What was it like to play Final Fantasy XI when it was active?
>>11556848I played on Nasomi(?) with /v/ some years ago and it was supposed to be akin to how it used to be. That being said, the admin was an insufferable autist and didn't like people using macros or even unlocking the frame rate.
>>11556925>no macrosI can't imagine playing without. What the fuck lmao
>>11556848If you played with Japs, leveling was a pleasant and efficient experience. They got together, hiked to a camp, and disbanded after a set amount of time.If you played with NAs, you hiked to a camp, started killing, then got>sry g2g dinner/baby crying/etcAnd then you wasted time trying to backfill the open spot.
>>11556848>when it was activeI assume you mean "when it was more populated" because Square never shut down the servers, you can still play officially.
>>11557249Usually when people describe an MMO as "active" they mean it with pic related definition: it's well-populated and actively played by a lot of people. Not just alive, but with a high level of activity. An MMO can exist and be playable but also be inactive. Not dead, but with a very low level of activity (especially in relative comparison to its peak). When OP asks what FFXI was like "when it was active," he wants to know what the game was like at its peak of popularity.
>>11556848It was pretty fucking cool, granted this was my first "real" mmo and I definitely loved every second of it. I still hop on occasionally but nothing beats the 2005-2008 or so years. The game was actually challenging and you NEEDED to make friends or you weren't going anywhere. As an awkward kid without a ton of friends it was great and some of those people I met I still talk to this day. There's nothing else that even came close to this experience for me, it really felt like this game had a community and less of a player base. The actual game was great too, awesome story and I personally love the combat but a lot of people think it's too slow.
>>11556848HorizonXi
>>11556848A massive time sink that wasn't even worth playing if you didn't have a static group.>>11558331Absolutely disgusting community that suffers from the same mental illness that all classic MMO server players do but on another level.
>>11556925>some years agoyou cant compare an mmo played some years ago vs 2002. People are different.
>>11558360it's not even just the people, you're playing a static, solved game rather than an unknown that was constantly changing every month whenever they patched - that creates an entirely different form of checklist-based gameplay versus what you had back thenyou can see extreme examples of this in classic EQ and classic WoW
>>11558370This is why I’m playing Pantheon rise of the fallen.
One of the funniest things about FFXI was that half the population actively used hacks and the other half was in total denial that hacks existed even when you used them right in front of their faces>>11558373I played that free weekend a while back and was bored in 2 hours. It felt like there was less to do than in the Monsters & Memories alpha and that's saying a lot
>>11558370Yea, you summed it up well with the "solved game: term. The speculation and the unknown factor is a big part of an MMO. There's so many factors and quirks in FFXI that testing and trying was a big part of it. Now it's all out there and how to do things is pretty plain. That said I do enjoy playing with people on FFERA. Doing assaults and salvages.
>>11558379That was a severely limited play test.
>>11558379>half was in total denial that hacks existed even when you used them right in front of their faces>"wow bard how are you so good at judging the range and timers of your songs to keep different buffs up on the tank, melee, and casters at all times?"what can I say, I'm just godlike I guess
>>11558348>Absolutely disgusting community that suffers from the same mental illness that all classic MMO server players do but on another level.Could you explain? I was about to give it a try
>>11558453
>>11558464>reddityikes
>>11558464What's the problem?
>>11558464Welcome to literally all mmos. The only place you won't find this mental illness are in MUDs like BatMUD where you'll get banned if the admins find out you're brown.
>>11557275Thank you captain autism
>>11556848I've never played any other MMO like it. It was an adventure where you were forced to make friends or you wouldn't progress. Nearly everything was gated behind having other players helping each other and because every character could swap jobs on the fly and you were heavily encouraged to level them to use as a subjob(which you could equip and get all their spells and abilities, but at half the level of what your main job was. So you'd be 75 main job and 37 subjob.), it created this system where you'd be making friends with low levels and helping them out and it was a game where you could go a week or 2 without leveling because you were doing quests for yourself and friends or camping rare gear for yourself or friends.You could farm for things that would make leveling your low level jobs better too so there was a lot of people that did that. The best example is that the Summoner job had you go all over the world to kill primals to even unlock the ability to summon them. Someone who chose summoner as their first job would only have access to carbuncle and shitty elemental sprites that were worthless, someone who had a job high enough to kill those primals would have access to all the summons which was a big deal. You'd have some insanely strong items too like level 20 gloves for summoner that made your carbuncle cost no mp to have out but you had to kill a level 70 enemy in a group to get them. It was the ultimate autism min/max game. There's a reason it turned an entire generation of Japanese into NEETs, it was virtual crack if you had autism and it DEMANDED all your time because the end game revolved around killing hyper rare monsters that spawned once a day(with rare versions that spawn once or twice a week) and the time they spawned was based on the last time they were killed and there was a 3 hour window in which they could spawn. You could sit there waiting for 3 hours, lose the claim to a nip with better ping, and then you're off to do it again.
>>11558468>yikesreddit
>>11560119Man, sitting with a big group and farming certain items tied to NMs (and then possibly not getting the drop, lmao) was so much fun. The Assault Jerkin, Optical Hat, Joyeuse, etc. Going on these mini adventures with a group (or even more fun, stealthing with White Magic) was unforgettable. And then getting to show off as a high level as you solo'd some high level NMs as something like DRG/WHM. That was another thing: you got to show off. Not everyone had everything. Not everyone had the time or luck to get everything. So when you did have stuff, like rare gear or those summons you mentioned, it was a big deal. When someone saw you solo the Sea Horror on the Selbina boat when it massacred them before and you had to hide in the below decks...When you got to actually BE the hero--that was amazing.Also, timing weapon skills with people for bursts and combos was amazing. I wish more games did that these days.
