How a $30 value becomes $30 wasted - Final Fantasy XI Online

1 | SevenG

February 7th, 2007 at 8:35 am

A couple things… All MMOs suffer from this upgrade issue, from the very earliest to the very latest. MUDs are the only exception, but they’re lacking in the graphics department. Nethack would be a step up though. As for the installed code, it’s not tied to your XBox, it’s tied to your account. You can sell that to anyone who wants to play the game, PC, XBox, or PS2. Keep in mind MMOs get updated often, sometimes on a weekly basis. No way are they going to press a weekly DVD just to save your hard disk space.

2 | Erin

February 22nd, 2007 at 5:07 am

I have played FFXI on PS2 for many years now, and really enjoy the game. In your defense though, FFXI was the only game released that used the hard drive that I know of, and it was released with Tetra Master (which have I never played).

3 | hugh

March 6th, 2007 at 3:04 pm

1. ffxi is way better than wow.

2. delete the unused garbage that you dont need on your hard drive to get that extra space that you so desperately need.

3. patience. it does wonders.

4 | Tessius

March 9th, 2007 at 1:21 pm

Don’t lie, you’re able to play FFXI with the Silver membership on xbox live. which is $0.00 if you’re already paying for the gold membership cuz you’re playing other games online then you have no additional fees other than FFXI’s monthly fee. Btw guy, FF has nothin to do with xbox live until recently thats why they have their own fee, its an MMORPG.. you should be used to it from WoW… wouldn’t you say?

5 | Ghostsix

March 27th, 2007 at 4:18 am

You should have done your research before making an impulse buy of 30 bucks. (Which truly is a deal considering you are getting the main game plus 3 expansions, which go at around 20$ each if bought separately.)

Instead of whining and complaining you could’ve just bought the PC version. Yeah the updating and installation process sucks, but in the end the game is well worth it. (And you only have to do it once.) Blame Microsoft for not including a bigger hard drive or just buy the dam PC version.

6 | saturos40

April 9th, 2007 at 1:31 pm

any online game you get, you will have to do a huge initial update for it. the amount of time it takes to download those updates is different for everyone. it took me five minutes to do that stupid playonline viewer update. if you are that impatient. and arent that intent on playing the game. then why did you buy it?

7 | FFXI LOVER

April 20th, 2007 at 4:53 pm

FFXI… I do not have the game yet but I plan on getting it for XBOX 360, but I here it is AWESOME… I have waited 3-4 years to get this game and I PROBABLY will still have the middle of July to get it… If I get this game and have to wait SEVERAL days for it to become installed I WILL WAIT!!!! I LOVE Final Fantasy Games and this one SEEMs to be GREAT SO DONT EVEN SAY you had to wait forever………BECAUSE I DID HAVE TO!!!

8 | Sheppard

May 7th, 2007 at 8:33 am

Yeah..

The other 7 people basically got it. The games been out for well over 3 years now, maybe 4.. Did you really expect it to be an instant download? they’ve added multiple things to it.
Almost every job has been re-done in some way, quest/bug fixes, ect.

if you’d looked it up at all, you’d know that to play it on a PS2, you needed to get an 8gig HDD to just play it which was included with the initial purchase, but cost about $120.00, and yet..you got yours for 30.

FFXI is better then WoW in everything but basically PvP, but since the game was always intended to be about teamwork, and fellowships between races/players/jobs, that’s why.

Dont complain about having to download a huge patch, because comparing it to WoW is retarded, Not only is wow younger, but it doesnt have nearly as many functions to have to keep up.

9 | idonwannasay

May 22nd, 2007 at 12:10 pm

i stopped playing in december of ‘05 because of not having a job anymore.(my parents pay for nothing) so now i go back to install it… well.. its still installing. seriously, not kidding, im in a state of complete amazement… it says “time ramaining: 09:46:00. nine hours. wow. whatever though. in a day, i’ll be playing the best mmorpg on the market.

10 | Thorsten

May 25th, 2007 at 12:46 pm

Man, your retarted.

