why cant we learn to love this game?

[Markus. D]

I've never played FFXI, sir. ;D

haha out of all the ff games that one sucked the most it didint sell as well as the other ff games and it was only online what the . . . . .i wanted to play it but i was like ew im not playing this online to dumb i didint even add it to my collection it was not worth it at allll

ps: (off-topic) I wonder if FFXI has made more money then any other FF game ;3?


psps: I'm not to sure what the topic is yet ._.

[Miriel]

I'm pretty sure everyone who posts in this particular forum has a fondness for the game. So the question, "why cant we learn to love to love this game" is an odd thing to ask this group of posters. If we didn't enjoy the game, we wouldn't play it.

I personally do love the game, it's one of my favoritest Final Fantasy games ever.

If you're asking why OTHER people don't love this game, it's because they've never played it. Or they have played it and they just didn't like it all that much. And that's fine. The only annoying thing is when people bash FFXI only because they themselves couldn't find a way to play it and they're bitter about that.

[Fuego]

True true Miriel ... but whatever for stupid peeps who have nothin' to but bash stuff they don't have any information or knowledge about >.<

I myself love this game too but if you don't because you couldn't get into it ... i say try XII

[Misfit]

It's definatly not my favorite, because I get bored in it quite often... hence why I'm hardly ever online anymore. I think the main thing about FFXI that turns me off is that you have to do everything in groups, which isn't bad at all... Just sometimes I'd like to do my own thing and level, but ... no-can-do in XI. ;o I enjoy WoW more, but I won't get into that here. :D~

[Yeargdribble]

FFXI is a wonderful game, but it has some major flaws that make people hate it.

Compared to other MMOs it's damn near impossible to get into. You wanna play WoW? They'll give you enough free trial time to damn near get a character to 60. You want you friends to play? That's easy too.

Now look at FFXI. 30 day trial? You've gotta be joking. Barely anyone can get out of the dunes by then. So you just spent 30 days walking back and forth between a town and the dunes. Your impression of this game is that you spend 30 minutes traveling everywhere and if you make one small mistake you are punished by leveling down. You can't even get a chocobo to help your travel until level 20, and even then, you can't use it below level 15 to help you get to the dunes and you can't use crag birds until 20. You are punished with foot travel and it blows.

You want your friends to play FFXI with you? They don't exactly make that easy either. Money isn't that easy to make in the game if you have no experience and it might take you a week of playing to have enough gil to buy a WP for your friend if you don't know how to make money.

You MUST look for a PT. For many jobs this sucks. From leveling THF I know all about sitting and LFP for 6-9 hours. Sure I could farm I guess... this is supposed to be fun? Not to mention that many of the PTs you get will suck. They will either be with elitists or morons. Either way, dealing with low level PTs makes you want to claw your eyes out.



The vast majority of people want to play and have fun and make progress. There are very few casual gamers that like a game like FFXI mostly because you can't make any progress if you only play a short amount of time.

Sure... maybe if you just played a job like WHM that got fast invites or didn't care about leveling up and seeing the deeper parts of the storyline it would be okay.

That's the other thing. FF series fans want story. Well, FFXI has an amazing story that (having played every other game in the series) I would say rivals that of the rest of the series. But so what? You've gotta be level 75 to make it to the end of those story lines. Sure there is lower level content, but you won't make it past ZM14 or CoP Chapter 7 without a level 75 character. You might have a chance at making it to Rank 10 in each nation if others held your hand through all of it. But very few people do upper rank missions any more. Beyond that, if you want the story from multiple nations you have to pay a fee and forfeit your OP warps to change and get it.





I love the game, but I think I got lucky in that I had a decent amount of time to play when I started. It was slow to 40ish and then I got a big chance to play a lot and got to 75 quickly as well as got some other things done (good LS). However, this game isn't user friendly. It's hard to get started in this game and get even a fraction of what it has to offer.

I don't think people who haven't played it in its entirety have any room bashing it. I constantly hear people say the story sucks or this sucks or that sucks when they haven't actually played past level 20. I don't agree with that, but I can definitely understand their frustration with trying to get into the game.

[Markus. D]

I agree with all but the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th point.

[Goldenboko]

I can't learn to love this game because it costs so much God damn money!!!!!! I enjoyed the game, but then when my free trail was up I got a bill too big for me to pay for and still have decent pocket money.

[oddler]

I'll tell you how much I like this game. When it came out, I seriously wanted to play. Multiplayer Final Fantasy was a dream of mine for a long time before this game. What would not be fun about being ONE person in a party and having real people control the others?

In order to play, I had to buy a computer; that's right, I bought a computer completely for the drive to play FFXI. New graphics card, monthly bill, you name it. Quite a hefty sum and a pretty rash thing to do, I admit.

As it turned out, this game is the zenith of all that is FF. I could not be more happy with the way it is played. The highest level character I have is 25 RDM and just two days ago I was invited to my first decent LS. I have been playing for almost 2 months and I haven't even scratched the surface. This makes me happy.

