etc), but for sure with WoTG and Campaign Battle, SE started turning that nozzle. With FoV, they clearly took a turn toward supporting soloing or duo'ing, turning the nozzle a bit more. Removing the cap from CoP areas, rendering them practically a joke was another step in that direction. With Abyssea, however, they turned the nozzle on to full and pretty much went all out on "leveling as fast as possible" being their new direction.
I didn't think the level cap increase was even necessary, in the first place and was skeptical about it. But then I imagined all that they could do with another 25 levels of content. Sadly, they did extremely little, turning those 25 levels into a speed-level run called Abyssea. Allowing people to enter at level 30, where they could level even faster, only underscored the new focus SE had taken.
SE officially jumped the shark in a big way. They gave up on making FFXI the epic experience it was, and have turned it into just another level grinder.
I'm sure it's not at all coincidental that the game's population started to show signs of slowing at around the same time they started making all those changes. While FFXI maintained focus on its steep curve, difficult encounters (even if you used a guide) and myriad tasks to undertake, it maintained a strong playerbase of ~500k players - upwards of 7 years into its life. They start introducing more soloability and faster leveling into it, and suddenly... they're doing their first server merge... and then another one sometime later. The timing may not perfectly coincide, but there's definitely overlap. Though only anecdotally, I know many people who played loyally for years who left the game around that time 'cause they didn't like the direction it was going. I knew others who were reaching the end of their rope. They couldn't have been the only ones.
Considering how badly they botched up FFXIV, and how they have destroyed what FFXI was... who ever is calling the shots at SE needs to be either replaced, or bound, gagged and shoved in a closet somewhere so they can't do any more damage.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Ray/Azmyth,
Really? That's how it all ended with Reformation? I am so sorry Az, you had something really good and its sad to see that some creeps wrecked it. I don't think I never had a chance to formally thank you and apologize for leaving the way I did. This was the thread were it started, I guess I will end it here too.
The reasons why I left the LS so abruptly? Well, mainly for the same reasons that you mentioned. I became part of an ad hoc upper management called "The Barber Shop", who was viewed as a clique of sorts. That's something I do not like to do is be in cliques. Things were great for awhile, I leveled blindingly fast because we grouped up every night and leveled the old school way, while other mulled about and complained. It was awesome, unfortunately, my desire to do everything I missed in the last go round blinded me to why I was there. It was to experience the game and have fun with friends. I had a falling out with a few cliquemembers and I plain didn't like one of them from the word go. So, I just left. My apologies.
I understand you had RL responsibilities, we tried to pick up the slack as much as we could, but the LS was growing faster than anticipated and the players were leaderless and grumbling. Everyone had their own agenda, my agenda was simple, I wanted to do it all, every sky god, every rank mission, every boss...everything that I missed out on in 2007. Then the merge came and I decided to go with an Abyssea focused LS. I never leeched, it was way too boring to do that. Due to the stellar amount Exp I was getting, I did nail 90 from 75 in a day and a half. Leveing that fast is addictive and I quickly got wrapped up in the Abby endgame scene, then I found out what FFXI had really become.
From what I gathered, its not about just your gear anymore, its about how many jobs you have at 90 and what pieces of paper you need for them all to get your gear. Players leeched because if you were in a group for NIN paper, and they needed a WHM, then you had to get on you WHM or vice versa. The whole thing stank to high hell and I remember saying, "I don't want to play or gear another job, I love this char and I'm damn good at it."
So there you have it, Inktomi is sitting in Jeuno wearing a Kirins Osode, with a pair of sick Katanas in a hodgepodge mix of AF1 and Aby gear. I quit soon after the merge when I found myself once again sitting in Jeuno waiting for a group because I don't have the right job people are looking for just for little pieces of paper, I had a 100 in my bank, just not the right ones, seemed like it was 2007 all over again. I had quit back then and always regretted it, I felt that it was a loose end that always nagged me when someone pressed me for my street gamer cred. But I have my closure now and I've got you to thank for it Ray. FFXI is a closed case to me now, my gratitude.
Good luck in all you do.