11 | Jason Burns

May 25th, 2007 at 1:25 pm

Hehe, I am retarded, yet I still know the difference between your and you’re. Why is it that the ones that say bad things about me never leave a real email address. Ah, such is life.

12 | Smithy

May 26th, 2007 at 8:34 pm

The PC version is so much faster when it comes to downloads of FFXI upgrades…. You really are missing out on a whole new expirience just becuase you can’t see it through to finish the installation process. Bro wake up smell the coffee… watch TV while you perform the install, you’ll see time go by quicker that way.

13 | Kendra

June 2nd, 2007 at 2:49 pm

Really. It took me barely that.I love the game. Yeah the updates are annoying though. are

14 | Dave

June 9th, 2007 at 6:53 pm

I agree completely. A full day of installation for a console game, mmo or not, is unacceptable.

15 | Xellith

June 16th, 2007 at 11:14 am

well after reading the authors whining and crying like a little baby im happy that he isnt on the game. Lets face it. Those of us here with multiple jobs who are due to level up new ones.. do we really wanna have to babysit close minded idiots that would probobly become hardcore botters because “I WANT MY RIDDLZ NOWZ!” syndrome kicks in… you sir, are a moron.

16 | delmetorjunkie

July 1st, 2007 at 4:40 pm

Totally agreed with the article. Picked up the PC version with 2 expansions for around £8 in a sale, gave up on the installer after 3 hours with nothing. My faith in the Final Fantasy brand is irreparably weakened, and I honestly wish I’d never seen it in the sale. 3 hours of my life gone… thanks Square.

17 | MB

July 29th, 2007 at 12:09 am

I agree this shit takes fucking forever to download. I’m used to waiting a little while for things to download but this 3 hour bullshit download waiting time is a little much. I’m not at all impatient, but my husband already hogs the computer due to WoW. When I spend my time slot waiting for something to download, I’m gonna be irritated…

18 | Hierachi

August 11th, 2007 at 10:01 am

Honestly, if you have wait for massive patches to download, you shouldn’t play FFXI. It’s considered a hard core MMO, and unlike WoW it’s not for casual players.
You need a severe time investment to really sink your teeth into this game. I’m not talking hours, not talking days, not even weeks. It takes MONTHS to get anywhere in this game, and man is the pay off worth it.
My in game clock is about to hit one year, I couldn’t be happier.

19 | Hierachi

August 11th, 2007 at 10:03 am

Sorry, some errors in that post above. I meant to say if you don’t have patience for patches to download, then you won’t have patience in this game. It’s a slow grind to 75.

20 | PLD_NIN_WAR_soontobedancer

November 19th, 2007 at 7:10 pm

Well i half agree, but mainly disagree, i started this game on PS2 and then moved to PC for better DL times, as we speak im downloading the newest version update (gettign ready for WotG expansion) and its taking 7 total hours, but its because like WoW all users DL from one source, so im DLing on the same wave with 1000s of other users, so in theory a 7 hour wait is well worth it , so all i have to do in 2 days is pop in my registration code and get my new content without a new disc to wait on… anyways , i say if you still have it give it a shot man, its worth the wait, and if you can manage to stay patient youll find its better then WoW in all ways, (and yes i play wow, im Patricia on Icecrown look me up in the database thing if you want) also played on friends account with a 65 hunter, but still , FFXI is better then most and more for your hardcore side, anyways …

21 | khye

December 22nd, 2007 at 9:18 pm

Um, $30 for a game and 3 expansions? Good deal.
Anyhow, pop in WOW, now, after its been out for a few years
and start the installer from scratch. The update time is about as
long, I would know, I have done both.
And it doesnt take XBL gold TOO play. Silver is all you need and it
is FREE.

So re-write that article my friend.

22 | Jeff Wright

January 5th, 2008 at 8:55 pm

You fool, FFXI is MMORPG. Meaning, when you put the disc in, you must do all the updates that have come after that disc was made.

