Is this game any good?

[Newzguyz]

I saw it for about 40 australian bucks at EB games, my friend referred me to it a couple of months ago... So my question is, Is it worth buying, Does it have a good community and... is it swarmed with bots? ta in advance...

[Alshandra]

Re: Is this game any good?

Yes, Yes, and Sometimes, depending on how slack SE is.

But it's a personal choice as to whether you think it will be fun or not.
$40 is a good price, I had to get mine off Ebay as none of the stores near me in South Australia stocked it at the time, and I paid at least $60 I cant remember now.

You really need to try it to see if its your thing or not, I adore it, so I think everyone else should too!

At worst case you can always sell it to a friend if you find it's not for you.

[Feba]

Re: Is this game any good?

No, we all hate this game, yet continue to use these forums and pay 14$ a month.


Seriously, what are you expecting with a question like that? To the questions worth asking, depends mainly on your luck. What you see, etc. In general, community is fine and botting isn't a problem. Bots will hardly ever interfere with your gameplay directly.

[Newzguyz]

Re: Is this game any good?

Yeah... Ok, buying it in a week then...
BTW are the quests any good or they the sort of "collect this, talk to this guy" quests that are all too apparent in WoW?

[Feba]

Re: Is this game any good?

Quests in FFXI are the best i've seen in MMOs, but they're still mostly A->B things. At least here there's a reason and a plot instead of "The Bango Demons are Making Mine hard! Kill them and colelct 30 heads for a gold!"

[Illyria]

Re: Is this game any good?

The quests really give you a sense of being in the story, as a character in the game's story. The cutscenes really help out with that, because they introduce you to new parts of the plot of Vana'diel.

It's not a game for PvP fanatics who want to be all hXc and r0xx0rs... But for people that appreciate depth in a great story, and an excellent community (depending on the server...) then it's an excellent game.

[Tekumel]

Re: Is this game any good?

I saw it for about 40 australian bucks at EB games, my friend referred me to it a couple of months ago... So my question is, Is it worth buying, Does it have a good community and... is it swarmed with bots? ta in advance...

Is it worth buying? TOTALLY subjective question. The best answer I can provide is...it all depends on how much time you can devote to the game, and what your expectations are. If you can only play a couple hours on the weekend, and you expect to be level 75 (max level) in a month or two, you're going to be let down rather hard. If you have nothing else to do but play 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, then that'd be a more reasonable expectation.

Does it have a good community? Compared to the other MMOs I've played (WoW, Lineage II, Dark Age of Camelot), I have to give this a resounding yes. There are very few people I've ever had a true problem with. The worst I ever really see is somebody that's somewhat annoying, or just minor personality conflicts.

The one thing I have to add in here though, that's somewhat related, is...given that you live in Australia, most of the players that will be on when you're on (assuming a normal work/school schedule) are going to be Japanese. This can be very hit or miss...many Japanese players (commonly referred to as JP) are accepting of other players no matter their nationality/spoken language, as long as you are doing your job within the party. There is still a minority that is very nationalistic though, so it's something to watch out for.

Is it swarmed with bots? Swarmed...no. Do they exist? Yes. You'd be naive to think there's no bots. It's a fact of online gaming. But their impact on the game has been drastically reduced of late, and it's still declining. The primary users of the bots are RMT (real money traders, the "gold farmers" of companies like IGE), and SquareEnix has been really cracking down on them recently.

Overall, I'd say it's a good game, as long as you're not looking for three things: 1. An easy ride to the highest levels. The game's hard, and the grind is long. But if you actually stop to pay attention to the story, and the world that SquareEnix has crafted, it's worth it. 2. Solo leveling. Very few jobs in the game can reliably level solo 1-75, or even a good portion of that. This isn't WoW. You NEED groups. 3. PvP. Yes, there are some VERY limited forms of PvP in FFXI. But it's definitely not the kind of PvP you see in games like World of Warcraft, Dark Age of Camelot, or Lineage II.

If you're looking for a slow-paced (and I mean this in a good way...you won't blink & be 5 levels higher), team-based, player vs. monster RPG, then yes, FFXI is a great game. If you're looking for any of the 3 things I listed above, I'd recommend caution, and try the game before you buy it if you have any friends that play.

[Alshandra]

Re: Is this game any good?

