The End Of An Era - Tell Me Your Deep Feelings.

Einherjar can be done for 10 minutes solo. A lot of jobs can get full pts in that time. But I understand where you are coming from. In the case of mythic will be possibly low supply of alex , even harder to find help for non-soloable assaults etc.

I wonder if Trusts were a long term strategy to cover the loss of a lot of the player base after November...

I remember my start, I had just gotten through a 1-2 year stint of re-playing every FF series game from 1-10. By the time I was through with 10, it was October 2006 and I saw the WOW episode of South Park. TOAU had just come out and I signed up. It took me about a whole year to get my first job to 75. I was totally hooked. and played till about summer/fall 2012, right around the announcement of the adoulin expansion, when I though "oh god, I can't do another one". It was a great time, I met so many great people (and many many butt holes). Even though I haven't played in a few years, I am conflicted. I always felt a little bit of comfort in knowing I could go back to the grind I enjoyed for so long. Now it'll no longer be there.

I loved my time on FFXI, from the adventures on Fenrir with Vanquish and Ellatrix, right through to when I quit just over a year ago. I got my Yagrush, which was my dream and met some lovely people on the way. It will be sad to see it end, but its' already ended for me and I have moved on. I might dabble again a bit to do the end stuff :)

WOW sorta makes those bans they did to peeps a little stupid.

So in 3 months I will resub finish the main missions, cos I played for the story, then I will Delete my Characters with a Video for prosperity.

ive been on and off over the past 2 years ive just always thought it was always going to be there to come back too you never know they might leave 1 server open and everyone left gather there for me it was never about content it was about people I met and exping mostly im sure they can leave 1 server going even if 20 people pay lol

When they turn off servers one thing they could do is make a full off line version that can be played. be able to solo everything with truts and other npc's to give you a full party of 6 ppl.

People have made private servers for things like this.

true

Out of curiosity, can you view cut scenes on private servers? Is the information to play them available? ...

they could repackage the game and sell it for offline tho for the missions and such just like any other final fantasy game story line wise I know id buy it for the story lines not sure if any console could handle it tho

FFXI was the game that led me to meet my cousin Tacoma at 2006 passed away 2010 Rest in peace tacoma of hades i will miss ffxi's Hardship and achievements.

I started playing about four years ago? When I had also decided to play all of the main FF games in order. I finished 10, and haven't really made it to 12 yet or bothered to finish 13. I guess in November I'll be able to finally play 12 lol.

FFXI is hands down my favorite video game to date, I've met amazing people through it, enjoyed it's wonderful stories, and even it's clunky aging gameplay. It got me doing a podcast again, inspired me to record a full album's worth of music (even if it's just cover songs), and the FFXIAH MS Paint challenge has even gotten me to start drawing again for the first time in years.

While it's sad to see it conclude, at the same time, I'm excited to see the conclusion!

As much as I already have a mix of ambivalent feelings over the game itself (slight depression over the news/excitement over the FFXI story ending/nostalgia over all the memories/etc.) I also worry a bit about the future of this fun website and community. :/

For sure Scragg has enough invested into the FFXIV Pro side to maintain a community message board function, but unless he wants to try to rework both the FFXIAH.com side to synergise with the upcoming changes to the mobile-friendly-FFXI, as well as try to develop new functionality for FFXIV Pro (such that it can compete traffic-wise with the feature-heavy sites like Lodestone proper) it will undoubtedly be a smaller community after all the changes and scenario-story-wrap-up blow through.

I'd think other niche-content sites like BG will just transition onto other (related) big-release MMO's but this site was always tied a bit more into the overall health of the player population(s).

I sent him a PM to poke his brain a little (in a friendly way, honest!) about these down-the-road considerations, so hopefully he won't opt to just wrap up his pet-project (or even the ffxiah.com side.) Likely he will have to empower a few people (on both the FFXI and FFXIV Pro sides) to come up with features people would want that would drive hits and build community, as well as be back-end support when he's busy, but this site still can have a future I'd think if he was interested.

EDIT: Sorry, wasn't meant as a de-rail...was just contemplating things in general, along with the 'deep feels'. :)

I will remember seeing people actually passing away, and then people crowding around their ingame characters as a show of love to them...

That doesn't happen very often in a game.

Been playing FINAL FANTASY games since the NES days and never missed one version they developed up until FFXI itself. After playing all those years offline controlling full parties with zero interactions with ppl online FFXI proved that online was where the fun was at. Due to such I didn't play FF12 nor 13 and 14 very little. Have missed many AAA quality games like the Batman series and such just cuz I had zero time to play both games. After FFXI I guess I'll just enjoy what I missed out on all along. Maybe even go bk to Offline FF games as well like 15.

you should try type-0, that one is really fun, a little psp-ey but still amazing story, and amazing combat imo

sigh... I knew this was coming since they mentioned the words... Empy reforged... abyssea has always been a nail in a coffin for this game... I have always loved this game for probably the same reasons you all have... I can't wait to see the ending tho it will be amazing I know it... I hope the story has something to do with the original beastmen. As you all have heard tho I'm sure the best thing about this game was the dreams and the people... So "Just, one more thing... the people and the friends that we have lost, or the dreams that have faded... Never forget them."

think about how much you know about this game .... i think i know more about this game than i do about my career (of course i have been doing this longer lol) and to think i will probably never forget a good portion of it, its always gonna be there waiting for something ... that wont come >.>


ohh and i just thought of a funny story from way back around when i started playing.
kso i was about 14ish my parents didn't like that i played so much(was PS2 starting off) so they took away the controller and keyboard and only would give them back when they wanted me to play, so whats a boy to do? buy new keyboard and controller and play whenever possible LOL.