Your puny 60 minutes isn’t anything compared to sitting aorud for four hours waiting for it to load.

And for the record, when it did load, it became one of my favorite games of all time.

23 | stephen

January 16th, 2008 at 7:52 pm

I have sevral things to say so i will list them in an orderly fashion.

1. Don’t be so cheap and pay the 200$ for a terabyte of excess memory for your xbox.

2. the initial download for wow now is over 3 gigs… now at the average speed of a modem cable that is over an hour and a half (i have t1 and it took me an hour).

3. but wait just hold on before you can download the initial patches you need to install the game which takes…. ah lets see an hour on my pc which is 2 gigs of ram, a dual core athlon processer at 2.3 ghz.

4. o wait and installing it is still a problem it’s almost as if they make it so that one of your discs only ocasionaly work so, you normally have to insert the discs at least 2 times.

5. Wow is 17.95 a month. final fantasy is 12.95 a month that is a 5 $ diffrence in ff favor.

6. your not paying for gold for just ff your odviously playing halo or R6 or some other game as well. besides if your that dam cheap you should of bought a ps3 for free online.

7. you may mainly be criticizing on the installer but…. your saying the game isn’t worth it just because your impatient… sorry to tell you but in a world of impatient people there are still some of us who can wait for a good thing…

8. Im just gonna bring up the fact that square enix didn’t say and i quote what you odviously think they said “GO BUY FINAL FANTASY 11 AND PLAY IT ON XBOX LIVE SO YOU CAN PAY MICROSOFT MONEY THAT WE WILL SEE NO PART NOR PERCENTAGE Of,” i already know i am corect in that assumption so then if you think your getting riped off because you have to pay for live to… your paying 2 bucks less for no live and wow. with live still on ure xbox, your paying 5$more a month then you would be with final fantasy.

24 | Jason Burns

January 16th, 2008 at 8:20 pm

SevenG » Boy, there sure are some passionate people on this topic! I just think it’s silly to buy one game that renders your HD full and useless.

25 | J

February 4th, 2008 at 3:17 pm

I’ve been playing FFXI for about a year and a half now (Logged about 70 DAYS of playing time….god thats sick) and I’ve got to tell you, I wish I had quit at the installer. SE places a warning at the beginning of the game not to neglect your family, friends, work, yada yada yada, but the game is specifically designed to make you do just that.

Everytime you feel that you’ve reached the top, there is a new system of branches that you have to complete, and more branches from the top of each of those. You’re left depending on “Linkshells” which is groups of people who get together, kinda making it a family unit to push forward. Well, suddenly they schedule events… meeting every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday for said events. If you don’t show, you’re looked down upon.

Many Many players get their elitist ego running as well, always comparing, force-feeding you the reasons why they are superior to others. It’s CRAP brother! I could (regretably) talk for hours on this game and never even scratch the surface. Personally, I envy you. Run for the hills, I’m right behind you. Wow, that was a helluva rant.

26 | Jason Burns

February 4th, 2008 at 3:20 pm

J » HAHA, nice comment J, I only wish I didn’t have a dozen other interests that had the same result!

27 | Aruze

February 11th, 2008 at 4:40 pm

I’d realy like to say a few words but i dont seam to…
o well who cares.

OK i like FFXI alot, although ive had my Downs around it, but yoU sir are Clearly an Idiot. Get a PC!!. Xbox360? Wtf ?? Play the Damn game in PC and omfg u had to download the Updates!! that makes me laugh…

ok so u installed the game, put in the codes, downloaded most of the updates but since ur Xbox360 has low hard’drive disk space ur drive got filled by all those gigs, i understand why ur whining about that but why by all means did u make a Thread about how u wasted your weekend? just ask yourself why the hell did i make this thread? was i angry? Who cares?! u baught a game and before even playing it u made a thread about how u hate square enix Zoooomg how much about u had to fill ur Xbox with downloaded updates , ofc people will post a reply squarely to make you feel bad, i mean haha look at me? what am i doing? btw try the game, play it at least make a character and get to an Advanced subclass, since u wasted so much time at least try it out and for god sakes man get more Hard disk space How’Ever you xbox nerds do it i dont care.