Play safe,
Inktomi
PS:
To anyone who wants to try FFXI or relive it, do it, its a really great game and SE has added some really awesome feature. Its better with a group of like-minded people who want to experience some of the older content and areas. Leveling the old way is still faster than it was and some of the new jobs are really fun. Just whatever you do, take your time and enjoy the journey. DO NOT and I repeat DO NOT RUSH IT! There is plenty to do before you get to Abyssea.
This is a real shame and is indicative of the state of the genre, at the moment.
I was potentially interested as I have never played a FF game before, and am somewhat of an old-school player i.e. I might play casual hours, but my play is never casual - no twinks, PLing, no leeching, yada yada yada. Original content with a good group of players around the same level, all with the right attitude.
The last attribute is the most important: a realisation that the world doesn't revolve around you. It's not the phat loot, power-levels, or any other superficial status symbol but other people and relationships that matter.
I believe that the original vision can still work in ANY game - on the basis that:
1. All members abide by a few, simple rules
2. All members understand their responsibilities
3. All members understand that failure to abide by the rules is dismissal
4. Group responsibility is shared - everyone pitches in and helps
Membership by application only, which is then reviewed. Subject to passing the application, there should be a getting to know you period, to make sure that potential applicants are the right fit for the group (linkshell). Followed up by a 2 week probation period and review.
All sounds heavy and intense, right? Sadly. It is the only way to sufficiently vet people to prevent drama. If people's views and feelings change, then they are free to leave the linkshell without acrimony or malice.
The problem with a democracy is that everyone thinks that their 'rights' trumps the 'rights' of others, and doesn't entail any obligations.
If this linkshell idea is reformed, then I'd be interested in starting probably at the end of Oct. Otherwise, it's SWTOR.
Cheers!
"If you think I'm plucky and scrappy and all I need is love, you're in way over your head. I don't have a heart of gold or get nice. There are a lot nicer people coming up. We call them losers."
I registered an account on this site just to post on this thread, which I saw as I was browsing and looking at MMO's to try since the one's I've played so far only kept me entertained, like many others I'd try a game for a little, grow tired of it and off to the next one.
After reading this thread, and seeing that things aren't the same. I'm wondering and want to ask, where did you all go off to? Is there a group from this thread that's doing what they did with this game, on another? If anyone still checks this i'd greatly appreciate an answer, I've lost touch and faith in many, many MMO's which have become shallow after playing past the glamour and am trying to find one with an at least decent community to restore my faith in the online gaming business, otherwise I may just recluse to console gaming for a while until I hear word of a new game with extreme hype.
Unfortunately I can't really seem to find an MMORPG that I'd really want to get into, except Monster Hunter Frontier and that isn't westernized, and may never be. It'd be great if someone could fill me in, to give you an idea of the range of games I've tried, which some of you may or may have not ever heard of : Of course there are the big ones like WoW, Rift, LOtRO, then there are plenty of other ones that I've played over the years, like MS, Vindictus, Mabinogi (All three of these from Nexon), which were slightly enjoyable but all of which I lost interest in rather quickly. As well as a shooter or two such as S4 League, and some odd online robot game called CosmicBreak, and the WoW/Rift/LOtRO all had me bored by level 30 because I was usually solo'ing and no matter how hard I tried the community was just sad and I gave up on them. So now here I am searching for a new MMORPG, or at least a new MMO in general that might catch my interest, and I've been browsing and noticed Atlantica but realized it's a title under Nexon (which if you haven't played a game that's under that company, their CS is absolutely horrible) so I passed on that, and then I came to FFXI and it perked my interest since I've always enjoyed FF games on consoles. And noticed this thread about players debating playing the game, and read it. But as I've seen time pass on I notice everyones moved on or it's lost momentum.
So excuse the long-winded post, but tl;dr is : Are you all on another game now? I'm mainly trying to find a good community group to stick with that I could enjoy a game with, I don't focus on gear or leveling hard much, I'm just a really relaxed individual so casual play is my style, and I dislike rushing games, I enjoy great thorough storylines but I also really enjoy have friends to constantly chat with about anything really as I play, that's part of why I enjoy MMO's, just being able to simply sit and chat and make jokes with people I would've never met and become friends with if it hadn't have been for whatever MMO I decided to try.
