Worth dishing out the money?

[SoupForInsanity]

Hey, I was just wondering if it's worth it to pay for
a) the game
b) a network adapter
c) the expansion packs
d) the monthly subscription
e) anything else that might be needed (I have a USB keyboard)

I admit I've never really played any "official" MMORPGs, unless you want to count Ragnarok (which was dumb because there was seriously nothing to do besides socialize and level up.. for no reason.) But being an FF-loving girl (both the classics and the newer games) I was wondering if I should give it a shot.

So what are the strong points, weak points?
Also, how much is a monthly subscription anyways?
Last question, and I know it's rediculous but humor me anyways... if you were to play online every day as ONE character, how long would it be to complete all quests, etc. in the game? (That are available as of yet.) I've always been one of those people who have to have godlike characters, ultimate weapons and just overall have a perfect game before I'm satisfied with finishing it. It's not obsessive compulsion, it's just fun.

Thanks!

[dodhungry]

before I start going on and on about how good or bad the game is it sounds like you are buying this for this PS2....you mentioned everything that you need to buy for the game except the wonderful 75-100 dollar hard drive.... might wanna also consider that before anything else..

Personally i have both ps2 and compy (heh I am over compulsive) and would say the compy would be better cost wise than the ps2 at this time.

[SoupForInsanity]

Weeelll, after that comment I guess the comp. version would be a no-brainer for a person with no money (me.) I'm willing to get either, but while my computer has a lot of space, it would probably give me a lot of problems on the side...
but I'm willing to hear your opinions on the game and answers to questions if you're willing to type them:)

[Bahamut2000X]

To quote myself from This Thread. (http://forums.eyesonff.com/showthread.php?t=92893)


As one of the biggest advocators of FFXI on this forum since the days of it's earliest tidbits of info, I feel I should say something....that being said I think most everyone covered everything well....EXCEPT!!!! What the fees go towards. >.>

So that being said what does YOUR 12 dollar monthly fee go into?

It goes into the fine 20+ servers, providing us the entertainment of the game, with lot's less lag then many other MMO's out there (SWG comes to mind, with less people in an area, MORE servers then FFXI will EVER have, and STILL had lag out the a@$ on a planet by yourself with no one for light years) If we didn't pay those fine chaps at SE a nominal fee of 12 bucks, we wouldn't have servers.

But WAIT, there's more!

They have to pay the devs to continue to provide us with content for the game. In fact the content they release every month or 2 is probably enough to fill up a normal offline game, considering how much work they put into it.

PLUS there's the dev team that does the system maintenace on the servers, and fixes errors in the games and tests every aspect of the game.

AND the GM team to work on solving players problems and bug that happen on the fly to someone that needs a fast fix. While also dealing with cheaters and botters.

And on top of all that we pay we also get access to a game which have hundreds of times more content then ANY offline game EVER, and will EVER exist. With more play time availability then any other RPG. Heck, I've been playing this game since day one of NA release, (that's 4 years for you whipper-snappers) and I've racked up about 160 days of play time (Note: The timer in FFXI collects your time from the second you long on till you log off, much like in past FF's, but unlike them, the timer converts hours into days. So for me 160ish days of play time is 3840 hours of playing the game)

So needless to say that simple 12 bucks a month is WELL worth the money. This game has the potential to play through that will over shoot every other FF to ever exsist in play time, by entire months of play time over them.

And besides, you also PAY a fee of probably 20 bucks to get online no less. Yet you complain about a game that is easily 20+ games of content molded into one for about 42ish bucks to start up the game.

Geez, people these days just have no sense of economics and value. >.>

And that about sums up why the nominal fee is worthwhile.

But yeah, only get the game I say if you have time to invest into it. You only get out what you put in. But if you have some good time it can be a great game to play, especially if you get a cool linkshell. Makes life much easier then. Anywho, enjoy.