28 | Jason Burns

February 14th, 2008 at 6:54 pm

Aruze » wow, that’s all I can say…..wow. realy seam baught………and I am the idiot?

29 | Russell

February 15th, 2008 at 4:43 am

Hey, I agree with article 100% though I am playing on computer. I just got through the initial update process which took about 30minutes for 200,000 smaller updates, not too bad, and then I needed another 6,000 updates. Sure 6,000 is nothing after 200,000, but it is when the 6,000 is going to take 10 hours! wtf they should at least offer http downloads of the updates as they usually go faster than bit-torrents and p2p, provided the servers aren’t poor. I am dreading the time when the 6,000 updates finish cos I am expecting another 10 hours of updates to follow. In the meantime I might go back to my WoW, I know that game is worth the install time.

30 | I think I have a few readers like this… | Philoking.com

February 20th, 2008 at 8:57 am

[...] God it’s only a few, and most of them seem to be oddly in love with Final Fantasy… digg_url = ‘http://www.philoking.com/2008/02/20/i-think-i-have-a-few-readers-like-this/’; [...]

31 | rick

February 20th, 2008 at 1:59 pm

I tried the demo on the PC and it was horrible… the graphics were blocky as heck like I was playing on a PS2 or something. Do they get any better with the expansions? Does the 360 version look good?

32 | Omg...

February 25th, 2008 at 10:12 pm

OK ok ok… dont think im stupid i just want to know the answers to the following questions
1. DO you really have to pay a monthly fee?
2. DO you have to for PS2?
3. ARE they making it for PS3?
If you have to pay monthly you know what I say, Play Guild Wars
YAAAYYY cause its free online play >;)

33 | Christian

February 27th, 2008 at 8:25 pm

Ok.

I have had around 4 accounts for the game (yes i updated every time)

right now at this moment i am re patching the game, one of the files was corrupted and would not fix.. so i had to uninstall final fantasy and install it again (i have the 2007 disk so its a big update 13.5k files) this at first said it would take 9 hours, then 6 and now 4 hours (it has only been 30 mins)

this is not a console game.. please remember that its just has versions for the ps2 and 360. just making sure people understand that the “huge updates for a console game omg” posts are really just people that don’t understand.

So like i said. i have been playing the game for some time, i found this when i was checking to see if there where any manual patches out there being that its late and i have not been on the game all day and wanted to get on and get a few levels on my lower jobs, this game is one that when you want to make an account, you buy the game the night before, patch through till final fantasy, then go to sleep… wake up and you’re good to go. most people don’t understand that you can just go do something else… you know, like before you start playing, there are other things to life (once you start playing you really wont make it anywhere if you have a life, i mean really, who needs one of those.) but i mean really, your DL time wasn’t all to long being that you could just go on your computer and do some things while your xbox updated the game or even could just pop in a movie or 2.. i do understand that this is not what people want to do. myself i just want to get into the god damn game but i also understand that i need to have the files on my computer for the game….

as for the hard drive space.. 20gb… get an elite

please don’t compare WoW to FF its not the same game what so ever… final fantasy is bigger for a reason its just just random files they want to store on your HDD its files to run the game. (don’t get me wrong WoW is a nice game also, i just don’t like pvp i like the party/linkshell things that we have in final fantasy. i also like that we can just change jobs when ever we want to.. level them all.. do whatever we want with just one guy..

You also said you would rather play r6? then do that.. this is an MMORPG not a shooter..

as for the payments.. i mean really i would never… ever pay 8 bucks to play xbox games.. i would get the silver… don’t add the prices together and blame it on SE this game is meant for the computer. and how would it be if for no reason what so ever, the people that now have 360 can just play for $8, i don’t think so.

