Starting FFXI?

[ghostjeep]

Hi, I am strongly considering picking FFXI up again and wanted to ask a couple questions, both are pretty much asking your opinions.
Is there still a fair amount of players playing FFXI to make a decent in-game community?
And this is in reference to comments made on other sites, but are American players generally seen as interlopers or treated unfairly in a Japanese game?
I have played so many other games and all have been fun for a while, all I'm looking for is a good game to spend my time playing, and I think this game could fill those needs but just would like to hear some opinions.
Thanks.

[Jei]

Re: Starting FFXI?

There are enough players to make a good community yes. The game's getting old tho, more people are leaving that's for real.

I heard a lot of story about players being treated unfairly by Japanese GMs. Whether they're true or not, there are just too many stories out there.

It can also be a problem if you play off U.S. peak hours too. Japanese players still prefer to group with themselves. If you're a loner during peak Japanese hours it can get pretty lonely.

I don't have a good experience with their support myself.

I had a really good time my 5+ years in this game. The game itself has lots to offer. But then it also depends on the kind of friends you meet too. Without my very nice friendly LS and very close friends I've met in FFXI I wouldn't have played it that long.

[Necropolis]

Re: Starting FFXI?

Well personally, I joined the game kinda late into it's lifespan as well. I've been playing about 8 months now, and havn't had much trouble meeting a good group of people to help me, as well as enjoy the various activities in the game.

Plenty of people, from what I see, are still joining (or rejoining) the community so that it's not impossible to do the lower missions/quest, and level a lower level job.

As far as JP relations in game, I havn't had much trouble with them. There are some that play with NA, some that even join NA LSes, and some that want nothing to do with us.

When seeking for party members you'll run across comments like "English Party, No thanks", but I would say from observation that those are not the common opinion of the JP community on my server. During JP prime time, it might be harder to find a party, but I would say that's only because if you had a choice, you'd probably prefer a person that you can reliably speak to, than someone with a language barrier.

Over all, I find FFXI a more than worthy game to play. There is plenty to do, new content still being added/adjusted, and a great community to play with for the most party.

As for JP players, I find that as long as I act decent to them in parties, I'll get invites from the same people in the furture. It's nice to put as much as you can into the auto-translate so that they can follow conversations, and to try to expresses simple gestures to them. I do this with everyone I party with though, not just once population.

Well I'm starting to rant, and get sleepy. Hope that's what you were looking for. Enjoy FFXI if you decide to pick it up.

[Legal Fish]

Re: Starting FFXI?

I have not received (or seen) a "JP onry" type message is over 2 years.

[ghostjeep]

Re: Starting FFXI?

Great replies. Thanks for the info Looks like I'll have to go get it for sure now.

[Feba]

Re: Starting FFXI?

Yeah, what Jei said, being a loner is lonely.

[Newzguyz]

Re: Starting FFXI?

I have not received (or seen) a "JP onry" type message is over 2 years.

Heh... "Onry"...

[Alshandra]

Re: Starting FFXI?

Unfortunately, I still get them from time to time, but that's cause of my timezone. I have a few japanese players in my LS, one in particular who prefers it to the japanese LS's she has been in previously, which I thought was really nice.

I understand the wanting to be able to communicate thing, I can understand that reasoning. I like to play with all people, it makes the game so much more interesting when you have people of different nationalities to talk to.

[Feenicks]

Re: Starting FFXI?

I actually speak Japanese and live in an Australian timezone (which is the same as Japanese time) so 95% of my time in FFXI is spent playing with Japanese. Their perspective towards non-JPs is that they'll play with them but only if there are no other Japanese speakers who can fit the required role. This is due to LANGUAGE - JPs like to play with other people and not have to worry about language issues, it has nothing to do with cultural differences or whatever. Also JPs don't share the same fondness for the auto-translator that the non-JPs do simply because they see it as tiresome (it makes things really easy to type in English but in Japanese it's not that much more beneficial - it's usually just easier to type out the word) and a waste of time when the times at which they play are largely dominated by JP players.

So if you see any search comment or whatever which says (English)(No Thanks) or something equivalent, I assure you that 95% of the time it's because they don't want to have to worry about making themselves understood. Occasionally you do get people who are paranoid about cultural differences but generally it's not the case.

Of course if a non-JP joins a JP party and sucks then they'll bitch about him/her in Japanese, but the exact same thing would happen if the roles were reversed to it's not really an issue.

[Achaicus]

Re: Starting FFXI?

Thank You Feenicks.

As for myself, I find that being as courteus as possible - and dedicating myself as carefully as possible to the use of the auto translate - the 'gap has been bridged.'

And, welcome to Nezguyz!

- Greg W.

[Mostin]

Re: Starting FFXI?

should this topic be called re-starting ffxi? Just might confuse people who are starting ffxi and click this, only to find its regarding re-starting or re-joining ffxi.

It's just a thought