Your first party

So what was your first party experience like in FFXI? Did you do it with just friends or were there people in the group you didn't know? Did you do well your first couple of adventures with the group or was it low key and just people having fun screwing around the countryside of Vana'diel?

I first played during the Xbox360 beta in which there were many, many new players, not only to this title specifically, but new also to MMORPGs. It was commonplace to talk and join up with random people you came across out in the field, in towns and dungeons. Party compositions were born of spontaneous decisions to invite players that crossed your screen rather than organised groups of specific roles with interest of best exp/hr in mind. The concept of an MMO back then was fascinating (and to me, it still is), this was the driving force behind the spontaneous grouping with no regard for efficiency.

So my first FFXI grouping up experiences were just goofing around with random people of random levels and jobs, exploring, having fun and socialising but really not getting anywhere fast. Despite the lack of any sort of progress, this was a very memorable time in my 9 year (and counting) existence within the game.