Give the game a chance… go get yourself a nice new HDD for your Xbox (all my friends have like 3 HDDs) load the game (maybe while you load the game you can waste time making a post on a random website that you have never been on about loading the game…)

I guess thats all i felt like saying. the game is now at 45% so maybe i can play a little bit tonight before i go to sleep.

34 | Christian

February 27th, 2008 at 8:39 pm

just a comment to OMG up there

1. Yes its $13 a month and An extra $1 a month for ever character after your first one
2. I do own it for the ps2, i dont know why your asking some one that but whatever haha
3. i guess you can load the game into the ps3, i don’t own one so i don’t now anything about this

the game does not just lag like Guildwars does, there is a reason for the payments, guildwars is an amazing game (been playing that since it came out off and on) but it does not have the power that games suck as FF and WoW have in any way other then graphics.

35 | Christian

February 27th, 2008 at 9:09 pm

Sorry for having to make 3 posts but i didn’t get to comment on J.

this is a game that for sure takes many many hours to be good at, if you’re looking to be the best, plan on either spending countless days of game play or get a game that has more real life skill in it (shooters maybe), the reason i love the game so much is that i can truly spend all day playing, and still have something to do the next day.. it is true that once you get say “awesome armor” that now you have to save up for the next set of armor, but remember that the game is made so that you have more to do (in turn playing longer, in turn spending more on the game) games that take forever to “beat” are what i look for hence why i love this game.

as for the elitists you just have to find a good linkshell and or play with people you know in real life that are not like that. people that are “over the top” elitists are complete losers in the MMO world to me and have no way to prove that they are as good as they say being that all they have to do is play for a long time to get the best items in the game (or buy FF gil online) so we just ignore them.

but yes, being able to stay away from time consuming games such as this is a very very good thing but i wont be running anywhere with you being that i love playing the games.

36 | Will

February 29th, 2008 at 1:00 pm

WOW!! Im a long time fan of SE and the FF series (played em all). I bought this game a while ago but i couldnt play it because of compatibility issues, im on 7 hrs 52 minutes and counting CANT WAIT!!
All these people complaining about waiting for the updates to d/l you all know you dont have to sit there and watch it!

Thought the warning when you first install the game is hilarious, Get a life? I dont need 1 im a gamer i have MANY!!

37 | CA Rodriguez

April 13th, 2008 at 2:38 am

Im a long time MMOer… UO, WoW, SWG, AO,etc, etc…. The problem I have with teh Xbox release of this game (still installing it after 9 hours btw) is the Xbox doesn’t come with a keyboard or hard drive. The 20 gig hard drive is about 80 bucks + 30 or so for a kboard. Add that to the monthly fee and really no next gen graphics, and really why the hell did they bother to release it for Xbox 360?

It makes a great PC game I’m sure, but really just the idea that it has to install 20 gigs of crap on your CONSOLE is a sure dead giveaway that it was really never intended for the console to begin with.

I’m hoping, all the positive reviews I have heard are true to point and the game is really THAT good. I can’t stand PvP and am more a co-op or solo player. I would have to say SWG was my favorite so far with all the options open to customization and city building and such.

Now I just need to find out if I can use my account on my PC so I can get it for that and dump it off of my xbox. Cuz really on my PC I can sneeze 20 gigs and laugh… but for the Xbox, I’m crying over the huge amount of space it takes up.

Besides, I think (and I could be wrong) but I think my computer is superior to my xbox anyway….

38 | Patrick

April 22nd, 2008 at 10:02 am

“I agree completely. A full day of installation for a console game, mmo or not, is unacceptable.”

Sorry my comment is sooo late in the game, but this is ridiculous. FFXI started on PC and PS2, right? It came with the HDD for PS2 and was fine as-is for PC.

3 years later they offer it up for use on the Xbox 360 and you complain? 3 years later? Be glad you have the opportunity to play it for cheap on a system that can push the graphics to pretty intense lengths.

Take into account everything else that goes into it before you actually try to base a legitimate review on something like this. It is an online game, things need updated, things change, and it’s been out for 4 years. God forbid you have to go outside for a couple of hours before you can play it.