The music, battle style, dialogue, story, everything is very true to the Final Fantasy way. In this game, you get out what you put in. It actually moved me to defeat the Black Dragon for the first time with a group of friends that were there beside me only for the sole purpose of helping me along. This accomplishment alone will be enough for me to shove that much more effort into my character.

11/10 for enjoyment. And now, I'm out of e-breath so I'm done.

[Yeargdribble]

I agree with all but the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th point.

You disagree because you are the exception to the rule. You are fine leveling 5 or 6 characters to 30 and then starting over every time. You seem to have no drive to progress in the story (or at least not enough drive to actually do so) or to level up to a point where most of the game is happening. You are most likely content solely with the community aspect of the game.

You ask why people don't like the game. Most of what I listed are the reasons. Not everyone will enjoy it for all of the same reasons that you do without any story or sense of progress to casual players. I've tried on numerous ocassions to help my friends play and to help random people start on my server. I'd help them a little with gil, quests, advice etc.

What it comes down to are the points I mentioned. They hate it for what I listed. You can disagree as the exception to the rule, but if you want a straight answer to your question, it is because people don't enjoy it for the same reasons and FFXI offers almost nothing to the average casual player.

[Del Murder]

There's nothing wrong with disliking the game, too.

[Mirage]

Yes, if you actually tried it first before stating that you dislike it.

[Markus. D]

I agree with all but the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th point.

You disagree because you are the exception to the rule. You are fine leveling 5 or 6 characters to 30 and then starting over every time. You seem to have no drive to progress in the story (or at least not enough drive to actually do so) or to level up to a point where most of the game is happening. You are most likely content solely with the community aspect of the game.
.

I don’t really think I am an exception...

Please I told you, I have a MNK, Mule and a WHM (different server so I could play with Mirage) (those are the only characters I have created, ever, that and... a test character who was a Elvaan THF who only got to level 8... And thanks to my half brother I apparently have a Black mage o_o... *doesn’t*),my WHM is the only character playable (the other two are de-activated, what’s the point of having a mule if I cant give the Kuro's items to it?)... if I had had 5-6 characters I only wanted to play to get to level 30, I would have been done and left ages ago.

Not really content with the Community aspect... as alot are jerks (like myself ._. regrettably), I play it for the exploration ^-^!



And I guess the rest of the points you spawned up in this quoted post are all pretty solid n_n and I can agree.

[Miriel]

I for one am very content to enjoy the community aspect of the game much moreso than the leveing/grinding part of it. The community is what's so gosh darn unique about THIS particular final fantasy. It's the reason I love it so much. <3

[Rostum]

It's because people are narrow minded and don't understand the concept of an MMO. They shouldn't have given it a number, and just called it Final Fantasy Online, for this reason.

The story thus far, for all expansions, has been incredibly good. It's just that it takes a lot of time due to different levels you need, and how you need to co-operate / organise times to go with people.

[Yeargdribble]

It's because people are narrow minded and don't understand the concept of an MMO. They shouldn't have given it a number, and just called it Final Fantasy Online, for this reason.

I agree with this. However, sticking a number on it probably boosted sales. They wanted to give people a reason to feel the 'need' to play it and add it to their collection.

As to Tsukasa, I seem to remember you having a BLM that you leveled to 32 tha you claim suffered a rollback to 26 so you deleted it and started over. You tend to start over or start new characters fairly often. I'm not saying that it's necessarily wrong if leveling 1-30 multiple times pleases you, but I don't think a majority of players enjoy that.

Miriel is also an exception. She's been playing for quite a while and I believe her highest charcter is in the 40s. And that's fine for you guys.

But if you are going to ask why people dislike the game, it's because it's not a casual player friendly game. Not everyone is gonna like a game like FFXI that's offers so little to casuals. The game is seriously flawed in the beginning. in terms of playability. It drives people away.

When you start the game nothing seems rewarding. Money is comparitively difficult to make. Quests don't have worthwhile rewards. You can scarcely do any missions on your own and don't get much story from the early ones. Travel takes a damn long time early on. It's hard to get your friends on playing with you if you are just starting.


I'll agree that people are morons for critcizing the game without any real experience with it though. Many people only play for a month or don't play at all and complain about various aspects of the game that they know nothing about.

But what if you were on that bridge at the beginning of FFX fighting Sinscales and said, "Man this game sucks. The story is shallow and there's not any good magic... I'm quitting." That would be ridiculous. However, in FFXI you nearly have to play a year before you can get much story or really see the potential of things.

That's partially the fault of quick-to-judge players, but also it's the flaw of design. The game makes it hard to keep playing and there's more to make people quit in the early game than there is to keep them playing. Most people who are used to finishing an FF game in a week or so aren't gonna be pleased with a game where a week of slaving away might only get you to level 20.

Keep in mind that the original question is essentially "why don't people like this game" to which I've given many answers. Agree with them or not, these are real answers from people I know and observations I've made.