BluesFox:
I'm playing EVE Online now, but it's not a game I'd recommend lightly. Otherwise, City of Heroes just went free-to-play and I enjoyed that one a lot. (:
Eh, after all the looking around i did, the only one asides froms MHF that really caught my eye was Guild Wars 2, for now..I'll just distract myself with consoles/rl stuff until they release.
Hey, I'm also a former Reformation member. I must have quit right before the drama really started. It was clear there was going to be some serious issues soon enough when I left (mid July). It's too bad, the mission of the shell was really great. I had realized I hadn't canceled my account, and I got a new computer so it was hard to get it all figured it out. But today I did and figured I'd get on to see how everything is going. I can't believe it! I wasn't gone that long haha.
Well, Az, we never played together (at least I don't think..) but good luck! Maybe I'll see you around in ToR sometime.
People thinking about giving FFXI a shot, go for it, but make sure you find good people to play with. Ending up with the wrong people can really ruin it.
Your entire post is spot on. I'm an old beta tester of FFXI and can't stand the direction this game has taken. I played up through ToAU, but when WoTG came out I was playing off and on..then Abyssea killed it for me. When that came out it wasn't FFXI I was playing anymore it was a whole nem game entirley. So I quit. I just jumped back on yesterday to see what was in store for the game and what I saw was mind numbing. The server had 2-3k people on it yet there were only 7 people I could see that had there flags up. I was glad to see Jueno was more active then Aht Urghan, but all for the wrong reasons. Qufim had all but 15 people there and the rest of the lvling zones that were normally bumping were completely empty.
Its sad what this game has turned into.
They should do a progression server similar to what Everquest is doing.... I would gladly restart completely on a server like that.
"In the immediate future, we have this one, and then weve got another one that is actually going to be so were going to have, what we want to do, is in January, what were targeting to do, this may or may not happen, so you cant hold me to it. But what were targeting to do, is have a fun anniversary to the Ilum shenanigans that happened. An alien race might invade, and they might crash into Ilum and there might be some new activities that happen on the planet." ~Gabe Amatangelo
I agree with the people that in recent years the game as taken a turn for the wore in regards to veteran players. Many of the things that made the game enjoyable and challenging to me are gone or more accurately pointless to participate in.
I hope one day in the future ffxi will have some kind of "classic" server available with everything up until level 75. While abysea was fun it has made everything else almost pointless. Where in the past I used to do a myriad of activities and all were beneficial to either me or members of my LS. You could do something different every night of the week. One night sky, next night nyzul isle, next night dynamis, next night some HNM somebody claims, then einherjar, sky, limbus, ZNMs, salvage, the list goes on and on. Now it's just abysea, abysea and more abysea. So I stopped playing and many of my friends have either stopped or play 1/10th of the time they used to.
you know.. its not often i jump at the chance to join into forum discussions, but this thread has honestly renewed my interest in FFXI when i thought it couldn't be. Prior to about 10 minutes ago i was actively thinking about and planning a route through Rift although it honestly didn't sound all that fun to me. So after a fairly long break of a year (due to the almighy ban hammer of stupid) i think i would very much like to attempt to redo all of FFXI. If anyone is still doing this or is willing to do this I obviously have tons of time into this game prior to my banning i was 90 NIN/BRD/BLM/DRG with NIN and BLM be my best and BRD just being my favoriteHell i would even be happy to do ToAU again even though i hated it with a passion. So if anyone is interested please feel free to reply back here or send me a email. my info should be in my profile here. thanks
oh and i will be starting back up come next tuesday. so i'll start into leveling ASAP
Looked at your profile, I'm also in Fayetteville,AR. I just bought the game, tried playing it a few times before, never really got into it, hoping to get some help this time around. Maybe we can start on the same server and help each other a bit :P though I doubt I'll play as much as you (work a full time job).
Currently restarting World of Warcraft
I'm so sad to hear what has happened to my favorate game of all time. I feel so lonely in every other game I played. It feels like a vast over-reaction to a dwindling playerbase. People are going to leave for greener pastures, but you don't want to cater to the WOW crowd - they're not going to join your game anyway (they wrote it off on day 1 when they learned they had to group to level and couldn't understand where the 900 quests to get to level 2 were).
They went a step in the right direction when they let you cap your group to a specific player's level.