If you actually knew how much there was to FFXI, how much work they’ve put into Vana’diel, how many quests and just shit to do and explore in that game there was, you wouldn’t complain about a couple of hours installation when your playtime gets up into the weeks and months and you’re still finding new shit to do.

39 | Tieig

April 23rd, 2008 at 10:21 am

You have to be some kind of special to complain about updating for MMO. Sure this game may take a while to update, but at least give the game a try if you are going to spend the money to buy it. WoW is a good game, for the simple mind anyway. FFXI has so much depth in it, people play for years and still are learning new quests and things every time they log on.

I’m just saying give it a try and maybe instead of voicing your distaste for the game you could be updating instead.

40 | Sarisa

May 18th, 2008 at 11:07 pm

So i’ve played both games they are great ff is more for adults though than children the people are more mature that play that game hence why its still going some several years later after release with plenty of return players as where wow is losing players left and right…
On the xbox note.. shoulda gone with a ps3 buddy, I have the ps3 80gb but the normal bare ps3 is naturally a 40gb with NO online fees… MICROSOFT FAILS! All you xboxers lose.
I used to own this on my ps2 it comes with a 40gb hard drive lol you can buy the game and all that great stuff for like 90 bucks granted its pretty hard to find now but that was before. I had to buy a keyboard and all that jazz but once again No online fees for playstation fans.

41 | Sarisa

May 18th, 2008 at 11:21 pm

Oh yeah and to that J’s comment. When I played before which i’m installing now and oh after everything is said and done including updates its taking me about 6 hours… Have you tried WoW yet… That game has been sucking the life out of me for the past what 3 years now. You want to talk about people pushing you further and looking down on you because you decide to spend time with your family or go get a drink with a friend… Good one I’d choose final fantasy any day over WoW when it comes to “game nazi’s”
They put the disclaimer because anything and i mean ANYTHING in this world can become an addiction. More people play World of Warcrack right now than any game because alot of people just can’t stop.
Final Fantasy is a beautiful game just need to take it in doses like anything else. Too much of a good thing can be bad. Sounds like you have an addictive personality if you let a game run your life.
As for my WoW issue I still did my thing and let people kick me out of guilds because I took care of my real life, just gave me something to come home to and play on. I’ve seen some hardcore addicted people though who play for 16 hours plus a day.

42 | Leorex8891

July 11th, 2008 at 10:21 am

damn… some of you guys are really downers…. i just got the game for the 360 and downloading wasnt so bad. it took me a few hours, yeah, but i just had it download when i was at work. that simple… just do something to pass the time, like, idk… go to work to make some money?
it’s really not that bad.

43 | Jason

July 13th, 2008 at 3:08 pm

Wow, you really should have given this game a chance.
Maybe then, you would have had more substantial things to complain about. This game is long, drawn out, convoluted, boring and slow. Needless designs like losing xp when you die (often resulting in leveling down.
1. Can’t solo. (Beastmaster? Kiss my dick.)
2. Travel takes for ever.
3. Combat is slow as shit.
4. Counter intuitive UI multiple menu systems.
5. Lame targeting mechanic.
6. Elitists, elitists, elitists!
7. Bland, washed out colors and boring areas.
8. Money is bitch unless you farm for HOURS on end.
9. The AH price gauges.
10. Square doesn’t do shit to teach you how to actually play.
11. Every class is limited to one purpose in a party, leading to pretty much clones.
12. Forced grouping is insulting (like forcing kids into a room to be friends) Square assumes we’re too socially inept to make friends based on our own initiative. There is no real excuse. If you need to be forced to socialize you shouldn’t be playing MMO’s.
13. Death can lead to wasted hours of grinding for absolutely no reason.
14. Finding a party can be range from lucking out to half the day wasted.
15. The players assume that they are “hardcore” because they play a game that is drawn out, tedious and has brutal penalties for failure, but really it just proves they have tremendous time to kill, while everyone else plays games that don’t ass-rape you for getting jumped by one goblin on the way back to a safe point.
16. Enemies can attack you physically from 50 yards away while running from them. Making escaping combat almost impossible. Either way, you die and lose exp.
17. I can’t minimize my game. To stop hacking? How many hackers were banned recently? Several thousand? Mission Accomplished Square!
18. I should not need to form a small army to go fight rabbits.
19. Party forming sounds great on paper until you realize how problematic it is to absolutely NEED to do so.

To play the game, you’re completely at the mercy of completely random players of any given level range, on line at the time, not already in a group, not doing something else, who actually need your class and can get to your area, and happen to be interested in partying.

Try getting help on quests? Good luck. FFXI has more pricks in it than Jenna Jameson’s ass.

Only the most vapid fanboys would put up with suck idiotic mechanics.

It’s like Square looked at all the successful MMO’s and saw the standards and features that made them popular and said “Fuck this!” We’re gonna make everything a chore.

This game is like fuckin’ homework.

44 | Sarisa

July 30th, 2008 at 8:52 pm

Wow jason you must have been on a shitty server and apparantly are used to wow…. This game is not for the impatient newer aged gamer. I’ve played just about every mmo out there this game is hard as hell but its worth every damn penny you pay for it. Gives you something new to do every day.
I’d rather have a challenge than be able to jump into some game and have everyone call you a nub because they can.
I haven’t had any bad experiences with this game except one and it was a dumbass linkshell leader. I don’t have a problem with getting anything or doing anything. If you don’t like the game quit playing it and quit whining.

45 | Sarisa

July 30th, 2008 at 8:54 pm

By the way yes you can minimize your game… its called going to the config and playing in windowed mode, if your computer can’t handle that … well i’m not gonna go there.

46 | Jason

August 1st, 2008 at 3:15 pm

I actually play on a decent server. Shiva. The people are nice. It’s the game that has every good idea turned into some time sink.
This game is not for impatient gamers, it’s also not for people who can’t devote 6 hours a day to grinding the same boring mob over and over for the items to sell for money.
Or spend 20 minutes on a boat.
Or spend all day trying to find a tank for your party because the level range for a functioning party without experience drain is whopping 2 levels. So unless there are five people with the exact right classes and are within two levels of you and are not already in a party, or doing something else.
Hey! You’re in luck.
The fact you need to put a party together to do ANYTHING. Is insulting. All MMO’s are social games, they just don’t choose to insult the social skills of their players by forcing them to hold hands for every little thing.

Everything in this game is designed to simply burn time.

Class balance:
Only three, maybe 4 jobs can solo. Square-Enix has stated that they only care about individual job changes and not about keeping anything balanced.

Why are Summoners reduced to healers?
Why are Ninjas tanks?
Why does every Red Mage need to be reduced to a healer?

This game could be great. Possibly the best MMO if the development team wasn’t so arrogant and complacent.
They stated that they weren’t going to fix Beastmasters because “It would upset other players”.
Every interview is the same, “I don’t know” I can’t say”

As for “not going there”. Yeah you kinda did. Cute by the way, nice job with the ad homonym on my PC quality. No it doesn’t count as minimizing the game if you need to play in Windowed mode. Which many, many players notice significant fps and lag in pretty much most games.
*hold on, I need to shovel more coal into my computer*
they could just let you alt+tab out like pretty much every game on Earth let’s you do but they’re too arrogant to consider simply doing a better job in game to prevent hacking, which people do despite the auto-crash program that they refuse to admit is unnecessary.

As for logging in being called a nub? Try going to Allakhazam.com to see what kind of elitist society FFXI has. It’s actually worse than WOW (and WOW is pretty darn bad.) No party invites for many classes, no party invites for not playing with the popular sub. The whole community is built around cloning the few character types that work. Wrong food? You suck.

Tedious, time consuming tasks, huge penalties for dying, and making the simplest mobs artificially tough just force parties do not a challenge make.

Me? I want to log into a game and actually play. Not wait for a party invite or a appropriate characters in a 2 level span from my own to log in.