>>11560294even the getting items like joyeuse was a meta game all to itself. the time of death could be closely guarded by people wanting to get all their friends one. you could kill placeholders for hours when the NM isn't even able to spawn. if you did get it to spawn with a small group, you'd usually call for backup too and trying to stall while others came to the rescue was always so exhilarating. there was a sense of relief to see them arrive and it felt good to arrive and help people with something like that. seeing the monks line up every night for morbolger was always hilarious to see too. those 21-24 hour spawns were crazy.
the game was designed to be extremely rewarding to bots and cheaters and massively punishing to legitimate players
All MMOs are a massive waste of time, this game was no different. If you want a fucking game where you need to find other people to help you actually make progress, you can play Pokemon Go that game basically doesn't let you do the main content without being in a group. It's also the kind of game where cheating is rewarding because the game developers are so anti-consumer that just basic cheats or helping aids are like a godsend
The private server I was on had like 10 people in it and they all dual-boxed and triple-boxed. It was ridiculous but it was the only way to get anything done. I tried Horizon but the walking speed was so slow, and I think the XP gain was also slower. Also the game ran poorly for some reason whilst the one I was on didn't. Also I wasn't gonna start a whole character from scratch, that would be fucking crazy. It all sounds funny but the game is ridiculous so it's actually really sad. The game has so much potential to be good and enjoyable but isn't because every little group has their own idea of what good is and they're all elitists. Most people just wanna go through the content in a short amount of time just for the story, most people don't wanna spend years on the game
I don't know how you'd turn a game like this into something playable for a modern audience. Something that you don't have to put months/years of work into. They tried to make this game for mobile, and that would've been it for sure. Tons of people would've downloaded it, so you'd have an instant community for sure, and it feels like it wouldn't have been impossible to make it playable. But they'd probably have to rebuild the game from scratch, which is probably the reason why it got canceled because Square retards just wanted an easy cheap port and call it a day
MMOs stopped being fun when the emphasis shifted from leveling to end-game. Games like EQ and FFXI you could've played for years without ever hitting level cap and still had fun. Now leveling is just that thing you have to do before the real game starts.
>>11556848It was the most addicting game I've ever played. I was on and off with it for decades. I played it as recently as 2021 (a 2 year stint or so, after having taken a year or two off from a three year stint, after having taken about 8 years off) but I have fond memories of the old brutal days. Thankfully in my most recent stint with the game, I did all of the super difficult fast paced fun endgame stuff at the very top level of the whole game, so I don't feel an urge to return ever again, though I do get random urges remembering how fun RUN and WHM are.I'll never forget wanting to be cool with the end-gamers around 2005, struggling every which way to make gil, struggling in Dunes, Yuhtunga, Garlaige, Crawler's Nest exp parties. Camping timed NMs and never getting drops. Running through zones like Sauromugue to get to Jeuno for the sub-job quest. The bad ass PLD in full AF gear that helped me and a friend get through there. The bad ass SAM that farmed me up the sub-job quest items in Buburimu (saved me from the hellish parties assembled of level 18-20 players struggling for them in the other zone). (both JP players) Plenty more if I were to dwell. Having a great exp party with non-retarded people was the tits. What killed it for me in my first of many stints was farming up the level 50 limit break items with a full alliance but the drop rate was fucking abysmal. Hours and hours spent for like 1 or 2 drops for just one of the three items. Private servers that yearn for the old days are retarded. It is a fond memory, but the game was super obtuse if you had any sort of real life and that only got harder as we got older. The QoL updates and how the meta has progressed made it a great experience in 2021, but the game looks like a wasteland now. It might finally be over.
>>11560448correction: not Jeuno for the sub-job quest, it was to get to Qufim to continue leveling
>>11560380man that looks comfy, I have no idea what soe thought they could "improve" on that aeshetic
>>11560380>yearsThat's a stretch, unless you did nothing but make new characters every week. Months? Definitely, a year for EQ? Maybe. I do agree with you, games were better when they weren't solely end game focused. I mean EQ was designed to be a game where you just group up and kill stuff with your friends and they never expected so many people to hit level cap so quick and demand content. The first few EQ expansions did a good job of creating content for all level ranges.
>>11560482I knew a lot of people in EQ who didn't reach max level until PoP, and way more who quit before ever level capping. You have to realize a lot of people only played like 10 hours a week and yeah, they had alts and there was no real "need" to hit level cap.FFXI I can pretty much guarantee you that 99% of all people who ever played it quit before hitting level cap, and that could've been after 2+ years of playing because job changing just made it so easy to level a lot of classes.
>>11558464The LGBT mafia was was a mistake
>>11557113Seriously I hope you get buttfucked up the ass if you join MMO groups with the knowledge that your hog wife will be done with dinner in 17 minutes
>>11556848Right when WoW came out, it was not relevant to play anymore. It was fun but needed macros, a constant team, and at a later point shit like swapping outfits mattered. It became a chore in the worst way. It wasn't skill but time wasted.
