Time commitment

[Jarre]

Re: Time commitment

Well look at it from my point of view...

I work 8:30am-5:30pm I then get home at 6pm though 3 days a week i go to gym, other days I make some time for my GF.

I play the game usually for 2 hours a night from about 9ish till 11:30pm most nights.

I am a retained firefighter, so you can guarentee at elast 3 out of 7 nights I get called out during my game play time.

I have 2 jobs between 25-27 and 1 job nearly 20. I would love to get to 30 so i can do my first advanced job quest. i have now been playing the game for 6 months now.

I still enjoy the game, yes its frustrating soemtime when you see your LS mates creep up the levels, but they still ahve many jobs at low level. Besides I Pl'd with my Lvl19 rdm two linkshells Pups to lvl 10 and we do some lowish level quests together, yes I'm probably have the least jobs in the LS, but I am a good tank with my war, great DD with my monk and a crafty RDM I have no problems finding parties when I look. I am spending alot of time on crafting and trying out each guild tos ee what I like and also fishing Lvl now (not much I know but its an acheivement!! and moat carps are going for 11k on my server )

Enjoy the game the longevity of it will help and with all the guild, quests, missions jobs etc, if you get bored of one thing there are hundreds of things you can try.

[Aeni]

Re: Time commitment

I disagree that the entire point is endgame as well. Endgame activities certainly factor into some of my goals, but at my rate of play I recognize I may never reach some of them and I'm just enjoying the journey so far. To each their own.

I don't log in to FFXI everyday. I know that there were several weekends I didn't log in at all. In fact, since closed beta back in early 2003, I have only accumulated 150 days of playing time total on my main accuont, which a lot of it (around 20 days or more) was spent AFK'd overnight while I bazaared my goods and the goods of my friend's on various mules.

I've accomplished and seen a lot, even if it's only 10% of what the "hardcore uber l33ts" have seen. I have many JP friends who do not log in every night either. We all have real life responsibilities to take care of, like child rearing or spending quality time with loved ones, family and friends.

Yet I still can participate in a few end game activities here and there. Also I absolutely love playing new characters and starting from zero. I get a kick out of developing these characters and being able to do things differently each time I play through. I get to see more of the missions through the eyes of a different character and that just enhances the experience for me.

So, yes, there's many fun things in this game. End game is only 3% of the total activities you will find in this game which runs the gamut of socializing to crafting to questing. There's just way too much things in this game even for the most hardcore of players to accomplish.

** Also forgot to add that COP offers players a chance to play "end game" by introducing lower level capped content. This might appeal to the OP and the poster above me (Firefighter) since they do not require you to be level 75... **

[Kittyneko]

Re: Time commitment

Lol, after all that said, my opinion is just, go play the game, if it doesn't work out the way you like, quit.

[Balfree]

Re: Time commitment

I play about 2-3 hrs on working days with a full time job, imo only weak sad people will put the game above their responsablities. So people saying it will change your lifestyle... those are people who had no life to begin with.

And yes mmorpgs are subjective to that extent, thats actually the thing i like the most in mmorpgs, the freedom to do whatever you like, so what if i make 100k gil in a week because i dont have time to farm or camp nms, and so what if getting a lvl up per week (if even) seems enough for me, thats my own pace and thats what im able to pull off, to me its enough, and perfectly fine.

And then theres the "endgame" LS's that people assume you should join when you reach a certain level, i cant do it, i cant commit, i get bored and i'm too busy, why is that so hard to get to your head, mister xximsoleetxx? Sorry little bit of venting there :*

[Kitalrez]

Re: Time commitment

Meh, I already got a rep-down for this opinion, but in the words of my hero, the black knight, it's "just a scratch". Loki, you have to realize going in that players in this game will generally fit into two camps. We've been this way since as far back as the NA release, and some importers could probably attest it goes even further than that.

The first camp is what I term "powergamers". To a powergamer, there is an end-game to FFXI, it's real and vibrant, and is the only real goal worth pursuing. A powergamer will work on levelling to 75, (sometimes in several jobs), getting the best gear possible, and maxing all kinds of skills/attributes for any given situation. I don't consider myself a powergamer, so my reading of this viewpoint is limited at best.

The second camp is what Taskmage, Jei, Macht, Aeni, Jarre, and myself are advocating. Let's call us, "casual gamers". We're kind of an endangered species on most servers, though you'll probably find a lot of us on this board. If you look back at our posts, you'll notice that since NA release most of us have been opposed to any idea that FFXI has a real end-game, since before Dynamis, it essentially didn't. Before Dynamis and Limbus, you essentially had: Farming Sky Gods, HNMs, and the last couple of Zilart Missions. So, if you go back and read posts, you'll see a loud chorus of us against the idea of levelling up to 75 as a major goal of new players.

The North American Release of FFXI was on the weekend just before Halloween three years ago. Most of us dropped right into a game event of trick-or-treating with NPCs. Powergamers tried this event out, decided it wasn't worth the effort, and did just enough to get the rewards, if they decided the rewards were worthwhile a day or two later. (You'll notice most powergamers post complaints about events and rewards). Casual gamers, on the other hand, took a look at the event and decided it was one of the most entertaining things to happen to us, and went nuts. For the first week I was in this game, I'd log on, and spend my 1-3 hrs. chasing around NPCs dressed like skeletons so I could trade them a cinnamon cookie or saruta orange. When I ran out of money, I'd go hit Saruta-baruta, kill a few things for drops I could sell to NPC merchants or use in easy quests, then buy more cookies/oranges and repeat until bed-time. By the end of that first week, Powergamers were hitting lvl 30 and complaining about how expensive gear was, and how hard it was to do skillchains for significant damage. I, on the other hand, was lvl 5, I had a pumpkin hat and a bat on a stick and though this game was the greatest thing since sliced bread. I couldn't wait 'til Christmas, and this was two years before we even had Santa Hats. To each his own.

If you want to casual game in FFXI, there are a few things you might want to try out:

1. Find a linkshell that fits your play style and chum around with them. There are a lot of good social linkshells out there where you'll thrive. If you end up on Diabolos, we're called OutcastHaven, look us up.

2. Look for things you enjoy doing, and get linkshell help with that. Social linkshells are good for this. For instance, dungeon crawling for the sake of exploration is something almost no one does, but is still enjoyable. Ever see the bottom of Maze of Shakrami? Unless they're questing or camping an NM, most people haven't.

3. Complete things as you go, rather than in one fell swoop. You can get up to rank 3 done before lvl 25, (in fact mission 2-3 to get it is capped at lvl 25). You can also do a massive amount of quests in most cities before lvl 25. Try stuff out, you'd be surprised how much fun you can have, even if you end up wiping 17 of your closest friends on a failed Eco Warrior run.

***By way of reference on this, somewhere between 60 and 65 on WHM I managed to complete rank 10 windurst and Zilart mission 8. At that time my completed quest log ran into several pages for each town. If you're playing a melee character, you may need a few more levels to get this far. There's a lot you can do before 75, however. Don't think you need to be obscenely high level before you can do anything.***

4. Figure out what you'd like to do before you log on, if it's a major quest or a mission you may want to try scheduling it a day or two in advance with your friends. This tends to be easier on people and more likely to succeed.


The most common position in this game is face down in the dirt. It's important to make sure you have fun getting there, because we'll all end up in that position sometime.