Maybe, if they actually gave a damn about making things fun simply for the sake of fun, rather than pandering to elitists who enjoy the convoluted interface because it makes them feel smart. It would be better.

WOW gives you things to do everyday, but the difference is, you can actually do them with out needing to rely on random other players and making love to every RDM, BRD, NIN and PLD on the server.

47 | joshuajg23

August 28th, 2008 at 6:37 pm

ok 1st just like every one elese say with every other mmo out there the longer it is out the longer it takes to update also jason did you miss were square made it easy for high lvl to hunt with low lvls seems to me you are one of those peeps that love wow and just degrade anyother game out there. you my friend is a robot to afriad to be diffrent and yess i know my spelling and grammer suck but i dont care peac out

48 | Jason

September 8th, 2008 at 9:55 pm

Did I miss what? You didn’t make much sense. High levels can hunt with lower levels easier? How? If you’re talking about Power Levelers? Good luck getting one. I shouldn’t need a PL to get anywhere.
FFXI fanboys always come up with the most asinine excuses for this game. I swear it’s ridiculous how you can make such boldly ridiculous claims and use the most insane logic when defending this game.

90% of the populace are all end game players now. Try getting help on low level quests. I dare you. Also what good does that do someone who got sick of the mindless grinding after two month.
Second, I do love WOW. It’s far from perfect though and I rip on it’s flaws all the time. However, unlike FFXI. WoW actually improves over time. I like how you completely ignored all the points I made too. Fanboy.

If I was a “robot” as you put it, I wouldn’t be playing or have tried a dozen MMO’s in the last five years.

Afraid of something different?!?! What are you stupid?
This game is the same shit every other Asian RPG has to offer. Mindless grinding. There is NOTHING “different” about this game.
It seems to me that you’re the kind of person who only plays FFXI and JRPG’s. You have no idea what choice is in a game.
Everything done in this game is done better elsewhere. Take your own advice and actually try something different.

Have fun paying a monthly fee to play clones of all who came before you, ignoring half the classes, waiting for boats and parties and stores to open.

If you’re going to argue me over this come up with something other than lame ass hyperbole that boils down to you being butthurt over your precious MMO being criticized.

49 | Adam

September 15th, 2008 at 12:31 pm

Can you download the update files manually using DAP (Download Accelerator) or does anyone have the new updates from 6th Sept, they can share somehow please

50 | Dave

October 28th, 2008 at 10:20 am

Jason, I understand what you went through (even if it is 2 years after the post). Anyways, my weeks are full (with work, school, and wife), I can barely do any shopping during the week or anything constructive (fun), and I exclusively set my weekends to do fun things like playing games n’ such. I woke up Sunday and decided to try out FFX11, I had downloaded the 2gb installer Saturday night, and I had preps to spend the entire day playing it.

Of course, that was not the case. I was finally able to create my character at around 10:30 pm (after starting the install 12 hours before). I was furiated, but I still decided to give the game a chance.

It really is fun, albeit hard for noobs. Especially on the PC, the mouse is useless and you have to learn the VERY specific controls of the keyboard, it’s a very different control scheme from every other MMO out there. Which sucks.

But I digress, I find myself still wanting to play it, even though I’m only at level 4, frustrated at an opening quest that I cannot find any information online. It feels like FF, and plays like FF, and I am a huge fan of the series, so it’s been interesting so far, and I’m motivated to give it more time.

Although I don’t like the fact that it’s not customized for the PC, you have to make registry edits in order to increase the resolution, and graphics quality. Mouse is useless, and the graphics are all the same from 2002, no visual updates. No matter how high I set the graphics, it still looks extremely bland. There are very few games with a more screwed up port to PC.

Anyways, I know it’s frustrating at first, but it’s worth it to see it through.

Plus, most (if not all) MMO’s that have been around for more than a year will have free trials that you can use to play the game for free for a few days. It’s the best way to play so that you don’t end up wasting money.

While it’s installing you can check out the FF11 player guide videos on the website, it really helps to watch them.