But they should have gone a step further: Change the system to allow you LFG on multiple jobs at once, and let you LFG on missions & quests at the same time. (LFG on 75PLD/37WAR, 75BLM/37WHM, 50WHM/25RDM, 60BRD/30WHM, Mission3-2 -the lists all the jobs you could attend as for mission3-2, etc) Whoever gets the /tell first, you flip to that character and you're done.
Also, a great addition would be to let you contain all equipment on your guy. Make it so your house and safe were all for non-equipment items. You could set up general sets for each job, set 0-9 for each job then you could just '/equip set 3' instead of changing all 15 peices of gear to cast a single spell. And your inventory wouldn't be full of equipment you need for your job.
Every game I've played since hasn't been FFXI, if that makes any sense. It's like your first love, you compare everybody in the future to that first. The AH on other games is a joke, the economy is ridiculous, the social aspect is non-existent, the fact you need new characters for each class is eye-rollingly silly.
But all of those features I loved about FFXI centered around a difficult leveling process and the sense of community. It seems like you all are saying that SE has abandoned the things I liked best about FFXI.
it's deffinatley not what it was, and it's hard to imagine anything like it every coming again. People really try to bring ffxi down by saying it was just a big grind, but to me they are totally missing what made ffxi so great. because you spent so much time xping, and forced to party to do so the leveling i feel evolved into something really unique. to me xp party's weren't a monatonous grind they were a ballet that taught you how to play your class extremely well. I think most people who played the game for several years will agree that it was a grind to level your first job cause it took so long, but it was also so magical. your second or third job would only take 2 months and beyond that it was normally only a month to level up a job. I ended with 15 jobs lvl 75 before i quit, and the xp parties were some of my fondest memories.
The constant challenge of maxing out your xp an hour and watching how your play evolved and got better every party was amazing. the people who didn't like the game were obvious when they were in your party. they played bad, they weren't motivated, and they didn't understand how to cooperate with the other jobs. I think most people that really enjoyed ffxi see every other game as more of a grind then it was. I play games like wow, rift, and swtor with these quest systems and i feel like it's a worse grind then anything i've ever experienced.
ffxi wasn't a grind it was a highly skilled ballet where the good players became better players, and the bad players went to wow. because the good players were able to crank out xp and level faster then you could in any of those quest driven games.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
I quit the game once Abyysea came out and ruined the entire game, it changed it from a nice journey/advenmture to a get max level in 1 day world of warcraft wannabe, needless to say I canceled my acct and have not gone back since. The slow lebveling provess that forces you to be social was what drew me to the game, once it lost that appeal I gave up on it. The game will be missed, it was one of those very VERY few mmorpgs where I actually felt some sense of accomplishment when I got something done, whether it be another level, or camping a item for a drop I want and getting it and such. Most mmo's don't offer this because the stuff is a total joke to do/get compared to ff11 was.
Being a pessimist is a win-win pattern of thinking. If you're a pessimist (I'll admit that I am!) you're either:
A. Proven right (if something bad happens)
or
B. Pleasantly surprised (if something good happens)
Either way, you can't lose! Try it out sometime!
i'm very iterested in this proposal. i tried to play about a year ago but there were very few people doing the lower level content. i really want to get this goin!
Indeed.
I remember interviews with SE where they stated, flat out, they would not change the game to be more "casual friendly" despite the success of games like WoW, becuase a game like WoW and its target market is not what they were after.
What the hell happened to that?
It's like they just decided.. "Yeah, nevermind that. We're jumping on the Casual Friendly bandwagon, and taking the whole game - years worth of painstaking design, implementation, story-crafting and epic experiences with it".
Also, the thing about the leveling being slower isn't only that the xp gain rate was notably less than in many MMOs these days. It's also that in FFXI leveling was more a means to an end, than an end itself. In fact, you could say it was a means to many ends. There was so much in FFXI that you had to do along the way, that you couldn't spend all your time leveling, or you'd be missing out on many key and critical aspects of the game. This is why I always raised an eyebrow when people would say it was nothing but a non-stop level grind. It most definitely wasn't. FFXI was many things.
If you were someone who did nothing but grind levels, then yeah... non-stop level grind. But that's the player, not the game.
Of course, now, I would say it definitely has become much more of a pointless/non-stop level grind because so much of what used to be part of the whole experience has been trivialized to the point of being almost superfluous.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops