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This is still a work-in-porgress. Several sections and graphic banners need to be added for each of those sections. Furthermore, it will need some editting.
REGARDING PEOPLE WHO DO NOT PLAY FFXI: "Tell me about this game."
FFXI is a MMORPG(Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game), not unlike World of Warcraft and the such. Yes, it does have a monthly fee of $12.95 for one character, roughly $13. It is about $156 a year if you do not include the first free month every new account gets. Think of it like this: three videogames at the cost of a very long game + the cost of the game to begin with. It is an another $1 each character you'd like to play. As this may seem a lot as it is usually free to make more characters in other games, in FFXI you really only need one character. You can do all missions/quests, see the entire storyline, and switch jobs at will with one character. Usually when additional characters are bought, they are used for additional storage place and called "mules". To have it cost the same as most MMORPGs(like World of Warcraft), you would need a total of 3 characters in FFXI.
FFXI is launched from a program called Playonline. It can be played on the PC, Xbox360, and PS2. Playonline doesn't have much use outside FFXI, various of minor tasks, FFXI media, and Tetramaster in the US or Europe, but in Japan it hosts other games.
Now, let's get into comparisons. People often say FFXI is outdated, one huge grind, and looks horrible. Them are fightin' words. You'll find that people saying this stuff have little experience with FFXI and/or can't really back up what they are saying. To answer these claims... FFXI is only outclassed in graphics, which is noticable in the older areas of the game(pre-expansions). All MMORPGs grinds and FFXI has more work involved than others, however what others seem to forget is the amount of different things you can do outside leveling(people who quit at around level 55 and such often complain about this, are usually the ones who got themselves in the 'race to 75' mentallity). The truth is, this game wouldn't be one of the top selling MMORPGs in the American market if it was that bad. If I am incorrect, please correct, FFXI is the second highest selling MMORPG behind World of Warcraft(I've heard City of Heroes was second highest and FFXI third).
Another misguided thought about FFXI is a complete lack of PvP, which is false. It is not as PvP focus and there is no "world PvP'. PvP in FFXI is held in like matches of sports. There is Ballista, Brenner, and coming soon is an area named "The Coliseum" where you fight with monsters it appears. FFXI also has subtle PvP like a fishing contests, a small lottery, records to break on boss battles, records to break on chocobo timed routes, and coming soon Chocobo Breeding and Chocobo Racing.
Now more to the game itself(though I did describe a lot of important things so far), FFXI is different than the type of MMORPGs coming out now. Two huge aspects of FFXI stand out from the others(I can assure you, no other MMORPG beats them here): Community and Story. FFXI forces people to work together, which some people might dislike, neither the less, makes FFXI's community very strong. Servers, which population will range from around 3000 to 5000, are like small towns with gossip, mini-communities, feuds, and famous people. Everyone knows almost everyone, with a small divide between the english-speaking players and the japanese-speaking players. Because of how FFXI is setup, there is almost no 'downtimes', as NA(North America), EU(Europe), and JP(Japanese) take turns keeping Vana'diel alive. To the other point, MMORPGs usually have virtually no (worthwhle) plot in them. However, a Final Fantasy game at heart, FFXI's story is better than many non-online games. With cutscenes, plot-twists, themes, and actually intertesting characters, it is something to care about. Unlike some games, where you come in knowing just about everything(even things a person in the game-world could never know), in Vana'diel, the past is mysterious and you have to work in-game(not on a website) to find out the things that trouble Vana'diel.
If you play FFXI, your career will look something like this: you learn the ropes, level 1 to 10 solo, start partying, level 11 to 18, get a subjob, 19 to 25 or 30, do some rank missions, 25 to 50, start doing Genkei/limit cap breaking quests every 5 levels, get your artifact armor throughout 50s, finally hit level 75, and level some merits. All during this you will be doing various quests, missions, NMs, meeting people, holiday events, crafting, and whatever SE comes out with(Fellowship, Assault, and Beseieged come to mind here). Somewhere in there you fit time to make gil, which is quite the chore. As you can see, almost everything you do will involve another person or more(usually 5 others or more).
I believe I've said a lot of the basics here. One thing I must point out about FFXI is the sheer amount of different things to do. I won't go into detail on how many things, but its a lot and it varies(oppose to deciding between PvP, raiding, and leveling another character). FFXI isn't too casual-friendly. It isn't anti-casual, but sometimes its rough for people who can't play a good amount. 3 hours a session is about the minimun for serious attempts at advancement(unless it is crafting or something short you want to advance in), which an occassional demand for 5 hours for the big stuff like certain missions. At level 75 however, the games opens up a bit more casually, giving you more options that can suit your playing style. Its imporant that you get a set of friends to help you. A linkshell, FFXI's version of a guild, however not binded to being one at a time, is the best place to find them. With these close friends you can set up a static exp parties at set time so you don't have to wait for party invites and you can get up help(and help them in return) with stuff that requires a party or more.
Here are some links, mainly videos, to inspire some of the FFXI feeling: (notice that these videos are often in poor resolution as it is a huge strain on a good computer to run a recording program with top graphics on, also hard to host the huge files that would be the outcome)
A Famous FFXI Video, "Recollection":
[ame]http://youtube.com/watch?v=ov3-K2aRwQY&search=Recollection[/ame] (If someone could find this in better quality, that would be grand)
Official Playone website:
FINAL FANTASY XI Official Web Site (Very underated. You can find a lot of information and links to the four listed below on this page. The top half of the left bar is very nice to look at for details about the game's world, Vana'diel. This is the main source of all update information and preview information).
Playonline's Chains of Promathia Official website:
FINAL FANTASY XI (PS2 screenshots are pretty meh, but it has a lot of interesting information about FFXI's second expansion)
Playonline's Treasures of Aht Urhgan Official website:
FINAL FANTASY XI (Trailer is at the bottom. HD looks best, but, at least for me, runs horribly. After saving it to my comp, and then playing it, I found that it played awhole lot better. Also very nice pictures and information)
Playonline's Vana'diel Wind/Live Vana'diel
http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/multimedia/wind/ (a streaming video of areas in the game, often used to show new things coming out at times)
Playonline's Vana'diel Tribune 1 and 2
http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/vt/...ber/index.html
http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/vt2...ber/index.html
(The monthly newspaper about Vana'diel. Has huges amounts of information about the world of Vana'diel. There are two series with the 2nd being far superior and more recent. Most of the 1st series was never translated, however it has some excellent series in it which we see part of).
REGARDING PEOPLE WHO DO NOT PLAY FFXI: "Tell me about this game."
FFXI is a MMORPG(Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game), not unlike World of Warcraft and the such. Yes, it does have a monthly fee of $12.95 for one character, roughly $13. It is about $156 a year if you do not include the first free month every new account gets. Think of it like this: three videogames at the cost of a very long game + the cost of the game to begin with. It is an another $1 each character you'd like to play. As this may seem a lot as it is usually free to make more characters in other games, in FFXI you really only need one character. You can do all missions/quests, see the entire storyline, and switch jobs at will with one character. Usually when additional characters are bought, they are used for additional storage place and called "mules". To have it cost the same as most MMORPGs(like World of Warcraft), you would need a total of 3 characters in FFXI.
FFXI is launched from a program called Playonline. It can be played on the PC, Xbox360, and PS2. Playonline doesn't have much use outside FFXI, various of minor tasks, FFXI media, and Tetramaster in the US or Europe, but in Japan it hosts other games.
Now, let's get into comparisons. People often say FFXI is outdated, one huge grind, and looks horrible. Them are fightin' words. You'll find that people saying this stuff have little experience with FFXI and/or can't really back up what they are saying. To answer these claims... FFXI is only outclassed in graphics, which is noticable in the older areas of the game(pre-expansions). All MMORPGs grinds and FFXI has more work involved than others, however what others seem to forget is the amount of different things you can do outside leveling(people who quit at around level 55 and such often complain about this, are usually the ones who got themselves in the 'race to 75' mentallity). The truth is, this game wouldn't be one of the top selling MMORPGs in the American market if it was that bad. If I am incorrect, please correct, FFXI is the second highest selling MMORPG behind World of Warcraft(I've heard City of Heroes was second highest and FFXI third).
Another misguided thought about FFXI is a complete lack of PvP, which is false. It is not as PvP focus and there is no "world PvP'. PvP in FFXI is held in like matches of sports. There is Ballista, Brenner, and coming soon is an area named "The Coliseum" where you fight with monsters it appears. FFXI also has subtle PvP like a fishing contests, a small lottery, records to break on boss battles, records to break on chocobo timed routes, and coming soon Chocobo Breeding and Chocobo Racing.