The Australian time zone has never really been an issue for me, as everyone in different time zones has different play times and schedules. I have quite a few UK people in my Linkshell, some who work night shifts and such who play the same time as I do (evenings in Australia) and even US players that have alternate play times. I actually made quite a few Japanese friends despite the language barriers, as I play the same time as they do. It helps that they are semi-bilingual though.

I wouldn't worry about the time zone issue really, the only time I ever find problems is if I'm looking for a party, and at times of the evening there are majority of Japanese players that prefer JP only parties. In which case, I drag my LS out for a static party for experience points.

To the original poster, if you end up on Ifrit, feel free to look me up, I'll give you a pearl and an introduction to Vana'diel if you like~

[Jei]

Re: Is this game any good?

Is it worth buying? TOTALLY subjective question. The best answer I can provide is...it all depends on how much time you can devote to the game, and what your expectations are. If you can only play a couple hours on the weekend, and you expect to be level 75 (max level) in a month or two, you're going to be let down rather hard. If you have nothing else to do but play 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, then that'd be a more reasonable expectation.

Get ready to sell your soul to the devil!!!111

[LyonheartLakshmi]

Re: Is this game any good?

Quests in FFXI are the best i've seen in MMOs, but they're still mostly A->B things. At least here there's a reason and a plot instead of "The Bango Demons are Making Mine hard! Kill them and colelct 30 heads for a gold!"

Instead, we have Minesweeper: Rid the Zeruhn Mines of a few monsters to keep them off the miners' backs. Bring three pinches of Zeruhn soot to Gerbaum as proof of your success.

Sounds eerily similar. Or was that your inspiration for your post?

[Tekumel]

Re: Is this game any good?

Get ready to sell your soul to the devil!!!111

To dust off an old internet meme...

Quoted for truth.

And this devil's stingy. Don't expect to get your change back.

[Malacite]

Re: Is this game any good?

It's not a game for PvP fanatics who want to be all hXc and r0xx0rs...

To be fair, Ballista was an outlet for people like that... until SE neutered it and turned it into a BLU-fest >_>

[HairdewX]

Re: Is this game any good?

I came to FFXI just a few weeks ago for the first time after two years on WoW, and I can say it's quite the change...

Being on a PVP server on WoW does have it's fun moments, but after a while PVP loses it's flavor and starts to get annoying when you want to get things done in the world. The non-world PVP of FFXI makes the game more relaxing and slower paced, especially since you don't have to always watch you back for mobs and other players. I don't have nearly as much time to play as I used to, so not having to worry about getting PK'd (for the most part) is one less thing that can waste what little time I have to play. Plus dying is a bigger deal in this game than in WoW because you lose EXP with each death, with the possiblity to level down.

I actually like the job system, because you can basically change jobs at anytime, without having to change your character. Doing this in WoW meant making a completely new toon, which while not a big deal, I just wished I could have used the same character and changed classes.

I will say that there are a whole lot more things in FFXI that are not as user-friendly as they should be, especially since the basic manual it comes with contains virtually no useful information
- Want to craft things? You better be prepared to get on the internet and search extensively for tutorials.
- You know what a signet is? The manual makes not mention of it, someone online was just kind enough to tell me about it.
- why won't my items stack automatically in my inventory? Well I didn't find out they could stack until I sorted them. But why should I need to constantly do that?
- Auction house? huh? once you figure it out it's easy, but good luck figuring it out initially

There are more things that could have been done easier or could have been updated through patches, but it's part of the game. Even with these differences, I am still enjoying the game.

oh and about the Linkshells, I really do like them. They are kinda like guilds/clans, but not really. If you want a WoW comparison, they are almost like joining a chat channel. I like how you can have multiple linkshells and join different ones at different times, depending one what you are doing at the time.

[Mhurron]

Re: Is this game any good?

- Want to craft things? You better be prepared to get on the internet and search extensively for tutorials.
- You know what a signet is? The manual makes not mention of it, someone online was just kind enough to tell me about it.

- Auction house? huh? once you figure it out it's easy, but good luck figuring it out initially

SE didn't want to hold your hand. FFXI was set up as a virtual world where you were supposed to work with your fellow players to find things out.

However:

- why won't my items stack automatically in my inventory? Well I didn't find out they could stack until I sorted them. But why should I need to constantly do that?

You're right, this is irritating as hell.

[Feba]

Re: Is this game any good?

Sounds eerily similar. Or was that your inspiration for your post?

I'm talking about quests in general. Not repeatables. Repeatables are generic as fuck, but they're so different from real FFXI quests that they don't really count.