I played from 2005-2008 on Seraph, and then I came back in 2013 right before the SoA expansion.

I have to say, the memories and nostalgia I have of FFXI are mostly from the 2005-2008 days in exp parties. When you would actually put effort into your gear that you used for leveling. I really miss how leveling used to be in the 75 level cap era. And for all the haters, yes, I will admit that the slow grinding of exp was tough and difficult. But, it had so many great positives to outweigh that negative point.

1. Any job could be great depending on how well that person had geared it. For example, their was no "SAM and MNK onry" stigma like there was for a good bit of endgame not so long ago. Pretty much any DD could lead the parse when exping if he/she had great gear and knew how to play their job well. Secondly, the job balance always shifted depending on what level you were. For example, BLU had a tough time in Valkurm because their spells werent that great early on. But once BLU got Bludgeon, they suddenly became a great DD for exp parties in the 20s. THF was great with SATA + Viper Bite, but before that, they weren't nearly as strong. And the vice versa of that was, you could be an excellent DD job and be awful if you didn't have the knowledge of how to play your job or good gear. In today's content, an eminent geared THF with Rudra's Storm can compete in a parse with even mythic DDs. Back in the lvl 75 cap days, your job didnt determine how good of a DD you were. your gear and knowledege of the job did.

2. People actually took pride in their gear in exp parties. Now a days, you need level 99+ gear, and that's it. Back in the lvl 75 cap era, I remember camping Valkurm Emperor and Leaping Lizzy. And the drops were highly sought after, even though the drops are a lvl 24 hairpin and a lvl 7 feet. And why were these items so competitive to get? Because people cared about what gear they leveled in. Even if it is a lvl 7 pair of boots.

3. Most players actually had a main job. You would put so much effort into that main job. You would invest your pride into it, and it pretty much defined your character. I remember other players based on what their main job was. Coromaru the Samurai, as one example. My main job was Dark Knight. I can remember farming for many many days just so I could buy Haubergeon. Did I necessarily "need" Haubergeon to level past 59? No. But I stopped to get it before leveling further because I cared about how I performed as a Dark Knight, whether at lvl 20 or at lvl 59.

Yes, the old exp party system was a grind, and believe me, there are some not-so-great memories that I have with exp parties as well. The classic Valkurm Dunes party where everyone dies. Or when the WHM or tank DCs and everyone proceeds to die. Or when someone has to leave 15 minutes into a party, and you can't find a replacement.

With FFXI starting to come to an end (although many people will continue to play past November :D), I hope some other long time FFXI players share my nostalgia for the old leveling system. I look forward to doing a couple level sync exp parties in Valkurm, Yuhtunga Jungle, Crawler's Nest, and Garlaige Citadel before I finally quit FFXI one day.

Been playing FFXI since the day after I graduated high school in May of 2004. It was like a transition of sorts. I have 648 days of logged playtime and only about half of that time was spent afk.

To me, there's nothing else out there quite like FFXI, not even other Final Fantasy titles. I've developed a sort of child-like fondness or obsession for FFXI and it's world that causes me to reject things that are different from it, and will buy pretty much anything that has red mages or chocobos painted on it.

I like to think that it will never truly be over. I still play other Final Fantasy games fairly often. My favorite is probably FF5, which I still play even though it has not gotten any new content in more than 20 years. So long as the game files for FFXI exist, it will always be playable in some form or another. There are already plenty of private servers out there, some of which relive the glory days of the level 75 cap. Should all of those disappear, I could set one up myself if I saw fit and have the whole world to myself.

Really though. Since yesterday, I keep thinking of this song

Good game, I wish there was other MMO like this.

Grinding was fun. I wish that aspect still existed, but after toau most ppl gad multiple 75's. But it was fun when all zones were packed with exp parties from valkurm to crawlers nest. Shouts for avatar fights, shadow lord, limit breaks, skill up parties(lol), AF coffer parties, dynamis requiring 40+ people. Was almost like s totally different game.

Not to mention the competition at all NM spawns, NMs that actually dropped items you could sell..

I do miss old FFXI.

One thing I did hate, and you can probably agree with me Highwynn, was sitting outside of the party in sky or HNM fights on Dragoon waiting for Angon to be off cool down. Spending time with the MNKs who were only there to Chi Blast.

Man! I'm going to miss all this....

What I don't miss about OLD SKOOL FFXI: The Grind

What I do miss about OLD SKOOL FFXI:
- MPKing people at zones with BST
- The fierce competition and drama with claiming HNMs
- Getting to know strangers and making friends were easier

I'm sure I'll remember more stuff later.

See, I had a love hate relationship with grinding. I didn't do it much because I would get distracted playing another job or camping NMs.. but for me it was a good part of the game. It caused you to have to play with other people and explore zones/enemies you had never seen before.

I always enjoyed the exploration part of FFXI and grinding was how you explored. It also helped you meet new people.

I mean, remember the first time you did a SATA Viper Bite in Crawlers nest? Or how about running from Bune or Guirvre(sp) because you didn't know they were in this zone you were fighting in? The first time you got lost in Garliage Citadel and ended up in the Serket spawn area? All of these "Adventures" were due to grinding.

I can't hate on that.

In a lot of aspects I agree with you. You couldn't have met all the people in the game if you didn't really "grind". But a lot of old skool people know, the game (for more serious players) did not really begin till you've reached level 75. But yes, the grind was necessary if you wanted to progress in the game.