Now more to the game itself(though I did describe a lot of important things so far), FFXI is different than the type of MMORPGs coming out now. Two huge aspects of FFXI stand out from the others(I can assure you, no other MMORPG beats them here): Community and Story. FFXI forces people to work together, which some people might dislike, neither the less, makes FFXI's community very strong. Servers, which population will range from around 3000 to 5000, are like small towns with gossip, mini-communities, feuds, and famous people. Everyone knows almost everyone, with a small divide between the english-speaking players and the japanese-speaking players. Because of how FFXI is setup, there is almost no 'downtimes', as NA(North America), EU(Europe), and JP(Japanese) take turns keeping Vana'diel alive. To the other point, MMORPGs usually have virtually no (worthwhle) plot in them. However, a Final Fantasy game at heart, FFXI's story is better than many non-online games. With cutscenes, plot-twists, themes, and actually intertesting characters, it is something to care about. Unlike some games, where you come in knowing just about everything(even things a person in the game-world could never know), in Vana'diel, the past is mysterious and you have to work in-game(not on a website) to find out the things that trouble Vana'diel.
If you play FFXI, your career will look something like this: you learn the ropes, level 1 to 10 solo, start partying, level 11 to 18, get a subjob, 19 to 25 or 30, do some rank missions, 25 to 50, start doing Genkei/limit cap breaking quests every 5 levels, get your artifact armor throughout 50s, finally hit level 75, and level some merits. All during this you will be doing various quests, missions, NMs, meeting people, holiday events, crafting, and whatever SE comes out with(Fellowship, Assault, and Beseieged come to mind here). Somewhere in there you fit time to make gil, which is quite the chore. As you can see, almost everything you do will involve another person or more(usually 5 others or more).
I believe I've said a lot of the basics here. One thing I must point out about FFXI is the sheer amount of different things to do. I won't go into detail on how many things, but its a lot and it varies(oppose to deciding between PvP, raiding, and leveling another character). FFXI isn't too casual-friendly. It isn't anti-casual, but sometimes its rough for people who can't play a good amount. 3 hours a session is about the minimun for serious attempts at advancement(unless it is crafting or something short you want to advance in), which an occassional demand for 5 hours for the big stuff like certain missions. At level 75 however, the games opens up a bit more casually, giving you more options that can suit your playing style. Its imporant that you get a set of friends to help you. A linkshell, FFXI's version of a guild, however not binded to being one at a time, is the best place to find them. With these close friends you can set up a static exp parties at set time so you don't have to wait for party invites and you can get up help(and help them in return) with stuff that requires a party or more.
Here are some links, mainly videos, to inspire some of the FFXI feeling: (notice that these videos are often in poor resolution as it is a huge strain on a good computer to run a recording program with top graphics on, also hard to host the huge files that would be the outcome)
A Famous FFXI Video, "Recollection":
[ame]http://youtube.com/watch?v=ov3-K2aRwQY&search=Recollection[/ame] (If someone could find this in better quality, that would be grand)
Official Playone website:
FINAL FANTASY XI Official Web Site (Very underated. You can find a lot of information and links to the four listed below on this page. The top half of the left bar is very nice to look at for details about the game's world, Vana'diel. This is the main source of all update information and preview information).
Playonline's Chains of Promathia Official website:
FINAL FANTASY XI (PS2 screenshots are pretty meh, but it has a lot of interesting information about FFXI's second expansion)
Playonline's Treasures of Aht Urhgan Official website:
FINAL FANTASY XI (Trailer is at the bottom. HD looks best, but, at least for me, runs horribly. After saving it to my comp, and then playing it, I found that it played awhole lot better. Also very nice pictures and information)
Playonline's Vana'diel Wind/Live Vana'diel
http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/multimedia/wind/ (a streaming video of areas in the game, often used to show new things coming out at times)
Playonline's Vana'diel Tribune 1 and 2
http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/vt/...ber/index.html
http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/vt2...ber/index.html
(The monthly newspaper about Vana'diel. Has huges amounts of information about the world of Vana'diel. There are two series with the 2nd being far superior and more recent. Most of the 1st series was never translated, however it has some excellent series in it which we see part of).
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