[dodhungry]

So what are the strong points, weak points?
Also, how much is a monthly subscription anyways?
Last question, and I know it's rediculous but humor me anyways... if you were to play online every day as ONE character, how long would it be to complete all quests, etc. in the game?

Starting off, cost of monthly subscription is 12.95 in US dollars.


MMOs definitely give the most bang for your buck if you play with even mild consistency. Think of all of the other things you pay for to entertain you. Buying a movie (20ish buck) that you might watch a handful of times... maybe 10 hours of entertainment. I spend less than that in a month and am entertained for far more hours than I would be by many other forms of entertainment.


Ok no for the how long question: I have noticed three types of players.

The first player is the over zelous must get to lvl 75 as quickly as possible player. I really dont know anybody who has reached 75 as of yet..but I know several people who are in the high 50's and mid 60's who started when I did 5 months ago.

The second type of player is the lvl 30 switch main job player. This player lvls one job up to 30 as quickly as possible (took my friend 3 months) just to switch to an advanced job to lvl it as his primary. He is now lvl 30 with his new job 2 months later.

Then there is my type of player: I enjoy the game and do everything possible. I synth, lvl all jobs, do the quest ect. As I said I have been playing for 5 months now and I am only lvl 30, not even half way in city rank, and I dont even see the end of regular quest in sight. oh and I play on average 4-5 hours a day on the weekdays around and a heck of a lot more than that on the weekends.
I have a feeling somebody is going to beg to differ with this info but oh wellz.

As for good points and bad points:
Good: Its extreamly fun, exciting, get to meet all kinds of people from around the world. It is very deserving of its Final Fantasy title.

Bad: Time consuming. Takes a lot of time and dedication to even run from point A to point B. I think you gotta rely on higher lvls/ parties a little too much in some cases. Finally get used to being poor when you first start out.

The Ugly: Gil Sellers.

Well, if you do decide to go ahead and join our crusade try getting into a world that has a EoFF member in it so your not so lonely when you first start out.

[SoupForInsanity]

Aww thanks to both of you! 12 bucks a month is nothing!
The more I read on it, the more interesting it sounds.
It'd be great if some EoFF could help me get started... bad memories of the short time I played Ragnarok and got myself a bunch of fellow girls to hang out with. I'm like "cool, online girlfriends." until one day (two months later) they all admitted that every single one of them was male, and I felt kind of alienated.
Not that I have ANY problem with guys that play as female characters... but dude, I should have realized "this is the internet..." I guess that's what you should expect.
Thanks again for the info! Sounds like loads of fun:choc2:

[Ouch!]

Aww thanks to both of you! 12 bucks a month is nothing!
You are officially the most kickass person to step into this forum and ask about monthly fees as you are the only one I've ever seen say that. Good on ya.

Come to midgardsormr.

Also, assuming you wanted to do everything in FFXI, it would take you multiple years. With all the quests, multiple jobs to level, original missions, three expansions worth of missions, excessive end-game activities, etc. you won't run out of things to do any time soon.

[Markus. D]

and dont forget, Monks and Redmages are mighty sexy.

[SoupForInsanity]

The more I read up on it, the more I want to play :choc2: I just did the benchmark test though, and got a fairly low score, on both high and low resolutions (barely over 1000)... while my computer meets the requirements I guess it just doesn't make the cut for smooth playing...
is the playstation version pretty smooth? How's lagging?
Thanks for the patient answers to my 1,000,000 questions.

[Ouch!]

Honestly, I've never seen the PS2 version in action, but I know I had a friend come over to my house once while I was playing (he played on PS2) and saying "Holy crap! The water moves?!"

[Yeargdribble]

The graphics are pretty awful on PS2. However, it sounds like it might be better than on your PC. But keep in mind you can't get Fatboy PS2s any more (retail anyway) and you need one to play FFXI on PS2.

A lot of my friends that were PC players tried it on Xbox and thought it sucked there as well compared to PC version because of how limited you are in adjusting resolution.

I dunno what to suggest if you aren't in a postion to upgrade. ><

[dodhungry]

hmm Ps2 vs Compy.

Well here are my thoughts since I do own both:

PS2: Ok graphics, good sound quality, easy to learn controls.
Must have the old type not the slim line. Need hard drive to even play the game and the network adapter. But other than that is very user friendly.

PC: Better graphics than ps2. Already has the equipment so no "extra" purchases needed. A little bit better sound quality but cant turn down the annoying music like you can with a tv without logging out. Must have a mouse perferably with the little wheel in the middle. Takes longer to move around and target things with the compy than the ps2.

Just remember its the same game no matter what version you buy it for. I prefer my PS2 version over the Compy because I think the controlls are not as sticky and what not

[Ouch!]

A little bit better sound quality but cant turn down the annoying music like you can with a tv without logging out.
PC fullsize keyboard set-up instructions to do just that:
- key
Left arrow
Configure
Gameplay
Music Volume
Left until it's off

[Lich3636]

whate are your computer specs all you might need is a new video card and that could cost less than the whole ps2 package

[SoupForInsanity]

I'm torn! Haha it sounds like there's pros and cons for both.
I do have the fat ps2, so there's no problem there.

I honestly doubt that my video card is the problem. Everything in my computer is nice and up-to-date... except for that the CPU is a little less than desired, I guess. It meets a little more than the minimum requirements but it's still not too great. Depends on how much it costs me to upgrade, I'd love the better graphics but I think I'm leaning towards the PS2 version..
Thanks to everyone responding!

[Yeargdribble]

The only issue with the fatboy PS2 is that if it breaks (and they are know to) you are pretty much screwed and will end up having to move to PC or Xbox. It'll be increasingly difficult to replace. In the long run you may end up saving yourself money and grief by going the PC route.

Tell me the stats on your comp and maybe I'll be able to make some recomendations. Also keep in mind that FFXI is emulated (badly) onto PC from PS2. While it still looks and runs arguably better on PC it's definitely not optimized to where it could for PC. The problem? It runs more based on processor power than on vid card.

[Germ Hamee]

I would definitely recommend going the PC route. Depending on your computer, the hardware upgrades needed to run the game smoothly could turn out costing around the same as it would for all the PS2 equipment. It's also more reliable, as Yearg said, than hoping your Playstation isn't going to conk out.

There's also USB adapters available that allow you to use your Playstation controller. I bought mine for somewhere around 5-10$ on eBay, and it makes the game so much easier to play. It's cheaper than buying an actual PC game controller, and the official Sony controllers tend to be a bit more sturdy than the PC wannabe's.

[SoupForInsanity]

Here are my comp specs
- AMD Athlon Processor- 898MHz
-Windows XP
-NVIDIA GeForce 6200
-512 MB of RAM
-105GB hard drive space
-cable internet

[Bahamut2000X]

As for PC, just buy a logitech or saitek PC controller for 20 bucks. Much better then using the PC controls. >.>

As for volume on the good music. Yeah it's been said, just change the settings under options, or just turn off your speakers. >.>

[SoupForInsanity]

Me again!
Just out of curiousity I ran the benchmark test on my dad's computer which has a heck of a lot better cpu than my computer does, but also has considerably less RAM. As a result, I found that my computer ran the benchmark test a LOT better on high resolution than his did... so I'm wondering, if I just get more RAM think that would make the game playable?
This is the last question I promise :choc: Thanks to everyone who has put up with me so far and answered my myriad of questions. For people who are more computer-savvy than me, if I were to get more RAM (I have 512MB right now) how much more would you recommend I get? Think it would even make a difference?

[Rostum]

I think because of the way FFXI is built (i.e. built for PS2 and then just dumped on PC), it's heavily reliant on CPU more than anything. If anything, more RAM and a better graphics card, are always going to benefit you.

Most graphics cards that can run FFXI really well, are pretty damn cheap now. RAM I'm not sure about.

Anyways, I think it's worth upgrading PC to play FFXI, defenately!